Читать книгу Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia. An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia онлайн

51 страница из 98

The spires that adorn our churches, the orientation of ecclesiastical buildings, the eastward position of the dead, the candles on the altars, and what is more, the idea conveyed by sacrificial offering, have their origin in the ancient faiths and world-wide litholatrous and solar ideas of the Semitic peoples, whether of Yemen or Phœnicia, who built their temples in every part of the then known world which came under their influence. In these, as in many more such instances, parallelisms become identities, but identities adapted by the Christian Church to convey in an old-world form a figure of a higher faith. The continuity between this old temple at Zimbabwe, Stonehenge, and the modern cathedral, is complete.

When one reviews the forms and practices, so far as they are known, of the Semitic builders of the Great Zimbabwe, what a flood of light shines in upon the history and worship of the Hebrews. The writings of the Prophets live afresh, and the mystic chapters of Job become full of pregnant meaning. A key is provided to the secret of Abraham offering his son, to Jacob’s pile of stones, to Jephthah’s vow, to the Syro-Phœnician woman’s conversation at the well, and to a hundred points of biblical lore which would otherwise barely attract attention, much less provoke interest. These old Semites—of whom the Hebrews were a younger branch—stinted not their worship, and knew the ecstasy of sacrifice. Their best beloved they gave—their dearest, in the belief that the gift which was offered without a pang was not prized by Deity. Bearing this in mind, the Old Testament is found to be replete with unfailing interest, charm, and point; it becomes, in fact, a marvellously new book even to the biblical student.