Apocalypse of Saint John

A 2002 poll indicated that 59 percent of Americans believed the events predicted in the Book of Revelation would come to pass.[1] The Brookings Institute recently released the results of their survey entitled “American Attitudes Toward the Middle East and Israel,” which discovered that 73 percent of America’s 50 million Evangelical Christians believe that world events would turn against Israel the closer we get to the End Times. Additionally, 79 percent of Evangelicals interpret the unfolding violence across the Middle East as a sign that the End Times are near.[2]

Ultimately, it is the Book of Revelation that serves as the blueprint for the Great Work of the occult secret societies. The author of Revelation, John the Evangelist, has therefore become a patron saint of Freemasonry. The Book of Revelation—which was the result of the influence of Jewish apocalyptic literature—was the last book to have been accepted into the New Testament canon, and not without a lot of controversy. Its acceptance was the culmination of centuries of progress where the original simple teachings of Jesus were corrupted through the influence of Neoplatonism, Gnosticism and the Ancient Mysteries, the most influential of which were the Mysteries of Mithras. In fact, it was long rumored that the book was authored by a Gnostic named Cerinthus, a fact recognized by Albert Pike. According to Pike, in Morals and Dogma, described as the “Bible of Freemasonry,” the Book of Revelation represents the hidden secrets of the Jewish Kabbalah:

The Apocalypse, that sublime Kabalistic and prophetic Summary of all the occult figures, divides its images into three Septenaries, after each of which there is silence in Heaven. There are Seven Seals to be opened, that is to say, Seven mysteries to know, and Seven difficulties to overcome, Seven trumpets to sound, and Seven cups to empty. The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth Degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer. LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darknesss! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual or selfish Souls? Doubt it not! for traditions are full of Divine Revelations and Inspirations: and Inspiration is not of one Age nor of one Creed. Plato and Philo, also, were inspired. The Apocalypse, indeed, is a book as obscure as the Zohar. It is written hieroglyphically with numbers and images; and the Apostle often appeals to the intelligence of the Initiated. “Let him who hath knowledge, understand! let him who understands, calculate!” he often says, after an allegory or the mention of a number. Saint John, the favorite Apostle, and the Depositary of all the Secrets of the Saviour, therefore did not write to be understood by the multitude.[3]

The Book of Revelation occupies a central place in Christian eschatology, and is the only apocalyptic document in the New Testament. Its influence has been exercised in the development of Christian millennialism (from millennium, Latin for “thousand years”), or chiliasm in Greek, a belief held by some Christian denominations that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth, in which “Christ will reign” for a thousand years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state—the “World to Come” of the New Heaven and New Earth.

The Book of Revelation begins with John, on the island of Patmos in the Aegean, addressing a letter to the “Seven Churches of Asia.” John describes the opening of the seven seals, and the servants of god who number 144,000, or 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. John tells that “there was war in heaven” as Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon and his angels. The result of the conflict was that the Dragon was cast out of heaven and one third of the angels were cast out with him, and are now trying to accomplish his purpose by working through the Roman Emperor. He then describes a series of prophetic visions, including figures such as the Whore of Babylon, and uses the imagery of the Book of Daniel, of a beast that has seven heads and ten horns, who forces all people to bear “the mark of the Beast”: 666.

After the destruction of the Beast by the Second Coming of Jesus, the promised Kingdom is set up, in which Jesus and the Saints will rule for a thousand years, and the righteous will reign in the city of God, which is the new Jerusalem. Satan is again released and goes out to deceive the nations, specifically, Gog and Magog, and instigates a final battle against God and his Saints in Revelation 20:1–6. Satan and his armies are defeated, and cast into the Lake of Fire, an event which is known as the “second death” and also Gehenna.

During the Babylonian exile, the prophet Ezekiel foretold the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Ezekiel then predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple because of the abominations being practiced there, and closes with the promise of a new beginning and a new Temple. Ezekiel saw a supernatural human figure who would serve as its architect, who showed him in detail the design measurements and ornamentation. The book finally envisions the permanent entrance of the God of Israel through the eastern gate of the Third Temple wall. When the Babylonian exile ended in 538 BC, great messianic hopes were placed on the revival of Israel’s sacred mission and the Second Temple of Jerusalem became the embodiment of its aspirations.

Central to the expectations of the Book of Revelation is the rebuilding of what has been called the Temple of Jerusalem, being the third construction of the original Temple of Solomon. Since the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC, and the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, religious Jews and their Christian Zionist sympathizers have expressed their desire to see the building of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The site’s significance stems in part from religious traditions regarding the rock, known as the Foundation Stone, at its heart, which bears great significance for Jews and Muslims as the site of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son. According to some Islamic scholars, the rock is also from where the Islamic prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel.[4]

While holding significance to the three of the world’s great faiths, the rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon is also at the core of the symbolism of Freemasonry, serving as an allegory for the order’s plans, defined as the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, also known as the “Great Work,” as indicated by Albert Pike. Where as King Solomon was said to have used demonic entities to assist him in the construction of his temple, i.e. “witchcraft,” so Freemasonry uses the analogy of building or “masonry,” which is referred to as the “Craft,” and is a reference to the use of magic for bringing about the creation of a New World Order.

Temple of Herod

The creatures of the vision of Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation are also paralleled in the lion-headed figure of the most popular cult of the Roman Empire, the Mysteries of Mithras, which held numerous beliefs in common with Neoplatonism, Gnosticism and Hermeticism, and ultimately influenced the formation of Catholic Christianity. It was through the House of Herod intermarriage with the dynasty of the Julio-Claudian Roman emperors, the House of Commagene, as well as with the priest-kings of Emesa, which produced the descendants who developed and spread the cult of Mithraism to the Roman world and contributed to its adaptation to Catholic Christianity. Another famous descendent of the Priest-Kings of Emesa was the noted Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus.[5]

Herod (74/73 BC – c. 4 BC), also known as Herod the Great and Herod I, was a Roman client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. Herod arose from a wealthy, influential Idumaean family. The Idumaeans were successors to the Edomites who had settled in Edom in southern Judea, but between 130-140 BC were required to convert to Judaism. According to contemporary historians, Herod the Great “is perhaps the only figure in ancient Jewish history who has been loathed equally by Jewish and Christian posterity,” depicted both from Jews and Christians as a tyrant and bloodthirsty ruler.[6] He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his renovation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the expansion of the Temple Mount towards its north, the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima, the fortress at Masada, and Herodium. The Second Temple was originally a rather modest structure constructed by a number of Jewish exile groups returning from Babylon, but it was during Herod’s reign that it was completely refurbished, and the original structure was totally overhauled into the large and magnificent edifices and facades that are more recognizable to history.

Genealogy of the House of Herod

• HEROD THE GREAT (known for renovation of the Second Temple, orderd Massacre of the Innocents after a visit from the Magi) + Mariamne I

  • Alexander, son of Herod + Glaphyra

    • Tigranes V of Armenia

    • Alexander + unknown

      • Tigranes VI of Armenia + Opgalli

        • Gaius Julius Alexander + Julia Iotapa (daughter of ANTIOCHUS IV OF COMMANGENE)

          • Gaius Julius Agrippa + Fabia

            • Lucius Julius Gainius Fabius Agrippa

          • Gaius Julius Alexander Berenicianus + Cassia Lepida

            • Julia Cassia Alexandra + Gaius Avidius Heliodorus

              • Avidius Cassius + Volusia Vettia Maeciana

          • Julia Iotapa (Cilician princess)

        • Julia + Marcus Plancius Varus (Roman senator)

          • Gaius Plancius Varus,

          • Plancia Magna (high-priestess of the temple of Artemis) + Gaius Julius Cornutus Tertullus (friend of Pliny the Younger)

            • Gaius Julius Plancius Varus Cornutus

  • Aristobulus IV + Berenice

    • HEROD AGRIPPA (king named Herod in the Acts of the Apostles. Close friend of CALIGULA) + Cypros

      • HEROD AGRIPPA II + Berenice (it was before Agrippa and his sister Berenice that, according to the New Testament, Paul the Apostle pleaded his case at Caesarea Maritima, probably in 59 or 60)

      • Berenice + Herod of Chalcis (see below)

      • Mariamne + Julius Archelaus

      • Drusilla + Gaius Julius Azizus, Priest King of Emesa

      • Drusilla + ANTONIUS FELIX (Felix and Drusilla frequently met with Apostle Paul)

        • Marcus Antonius Agrippa (died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 79 AD)

    • Herod of Chalcis + Berenice

      • Aristobulus of Chalcis + SALOME (see below)

    • Aristobulus the Younger

    • Herodias (connected with John the Baptist’s execution) + Herod Antipas (see below)

    • Herodias (connected with John the Baptist’s execution) + Herod II (see below)

    • Mariamne III

  • Salampsio + Herod Agrippa

• Herod the Great + Mariamne II, daughter of High-Priest Simon

  • Herod II + Herodias (daughter of Costobarus and Salome I, sister of Herod the Great)

    • SALOME (played a role in the death of John the Baptist) + Aristobulus of Chalcis (see above)

• Herod the Great + Malthace

  • Herod Archelaus

  • HEROD ANTIPAS (known for role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus) + Herodias (see above)

• Herod the Great + Cleopatra of Jerusalem

  • Philip the Tetrarch + SALOME (after his death she married her cousin Aristobulus of Chalcis)

Despite the fact that the destruction of the First Temple was to have been in punishment for the corruption of Judaism by pagan themes, such beliefs nevertheless persisted. Many Jews believed that the fertility of the land and its people, as well as the harmony of the universe itself, was dependent upon the ritual of the revived Temple. Edwin Goodenough argues that by the time King Herod the Great proposed the reconstruction of the Temple in 20 BC, the great “Temple Cultus” had become for many Jews an allegory of a Jewish mystery religion.[7]

As reported by historian Marsha Keith Schuchard, who traced the influence of the Temple cult on Freemasonry, during Herod’s reconstruction, only priests who had skills as masons were allowed to work in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where even Herod himself was not allowed to enter. The Holy of Holies guarded the erotic secret of the Cherubim wrapped in sexual embrace, mirroring the dying-god tradition of the sacred marriage. When Israel fulfilled God’s will, the faces of the Cherubim were turned towards each other. But when Israel sinned, they were turned away from each other. On the Feast of Booths (or Sukkoth), a great fertility ritual, the pilgrims were allowed a glimpse at the Cherubim in the Holy of Holies, and then to indulge in “an orgiastic outburst of sexual license.”[8]

The ostensibly monotheistic Jews were exposed to humiliation when the overtly pagan statuary was discovered by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (c. 215 BC – 164 BC), the Syrian King, when he sacked the Temple in 168 BC. It what is considered the first case of blood libel against the Jews, the Graeco-Egyptian author Apion (30-20 BC – c. 45-48 AD) stated that when Antiochus entered the temple, he discovered a Greek captive who told him that he was being fattened for sacrifice. A similar accusation was attributed to a certain Damocritus, by the Suda, a tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, who alleged that “every seven years the Jews captured a stranger, brought him to the temple in Jerusalem, and sacrificed him, cutting his flesh into bits.”[9] Similarly, Apion claimed, every year, the Jews would sacrifice a Greek and consume his flesh, at the same time swearing eternal hatred towards the Greeks.[10] Apion’s claim probably repeats ideas already in circulation because similar claims are made by Posidonius and Apollonius Molon in the first century BC.[11] Apion’s accusation is known from ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus’ rebuttal of it in Against Apion.

Josephus also records that Herod completely rebuilt the Temple, which therefore became known as Herod’s Temple. Josephus claimed that while Herod was preoccupied with rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, he favored the related sect of the “Pythagorean” Essenes.[12] Josephus related that they were regarded by King Herod as being endowed with higher powers. Herod’s favor upon them was due to the fact that one of their members named Menahem, who possessed the gift of prophecy, had predicted Herod’s rise to royalty.[13]

Josephus further recounts how only Jewish artisans were allowed to work on the Temple, and the esoteric symbolism of the architecture was considered so sacred that only priest-masons were allowed to work on the inner sanctuary, and according to Josephus, over a thousand priests were trained as stonemasons and craftsmen.[14] Though Herod recruited the Jewish builders of Palestine, he also relied especially on the Jewish artisan guilds of Alexandria, who were renowned for their skills. Saul Lieberman argued that Pythagorean symbolism had an important influence on the Temple cult.[15] One example, according to Frederick Conybeare, would have been the Therapeutae of  Alexandria, who were closely related to the Essenes. [16]

House of Commagene

Frantz Cumont proposed that the cult of the Magusseans was ultimately responsible for the development of Mithraism, a type of proto-Freemasonry that was popular in the Roman army, and which displayed remarkable similarities with Christianity. However, modern scholars dismiss the theory because they rightly perceive few genuine Zoroastrian influences in the cult, failing to realize that Cumont instead demonstrated that Mithraism was derived from a heretical Magian tradition. Roger Beck has submitted an intermediary theory. Specifically, Beck located the transmission of the early Magian tradition to the Roman Empire via the House of Commagene, a small kingdom located in modern south-central Turkey, in what had once been part of greater Cappadocia, with its capital city as Samosata, or modern Samsat, near the Euphrates.[17]

Initially, the cult of the heretical Magi was most prevalent in that part of Asia Minor, that is, of Armenia, Cappadocia and Pontus. Pontus was a name applied in ancient times to the extensive region in the northeast of Asia Minor, now Turkey, the greater part of which lay within the immense region of Cappadocia, which in early ages extended from the borders of Cilicia to the Black Sea. The Armenians traditionally identify themselves as descendants of Ashkenaz, the son of Magog. However, both Armenian and Georgian historians also record that after the destruction of the first Temple, Nebuchadnezzar transported large numbers of Jewish captives, not only to Babylon, but also to Armenia and the Caucasus. By the end of the fourth century BC, some Armenian cities had large Jewish populations.[18]

Commagene was ruled by a dynasty known as the Orontids, an Armenian dynasty founded by Orontes, who had been appointed by the Persians as “satrap,” or governor of Armenia, between 570 BC – 560 BC. The Orontids established their supremacy over Armenia around the time of the Scythian and Median invasion in the sixth century BC. Orontes married Rhodogoune, the daughter of Artaxerxes II (435 or 445 – 358 BC), then reigning emperor of Persia. Artaxerxes II would have been the grandson of Xerxes (519 – 465 BC), who according to Jewish tradition, married Esther. In the Book of Esther, Ahasuerus (usually identified with Xerxes), is married to Vashti, whom he puts aside after she rejects his offer to visit him during a feast. Ahasuerus’ chief advisor, Haman, is offended by Esther’s cousin and guardian, Mordecai, and gets permission from the king to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed. Esther foils the plan, and wins permission from the king for the Jews to kill their enemies, and Mordecai becomes prime minister in Haman’s place.

In the late nineteenth century, some critics developed the theory that the Book of Esther was actually a story derived from Babylonian mythology, representing the triumph of the Babylonian deities Marduk and his goddess-spouse, Ishtar, over the deities of Elam. Esther is an Aramaic name for the goddess Ishtar. Mordecai means “servant of Marduk”—Marduk being another name for Bel, the chief god of the Babylonians. In 1923, Dr. Jacob Hoschander wrote The Book of Esther in the Light of History, in which he proposed that the events of the book occurred during the reign of Artaxerxes II, as part of a struggle between adherents of the still monotheistic Zoroastrianism, and those who wanted to bring back the Magian worship of Mithra and Anahita.

The biblical story forms the core of the Jewish festival of Purim, which James Frazer believed was derived from the Babylonian New Year festival.[19] Theodor Gaster also presents several theories for the origin of Purim in his volume Festivals of the Jewish Year. In one theory, Purim is asserted to date back to the Babylonian New Year Festival. On that day, the gods were believed to determine the fate of men by lot, and the Babylonian word for lot was puru. The description in the Book of Esther of the parade through the streets dressed in royal robes, the mock combat, and other happenings are similar to the Babylonian celebration of the New Year. According to Hayyim Schauss, Purim originally appeared among the Persian Jews and was adopted by them from their non-Jewish neighbors.[20] A very popular festival with both the Persian and Babylonian Jewry observed an annual festival that had the characteristics of a spring masquerade and was a festival of merriment, play, and pranks. Apparently, Jews also took part in this New Year celebration, and eventually the story of Esther had been invented to explain the celebration, and to turn it into a Jewish celebration.[21]

The rulers of Commagene could claim dynastical ties with both Alexander the Great and the Persian kings. The combined heritage found in Antiochus I (86 BC – 38 BC) of Commagene led to the assimilation of Mithras with the Greek Hercules, which marked the first early form of the Mithraic cult. Antiochus I of Commagene had supported Pompey against the Parthians, and in 64 BC was rewarded with additional territories. After submitting to Greek rule under the Seleucids, the Persian Empire eventually reemerged under the Parthians, a semi-nomadic people who, in the second century BC, arose from an area southeast of the Caspian Sea.  It was ruled by the Arsacids, who claimed descent from the Persian king Artaxerxes II. Through the conquests of Mithradates I and his brother Artabanus II in the second century BC, the Parthians established control over Iran and expanded westward into Mesopotamia. Antiochus I was able to deflect Roman attacks from Mark Antony, whom he eventually joined in the Roman civil war, but after Antony’s defeat to Augustus, Commagene was made a Roman client state.  This state of affairs signaled the beginning of the relationships that led to the transference of the Mithraic cult to Rome.

Antiochus is most famous for founding the sanctuary of Nemrut Dagi, an enormous complex on a mountain-top, featuring giant statues of the king surrounded by gods, each god being a synthesis of Greek and Persian gods, where Apollo is equated with Mithras, Helios and Hermes. The gods are flanked by the heraldic symbols of a lion and an eagle. Scholars dismiss the fact that this cult could represent an early form of Mithraism. However, Mithridates VI of Pontus (135 – 63 BC), also known as Mithridates the Great, who ruled between 120 and 63 BC, was allied to the pirates of Cilicia, a province bordering Commagene.

Mithradates, meaning “gift of Mithras,” was one of Rome’s most formidable and successful enemies, who engaged three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars: Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey. His demise is detailed in the play Mithridates of 1673 by Jean Racine, which formed the basis for many eighteenth-century operas, including one of Freemason Mozart’s earliest, known most commonly by its Italian name Mitridate, re di Ponto, written in 1770. When Mithradates VI was defeated by the Roman general Pompey the Great in 65 BC, in the last of a series of three Mithridatic Wars, remnants of his army took refuge among the Cilician pirates. In the middle of the second century AD, the historian Appian adds that the pirates came to know of the mysteries from the troops who were left behind by the defeated army of Mithridates VI.[22] Plutarch, who lived in the first century AD, maintained that these pirates were also responsible for transmitting the mysteries of Mithras to the Romans. According to Plutarch, these were the pirates who constituted such a threat to Rome until Pompey drove them from the seas. In his biography of this general, Plutarch writes of the pirates: “They brought to Olympus in Lycia strange offerings and performed some secret mysteries, which still in the cult of Mithras, first made known by them [the pirates]”.

As a youth, after the assassination of his father Mithridates V in 120 BC, Mithridates is said to have lived in the wilderness for seven years, to build his resistance to hardship. While there, and after his accession, he cultivated an immunity to poisons by regularly ingesting them in low doses.[23] He invented a complex “universal antidote” against poisoning, which Celsus in his De Medicina names Antidotum Mithridaticum, the basis of the English mithridate.[24] Pliny the Elder described it as comprising 54 ingredients to be placed in a flask and matured for at least two months. After Mithridates’ death in 63 BC, many Roman physicians claimed to have improved on the original formula, which they touted as Mithradatium. Mithridates’ anti-poison routines included a religious component, where they were supervised by the Agari, a group of Scythian shamans who never left him. Mithridates was also reportedly guarded in his sleep by a horse, a bull, and a stag, who would whinny, bellow, and bleat whenever anyone approached his royal bed.[25]

Mithradates VI’s daughter, Cleopatra of Pontus, married Tigranes II the Great (140 – 55 BC), King of Armenia. The medieval Armenian historian Moses of Khoren, wrote that Tigranes settled thousands of Jews from Syria and Mesopotamia in Armenian cities. It appears that some of these earliest Jewish settlers later converted to Christianity. Josephus wrote that Judean Jews were taken by Tigranes II’s son, Artavazd II (d. 31 BC), and resettled in Armenia, again during the first century BC, but some years after Tigranes’ resettlement.[26] Many Jews stayed in the area. Vassal kings appointed there by the Romans included the Herodians Tigranes IV (30s BC – 1 AD) and Tigranes V (16 BC – 36 AD) in Greater Armenia, and Aristobulus (55 – 60 BC) in the western borderland, or Lesser Armenia.[27]

Julio-Claudian Dynasty

The family of Herod were long-standing enemies of the emerging Christian movement. It was Herod the Great who was originally responsible for the “Massacre of the Innocents.” According to the Book of Matthew, after the birth of Jesus, the “wise men of the East,” meaning Magi, visited Herod to inquire about the birth of the “king of the Jews,” because they had seen his star in the east, referring to their purported skill as astrologers. Herod became alarmed at the potential threat to his power and sent the Magi to search for the child in Bethlehem. However, after they found Jesus, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod. When Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he ordered the slaughter of all boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. But Joseph as well was also warned in a dream and had fled with Mary and Jesus to Egypt, where the family stayed until Herod’s death, before moving to Nazareth in Galilee.

According to Mark 6:21–29, Salome, a daughter of Herodias danced before her uncle, Herod Antipas (20 BC – died after 39 AD), son of Herod the Great’s and his successor, at his birthday celebration, and in doing so gave her mother the opportunity to obtain the head of John the Baptist. Herodias was married to her cousin Herod II (ca. 27 BC – 33/34 AD), the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest. Although the New Testament accounts do not mention a name for the girl, this daughter of Herodias is often identified with Salome. Herod offered Salome a reward of her choice for performing a dance for his guests on his birthday. According to Mark's gospel, Herodias bore a grudge against John for stating that Herod's marriage to her was unlawful, persuaded her daughter to ask for John the Baptist’s head on a platter. Against his better judgment, Herod reluctantly acceded to her request.

Among those baptized by John was Jesus of Nazareth, who began his own ministry in Galilee, causing Herod Antipas, according to Matthew and Mark, to fear that John had been raised from the dead. According to Luke 13:31–33, a group of Pharisees warned Jesus that Antipas was plotting his death, whereupon Jesus denounced him as a “fox” and declared that he would not fall victim to such a plot because “it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was first brought before Pontius Pilate for trial, since Pilate was the governor of Roman Judea. On learning that Jesus was a Galilean and therefore under Herod's jurisdiction, Pilate sent him to Antipas. Antipas was pleased to see Jesus, hoping to see him perform a miracle, but when Jesus remained silent in the face of questioning, Antipas mocked him and sent him back to Pilate. Luke says that these events improved relations between Pilate and Herod despite their earlier enmity.

Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD), who ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 68 AD, was the first emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, followed by Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, until the last of the line, Nero. Augustus was a Julian through his adoption by his great-uncle, Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC). Caesar's enmity toward Pompey, who had conquered Jerusalem and defiled the Holy of Holies, led to a positive attitude toward him among the Jews.[28] In a series of decrees, Caesar instituted a new administration in Judea, permitted the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem, restored to Judea the port of Jaffa, and confirmed Hyrcanus II (d. 30 BC) and his descendants after him as high priests and ethnarchs of Judea. Caesar's settlement favored the continued rise of the House of Antipater I the Idumaean (113 or 114 BC – 43 BC), the founder of the Herodian Dynasty and father of Herod the Great. According to Suetonius, when Caesar was assassinated, he was mourned by the Jews more than by any other nation, and for a long time after they continued to weep over his tomb.[29]

The Julio-Claudian is so named because its members were drawn from the Julia and the Claudius family. Augustus commissioned the Roman poet Virgil (70 – 19 BC) to write the famous Latin epic, the Aeneid, which legitimized the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy. Modeled after Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and reach Italy, where his descendants Romulus and Remus were to found the city of Rome. Following the typical dying-god epics, Aeneas descends to the Underworld, and there he speaks with the spirit of his father and is offered a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome. Aeneas was the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus). Aeneas’ father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy, both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy. The Julia derived their name from Iulus, or Julus, also known as Ascanius, the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas. The name “Ascanius” is also thought to have been derived from Ashkenazi, or Ashkuza, the name given to the Scythians by the ancient Akkadians.[30] After the Trojan War, Ascanius escaped to Latium in Italy, and had a role in the founding of Rome as the first king of Alba Longa.

The Trojans were descended from Dardanus, a son of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra, one of the seven daughters of Atlas the Titan. Dardanus has sometimes been confused with a king of Scythis by the same name, who was the father of Idaea, the second wife of Phineus, the king of Salmydessus in Thrace. Idaea's husband was the blind seer Phineus, plagued by the Harpies, who was encountered by Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece, when they landed in Thrace. At least one translation of Josephus’ Antiquities, renders the name of Dara (Darda) as “Dardanos.”[31] Darda, or Dara, is listed in Genesis 38 as a son of Judah’s son Zerah, the same Zerah who had received the scarlet thread upon his wrist. Roman and Greek legends claimed that Zeus was a son of Saturn, called Kronus, and according to Sanchuniathon, an ancient Phoenician historian, “Kronus, whom the Phoenicians called Israel, had a son Jehud.”[32]

Caligula (12 – 41 AD), an associate of Antiochus IV (17 – after 72 AD) the last king of Commagene, was influenced by the Babylonian or Mithraic tradition of worshipping the king as the embodiment of the sun-god, a cult which he tried to institute in the Roman Empire. A plan to place a statue of himself as Zeus in the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was halted only after the intervention of Caligula’s personal friend, Herod Agrippa (10 BC to 44 AD), the king of Judea. Herod Agrippa was the king named “Herod” in the Acts of the Apostles, in the Bible. He was the grandson of Herod the Great, and son of Aristobulus IV and Berenice and brother of Herodias. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12 (Acts 12:1–23), report that he persecuted the Jerusalem church, having James son of Zebedee killed and imprisoning Peter around the time of a Passover. Upon the assassination of Caligula in 41 AD, Agrippa’s advice helped to secure the ascension of Emperor Claudius (10 BC – 54 AD), who was the grandson of Mark Antony and Octavia, and who eventually made Herod Agrippa governor of Judea. In 54 AD, after the death of Claudius, he was succeeded by his great-nephew Nero (37 – 68 AD), the last of the Julio-Claudian line.

After Claudius’ death, and during political strife within Armenia, the Parthian king Vologases I, the great-great-grandson of Antiochus I of Commagene, placed his own brother Tiridates I on the Armenian throne.  This invariably led to war, since it was Rome, and not Parthia who held the right of Armenian succession.  Over the next several years, Roman legions, led by the general Corbulo, invaded Armenia and the two powers fought a virtual stalemate. From 59 to 63 AD, the Romans installed Tigranes VI as King of Armenia. Tigranes was the son of Alexander, the grandson of Herod the Great. His mother was the great-granddaughter of Mark Antony and Antonia. But like his father and paternal uncle, and his own son, Tigranes was an apostate to Judaism. Tigranes VI’s son was Alexander of Cilicia, who married Iotape of Commagene, the daughter of Antiochus IV.

By AD 63, however, a peace treaty was negotiated in which Tiridates would lay down his crown, hence surrendering the Parthian right to place him on the throne, but it was agreed that he would travel to Rome where Nero himself would give him the throne under Roman authority.  At the coronation Tiridates declared that he had come “in order to revere you [Nero] as Mithras.”[33] In the same visit, according to Pliny, Tiridates “the Magus” brought Magi with him and “initiated him [Nero] into magical feasts [mystery rites].”[34]

Along with the Commagene and Julio-Claudian dynasties, a third line would be introduced into this mix, which would feature in not only the creation of Mithraism, but also its incorporation into Christianity. That dynasty was the hereditary priest-kings of Emesa, today Homs in Syria. Emesa was renowned for its Temple of the Sun, the place of worship of the god El-Gebal (or Elagabalus, a derivation of Baal), who was adored in the shape of a black stone. Herod Agrippa II, (AD 27/28 – c. 92 or 100), the son of Herod Agrippa, gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, King of Emesa. She had previously been married to Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus I of Commagene. However, Herod had stipulated that Epiphanes should embrace the Jewish religion, but Epiphanes finally refused. Azizus, in order to obtain Drusilla’s hand, consented to be circumcised. She later divorced him though, in order to marry Antonius Felix, the Procurator of Judea. Herod Agrippa II had an intimate friendship with the historian Josephus, having supplied him with information for his history, Antiquities of the Jews.

Roger Beck attributes the formulation of the Mithraic cult to the father-in-law of Epiphanes, Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, a descendant of Antiochus I of Commagene, and a court astrologer to the Roman emperors Claudius, Nero and Vespasian. Balbillus had also been a prefect of Egypt, and served as head of the Museum and Library of Alexandria. Balbilus accompanied Claudius on his expedition to Britain in 43 AD in a military capacity. When a comet had passed across the sky in either 60 or 64, signaling the death of a great personage, Balbilus tried to calm Nero’s fears by noting that the usual solution was to murder prominent citizens, thus appeasing the Gods. Nero agreed, killing many nobles.[35] Balbilus has two further namesakes among the Emesene priest-kings of Elagabalus in Rome, Tiberius Julius Balbillus and his relative, Titus Julius Balbillus, who lived in the second half of the second century and the third century AD.[36]

The families of the Mithraic bloodline also contributed to the Roman attempt to suppress a Jewish revolt, which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem. Under Roman occupation, though rebellion had been sporadic, disturbances among the Jews of Palestine were frequent. In 67 AD, the future Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus arrived with the Fifteenth Apollonian Legion, which had fought against the Parthians in Armenia, and captured Galilee. Jerusalem fell in 70 AD, when according to Josephus, 97,000 Jews were taken captive.[37] Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple itself was sacked, and the sacred contents of the Holy of Holies were carried back to Rome.

The Fifteenth Apollonian Legion (Legio XV Apollinaris) was originally formed by Julius Caesar in 53 BC, but was destroyed in Africa. It was again founded in 41/40 BC, by Caesar’s heir Octavian (Augustus), who chose the name Apollinaris, because he worshipped Apollo above all other gods. Following its campaign against the Jewish Revolt, the Apollonian Legion then accompanied Titus to Alexandria, where they were joined by new recruits from Cappadocia. It seems to have been a curious mix of these several elements, and after the Legion had been transported to Germany, which erected their first temple dedicated to Mithras on the banks of the Danube.[38]

The Romans’ allies in suppressing the Jewish Revolt had also included, not only Herod Agrippa, and Antiochus VI of Commagene, but also Sohaemus of Emesa, the brother to Gaius Julius Azizus, who was the first husband of the Herodian Princess Drusilla. In addition, as noted by Roger Beck, Commagenian military elements under royal command were also engaged in the suppression of the Jewish Revolt, and they would have been in extensive contact with Roman legionary and other troops, including those units identified among the earlier carriers of the new mystery cult, like the Fifteenth Apollonian. Therefore, according to Beck, “…the Mysteries of Mithras were developed within a subset of these Commagenian soldiers and family-retainers and were transmitted by them at various points of contact to their counterparts in the Roman world.”[39]

According to Roman historian Cassius Dio, after the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD the worship overseen by the High Priest ceased. The Temple Mount was covered over with rubble and a pagan temple dedicated to Jupiter was built when Hadrian (76 – 138 AD) became Caesar. Hadrian installed two statues on the mount: one of Jupiter and another of himself. In addition, Hadrian expelled the Jews from Jerusalem altogether, only allowing them into the city on the fast of Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the lunar month of Av), a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and the Second Jewish Temples. This appears to have caused a second Jewish revolt with the intent of recapturing Jerusalem and restoring the Temple. In response, Rome sent six full legions with auxiliaries and elements from up to six additional legions, which finally managed to crush the revolt. According to Josephus, the siege of Masada, a large hilltop in current-day Israel, by Roman troops from 73 to 74 AD, at the end of the First Jewish-Roman War, ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Sicarii rebels who were hiding there.

Saint Paul

Christianity was originally a Jewish reform movement. As Jesus himself affirmed, in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Christianity only became a new religion when it was transformed into a variation of the mystery cults by Saint Paul (c. 5 – c. 64 or 67). Paul came into conflict with Jesus’ immediate followers, who composed the Early Church of Jerusalem. Also known as Nazarenes, they were headed by James, the “brother of the Lord,” and strictly followed the laws of orthodox Judaism. Paul’s rejection of Jewish law was mainly concerned with the requirement of circumcision. Robert Eisenman, a well-known expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, speculates that in pushing forward this issue, Paul was acting in the service of the House of Herod, for whom circumcision was a particular impediment to expanding dynastic alliances with non-Jewish families.

According to Eisenman, a series of events form part of several suspicious instances that seem to reinforce the point that Paul, originally named Saul, was an agent of the House of Herod.[40] Eisenman also points out that there is reference in Josephus to a member of the Herodian family named “Saulus,” which was not a common name in the period. This Saulus is not only the intermediary between “the men of Power [the Herodians], the principal of the Pharisees, the chief priests, and all those desirous for peace,” in other words, peace with the Romans, but Josephus also describes him as “a kinsman of Agrippa.” Likewise, in Romans 16:11 Paul writes, “Greet Herodion, my kinsman.”

Bertil Gärtner traces the parallels between the masonic imagery of Saint Paul’s teaching and the Essene texts, noting that Paul likened himself to “a skilled master-builder” who “laid the foundations of this spiritual edifice.”[41] The Gospel of John features numerous Gnostic influences, and according to Timo Eskola in Messiah and the Throne: Jewish Merkabah Mysticism and Early Exaltation Discourse, Christian theology and discourse was also influenced by early Kabbalistic mysticism. Hyam Maccoby in The Mythmaker proposes that Paul synthesized Judaism, Gnosticism and mysticism to create Christianity as a cosmic savior religion. Alan Segal and Daniel Boyarin regard Paul’s accounts of his conversion experience and his ascent to the heavens as the earliest first-person accounts of a Merkabah mystic in Jewish or Christian literature. In Paul the Convert, Segal shows that Paul makes extensive use of the language of Merkabah, such as purporting that believers will be changed into Christ’s likeness, as believed by the Jewish mystics, for whom seeing the Glory of God prepared the way for the transformation into his image.

Valentinus, head of the Valentinians, chief among the early Gnostic sects, claimed that he received from Theudas, a disciple of Paul, initiation into a secret doctrine of God. This secret wisdom, which Paul taught to only a select few, revealed that God, the one whom most Christians ignorantly worship as creator, is in reality only the image of the true God. According to Valentinus, the orthodox preachers mistakenly ascribed to God what actually applies only to the Demiurge.[42] Whoever achieves this gnosis is ready to receive the secret sacrament called redemption, meaning “release,” or freedom from moral obligation. Elaine Pagels points out in The Gnostic Paul:

Instead of repudiating Paul as their obstinate opponent, the Naassenes and Valentinians revere him as the one of the apostles who, above all others, was himself a Gnostic initiate.  The Valentinians, in particular, allege that their secret tradition offers direct access to Paul’s own teaching of wisdom and gnosis.  According to Clement “they say that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas, and Theudas, in turn, a disciple of Paul.”[43]

Paul understood the resurrected Jesus as a mystical figure, the Archetypal Man. The original man, or Archetypal Man, formed before the human or earthly man, is the true image of God, the beginning of creation and the Lord of it. Paul says:

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living soul”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.[44]

The hidden wisdom of Paul is related to the secret mystery of Sophia, that is, to the passion, fall, and restoration of Sophia, the pattern for the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ:

However, we speak wisdom [Sophia] among them that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this age [Aeon], nor of the Archons of this age, that come to naught; But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before [in the presence] of the Aeons [Divine Beings dwelling with the Father in the Pleroma] unto glory; which none of the Archons of this age knew for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.[45]

Aeons has many meanings in Greek, including age, space, or a spiritual being governing a vast space or dimension either in the heavens (Pleroma) or below. According to the Valentinian school of theology, which inherited its teaching from Paul, the Aeon of this Cosmos refers to a usurper god, called the Demiurge, the evil creator god, the Bible’s Yahweh. Valentinian theologians claimed that, according to Paul, portions of the Mosaic code and the Old Testament contained ordinances which derived from a usurper god and not from the Highest God, whom they identified as the Father of Jesus. Archon is the Greek word for ruler, and the “power of the air” is identified with the devil by Valentinians. The Archon was known in the first and second century under many names, including Ialdabaoth, Saclas or Sammael.

Suspiciously, after Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and rescued from a plot against his life, the local Roman chiliarch transferred him to Caesarea, where he stood trial before Antonius Felix, the Procurator of Judea, who was also closely associated with the Herodians. Felix had married Drusilla after she had divorced Azizus. Felix, who was reputed to be a very cruel and lustful man, was originally a slave, but was manumitted and promoted by Caesar, and appointed governor of Judea in 52 AD, where he stayed in office until 58 AD. Felix had first been married to another Drusilla, the daughter of King Ptolemy of Mauretania, the grandson of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, before the later Drusilla. In service to Felix, this Drusilla had been convinced to leave her husband by the notorious Simon Magus who was a Samaritan sorcerer and a convert to Christianity, considered the first of the Gnostics, baptized by Philip the Evangelist, whose later confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts.[46]

Following an unsuccessful conspiracy among forty Jews to assassinate Paul, the Romans hustled him away in the night, accompanied by two hundred soldiers, to Felix in Caesarea. Before Felix, Paul was merely asked from which province he had come. Five days later, members of the Sanhedrin appeared, and made charges, which Paul denied.[47] Felix delayed the proceeding further until Claudius Lysias, the captain of the Roman troops in Jerusalem, could come to give evidence. After a few days, Felix’s wife, Drusilla, the Jewess, wanted to see and hear Paul.  Paul appeared and gave the gospel to Felix and Drusilla. Felix trembled but was unrepentant. Felix and Drusilla would later on frequently send for Paul and talk with him. Felix wanted a bribe from Paul so did not acquit him. Felix kept Paul a prisoner in Caesarea, under loose house arrest, for two years until the arrival of Festus, the new governor. Festus arranged for Paul to present his case to Herod Agrippa II and his sister Berenice, before whom Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to “appeal unto Caesar.” Finally, Paul and his companions sailed for Rome where Paul was to stand trial for his alleged crimes.

Eisenmen makes note that it is very unlikely that Paul could have made the miraculous escapes without the support of the Herodians and their Roman sponsors.  As in, for example, the attack on Paul in the Temple, and his rescue by Roman soldiers witnessing these events from the Fortress of Antonia.[48]  This episode, too, makes mention of a nephew and possibly a sister of Paul, resident in Jerusalem, but also presumably carrying Roman citizenship, who warn him of a plot by “zealots for the Law” to kill him. Without this kind of intervention, Paul could never have enjoyed the protection he does in Caesarea, and retired to Rome in such security. According to several Church Fathers and apocryphal books, Paul was beheaded in Rome by orders of Nero.

Mithraism

The mystery cults of Greco-Roman antiquity included the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Dionysian Mysteries, and the Orphic Mysteries. Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Though Mithraism was inspired by Persian worship of Mithra, and a cult attributed to Zoroaster, the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debated. The mysteries, which appear to have had its center in Rome, were popular among the Roman military from about the first to the fourth century AD, and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far north as Roman Britain, and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.

Worshippers of Mithras, who have often been compared to an early form of Freemasonry, had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those “united by the handshake.” They met in underground temples, now called mithraea, which survive in large numbers. The iconic scenes of mithraea show Mithras wearing a Phrygian cap and being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. Three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The two torch-bearers are on either side, dressed like Mithras, Cautes with his torch pointing up and Cautopates with his torch pointing down. Mithras is often paired with the goddess Anahita. Other figures include Saturn and Jupiter, and symbols of the constellations of the Zodiac are very prominent. Following the slaughter of the bull, Mithras banquets on the flesh of the Bull with the Sun-god Helios, with whom he ascends to the sky riding his chariot drawn by four horses.

Though scholars have not readily accepted Speidel’s theory that Mithras is the constellation Orion. In support of his theory, Speidel points out that Manilius proclaims for Orion: “under him as their leader the constellations orbit through all of the sky.”[49] As well, according to Porphyry—who wrote On the Cave of the Nymphs, outlining beliefs which he associated with the Mysteries of Mithras—“…Mithras is placed near the celestial equator, comprehending the northern parts on his right, and the southern on his left hand.”[50] Orion, the dog, the raven, the cup, the snake and the ears of corn were the constellations along the equator between Taurus and Scorpio. The animals surrounding the scene represent the evil creatures, Ahriman swallowing up the life-giving energies issuing from the Bull, as well as the four elements. A raven hovers above, a snake slithers nearby, a scorpion attacks the bull’s genitals, and a dog leaps at the bull’s wound. In some cases, a lion is added to the scenery, and the serpent slithers towards the cup. The torchbearers, associated with Taurus and Scorpio, are related to the summer and winter.[51]

While they purportedly derived from the Zoroastrian Magi, the Mysteries of Mithras, as practiced during the Roman period, also borrowed from the philosophy of Plato in the development of its rites and symbols. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

The myth was interpreted by the Roman Mithraists in terms of Platonic philosophy. The sacrifice took place in a cave, an image of the world, as in the simile of the cave in Plato’s Republic. Mithra himself was equated with the creator (demiurge) of the Timaeus: he was called “demiurge and father of all things,” like the Platonic demiurge. The four elements, the mixing bowl, the creation of Time, and the attack of the wicked animals upon the newborn creature are well-known features of the Timaeus. The Mithraic doctrine of the soul is intimately linked with the myth of creation and with Platonic philosophy. As in the Timaeus, the soul of man came down from heaven. It crossed the seven spheres of the planets, taking on their vices (e.g., those of Mars and of Venus) and was finally caught within the body. The task of man is to liberate his divine part (the soul) from the shackles of the body and to reascend through the seven spheres to the eternal, unchanging realm of the fixed stars. This ascension to the sky was prefigured by Mithra himself, when he left the earth in the chariot of the sun god.[52]

Mithraism seems to have been a combination of Zurvanite Zoroastrianism and Chaldean astrology, centered around the worship of Mithras, who, through his assimilation to Bel, became a dying god. Therefore, he was associated with the return of fertility in the spring, as represented in the most common scene of Mithraism, where Mithras is depicted slaying a bull, out of which sticks of wheat are seen to issue from its tail and from its wound. Essentially, Mithras is a saviour-figure who, after the great conflagration of the world, at the end of a Great Year, re-creates the cosmos through the sacrifice of the Bull. The slaying of the bull was also known to the Avesta, where, at the end of time, Saoshyant, the Zoroastrian saviour, assists the Good in its conquest over Evil. When the dead rise from their graves, according to the Bundahishn, the saviour will slay the magnificent bull, and serve mankind an ambrosia mixed from its fat and the juice of the Haoma.[53]

Commonly, in Mithraic iconography, the tail of the bull ends in ears of corn, from its blood springs forth the first ears of grain and the grape, and from its genitals issued the holy seed which was received by a mixing bowl. The cup, or mixing bowl, is the constellation Crater, and the sacred bowl of the mysteries, from which the initiate drinks the intoxicating wine, or the blood of the god, in order to imbibe the knowledge of hidden things. Likewise, to the Dionysiacs and Orphics, Dionysus was the grapevine, and the Bacchanals received his divine nature in a cup.[54] The cup is the receptacle first outlined in Plato’s Timaeus, in which the four elements were mixed to create the universe. Furthermore, according to Macrobius:

Plato speaks of this in the Phaedo, and says that the soul is dragged back into body, hurried on by new intoxication, desiring to taste a fresh draught of the overflow of matter, whereby it is weighted down and brought back [to earth]. The cosmic Crater of Father Liber [Dionysus] is a symbol of this mystery; and this is what the ancients called the River of Lethe, the Orphics saying that Father Liber was Hylic Mind.[55]

The Dionysiac symbolism of the wine-cup, the sacred bowl carrying the blood of the god, familiar to Mithraism, and other mystical systems, had a strong presence in early Jewish synagogue art. As Edwin Goodenough pointed out, in his classic work, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, wine symbols were the most prominent of any kind, including vintage scenes, vines, bunches of grapes, the wine cup or the cup as a fountain, and therefore, “…it was plain that we had a great amount of Jewish art from the period, and that this art was elaborately Dionysiac, had indeed the same vocabulary of Dionysiac borrowing as that used by the early Christians.”[56] The central image of the ancient synagogues was composed of a circle of the zodiac, containing segmented rings within squares, with figures representing the seasons in the corners, and in the center, Helios riding a chariot drawn by four horses.

Celsus, a Roman writer of the second century AD, compared the system of Mithraism to Plato’s belief that souls ascend through the planets. Thus, Celsus explained:

These truths are obscurely represented by the teaching of the Persians and by the mystery of Mithras which is of Persian origin. For in the latter there is a symbol of the two orbits in heaven, the one being that of the fixed stars and the other that assigned to the planets, and of the soul’s passage through these. The symbol is this. There is a ladder with seven gates and at its top an eighth gate. The first of the gates is of lead, the second of tin, the third of bronze, the fourth of iron, the fifth of an alloy, the sixth of silver, and the seventh of gold. They associate the first with Kronos (Saturn), taking lead to refer to the slowness of the star; the second with Aphrodite (Venus), comparing her with the brightness and softness of tin; the third with Zeus (Jupiter), as the gate that has a bronze base and which is firm; the fourth with Hermes (Mercury), for both iron and Hermes are reliable for all works and make money and are hard-working; the fifth with Ares (Mars), the gate which as a result of the mixture is uneven and varied in quality; the sixth with the Moon as the silver gate; and the seventh with the Sun as the golden gate, these metals resembling their color.[57]

The alchemical process of creating the philosophers’ stone, to Zosimos “is the Mithraic Mystery, the incommunicable Mystery.”[58] Essentially, the alchemists employed the language of chemical procedures as allegory. Converting lead into gold implied the purification of the soul by removing successive levels of impurity, beginning with lead, which, according to the Mithraic system described by Celsus, is the first gate, the planet Saturn, then ascending through the six other planets, culminating in the Sun, symbolized by gold. Thus, as Lindsay maintained, explaining alchemy according to the system popularized by Numenius, “the soul in its ascent was thought to give back the qualities it had absorbed at each stage of its descent. Thus each halt was a sort of transmutation in terms of the relevant metal; after the seventh change came the absorption into the luminous bliss of the eighth sphere. Having come down from Ahura Mazda’s presence by the low gate of the Crab, the soul went up by the lofty gate of Capricorn.”[59]

Origen, who had at his disposal diagrams of the Ophites, was able to confirm Celsus’ comparison of the seven archons of the Ophite Gnostics with the teachings of Mithraism. The first four forms approximate the four creatures of the vision of Ezekiel. The first is in the shape of a lion and equated with the Archangel Michael, the second is a bull equated with Suriel, the third was a serpent that “hissed dreadfully” and was equated with Raphael, and the fourth is in the form of an eagle and is equated with Gabriel.[60]

The highest secret of the mysteries, according to Cumont, is the identity of Mithras as the Leontocephalus, a lion-head figure with two sets of wings, and cloven feet, standing on a globe with two intersecting circles, and entwined by a serpent. The imagery is a combination of the “creatures” of Ezekiel’s vision of the Throne of God. Ultimately, reserved for the highest ranking members of the mysteries, and representing the ultimate mystery, the Leontocephalus represented Saturn, who was equated with Mithras, Zurvan and Ahriman, Phanes and Hades—the god of the underworld—all as one god. Macrobius recorded that, according to Orpheus: “one Zeus, one Hades, one Sun, one Dionysus.”[61] And according to Ptolemy, the people of Persia and Mesopotamia “worship the star of Aphrodite [Venus], naming it Isis, and the star of Kronos [Saturn] as Mithras Helios.”[62] Saturn was also worshipped as Zurvan among the ancient heretical Zoroastrian Magi, known as the “nocturnal Sun,” and equated with Chronos.[63] “Pluto,” the Roman equivalent of Hades, Porphyry explained, “is the Sun going beneath the earth and voyaging round the invisible world…”[64] In the Mysteries of Mithras, like in alchemy, Saturn was represented by lead, where the ascent of the mystic—or his transmutation—began, and which ended with union with the “Sun,” equated with the dying-god, or Lucifer. [65]

Son of God

Despite the fact that early Christians rejected the teachings of Gnosticism as heresy, many of its ideas were eventually absorbed into the mainstream Church. Christianity emerged at a time when the mysteries were at the height of their popularity, and though it rejected paganism outwardly, it absorbed several of its concepts, derived ultimately from the mysteries, rationalized by the early Church Fathers through their adherence to Neoplatonic philosophy. According to Anthony Buzzard, “the mingling of Hebrew and Greek thinking was set in motion first in the second century by an influx of Hellenism through the Church Fathers, whose theology was colored by the Platonists Plotinus and Porphyry.”[66] Essentially, as scholars have noted, traditional Christian orthodoxy, though claiming to derive its doctrine from authentic sources, is actually an amalgam of Biblical themes and Neoplatonism.[67]

The rationalization of Christianity with Platonic philosophy was initiated by Justin Martyr (c. 100 – c. 165). Justin’s conversion however, did not mean the abandonment of philosophical inquiry. On the contrary, he viewed Christianity as the “true philosophy.” The transcendent incomprehensible God of Plato is the God of the Bible, and he surmised that the Jewish scriptures must have been made available to Plato and the Greeks philosophers. The influence of Platonic philosophy becomes apparent in Justin Martyr’s theology. He uses the concept of the divine Logos to explain how the transcendent Father of all deals with the inferior, created order of things. The Son-Logos is necessary to mediate between the supreme Father and the material world. The divine Logos inspired the prophets and was present in Jesus Christ. Justin insists that the Logos is “other than” the Father, derived from the Father in a process which does not diminish the being of the Father, but in a manner in which one torch may be lit from another.

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215 AD), the great opponent of Gnosticism, was confident that, because God had planted the seeds of truth in all men, there is much to be learned from Platonic metaphysics, from Stoic ethics, and from Aristotelian logic. There is little significant information about Clement’s early life. Clement was converted to Christianity by his last teacher, reputedly a former Stoic philosopher, and the first recorded president of the Christian catechetical school at Alexandria. Clement succeeded his mentor as head of the school and became the intellectual leader of the Alexandrian Christians. He drew heavily on Philo, and followed both Philo and Justin Martyr, in claiming that the Greek philosophers plagiarized their teaching from Moses.[68]

Clement’s successor as head to the catechetical school of Alexandria was Origen (c. 184 – c. 253), who, according to Porphyry, had attended lectures given by Ammonius Saccas, the teacher of Plutarch and Plotinus. Origen wrote a work entitled Stromateis in which he attempted to interpret Christian concepts in Platonic language. To Origen, God first created not the material world, but a realm of spiritual beings endowed with reason and free will and dependent on the Creator. To explain the Fall, he borrowed an idea from Philo of Alexandria, and suggested that the spiritual beings became “sated” with the adoration of God, and fell by neglect, gradually turning away from God to what is inferior. The material world was brought into being as a result of this Fall.

The trinity was adopted into Christianity through the philosophy of Philo of Alexandria, whose formulation of the Logos, or the “Word,” as an intermediary between God and creation, equated with Mithras, helped to lay the groundwork for Neoplatonism, Gnosticism as well as the philosophical framework of the early Christian Fathers. In anticipation of the Christian doctrine, Philo called the Logos the First-Begotten Son of God, the man of God, the image of God, and second to God. As Philo had described, the one transcendent God was beyond the reach of mere man, therefore, the need for a mediator between God and man, and thus Christ was interpreted as the Logos. The fourth gospel of the New Testament, the Gospel of John, also known as the Gnostic Gospel, refers to Jesus as the “Word,” translated from the Greek Logos: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”[69] Later it states: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”[70]

Effectively, Jesus became the dying god of the mysteries, whose death and resurrection was celebrated every spring, known as Easter. Most of the churches had decided to observe Easter replacing the Jewish Passover. Easter, from the Greek Eorestes, or Astarte, the festival of death and resurrection, was made to coincide with the spring rites of other contemporary cults and mystery schools. The death and resurrection of Attis was officially celebrated at Rome on the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of March, the latter being regarded as the spring equinox, and therefore as the most appropriate day for the revival of the god of fertility who had been dead or sleeping throughout the winter. Similarly, other Christian holidays were assimilated to pagan festivals. The festival of St. George in April replaced the ancient pagan festival of the Parilia. The festival of St. John the Baptist in June has supplanted a Midsummer festival of water. The festival of the Assumption of the Virgin in August has ousted the festival of Diana, and the feast of All Souls in November is a continuation of an old heathen feast of the dead.

Christian authors, like Justin Martyr and Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220 AD), noted the similarities between Christianity and the mysteries but claimed that the mysteries were demonically inspired imitations of the true Christianity.  The Eucharist was modeled was an adaptation of the cannibalism mysteries, where the cup of the Last Supper is the mixing bowl or cup of the Mithraic and Dionysian mysteries which holds the blood of the god. Originally mentioned in Plato’s Timaeus, the cup is found in the Chaldean Oracles, a Neoplatonic text of the second century AD, and is equated with the Monad in the Corpus Hermeticum, and Zosimus in the fifth century refers to it as the symbol of spiritual baptism or initiation. To Justin Martyr: “Jesus took bread, and… said, “this do ye in remembrance of me, this is my body”; and, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “this is my blood”; and gave it to them… Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithra, commanding the same thing to be done.”[71]

Saturnalia

The later Roman Empire celebrated the Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus, the “Nativity of the Unconquerable Sun,” on December 25. It was preceded by the Roman festival of the Saturnalia, which according to James Frazer, was an accommodation of a more ancient Babylonian ritual of Zagmuk.[76] The Roman playwright Accius (170 – c. 86 BC) traced the Saturnalia to the ancient Greek festival of the Kronia, dedicated to Cronus.[77] The Saturnalia underwent a major reform in 217 BC, after the Romans suffered one of their most crushing defeats by Carthage during the Second Punic War. Until then, the holiday was celebrated according to Roman custom (Mos maiorum). After consulting the Sibylline books, “Greek rite” (sacra Greaco ritu) or “Greek cults” (Greaca sacra) were adopted, introducing sacrifices, the public banquet, and shouts of “io Saturnalia” that characterized the celebration.[78]

According to the Roman tradition, the oldest collection of Sibylline books, not be confused with the Sibylline Oracles, were compiled about the time of Solon and Cyrus at Gergis on Mount Ida in the Troad. From Gergis the collection passed to Erythrae, where it became famous as the oracles of the Erythraean Sibyl. It would appear to have been this very collection that found its way to Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, and from Cumae to Rome. The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae. Because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl in the legends of Rome’s origins as codified in Virgil’s Aeneid, the Cumaean Sibyl became the most famous among the Romans. The story of how the Sibylline Books were acquired by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, Tarquinius Priscus, the legendary fifth king of Rome who reigned from 616 to 579 BC, is one of the famous mythical elements of Roman history. The books were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, where they were consulted only in times of emergency. The Emperor Augustus had them moved to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, where they remained for most of the remaining Imperial Period.

In the Saturnalia of Macrobius, the proximity of the Saturnalia to the winter solstice leads to an exposition of solar monotheism, the belief that the Sun (Sol Invictus) ultimately encompasses all divinities as one.[79] The Saturnalia, which is the source of Christmas, was celebrated in honor of Saturn, the origin of Santa.74 The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves. A common custom was the election of a “King of the Saturnalia,” who would give orders to people and preside over the merrymaking. However, as reported by James Frazer, there was a darker side to the Saturnalia. In Durostorum on the Danube, Roman soldiers would choose a man from among themselves to be the Lord of Misrule for thirty days, after which his throat was cut on the altar of Saturm.[80]

Sol Invictus

Julia Domna, daughter of Julius Bassianus, the priest-king of Emesa, who was descended from Gaius Julius Alexio, the son of Sohaemus of Emesa and Drusilla of Mauretania, married Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (145 – 211 AD), founding the Severan dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235, during the Roman imperial period. In approximately 217 AD, Philostratus composed the Life of Apollonius at the request of Julia Domna, who possessed documents belonging to Damis of Nineveh, a disciple and companion of Apollonius of Tyana. Septimius Severus was succeeded by his son Caracalla (188 – 217 AD). But, in 217 AD, Caracalla was killed and Macrinus (c. 165 – 218) ascended to the imperial throne. His cousin, Julia Soaemias, the daughter of Julia Domna’s sister, Julia Maesa, would not allow the usurper to stand unopposed. Together with her mother Julia, she plotted to substitute Macrinus with her son, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who appropriated the name Elagabalus. In 218 AD, Macrinus was killed, and Elagabalus (c. 204 –222 AD) became emperor. Elagabalus replaced Jupiter, head of the Roman pantheon, with the cult of Sol Invictus, which was harmonized with the cult of Mithras. Herodian (c. 170 – c. 240) relates that Elagabalus forced senators to watch while he danced around his deity's altar to the sound of drums and cymbals, and at each summer solstice celebrated a great festival.[81] Herodian’s description strongly suggests that the cult of Emesa was inspired by the Babylonian Akitu festival.[82] Their rule was not popular, and soon discontent arose, as Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for eccentricity, decadence, and zealotry.

Elagabalus was succeeded by his cousin, Severus Alexander (208 – 235 AD), the last Roman emperor of the Severan dynasty. Alexander and Elagabalus were both grandsons of Julia Maesa, the sister of empress Julia Domna. Severus Alexander’s death by his own troops in 235 erupted the Crisis of the Third Century, a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under a series of rebellions. By 268, the Roman Empire split into three competing states: Roman Empire proper, the Gallic Empire and the Palmyrene Empire, which encompassed the Roman provinces of Syria Palaestina, Arabia Petraea, and Egypt, as well as large parts of Asia Minor. The Palmyrene Empire was ruled by another descendant of the Priest-Kings of Emesa, Queen Zenobia, (c. 240 – c. 274 AD)—also a descendant of Gaius Julius Alexio—officially as regent for her son Vaballathus, who inherited the throne in 267.

St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (c. 328 – 373), reported her as being “a Jewess follower of Paul of Samosata.”[83] Paul of Samosata, the capital of Commagene, was known as a “Judaizer” and St. Athanasius also accused him of wanting to introduce Judaism into Christianity. But Paul of Samosata’s Jewish influence was of a heretical variety, and likely derived from the Kabbalah, as he inspired the Gnostic sect of the Paulicians, who believed in a distinction between the God who created and governs the material world, and the “God of heaven” who created souls, and who alone should be worshipped—in other words, Lucifer. Therefore, like all Gnostic sects before them, they thought all matter to be corrupt. For the Paulicians, Christ was an angel sent into the world by their “God.” Jesus’ real mother was not the Virgin Mary, but the heavenly Jerusalem, an idea derived from the “Shekhina” of the Kabbalah. Because they claimed that Jesus taught that only to believe in him saves men from judgment, their enemies accused them constantly of gross immorality, even at their prayer-meetings.

Emperor Aurelian (214 – 275), whose reign lasted from 270 AD until his death, and whose successes were instrumental in ending the Crisis of the Third Century following his victory over the Palmyrene Empire, thoroughly reformed the Roman cult of Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the Empire. Aurelian dedicated a large temple to Sol Invictus in Rome, bringing the total number of temples for the god in Rome to at least four. Most scholars consider the cult to be of Syrian origin, either a continuation of the cult of Sol Invictus Elagabalus, or Malakbel (“Angel of Bel”) of Palmyra, as Malakbel was frequently identified with the Roman god Sol and bore the epithet Invictus.[84] Where until then priests of Sol had been simply sacerdotes and tended to belong to lower ranks of Roman society, they were now pontifices and a member of the senatorial elite.[85]

The creed of Jesus as Son and God was finally formalized and instituted as an orthodox tenet at the Council of Nicaea, which was personally summoned by Constantine on 325 AD. Constantine was the last in a long line of rulers belonging to the Mithraic bloodline, and a descendant of Septimius Severus. When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, he completed the project incepted by Herod the Great, to subvert the emerging Christian movement by corrupting it into disguised Mithras worship. The worship of Sol Invictus was continued by Constantine, who some think never converted to Christianity. In 321, Constantine instructed that Christians and non-Christians should be united in observing the venerable day of the Sun (Sunday), referencing the Sun-worship that Aurelian had established as an official cult. Constantine’s coinage continued to carry the symbols of the Sun. Even when Constantine dedicated the new capital of Constantinople, he did so wearing the Apollonian sun-rayed Diadem.

Genealogy of the Priest-Kings of Emesa

• Mithridates III of Commagene + Princess Iotapa of Media Atropatene

  • Aka II of Commagene + Thrasyllus of Mendes (astrologer and a personal friend of the Roman emperor Tiberius)

    • unnamed daughter + Eques Lucius Ennius.

      • Ennia Thrasylla + Naevius Sutorius Macro

    • Tiberius Claudius Balbilus (court astrologer to the Roman emperors Claudius, Nero and Vespasian) + unknown

      • Claudia Capitolina + Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes (see below)

  • Antiochus III of Commagene + Iotapa (his sister)

    • ANTIOCHUS IV OF COMMAGENE + Princess Iotapa of Commagene (full-blooded sister)

      • Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes + Claudia Capitolina (from a distinguished family. Only child of astrologer TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS BALBILUS)

        • Philopappos (friends with the Emperor Trajan and Trajan’s heir and second paternal cousin Hadrian)

        • Julia Balbilla (poet and personal friend to Emperor Hadrian and the Empress Vibia Sabina) + Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes

      • Julia Iotapa + Gaius Julius Alexander

        • Gaius Julius Agrippa + Fabia

          • Lucius Julius Gainius Fabius Agrippa

        • Gaius Julius Alexander Berenicianus + Cassia Lepida

          • Julia Cassia Alexandra + Gaius Avidius Heliodorus

            • Avidius Cassius + Volusia Vettia Maeciana

        • Julia Iotapa (Cilician princess)

  • Iotapa + Sampsiceramus II of Emesa (son of Sampsiceramus I, founding Priest-King of Emesa)

    • Iotapa + Aristobulus the Younger (grandson of HEROD THE GREAT)

    • Julia Mamaea + Polemon II of Pontus

      • Polemon

      • Rheometalces

    • Gaius Julius Azizus

    • Sohaemus of Emesa + Drusilla of Mauretania the Younger (daughter of Cleopatra and Antony)

      • Gaius Julius Alexion + Claudia Piso

        • Gaius Julius Sampsigeramus (III) Silas + Claudia Capitolina Balbilla

          • Gaius Julius Longinus Soaemus + daughter of Abgar VII

            • Julius (Noble) of Emesa

              • Tiberius Julius (Noble) of Emesa

                • Iamblichus (Noble) of Emesa

                  • Gaius Julius Sulpicius, Priest-King of Emesa

                    • Uranius Antoninus (rival-Emperor of Rome

                      • Julius Aurelius (rival-Emperor of ROME

                        • IAMBLICHUS (Neoplatonist philosopher)

            • Julius of Emesa + unknown

              • Gaius Julius Bassianus

                • JULIA DOMNA + Emperor Septimius Severus

                  • Emperor Caracalla + Fulvia Plautilla

                  • Emperor Geta (Caracalla tried unsuccessfully to murder him during the Saturnalia)

                  • Bassina + Claudius Gothicus

                    • Claudius Gothicus + Aurelia Pompeiana

                      • Claudia Crispina + Eutropius

                        • Constantius Chlorus + SAINT HELENA (daughter of "Old King Cole" according to both Geoffrey of Monmouth and Henry of Huntingdon)

                          • CONSTANTINE THE GREAT

                • JULIA MAESA + Gaius Julius Avitus Alexianus

                  • Julia Soaemias Bassiana + Sextus Varius Marcellus

                    • EMPEROR ELAGABALUS (head priest of the sun god Elagabal)

                      • Severus Alexander (adoptive)

                  • Julia Avita Mamaea + Malchus II, Governor of Palmyra (see below)

                  • Julia Avita Mamaea + Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus

                    • Emperor Severus Alexander (Julia Mamaea asked for Origen to tutor Alexander in Christianity)

                    • Marcus Julius Gessius Bassianus

        • Mamaea of Emesa + Malech, Governor of Palmyra

          • Zenobius, Governor of PALMYRA

            • Claudius JULIUS Nassus Basum, Governor of Palmyra

              • Malchus I, Governor of Palmyra

                • Malchus II, Governor of Palmyra + Julia Avita Mamaea (see above)

                  • Julius Aurelius Zenobius + Zabbai (of Arabia)

                    • ZENOBIA, Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria (patron of PAUL OF SAMOSOTA founder of PAULICIANISM)

Immediately before his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, in 312 AD, Constantine is said to have had a vision of a radiant cross suspended in the sky, upon which was inscribed, “by this sign you will conquer.” In response, Constantine ordered the shields of his troops emblazoned with the Christian monogram, known as the labarum, a wheel-shaped sign formed by the first two letters of the word Christos, an X (Chi) placed in front of P (Rho), the Greek letters Chi Rho. The letter Chi was used by the Greeks as a solar symbol, and the abbreviation of the Greek name for Saturn, Chronos, as was the wheel-shaped sign formed by the first two letters combined, an X (Chi) placed in front of P (Rho).[86] In Plato’s Timaeus, Chi symbolizes the intersection of the earthly and celestial equators, the “wheel inside a wheel” of Ezekiel’s vision and the Leontocephalus of Mithraism. This passage in the Timaeus, known as the psychogonia, was the source of much comment by the Neoplatonists and others, and Justin Martyr in his apologia, considered that Plato interpreted his Chi from the brazen serpents that Moses had erected as a sign in the form of a cross.[87]

The only explicit reference to a celebration of Sol in late December is made by Constantine’s nephew Roman Emperor Julian (331/332 – 363), called by Christians the Apostate, in his Hymn to King Helios, written immediately afterwards in early AD 363. In 361, Julian defied the Christianization begun by Constatine, and issued edicts that favored Roman cults and minimized the influence of Christianity, believing it necessary to restore the Empire’s ancient Roman values and traditions in order to save it from decline. In the Hymn to King Helios, which was inspired by the worship of Mithras, Julian tells Sallust to read the writings of Iamblichus, another descendant of the Priest-Kings of Emesa. Julian was also an ardent devotee of the Mithraic mysteries, to which he had been introduced by the philosopher Maximus of Ephesus. To Julian, Mithras was the Sun and one and the same with Apollo, Phaethon, Hyperion and Prometheus.[88] To his god he dedicated his Hymn to Helios, and introduced the cult to Constantinople, when simultaneously, the first taurobolia were celebrated at Athens. Referring to the Chaldean Oracles, Julian mentions the following, in what is generally regarded as one of his few allusions to the doctrine of the Mithraic Mysteries, “And if I should also touch on the secret teachings of the Mysteries in which the Chaldean, divinely frenzied, celebrated the God of the Seven Rays, that god through whom he lifts up the souls of men, I should be saying what is unintelligible, yea wholly unintelligible to the common herd, but familiar to the happy theurgists.”[89]

Julian’s support of Jews caused them to refer to him as “Julian the Hellene.”[90] In 363, not long before he left Antioch to launch his campaign against Persia, in keeping with his effort to oppose Christianity, Julian allowed the Jews to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem. The point was to invalidate Jesus’ prophecy about its destruction in 70 AD, which Christians had cited as proof of the truth of Jesus’ mission. Temple would revive the cult of sacrifice that had long been part of the Roman world while pagans ruled. In what the Christians perceived as a miracle, a great fire and earthquake destroyed the Temple’s foundations, bringing the project to an end, and for centuries afterwards was believed to be proof of Jesus’ divinity.[91]

Cerinthus

Historian Eusebius of Caesarea (260/265 – 339/340 AD) was commissioned by Constantine and given the responsibility of creating the first official Christian Bible and by 331 AD the first 50 bibles were created and delivered to the Churches of Constantinople. The Bibles did not contain the Book of Revelation. Until the time of Constantine, who used the book’s imperial imagery for self-promotion, the Book of Revelation was not accepted as part of the New Testament canon, and continued to be regarded with suspicion long after.[92] Revelation was the last book accepted into the Christian biblical canon, in 419 AD. It was considered tainted because of heretical sects’ interest in it, and doubts were raised over its Jewishness and authorship.

The Book of Revelation contains material related to the Merkabah mysteries, and harmonizes elements, as does Merkabah, from the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Isaiah.[93] Passages from apocalyptic texts, including Enoch and Jubilees, refer to the establishment of a “millennial kingdom” by a messianic figure, though the actual number of years given for the duration of the kingdom varied. The concept was likely influenced by Zoroastrianism, which describes history as occurring in successive thousand-year periods, each of which culminates in the final destruction of evil by a triumphant messianic figure, the Saoshyant, at the end of the last millennial age.[94]

In Revelation 4:6–8, four beasts that surround “the one” are seen in John’s vision, which appear as a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle, much as in the vision of Ezekiel. April D. DeConick has suggested that John may have drawn from the literature of Merkabah mysticism.[95] Comparing the creatures in Ezekiel with those in Revelation’s is a prominent apocalyptic study in Western Christianity.[96] William D. Mounce noted a belief that the living creatures may have been associated with the four principal signs of the zodiac.[97] The symbol of the combined four creatures is known as a tetramorph. The term is derived from the Greek tetra, meaning four, and morph, shape. In Christian art, the tetramorph is the union of the symbols of the Four Evangelists, derived from the four living creatures in the Book of Ezekiel, into a single figure or, more commonly, a group of four figures. Each of the four Evangelists is associated with one of the living creatures, usually shown with wings. The most common association, but not the original or only, is: Matthew the man, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, and John the eagle.

Traditionally, the writer of Revelation was widely considered to be John the Apostle, also known as Saint John, who was also seen as author of the Gospel of John. Most scholars however now agree that John of Revelation is neither the author of the Fourth Gospel nor the Apostle John.[98] Some have identified the author as John the Elder and many modern scholars believe it was written by an otherwise unknown author, to whom they have given the name John of Patmos. All that is known is that this John was a Jewish-Christian prophet, probably belonging to a group of such prophets, and was accepted by the congregations to whom he addresses his letter.

In the early fourth century AD, Eusebius listed the Book of Revelation among the spurious texts. Jewish historians have long considered the Book of Revelation to be a Jewish Apocalypse in a Christian redaction.[99] According to several studies including a review by Dr. James Tabor and Dr. J. Massyngberde Ford, the Book of Revelation contains ancient pre-Christian texts of Jewish origin dating back to the time of John the Baptist and the communities of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as antique Jewish texts. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, “John symbolized the call to repentance by Baptism in the Jordan (Matt. iii. 6 and parallel passages); and the same measure for attaining to holiness was employed by the Essenes, whose ways of life John also observed in all other respects.”[100]

Eastern Christians became skeptical of the book as their doubts were reinforced by its acceptance by Montanists and other groups considered to be heretical. Montanism was an early Christian movement of the late second century, named after its founder, Montanus. Some accounts claim that before his conversion to Christianity, Montanus was a priest of Apollo or Cybele.[101] Montanism was labelled a heresy for its belief in new prophetic revelations. Montanus believed he was a prophet of God and that the Paraclete spoke through him. Montanus had two female colleagues, Prisca and Maximilla, who likewise claimed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Their popularity even exceeded Montanus’ own.[102]

Eusebius, in his Church History (c. 330 AD) mentioned that the Apocalypse of John was accepted as a canonical book and rejected at the same time. Revelation is counted as both accepted and disputed, which has caused some confusion over what exactly Eusebius meant by doing so. The disputation can perhaps be attributed to Origen. Origen seems to have accepted it in his writings. Cyril of Jerusalem (348 AD) does not name it among the canonical books. Athanasius (367 AD), Augustine of Hippo (c. 397 AD), and Tyrannius Rufinus (c. 400 AD) all listed the Revelation of John the Evangelist as a canonical book.

Eusebius also reported that Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria and disciple of Origen, wrote that the Book of Revelation could have been written by Cerinthus, a gnostic who was widely considered a heretic by the early Church Fathers.[103] Cerinthus taught that Jesus would establish a thousand-year reign of sensuous pleasure after the Second Coming but before the Resurrection, a view that was declared heretical by the Council of Nicaea. The Alogi, a second or third-century heretical Christian sect alleged Cerinthus was the true author of the Gospel of John and Book of Revelation. Caius, a Christian author who lived about the beginning of the third century, mentioned by Hippolytus, stated that Revelation was a work of Cerinthus.[104] Early Christian tradition describes Cerinthus as a contemporary to and opponent of John the Evangelist, who may have written the Fourth Gospel to counter his heretical teachings.[105] Contrary to the Church Fathers, he used the Gospel of Cerinthus, and denied that the Supreme God made the physical world.

To Cerinthus, as is common in Gnostic thought, the God of the Bible is the creator of this world, and therefore, it is Lucifer who is the “Supreme God.” “Thus,” explained Albert Pike, “Cerinthus of Ephesus, with most of the Gnostics, Philo, the Kabbalah, the Zend-Avesta, the Puranas, and all the Orient, deemed the distance and antipathy between the Supreme Being and the material world too great, to attribute to the former the creation of the latter.” This “Oriental” tradition, which was found in the Book of Revelation, Pike further explained, formed the basis of the teachings preserved by Freemasonry.[106]

[1] Pike. Morals and Dogma, p. 321.

[2] G. Braswell. Islam – Its Prophets, People, Politics and Power (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1996). p. 14.

[3] Damascius. Life of Isodore; cited in Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, Jackson P. Hershbell, Iamblichus: De Mysteriis, (Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), p. xx.

[4] Seth Schwartz. “Herod to Florus.” The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 59–62.

[5] Edwin Goodenough. By LIght, Light: the Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism (New Have: Yale University Press, 1935). p. 8. 99

[6] Keith Schuchard. Restoring the Temple of Vision, p. 13

[7] David Patterson. Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins (Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 1.

[8] Louis H. Feldman. Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993), pp. 126–27.

[9] Louis H. Feldman. Studies in Hellenistic Judaism (Brill, 1996), p. 293.

[10] Josephus, Life and Work, pp. 471-75.

[11] Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews. xv. 10, § 4.

[12] “Temple,” EJ; and Flavius Josephus. The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston (1737; Philadelphia: J.C. Winston, 1957), pp. 471-75.

[13] Saul Lieberman. Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1956), pp. 164-66.

[14] Frederick Conybeare. Philo: About the Contemplative Life (Oxford: Clarendon, 1895), pp. 292-97.

[15] Roger Beck (1998). “The Mysteries of Mithras: A New Account of their Genesis,” Journal of Roman Studies, 115–128.

[16] Zoroastrians and Judaism, http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch08.htm

[17] Kevin Alan Brook. The Unexpected Discovery of the Vestiges of the Medieval Armenian Jews. Retrieved from http://www.sefarad.org/publication/lm/045/4.html

[18] Ibid.

[19] Rabbi Ronald H. Isaacs. “The History of Purim.” My Jewish Learning (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-origins/

[20] Theodor H. Gaster. Festivals of the Jewish Year: A Modern Interpretation and Guide (William Morrow & Co, 1961).

[21] Pseudo-Callisthenes. History of Greece II. 14

[22] B. C. McGing. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (Mnemosyne, Supplements: 89) (Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers, 1986), p. 43.

[23] Celsus. De Medicina, Book V, 23.3.

[24] Adrienne Mayor. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (New York, Overlook Duckworth, 2003), p. 148.

[25] Jonah Gabriel Lissner. Adiabene, Jewish Kingdom of Mesopotamia. Retrieved from: http://www.khazaria.com/adiabene/lissner1.html

[26] “Armenia.” Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/armenia

[27] “Julius Caesar.” Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/julius-caesar-x00b0

[28] Suetonius. Divus Iulius, 84.

[29] R.W.M. Vindication of the Mosaic Ethnology of Europe. Primitive or Japhetic Europe; its race, language and topography (Wertheim, Macintosh and Hunt, 1863), p. 15; An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time to the Present; Compiled from Original Authors and Illustrated with Maps, Cuts, Notes, Chronological and Other Tables, Volume 3 (Symon, 1738), p. 827.

[30] Josephus. Vol. 5: Antiquities: 8:2:5 (1926), pp. 593-595. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray.

[31] I.P. Cory. Cory's Ancient Fragments (London: Reeves & Turner 1876), pp. 21-22.

[32] Natural History 30.1.6

[33] Wars of the Jews, Book VI, Chap IX: 3.

[34] Matthew Bunson. Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire (Infobase Publishing, 2014), p. 66.

[35] G.H. Halsberghe. The Cult of Sol Invictus (Leiden: Brill, 1972), p. 55.

[36] Cumont. The Mysteries of Mithras, p. 47.

[37] Roger Beck. “The Mysteries of Mithras: A New Account of their Genesis,” The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. LXXXVIII, (1998), p. 122.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Bertil Gärtner. The Temple and the Community in Qumran and the New Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1965), pp. 49, 57, 64.

[41] Elaine Pagels. The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters, (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992), p. 37.

[42] Ibid., p. Intro. xxx.

[43] I Corinthians 15:45-47.

[44] Ibid., 2: 6-8.

[45] Robert Eisenman, “Paul as Herodian,” Institute for Jewish-Christian Origins California State University at Long Beach. JHC 3/1 (Spring, 1996), 110-122.

[46] Acts 21:31f

[47] The Gnostic Paul, p. 2

[48] Jacob Neusner. “The Conversion of Adiabene to Judaism: A New Perspective.” Journal of Biblical Literature, 83, 1 (1964), pp. 60–66.

[49] Josephus. The Antiquities of the Jews, Book XX.

[50] Richard Gottheil. “Adiabene.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[51] Astronomicon I, 395, cited in Michael P. Speidel. Mithras-Orion: Greek Hero and Roman Army God (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980).

[52] Speidel. Mithras-Orion, p. 20.

[53] ibid.

[54]Reinhold Merkelbach. “Mithraism” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mithraism [Accessed August 21, 2001].

[55] xxx, 25.

[56] Erwin R. Goodenough. Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period. ed. & abrgd. Jacob Neusser. (Princeton: University of Princeton Press, 1992), p. 50

[57] Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, XI, ii, 66.

[58] Goodenough. Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, p. 34

[59] Origen. Contra Celsum (“Against Celsus”), 6.22.

[60] Ibid., p 324.

[61] Jack Lindsay. The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1970), p 35.

[62] Origen. Contra Celsum. VI:30.

[63] Saturnalia, Book I, 18

[64] Tetrabiblos 2.2.64, quoted from Beck, Planetary Gods, p. 86.

[65] Bartel L. van der Waerden. Science Awakening II: The Birth of Astronomy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 194.

[66] Beck. Planetary Gods, p. 89.

[67] Lindsay. The Origins of Alchemy, p 324.

[68] Rogers & Baird. Introduction to Philosophy (Harper & Row, 1981), p. 5, as cited in Anthony F. Buzzard & Charles F. Hunting. The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound (Lanham: International Scholars Publications, 1998), p. 114.

[69] Rogers & Baird. Introduction to Philosophy, p. 5, as cited in Buzzard. The Doctrine of the Trinity, p. 114

[70] Stromata 1:20-29, 2.1.1; 4.1.2.

[71] Gospel of John, 1:1.

[72] Ibid., 1:14.

[73] First Apology, LXVI.

[74] On Baptism, V.

[75] Prescription Against Heresies, XL.

[76] James Frazer. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12). “The Babylonian Festival of the Sacaee.”

[77] Jan Bremmer. “Ritual.” in Religions of the Ancient World (Belknap Press, 2004), p. 38.

[78] Livy 22.1.20; Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.10.18; Robert E. A. Palmer. Rome and Carthage at Peace (Historia – Einzelschriften) (Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner, 1997), pp. 63–64.

[79] Roel van den Broek. “The Sarapis Oracle in Macrobius Sat., I, 20, 16–17,” in Hommages à Maarten J. Vermaseren (Brill, 1978), vol. 1, p. 123ff.

[80] James Frazer. The New Golden Bough, ed. Theodor H. Gaster, part 7 “Between Old and New: Periods of License” (New York: Criterion Books, 1959).

[81] Herodian. Roman History V.6.

[82] M. Geller. “The Last Wedge,” in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 87 (1997), pp. 43–95.

[83] History of the Arians, cited in Javier Teixidor. A journey to Palmyra: collected essays to remember (Brill, 2005) p. 218.

[84] Alaric Watson. Aurelian and the Third Century (Routledge (2004), p. 196.

[85] J. Rupke (ed.), Fasti Sacerdotum (2005), p. 606.

[86] Barry. Greek Qabalah, p. 83.

[87] I; 60.

[88] Vermaseren. Mithras, p. 189.

[89] Hymn to the Magna Mater, 172D.

[90] Avner Falk. A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews (London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996).

[91] Jacob Neusner. Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation (University of Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 21–22.

[92] Ibid.

[93] James H. Charlesworth. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic literature and testaments (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1983). p. 247 n. 3.

[94] “Millennialism.” New World Encyclopedia (2014, October 27).

[95] April D. De Conick. “Paradise Now: Essays on Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism.” Society of Biblical Literature (2006). pp. 203–204

[96] C. Marvin Pate. Reading Revelation: A Comparison of Four Interpretive Translations of the Apocalypse (Kregel Academic, 2009).

[97] Stephen S. Smalley. The Revelation to John: A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Apocalypse (InterVarsity Press, 2012), pp. 120–121.

[98] Robert W. Wall. Revelation (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series) (Baker Books, 2011).

[99] Eberhard Vischer. Die Offenbarung Johannis (Leipsic, 1886).

[100] Kaufmann Kohler & Samuel Krauss. “Baptism.” Jewish Encyclopedia (1906).

[101] William Tabbernee. Montanist Inscriptions and Testimonia: Epigraphic Sources Illustrating the History of Montanism, Patristic Monograph Series (16), (Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2009), p. 19 n. 2.

[102] Ibid., p. 89.

[103] Eusebius. Church History VII.25

[104] P. Healy. “Caius.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908).

[105] Irenaeus. Adversus Haereses, Book III, Chapter 11, Verse 1.

[106] Albert Pike. Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Charleston: A.M., 1871). p. 269.

Volume One

Introduction

1. Babylon

2. Ancient Greece

3. The Hellenistic Age

4. The Book of Revelation

5. Gog and Magog

6. Eastern Mystics

7. Septimania

8. Princes' Crusade

9. The Reconquista

10. Ashkenazi Hasidim

11. The Holy Grail

12. Camelot

13. Perceval

14. The Champagne Fairs

15. Baphomet

16. The Order of Santiago

17. War of the Roses

18. The Age of Discovery

19. Renaissance & Reformation

20. Kings of Jerusalem

21. The Mason Word

22. The Order of the Dragon