Friday, May 27, 2011

Note (67.) to "History of the 'Christian' Trinity - HIST"

67. "... various religious and philosophical systems which attempted to fuse the doctrines of Christianity with Greek philosophy were devised in the city [of Alexandria]" - The Universal Standard Encyclopedia, (Funk and Wagnalls abridgment), p. 155, v. 1, 1955 ed.
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The Pagan Trinity at Alexandria, Egypt

“The trinity was a major preoccupation of Egyptian theologians .... Three gods are combined and treated as a single being, addressed in the singular. In this way the spiritual force of Egyptian religion shows a direct link with Christian theology.” - p. 254, Egyptian Religion, Morenz.

“The Egyptians believed in a resurrection and future life, as well as in a state of rewards and punishments dependent on our conduct in this world. The judge of the dead was Osiris, who had been slain by Set, the representative of evil, and afterwards restored to life. His death was avenged by his son Horus, whom the Egyptians invoked as their “Redeemer.” Osiris and Horus, along with Isis, formed a trinity, who were regarded as representing the sun-God under different forms.” – Easton’s Bible Dictionary, "Egypt," Thomas Nelson Publ.

 
This triad of Abydos [Horus, Isis, and Osiris] is apparently much older than even the earliest records .... These 3 main gods were skillfully incorporated into the Great Ennead or State religion of Egypt .... particularly during the first 5 or 6 dynasties when the worship of this triad was prominent.” - The Ancient Myths, A Mentor Book, Goodrich, p. 25, 1960.

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A later triad was centered at Alexandria Egypt.

"After the Greek conquest, the new city of Alexandria became the centre of Egyptian religious life, and indeed of the religious life of the whole Hellenic world. A great temple, the Serapeum, was set up by Ptolemy I at which a sort of trinity of gods was worshipped. These were Serapis (who was Osiris-Apis rechristened), Isis and Horus. These were not regarded as separate gods but as three aspects of one god" A Short History of the World, 1922 -

http://www1.bartleby.com/86/36.html


“This fusing of one god with another is called theocrasia, and nowhere was it more vigorously going on than in Alexandria. Only two peoples resisted it in this period: The Jews, who already had their faith in the one God of heaven and earth, Jehovah, and the Persians, who had a monotheistic sun worship [Mithras]. It was Ptolemy I [who died in 283 B. C.] who set up not only the Museum in Alexandria, but the Serapeum, devoted to the worship of a trinity of gods which represented the result of a process of theocrasia applied more particularly to the gods of Greece and Egypt.

“This trinity consisted of the god Serapis (= Osiris + Apis), the goddess Isis (= Hathor, the cow-moon goddess), and the child-god Horus. In one way or another almost every god was identified with one or other of these three aspects of the one god, even the sun god Mithras [very important in the religion of Constantine the Great which we shall see when we examine the Nicene Council] of the Persians. And they were each other; THEY WERE THREE, BUT THEY WERE ALSO ONE.” - The Outline of History, Wells, vol. 1, p. 307, 1956 ed.


"There was little danger of the small cult of Mithras, influential though it was, stemming the tide of Christianity and taking over the world. However, the cult of Isis had the numbers and the appeal to mount a serious threat to Christianity. Some scholars assert that the Holy Trinity of Isis, Serapis and Horus were not really defeated - they were merely absorbed into the new Holy Trinity of Christianity. The reverence for Mary among high Christian churches is similar to faith in Isis. We should consider at the very least that many chapels to the Virgin were built purposely on the remains of temples to Isis, and that furthermore the iconography of the Madonna and Christ is quite similar to Isis and Horus." -

http://www.unrv.com/culture/isis.php


"As a part of the Alexandrian triad of Serapis, Isis, and Harpocrates, he became the form of Horus most worshipped in late times, particularly with the rise of Isis as great-mother goddess. The god of the poor and humble, "Horus-the-child is specifically the potential that is still weak and defenceless as a child, the power that needs to be nurtured" -

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~jason2/papers/bnikeppr.htm


"The cult of Isis spread from Alexandria throughout the Hellenistic world after the 4th century B.C.E. It appeared in Greece in combination with the cults of Horus, her son, and Serapis, the Greek name for Osiris. .... The tripartite cult (Trinity) of Isis, Horus, and Serapis was later introduced around 86 B.C.E. into Rome in the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and became one of the most popular branches of Roman religion." -

http://paganizingfaithofyeshua.netfirms.com/no_11_isis_and_serapis.htm


"In the Greek era, Ptolemy the First introduced Serapis to Egypt so that both Egyptians and Greeks would have a supreme deity in common. Serapis was a composite of several Egyptian and Hellenistic deities, especially Osiris and the bull Apis. The official trinity of the Ptolemaic period was Serapis, Isis, and Harpocrates. The temple of Serapis was constructed in Koum Al-Dekka in Alexandria and his legacy lasted well into the Roman period." -

http://www.eternalegypt.org/EternalEgyptWebsiteWeb/HomeServlet?ee_website_action_key=action.display.topic.details&language_id=1&trait_item_id=10000226


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