History of paganism in Caledonia : with an examination into the influence of Asiatic philosophy, and the gradual development of Christianity in Pictavia. / By Thomas A. Wise.
- Thomas Alexander Wise
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: History of paganism in Caledonia : with an examination into the influence of Asiatic philosophy, and the gradual development of Christianity in Pictavia. / By Thomas A. Wise. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
63/314 page 29
![(a.) As symbol of the Deity.—The great antiquity of the erect pillar stone is proved by ancient writings, especially by the Sacred Scriptures. The upright pillar stone was the first symbol of the spiritual Deity worshipped by the primitive races of Asia; and this explains the frequent mention of the pillar in the Bible, viewed as a token of the divine presence The Lord went before them [the Israelites] by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.'1' And again, Him that over- cometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, &c.(2) Jacob erected several of these stone pillars on different occasions. When pursuing a lone dangerous and distant journey, he erected his first monolith at Luz. After his well-known dream, full of holy dread at the vision of God and His angels, and inspired by a most grateful sense of the Divine goodness, he raised a pillar to mark the place where he had been so highly favoured: And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.(3) Instances of the worship of these rude and venerated (boulder) stones are numerous in Asia and Europe.'4' The pillar required to be a boulder, and to be dedicated to God by having oil and wine poured on it, as was done by Jacob on the occasion referred to, and as we again find him doing when setting up a memorial pillar at the birth of a child, on the completion of the covenant with his uncle,(5) and on the death of his wife Rachel.16' The respect paid to these anointed and other monumental stones as symbols of Deity, in the lapse of ages, degenerated into the rankest idolatry. Many of the ancient gods of the Arabians were no other than large rude stones, the worship of which had been thus first introduced by the posterity of Ishmael. It seems most probable that these great stones, pyramidal boulders fashioned by the hand of Providence—hierograms of God, were the first places of divine worship among the Arabs, on which they poured wine and oil as Jacob did. Thus we read of the place of sacred stones at Bethel, to which Saul on one occasion met three men proceeding, that they might worship God there, one carrying three kids for sacrifice, another three loaves of bread, and the third a leathern bottle of wine, to be consumed with the flesh of the kids as a feast-offering. These ancient places of worship consisted of a plot of ground, containing an upright boulder, supposed to be animated by the Deity to whose honour it was erected, in the midst of a grove of oak or other trees. Among the Israelites it was the sanctuary of the Lord, commemorating some solemn covenant with the Almighty to recall His mercies and obey His voice. Such a place was kept sacred, and dedicated to sacred purposes, the vault of heaven being considered its appropriate covering, and the horizon its boundary fence. At these sacred spots the primitive inhabitants bowed down and worshipped, as in the presence of a symbol of the Divine power and goodness. When Joshua, about to die, exacted a pledge of the people that they would serve Jehovah as their Lord, he took a great stone, and erected it under an oak-tree, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord, as a witness to Israel, and poured oil upon it, and wrote down in the book of the law the terms of the covenant, and for a more public testimony, said unto all the people, Behold this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of Jehovah which he spake unto us; it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.'7' The Patriarchal form of worship was performed in the open air without any enclosure or temple, now in high places, and now under trees or in groves ;(8) and the unwrought boulder, erected and consecrated for a memorial, was undoubtedly the prototype of the unhewn altar of the Mosaic law, in which there was a religious appropriation of the monolith as marking a covenant with God. And although in later times the Israelites were, under the Theocracy, forbidden to worship such objects, they elsewhere were directed to prepare an altar of earth and stone, but to prevent any approach to idolatry, to which they were so prone, the injunction was added, Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it;(9) And Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel [to erect] an altar of whole stones, over (1) Exodus xiii, 21. (2) Rev. iii, 12. (3) Gen. xxviii, 18, et seq. (4) Kitto's Hist, of Palestine, i, 404. (5) Gen. xxxi, 45. (6) Gen. xxxv, 1-20. (7) Josh, xxiv, 24-27. (8) See Gen. xxi, 33. (9) Exod. xx, 24, 25 and 26.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22652796_0063.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
