“594. CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY—EZEKIEL 8”

Chambers of Imagery—Ezekiel 8

The eighth chapter of Ezekiel is that to which we yesterday referred as exhibiting the prophet’s portraiture of the prevailing idolatries of his time. From this we have the melancholy fact, clearly and graphically set forth, that in the age of Jerusalem’s doom, the Jews had fallen into all the idolatries of their Egyptian, Phoenician, and Assyrian neighbors, and simultaneously practised them, apparently at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, producing by their combination, and with a profession of allegiance to Jehovah, an abomination worse than any of these idolatries taken singly could have been—and forming a most cogent justification of their condemnation, and an awful elucidation of the causes of their ruin. We knew this before, from the dispersed intimations of the other prophets; but not so as to impress the fact deeply on the mind, as is done here by Ezekiel who brings the matter visibly before us, and makes us, with himself, spectators of the awful scene.

In the visions of God he conceives himself taken to Jerusalem, where, in the inner court of the temple, his attention is directed to a chink or hole in the wall, which he is ordered to enlarge, on doing which he finds a door which had not before been obvious. “I went in,” he says, “and looked; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the walls.”

This is clearly the Egyptian form of idolatry. The Rev. W. Jowett quotes this text as furnishing an exact description of the “chambers of imagery” in that country; adding, “the Israelites were but copyists, the master sketches being to be seen in all the temples and tombs of Egypt.” In that country the walls of the inner sanctuaries of the temples, as well as the tombs and mystic cells, are to this day covered with representations, sculptured or painted in vivid colors, of sacred animals, of gods in human form and under various circumstances, or in various monstrous combinations of the human and bestial shapes. The temples alone would furnish sufficient illustration, but that of the tombs seems the most exactly appropriate, for they furnish just such chambers as the prophet gained access to decorated in the same manner; and there is little doubt, from the nature of these decorations, from their connection with the temples, and other circumstances, that they were not merely tombs, but were also used for the celebration of the darker mysteries and superstitions of the most debasing idolatry the world has ever witnessed.

In reading Dr. Madden’s account of the way in which be got access to the chamber of imagery of the temple of Edfou, we were strongly reminded, not only of the similar chamber which the prophet saw, and which it seems that some leading Jews had secretly connected with the temple of Jerusalem, but of the mode in which he had gained access to it. The roof of this temple forms the site of an Arab village, and the whole interior is so filled up with rubbish that it had been deemed impossible to enter. Hassen, an old man, grateful for some medical relief, disclosed to Dr. Madden a secret passage, which had never before been made known to any Frank, and through which he offered to conduct him. “Considerably below the surface of the adjoining buildings, he pointed out to me a chink in an old wall, which he told me I should creep through on my hands and feet; the aperture was not two feet and a half high and scarcely three feet and a half broad; my companion had the courage to enter first, thrusting in a lamp before him. I followed, and after me the son of the old man crept also; the passage was so narrow that my mouth and nose were sometimes buried in the dust, and I was nearly suffocated. After proceeding about ten yards in utter darkness, the heat became excessive, breathing was laborious, the perspiration poured down my face, and I would have given the world to have got out; but my companion, whose person I could not distinguish, though his voice was audible, called out to me to crawl a few feet further and I should find plenty of space. I gained him at length, and had the inexpressible satisfaction of standing once more on my feet. We found ourselves in a splendid apartment of great magnitude, and adorned with sacred paintings and hieroglyphics. The ceiling, which was also painted, was supported by several rows of pillars.

It would be interesting to trace the steps, by which the Egyptians descended from the primeval truths of the patriarchal faith, which their ancestors shared with all the children of Noah. It might be possible, from the materials extant, to do this through deeper study and closer investigation than has yet been given to the matter. It is likely that the earliest, and therefore most just, conceptions of the Almighty entertained by the Egyptians, find a memorial in their tried representation of his abstract existence, his essential nature, and his relation to the visible universe; Amun, the Hidden One; Kneph, the Great Spirit; Khem, the Universal Creator. But long before the commencement of the historical period, this conception of the Deity had become obscured, and the Egyptian pantheon was filled with all imaginable inventions—the greater gods and the lesser—a menagerie of all living things—a medley of all symbols and emblems, downward from the awful triad to the vilest reptile, and the most unseemly objects in nature.

That, amid all this, the priesthood retained or possessed the knowledge of the great truths to which we have referred, is unquestionable; and, indeed, they were entertained by the higher order of minds in all ages and countries. They believed in a Being or beings abstract or unknown, or known only through his own manifestations and they believed in a continued existence, if not in the immortality of the soul, and in a moral government. Whether these were, as we have supposed, relics of a primeval revelation, or the dictates of reason, we know not; nor is it of much consequence, for St. Paul affirms the light of nature to be sufficient for these things. Rom_1:19-20. But to the charge against the leaders of opinion in ages and pagan countries, the Egyptian priesthood are especially open; that they concealed, or exhibited only in inscrutable symbols, and disclosed only as high secrets to the initiated few, what they thus actually knew; and taught what they did not themselves believe, or did not believe in the sense in which they wished to be understood by the people. “They took upon themselves to conclude, that the true doctrine was not suited to the vulgar; that an abstract faith, and an invisible deity, were insufficient guarantees for order and religion; and hence they set about inventing a more popular faith, and a more imposing form of worship.” “They concealed the great purifying verities from others; hid what they themselves knew of truth under forms and symbols, and hieratic language, which only themselves could understand. For the abstract verities they substituted rites and ceremonies, and objects of worship, the tendency of which they knew to be injurious, and that they must as certainly darken the mind and debase the character, as that an opaque body must cast a shadow, and a cloud obscure the rays of the rising still.” Note: Beldam’s Recollections and Scenes and Institutions is Italy and the East. London, 1851. Chap. xx.—in which the subject of Egyptian idolatry is ably discussed, though in a more tolerant spirit towards idolatrous symbolization, as such, than the Bible sanctions. The grossness of the Egyptian symbolization shocks him rather than its essence, which he seems to regard as a necessary evil, in the absence of such direct revelation as the Hebrews possessed. Volumes might, however, be written, and have been written, on these matters. The doctrine of the Egyptian priesthood respecting reserve in the impartation of religious truth, exists in our day, and has found Christian advocates.

Autor: JOHN KITTO