Spiritism and the cult of the dead in antiquity

346 Pages·2009·19.07 MB·English

SPIRITISM
AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD
IN ANTIQUITY
BY
LEWIS BAYLES PATON, PH.D., D.D.
NETTLETON PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS AND CRITICISM
HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Jaew
~ork
THE MACMILLAN COMPAl\TY
1921
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COPYRIGHT, 1921,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and printed. Published October, 1921.
Press of
]. ]. Little & Ives Company
New York, U.S. A.
TO
MY COLLEAGUES IN THE FACUI,TY OF
HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION
IN MEMORY OF THE YEARS OF
WORK AND FELLOWSHIP TOGETHER
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY
DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR

PREFACE
DuRING the last quarter of a century interest in the
phenomena of Spiritism, or Spiritualism as it is popu
larly called, has been growing steadily throughout the
Western world. The Societies of Psychical Research
in England, Germany, France, and America have gath
ered a vast body of data, and have subject•ed these to
searching criticism. The results of these investigations
have been published in the journals of the various socie
ties, and have be·en popularized in the writings of such
authors as Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. F. W. H. Myers,
Professor ·James Hyslop, Professor William James.
Whereas formerly an attitude of Sadducean scepticism
toward all the alleged facts of Spiritism was maintained
by religion and by rationalism alike, at the present time
no doubt is felt concerning the existence of hypnosis,
somnambulism, automatic action, ecstasy, significant
dreams, visions, auditions, telepathy, telesthesia, mind
reading, foreboding of the future, and all the other
abnormal phenomena of the psychical life. The only
difference of opinion is in regard to the interpretation of
these phenomena. Many scientific investigators think
that they can be explained completely by the influence of
living minds upon themselves and upon other minds;
other equally scientific investigators hold that this expla
nation is unsatisfactory, and that the ancient theory of
the activity of disembodied spirits alone accounts for all
the facts.
The events of the recent world-war have awakened
widespread popular interest in the discussion of this
question. Millions of choice young men of all civilized
vii
Vlll PREFACE
lands have died in the conflict; and their mourning fami
lies and friends have had to face anew the ancient ques
tion, "If a man dieth, shall he live again?" Many who
are destitute of religious faith, or who have found their
faith unequal to the strain, have sought eagerly for
psychical evidence of the continued existence of their
beloved after death. Accordingly, the last five years
have witnessed a wave of popular enthusiasm for the
study of Spiritism. The lectures and the writings of such
literary men as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir A. Conan Doyle,
and Mr. Maurice Maeterlinck, have been received with
enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic. The planchette,
the gazing-crystal, and the seance have been cultivated
by multitudes with extraordinary assiduity, in the hope
of obtaining through them scientific proof of immortality.
Under these circumstances it has seemed to the present
writer that it would be both interesting and timely to pre
sent a study of similar psychical manifestations in
antiquity. All the occurrences that are associated with
modern Spiritism have been known from the earliest
times, and have been interpreted as due to the influence
of discarnate spirits. The great historic religions. of
China, India, Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Israel, Greece,
and Rome are full of so-called "spiritistic" phenomena,
of beliefs based upon these facts, and of rites of worship
based upon these beliefs. No scientific study of the sub
ject can be complete without taking into consideration the
ancient as well as the modern evidence. The aim of the
present work is to present in outline the main elements of
the ancient evidence.
In the fields of Semitic religion and of the religions of
Israel, Greece, and Rome, the author has been able to
work at first hand from the sources; in the cases of the
religions. of China, India, Egypt, and some of the Indo
European races, he has been obliged to depend upon the
researches of others. He has endeavoured to follow the
best authorities, whose works are cited in the footnotes;
PREFACE IX
and he has, submitted his results to the criticism of special
ists. In the chapter on Spiritism in China he gratefully
acknowledges.the assistance of Rev. Lewis Hodous, B.D.,
Professor of Chinese in the Kennedy School of Missions
of the Hartford Seminary Foundation, and of Edward
K. Thurlow, B.D., missionary of the Protestant Episco
pal Church in Wuhu, China. In the chapters on the Indo
Europeans he has had the expert aid of Leroy Carr
Barrett, Ph.D., Professor of Sanskrit in Trinity College,
Hartford, Connecticut. The chapter on Spiritism in
Egypt would have been impossible without constant use
of the Ancient Records of Egypt, and the Development
of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, by James
Henry Breasted, Ph.D., Professor of Egyptology in the
University of Chicago. Dr. Breasted has also kindly
given the author the benefit of his criticism of this chap
ter before publication. Thanks also are due the editors
of the Biblical World for permission to use certain mate
rial on the Hebrew conception of the future life, by the
author of the present book, that appeared in successive
numbers of this journal from January to May, 1910.
In matters connected with Armenian religion and
Armenian equivalents of Indo-European words much
help has been received from Professor Mardiros
Harooti9on Ananikian, S.T.M., of the Kennedy School
of Missions. The chapters on "Immortality in Judaism"
and "Immortality in the Teaching of Jesus" have received
the valuable criticism of Professor Edward Everett
Nourse, D.D., and of Professor Melanchthon Williams
Jacobus, D.D., of Hartford Theological Seminary. In
all stages of the work the author has been assisted by his
wife, and without her aid this book could never have
been completed.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGB
l. SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION I
II. SPIRITISM IN CHINA x6
III. SPIRITISM AMONG THE INDo-EuROPEANs 6o
IV. THE CuLT oF THE DEAD AMONG THE INDo-
EuRoPEANS 114
v.
SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 152
VI. SPIRITISM AMONG THE EARLY SEMITES 200
VII. SPIRITISM IN BABYLONIA AND AssYRIA 21 I
VIII. EARLIEST HEBREW CoNCEPTION OF THE DEAD 232
IX. BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE ON HEBREW CoNCEP-
TIONS OF THE DEAD • 240
X. WoRSHIP OF THE DEAD BY IsRAEL
XI. EARLY OPPOSITION TO THE WoRSHIP OF THE
DEAD BY ISRAEL 257
XII. PROPHETIC AND LEGAL DENIAL OF THE VITALITY
OF SPIRITS • 268
XIII. NEW THEORIES. o,F IMMORTALITY IN PosT-EXILIC
jUDAISM 280
XIV. THE TEACHING OF ]ESUS IN REGARD TO IM-
MORTALITY 290
INDEX •