In different portions of this work evidence has been brought
to show that Saturn, "the father of gods and men," was
in one aspect just our first parent Adam. Now, of Saturn it is
said that he devoured all his children. * In the exoteric story,
among those who knew not the actual fact referred to, this
naturally appeared in the myth, in the shape in which we commonly
find it--viz., that he devoured them all as soon as they were
born. But that which was really couched under the statement, in
regard to his devouring his children, was just the Scriptural
fact of the Fall--viz., that he destroyed them by eating--not by
eating them, but by eating the forbidden fruit. When this was the
sad and dismal state of matters, the Pagan story goes on to say
that the destruction of the children of the father of gods and
men was arrested by means of his wife, Rhea. Rhea, as we have
already seen, had really as much to do with the devouring of
Saturn's children, as Saturn himself; but, in the progress of
idolatry and apostacy, Rhea, or Eve, came to get glory at
Saturn's expense. Saturn, or Adam, was represented as a morose
divinity; Rhea, or Eve, exceedingly benignant; and, in her
benignity, she presented to her husband a stone bound in
swaddling bands, which he greedily devoured, and henceforth the
children of the cannibal father were safe. * The stone bound in
swaddling bands is, in the sacred language, "Ebn
Hatul;" but Ebn-Hat-tul * also signifies "A
sin-bearing son." This does not necessarily mean that
Eve, or the mother of mankind, herself actually brought forth the
promised seed (although there are many myths also to that
effect), but that, having received the glad tidings herself, and
embraced it, she presented it to her husband, who received it by
faith from her, and that this laid the foundation of his own
salvation and that of his posterity. The devouring on the part of
Saturn of the swaddled stone is just the symbolical expression of
the eagerness with which Adam by faith received the good news of
the woman's seed; for the act of faith, both in the Old Testament
and in the New, is symbolised by eating. Thus Jeremiah says, "Thy
words were found of me, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto
me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jer. xv. 16).
This also is strongly shown by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
who, while setting before the Jews the indispensable necessity of
eating His flesh, and feeding on Him, did at the same time say: "It
is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life" (John vi. 63). That Adam eagerly received the
good news about the promised seed, and treasured it up in his
heart as the life of his soul, is evident from the name which he
gave to his wife immediately after hearing it; "And Adam
called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all
living ones" (Gen. iii. 20. See Dr. CANDLISH's Genesis.
p. 108).
The story of the swaddled stone does not end with the
swallowing of it, and the arresting of the ruin of the children
of Saturn. This swaddled stone was said to be "preserved
near the temple of Delphi, where care was taken to anoint it
daily with oil, and to cover it with wool" (MAURICE's
Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 348). If this stone symbolised
the "sin-bearing son," it of course symbolised
also the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, in
whose symbolic covering our first parents were invested when God
clothed them in the coats of skins. Therefore, though represented
to the eye as a stone, he must have the appropriate covering of
wool. When represented as a branch, the branch of God, the branch
also was wrapped in wool (POTTER, vol. i., Religion of Greece.
chap. v. p. 208). The daily anointing with oil is very
significant. If the stone represented the "sin-bearing
son," what could the anointing of that "sin-bearing
son" daily with oil mean, but just to point him out as
the "lord's Anointed," or the "Messiah,"
whom the idolators worshipped in opposition to the true Messiah
yet to be revealed?
One of the names by which this swaddled and anointed stone was
called is very strikingly confirmatory of the above conclusion.
That name is Baitulos. This we find from Priscian (lib. v., vol.
i. p. 180, Note, and lib. vi., vol. i. p. 249), who, speaking of "that
stone which Saturn is said to have devoured for Jupiter," adds,
"quem Groeci Baitulov vocant," whom the Greeks
called "Baitulos." Now, "B'hai-tuloh"
* signifies the "Life-restoring child." The
father of gods and men had destroyed his children by eating; but
the reception of "the swaddled stone" is said
to have "restored them to life" (HESIOD,
Theogon., 1. 495, p. 41). Hence the name Baitulos; and this
meaning of the name is entirely in accordance with what is said
in Sanchuniathon (lib. i., cap. 6, p. 22) about the Baithulia
made by the Phenician god Ouranos: "It was the god
Ouranos who devised Baithulia, contriving stones that moved as
having life." If the stone Baitulos represented the "life-restoring
child," it was natural that that stone should be made,
if possible, to appear as having "life" in
itself.
Now, there is a great analogy between this swaddled stone that
represented the "sin-bearing son," and that
Olenos mentioned by Ovid, who took on him guilt not his own, and
in consequence was changed into a stone. We have seen already
that Olenos, when changed into a stone, was set up in Phrygia on
the holy mountain of Ida. We have reason to believe that the
stone which was fabled to have done so much for the children of
Saturn, and was set up near the temple of Delphi, was just a
representation of this same Olenos. We find that Olen was the
first prophet at Delphi, who founded the first temple there
(PAUSA IAS, lib. x., Phocica, cap. 5, p. 321). As the prophets
and priests generally bore the names of the gods whom they
represented (Hesychius expressly tells us that the priest who
represented the great god under the name of the branch in the
mysteries was himself called by the name of Bacchus, p. 179),
this indicates one of the ancient names of the god of Delphi. If,
then, there was a sacred stone on Mount Ida called the stone of
Olenos, and a sacred stone in the precincts of the temple of
Delphi, which Olen founded, can there be a doubt that the sacred
stone of Delphi represented the same as was represented by the
sacred stone of Ida? The swaddled stone set up at Delphi is
expressly called by Priscian, in the place already cited, "a
god." This god, then, that in symbol was divinely
anointed, and was celebrated as having restored to life the
children of Saturn, father of gods and men, as identified with
the Idaean Olenos, is proved to have been regarded as occupying
the very place of the Messiah, the great Sin-bearer, who came to
bear the sins of men, and took their place and suffered in their
room and stead; for Olenos, as we have seen, voluntarily took on
him guilt of which he was personally free.
While thus we have seen how much of the patriarchal faith was
hid under the mystical symbols of Paganism, there is yet a
circumstance to be noted in regard to the swaddled stone, that
shows how the Mystery of Iniquity in Rome has contrived to import
this swaddled stone of Paganism into what is called Christian
symbolism. The Baitulos, or swaddled stone, was stroggulos lithos
(BRYANT, vol. ii. p. 20, Note), a round or globular stone. This
globular stone is frequently represented swathed and bound,
sometimes with more, sometimes with fewer bandages. In BRYANT,
vol. iii. p. 246, where the goddess Cybele is represented as "Spes
Divina," or Divine hope, we see the foundation of this
divine hope held out to the world in the representation of the
swaddled stone at her right hand, bound with four different
swathes. In DAVID's Antiquities Etrusques, vol. iv. plate 27, we
find a goddess represented with Pandora's box, the source of all
ill, in her extended hand, and the swaddled globe depending from
it; and in this case that globe has only two bandages, the one
crossing the other. And what is this bandaged globe of Paganism
but just the counterpart of that globe, with a band around it,
and the mystic Tau, or cross, on the top of it, that is called "the
type of dominion," and is frequently represented, as in
the accompanying woodcut , * in the hands of the profane
representations of God the Father. The reader does not now need
to be told that the cross is the chosen sign and mark of that
very God whom the swaddled stone represented; and that when that
God was born, it was said, "The Lord of all the earth is
born" (WILKINSON, vol. iv. p. 310). As the god
symbolised by the swaddled stone not only restored the children
of Saturn to life, but restored the lordship of the earth to
Saturn himself, which by transgression he had lost, it is not to
be wondered at that it is said of "these consecrated
stones," that while "some were dedicated to
Jupiter, and others to the sun," "they were considered
in a more particular manner sacred to Saturn," the
Father of the gods (MAURICE, vol. ii. p. 348), and that Rome, in
consequence, has put the round stone into the hand of the image,
bearing the profaned name of God the Father attached to it, and
that from this source the bandaged globe, surmounted with the
mark of Tammuz, has become the symbol of dominion throughout all
Papal Europe.
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