THE

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY

ASCERTAINED FROM

HISTORICAL TESTIMONY

AND

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

BY GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.

RECTOR OF LONG-NEWTON.

Every reasonable Hypothesis should be supported on a fact.

WARBURTON'S Div. Leg. vol. v. p. 458.

THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

London;

Printed by A. J. Valpy, Tooke's Court, Chancery Lane,

FOR F. AND C. RIVINGTONS;

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD.

1816.

-

ib.

THE four ages are indifferently reckoned from the creation and the deluge;

the golden age being that of the great father

I. The fable itself properly relates to the period between the creation and the

deluge: but, from certain points of resemblance between the ages of

Adam and of Noah, it was also made to relate to the period between the

deluge and another yet future dissolution of the world

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II. Arrangement of the ten postdiluvian generations, and extension of the iron

age, when it was found that no fresh deluge took place in the tenth

generation

III. The descriptions of the golden age prove it to have been really the age of

Paradisiacal innocence

5

-

ib.

5. Traditions of the Hindoos

6. Traditions of the Jaius

TV. Saturn, who flourished in the golden age, must have been Adam. Yet he

was also Noah. Hence, when he was viewed as the latter, the golden
age was placed after the flood

1. Exemplification of this arrangement in the Hindoo fable

PAGE

ib.
17

2. The same mode of interpretation must be adopted in the fable of the

Jains

3. The same also in that of Hesiod

(1.) Discussion of the Argonautic, Trojan, and Theban, epochs

(2.) Summary of Hesiod's arrangement

V. The high antiquity of the fable of the four ages may be gathered from

Scripture

18

19

23

31

32

CHAPTER II.

Miscellaneous traditions relative to the period between the creation

and the deluge

I. Hindoo traditions relative to Menu and his three sons and to the murder of

Abel

II. Parallel traditions relative to the three Cabiri and to the murder of Abel
III. Parallel traditions of the Atlantians

IV. Parallel traditions of the Iroquois

-

37

38

ib.

39

40

ib.

1. The character of Enoch melts into that of Noah

2. Mount Atlas and Cader-Idris were each a transcript of the Paradisiacal

Ararat

PAGE

7. The legend of Annacus or Nannacus

VIII. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs

IX. The number of antediluvian generations

46

49

52

CHAPTER III.

On the antediluvian and diluvian history, as exhibited in the Zend-

Avesta

58

I. Sketch of the antediluvian and diluvian history contained in the Zend-Avesta

II. On the authenticity of the Zend-Avesta and the character of Zeradusht

ib.

61

1. The hypothesis of Dr. Prideaux respecting the Zend-Avesta

2. His hypothesis respecting Zeradusht

III. Remarks on the early history contained in the Zend-Avesta

1. Ahriman with his rebel angels

2. The first man-bull is viewed as reappearing in the person of the second

ib.

6. The second man-bull Taschter with his three companions is Noah with

his three sons

83