Mithraism

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Open Court, 1915 - Mithra - 95 pages
 

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Page 27 - As it passed away, owing to the vegetable principle (chiharak) proceeding from every limb of the ox, fifty and five species of grain and twelve species of medicinal plants grew forth from the earth, and their splendour and strength were the seminal energy (tokhmih) of the ox.
Page 2 - Greeks, to be in the likeness of men ; but they call the whole circle of heaven Zeus, and to him they offer sacrifice on the highest peaks of the mountains ; they sacrifice also to the sun and moon and earth and fire and water and winds. These are the only gods to whom they have ever sacrificed from the beginning.
Page 59 - The borrower must return this item on or before the last date stamped below. If another user places a recall for this item, the borrower will be notified of the need for an earlier return. Non-receipt of overdue notices does not exempt the borrower from overdue fines. Harvard College Widener Library Cambridge, MA 02138 617-495-2413 i Please handle with care.
Page 49 - Of these there were twelve in all l (or, as some writers aver, eighty !) ; and in the old days, in the mountains of the Near East, they must have been more than moderately severe. The Neophyte was exposed...
Page 50 - that it contains in 'outward and visible form' the sacred ' Rock,' Baptism, the Sign on the Brow, Communion of Bread and Cup; and on its inward and spiritual side the doctrine of Sin, Redemption, Sacramentary Grace, and Salvation to Everlasting Life. Is it surprising that in the face of this astonishing similarity the Christian apologists denounced the Mysteries as a most crafty and insidious attack upon the Truth, made not, be it observed, by men (human plagiarism is never suggested), but by that...
Page 49 - Victory was presented to the elated youth [431 .26]; yet ere he could accept it, he was warned to thrust it from him with the words "Mithras is my crown." So even in the moment of success, he learned entire submission and self dedication to his god. It is not surprising that Tertullian [420. 15] held up this custom as an example and reproach to his "Fellow soldiers in Christ.
Page 50 - Empire on that wave of spiritual rewakening which rolled in from the East upon a land dying under a drought of moral and intellectual sterility. It had brought refreshment to minds parched on the barren battlefields of philosophy, or pining away in the wilderness of blank, unquestioning ignorance. To all these it spoke of a new hope and a new light, it brought a real message, and pointed the way to a real regeneration.
Page 35 - There was, as far as we know, no central supreme authority, which could combine the scattered units into a compact and formidable whole. Thus, when the crisis came, Mithraism, though it numbered countless adherents, though it boasted generals, governors, and emperors among the faithful, was helpless before the ordered onset of the Church Militant : isolated and impotent, its small communities could be attacked and crushed in detail.
Page 14 - Roman provinces, it came unrecognised, or suspected by all save those who bore it with them to console their exile. How far the Mithraist sought for converts is doubtful. In the ' Camaraderie ' of a legion, many might be drawn towards a creed which seemed to offer some hope of everlasting life to men who lived in daily peril, and had learned to expect nothing but oblivion beyond the grave.

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