유랜시아 책
제 3. 부 유란시아의 역사
제 89 편. 죄와 희생과 속죄
Paper 89
Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement
Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement
Sections
- Introduction
- § 1. The Taboo
- § 2. The Concept of Sin
- § 3. Renunciation and Humiliation
- § 4. Origins of Sacrifice
- § 5. Sacrifices and Cannibalism
- § 6. Evolution of Human Sacrifice
- § 7. Modifications of Human Sacrifice
- § 8. Redemption and Covenants
- § 9. Sacrifices and Sacraments
- § 10. Forgiveness of Sin
89:0.1 (974.1)
PRIMITIVE man regarded himself as being in debt to the spirits, as standing in need of redemption. As the savages looked at it, in justice the spirits might have visited much more bad luck upon them. As time passed, this concept developed into the doctrine of sin and salvation. The soul was looked upon as coming into the world under forfeit—original sin. The soul must be ransomed; a scapegoat must be provided. The head-hunter, in addition to practicing the cult of skull worship, was able to provide a substitute for his own life, a scapeman.
야만인은 일찍부터 영들이 인간의 빈곤ㆍ고통ㆍ굴욕을 구경함으로 최고의 만족을 얻는다는 생각에 젖어 있었다. 처음에 사람은 오직 저지른 죄에만 아랑곳했으나, 나중에는 빠뜨리는 죄를 걱정하게 되었다. 후일의 희생 제도 전부가 이 두 관념을 중심으로 생겨났다. 이 새로운 의식은 영을 달래는 희생 예식을 지키는 것과 상관이 있었다. 원시인은 신들의 은혜를 얻기 위해서 무슨 특별한 일을 행해야 한다고 믿었다. 오직 진보한 문명이 한결같이 차분하고 선의를 가진 하나님을 인정한다. 신을 달래는 것은 앞날의 축복을 얻으려는 투자라기보다 당장의 불운을 막는 보험이었다. 귀신을 피하고 쫓아내고 강제하고 달래는 의식(儀式)은 모두 서로 합병된다.
89:0.2 (974.2)
The savage was early possessed with the notion that spirits derive supreme satisfaction from the sight of human misery, suffering, and humiliation. At first, man was only concerned with sins of commission, but later he became exercised over sins of omission. And the whole subsequent sacrificial system grew up around these two ideas. This new ritual had to do with the observance of the propitiation ceremonies of sacrifice. Primitive man believed that something special must be done to win the favor of the gods; only advanced civilization recognizes a consistently even-tempered and benevolent God. Propitiation was insurance against immediate ill luck rather than investment in future bliss. And the rituals of avoidance, exorcism, coercion, and propitiation all merge into one another.
89:1.1 (974.3)
Observance of a taboo was man’s effort to dodge ill luck, to keep from offending the spirit ghosts by the avoidance of something. The taboos were at first nonreligious, but they early acquired ghost or spirit sanction, and when thus reinforced, they became lawmakers and institution builders. The taboo is the source of ceremonial standards and the ancestor of primitive self-control. It was the earliest form of societal regulation and for a long time the only one; it is still a basic unit of the social regulative structure.
89:1.2 (974.4)
The respect which these prohibitions commanded in the mind of the savage exactly equaled his fear of the powers who were supposed to enforce them. Taboos first arose because of chance experience with ill luck; later they were proposed by chiefs and shamans—fetish men who were thought to be directed by a spirit ghost, even by a god. The fear of spirit retribution is so great in the mind of a primitive that he sometimes dies of fright when he has violated a taboo, and this dramatic episode enormously strengthens the hold of the taboo on the minds of the survivors.
89:1.3 (974.5)
Among the earliest prohibitions were restrictions on the appropriation of women and other property. As religion began to play a larger part in the evolution of the taboo, the article resting under ban was regarded as unclean, subsequently as unholy. The records of the Hebrews are full of the mention of things clean and unclean, holy and unholy, but their beliefs along these lines were far less cumbersome and extensive than were those of many other peoples.
89:1.4 (975.1)
The seven commandments of Dalamatia and Eden, as well as the ten injunctions of the Hebrews, were definite taboos, all expressed in the same negative form as were the most ancient prohibitions. But these newer codes were truly emancipating in that they took the place of thousands of pre-existent taboos. And more than this, these later commandments definitely promised something in return for obedience.
89:1.5 (975.2)
The early food taboos originated in fetishism and totemism. The swine was sacred to the Phoenicians, the cow to the Hindus. The Egyptian taboo on pork has been perpetuated by the Hebraic and Islamic faiths. A variant of the food taboo was the belief that a pregnant woman could think so much about a certain food that the child, when born, would be the echo of that food. Such viands would be taboo to the child.
89:1.6 (975.3)
Methods of eating soon became taboo, and so originated ancient and modern table etiquette. Caste systems and social levels are vestigial remnants of olden prohibitions. The taboos were highly effective in organizing society, but they were terribly burdensome; the negative-ban system not only maintained useful and constructive regulations but also obsolete, outworn, and useless taboos.
89:1.7 (975.4)
There would, however, be no civilized society to sit in criticism upon primitive man except for these far-flung and multifarious taboos, and the taboo would never have endured but for the upholding sanctions of primitive religion. Many of the essential factors in man’s evolution have been highly expensive, have cost vast treasure in effort, sacrifice, and self-denial, but these achievements of self-control were the real rungs on which man climbed civilization’s ascending ladder.
89:2.1 (975.5)
The fear of chance and the dread of bad luck literally drove man into the invention of primitive religion as supposed insurance against these calamities. From magic and ghosts, religion evolved through spirits and fetishes to taboos. Every primitive tribe had its tree of forbidden fruit, literally the apple but figuratively consisting of a thousand branches hanging heavy with all sorts of taboos. And the forbidden tree always said, “Thou shalt not.”
89:2.2 (975.6)
As the savage mind evolved to that point where it envisaged both good and bad spirits, and when the taboo received the solemn sanction of evolving religion, the stage was all set for the appearance of the new conception of sin. The idea of sin was universally established in the world before revealed religion ever made its entry. It was only by the concept of sin that natural death became logical to the primitive mind. Sin was the transgression of taboo, and death was the penalty of sin.
89:2.3 (975.7)
Sin was ritual, not rational; an act, not a thought. And this entire concept of sin was fostered by the lingering traditions of Dilmun and the days of a little paradise on earth. The tradition of Adam and the Garden of Eden also lent substance to the dream of a onetime “golden age” of the dawn of the races. And all this confirmed the ideas later expressed in the belief that man had his origin in a special creation, that he started his career in perfection, and that transgression of the taboos—sin—brought him down to his later sorry plight.
89:2.4 (976.1)
The habitual violation of a taboo became a vice; primitive law made vice a crime; religion made it a sin. Among the early tribes the violation of a taboo was a combined crime and sin. Community calamity was always regarded as punishment for tribal sin. To those who believed that prosperity and righteousness went together, the apparent prosperity of the wicked occasioned so much worry that it was necessary to invent hells for the punishment of taboo violators; the numbers of these places of future punishment have varied from one to five.
89:2.5 (976.2)
The idea of confession and forgiveness early appeared in primitive religion. Men would ask forgiveness at a public meeting for sins they intended to commit the following week. Confession was merely a rite of remission, also a public notification of defilement, a ritual of crying “unclean, unclean!” Then followed all the ritualistic schemes of purification. All ancient peoples practiced these meaningless ceremonies. Many apparently hygienic customs of the early tribes were largely ceremonial.
89:3.1 (976.3)
Renunciation came as the next step in religious evolution; fasting was a common practice. Soon it became the custom to forgo many forms of physical pleasure, especially of a sexual nature. The ritual of the fast was deeply rooted in many ancient religions and has been handed down to practically all modern theologic systems of thought.
89:3.2 (976.4)
Just about the time barbarian man was recovering from the wasteful practice of burning and burying property with the dead, just as the economic structure of the races was beginning to take shape, this new religious doctrine of renunciation appeared, and tens of thousands of earnest souls began to court poverty. Property was regarded as a spiritual handicap. These notions of the spiritual dangers of material possession were widespreadly entertained in the times of Philo and Paul, and they have markedly influenced European philosophy ever since.
빈곤은 단지 육체를 죽이는 의식의 일부였고, 이것은 불행하게도 많은 종교, 특별히 기독교의 기록과 가르침에 들어가게 되었다. 고행은 억제하는, 흔히 어리석은 이 의식(儀式)이 부정 형태로 나타난 것이다. 그러나 이 모두가 야만인에게 자제를 가르쳤고, 이는 사회의 진화에서 가치 있는 진보였다. 극기와 자제는 초기의 진화 종교로부터 생긴, 가장 큰 두 가지 사회적 이득이었다. 자제는 사람에게 새로운 생활 철학을 주었고, 이기적 만족이라는 분자(分子)를 늘이려고 늘 애쓰는 대신에, 개인적 요구인 분모(分母)를 낮춤으로 인생의 분수(分數)를 높이는 기술을 사람에게 가르쳤다.
89:3.3 (976.5)
Poverty was just a part of the ritual of the mortification of the flesh which, unfortunately, became incorporated into the writings and teachings of many religions, notably Christianity. Penance is the negative form of this ofttimes foolish ritual of renunciation. But all this taught the savage self-control, and that was a worth-while advancement in social evolution. Self-denial and self-control were two of the greatest social gains from early evolutionary religion. Self-control gave man a new philosophy of life; it taught him the art of augmenting life’s fraction by lowering the denominator of personal demands instead of always attempting to increase the numerator of selfish gratification.
89:3.4 (976.6)
These olden ideas of self-discipline embraced flogging and all sorts of physical torture. The priests of the mother cult were especially active in teaching the virtue of physical suffering, setting the example by submitting themselves to castration. The Hebrews, Hindus, and Buddhists were earnest devotees of this doctrine of physical humiliation.
89:3.5 (976.7)
All through the olden times men sought in these ways for extra credits on the self-denial ledgers of their gods. It was once customary, when under some emotional stress, to make vows of self-denial and self-torture. In time these vows assumed the form of contracts with the gods and, in that sense, represented true evolutionary progress in that the gods were supposed to do something definite in return for this self-torture and mortification of the flesh. Vows were both negative and positive. Pledges of this harmful and extreme nature are best observed today among certain groups in India.
극기와 굴욕을 부르짖는 종파가 성의 만족에 눈을 돌린 것은 자연스러울 뿐이다. 전투에 들어가기 전에 군인들 사이에서, 성욕을 절제하는 종파가 의식으로서 생겨났다. 후일에 이것은 “성자(聖者)들”의 관습이 되었다. 이 종파는 결혼을 겨우 간통보다 덜한 악으로서 묵인했다. 세상의 많은 큰 종교가 이 고대의 숭배에 나쁘게 영향을 받았지만, 아무것도 기독교보다 더 두드러지게 영향을 받지는 않았다. 사도 바울은 이 숭배를 받드는 신자였고, 그의 개인적 관점은 그가 기독교 신학에 묶어놓은 가르침에 반영된다: “남자가 여자에게 손대지 않는 것이 좋으니라.” “모든 사람이 바로 나와 같기를 바라노라.” “그러므로 결혼하지 않은 자와 과부들에게 내가 이르노니, 나처럼 지내는 것이 저희에게 좋으니라.” 바울은 그러한 가르침이 예수의 복음의 일부가 아님을 잘 알았고, 이를 인정했다는 것은 그의 진술에서 나타난다, “계명이 아니라 허락으로서 내가 이것을 이르노라.” 그러나 이러한 열심 때문에 바울은 여자들을 경시하게 되었다. 이 모두가 딱한 것은, 그의 개인적 의견이 위대한 세계 종교의 가르침에 오랫동안 영향을 미쳤다는 것이다. 천막을 만드는 그 선생의 조언에 글자 그대로 널리 순종한다면, 인류는 갑자기 영화롭지 못한 종말에 다다를 것이다. 더군다나 한 종교가 성욕을 절제하는 옛 종파와 관련된 것은 결혼과 가정, 곧 사회의 진정한 기초이자 인간을 진보시키는 기본 제도에 대항하는 싸움으로 직접 이끈다. 모든 그러한 신앙이 여러 민족의 숱한 종교에서 독신 사제 계급의 형성을 조장했다는 것에 놀래서는 안 된다.
89:3.6 (977.1)
It was only natural that the cult of renunciation and humiliation should have paid attention to sexual gratification. The continence cult originated as a ritual among soldiers prior to engaging in battle; in later days it became the practice of “saints.” This cult tolerated marriage only as an evil lesser than fornication. Many of the world’s great religions have been adversely influenced by this ancient cult, but none more markedly than Christianity. The Apostle Paul was a devotee of this cult, and his personal views are reflected in the teachings which he fastened onto Christian theology: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” “I would that all men were even as I myself.” “I say, therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them to abide even as I.” Paul well knew that such teachings were not a part of Jesus’ gospel, and his acknowledgment of this is illustrated by his statement, “I speak this by permission and not by commandment.” But this cult led Paul to look down upon women. And the pity of it all is that his personal opinions have long influenced the teachings of a great world religion. If the advice of the tentmaker-teacher were to be literally and universally obeyed, then would the human race come to a sudden and inglorious end. Furthermore, the involvement of a religion with the ancient continence cult leads directly to a war against marriage and the home, society’s veritable foundation and the basic institution of human progress. And it is not to be wondered at that all such beliefs fostered the formation of celibate priesthoods in the many religions of various peoples.
종교적 헌신의 일부로서, 희생은 다른 여러 가지 경건한 의식처럼, 간단한 한 가지 기원을 가지지 않았다. 권력 앞에 절하고, 신비가 있는 가운데 경건히 찬미하는 태도로 엎드러지는 경향의 전조(前兆)는 개가 주인 앞에서 아양부리는 데서 나타난다. 숭배하려는 충동으로부터 희생물 바치는 행동까지는 겨우 한 걸음일 뿐이다. 원시인은 그가 희생하는 값을 그가 받는 고통으로 쟀다. 희생물 바치는 관념이 처음 종교 의식에 달라붙었을 때, 아픔을 낳지 않는 헌물은 하나도 고려되지 않았다. 처음 희생물은 머리카락을 뽑고, 살을 베어내고, 절단하고, 이를 쳐서 뽑고, 손가락을 잘라 버리는 것과 같은 행위였다. 문명이 진보하자, 이 투박한 희생 개념들은 자기 절제, 금욕주의ㆍ금식ㆍ궁핍의 의식(儀式) 수준으로, 나중에는 슬픔과 고통, 정욕(情慾)의 억제를 통해서 성스럽게 바치는 기독교의 교리로 높이 올라갔다.
89:4.1 (977.3)
Sacrifice as a part of religious devotions, like many other worshipful rituals, did not have a simple and single origin. The tendency to bow down before power and to prostrate oneself in worshipful adoration in the presence of mystery is foreshadowed in the fawning of the dog before its master. It is but one step from the impulse of worship to the act of sacrifice. Primitive man gauged the value of his sacrifice by the pain which he suffered. When the idea of sacrifice first attached itself to religious ceremonial, no offering was contemplated which was not productive of pain. The first sacrifices were such acts as plucking hair, cutting the flesh, mutilations, knocking out teeth, and cutting off fingers. As civilization advanced, these crude concepts of sacrifice were elevated to the level of the rituals of self-abnegation, asceticism, fasting, deprivation, and the later Christian doctrine of sanctification through sorrow, suffering, and the mortification of the flesh.
89:4.3 (977.5)
Man still later conceived that his sacrifice of whatever nature might function as a message bearer to the gods; it might be as a sweet savor in the nostrils of deity. This brought incense and other aesthetic features of sacrificial rituals which developed into sacrificial feasting, in time becoming increasingly elaborate and ornate.
89:4.5 (978.2)
The earliest idea of the sacrifice was that of a neutrality assessment levied by ancestral spirits; only later did the idea of atonement develop. As man got away from the notion of the evolutionary origin of the race, as the traditions of the days of the Planetary Prince and the sojourn of Adam filtered down through time, the concept of sin and of original sin became widespread, so that sacrifice for accidental and personal sin evolved into the doctrine of sacrifice for the atonement of racial sin. The atonement of the sacrifice was a blanket insurance device which covered even the resentment and jealousy of an unknown god.
89:4.6 (978.3)
Surrounded by so many sensitive spirits and grasping gods, primitive man was face to face with such a host of creditor deities that it required all the priests, ritual, and sacrifices throughout an entire lifetime to get him out of spiritual debt. The doctrine of original sin, or racial guilt, started every person out in serious debt to the spirit powers.
89:4.7 (978.4)
Gifts and bribes are given to men; but when tendered to the gods, they are described as being dedicated, made sacred, or are called sacrifices. Renunciation was the negative form of propitiation; sacrifice became the positive form. The act of propitiation included praise, glorification, flattery, and even entertainment. And it is the remnants of these positive practices of the olden propitiation cult that constitute the modern forms of divine worship. Present-day forms of worship are simply the ritualization of these ancient sacrificial techniques of positive propitiation.
89:4.8 (978.5)
Animal sacrifice meant much more to primitive man than it could ever mean to modern races. These barbarians regarded the animals as their actual and near kin. As time passed, man became shrewd in his sacrificing, ceasing to offer up his work animals. At first he sacrificed the best of everything, including his domesticated animals.
89:4.9 (978.6)
It was no empty boast that a certain Egyptian ruler made when he stated that he had sacrificed: 113,433 slaves, 493,386 head of cattle, 88 boats, 2,756 golden images, 331,702 jars of honey and oil, 228,380 jars of wine, 680,714 geese, 6,744,428 loaves of bread, and 5,740,352 sacks of corn. And in order to do this he must needs have sorely taxed his toiling subjects.
89:5.1 (978.8)
Modern ideas of early cannibalism are entirely wrong; it was a part of the mores of early society. While cannibalism is traditionally horrible to modern civilization, it was a part of the social and religious structure of primitive society. Group interests dictated the practice of cannibalism. It grew up through the urge of necessity and persisted because of the slavery of superstition and ignorance. It was a social, economic, religious, and military custom.
사람 고기에 맛을 들이면 그 입맛은 자란다. 굶주림이나 우정이나 복수나 종교 의식을 통해서 시작되고 나서, 사람의 살을 먹는 것은 버릇된 식인 풍습으로 계속된다. 사람을 먹는 일은 식량이 모자라서 생겼다. 하지만 이것이 근본적 이유였던 적은 드물다. 그러나 에스키모인과 초기의 안돈 족속은 기근이 있을 때를 제외하고, 사람의 고기를 먹은 적이 드물다. 홍인은, 특히 중앙 아메리카에서, 식인종이었다. 한때는 원시의 어머니가 아이를 배느라고 잃어버린 기운을 되찾으려고 제 아이를 잡아먹는 것이 일반 풍습이었고, 퀸즈랜드에서 첫 아이는 아직도 이렇게 죽음을 당하고 잡아먹히는 일이 빈번하다. 근대에는 아프리카의 많은 부족이 하나의 전쟁 조치로서, 자기 이웃들을 무서워 떨게 만드는 일종의 끔찍한 짓으로서, 식인 풍습에 일부러 의존했다.
89:5.4 (979.3)
The taste for human flesh grows. Having been started through hunger, friendship, revenge, or religious ritual, the eating of human flesh goes on to habitual cannibalism. Man-eating has arisen through food scarcity, though this has seldom been the underlying reason. The Eskimos and early Andonites, however, seldom were cannibalistic except in times of famine. The red men, especially in Central America, were cannibals. It was once a general practice for primitive mothers to kill and eat their own children in order to renew the strength lost in childbearing, and in Queensland the first child is still frequently thus killed and devoured. In recent times cannibalism has been deliberately resorted to by many African tribes as a war measure, a sort of frightfulness with which to terrorize their neighbors.
89:5.5 (979.4)
Some cannibalism resulted from the degeneration of once superior stocks, but it was mostly prevalent among the evolutionary races. Man-eating came on at a time when men experienced intense and bitter emotions regarding their enemies. Eating human flesh became part of a solemn ceremony of revenge; it was believed that an enemy’s ghost could, in this way, be destroyed or fused with that of the eater. It was once a widespread belief that wizards attained their powers by eating human flesh.
89:5.6 (979.5)
Certain groups of man-eaters would consume only members of their own tribes, a pseudospiritual inbreeding which was supposed to accentuate tribal solidarity. But they also ate enemies for revenge with the idea of appropriating their strength. It was considered an honor to the soul of a friend or fellow tribesman if his body were eaten, while it was no more than just punishment to an enemy thus to devour him. The savage mind made no pretensions to being consistent.
89:5.7 (979.6)
Among some tribes aged parents would seek to be eaten by their children; among others it was customary to refrain from eating near relations; their bodies were sold or exchanged for those of strangers. There was considerable commerce in women and children who had been fattened for slaughter. When disease or war failed to control population, the surplus was unceremoniously eaten.
89:5.9 (979.8)
1. It sometimes became a communal ceremony, the assumption of collective responsibility for inflicting the death penalty upon a fellow tribesman. The blood guilt ceases to be a crime when participated in by all, by society. The last of cannibalism in Asia was this eating of executed criminals.
89:5.15 (980.4)
7. Human sacrifice sounded the death knell of cannibalism. Human flesh having become the food of superior men, the chiefs, it was eventually reserved for the still more superior spirits; and thus the offering of human sacrifices effectively put a stop to cannibalism, except among the lowest tribes. When human sacrifice was fully established, man-eating became taboo; human flesh was food only for the gods; man could eat only a small ceremonial bit, a sacrament.
89:6.1 (980.6)
Human sacrifice was an indirect result of cannibalism as well as its cure. Providing spirit escorts to the spirit world also led to the lessening of man-eating as it was never the custom to eat these death sacrifices. No race has been entirely free from the practice of human sacrifice in some form and at some time, even though the Andonites, Nodites, and Adamites were the least addicted to cannibalism.
사람을 제물로 바치는 것은 거의 보편적이었다. 이 풍습은 중국인ㆍ힌두인ㆍ에집트인ㆍ히브리인ㆍ메소포타미아인ㆍ그리스인ㆍ로마인의 종교 관습에서 지속하였고, 많은 다른 민족, 뒤떨어진 아프리카 및 오스트랄리아 부족들 사이에서 요즘까지도 지속되었다. 후일에 아메리카 인디안은 식인(食人) 풍습에서 태어난 문명을 가졌고, 따라서 특히 중앙 및 남 아메리카에서 사람을 잡아 바치는 풍습에 흠뻑 젖어 있었다. 갈대아인은 보통 계제에 사람 바치기를 처음으로 버린 사람들에 속했고, 동물로 대신하였다. 약 2천 년 전에 일본에 마음씨 고운 어느 황제는 사람 잡아 바치는 것을 대신하려고 진흙 형상을 소개하였다. 그러나 이러한 사람 바치기가 북 유럽에서 사라진 것은 1천 년이 채 안 된다. 어떤 뒤떨어진 부족들 사이에서는 자원하는 자들이 사람 바치기를 아직도 행하는데, 이것은 일종의 종교적 자살이나 의식(儀式)으로 하는 자살이었다. 한때 어느 샤먼이 어떤 부족에서 크게 존경받는 한 노인을 바치라고 시켰다. 사람들이 반항했고, 복종하려 하지 않았다. 그렇게 되자 그 노인은 아들로 하여금 자신을 보내게 하였다. 옛날 사람들은 정말로 이 관습을 믿었다.
89:6.2 (980.7)
Human sacrifice has been virtually universal; it persisted in the religious customs of the Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, Hebrews, Mesopotamians, Greeks, Romans, and many other peoples, even on to recent times among the backward African and Australian tribes. The later American Indians had a civilization emerging from cannibalism and, therefore, steeped in human sacrifice, especially in Central and South America. The Chaldeans were among the first to abandon the sacrificing of humans for ordinary occasions, substituting therefor animals. About two thousand years ago a tenderhearted Japanese emperor introduced clay images to take the place of human sacrifices, but it was less than a thousand years ago that these sacrifices died out in northern Europe. Among certain backward tribes, human sacrifice is still carried on by volunteers, a sort of religious or ritual suicide. A shaman once ordered the sacrifice of a much respected old man of a certain tribe. The people revolted; they refused to obey. Whereupon the old man had his own son dispatch him; the ancients really believed in this custom.
예붓다와 그의 외딸에 관한, 히브리인의 이야기보다 더 비극이고 애처로운 체험은 기록에 남아 있지 않다. 이것은 오래 되고 옛날부터 지켜 온 종교 관습과 진보하는 문명의 상반되는 요구 사이에 생긴, 가슴 아픈 싸움을 잘 나타낸다. 보통 관습이었다시피, 좋은 의도를 가진 이 사람은 어리석은 맹세를 하였고, 적들을 이기는 것에 대하여 어떤 값을 치르겠다고 찬성하면서 “전쟁의 신”과 협상했다. 이 값은 집으로 돌아올 때 그를 맞이하려고 집에서 처음으로 나오는 자를 바치는 것이었다. 예붓다는 충실한 종들 가운데 하나가 이렇게 그를 맞이하려고 가까이 있으리라 생각했으나, 알고 보니 하나밖에 없는 외동딸이 그를 집으로 맞아들이려고 나왔다. 그래서 그렇게 근래의 시절에도, 문명화되었다고 생각된 민족 사이에서, 두 달 동안 제 운명을 슬퍼한 뒤에 아버지가 이 아름다운 소녀를, 그 동포 부족 사람들의 찬성을 얻고서, 사람 제물로 실제로 바쳤다. 그리고 사람을 제물로 바치지 말라고 모세가 엄하게 명령한 마당에 이 모든 일이 벌어졌다. 그러나 남자와 여자는 바보 같고 쓸데없는 맹세를 하는 데 빠지며, 옛날 사람들은 그러한 모든 서약을 무척 거룩하게 여겼다.
89:6.3 (980.8)
There is no more tragic and pathetic experience on record, illustrative of the heart-tearing contentions between ancient and time-honored religious customs and the contrary demands of advancing civilization, than the Hebrew narrative of Jephthah and his only daughter. As was common custom, this well-meaning man had made a foolish vow, had bargained with the “god of battles,” agreeing to pay a certain price for victory over his enemies. And this price was to make a sacrifice of that which first came out of his house to meet him when he returned to his home. Jephthah thought that one of his trusty slaves would thus be on hand to greet him, but it turned out that his daughter and only child came out to welcome him home. And so, even at that late date and among a supposedly civilized people, this beautiful maiden, after two months to mourn her fate, was actually offered as a human sacrifice by her father, and with the approval of his fellow tribesmen. And all this was done in the face of Moses’ stringent rulings against the offering of human sacrifice. But men and women are addicted to making foolish and needless vows, and the men of old held all such pledges to be highly sacred.
89:6.4 (981.1)
In olden times, when a new building of any importance was started, it was customary to slay a human being as a “foundation sacrifice.” This provided a ghost spirit to watch over and protect the structure. When the Chinese made ready to cast a bell, custom decreed the sacrifice of at least one maiden for the purpose of improving the tone of the bell; the girl chosen was thrown alive into the molten metal.
89:6.5 (981.2)
It was long the practice of many groups to build slaves alive into important walls. In later times the northern European tribes substituted the walling in of the shadow of a passerby for this custom of entombing living persons in the walls of new buildings. The Chinese buried in a wall those workmen who died while constructing it.
89:6.6 (981.3)
A petty king in Palestine, in building the walls of Jericho, “laid the foundation thereof in Abiram, his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segub.” At that late date, not only did this father put two of his sons alive in the foundation holes of the city’s gates, but his action is also recorded as being “according to the word of the Lord.” Moses had forbidden these foundation sacrifices, but the Israelites reverted to them soon after his death. The twentieth-century ceremony of depositing trinkets and keepsakes in the cornerstone of a new building is reminiscent of the primitive foundation sacrifices.
89:6.7 (981.4)
It was long the custom of many peoples to dedicate the first fruits to the spirits. And these observances, now more or less symbolic, are all survivals of the early ceremonies involving human sacrifice. The idea of offering the first-born as a sacrifice was widespread among the ancients, especially among the Phoenicians, who were the last to give it up. It used to be said upon sacrificing, “life for life.” Now you say at death, “dust to dust.”
89:6.8 (981.5)
The spectacle of Abraham constrained to sacrifice his son Isaac, while shocking to civilized susceptibilities, was not a new or strange idea to the men of those days. It was long a prevalent practice for fathers, at times of great emotional stress, to sacrifice their first-born sons. Many peoples have a tradition analogous to this story, for there once existed a world-wide and profound belief that it was necessary to offer a human sacrifice when anything extraordinary or unusual happened.
89:7.1 (981.6)
Moses attempted to end human sacrifices by inaugurating the ransom as a substitute. He established a systematic schedule which enabled his people to escape the worst results of their rash and foolish vows. Lands, properties, and children could be redeemed according to the established fees, which were payable to the priests. Those groups which ceased to sacrifice their first-born soon possessed great advantages over less advanced neighbors who continued these atrocious acts. Many such backward tribes were not only greatly weakened by this loss of sons, but even the succession of leadership was often broken.
89:7.2 (982.1)
An outgrowth of the passing child sacrifice was the custom of smearing blood on the house doorposts for the protection of the first-born. This was often done in connection with one of the sacred feasts of the year, and this ceremony once obtained over most of the world from Mexico to Egypt.
89:7.3 (982.2)
Even after most groups had ceased the ritual killing of children, it was the custom to put an infant away by itself, off in the wilderness or in a little boat on the water. If the child survived, it was thought that the gods had intervened to preserve him, as in the traditions of Sargon, Moses, Cyrus, and Romulus. Then came the practice of dedicating the first-born sons as sacred or sacrificial, allowing them to grow up and then exiling them in lieu of death; this was the origin of colonization. The Romans adhered to this custom in their scheme of colonization.
원시적 숭배와 관련되어, 성(性)의 문란으로 생긴 많은 특이한 관계는 사람을 바치는 것과 관련하여 기원이 생겼다. 옛날에는, 여자가 머리 사냥꾼을 만났을 때, 몸을 제공함으로 목숨을 건질 수 있었다. 나중에는 신들에게 희생물로서 성스럽게 바친 소녀는 몸을 일생 동안 성전에서 신성한 성교 서비스에 바침으로 제 목숨 찾기를 선택할 수 있었다. 이 방법으로 그 여자는 몸 찾는 돈을 벌 수 있었다. 이렇게 몸값을 치르는 데 종사하는 여인과 성관계를 가지는 것은 사람을 무척 고상하게 만드는 일로 여겼다. 이 신성한 소녀들과 사귀는 것은 종교 예식이었고, 게다가 이 의식 전부가 평범한 성욕 만족을 얻기 위하여 그럴듯한 구실을 주었다. 이것은 소녀와 그 짝들이 스스로 기쁘게 실행한, 야릇한 종류의 자기 속임이었다. 문명이 진화로 진보할 때 도덕 관습은 언제나 뒤에서 끌려 가고, 이처럼 진화하는 종족들의 관습, 더 오래 되고 더 야만스러운 성 관습을 인가해 주었다.
89:7.4 (982.3)
Many of the peculiar associations of sex laxity with primitive worship had their origin in connection with human sacrifice. In olden times, if a woman met head-hunters, she could redeem her life by sexual surrender. Later, a maiden consecrated to the gods as a sacrifice might elect to redeem her life by dedicating her body for life to the sacred sex service of the temple; in this way she could earn her redemption money. The ancients regarded it as highly elevating to have sex relations with a woman thus engaged in ransoming her life. It was a religious ceremony to consort with these sacred maidens, and in addition, this whole ritual afforded an acceptable excuse for commonplace sexual gratification. This was a subtle species of self-deception which both the maidens and their consorts delighted to practice upon themselves. The mores always drag behind in the evolutionary advance of civilization, thus providing sanction for the earlier and more savagelike sex practices of the evolving races.
89:7.5 (982.4)
Temple harlotry eventually spread throughout southern Europe and Asia. The money earned by the temple prostitutes was held sacred among all peoples—a high gift to present to the gods. The highest types of women thronged the temple sex marts and devoted their earnings to all kinds of sacred services and works of public good. Many of the better classes of women collected their dowries by temporary sex service in the temples, and most men preferred to have such women for wives.
89:8.1 (982.5)
Sacrificial redemption and temple prostitution were in reality modifications of human sacrifice. Next came the mock sacrifice of daughters. This ceremony consisted in bloodletting, with dedication to lifelong virginity, and was a moral reaction to the older temple harlotry. In more recent times virgins dedicated themselves to the service of tending the sacred temple fires.
89:8.2 (982.6)
Men eventually conceived the idea that the offering of some part of the body could take the place of the older and complete human sacrifice. Physical mutilation was also considered to be an acceptable substitute. Hair, nails, blood, and even fingers and toes were sacrificed. The later and well-nigh universal ancient rite of circumcision was an outgrowth of the cult of partial sacrifice; it was purely sacrificial, no thought of hygiene being attached thereto. Men were circumcised; women had their ears pierced.
89:8.3 (983.1)
Subsequently it became the custom to bind fingers together instead of cutting them off. Shaving the head and cutting the hair were likewise forms of religious devotion. The making of eunuchs was at first a modification of the idea of human sacrifice. Nose and lip piercing is still practiced in Africa, and tattooing is an artistic evolution of the earlier crude scarring of the body.
89:8.4 (983.2)
The custom of sacrifice eventually became associated, as a result of advancing teachings, with the idea of the covenant. At last, the gods were conceived of as entering into real agreements with man; and this was a major step in the stabilization of religion. Law, a covenant, takes the place of luck, fear, and superstition.
89:8.5 (983.3)
Man could never even dream of entering into a contract with Deity until his concept of God had advanced to the level whereon the universe controllers were envisioned as dependable. And man’s early idea of God was so anthropomorphic that he was unable to conceive of a dependable Deity until he himself became relatively dependable, moral, and ethical.
89:8.6 (983.4)
But the idea of making a covenant with the gods did finally arrive. Evolutionary man eventually acquired such moral dignity that he dared to bargain with his gods. And so the business of offering sacrifices gradually developed into the game of man’s philosophic bargaining with God. And all this represented a new device for insuring against bad luck or, rather, an enhanced technique for the more definite purchase of prosperity. Do not entertain the mistaken idea that these early sacrifices were a free gift to the gods, a spontaneous offering of gratitude or thanksgiving; they were not expressions of true worship.
원시 형태의 기도는 영들과 협상하는 것, 신들과 따지는 것에 지나지 않았다. 탄원과 설득으로 무언가 더 형태가 있는 비싼 것을 대신하는 일종의 물물 교환이었다. 종족들의 발전하는 상업은 무역하는 정신을 불러일으켰고, 물물 교환하는 눈치를 개발하였다. 이제 이 특성은 사람이 신을 숭배하는 방법에도 비로소 나타났다. 어떤 사람이 남보다 장사를 더 잘하는 상인인 것처럼, 어떤 사람은 다른 사람보다 더 낫게 기도하는 자로 생각되었다. 올바른 사람의 기도는 높이 여김을 받았다. 올바른 사람은 영들에게 셈을 다 치른 자, 신들에게 모든 의식(儀式) 의무를 충분히 끝낸 사람이었다.
89:8.7 (983.5)
Primitive forms of prayer were nothing more nor less than bargaining with the spirits, an argument with the gods. It was a kind of bartering in which pleading and persuasion were substituted for something more tangible and costly. The developing commerce of the races had inculcated the spirit of trade and had developed the shrewdness of barter; and now these traits began to appear in man’s worship methods. And as some men were better traders than others, so some were regarded as better prayers than others. The prayer of a just man was held in high esteem. A just man was one who had paid all accounts to the spirits, had fully discharged every ritual obligation to the gods.
89:8.8 (983.6)
Early prayer was hardly worship; it was a bargaining petition for health, wealth, and life. And in many respects prayers have not much changed with the passing of the ages. They are still read out of books, recited formally, and written out for emplacement on wheels and for hanging on trees, where the blowing of the winds will save man the trouble of expending his own breath.
89:9.1 (983.7)
The human sacrifice, throughout the course of the evolution of Urantian rituals, has advanced from the bloody business of man-eating to higher and more symbolic levels. The early rituals of sacrifice bred the later ceremonies of sacrament. In more recent times the priest alone would partake of a bit of the cannibalistic sacrifice or a drop of human blood, and then all would partake of the animal substitute. These early ideas of ransom, redemption, and covenants have evolved into the later-day sacramental services. And all this ceremonial evolution has exerted a mighty socializing influence.
89:9.2 (984.1)
In connection with the Mother of God cult, in Mexico and elsewhere, a sacrament of cakes and wine was eventually utilized in lieu of the flesh and blood of the older human sacrifices. The Hebrews long practiced this ritual as a part of their Passover ceremonies, and it was from this ceremonial that the later Christian version of the sacrament took its origin.
고대 사회의 형제 정신은 피를 마시는 의식에 기초를 두었다. 옛날 유대인의 친교는 희생물의 피를 흘리는 일이었다. 바울은 “영구한 약속의 피” 위에 새 기독교 종파를 세우기 시작했다. 바울이 피와 희생물에 관한 가르침으로 기독교를 쓸데없이 성가시게 만들기는 했어도, 인간이나 동물을 바쳐서 속죄하는 교리를 한 숨에 끝내버렸다. 그의 신학적 절충은, 계시조차도 진화의 점진적 통제에 복종해야 한다는 것을 가리킨다. 바울에 따르면, 그리스도는 마지막이자 온통 충분한 사람 제물이 되었다. 신성한 재판관은 이제 완전히, 그리고 영원히 만족한 것이다.
89:9.3 (984.2)
The ancient social brotherhoods were based on the rite of blood drinking; the early Jewish fraternity was a sacrificial blood affair. Paul started out to build a new Christian cult on “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” And while he may have unnecessarily encumbered Christianity with teachings about blood and sacrifice, he did once and for all make an end of the doctrines of redemption through human or animal sacrifices. His theologic compromises indicate that even revelation must submit to the graduated control of evolution. According to Paul, Christ became the last and all-sufficient human sacrifice; the divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied.
89:9.4 (984.3)
And so, after long ages the cult of the sacrifice has evolved into the cult of the sacrament. Thus are the sacraments of modern religions the legitimate successors of those shocking early ceremonies of human sacrifice and the still earlier cannibalistic rituals. Many still depend upon blood for salvation, but it has at least become figurative, symbolic, and mystic.
89:10.1 (984.4)
Ancient man only attained consciousness of favor with God through sacrifice. Modern man must develop new techniques of achieving the self-consciousness of salvation. The consciousness of sin persists in the mortal mind, but the thought patterns of salvation therefrom have become outworn and antiquated. The reality of the spiritual need persists, but intellectual progress has destroyed the olden ways of securing peace and consolation for mind and soul.
죄책감을 깨닫는 가능성은 인류에게 초월적 탁월성이 있다는 표시이다. 죄책감은 사람이 비열함을 표시하는 것이 아니라, 오히려 위대하게 될 잠재성이 있고 언제나 올라가는 영광을 가진 생물로서 사람을 구별한다. 그러한 모자란다는 느낌은 시초의 자극이며, 이것은 믿음으로 필사자의 지성을 도덕적으로 고귀한 수준, 우주 통찰력과 영적 생활의 훌륭한 수준으로 변화시키는 그러한 믿음의 승리로, 빠르게 확실히 이끌어야 한다. 이처럼 인간의 존재에서 모든 의미 있는 것이 현세의 것으로부터 영원한 것으로 바뀌고, 모든 가치가 인간다운 것으로부터 신다운 것으로 높아진다.
89:10.4 (984.7)
The possibility of the recognition of the sense of guilt is a badge of transcendent distinction for mankind. It does not mark man as mean but rather sets him apart as a creature of potential greatness and ever-ascending glory. Such a sense of unworthiness is the initial stimulus that should lead quickly and surely to those faith conquests which translate the mortal mind to the superb levels of moral nobility, cosmic insight, and spiritual living; thus are all the meanings of human existence changed from the temporal to the eternal, and all values are elevated from the human to the divine.
89:10.6 (985.1)
The forgiveness of sin by Deity is the renewal of loyalty relations following a period of the human consciousness of the lapse of such relations as the consequence of conscious rebellion. The forgiveness does not have to be sought, only received as the consciousness of re-establishment of loyalty relations between the creature and the Creator. And all the loyal sons of God are happy, service-loving, and ever-progressive in the Paradise ascent.