The Oedipus Judaicus / [Sir William Drummond].

  • William Drummond of Logiealmond
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Oedipus Judaicus / [Sir William Drummond]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    515/524 (page 379)
    But, continue the Rabbins, the Egyptians adored the ram, or lamb, at this festival, whereas the Hebrews slew the lamb* This, therefore, only proves the more, that the Paschal lamb w7as slain in order to wean the Israelites from the idolatry of the Egyptians. I must observe, that this reasoning does not seem to be founded upon fact. Herodotus tells us, that once a year, on a certain day, at the festival of Jupiter Ammon, the people of Thebes in Egypt slew a ram. But Jupiter Ammon was no other than the Sun in Aries. This annual festival then must have been that, which the Rabbins acknowledge to have been celebrated at the same time with the feast of the transit. The e* Sun came into Aries on the tenth of Nisan, which month answers to the Egyptian Phamenoth. At the annual festival of Ammon, or of the Sun in Aries, a ram w'as slain by the Thebans. At the annual feast of the Jews, when the Sun was in Aries, a male lamb was slain. How will the Rabbins prove, that their ancestors did not copy this custom from the Egyptians, whose festival on this occasion they admit to have been instituted before their own ?