The Immortality of the Soul—History of the Doctrine

THE next point to be noticed is that Greece, Rome, and other nations, borrowed their systems of religion, especially the doctrine of the soul, from Egypt. To this fact all historians testify.

Enfield in his well-known history of Philosophy, says: "Egypt is unquestionably to be ranked amongst the most ancient civilized countries, and was very early famous for wisdom. Many eminent philosophers among the Greeks, such as Orpheus, Thales, Pythagoras, Democritus, and Plato visited Egypt in search of knowledge." (P. 36.)

Saint Hippolytus says that the Egyptians "were the first to proclaim to all the rest of

men the rites and orgies of at the same time, all the gods." (Anti-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 6, p. 134.)

Bishop Warburton, who has studied and written so largely upon this subject, says of the heathen mysteries, that they "all have their common origin from Egypt." Again: "It is very certain they came first from Egypt." (Div. Lega. of Moses Den., vol. i, pp. 194, 233.) He declares, and truly too, that "the Magi of Persia, the Denids of Gaul, and the Brahmins of India," were all "the genuine offspring of the Egyptian priests." (Ibid., vol. ii, p. 106.)

Of the terrors of the infernal regions, Dr. Good says, "Egypt is generally said to have been the inventress of this important and valuable part of the common tradition." (Book of Nature, p. 378.)

Rollin, the historian, says, "It is to Egypt that Pythagoras owed his favorite doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls." (Anct. Hist., vol. i, p. 10.)

Mr. Watson also says that it was from Egypt that the other nations borrowed many of their religious doctrines. (Theological Inst., vol. i., pp. 43, 52.) Another says, "Pherecydes taught those opinions concerning the gods and the origin of the world which the ancient Grecian theogonists borrowed from Egypt." (Enfield's Hist. of Philo., p. 210.)

In harmony with this Alger writes: "It seems plain that the Greeks derived many of their notions concerning the fate and state of the dead from Egypt. . . Besides, Herodotus positively affirms that they were derived from Egypt. Several other ancient authors also state this, and nearly every modern writer on the subject agrees in it." (Doctrine of a Future Life, part. i, chap. v, p. 101.)

The evidence is clear and abundant that the Greeks obtained their first notions of the soul's immortality from the Egyptians, though, as we shall soon see, they altered this doctrine and added to it. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, as we have seen, was a leading notion in the Egyptian religion. The Greeks received this with the rest, but at a later date than most other parts of their system. Says Herodotus: "The Egyptians also were the first who asserted the doctrine that, the soul of man is immortal. . . Some of the Greeks have adopted this opinion, some earlier, others later, as if it were their own." (Herodotus, Euturpe II, 123, p. 144.)

This is very plain testimony as to where the Greeks obtained this doctrine; also that it was not known among them till learned from Egypt; and that even then all did not at once receive it. Pherecydes, who lived about six hundred years before Christ, was the first who taught the Greeks the notion. He received his learning and doctrine from the Egyptians. Josephus, in his book "Against Apion," says: "But then for those that first introduced philosophy [among the Greeks], and the consideration of things celestial and divine among them, such as Pherecydes the Syrian, and Pythagoras, and Thales, all with one consent agree that they learned what they knew of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and wrote but little. And these are the things which are supposed to be the oldest of all among the Greeks. And they have much ado to believe that the writings ascribed to those men are genuine." (Book i, sec. 2.)

The reader will notice that the teachings of Pherecydes and Thales are among the oldest things taught the Greeks, and that they hardly knew whether to believe them or not. This was only six hundred years before Christ. Moses had legislated for Israel about one thousand years before that, and even David and Solomon had slept with their fathers for about four hundred years when this philosopher first taught the Greeks about the soul's immortality. So this doctrine was not very ancient among them. Enfield says: "Another tenet which is by the universal consent of the ancients ascribed to Pherecydes, is that of the immortality of the soul, for which he was, perhaps, indebted to the Egyptians. Cicero says that he was the first philosopher in whose writings this doctrine appeared. He is also said, and not improbably, to have taught the doctrine of the transmission of the soul; for this was a tenet commonly received among the Egyptians, and afterwards taught by Pythagoras." (Hist. of Philo., p. 210.)

This history points out the very first man who wrote in favor of this heathen dogma. Pherecydes not only borrowed the doctrine of the immortality and transmigration of souls from the Egyptians, and taught it to the Greeks, but he added to it a refinement of his own, which was unknown till he first broached it; this was the idea that the soul is a part of God.

Mr. Warburton has argued this point at some length, and shown that this doctrine was of Grecian, and not of Egyptian origin, and that Pherecydes and his contemporary Thales, were the inventors of it. He says, "The Greeks having thus given the soul one of the attributes of the Divinity, another Egyptian doctrine soon taught them to make a perfect God of it." (Div. Lega., vol. ii, book iii, sec. 4, p. 240.)

Here we find the date of another important step in the history of this doctrine. All agree that the Greek philosophers much improved the doctrines which they had learned from Egypt. This was one of the first of these improvements.

PYTHAGORAS.

The next great name in antiquity that appears in the history of this doctrine, is Pythagoras. He was a Greek, born about B. C. 550; the exact date is not certain. He was a disciple of Pherecydes. He passed twenty-two years in Egypt, and used great diligence in learning the doctrines of the priests. After traveling through many cities of Greece, he finally went to Crotona, in Magna Grecia, where he established a flourishing school, which was attended by hundreds. (Enfield's Hist. p. 212.) The school, or sect, thus founded by him, was called the Italic or Pythagoric sect.

Of his visit to Egypt, and the result, Warburton says: "The last sort of people who went to Egypt for instruction were the philosophers, properly so called. . . . The first (as well as the most famous) of this class, and who gave philosophy its name and character, was Pythagoras. He and Plato, with others, traveled in Egypt, like their predecessors. . . . . The ancients tell us of their long abode there; their hard condition of admittance into the sacred colleges; and their bringing away with them all the secret science of the priesthood. The result of all was, and it is worth our observation, that, from this time, the Greek sophists (now called philosophers) began to cultivate the belief of a future state of rewards and punishments." (Div. Legas, vol. ii, pp. 108, 109.)

Yes, these observations are important. 1. Pythagoras went into Egypt. 2. There he and Plato learned the doctrines of the priests. 3. The result was, that from that time the Greek philosophers began to cultivate this belief. Then they had not cultivated that belief before, much less had the people. There is an abundance of evidence to show that he is correct in these statements.

We will now briefly inquire into Pythagoras' doctrine concerning man and the soul. He seems to have made some advancement upon the doctrine of his master, Pherecydes. He taught that God was the great fountain, or the universal mind, from whence emanated the minds, or souls, of all intelligent beings; that the soul existed before it animated this body; that it will transmigrate through different bodies till it returns to God, its original source, and is reabsorbed into his essence. Like all before him, he still held the soul to be material. With regard to his idea of God, Enfield says: "He does not seem to have had the idea of a pure spirit."

Enfield has thoroughly discussed the whole subject, so I glean the following facts from him: 1. We learn that Pythagoras retained all the advance steps which his master, Pherecydes, had made on the ancient faith. 2. He added much of his own theorizing. 3. He introduced a subtle mode of philosophizing, which confused the mind more than it enlightened it. He used many subtle divisions and distinctions, which were unknown before. He was the first one who assumed the name of philosopher. 4. He began to decry "gross matter" as corrupt, and far removed from God. 5. Yet he still held God, demons, and souls to be material; but they were of subtile, ethereal substance. (Hist. of Phil., p. 228 etc.)

ANAXAGORAS.

The discovery that mind is entirely independent of matter was reserved for another philosopher, born about 50 years later than Pythagoras. This was Anaxagoras, one of the successors of Pythagoras in the Ionic school, of this fact Enfield testifies thus:—

"Plutarch confirms this account of the doctrine of Anaxagoras, and shows wherein it differed from that of his predecessors. 'The Ionic philosophers,' says he, 'who appeared before Anaxagoras, made fortune, or blind necessity, that is, the fortuitous or necessary motion of the particles of matter, the first principle in nature; but Anaxagoras affirmed that a pure mind, perfectly free from all material concretions, governs the universe.' From these and other concurrent testimonies, it clearly appears that Anaxagoras was the first among the Greeks who conceived of mind as detached from matter, and as acting upon it with intelligence and design in the formation of the universe. The infinite mind, or Deity, which his predecessors had confounded with matter, making them one universe, Anaxagoras conceived to have a separate and independent existence, and to be simple, pure intelligence, capable of forming the eternal mass of matter according to his pleasure." (Ibid., p. 87.)

The learned Cudworth says, "Anaxagoras was the first who affirmed a pure and sincere mind to preside over all." (Intel. Sys., vol. ii, p. 30.)

These facts are worthy of our notice. They show the gradual tendency among the ancients to condemn matter, separate the mind from all dependence upon it, and finally to arrive at the conclusion that it is purely spiritual and immaterial. But it required ages of philosophizing to arrive at this conclusion. Anaxagoras broached his opinion, as before stated, about 450 B. C. Even he did not arrive at the notion that the soul of man is purely spiritual and immaterial. This was reserved for another great philosopher, as we shall soon see. These things show what thorough materialists all the ancients were, and how long it took to philosophize them out of it. It was not till common sense and sober reason were laid aside for "vain philosophy" and subtle sophistry, that they arrived at this sublime conclusion!