The King of The South

Joseph F. Dumond

Isa 6:9-12 And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation, and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.
Published: Feb 1, 2008

Sighted Moon News Letter 5843-047 2025
2nd day of the Eleventh month 5843 After Creation

January 12, 2008

Shabbat Shalom Family,
January 11th marked my 50th birthday. I am officially no longer aloud to serve in the Temple. With that concern no longer on my list of things to do, I can concentrate on this Jubilee subject with more vigor. January 11th was also the first day of the 11th month. No moon was sighted from Israel due to cloud, so a 30 day month was declared for January 10. This Sabbath beginning at Sun set of January 11th is the 2nd day of the 11th month. Counting these days becomes more and more important as we approach the month of Aviv and Passover. You should be counting these days.
We now begin the series of Daniel’s Kings of the North and the South. I have challenged many to come here read this series of News letters. Some of the false and just plain wrong teachings out there, are atrocious. They are atrocious because they mislead you, the people. Once we have finished this series of News Letters you to will know how they are so misleading and why it is important to know the truth.

The King of the North and the King of the South

Who Are they?

To learn who these two kings are that are referred to in Daniel 11 we go back to the beginning. Back to the time just after the flood. I know the following may be difficult for some to read, due to the amount of details I include, but if you want to know the truth about the identity of who exactly are these two kings then we must start here. I must include all these details due to the many false teachings being put forward by more and more each day. And as I prepare each of the following studies I am surprised at how many times we are going to refer back to this first one. So take the time this Sabbath and this week to go through this News Letter and understand all that is being shared here.
As I got closer to publishing this and as I worked on it, I received many other interpretations. Most stem from the same wrong source and go on from there. I will show that source is, in a following News Letter. For now please bare with the amount of details. It will pay off later on, you’ll see.

The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter II
Section II
Sub-Section I
The Child in Assyria

Now, this Ninus, or “Son,” borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. “Ninus, king of the Assyrians,” * says Trogus Pompeius, epitomized by Justin, “first of all changed the contented moderation of the ancient manners, incited by a new passion, the desire of conquest. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbours, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Libya, as they were yet unacquainted with the arts of war.”
* The name, “Assyrians,” as has already been noticed, has a wide latitude of meaning among the classic authors, taking in the Babylonians as well as the Assyrians proper.
This account points directly to Nimrod, and can apply to no other. The account of Diodorus Siculus entirely agrees with it, and adds another trait that goes still further to determine the identity. That account is as follows: “Ninus, the most ancient of the Assyrian kings mentioned in history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a warlike disposition, and ambitious of glory that results from valour, he armed a considerable number of young men that were brave and vigorous like himself, trained them up a long time in laborious exercises and hardships, and by that means accustomed them to bear the fatigues of war, and to face dangers with intrepidity.” As Diodorus makes Ninus “the most ancient of the Assyrian kings,” and represents him as beginning those wars which raised his power to an extraordinary height by bringing the people of Babylonia under subjection to him, while as yet the city of Babylon was not in existence, this shows that he occupied the very position of Nimrod, of whom the Scriptural account is, that he first “began to be mighty on the earth,” and that the “beginning of his kingdom was Babylon.” As the Babel builders, when their speech was confounded, were scattered abroad on the face of the earth, and therefore deserted both the city and the tower which they had commenced to build, Babylon as a city, could not properly be said to exist till Nimrod, by establishing his power there, made it the foundation and starting-point of his greatness. In this respect, then, the story of Ninus and of Nimrod exactly harmonize. The way, too, in which Ninus gained his power is the very way in which Nimrod erected his. There can be no doubt that it was by inuring his followers to the toils and dangers of the chase, that he gradually formed them to the use of arms, and so prepared them for aiding him in establishing his dominions; just as Ninus, by training his companions for a long time “in laborious exercises and hardships,” qualified them for making him the first of the Assyrian kings.
The conclusions deduced from these testimonies of ancient history are greatly strengthened by many additional considerations. In Genesis 10:11, we find a passage, which, when its meaning is properly understood, casts a very steady light on the subject. That passage, as given in the authorized version, runs thus: “Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh.” This speaks of it as something remarkable, that Asshur went out of the land of Shinar, while yet the human race in general went forth from the same land. It goes upon the supposition that Asshur had some sort of divine right to that land, and that he had been, in a manner, expelled from it by Nimrod, while no divine right is elsewhere hinted at in the context, or seems capable of proof. Moreover, it represents Asshur as setting up in the IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD of Nimrod as mighty a kingdom as Nimrod himself, Asshur building four cities, one of which is emphatically said to have been “great” (v 12); while Nimrod, on this interpretation, built just the same number of cities, of which none is specially characterized as “great.” Now, it is in the last degree improbable that Nimrod would have quietly borne so mighty a rival so near him. To obviate such difficulties as these, it has been proposed to render the words, “out of that land he (Nimrod) went forth into Asshur, or Assyria.” But then, according to ordinary usage of grammar, the word in the original should have been “Ashurah,” with the sign of motion to a place affixed to it, whereas it is simply Asshur, without any such sign of motion affixed. I am persuaded that the whole perplexity that commentators have hitherto felt in considering this passage, has arisen from supposing that there is a proper name in the passage, where in reality no proper name exists. Asshur is the passive participle of a verb, which, in its Chaldee sense, signifies “to make strong,” and, consequently, signifies “being strengthened,” or “made strong.” Read thus, the whole passage is natural and easy (v 10), “And the beginning of his (Nimrod’s) kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh.” A beginning naturally implies something to succeed, and here we find it (v 11): “Out of that land he went forth, being made strong, or when he had been made strong (Ashur), and builded Nineveh,” &c. Now, this exactly agrees with the statement in the ancient history of Justin: “Ninus strengthened the greatness of his acquired dominion by continued possession. Having subdued, therefore, his neighbours, when, by an accession of forces, being still further strengthened, he went forth against other tribes, and every new victory paved the way for another, he subdued all the peoples of the East.” Thus, then, Nimrod, or Ninus, was the builder of Nineveh; and the origin of the name of that city, as “the habitation of Ninus,” is accounted for, * and light is thereby, at the same time, cast on the fact, that the name of the chief part of the ruins of Nineveh is Nimroud at this day.
* Nin-neveh, “The habitation of Ninus.”
Now, assuming that Ninus is Nimrod, the way in which that assumption explains what is otherwise inexplicable in the statements of ancient history greatly confirms the truth of that assumption itself. Ninus is said to have been the son of Belus or Bel, and Bel is said to have been the founder of Babylon. If Ninus was in reality the first king of Babylon, how could Belus or Bel, his father, be said to be the founder of it? Both might very well be, as will appear if we consider who was Bel, and what we can trace of his doings. If Ninus was Nimrod, who was the historical Bel? He must have been Cush; for “Cush begat Nimrod” (Gen 10:8); and Cush is generally represented as having been a ringleader in the great apostacy. * But again, Cush, as the son of Ham, was Her-mes or Mercury; for Hermes is just an Egyptian synonym for the “son of Ham.” **
* See GREGORIUS TURONENSIS, De rerum Franc. Gregory attributes to Cush what was said more generally to have befallen his son; but his statement shows the belief in his day, which is amply confirmed from other sources, that Cush had a pre-eminent share in leading mankind away from the true worship of God.
** The composition of Her-mes is, first, from “Her,” which, in Chaldee, is synonymous with Ham, or Khem, “the burnt one.” As “her” also, like Ham, signified “The hot or burning one,” this name formed a foundation for covertly identifying Ham with the “Sun,” and so deifying the great patriarch, after whose name the land of Egypt was called, in connection with the sun. Khem, or Ham, in his own name was openly worshipped in later ages in the land of Ham (BUNSEN); but this would have been too daring at first. By means of “Her,” the synonym, however, the way was paved for this. “Her” is the name of Horus, who is identified with the sun (BUNSEN), which shows the real etymology of the name to be from the verb to which I have traced it. Then, secondly, “Mes,” is from Mesheh (or, without the last radical, which is omissible), Mesh, “to draw forth.” In Egyptian, we have Ms in the sense of “to bring forth” (BUNSEN, Hieroglyphical Signs), which is evidently a different form of the same word. In the passive sense, also, we find Ms used (BUNSEN, Vocabulary). The radical meaning of Mesheh in Stockii Lexicon, is given in Latin “Extraxit,” and our English word “extraction,” as applied to birth or descent, shows that there is a connection between the generic meaning of this word and birth. This derivation will be found to explain the meaning of the names of the Egyptian kings, Ramesses and Thothmes, the former evidently being “The son of Ra,” or the Sun; the latter in like manner, being “The son of Thoth.” For the very same reason Her-mes is the “Son of Her, or Ham,” the burnt one–that is, Cush.
Now, Hermes was the great original prophet of idolatry; for he was recognised by the pagans as the author of their religious rites, and the interpreter of the gods. The distinguished Gesenius identifies him with the Babylonian Nebo, as the prophetic god; and a statement of Hyginus shows that he was known as the grand agent in that movement which produced the division of tongues. His words are these: “For many ages men lived under the government of Jove [evidently not the Roman Jupiter, but the Jehovah of the Hebrews], without cities and without laws, and all speaking one language. But after that Mercury interpreted the speeches of men (whence an interpreter is called Hermeneutes), the same individual distributed the nations. Then discord began.” *
* HYGINUS, Fab. Phoroneus is represented as king at this time.
Here there is a manifest enigma. How could Mercury or Hermes have any need to interpret the speeches of mankind when they “all spake one language”? To find out the meaning of this, we must go to the language of the Mysteries. Peresh, in Chaldee, signifies “to interpret”; but was pronounced by old Egyptians and by Greeks, and often by the Chaldees themselves, in the same way as “Peres,” to “divide.” Mercury, then, or Hermes, or Cush, “the son of Ham,” was the “DIVIDER of the speeches of men.” He, it would seem, had been the ringleader in the scheme for building the great city and tower of Babel; and, as the well known title of Hermes,–“the interpreter of the gods,” would indicate, had encouraged them, in the name of God, to proceed in their presumptuous enterprise, and so had caused the language of men to be divided, and themselves to be scattered abroad on the face of the earth. Now look at the name of Belus or Bel, given to the father of Ninus, or Nimrod, in connection with this. While the Greek name Belus represented both the Baal and Bel of the Chaldees, these were nevertheless two entirely distinct titles. These titles were both alike often given to the same god, but they had totally different meanings. Baal, as we have already seen, signified “The Lord”; but Bel signified “The Confounder.” When, then, we read that Belus, the father of Ninus, was he that built or founded Babylon, can there be a doubt, in what sense it was that the title of Belus was given to him? It must have been in the sense of Bel the “Confounder.” And to this meaning of the name of the Babylonian Bel, there is a very distinct allusion in Jeremiah 1:2, where it is said “Bel is confounded,” that is, “The Confounder is brought to confusion.” That Cush was known to Pagan antiquity under the very character of Bel, “The Confounder,” a statement of Ovid very clearly proves. The statement to which I refer is that in which Janus “the god of gods,” * from whom all the other gods had their origin, is made to say of himself: “The ancients…called me Chaos.”
* Janus was so called in the most ancient hymns of the Salii. (MACROB, Saturn.)
Now, first this decisively shows that Chaos was known not merely as a state of confusion, but as the “god of Confusion.” But, secondly, who that is at all acquainted with the laws of Chaldaic pronunciation, does not know that Chaos is just one of the established forms of the name of Chus or Cush? * Then, look at the symbol of Janus, ** whom “the ancients called Chaos,” and it will be seen how exactly it tallies with the doings of Cush, when he is identified with Bel, “The Confounder.” That symbol is a club; and the name of “a club” in Chaldee comes from the very word which signifies “to break in pieces, or scatter abroad.” ***
* The name of Cush is also Khus, for sh frequently passes in Chaldee into s; and Khus, in pronunciation, legitimately becomes Khawos, or, without the digamma, Khaos.
** From Sir WM. BETHAM’S Etruscan Literature and Antiquities Investigated, 1842. The Etruscan name on the reverse of a medal–Bel-athri, “Lord of spies,” is probably given to Janus, in allusion to his well known title “Janus Tuens,” which may be rendered “Janus the Seer,” or “All-seeing Janus.”
*** In Proverbs 25:18, a maul or club is “Mephaitz.” In Jeremiah 51:20, the same word, without the Jod, is evidently used for a club (though, in our version, it is rendered battle-axe); for the use of it is not to cut asunder, but to “break in pieces.” See the whole passage.
He who caused the confusion of tongues was he who “broke” the previously united earth (Gen 11:1) “in pieces,” and “scattered” the fragments abroad. How significant, then, as a symbol, is the club, as commemorating the work of Cush, as Bel, the “Confounder”? And that significance will be all the more apparent when the reader turns to the Hebrew of Genesis 11:9, and finds that the very word from which a club derives its name is that which is employed when it is said, that in consequence of the confusion of tongues, the children of men were “scattered abroad on the face of all the earth.” The word there used for scattering abroad is Hephaitz, which, in the Greek form becomes Hephaizt, * and hence the origin of the well known but little understood name of Hephaistos, as applied to Vulcan, “The father of the gods.” **
* There are many instances of a similar change. Thus Botzra becomes in Greek, Bostra; and Mitzraim, Mestraim.
** Vulcan, in the classical Pantheon, had not commonly so high a place, but in Egypt Hephaistos, or Vulcan, was called “Father of the gods.” (AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS)
Hephaistos is the name of the ringleader in the first rebellion, as “The Scatterer abroad,” as Bel is the name of the same individual as the “Confounder of tongues.” Here, then, the reader may see the real origin of Vulcan’s Hammer, which is just another name for the club of Janus or Chaos, “The god of Confusion”; and to this, as breaking the earth in pieces, there is a covert allusion in Jeremiah 1:23, where Babylon, as identified with its primeval god, is thus apostrophised: “How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken”! Now, as the tower-building was the first act of open rebellion after the flood, and Cush, as Bel, was the ringleader in it, he was, of course, the first to whom the name Merodach, “The great Rebel,” * must have been given, and, therefore, according to the usual parallelism of the prophetic language, we find both names of the Babylonian god referred to together, when the judgment on Babylon is predicted: “Bel is confounded: Merodach is broken in pieces” (Jer 1:2).
* Merodach comes from Mered, to rebel; and Dakh, the demonstrative pronoun affixed, which makes it emphatic, signifying “That” or “The great.”
The judgment comes upon the Babylonian god according to what he had done. As Bel, he had “confounded” the whole earth, therefore he is “confounded.” As Merodach, by the rebellion he had stirred up, he had “broken” the united world in pieces; therefore he himself is “broken in pieces.”
So much for the historical character of Bel, as identified with Janus or Chaos, the god of confusion, with his symbolical club. *
* While the names Bel and Hephaistos had the origin above referred to, they were not inappropriate names also, though in a different sense, for the war-gods descending from Cush, from whom Babylon derived its glory among the nations. The warlike deified kings of the line of Cush gloried in their power to carry confusion among their enemies, to scatter their armies, and to “break the earth in pieces” by their resistless power. To this, no doubt, as well as to the acts of the primeval Bel, there is allusion in the inspired denunciations of Jeremiah on Babylon. The physical sense also of these names was embodied in the club given to the Grecian Hercules–the very club of Janus–when, in a character quite different from that of the original Hercules, he was set up as the great reformer of the world, by mere physical force. When two-headed Janus with the club is represented, the two-fold representation was probably intended to represent old Cush, and young Cush or Nimrod, as combined. But the two-fold representation with other attributes, had reference also to another “Father of the gods,” afterwards to be noticed, who had specially to do with water.
Proceeding, then, on these deductions, it is not difficult to see how it might be said that Bel or Belus, the father of Ninus, founded Babylon, while, nevertheless, Ninus or Nimrod was properly the builder of it. Now, though Bel or Cush, as being specially concerned in laying the first foundations of Babylon, might be looked upon as the first king, as in some of the copies of “Eusebius’ Chronicle” he is represented, yet it is evident, from both sacred history and profane, that he could never have reigned as king of the Babylonian monarchy, properly so called; and accordingly, in the Armenian version of the “Chronicle of Eusebius,” which bears the undisputed palm for correctness and authority, his name is entirely omitted in the list of Assyrian kings, and that of Ninus stands first, in such terms as exactly correspond with the Scriptural account of Nimrod. Thus, then, looking at the fact that Ninus is currently made by antiquity the son of Belus, or Bel, when we have seen that the historical Bel is Cush, the identity of Ninus and Nimrod is still further confirmed.
It is well known that Kronos, or Saturn, was Rhea’s husband; but it is not so well known who was Kronos himself. Traced back to his original, that divinity is proved to have been the first king of Babylon. Theophilus of Antioch shows that Kronos in the east was worshipped under the names of Bel and Bal; and from Eusebius we learn that the first of the Assyrian kings, whose name was Belus, was also by the Assyrians called Kronos. As the genuine copies of Eusebius do not admit of any Belus, as an actual king of Assyria, prior to Ninus, king of the Babylonians, and distinct from him, that shows that Ninus, the first king of Babylon, was Kronos. But, further, we find that Kronos was king of the Cyclops, who were his brethren, and who derived that name from him, * and that the Cyclops were known as “the inventors of tower-building.”
* The scholiast upon EURIPIDES, Orest, says that “the Cyclops were so called from Cyclops their king.” By this scholiast the Cyclops are regarded as a Thracian nation, for the Thracians had localised the tradition, and applied it to themselves; but the following statement of the scholiast on the Prometheus of Aeschylus, shows that they stood in such a relation to Kronos as proves that he was their king: “The Cyclops…were the brethren of Kronos, the father of Jupiter.”
The king of the Cyclops, “the inventors of tower-building,” occupied a position exactly correspondent to that of Rhea, who “first erected (towers) in cities.” If, therefore, Rhea, the wife of Kronos, was the goddess of fortifications, Kronos or Saturn, the husband of Rhea, that is, Ninus or Nimrod, the first king of Babylon, must have been Ala mahozin, “the god of fortifications.”
The name Kronos itself goes not a little to confirm the argument. Kronos signifies “The Horned one.” As a horn is a well known Oriental emblem for power or might, Kronos, “The Horned one,” was, according to the mystic system, just a synonym for the Scriptural epithet applied to Nimrod–viz., Gheber, “The mighty one” (Gen 10:8), “He began to be mighty on the earth.” The name Kronos, as the classical reader is well aware, is applied to Saturn as the “Father of the gods.” We have already had another “father of the gods” brought under our notice, even Cush in his character of Bel the Confounder, or Hephaistos, “The Scatterer abroad”; and it is easy to understand how, when the deification of mortals began, and the “mighty” Son of Cush was deified, the father, especially considering the part which he seems to have had in concocting the whole idolatrous system, would have to be deified too, and of course, in his character as the Father of the “Mighty one,” and of all the “immortals” that succeeded him. But, in point of fact, we shall find, in the course of our inquiry, that Nimrod was the actual Father of the gods, as being the first of deified mortals; and that, therefore, it is in exact accordance with historical fact that Kronos, the Horned, or Mighty one, is, in the classic Pantheon, known by that title.
The meaning of this name Kronos, “The Horned one,” as applied to Nimrod, fully explains the origin of the remarkable symbol, so frequently occurring among the Nineveh sculptures, the gigantic HORNED man-bull, as representing the great divinities in Assyria. The same word that signified a bull, signified also a ruler or prince. *
* The name for a bull or ruler, is in Hebrew without points, Shur, which in Chaldee becomes Tur. From Tur, in the sense of a bull, comes the Latin Taurus; and from the same word, in the sense of a ruler, Turannus, which originally had no evil meaning. Thus, in these well known classical words, we have evidence of the operation of the very principle which caused the deified Assyrian kings to be represented under the form of the man-bull.
Hence the “Horned bull” signified “The Mighty Prince,” thereby pointing back to the first of those “Mighty ones,” who, under the name of Guebres, Gabrs, or Cabiri, occupied so conspicuous a place in the ancient world, and to whom the deified Assyrian monarchs covertly traced back the origin of their greatness and might. This explains the reason why the Bacchus of the Greeks was represented as wearing horns, and why he was frequently addressed by the epithet “Bull-horned,” as one of the high titles of his dignity. Even in comparatively recent times, Togrul Begh, the leader of the Seljukian Turks, who came from the neighborhood of the Euphrates, was in a similar manner represented with three horns growing out of his head, as the emblem of his sovereignty. This, also, in a remarkable way accounts for the origin of one of the divinities worshiped by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors under the name of Zernebogus. This Zernebogus was “the black, malevolent, ill-omened divinity,” in other words, the exact counterpart of the popular idea of the Devil, as supposed to be black, and equipped with horns and hoofs. This name analysed casts a very singular light on the source from whence has come the popular superstition in regard to the grand Adversary. The name Zer-Nebo-Gus is almost pure Chaldee, and seems to unfold itself as denoting “The seed of the prophet Cush.” We have seen reason already to conclude that, under the name Bel, as distinguished from Baal, Cush was the great soothsayer or false prophet worshipped at Babylon. But independent inquirers have been led to the conclusion that Bel and Nebo were just two different titles for the same god, and that a prophetic god. Thus does Kitto comment on the words of Isaiah 46:1 “Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth,” with reference to the latter name: “The word seems to come from Nibba, to deliver an oracle, or to prophesy; and hence would mean an ‘oracle,’ and may thus, as Calmet suggests (‘Commentaire Literal’), be no more than another name for Bel himself, or a characterizing epithet applied to him; it being not unusual to repeat the same thing, in the same verse, in equivalent terms.” “Zer-Nebo-Gus,” the great “seed of the prophet Cush,” was, of course, Nimrod; for Cush was Nimrod’s father. Turn now to Layard, and see how this land of ours and Assyria are thus brought into intimate connection. In a woodcut, first we find “the Assyrian Hercules,” that is “Nimrod the giant,” as he is called in the Septuagint version of Genesis, without club, spear, or weapons of any kind, attacking a bull. Having overcome it, he sets the bull’s horns on his head, as a trophy of victory and a symbol of power; and thenceforth the hero is represented, not only with the horns and hoofs above, but from the middle downwards, with the legs and cloven feet of the bull. Thus equipped he is represented as turning next to encounter a lion. This, in all likelihood, is intended to commemorate some event in the life of him who first began to be mighty in the chase and in war, and who, according to all ancient traditions, was remarkable also for bodily power, as being the leader of the Giants that rebelled against heaven. Now Nimrod, as the son of Cush, was black, in other words, was a Negro. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin?” is in the original, “Can the Cushite” do so? Keeping this, then, in mind, it will be seen that in that figure dis-entombed from Nineveh, we have both the prototype of the Anglo-Saxon Zer-Nebo-Gus, “the seed of the prophet Cush,” and the real original of the black Adversary of mankind, with horns and hoofs. It was in a different character from that of the Adversary that Nimrod was originally worshiped; but among a people of a fair complexion, as the Anglo-Saxons, it was inevitable that, if worshiped at all, it must generally be simply as an object of fear; and so Kronos, “The Horned one,” who wore the “horns,” as the emblem both of his physical might and sovereign power, has come to be, in popular superstition, the recognized representative of the Devil.
There was another way in which Nimrod’s power was symbolized besides by the “horn.” A synonym for Gheber, “The mighty one,” was “Abir,” while “Aber” also signified a “wing.” Nimrod, as Head and Captain of those men of war, by whom he surrounded himself, and who were the instruments of establishing his power, was “Baal-aberin,” “Lord of the mighty ones.” But “Baal-abirin” (pronounced nearly in the same way) signified “The winged one,” * and therefore in symbol he was represented, not only as a horned bull, but as at once a horned and winged bull–as showing not merely that he was mighty himself, but that he had mighty ones under his command, who were ever ready to carry his will into effect, and to put down all opposition to his power; and to shadow forth the vast extent of his might, he was represented with great and wide-expanding wings.
* This is according to a peculiar Oriental idiom, of which there are many examples. Thus, Baal-aph, “lord of wrath,” signifies “an angry man”; Baal-lashon, “lord of tongue,” “an eloquent man”; Baal-hatsim, “lord of arrows,” “an archer”; and in like manner, Baal-aberin, “lord of wings,” signifies “winged one.”
To this mode of representing the mighty kings of Babylon and Assyria, who imitated Nimrod and his successors, there is manifest allusion in Isaiah 8:6-8 “Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and mighty, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his banks. And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over; he shall reach even unto the neck; and the STRETCHING OUT OF HIS WINGS shall FILL the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.” When we look at such figures, with their great extent of expanded wing, as symbolizing an Assyrian king, what a vividness and force does it give to the inspired language of the prophet! And how clear is it, also, that the stretching forth of the Assyrian monarch’s WINGS, that was to “fill the breadth of Emmanuel’s land,” has that very symbolic meaning to which I have referred–viz., the overspreading of the land by his “mighty ones,” or hosts of armed men, that the king of Babylon was to bring with him in his overflowing invasion! The knowledge of the way in which the Assyrian monarchs were represented, and of the meaning of that representation, gives additional force to the story of the dream of Cyrus the Great, as told by Herodotus. Cyrus, says the historian, dreamt that he saw the son of one of his princes, who was at the time in a distant province, with two great “wings on his shoulders, the one of which overshadowed Asia, and the other Europe,” from which he immediately concluded that he was organising rebellion against him. The symbols of the Babylonians, whose capital Cyrus had taken, and to whose power he had succeeded, were entirely familiar to him; and if the “wings” were the symbols of sovereign power, and the possession of them implied the lordship over the might, or the armies of the empire, it is easy to see how very naturally any suspicions of disloyalty affecting the individual in question might take shape in the manner related, in the dreams of him who might harbour these suspicions.
Now, the understanding of this equivocal sense of “Baal-aberin” can alone explain the remarkable statement of Aristophanes, that at the beginning of the world “the birds” were first created, and then after their creation, came the “race of the blessed immortal gods.” This has been regarded as either an aesthetically or nonsensical utterance on the part of the poet, but, with the true key applied to the language, it is found to contain an important historical fact. Let it only be borne in mind that “the birds”–that is, the “winged ones”–symbolized “the Lords of the mighty ones,” and then the meaning is clear, viz., that men first “began to be mighty on the earth”; and then, that the “Lords” or Leaders of “these mighty ones” were deified. The knowledge of the mystic sense of this symbol accounts also for the origin of the story of Perseus, the son of Jupiter, miraculously born of Danae, who did such wondrous things, and who passed from country to country on wings divinely bestowed on him. This equally casts light on the symbolic myths in regard to Bellerophon, and the feats which he performed on his winged horse, and their ultimate disastrous issue; how high he mounted in the air, and how terrible was his fall; and of Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who, flying on wax-cemented wings over the Icarian Sea, had his wings melted off through his too near approach to the sun, and so gave his name to the sea where he was supposed to have fallen. The fables all referred to those who trode, or were supposed to have trodden, in the steps of Nimrod, the first “Lord of the mighty ones,” and who in that character was symbolized as equipped with wings.

The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter II
Section II
Sub-Section IV
The Death of the Child

How Nimrod died, Scripture is entirely silent. There was an ancient tradition that he came to a violent end. The circumstances of that end, however, as antiquity represents them, are clouded with fable. It is said that tempests of wind sent by God against the Tower of Babel overthrew it, and that Nimrod perished in its ruins. This could not be true, for we have sufficient evidence that the Tower of Babel stood long after Nimrod’s day. Then, in regard to the death of Ninus, profane history speaks darkly and mysteriously, although one account tells of his having met with a violent death similar to that of Pentheus, Lycurgus, * and Orpheus, who were said to have been torn in pieces. **
* Lycurgus, who is commonly made the enemy of Bacchus, was, by the Thracians and Phrygians, identified with Bacchus, who it is well known, was torn in pieces.
** LUDOVICUS VIVES, Commentary on Augustine. Ninus as referred to by Vives is called “King of India.” The word “India” in classical writers, though not always, yet commonly means Ethiopia, or the land of Cush. Thus the Choaspes in the land of the eastern Cushites is called an “Indian River” (DIONYSIUS AFER. Periergesis); and the Nile is said by Virgil to come from the “coloured Indians” (Georg)–i.e., from the Cushites, or Ethiopians of Africa. Osiris also is by Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca), called “an Indian by extraction.” There can be no doubt, then, that “Ninus, king of India,” is the Cushite or Ethiopian Ninus.
The identity of Nimrod, however, and the Egyptian Osiris, having been established, we have thereby light as to Nimrod’s death. Osiris met with a violent death, and that violent death of Osiris was the central theme of the whole idolatry of Egypt. If Osiris was Nimrod, as we have seen, that violent death which the Egyptians so pathetically deplored in their annual festivals was just the death of Nimrod. The accounts in regard to the death of the god worshipped in the several mysteries of the different countries are all to the same effect. A statement of Plato seems to show, that in his day the Egyptian Osiris was regarded as identical with Tammuz; * and Tammuz is well known to have been the same as Adonis, the famous HUNTSMAN, for whose death Venus is fabled to have made such bitter lamentations.
* See WILKINSON’S Egyptians. The statement of Plato amounts to this, that the famous Thoth was a counsellor of Thamus, king of Egypt. Now Thoth is universally known as the “counsellor” of Osiris. Hence it may be concluded that Thamus and Osiris are the same.
As the women of Egypt wept for Osiris, as the Phoenician and Assyrian women wept for Tammuz, so in Greece and Rome the women wept for Bacchus, whose name, as we have seen, means “The bewailed,” or “Lamented one.” And now, in connection with the Bacchanal lamentations, the importance of the relation established between Nebros, “The spotted fawn,” and Nebrod, “The mighty hunter,” will appear. The Nebros, or “spotted fawn,” was the symbol of Bacchus, as representing Nebrod or Nimrod himself. Now, on certain occasions, in the mystical celebrations, the Nebros, or “spotted fawn,” was torn in pieces, expressly, as we learn from Photius, as a commemoration of what happened to Bacchus, * whom that fawn represented.
* Photius, under the head “Nebridzion” quotes Demosthenes as saying that “spotted fawns (or nebroi) were torn in pieces for a certain mystic or mysterious reason”; and he himself tells us that “the tearing in pieces of the nebroi (or spotted fawns) was in imitation of the suffering in the case of Dionysus” or Bacchus. (PHOTIUS, Lexicon)
The tearing in pieces of Nebros, “the spotted one,” goes to confirm the conclusion, that the death of Bacchus, even as the death of Osiris, represented the death of Nebrod, whom, under the very name of “The Spotted one,” the Babylonians worshipped. Though we do not find any account of Mysteries observed in Greece in memory of Orion, the giant and mighty hunter celebrated by Homer, under that name, yet he was represented symbolically as having died in a similar way to that in which Osiris died, and as having then been translated to heaven. *
* See OVID’S Fasti. Ovid represents Orion as so puffed up with pride on account of his great strength, as vain-gloriously to boast that no creature on earth could cope with him, whereupon a scorpion appeared, “and,” says the poet, “he was added to the stars.” The name of a scorpion in Chaldee is Akrab; but Ak-rab, thus divided, signifies “THE GREAT OPPRESSOR,” and this is the hidden meaning of the Scorpion as represented in the Zodiac. That sign typifies him who cut off the Babylonian god, and suppressed the system he set up. It was while the sun was in Scorpio that Osiris in Egypt “disappeared” (WILKINSON), and great lamentations were made for his disappearance. Another subject was mixed up with the death of the Egyptian god; but it is specially to be noticed that, as it was in consequence of a conflict with a scorpion that Orion was “added to the stars,” so it was when the scorpion was in the ascendant that Osiris “disappeared.”
From Persian records we are expressly assured that it was Nimrod who was deified after his death by the name of Orion, and placed among the stars. Here, then, we have large and consenting evidence, all leading to one conclusion, that the death of Nimrod, the child worshipped in the arms of the goddess-mother of Babylon, was a death of violence.
Now, when this mighty hero, in the midst of his career of glory, was suddenly cut off by a violent death, great seems to have been the shock that the catastrophe occasioned. When the news spread abroad, the devotees of pleasure felt as if the best benefactor of mankind were gone, and the gaiety of nations eclipsed. Loud was the wail that everywhere ascended to heaven among the apostates from the primeval faith for so dire a catastrophe. Then began those weepings for Tammuz, in the guilt of which the daughters of Israel allowed themselves to be implicated, and the existence of which can be traced not merely in the annals of classical antiquity, but in the literature of the world from Ultima Thule to Japan.
Of the prevalence of such weepings in China, thus speaks the Rev. W. Gillespie: “The dragon-boat festival happens in midsummer, and is a season of great excitement. About 2000 years ago there lived a young Chinese Mandarin, Wat-yune, highly respected and beloved by the people. To the grief of all, he was suddenly drowned in the river. Many boats immediately rushed out in search of him, but his body was never found. Ever since that time, on the same day of the month, the dragon-boats go out in search of him.” “It is something,” adds the author, “like the bewailing of Adonis, or the weeping for Tammuz mentioned in Scripture.” As the great god Buddh is generally represented in China as a Negro, that may serve to identify the beloved Mandarin whose loss is thus annually bewailed. The religious system of Japan largely coincides with that of China. In Iceland, and throughout Scandinavia, there were similar lamentations for the loss of the god Balder. Balder, through the treachery of the god Loki, the spirit of evil, according as had been written in the book of destiny, “was slain, although the empire of heaven depended on his life.” His father Odin had “learned the terrible secret from the book of destiny, having conjured one of the Volar from her infernal abode. All the gods trembled at the knowledge of this event. Then Frigga [the wife of Odin] called on every object, animate and inanimate, to take an oath not to destroy or furnish arms against Balder. Fire, water, rocks, and vegetables were bound by this solemn obligation. One plant only, the mistletoe, was overlooked. Loki discovered the omission, and made that contemptible shrub the fatal weapon. Among the warlike pastimes of Valhalla [the assembly of the gods] one was to throw darts at the invulnerable deity, who felt a pleasure in presenting his charmed breast to their weapons. At a tournament of this kind, the evil genius putting a sprig of the mistletoe into the hands of the blind Hoder, and directing his aim, the dreaded prediction was accomplished by an unintentional fratricide. The spectators were struck with speechless wonder; and their misfortune was the greater, that no one, out of respect to the sacredness of the place, dared to avenge it. With tears of lamentation they carried the lifeless body to the shore, and laid it upon a ship, as a funeral pile, with that of Nanna his lovely bride, who had died of a broken heart. His horse and arms were burnt at the same time, as was customary at the obsequies of the ancient heroes of the north.” Then Frigga, his mother, was overwhelmed with distress. “Inconsolable for the loss of her beautiful son,” says Dr. Crichton, “she despatched Hermod (the swift) to the abode of Hela [the goddess of Hell, or the infernal regions], to offer a ransom for his release. The gloomy goddess promised that he should be restored, provided everything on earth were found to weep for him. Then were messengers sent over the whole world, to see that the order was obeyed, and the effect of the general sorrow was ‘as when there is a universal thaw.'” There are considerable variations from the original story in these two legends; but at bottom the essence of the stories is the same, indicating that they must have flowed from one fountain.

The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter II
Section II
Sub-Section V
The Deification of the Child

Now, if there be such evidence still, that even Pagans knew that it was by dying that the promised Messiah was to destroy death and him that has the power of death, that is the Devil, how much more vivid must have been the impression of mankind in general in regard to this vital truth in the early days of Semiramis, when they were so much nearer the fountain-head of all Divine tradition. When, therefore, the name Zoroaster, “the seed of the woman,” was given to him who had perished in the midst of a prosperous career of false worship and apostacy, there can be no doubt of the meaning which that name was intended to convey. And the fact of the violent death of the hero, who, in the esteem of his partisans, had done so much to bless mankind, to make life happy, and to deliver them from the fear of the wrath to come, instead of being fatal to the bestowal of such a title upon him, favoured rather than otherwise the daring design. All that was needed to countenance the scheme on the part of those who wished an excuse for continued apostacy from the true God, was just to give out that, though the great patron of the apostacy had fallen a prey to the malice of men, he had freely offered himself for the good of mankind. Now, this was what was actually done. The Chaldean version of the story of the great Zoroaster is that he prayed to the supreme God of heaven to take away his life; that his prayer was heard, and that he expired, assuring his followers that, if they cherished due regard for his memory, the empire would never depart from the Babylonians. What Berosus, the Babylonian historian, says of the cutting off of the head of the great god Belus, is plainly to the same effect. Belus, says Berosus, commanded one of the gods to cut off his head, that from the blood thus shed by his own command and with his own consent, when mingled with the earth, new creatures might be formed, the first creation being represented as a sort of a failure. Thus the death of Belus, who was Nimrod, like that attributed to Zoroaster, was represented as entirely voluntary, and as submitted to for the benefit of the world.
It seems to have been now only when the dead hero was to be deified, that the secret Mysteries were set up. The previous form of apostacy during the life of Nimrod appears to have been open and public. Now, it was evidently felt that publicity was out of the question. The death of the great ringleader of the apostacy was not the death of a warrior slain in battle, but an act of judicial rigour, solemnly inflicted. This is well established by the accounts of the deaths of both Tammuz and Osiris. The following is the account of Tammuz, given by the celebrated Maimonides, deeply read in all the learning of the Chaldeans: “When the false prophet named Thammuz preached to a certain king that he should worship the seven stars and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, that king ordered him to be put to a terrible death. On the night of his death all the images assembled from the ends of the earth into the temple of Babylon, to the great golden image of the Sun, which was suspended between heaven and earth. That image prostrated itself in the midst of the temple, and so did all the images around it, while it related to them all that had happened to Thammuz. The images wept and lamented all the night long, and then in the morning they flew away, each to his own temple again, to the ends of the earth. And hence arose the custom every year, on the first day of the month Thammuz, to mourn and to weep for Thammuz.” There is here, of course, all the extravagance of idolatry, as found in the Chaldean sacred books that Maimonides had consulted; but there is no reason to doubt the fact stated either as to the manner or the cause of the death of Tammuz. In this Chaldean legend, it is stated that it was by the command of a “certain king” that this ringleader in apostacy was put to death. Who could this king be, who was so determinedly opposed to the worship of the host of heaven? From what is related of the Egyptian Hercules, we get very valuable light on this subject. It is admitted by Wilkinson that the most ancient Hercules, and truly primitive one, was he who was known in Egypt as having, “by the power of the gods” * (i.e., by the SPIRIT) fought against and overcome the Giants.
* The name of the true God (Elohim) is plural. Therefore, “the power of the gods,” and “of God,” is expressed by the same term.
Now, no doubt, the title and character of Hercules were afterwards given by the Pagans to him whom they worshipped as the grand deliverer or Messiah, just as the adversaries of the Pagan divinities came to be stigmatised as the “Giants” who rebelled against Heaven. But let the reader only reflect who were the real Giants that rebelled against Heaven. They were Nimrod and his party; for the “Giants” were just the “Mighty ones,” of whom Nimrod was the leader. Who, then, was most likely to head the opposition to the apostacy from the primitive worship? If Shem was at that time alive, as beyond question he was, who so likely as he? In exact accordance with this deduction, we find that one of the names of the primitive Hercules in Egypt was “Sem.”
If “Sem,” then, was the primitive Hercules, who overcame the Giants, and that not by mere physical force, but by “the power of God,” or the influence of the Holy Spirit, that entirely agrees with his character; and more than that, it remarkably agrees with the Egyptian account of the death of Osiris. The Egyptians say, that the grand enemy of their god overcame him, not by open violence, but that, having entered into a conspiracy with seventy-two of the leading men of Egypt, he got him into his power, put him to death, and then cut his dead body into pieces, and sent the different parts to so many different cities throughout the country. The real meaning of this statement will appear, if we glance at the judicial institutions of Egypt. Seventy-two was just the number of the judges, both civil and sacred, who, according to Egyptian law, were required to determine what was to be the punishment of one guilty of so high an offence as that of Osiris, supposing this to have become a matter of judicial inquiry. In determining such a case, there were necessarily two tribunals concerned. First, there were the ordinary judges, who had power of life and death, and who amounted to thirty, then there was, over and above, a tribunal consisting of forty-two judges, who, if Osiris was condemned to die, had to determine whether his body should be buried or no, for, before burial, every one after death had to pass the ordeal of this tribunal. *
* DIODORUS. The words of Diodorus, as printed in the ordinary editions, make the number of the judges simply “more than forty,” without specifying how many more. In the Codex Coislianus, the number is stated to be “two more than forty.” The earthly judges, who tried the question of burial, are admitted both by WILKINSON and BUNSEN, to have corresponded in number to the judges of the infernal regions. Now, these judges, over and above their president, are proved from the monuments to have been just forty-two. The earthly judges at funerals, therefore, must equally have been forty-two. In reference to this number as applying equally to the judges of this world and the world of spirits, Bunsen, speaking of the judgment on a deceased person in the world unseen, uses these words in the passage above referred to: “Forty-two gods (the number composing the earthly tribunal of the dead) occupy the judgment-seat.” Diodorus himself, whether he actually wrote “two more than forty,” or simply “more than forty,” gives reason to believe that forty-two was the number he had present to his mind; for he says, that “the whole of the fable of the shades below,” as brought by Orpheus from Egypt, was “copied from the ceremonies of the Egyptian funerals,” which he had witnessed at the judgment before the burial of the dead. If, therefore, there were just forty-two judges in “the shades below,” that even, on the showing of Diodorus, whatever reading of his words be preferred, proves that the number of the judges in the earthly judgment must have been the same.
As burial was refused him, both tribunals would necessarily be concerned; and thus there would be exactly seventy-two persons, under Typho the president, to condemn Osiris to die and to be cut in pieces. What, then, does the statement account to, in regard to the conspiracy, but just to this, that the great opponent of the idolatrous system which Osiris introduced, had so convinced these judges of the enormity of the offence which he had committed, that they gave up the offender to an awful death, and to ignominy after it, as a terror to any who might afterwards tread in his steps. The cutting of the dead body in pieces, and sending the dismembered parts among the different cities, is paralleled, and its object explained, by what we read in the Bible of the cutting of the dead body of the Levite’s concubine in pieces (Judges 19:29), and sending one of the parts to each of the twelve tribes of Israel; and the similar step taken by Saul, when he hewed the two yoke of oxen asunder, and sent them throughout all the coasts of his kingdom (1 Sam 11:7). It is admitted by commentators that both the Levite and Saul acted on a patriarchal custom, according to which summary vengeance would be dealt to those who failed to come to the gathering that in this solemn way was summoned. This was declared in so many words by Saul, when the parts of the slaughtered oxen were sent among the tribes: “Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.” In like manner, when the dismembered parts of Osiris were sent among the cities by the seventy-two “conspirators”–in other words, by the supreme judges of Egypt, it was equivalent to a solemn declaration in their name, that “whosoever should do as Osiris had done, so should it be done to him; so should he also be cut in pieces.”
When irreligion and apostacy again arose into the ascendant, this act, into which the constituted authorities who had to do with the ringleader of the apostates were led, for the putting down of the combined system of irreligion and despotism set up by Osiris or Nimrod, was naturally the object of intense abhorrence to all his sympathisers; and for his share in it the chief actor was stigmatised as Typho, or “The Evil One.” *
* Wilkinson admits that different individuals at different times bore this hated name in Egypt. One of the most noted names by which Typho, or the Evil One, was called, was Seth (EPIPHANIUS, Adv. Hoeres). Now Seth and Shem are synonymous, both alike signifying “The appointed one.” As Shem was a younger son of Noah, being “the brother of Japhet the elder” (Gen 10:21), and as the pre-eminence was divinely destined to him, the name Shem, “the appointed one,” had doubtless been given him by Divine direction, either at his birth or afterwards, to mark him out as Seth had been previously marked out as the “child of promise.” Shem, however, seems to have been known in Egypt as Typho, not only under the name of Seth, but under his own name; for Wilkinson tells us that Typho was characterised by a name that signified “to destroy and render desert.” (Egyptians) Now the name of Shem also in one of its meanings signifies “to desolate” or lay waste. So Shem, the appointed one, was by his enemies made Shem, the Desolator or Destroyer–i.e., the Devil.
The influence that this abhorred Typho wielded over the minds of the so-called “conspirators,” considering the physical force with which Nimrod was upheld, must have been wonderful, and goes to show, that though his deed in regard to Osiris is veiled, and himself branded by a hateful name, he was indeed none other than that primitive Hercules who overcame the Giants by “the power of God,” by the persuasive might of his Holy Spirit.
In connection with this character of Shem, the myth that makes Adonis, who is identified with Osiris, perish by the tusks of a wild boar, is easily unravelled. * The tusk of a wild boar was a symbol. In Scripture, a tusk is called “a horn”; among many of the Classic Greeks it was regarded in the very same light. **
* In India, a demon with a “boar’s face” is said to have gained such power through his devotion, that he oppressed the “devotees” or worshippers of the gods, who had to hide themselves. (MOOR’S Pantheon) Even in Japan there seems to be a similar myth.
** Pausanian admits that some in his day regarded tusks as teeth; but he argues strongly, and, I think, conclusively, for their being considered as “horns.”
When once it is known that a tusk is regarded as a “horn” according to the symbolism of idolatry, the meaning of the boar’s tusks, by which Adonis perished, is not far to seek. The bull’s horns that Nimrod wore were the symbol of physical power. The boar’s tusks were the symbol of spiritual power. As a “horn” means power, so a tusk, that is, a horn in the mouth, means “power in the mouth”; in other words, the power of persuasion; the very power with which “Sem,” the primitive Hercules, was so signally endowed. Even from the ancient traditions of the Gael, we get an item of evidence that at once illustrates this idea of power in the mouth, and connects it with that great son of Noah, on whom the blessing of the Highest, as recorded in Scripture, did specially rest. The Celtic Hercules was called Hercules Ogmius, which, in Chaldee, is “Hercules the Lamenter.” *
* The Celtic scholars derive the name Ogmius from the Celtic word Ogum, which is said to denote “the secret of writing”; but Ogum is much more likely to be derived from the name of the god, than the name of the god to be derived from it.
No name could be more appropriate, none more descriptive of the history of Shem, than this. Except our first parent, Adam, there was, perhaps, never a mere man that saw so much grief as he. Not only did he see a vast apostacy, which, with his righteous feelings, and witness as he had been of the awful catastrophe of the flood, must have deeply grieved him; but he lived to bury SEVEN GENERATIONS of his descendants. He lived 502 years after the flood, and as the lives of men were rapidly shortened after that event, no less than SEVEN generations of his lineal descendants died before him (Gen 11:10-32). How appropriate a name Ogmius, “The Lamenter or Mourner,” for one who had such a history! Now, how is this “Mourning” Hercules represented as putting down enormities and redressing wrongs? Not by his club, like the Hercules of the Greeks, but by the force of persuasion. Multitudes were represented as following him, drawn by fine chains of gold and amber inserted into their ears, and which chains proceeded from his mouth. *
* Sir W. BETHAM’S Gael and Cymbri. In connection with this Ogmius, one of the names of “Sem,” the great Egyptian Hercules who overcame the Giants, is worthy of notice. That name is Chon. In the Etymologicum Magnum, apud BRYANT, we thus read: “They say that in the Egyptian dialect Hercules is called Chon.” Compare this with WILKINSON, where Chon is called “Sem.” Now Khon signifies “to lament” in Chaldee, and as Shem was Khon–i.e., “Priest” of the Most High God, his character and peculiar circumstances as Khon “the lamenter” would form an additional reason why he should be distinguished by that name by which the Egyptian Hercules was known. And it is not to be overlooked, that on the part of those who seek to turn sinners from the error of their ways, there is an eloquence in tears that is very impressive. The tears of Whitefield formed one great part of his power; and, in like manner, the tears of Khon, “the lamenting” Hercules, would aid him mightily in overcoming the Giants.
There is a great difference between the two symbols–the tusks of a boar and the golden chains issuing from the mouth, that draw willing crowds by the ears; but both very beautifully illustrate the same idea–the might of that persuasive power that enabled Shem for a time to withstand the tide of evil that came rapidly rushing in upon the world.
Now when Shem had so powerfully wrought upon the minds of men as to induce them to make a terrible example of the great Apostate, and when that Apostate’s dismembered limbs were sent to the chief cities, where no doubt his system had been established, it will be readily perceived that, in these circumstances, if idolatry was to continue–if, above all, it was to take a step in advance, it was indispensable that it should operate in secret. The terror of an execution, inflicted on one so mighty as Nimrod, made it needful that, for some time to come at least, the extreme of caution should be used. In these circumstances, then, began, there can hardly be a doubt, that system of “Mystery,” which, having Babylon for its centre, has spread over the world. In these Mysteries, under the seal of secrecy and the sanction of an oath, and by means of all the fertile resources of magic, men were gradually led back to all the idolatry that had been publicly suppressed, while new features were added to that idolatry that made it still more blasphemous than before. That magic and idolatry were twin sisters, and came into the world together, we have abundant evidence.
From the following Greek mythology we learn that the war between Nimrod and Shem lasted ten years. We also learn that Nimrod castrated his father. I would suspect this might be the reason for Cush and his followers leaving the Land of two rivers. Mesopotamia.
Take note that we have already shown you that Nimrod was married to Rhea. So by this we know that Cronus, Kronus was also Nimrod. And his father Cush could be none other than Uranus.
http://www.milica.com.au/greek_myths/creation/gaea.htm
Gaea united with her son Uranus and gave birth to the first divine race-the Titans. There were twelve of them, six male: Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Lapetus, Cronus and six female: Theia Rhea Mnemosyne Phoebe (1) Tethys and Themis (see genealogical table Uransu-Gaea). Uranus and Gaea then gave birth to the Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who resembled the other gods but had only one eye in the middle of their forehead. Finally they gave birth to three monsters, Hecatoncheires Cottus, Briareus and Gyges.
Uranus hated his offspring and as soon as they were born he shut them up in the depths of the Earth. Angry because her children were imprisoned, Gaea decided to take a revenge against her husband. She made a steel and fashioned a sharp sickle. Then she released Cronus the youngest Titan and encouraged him to castrate his father and rule in his place. When Uranus came to lie with Gaea that night, Cronus armed with a sickle, cut off his father’s testicles and threw them into the sea. From the wound black blood dropped and the drops, seeping into the earth, fertilized Gaea and she gave birth to the Erinves the Giants and to the ash-tree Nymphs the Meliads Uranus’ discarded genitals broke into a white foam from which was born a young goddess, Aphrodite .

Cronus

A Titan the youngest son of Uranus and Gaea who became the ruler of the universe after castrating his father. He married his sister Rhea who gave him three daughters: Hestia Demeter and Hera, and three sons: Hades Poseidon and Zeus. Cronus lived in fear that he would be dethroned by one of his children as an oracle had predicted, so he swallowed each of his children as it was born. When she was pregnant with Zeus, Rhea asked her parents, Uranus and Gaea, to help her save the child. On their advice, she went to Crete and there, in a deep cavern she gave birth to Zeus. There Rhea wrapped up a stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to Cronus who swallowed it. Gaea took the newborn baby and undertook to bring it up.
The oracle which had predicted to Cronus that he would be overthrown by one of his sons had not lied. As soon as Zeus reached manhood, he wanted to seize power from Cronus. Metis daughter of Oceanus, gave him a drug which made Cronus vomit up the children whom he had swallowed. Together with his brothers and sisters, Zeus attacked Cronus and the Titans, The outcome of the ten years long war was Zeus’ victory. The Titans were expelled them from Heaven and locked them up in Tartarus.
According to Hesiod there was a golden race at the time when Cronus was ruling in heaven. People in those days lived free from worries and safe from grief and distress. They remained eternally young. They had no need to work. When the time came for them to die, they went peacefully to sleep. This race vanished from the Earth in the reign of Zeus, and the Golden Age continued on the Islands of the Blessed, where Cronus was sent later, after reconciliation with Zeus.
Cronus is sometimes identified with Chronus, personification of time.
We have the following also to draw on. From http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/009168.html
Saturn was a malicious god who was overthrown by his son, Jupiter (Gr. Zeus), whence he established a Golden Age on earth. The Mythology Dictionary describes the brutal disposition of Saturn:
“The titan Saturn (equated with the Greek Cronus) castrated his father, hated his children, devoured them, and was castrated and overthrown by his son Zeus. After his defeat, Saturn ruled over the Golden Age of the world; according to Roman mythology, he fled to the west and brought a new golden time to Italy. Originally Saturn was an old Italic deity of the harvest; the Roman’s built a temple to Saturn on the Capitoline hill and each December celebrated the winter planting with the Saturnalia, a time of revelry and the giving of presents. Saturnalia today denotes a period of unrestrained or orgiastic revelry. Saturn gives his name to the sixth planet from the sun, the second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. …a saturnine temperament…is…gloomy or melancholy, characteristics of the god who castrated his father and was overthrown. Saturnian simply means pertaining to the god or the planet Saturn. The planet Saturn was also associated with the element lead, and so the term for lead poisoning is saturnism.” (1047)
At the Roman Saturnalia was celebrated each year the overthrow of the Atlantean god Saturn (Gr. Chronos) by the god Jupiter (Gr. Zeus) and return to the Golden Age of Atlantis. John King, author of The Celtic Druid’s Year, explains:
“The Roman festival dedicated to Saturn, the Saturnalia, began on 19 December. It celebrated the overthrow of the old father-god, Saturn, by the new, Jupiter or Deus-Pater (God the Father, although in our context he is actually God the Son). These gods have direct counterparts in Greek mythology (Chronos and Zeus) and in Celtic mythology (Bran and Bel or Belin)…” (270:133)
In Roman mythology, Jupiter (Gr. Zeus), was the last god of Atlantis. Ignatius Donnelly tells of Jupiter’s fame and glory after he deposed his father, Saturn: “The third and last on the throne of the highest god was Zeus… He was called ‘the thunderer,’ and ‘the mighty thunderer.’ He was represented with thunder-bolts in his hand and an eagle at his feet. During the time of Zeus Atlantis seems to have reached its greatest height of power. He was recognized as the father of the whole world…” – 635 (Part IV, Ch. II)
With all this mythology now laid out for us we can see that Nimrod viciously attacked Cush and during this attack castrated him. Nimrod continued to reign supreme in Mesopotamia, or the area of Babylon. At some point he was captured by Shem who is also known to be the Melchezedek of Salem. Jeru means city. So Jerusalem means City of Peace. Salem is peace.
Nimrod was tried and found guilty in a court of law and executed and his body cut apart and sent to the other nations as a warning not to follow in Nimrods Rebellious ways. This led to the Babylonian religion and worship of Nimrod becoming secretive and hidden from Shem. Hence the Mysterious Babylonian Religion was born.
But what became of Cush and his followers?
In the book Legends by author David Rohl we read on page 218
The story begins, or rather continues, with Cush and his three brothers – Mizraim, Put and Canaan- whom the biblical redactor recognizes as the eponymous founders of the lands of Kush (Ethiopia), Musri (Egypt), Put (Libya) and Canaan (Lebanon/Phoenicia).
In his Chronikon, Eusebius informs us that Cush was the ancestor from whom the Ethiopians descended. Josephus has the same basic story.
….of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Chus (Cush); for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even to this day both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Chusites (Kushites). The Memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name; for all we who in this country (of Judea) call Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mestreans. Phut also was the founder of Libya and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself.
Meskiagkasher in the Sumerian king list journeyed across the sea and came to mountainous land. This was Kush (Kasher).
Enmerkar, son of MeskiagKasher , king of Uruk , the one who built Uruk became king and reigned 420 years.
Cush left Mesopotamia and migrated down the Persian gulf, around Arabia and up the Red Sea and landed at what is now called Port of Suakin, just south of Port Sudan around the year 2980 BC. ( The Lost Testament, David Rohl page 81-83) Masri would sail on to claim the land of Egypt.
We now turn to page 93 and read The people of Susiana had long since maintained strong ties with Kushite traders from both Punt and the early Kingdom of Kush centered on the Sudanese Nile valley. They themselves claimed descent from King Mesliagkasher ( biblical Cush) of Uruk who. Shortly after his death, had been deified both in the Nile valley and in Susiana.
The Sumerian king list recorded the first antediluvian ruler of Uruk by the eponym Meskiagkasher, which translates as Kash, the hero who divided the earth (amongst his followers). The later Egyptians also remembered him through the name of their southern neighbor, the Kingdom of Kash ( which Egyptologist refer to as Kush) and through the Greeks, we derive our own word chaos ( i.e. division) from this same hypocoristicon. But Cush is also known to us today by his second and more infamous Egyptian name-Seth Lord Chaos.
The Modern day Egyptologist David Rohl and the rev Alexander Hislop both agree in their findings. Cush left Mesopotamia and came to Egypt and continued with the Babylonian Religion only with Himself as supreme deity instead of Nimrod.
We now read in Daniel 11: 40 “At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. 41 He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.
Brethren this long dissertation, was to show you proof positive who is the King of the South. Some would have you believe many wild stories. Other believe it to be Iran.
The Bible, History and archeology all show us that the King of the South is going to be led by Egypt Ethiopia and Libya. That these countries will attack first and provoke the king of the North to retaliate is stated in scriptures. It does not seem possible today January 2008. But we should be watching for this. Next week I will show you more about this Northern King.
Shalom
Joseph F Dumond
www.sightedmoon.com
Write to admin@sightedmoon.com
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