Isis and Osiris
The notion that paganism was, in general, tolerant, whereas monotheistic
religions are, in general, intolerant is very deeply rooted. The
people who say these things are often aware of many instances
where the pagans attempted to stamp out monotheistic religions like
Judaism and Christianity, as well as pagan observances they
disliked. Socrates was, after all, executed for failing to conform
to the religion of the state. Yet they insist these many instances
recorded in history are exceptions to the rule, while the actual
rule is something different:
"The Tolerant State Persecutes the Benevolent Church:
That Christianity should have been thus received in the Roman world
is remarkable, because one of the most notable characteristics of
the church was its benevolence, and one of the most marked
characteristics of the empire was its tolerance. . .Not only was the
church devoted to the practice of benevolence, but the state was
committed to the principle of tolerance. The pagan state was
tolerant of religious differences to an extent to which the
Christian state, when its turn came, showed no parallel until very
recent times. It is true that in the reign of Tiberius votaries of
Isis were expelled from Rome; but that was on account of scandal."
(The Early Church From Ignatius to Augustine, by George Hodges,
Kindle location 350).
The fact of the matter is, there's nothing remarkable about it at
all. The alien gods the Jews encountered were a mixed lot. Fire is a
dangerous customer if it comes rushing up the stairs at you, though
perhaps a fire extinguisher or sprinkler system would help more than a
priests' incantations. In history, Jews were driven out of Babylon
for refusing to worship. . .fire: "In 226 the old dynasty of the Arsacids, which had been favorable to the Jews, came to an end and
was succeeded by the Sassanian dynasty, a succession of fanatical
fire-worshippers. Ardashir I began the tradition of intolerance with
an edict which called for the sacrifice, on the Magian altars, of a
part of all meat intended for food. He prohibited the burial of the
dead, since burial polluted the soil, and great numbers of bodies
were flung out of their graves to satisfy his religious scruples.
The synagogues were a standing eye sore to him, and many of them
were burnt down at his orders." (Abram Leon Sachar, A History
of the Jews, p. 150.) This once flourishing
community, numbering perhaps a million at its height, ultimately fell
into eclipse: "Under Yazdegerd II (438-57) it became a capital
offence even to recite the Shma." (Abram Leon Sachar, A
History of the Jews, p. 151). Christianity can be blamed for this,
how? Fire can't really even be blamed for it. The Old Adam is to
blame; people demand unanimity for their views. When they do not
receive it, they get ugly. This is not a characteristic of one human
group alone.
In theory, polytheism ought to be tolerant, because multiplying
deities does leave open certain job opportunities for new recruits
in the heavenlies. The Romans, at war with an enemy
nation, would attempt to entice the besieged gods into deserting
their people and coming over to the winning side. The resultant messy,
bloated pantheon defied all efforts of the pagan theologians to
rationalize it or scale it down to manageable size. But when it
comes to religious tolerance, what is the actual
rule? That the pagans attempted to stamp out even other competing pagan cults. . .but only for cause?
In practice, paganism was not tolerant, no more than is Hinduism in our
day. In the instance mentioned earlier,
"So when she had encouraged the young man, and gotten
as much money as she required, she did not take the same methods
as had been taken before, because she perceived that the woman
was by no means to be tempted by money; but as she knew that she
was very much given to the worship of the goddess Isis, she
devised the following stratagem: She went to some of Isis’s
priests, and upon the strongest assurances [of concealment], she
persuaded them by words, but chiefly by the offer of money, of
twenty-five thousand drachmae in hand, and as much more when the
thing had taken effect; and told them the passion of the young
man, and persuaded them to use all means possible to beguile the
woman. So they were drawn in to promise so to do, by that large
sum of gold they were to have. Accordingly, the oldest of them
went immediately to Paulina; and upon his admittance, he desired
to speak with her by herself. When that was granted him, he told
her that he was sent by the God Anubis, who was fallen in love
with her, and enjoined her to come to him. Upon this she took the
message very kindly, and valued herself greatly upon this
condescension of Anubis, and told her husband that she had a message
sent her, and was to sup and lie with Anubis; so he agreed to her
acceptance of the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity of his
wife. Accordingly, she went to the temple, and after she had
supped there, and it was the hour to go to sleep, the priest shut
the doors of the temple, when, in the holy part of it, the lights
were also put out." (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book
18, Chapter 3, Section 4, p. 1128).
The young man got what he paid for; however, the truth got out, as it tends to do,
and this rape by impersonation was discovered:
"So he discovered the fact to the emperor; whereupon Tiberius
inquired into the matter thoroughly by examining the priests about
it, and ordered them to be crucified, as well as Ide, who was the
occasion of their perdition, and who had contrived the whole matter,
which was so injurious to the woman. He also demolished the temple
of Isis, and gave order that her statue should be thrown into the
river Tiber; while he only banished Mundus, but did no more to him,
because he supposed that what crime he had committed was done out of
the passion of love." (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18,
Chapter 3, Section 4, p. 1129). And so the guilty were punished. .
.except not only the guilty were punished. All devotees of Isis and
Osiris, the vast majority of whose hands were clean of this sordid
affair, suffered from the cessation of cult worship. The ever-tolerant
Romans punished everybody for the actions of a few. What is more characteristic of
bigotry? The Ku Klux Klan understands this reasoning. Who has ever
responded to a sensationalistic crime committed by a white person by
punishing the white community as a whole? In that case, everyone can
see we punish the guilty, not the innocent. But Tiberius punished
the entire Isis-worshipping community to put down a small conspiracy
whose existence cannot have been known to more than a small number
of the larger community of Isis-devotees.
When Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker got into trouble with the
government for over-booking hotel rooms which had not even been
constructed yet, people were outraged. But did we respond by
expelling all Christians from the country? How is that fair? Punish
the guilty, not the innocent. They did this kind of thing all the
time, yet people want to praise their tolerance?
Was there a reason for Tiberius' indignation? There is always a reason. The Hutus of Rwanda
attempted to exterminate the Tutsi population of that country in
response to an attack on an airplane carrying the Hutu President of
that country. But how is this a rational or just response to the
provocation? Retaliate against those who carried out the attack, not
every man, woman and child of similar ethnicity. These bigoted
attitudes are evergreen. Why did the Romans attempt to exterminate
the Druids of Britain? Because those religious votaries were icons
of resistance. There's always a reason. The pagans who attempted to
carry out genocide against the Jewish inhabitants of the empire
while simultaneously attempting to stamp out Christianity cannot be
made into our preceptors in the matter of religious toleration; they
had no clue.
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