Paper 95
The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant 레반트에서 멜기세덱 가르침들
1. The Salem Religion in Mesopotamia 메소포타미아의 살렘 종교
2. Early Egyptian Religion 초기 이집트 종교
3. Evolution of Moral Concepts 도덕 개념의 진화
4. The Teachings of Amenemope 아메네모페의 가르침
5. The Remarkable Ikhnaton 비범한 이크나톤
6. The Salem Doctrines in Iran
7. The Salem Teachings in Arabia
95:0.1 (1042.1) AS INDIA gave rise to many of the religions and philosophies of eastern Asia, so the Levant was the homeland of the faiths of the Occidental world. The Salem missionaries spread out all over southwestern Asia, through Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran, and Arabia, everywhere proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Machiventa Melchizedek. In some of these lands their teachings bore fruit; in others they met with varying success. Sometimes their failures were due to lack of wisdom, sometimes to circumstances beyond their control. 인도가 동아시아의 여러 종교와 철학을 낳았듯이, 레반트는 서양 세계 신앙이 태어난 고국이었습니다. 살렘 선교사들은 아시아 남서부 전역으로 퍼져나가, 팔레스타인, 메소포타미아, 이집트, 이란 및 아라비아를 거치면서, 가는 곳마다 마키벤타 멜기세덱 복음의 기쁜 소식을 선포했습니다. 이런 지역 중 일부에서 그들의 가르침이 열매를 맺었고, 다른 지역에서 그들은 다양하게 성공을 거두었습니다. 때때로 지혜의 부족으로, 때로는 부득이한 사정 때문에 실패했습니다.
1. The Salem Religion in Mesopotamia 메소포타미아의 살렘 종교
95:1.1 (1042.2) By 2000 B.C. the religions of Mesopotamia had just about lost the teachings of the Sethites and were largely under the influence of the primitive beliefs of two groups of invaders, the Bedouin Semites who had filtered in from the western desert and the barbarian horsemen who had come down from the north. BC 2,000년까지 메소포타미아의 종교들은 셋-사람들의 가르침을 거의 다 잃어버렸고, 주로 두 집단의 침입자들, 서쪽 사막에서 침투한 베두인 사람 셈족들과 북쪽에서 말을 타고 내려온 야만인들이 지닌 원시 믿음의 영향력 아래에 있었습니다.
95:1.2 (1042.3) But the custom of the early Adamite peoples in honoring the seventh day of the week never completely disappeared in Mesopotamia. Only, during the Melchizedek era, the seventh day was regarded as the worst of bad luck. It was taboo-ridden; it was unlawful to go on a journey, cook food, or make a fire on the evil seventh day. The Jews carried back to Palestine many of the Mesopotamian taboos which they had found resting on the Babylonian observance of the seventh day, the Shabattum. 그러나 일주일 중 일곱 번째 날을 존중하는 초기 아담-사람 민족들의 관습은 메소포타미아에서 결코 완전히 사라지지 않았습니다. 다만 멜기세덱 시대에는 일곱 번째 날을 가장 불운으로 여겼습니다. 그날은 금기로 시달렸습니다. 불길한 일곱 번째 날에 여행하고, 조리하거나 불을 피우는 것은 불법이었습니다. 유대인들은 바빌론의 일곱 번째 날, 샤바툼을 지키면서 부담한 금기 중 자신들이 발견한 메소포타미아의 여러 금기를 팔레스타인으로 가져왔습니다(출16:23-26, 20:8-11, 31:14-17, 35:2-3, 레23:3. 신5:12-15).
95:1.3 (1042.4) Although the Salem teachers did much to refine and uplift the religions of Mesopotamia, they did not succeed in bringing the various peoples to the permanent recognition of one God. Such teaching gained the ascendancy for more than one hundred and fifty years and then gradually gave way to the older belief in a multiplicity of deities. 살렘 선생들이 메소포타미아의 종교들을 많이 순화하고 향상하는데 진력했지만, 다양한 민족들을 하나뿐인 하느님에 대한 영구적 인식으로 잘 이끌지 못했습니다. 그런 가르침은 150년 이상 우세했지만, 그 후 다수의 신(神)들을 믿는 더 오래된 믿음에 점차 길을 내주었습니다.
95:1.4 (1042.5) The Salem teachers greatly reduced the number of the gods of Mesopotamia, at one time bringing the chief deities down to seven: Bel, Shamash, Nabu, Anu, Ea, Marduk, and Sin. At the height of the new teaching they exalted three of these gods to supremacy over all others, the Babylonian triad: Bel, Ea, and Anu, the gods of earth, sea, and sky. Still other triads grew up in different localities, all reminiscent of the trinity teachings of the Andites and the Sumerians and based on the belief of the Salemites in Melchizedek’s insignia of the three circles. 살렘 선생들은 메소포타미아의 신과 같은 존재들의 수(數)를 크게 줄여서, 한때 그 주요 신(神)들이 일곱까지 낮추었는데, 벨, 샤마쉬, 나부, 아누, 에아, 마르둑과 신이었습니다. 새 가르침의 절정에서, 그들은 이런 신과 같은 존재 중 셋을 다른 모든 신(神)보다 최고로 높였는데, 바빌론의 삼신(三神)은 벨, 에아와 아누 즉 땅과 바다와 하늘의 신과 같은 존재들이었습니다. 그 후에도 다른 삼신(三神)이 다른 지역에서 서서히 생겼는데, 모두 안드-사람들과 수메르인(人)들의 삼위일체 가르침을 회상시키고, 멜기세덱 표지, 세 동심원을 믿는 살렘 사람들의 믿음에 근거했습니다.
95:1.5 (1042.6) Never did the Salem teachers fully overcome the popularity of Ishtar, the mother of gods and the spirit of sex fertility. They did much to refine the worship of this goddess, but the Babylonians and their neighbors had never completely outgrown their disguised forms of sex worship. It had become a universal practice throughout Mesopotamia for all women to submit, at least once in early life, to the embrace of strangers; this was thought to be a devotion required by Ishtar, and it was believed that fertility was largely dependent on this sex sacrifice. 살렘 선생들은 신과 같은 존재들의 어머니이며 성적 다산(多産)의 영(靈), 이쉬타르의 인기를 완전히 극복한 적이 결코 없었습니다. 그들은 이런 여신 숭배를 순화(純化)하려고 많이 노력했지만, 바빌로니아인(人)들과 그 이웃들은 자신들이 거짓으로 꾸민 성숭배(性崇拜) 형태를 완전히 그만둔 적이 결코 없었습니다. 메소포타미아 전체에서 모든 여성이 젊은 시절에 한 번쯤 낯선 사람들의 포옹을 감수하는 것이 보편적인 관습이 되었습니다. 이것은 이쉬타르가 요구하는 헌신으로 여겨졌고 다산(多産)이 주로 이런 성적 희생 행위에 달려 있다고 믿었습니다.
95:1.6 (1043.1) The early progress of the Melchizedek teaching was highly gratifying until Nabodad, the leader of the school at Kish, decided to make a concerted attack upon the prevalent practices of temple harlotry. But the Salem missionaries failed in their effort to bring about this social reform, and in the wreck of this failure all their more important spiritual and philosophic teachings went down in defeat. 멜기세덱 가르침의 초기 진보는 키쉬에 있는 학교의 지도자, 나보닷이 널리 퍼진 성전 매춘 관습을 합심하여 공격하기로 결심하기까지는 매우 만족스러웠습니다. 그러나 살렘 선교사들이 이렇게 사회 개혁을 성취하려는 그들의 노력은 끝내 실패했고, 이런 실패의 잔해 가운데 더 중요한 그들의 영적, 철학적 가르침은 모두 패배했습니다.
95:1.7 (1043.2) This defeat of the Salem gospel was immediately followed by a great increase in the cult of Ishtar, a ritual which had already invaded Palestine as Ashtoreth, Egypt as Isis, Greece as Aphrodite, and the northern tribes as Astarte. And it was in connection with this revival of the worship of Ishtar that the Babylonian priests turned anew to stargazing; astrology experienced its last great Mesopotamian revival, fortunetelling became the vogue, and for centuries the priesthood increasingly deteriorated. 살렘 복음의 이런 패배 직후 이쉬타르 종파가 매우 확대되어, 이미 팔레스타인에서 아스다롯으로, 이집트에서 이시스로, 그리스에서 아프로디테로, 북부 부족들에서 아스타르테로 퍼져있던 의식(儀式)이었습니다. 이런 이쉬타르 숭배의 재유행과 관련하여 바빌론 사제들은 다시 별의 관찰에 의지했습니다. 점성술이 마지막으로 메소포타미아에서 크게 재유행하여, 점(占)이 유행하게 되었고, 수 세기 동안 사제직이 점차 수준이 낮아졌습니다(삿2:13, 10:6, 삼상7:3-4, 12:10, 왕상11:5, 33, 왕하23:13).
95:1.8 (1043.3) Melchizedek had warned his followers to teach about the one God, the Father and Maker of all, and to preach only the gospel of divine favor through faith alone. But it has often been the error of the teachers of new truth to attempt too much, to attempt to supplant slow evolution by sudden revolution. The Melchizedek missionaries in Mesopotamia raised a moral standard too high for the people; they attempted too much, and their noble cause went down in defeat. They had been commissioned to preach a definite gospel, to proclaim the truth of the reality of the Universal Father, but they became entangled in the apparently worthy cause of reforming the mores, and thus was their great mission sidetracked and virtually lost in frustration and oblivion. 멜기세덱은 자기 추종자들에게 하나뿐인 하느님, 만유의 아버지와 조물주에 대해 가르치고, 신앙만을 통한 신적 은혜의 복음만 전하도록 경고했습니다. 그러나 새 진리의 선생들은 너무 많이 시도하면서, 갑작스러운 혁명으로 더딘 진화를 밀어내려고 시도하는 잘못을 자주 범했습니다. 메소포타미아의 멜기세덱 선교사들은 사람들의 도덕적 기준을 너무 높였습니다. 그들은 너무 많이 시도하여, 그들의 숭고한 대의명분(大義名分)은 무너졌습니다. 그들은 명확한 복음을 전하고, 우주 아버지의 실체 진리를 선포하도록 위임받았지만, 그들은 사회적 관행을 개혁하는 언뜻 보기에 가치 있는 운동에 말려들어서, 자신들의 위대한 사명을 회피하고 사실상 좌절과 망각으로 잃어버렸습니다.
95:1.9 (1043.4) In one generation the Salem headquarters at Kish came to an end, and the propaganda of the belief in one God virtually ceased throughout Mesopotamia. But remnants of the Salem schools persisted. Small bands scattered here and there continued their belief in the one Creator and fought against the idolatry and immorality of the Mesopotamian priests. 한 세대 만에 키쉬의 살렘 본부는 없어졌고, 하나뿐인 하느님을 믿는 믿음의 전도 활동은 사실상 메소포타미아 전역에서 끝장이 났습니다. 그러나 살렘 학교들의 자취는 살아남았습니다. 여기저기에 흩어진 작은 일행들은 하나뿐인 창조자를 계속 믿었고 메소포타미아 사제들의 우상 숭배와 부도덕 행위에 맞서 싸웠습니다.
95:1.10 (1043.5) It was the Salem missionaries of the period following the rejection of their teaching who wrote many of the Old Testament Psalms, inscribing them on stone, where later-day Hebrew priests found them during the captivity and subsequently incorporated them among the collection of hymns ascribed to Jewish authorship. These beautiful psalms from Babylon were not written in the temples of Bel-Marduk; they were the work of the descendants of the earlier Salem missionaries, and they are a striking contrast to the magical conglomerations of the Babylonian priests. The Book of Job is a fairly good reflection of the teachings of the Salem school at Kish and throughout Mesopotamia. 자신들의 가르침이 거절당한 다음 시기의 살렘 선교사들이 구약의 여러 시편을 바위에 새겨서 썼고, 훗날 히브리 사제들이 바빌론 포로기에 그것들을 발견한 후 유대인의 저작으로 여겨진 찬송가 모음집 사이에 그것들을 수록(收錄 모아서 기록)했습니다. 바빌론 출처의 이렇게 아름다운 시편들은 벨-마르둑의 신전에 기록되지 않았습니다. 그것들은 초기 살렘 선교사들의 후손들 작품이었고, 그것들은 바빌론 사제들의 마술적 혼합물과 현저히 대조적입니다. 욥기는 키쉬와 메소포타미아 전역의 살렘 학교에 속한 가르침을 상당히 훌륭하게 반영하고 있습니다(욥).
95:1.11 (1043.6) Much of the Mesopotamian religious culture found its way into Hebrew literature and liturgy by way of Egypt through the work of Amenemope and Ikhnaton. The Egyptians remarkably preserved the teachings of social obligation derived from the earlier Andite Mesopotamians and so largely lost by the later Babylonians who occupied the Euphrates valley. 메소포타미아의 종교적 문화 대부분은 아메네모페와 이크나톤의 작품을 통해 이집트를 거쳐 히브리 문학과 전례(典禮 의식)로 들어갔습니다. 이집트인(人)들은 메소포타미아의 더 이른 초기 안드-사람들에게서 유래되었고, 유프라테스 계곡을 차지했던 후대 바빌로니아인(人)들이 아주 많이 잃어버린, 사회적 의무의 가르침들을 유별나게 보존했습니다.
2. Early Egyptian Religion 초기 이집트 종교
95:2.1 (1043.7) The original Melchizedek teachings really took their deepest root in Egypt, from where they subsequently spread to Europe. The evolutionary religion of the Nile valley was periodically augmented by the arrival of superior strains of Nodite, Adamite, and later Andite peoples of the Euphrates valley. From time to time, many of the Egyptian civil administrators were Sumerians. As India in these days harbored the highest mixture of the world races, so Egypt fostered the most thoroughly blended type of religious philosophy to be found on Urantia, and from the Nile valley it spread to many parts of the world. The Jews received much of their idea of the creation of the world from the Babylonians, but they derived the concept of divine Providence from the Egyptians. 본래의 멜기세덱 가르침은 이집트에서 실제로 가장 깊이 뿌리를 내렸고, 그것들은 그곳에서 나중에 유럽으로 퍼졌습니다. 나일강 유역의 진화 종교는 유프라테스강 유역의 놋-사람, 아담-사람과 후대 안드-사람들에 속한 우수한 혈통들이 출현하여 간헐적으로 강화되었습니다. 때때로 이집트의 여러 시민 행정관은 수메르인(人)들이었습니다. 당시 인도에 가장 많이 혼합된 세계 인종이 살고 있었던 것처럼, 이집트는 유란시아에서 찾아낸 종교 철학 중에서 아주 완전히 섞인 유형을 육성하여, 나일강 유역으로부터 그것이 세계 여러 지역으로 퍼졌습니다. 유대인들은 바빌로니아인(人)들에게서 세상 창조에 대한 자신들의 개념을 많이 받았지만, 그들은 이집트인(人)들에게서 신적 신(神)의 개념을 얻었습니다.
95:2.2 (1044.1) It was political and moral, rather than philosophic or religious, tendencies that rendered Egypt more favorable to the Salem teaching than Mesopotamia. Each tribal leader in Egypt, after fighting his way to the throne, sought to perpetuate his dynasty by proclaiming his tribal god the original deity and creator of all other gods. In this way the Egyptians gradually got used to the idea of a supergod, a steppingstone to the later doctrine of a universal creator Deity. The idea of monotheism wavered back and forth in Egypt for many centuries, the belief in one God always gaining ground but never quite dominating the evolving concepts of polytheism. 이집트가 메소포타미아보다 살렘 가르침에 더 호의적이었던 것은 철학적이거나 종교적 경향보다는 정치적이고 도덕적인 경향이었습니다. 이집트의 각 부족 지도자는 왕위에 오르기 위해 싸운 후에 자기 부족의 신과 같은 존재가 다른 모든 신과 같은 존재들의 원래 신(神)이고 창조자라고 선포하여 자기 왕조를 영속시키려고 했습니다. 이런 식으로 이집트인(人)들은 점차 초(超)신과 같은 존재의 개념, 우주적 창조자 신(神)에 대한 후대 교리의 발판에 익숙해졌습니다. 일신교(一神敎) 사상은 여러 세기 동안 앞뒤로 너울거렸고, 하나뿐인 하느님에 대한 믿음이 언제나 더 강력해졌지만 진화하는 다신론(多神論)의 개념을 확실히 지배하지는 못했습니다.
95:2.3 (1044.2) For ages the Egyptian peoples had been given to the worship of nature gods; more particularly did each of the two-score separate tribes have a special group god, one worshiping the bull, another the lion, a third the ram, and so on. Still earlier they had been totem tribes, very much like the Amerinds. 이집트 민족은 오랫동안 자연의 신과 같은 존재들을 숭배했고, 특히 더, 두 개의 20개 단위로 분리된 부족마다 특별히 신과 같은 존재 집단을 갖고 있었는데, 하나는 황소를 숭배하고, 다른 하나는 사자를, 세 번째는 숫양을, 기타 등등을 숭배했습니다. 훨씬 이전에 그들은 아메리카 원주민들과 아주 비슷한 토템 부족들이었습니다.
95:2.4 (1044.3) In time the Egyptians observed that dead bodies placed in brickless graves were preserved — embalmed — by the action of the soda-impregnated sand, while those buried in brick vaults decayed. These observations led to those experiments which resulted in the later practice of embalming the dead. The Egyptians believed that preservation of the body facilitated one’s passage through the future life. That the individual might properly be identified in the distant future after the decay of the body, they placed a burial statue in the tomb along with the corpse, carving a likeness on the coffin. The making of these burial statues led to great improvement in Egyptian art. 이윽고 이집트인(人)들은 벽돌이 없는 무덤에 둔 시신들이 소다(탄산나트륨)가 스며든 모래의 작용으로 방부 처리되어 보존되었던 반면, 벽돌 저장고에 파묻힌 시신들이 부패한 것을 관찰했습니다. 이런 관찰은 그런 실험으로 이어져 그 결과 사망자를 방부 처리하는 후대의 관행이 되었습니다. 이집트인(人)들은 시신의 보존으로 내세로 쉽게 통과할 수 있다고 믿었습니다. 시신이 부패한 후 먼 훗날 개인의 신원을 올바로 확인할 수 있도록 그들은 시신과 함께 무덤에 매장 조각상을 두고 관(棺) 위에 화상(畫像 그린 형상)을 새겼습니다. 이런 매장 조각상의 제작은 이집트 예술의 커다란 향상으로 이어졌습니다.
95:2.5 (1044.4) For centuries the Egyptians placed their faith in tombs as the safeguard of the body and of consequent pleasurable survival after death. The later evolution of magical practices, while burdensome to life from the cradle to the grave, most effectually delivered them from the religion of the tombs. The priests would inscribe the coffins with charm texts which were believed to be protection against a “man’s having his heart taken away from him in the nether world.” Presently a diverse assortment of these magical texts was collected and preserved as The Book of the Dead. But in the Nile valley magical ritual early became involved with the realms of conscience and character to a degree not often attained by the rituals of those days. And subsequently these ethical and moral ideals, rather than elaborate tombs, were depended upon for salvation. 수 세기 동안 이집트인(人)들은 무덤이 시신(屍身)과 사후(死後) 즐거운 생존을 보호한다고 믿었습니다. 마술적 관습이 나중에 진화하여 요람에서 무덤까지 삶에 짐이 되었지만, 무덤의 종교에서 그들을 가장 완전하게 구해냈습니다. 사제들은 “저승에서 사람의 심장이 제거되는 일”이 방지된다고 믿는 부적 문구를 관(棺)들에 새겨 넣곤 했습니다. 이내 다양하게 분류되는 이런 마법적 문구가 수집되어 사자(死者)의 서(書)로 보존되었습니다. 그러나 나일강 유역의 마술 의식은 당시 의식(儀式)들로서는 드물게 이를 정도로 일찌감치 양심과 성격(性格)의 영역에 관련되었습니다. 이후에는 이런 윤리적, 도덕적 이상(理想)들이 정교한 무덤들보다 구원을 결정했습니다.
95:2.6 (1044.5) The superstitions of these times are well illustrated by the general belief in the efficacy of spittle as a healing agent, an idea which had its origin in Egypt and spread therefrom to Arabia and Mesopotamia. In the legendary battle of Horus with Set the young god lost his eye, but after Set was vanquished, this eye was restored by the wise god Thoth, who spat upon the wound and healed it. 이런 시절의 미신은 치료제로서 침의 효험에 대한 일반적인 믿음으로 잘 설명되는 데, 그런 개념은 이집트에서 시작하여 아라비아와 메소포타미아까지 퍼졌습니다. 전설적인, 호루스와 세트의 전투에서, 젊은 신과 같은 존재(호루스)는 자기 눈을 잃었지만, 세트를 이긴 후, 현명한 신과 같은 존재 토트가 상처에 침을 뱉고 치료하여 그의 눈이 회복되었습니다(막8:23, 요9:6).
95:2.7 (1044.6) The Egyptians long believed that the stars twinkling in the night sky represented the survival of the souls of the worthy dead; other survivors they thought were absorbed into the sun. During a certain period, solar veneration became a species of ancestor worship. The sloping entrance passage of the great pyramid pointed directly toward the Pole Star so that the soul of the king, when emerging from the tomb, could go straight to the stationary and established constellations of the fixed stars, the supposed abode of the kings. 이집트인(人)들은 밤하늘에 반짝이는 별들은 훌륭한 고인(故人)의 혼(魂)들이 살아남은 표시라고 오랫동안 믿었습니다. 나머지 살아남은 혼들은 태양 안으로 흡수되었다고 그들은 생각했습니다. 특정 기간에 태양 숭배는 일종의 조상 숭배가 되었습니다. 왕의 혼(魂)이 무덤에서 나올 때 왕들의 거처로 추정된, 항성들의 고정되어 확립된 성좌들로 직행할 수 있도록, 대(大) 피라미드의 경사진 입구 통로는 똑바로 북극성을 향하고 있었습니다.
95:2.8 (1045.1) When the oblique rays of the sun were observed penetrating earthward through an aperture in the clouds, it was believed that they betokened the letting down of a celestial stairway whereon the king and other righteous souls might ascend. “King Pepi has put down his radiance as a stairway under his feet whereon to ascend to his mother.” 태양의 비스듬한 광선이 구름의 틈을 거쳐 지면으로 관통하는 것을 관찰하면서, 그것들이 왕과 다른 의로운 혼(魂)들이 올라갈 수도 있는 천상의 계단이 내려오는 조짐이라고 여겼습니다. “페피 왕이 자기 어머니에게 올라가도록 자기 광휘(光輝 환한 빛)를 자기 발밑에 계단으로 내려놓았습니다.”
95:2.9 (1045.2) When Melchizedek appeared in the flesh, the Egyptians had a religion far above that of the surrounding peoples. They believed that a disembodied soul, if properly armed with magic formulas, could evade the intervening evil spirits and make its way to the judgment hall of Osiris, where, if innocent of “murder, robbery, falsehood, adultery, theft, and selfishness,” it would be admitted to the realms of bliss. If this soul were weighed in the balances and found wanting, it would be consigned to hell, to the Devouress. And this was, relatively, an advanced concept of a future life in comparison with the beliefs of many surrounding peoples. 멜기세덱이 육신으로 출현할 때, 이집트인(人)들은 주변 민족들보다 훨씬 높은 종교를 갖고 있었습니다. 그들은 육체에서 분리된 혼(魂)이 마법 공식을 올바로 갖추면 방해하는 악령(惡靈)들을 피해서 오시리스의 재판장으로 갈 수 있는데, 그곳에서 “살인, 강도, 거짓말, 간통, 도둑질 및 이기심”에 대해 결백하면, 낙원의 영역에 들어가게 될 것이라고 믿었습니다. 이런 혼(魂)을 저울로 달아, 표준에 이르지 못하면, 지옥, 데부레스(삼켜서 파멸하는 여인)에게 넘겨졌습니다. 그리고 이것은 주변의 여러 민족의 믿음과 비교하면, 상대적으로 진보한 내세(來世)의 개념이었습니다.
95:2.10 (1045.3) The concept of judgment in the hereafter for the sins of one’s life in the flesh on earth was carried over into Hebrew theology from Egypt. The word judgment appears only once in the entire Book of Hebrew Psalms, and that particular psalm was written by an Egyptian. 지상에서 육체로 살면서 지은 죄에 대한 내세의 심판 개념은 이집트에서 히브리 신학으로 이어졌습니다(히9:27). 심판이라는 단어는 히브리 시편 전체에서 단 한 번 나타나며 이집트인(人)이 그 특정한 시편을 썼습니다.
3. Evolution of Moral Concepts 도덕 개념의 진화
95:3.1 (1045.4) Although the culture and religion of Egypt were chiefly derived from Andite Mesopotamia and largely transmitted to subsequent civilizations through the Hebrews and Greeks, much, very much, of the social and ethical idealism of the Egyptians arose in the valley of the Nile as a purely evolutionary development. Notwithstanding the importation of much truth and culture of Andite origin, there evolved in Egypt more of moral culture as a purely human development than appeared by similar natural techniques in any other circumscribed area prior to the bestowal of Michael. 이집트의 문화와 종교는 주로 안드-사람 메소포타미아에서 파생되어 히브리인(人)들과 그리스인(人)들을 거쳐 대부분 후대 문명에 전달되었고, 이집트의 사회적, 윤리적 이상주의(理想主義)의 대부분은 나일강 유역에서 순전히 진화 발전의 결과로 생겼습니다. 안드-사람에서 유래된 여러 진리와 문화의 수입에도 불구하고, 이집트에는 미가엘 증여 이전의 어떤 다른 주변 지역에서 비슷한 자연 기법으로 출현한 것보다 더 많은 도덕적 문화가 순전히 인간 발전으로 진화되었습니다.
95:3.2 (1045.5) Moral evolution is not wholly dependent on revelation. High moral concepts can be derived from man’s own experience. Man can even evolve spiritual values and derive cosmic insight from his personal experiential living because a divine spirit indwells him. Such natural evolutions of conscience and character were also augmented by the periodic arrival of teachers of truth, in ancient times from the second Eden, later on from Melchizedek’s headquarters at Salem. 도덕적 진화는 전적으로 계시에 달려있지는 않습니다. 높은 도덕 개념은 인간 자신의 체험에서 파생될 수 있습니다. 인간은 신적 영(靈)이 그 안에 자리 잡고 머물러 살기 때문에 영적 가치를 진화시키고 질서 우주의 통찰력을 자신의 개인적 체험 생활에서 끌어낼 수도 있습니다. 그런 양심(良心)과 성격(性格)의 자연적 진화들은 고대의 둘째 에덴에서, 후대에 살렘의 멜기세덱 본부로부터 진리의 선생들이 정기적으로 도착하여 증대되기도 했습니다.
95:3.3 (1045.6) Thousands of years before the Salem gospel penetrated to Egypt, its moral leaders taught justice, fairness, and the avoidance of avarice. Three thousand years before the Hebrew scriptures were written, the motto of the Egyptians was: “Established is the man whose standard is righteousness; who walks according to its way.” They taught gentleness, moderation, and discretion. The message of one of the great teachers of this epoch was: “Do right and deal justly with all.” The Egyptian triad of this age was Truth-Justice-Righteousness. Of all the purely human religions of Urantia none ever surpassed the social ideals and the moral grandeur of this onetime humanism of the Nile valley. 살렘 복음이 이집트로 퍼지기 수천 년 전, 이집트의 도덕적 지도자들은 정의(正義), 공정(公正) 및 탐욕을 피하도록 가르쳤습니다. 히브리 성서가 기록되기 3천 년 전 이집트인(人)들의 좌우명은 “공의(公義)를 기준으로 삼고 그 길을 따라 사는 사람을 임명하라.”였습니다. 그들은 관대(寬待)함, 중용(中庸) 및 신중(愼重)을 가르쳤습니다. 이런 획기적 시대의 위대한 선생 중 하나의 메시지는 “옳게 행하고 모두를 공정하게 대하라.”였습니다. 이 시대 이집트의 3대 표어는 진리(眞理)-정의(正義)-공의(公義)였습니다. 유란시아의 순전히 인간적인 모든 종교 중에서 나일강 유역의 이런 옛날 인간성의 사회적 이상(理想)과 도덕적 위엄을 능가한 것은 아무것도 없었습니다.
95:3.4 (1045.7) In the soil of these evolving ethical ideas and moral ideals the surviving doctrines of the Salem religion flourished. The concepts of good and evil found ready response in the hearts of a people who believed that “Life is given to the peaceful and death to the guilty.” “The peaceful is he who does what is loved; the guilty is he who does what is hated.” For centuries the inhabitants of the Nile valley had lived by these emerging ethical and social standards before they ever entertained the later concepts of right and wrong — good and bad. 이렇게 진화하는 윤리 관념과 도덕적 이상(理想)의 토양에서, 살렘 종교의 살아남은 교리들이 번성(繁盛)했습니다. 선과 악의 개념은 “평화로운 자는 생명을, 죄지은 자는 죽음을 받습니다.”라고 믿었던 사람들의 심정에서 즉각적인 반응을 일으켰습니다. “사랑받는 것을 행하는 자는 평온하고, 미움받는 것을 행하는 자는 죄가 있습니다.” 수 세기 동안 나일강 유역의 주민들은 옳고 그름, 선과 악의 후대 개념을 받아들이기도 전에 이렇게 새로운 윤리적, 사회적 기준에 따라 살았습니다.
95:3.5 (1046.1) Egypt was intellectual and moral but not overly spiritual. In six thousand years only four great prophets arose among the Egyptians. Amenemope they followed for a season; Okhban they murdered; Ikhnaton they accepted but halfheartedly for one short generation; Moses they rejected. Again was it political rather than religious circumstances that made it easy for Abraham and, later on, for Joseph to exert great influence throughout Egypt in behalf of the Salem teachings of one God. But when the Salem missionaries first entered Egypt, they encountered this highly ethical culture of evolution blended with the modified moral standards of Mesopotamian immigrants. These early Nile valley teachers were the first to proclaim conscience as the mandate of God, the voice of Deity. 이집트는 지적이고 도덕적이었지만 지나치게 영적이지 않았습니다. 6천 년 동안 단지 4명의 위대한 선지자들이 이집트인(人) 중에 일어났습니다. 그들은 아메네모페를 잠시 따랐습니다. 그들은 오크반을 살해했습니다. 그들이 이크나톤을 받아들였지만 내키지 않는 마음으로 짧은 한 세대 동안 그랬습니다. 그들은 모세를 버렸습니다. 하나뿐인 하느님의 살렘 가르침을 위해서 아브라함과 나중에 요셉이 이집트 전역에 커다란 영향력을 쉽게 행사하게 한 것은 종교적 상황보다는 또다시 정치적 상황이었습니다. 그러나 살렘 선교사들이 처음 이집트에 들어갔을 때, 그들은 이렇게 메소포타미아 이주민의 변경된 도덕적 기준이 혼합된 고도로 윤리적인 진화 문화를 마주쳤습니다. 이런 초기 나일강 유역의 선생들은 양심(良心)을 하느님의 명령, 신(神)의 목소리라고 처음으로 선포했습니다.
4. The Teachings of Amenemope 아메네모페의 가르침
95:4.1 (1046.2) In due time there grew up in Egypt a teacher called by many the “son of man” and by others Amenemope. This seer exalted conscience to its highest pinnacle of arbitrament between right and wrong, taught punishment for sin, and proclaimed salvation through calling upon the solar deity. 때가 되자 이집트에서 여러 사람이 “사람의 아들”로, 다른 이들은 아메니모페로 불렀던 선생이 출현했습니다. 이 선견자는 죄에 대한 처벌을 가르치고, 태양신(神)에게 호소하면 구원된다고 선포하면서, 양심(良心)을 옳고 그름을 중재(仲裁)하는 최고 정점으로 높였습니다.
95:4.2 (1046.3) Amenemope taught that riches and fortune were the gift of God, and this concept thoroughly colored the later appearing Hebrew philosophy. This noble teacher believed that God-consciousness was the determining factor in all conduct; that every moment should be lived in the realization of the presence of, and responsibility to, God. The teachings of this sage were subsequently translated into Hebrew and became the sacred book of that people long before the Old Testament was reduced to writing. The chief preachment of this good man had to do with instructing his son in uprightness and honesty in governmental positions of trust, and these noble sentiments of long ago would do honor to any modern statesman. 아메니모페는 부(富)와 번영은 하느님의 선물이라고 가르쳤고, 이 개념은 나중에 등장한 히브리 철학을 속속들이 물들였습니다. 고귀한 이 선생은, 매 순간 하느님의 현존과 그에 대한 책임을 깨닫는 가운데 살아야 하므로, 하느님-의식(意識)이 모든 행위를 결정하는 요소라고 믿었습니다. 이 현인(賢人)은 가르침은 나중에 히브리어로 번역되어 구약성서가 문서로 옮겨지기 훨씬 이전에 그 민족의 신성한 책이 되었습니다. 이 훌륭한 사람의 주된 훈계는 자기 아들에게 청렴(淸廉)과 정직으로 정부(政府)의 책임 있는 지위를 맡도록 가르치는 것에 관한 것이었고, 옛날의 이런 고결한 견해는 현대 정치가라면 누구나 존경할 만한 것입니다(시112:1-3, 115:13, 잠1:8-9, 2:1-12, 3:1-2, 4:1, 10, 20, 5:1-2, 6:20-21, 7:1-3, 22:4, 전8:12-13).
95:4.3 (1046.4) This wise man of the Nile taught that “riches take themselves wings and fly away” — that all things earthly are evanescent. His great prayer was to be “saved from fear.” He exhorted all to turn away from “the words of men” to “the acts of God.” In substance he taught: Man proposes but God disposes. His teachings, translated into Hebrew, determined the philosophy of the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. Translated into Greek, they gave color to all subsequent Hellenic religious philosophy. The later Alexandrian philosopher, Philo, possessed a copy of the Book of Wisdom. 나일강의 이 현인(賢人)은 “재산은 스스로 날개를 달고 날아갑니다(잠23:5).” 즉 이 세상만사가 덧없다고 가르쳤습니다. 그의 위대한 기도는 “두려움에서 구원받는 것”이었습니다(욥21:9, 시27:3, 잠1:33, 사41:10, 13-14, 44:8, 54:4, 14, 렘30:10). 그는 모두에게 “사람들의 말”에서 “하느님의 행위”로 돌이키라고 권고했습니다. 실제로 그는 사람이 일을 꾸며도 성패는 하느님께 달렸다고 가르쳤습니다(잠16:1, 3). 히브리어로 번역된 그의 가르침은 구약성서 잠언의 철학을 결정지었습니다. 그리스어로 번역된 그의 가르침이 이후 모든 헬라(고대 그리스) 종교 철학을 물들였습니다. 나중에 알렉산드리아의 철학자 필로는 지혜서의 사본 하나를 가지고 있었습니다.
95:4.4 (1046.5) Amenemope functioned to conserve the ethics of evolution and the morals of revelation and in his writings passed them on both to the Hebrews and to the Greeks. He was not the greatest of the religious teachers of this age, but he was the most influential in that he colored the subsequent thought of two vital links in the growth of Occidental civilization — the Hebrews, among whom evolved the acme of Occidental religious faith, and the Greeks, who developed pure philosophic thought to its greatest European heights. 아메니모페는 진화의 윤리들과 계시의 도덕들을 보존하는 역할을 했고, 자신의 저술로 그것들을 히브리인들과 그리스인들 양쪽에게 넘겨주었습니다. 그는 이 시대의 가장 위대한 종교 선생에 속하지 않지만, 그는 서양 문명의 성장에 필수적인 두 개의 고리 – 자신들 가운데서 서양의 종교적 신앙을 정점(頂點)으로 진화시킨 히브리인들과 순수한 철학 사상을 가장 위대한 유럽의 절정(絶頂)으로 발전시킨 그리스인들-의 후대 사상을 물들였다는 점에서 가장 영향력이 컸습니다.
95:4.5 (1046.6) In the Book of Hebrew Proverbs, chapters fifteen, seventeen, twenty, and chapter twenty-two, verse seventeen, to chapter twenty-four, verse twenty-two, are taken almost verbatim from Amenemope’s Book of Wisdom. The first psalm of the Hebrew Book of Psalms was written by Amenemope and is the heart of the teachings of Ikhnaton. 히브리인의 잠언에서, 15장, 17장, 20장과 22장 17절에서 24장 22절까지는 아메네모페의 지혜서에서 거의 그대로 가져온 것입니다. 히브리 시편 중 1편은 아메니모페가 썼고 이크나톤 가르침의 핵심입니다.
5. The Remarkable Ikhnaton 비범한 이크나톤
95:5.1 (1047.1) The teachings of Amenemope were slowly losing their hold on the Egyptian mind when, through the influence of an Egyptian Salemite physician, a woman of the royal family espoused the Melchizedek teachings. This woman prevailed upon her son, Ikhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt, to accept these doctrines of One God.
95:5.2 (1047.2) Since the disappearance of Melchizedek in the flesh, no human being up to that time had possessed such an amazingly clear concept of the revealed religion of Salem as Ikhnaton. In some respects this young Egyptian king is one of the most remarkable persons in human history. During this time of increasing spiritual depression in Mesopotamia, he kept alive the doctrine of El Elyon, the One God, in Egypt, thus maintaining the philosophic monotheistic channel which was vital to the religious background of the then future bestowal of Michael. And it was in recognition of this exploit, among other reasons, that the child Jesus was taken to Egypt, where some of the spiritual successors of Ikhnaton saw him and to some extent understood certain phases of his divine mission to Urantia.
95:5.3 (1047.3) Moses, the greatest character between Melchizedek and Jesus, was the joint gift to the world of the Hebrew race and the Egyptian royal family; and had Ikhnaton possessed the versatility and ability of Moses, had he manifested a political genius to match his surprising religious leadership, then would Egypt have become the great monotheistic nation of that age; and if this had happened, it is barely possible that Jesus might have lived the greater portion of his mortal life in Egypt.
95:5.4 (1047.4) Never in all history did any king so methodically proceed to swing a whole nation from polytheism to monotheism as did this extraordinary Ikhnaton. With the most amazing determination this young ruler broke with the past, changed his name, abandoned his capital, built an entirely new city, and created a new art and literature for a whole people. But he went too fast; he built too much, more than could stand when he had gone. Again, he failed to provide for the material stability and prosperity of his people, all of which reacted unfavorably against his religious teachings when the subsequent floods of adversity and oppression swept over the Egyptians.
95:5.5 (1047.5) Had this man of amazingly clear vision and extraordinary singleness of purpose had the political sagacity of Moses, he would have changed the whole history of the evolution of religion and the revelation of truth in the Occidental world. During his lifetime he was able to curb the activities of the priests, whom he generally discredited, but they maintained their cults in secret and sprang into action as soon as the young king passed from power; and they were not slow to connect all of Egypt’s subsequent troubles with the establishment of monotheism during his reign.
95:5.6 (1047.6) Very wisely Ikhnaton sought to establish monotheism under the guise of the sun-god. This decision to approach the worship of the Universal Father by absorbing all gods into the worship of the sun was due to the counsel of the Salemite physician. Ikhnaton took the generalized doctrines of the then existent Aton faith regarding the fatherhood and motherhood of Deity and created a religion which recognized an intimate worshipful relation between man and God.
95:5.7 (1048.1) Ikhnaton was wise enough to maintain the outward worship of Aton, the sun-god, while he led his associates in the disguised worship of the One God, creator of Aton and supreme Father of all. This young teacher-king was a prolific writer, being author of the exposition entitled “The One God,” a book of thirty-one chapters, which the priests, when returned to power, utterly destroyed. Ikhnaton also wrote one hundred and thirty-seven hymns, twelve of which are now preserved in the Old Testament Book of Psalms, credited to Hebrew authorship.
95:5.8 (1048.2) The supreme word of Ikhnaton’s religion in daily life was “righteousness,” and he rapidly expanded the concept of right doing to embrace international as well as national ethics. This was a generation of amazing personal piety and was characterized by a genuine aspiration among the more intelligent men and women to find God and to know him. In those days social position or wealth gave no Egyptian any advantage in the eyes of the law. The family life of Egypt did much to preserve and augment moral culture and was the inspiration of the later superb family life of the Jews in Palestine.
95:5.9 (1048.3) The fatal weakness of Ikhnaton’s gospel was its greatest truth, the teaching that Aton was not only the creator of Egypt but also of the “whole world, man and beasts, and all the foreign lands, even Syria and Kush, besides this land of Egypt. He sets all in their place and provides all with their needs.” These concepts of Deity were high and exalted, but they were not nationalistic. Such sentiments of internationality in religion failed to augment the morale of the Egyptian army on the battlefield, while they provided effective weapons for the priests to use against the young king and his new religion. He had a Deity concept far above that of the later Hebrews, but it was too advanced to serve the purposes of a nation builder.
95:5.10 (1048.4) Though the monotheistic ideal suffered with the passing of Ikhnaton, the idea of one God persisted in the minds of many groups. The son-in-law of Ikhnaton went along with the priests, back to the worship of the old gods, changing his name to Tutankhamen. The capital returned to Thebes, and the priests waxed fat upon the land, eventually gaining possession of one seventh of all Egypt; and presently one of this same order of priests made bold to seize the crown.
95:5.11 (1048.5) But the priests could not fully overcome the monotheistic wave. Increasingly they were compelled to combine and hyphenate their gods; more and more the family of gods contracted. Ikhnaton had associated the flaming disc of the heavens with the creator God, and this idea continued to flame up in the hearts of men, even of the priests, long after the young reformer had passed on. Never did the concept of monotheism die out of the hearts of men in Egypt and in the world. It persisted even to the arrival of the Creator Son of that same divine Father, the one God whom Ikhnaton had so zealously proclaimed for the worship of all Egypt.
95:5.12 (1048.6) The weakness of Ikhnaton’s doctrine lay in the fact that he proposed such an advanced religion that only the educated Egyptians could fully comprehend his teachings. The rank and file of the agricultural laborers never really grasped his gospel and were, therefore, ready to return with the priests to the old-time worship of Isis and her consort Osiris, who was supposed to have been miraculously resurrected from a cruel death at the hands of Set, the god of darkness and evil.
95:5.13 (1049.1) The teaching of immortality for all men was too advanced for the Egyptians. Only kings and the rich were promised a resurrection; therefore did they so carefully embalm and preserve their bodies in tombs against the day of judgment. But the democracy of salvation and resurrection as taught by Ikhnaton eventually prevailed, even to the extent that the Egyptians later believed in the survival of dumb animals.
95:5.14 (1049.2) Although the effort of this Egyptian ruler to impose the worship of one God upon his people appeared to fail, it should be recorded that the repercussions of his work persisted for centuries both in Palestine and Greece, and that Egypt thus became the agent for transmitting the combined evolutionary culture of the Nile and the revelatory religion of the Euphrates to all of the subsequent peoples of the Occident.
95:5.15 (1049.3) The glory of this great era of moral development and spiritual growth in the Nile valley was rapidly passing at about the time the national life of the Hebrews was beginning, and consequent upon their sojourn in Egypt these Bedouins carried away much of these teachings and perpetuated many of Ikhnaton’s doctrines in their racial religion.
6. The Salem Doctrines in Iran
95:6.1 (1049.4) From Palestine some of the Melchizedek missionaries passed on through Mesopotamia and to the great Iranian plateau. For more than five hundred years the Salem teachers made headway in Iran, and the whole nation was swinging to the Melchizedek religion when a change of rulers precipitated a bitter persecution which practically ended the monotheistic teachings of the Salem cult. The doctrine of the Abrahamic covenant was virtually extinct in Persia when, in that great century of moral renaissance, the sixth before Christ, Zoroaster appeared to revive the smouldering embers of the Salem gospel.
95:6.2 (1049.5) This founder of a new religion was a virile and adventurous youth, who, on his first pilgrimage to Ur in Mesopotamia, had learned of the traditions of the Caligastia and the Lucifer rebellion — along with many other traditions — all of which had made a strong appeal to his religious nature. Accordingly, as the result of a dream while in Ur, he settled upon a program of returning to his northern home to undertake the remodeling of the religion of his people. He had imbibed the Hebraic idea of a God of justice, the Mosaic concept of divinity. The idea of a supreme God was clear in his mind, and he set down all other gods as devils, consigned them to the ranks of the demons of which he had heard in Mesopotamia. He had learned of the story of the Seven Master Spirits as the tradition lingered in Ur, and, accordingly, he created a galaxy of seven supreme gods with Ahura-Mazda at its head. These subordinate gods he associated with the idealization of Right Law, Good Thought, Noble Government, Holy Character, Health, and Immortality.
95:6.3 (1049.6) And this new religion was one of action — work — not prayers and rituals. Its God was a being of supreme wisdom and the patron of civilization; it was a militant religious philosophy which dared to battle with evil, inaction, and backwardness.
95:6.4 (1049.7) Zoroaster did not teach the worship of fire but sought to utilize the flame as a symbol of the pure and wise Spirit of universal and supreme dominance. (All too true, his later followers did both reverence and worship this symbolic fire.) Finally, upon the conversion of an Iranian prince, this new religion was spread by the sword. And Zoroaster heroically died in battle for that which he believed was the “truth of the Lord of light.”
95:6.5 (1050.1) Zoroastrianism is the only Urantian creed that perpetuates the Dalamatian and Edenic teachings about the Seven Master Spirits. While failing to evolve the Trinity concept, it did in a certain way approach that of God the Sevenfold. Original Zoroastrianism was not a pure dualism; though the early teachings did picture evil as a time co-ordinate of goodness, it was definitely eternity-submerged in the ultimate reality of the good. Only in later times did the belief gain credence that good and evil contended on equal terms.
95:6.6 (1050.2) The Jewish traditions of heaven and hell and the doctrine of devils as recorded in the Hebrew scriptures, while founded on the lingering traditions of Lucifer and Caligastia, were principally derived from the Zoroastrians during the times when the Jews were under the political and cultural dominance of the Persians. Zoroaster, like the Egyptians, taught the “day of judgment,” but he connected this event with the end of the world.
95:6.7 (1050.3) Even the religion which succeeded Zoroastrianism in Persia was markedly influenced by it. When the Iranian priests sought to overthrow the teachings of Zoroaster, they resurrected the ancient worship of Mithra. And Mithraism spread throughout the Levant and Mediterranean regions, being for some time a contemporary of both Judaism and Christianity. The teachings of Zoroaster thus came successively to impress three great religions: Judaism and Christianity and, through them, Mohammedanism.
95:6.8 (1050.4) But it is a far cry from the exalted teachings and noble psalms of Zoroaster to the modern perversions of his gospel by the Parsees with their great fear of the dead, coupled with the entertainment of beliefs in sophistries which Zoroaster never stooped to countenance.
95:6.9 (1050.5) This great man was one of that unique group that sprang up in the sixth century before Christ to keep the light of Salem from being fully and finally extinguished as it so dimly burned to show man in his darkened world the path of light leading to everlasting life.
7. The Salem Teachings in Arabia
95:7.1 (1050.6) The Melchizedek teachings of the one God became established in the Arabian desert at a comparatively recent date. As in Greece, so in Arabia the Salem missionaries failed because of their misunderstanding of Machiventa’s instructions regarding overorganization. But they were not thus hindered by their interpretation of his admonition against all efforts to extend the gospel through military force or civil compulsion.
95:7.2 (1050.7) Not even in China or Rome did the Melchizedek teachings fail more completely than in this desert region so very near Salem itself. Long after the majority of the peoples of the Orient and Occident had become respectively Buddhist and Christian, the desert of Arabia continued as it had for thousands of years. Each tribe worshiped its olden fetish, and many individual families had their own household gods. Long the struggle continued between Babylonian Ishtar, Hebrew Yahweh, Iranian Ahura, and Christian Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never was one concept able fully to displace the others.
95:7.3 (1051.1) Here and there throughout Arabia were families and clans that held on to the hazy idea of the one God. Such groups treasured the traditions of Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, and Zoroaster. There were numerous centers that might have responded to the Jesusonian gospel, but the Christian missionaries of the desert lands were an austere and unyielding group in contrast with the compromisers and innovators who functioned as missionaries in the Mediterranean countries. Had the followers of Jesus taken more seriously his injunction to “go into all the world and preach the gospel,” and had they been more gracious in that preaching, less stringent in collateral social requirements of their own devising, then many lands would gladly have received the simple gospel of the carpenter’s son, Arabia among them.
95:7.4 (1051.2) Despite the fact that the great Levantine monotheisms failed to take root in Arabia, this desert land was capable of producing a faith which, though less demanding in its social requirements, was nonetheless monotheistic.
95:7.5 (1051.3) There was only one factor of a tribal, racial, or national nature about the primitive and unorganized beliefs of the desert, and that was the peculiar and general respect which almost all Arabian tribes were willing to pay to a certain black stone fetish in a certain temple at Mecca. This point of common contact and reverence subsequently led to the establishment of the Islamic religion. What Yahweh, the volcano spirit, was to the Jewish Semites, the Kaaba stone became to their Arabic cousins.
95:7.6 (1051.4) The strength of Islam has been its clear-cut and well-defined presentation of Allah as the one and only Deity; its weakness, the association of military force with its promulgation, together with its degradation of woman. But it has steadfastly held to its presentation of the One Universal Deity of all, “who knows the invisible and the visible. He is the merciful and the compassionate.” “Truly God is plenteous in goodness to all men.” “And when I am sick, it is he who heals me.” “For whenever as many as three speak together, God is present as a fourth,” for is he not “the first and the last, also the seen and the hidden”?
95:7.7 (1051.5) [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]