THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. No. XLVII. SEPTEMBER, 1821. ON THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, PREVALENCE, AND DECLINE OF IDOLATRY. BY THE REV, GEORGE TOWNSEND. PART V. [Continued from No. XLVI. p. 341.] -- SECTION VII.-Origin of Oracles. Ir seems necessary that some notice should be taken of another subject, from its intimate connexion with the history of the ancient Idolatry-"the Origin of Oracles among the Heathen Nations." I do not wish to enforce my opinion as entirely correct, yet I cannot but think it is as well supported by internal evidence, as the generality of those positions which are not warranted by direct testimony. The Levitical law was not a collection of arbitrary and positive enactments, which were imposed for the first time by Moses, and the greater part of which had been utterly unknown before; it was a renewal of the patriarchal ritual and worship, with such changes, omissions, and additions, as were suited to the circumstances of the tribes of Israel, on their leaving Egypt and commencing their wanderings in the wilderness. A minute resemblance, or more properly an entire coincidence, is proved to have existed in many respects between the Patriarchal and Levitical ritual and worship, by every proof and testimony which can possibly be collected on the subject. Our best divines are, I believe, unanimous on the point. There has ever existed a wonderful similarity between the customs of those nations, who pretend to great antiquity, the religious code of the Jewish lawVOL. XXIV. CI. JI. NO. XLVII. Α ́ giver, and the early patriarchal notions. Such books as Burder's Oriental Customs; Harmer's Observations; Ward's History of the Hindoos, &c. &c. abound with the most ample confirmation of this fact. To mention only a few out of many, the Hindoos give permission to a husband to marry a second wife, if the first prove barren; wives are chosen from the branches of their own families who may live at a distance, rather than from among strangers, with whom they may have contracted habits of friendship; a goat is frequently permitted to run wild, as if conseerated; the first-born are often devoted to their gods. The Hindoo laws relating to personal cleanliness are nearly, sometimes exactly, similar to those prescribed by Moses. Like the Hebrew Nazarites, the Hindoos offer their hair; and many other minor, as well as more important coincidences, may be added. Stronger evidence than these instances afford, to prove the early identity between the Patriarchal and Mosaic Religion, is found in the singular fact, that the ancient Egyptians had so many enactments among them similar to those afterwards appointed by Moses; so many indeed, that Dr. Spencer wrote his celebrated treatise De Legibus Hebræorum, to prove that the Israelites borrowed from the Egyptians: I need not observe that Spencer's reasoning has been long known to be fallacious. Unless too there were some decided resemblance between the Patriarchal religion, and the worship of the surrounding idolatrous nations, on what "known principle of the human mind," to use the celebrated expression of Mr. Gibbon, can we account for the frequent lapses of the Jews into idolatry? Even imme diately after their deliverance from the Red Sea, when that most stupendous miracle, the parting of the waters, was still fresh in their memory, we find they complied with the invitations of the first idolatrous tribe they came near, and sacrificed to Baal Meon, To express his abhorrence of their crime, Moses changed the word into Baal Peor; and Mr. Faber has certainly given us a most ingenious solution of the reasons which influenced the newly delivered Israelites to comply with this worship. He proves that the traditional religion was the same, and the Jews were only led to comply with the idolatrous additions which had been made to the original patriarchal ritual, in consequence of their agreeing in opinion with the idolaters, on the several points of faith, common to both religions. I shall close this paragraph with one additional proof, deduced from the narrative of Lieute nant-Colonel Fitzclarence. The plan of the temple of Solo mon was the same as that of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. In his progress through India, Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzclarence came to the immense temple of Keylas; and from the descrip tion he has given of it, it was undoubtedly formed on the very same plan, which Lightfoot has proved with his profound learning to have been the plan of the temple at Jerusalem. The temple at Keylas has been deserted for ages; its origin is unknown even to the natives. It is only known to have existed from the most remote antiquity, and to have once been the object of great veneration through the whole of India. Its extent, and grandeur, prove that it must have been a national work. It was either built before or after the temple at Jerusalem; if after, we should certainly have some records of it; if before, as is most likely, it was formed after the plan of the tabernacle, and the plan must have been known therefore to other nations besides the Hebrews. It will now be asked, what is the connexion between these desultory remarks and the origin of the heathen Oracles. İf there was such a coincidence between the chief circumstances of the Levitical and Patriarchal ritual on the one hand; and between the original customs of the early nations, and uncorrupted patriarchism on the other; it will necessarily follow, that it is possible, and probable, that the peculiar characteristic of the ancient religion of the Jews was common also to the religion of the Patriarchs, and known therefore in the first ages among the primitive settlements of mankind. Oracular responses were evidently delivered in some mysterious manner from the adyta, the penetralia, or the holy of holies, both of the temple at Jeru salem and the tabernacle in the wilderness. The Patriarchal worshippers too, as is repeatedly related in the book of Genesis, are said to have gone to enquire of the Lord, that is, to consult the oracle, in the appointed way, in their own places of worship. Thus Rebekah (Gen. xxv. 22.) went to enquire of the Lord; and the Lord said to her, &c.: the answer was a prophecy of the future destiny of her children. In what manner the oracular responses were given, we cannot certainly tell: divines have enumerated several modes in which God imparted his will to mankind in the early ages of uncorrupted truth; and it is certain that the knowledge of Religion, while men were still few, must have been universal; and that so long as they continued to preserve the faith of Noah, to whatever part of the globe they might have retired from Nachshevan, there, according to his pro mise, the God of Revelation would be with them. Wherever the respective families of the sons of Noah proceeded they carried with them the useful and innocent memorials of the deluge, and the traditions and religion of their ancestors; they would es tablish also their respective places of worship in groves, on hills, in caverns, or in plains. They would for a time worship the true God. So long as they preserved the purity of their faith, oracular responses would be given; and though these tokens of the divine presence would be withdrawn as they gradually became infected with the corruptions of the encroaching idolatry; the veneration for the places where these oracular responses had been delivered would remain for ages. It would be perverted, as indeed it uniformly was perverted, to the purposes of priestcraft; but the impression would not be entirely lost, till the light of reason," rekindled by the renewed revelation, had exposed the absurdity, and silenced the pretensions of the imposture. All this appears so very theoretical, that it ought to be rejected by every sober-minded reader, unless the whole hypothesis shall appear to be confirmed by undoubted facts. The Oracle of Dodona was the most celebrated in all Greece. Though the testimony of Herodotus is not of much value on this point, both on account of the late period in which he flourished, and the very contradictory and absurd tales which he so gravely relates, and which were evidently of later origin; yet Homer and Hesiod mention Dodona, as a sacred place, having its holy grove, &c. &c. Hesychius tells us, it was once called Hella: it seems to have been venerated from the earliest ages, and its oracle was consulted, it is said, before any temple was built. Though the exact situation of Dodona is not known, some placing it in Thessaly, others in Epirus, Thesprotia, &c. &c., yet it is generally acknowledged to have been in the northern part of Greece, and to have been consecrated to Dodonæan Jove. I refer to the learned Joseph Mede, book i. Disc. 50., to the writers collected in Poole's Synopsis, to Bochart, and others, to prove that Dodonim the son of Javan, the son of Japhet, established his family in that part of Greece. Though Mr. Faber has wrought up all his materials with great ingenuity into one magnificent theory, yet the very perfection to which he has brought his hypothesis, is with me one chief reason for suspecting the solidity of some part of the structure. A systematising spirit, says Sir Wm. Jones, is not friendly to the discovery of truth. Mr. Faber would take the whole of the families of the sons of Noah to Shinar, and thence disperse them. I cannot but think with Mede, Sheringham, Sulpicius Severus, and a long list of others, that mankind dispersed quietly to their respective settlements, that Dodanim the son of Noah, of whom we are now more particularly speaking, retired to the north of Greece; and there established the patriarchal religion, and worshipped the true God; and possibly, at least during his own life, oracular responses were given in the mode appointed in those early ages by the giver of Revelation. His descendants relapsed into idolatry. The oracle ceased; the place was venerated; interested men perverted that veneration to their own purposes; till accident, or revolution, or the increase of knowledge, overthrow the whole system of priestcraft and deception. We might trace the early histories of the oracles of Delphi, Amphiaraus, Ammon, Trophonius, and others; and through the corruptions of subsequent ages we should undoubtedly find the remnant of the pure Patriarchal religion, however afterwards corrupted and perverted. The history of Micah, as related in the book of Judges, appears to be a complete history of the manner in which these oracles were established by the heads of families and tribes. No religion was properly established and enforced, because the several tribes had not taken possession of their appointed homes. Micah therefore resolved to set up a place of worship in his own house. He made his son, (the interpreters say his eldest son,) a priest, and united with the worship of Jehovah, the veneration of graven images. The tabernacle, or chapel, or place set apart for worship, was made on the plan of the tabernacle at Shiloh. He consulted the Teraphim, and an enigmatical answer was returned. We may justly conclude, that as the giver of Revelation was pleased to communicate his will to man in those ages, by oracular responses, the answer which Micah would have received, if his worship had been pure, would have been decided, and directory. There is a mystery and difficulty in the whole history, which I am anxious to see entirely solved. The Danites consult the Oracle. Micah had engaged a Levite to take place of his son: this priest returns to the consulters an ambiguous answer, of the very precise. nature which the heathen oracles were accustomed to return. We may justly suppose, that the Levite deceived the Danites, by fabricating an answer of this nature. On their return from the expedition in which they were then engaged, they stole the Teraphim, and other images, and established idolatry in their tribe. 1 This narrative seems to contain a complete history of the probable manner in which the Oracles were first established. A private individual, who had not entirely lost the knowledge of the true God, but who was partly, through apparent ignorance, contaminated with the surrounding idolatry, establishes a worship, which combines both truth and error; founded on, though |