События в десятом столетии третьего тысячелетия

Peleg, the son of Eber, gave birth to Raghav in the 130th year of his life, and after him had other sons and daughters (Gen. 11, 18–19). In those years when nations multiplied, when many cities were created in various countries under heaven and kingdoms were established, at the same time civil laws were established, and with them lawlessness. For evil people have forgotten the invisible God who lives in heaven, the Creator and Almighty of all, whom their fathers knew. Instead, they began to invent gods for themselves on earth, make them and pray to the work of their hands. “And having changed the glory of the incorruptible God,” as the Apostle says, “into the likeness of the corruptible image of man and birds and four-legged creatures and creeping things, and changing the truth of God into a lie, and honoring and serving the creature more than the Creator; In the same way, God gave them over in the passion of dishonor, into a nasty and lawless life (Rom. 1:23-26). If they based their civil life on laws, some of which might seem good, they actually destroyed them with their lawlessness. Idolatry did not begin with Serukh, Abraham's great-grandfather, as some assumed regarding its origin, for Serukh did not invent idols, but accepted those invented before and was their maker. The beginning of idolatry was laid by Ninus the son of Bel, as will now be shown. When King Bel, who owned Assyria together with Babylonia, also called Chaldea, died, after him his son Nin took over the reign. This Ninus, feeling sorry and grieving for his father, made a hewn image of him, or an idol, which was in every way similar to his father, both in face and in size of the body, and placed it in the middle of the city on a pillar in memory of his father, wanting the people to honor him even after death, and issued the following law: “If any of the guilty and worthy of execution comes to this pillar and idol and worships it, he will be forgiven from his guilt and may execution will be freed." People who needed the royal mercy began to flock and worship this idol depicting his father, seeing that this pleased the king. The peoples of other countries, imitating the Assyrians and Chaldeans, began to honor their former rulers and glorious men in the same way, erecting pillars and idols in their memory. The demons, seeing the veneration of soulless idols being done by people, began to inhabit these idols and emit a human voice in them, and speak to deceive the human race. They began to give answers to those who came to them and asked them about something, as if predicting the future. And crazy people, considering these idols to be alive, began to honor them as gods and believe in them, and make sacrifices to them with worship. Thus began and intensified polytheism and idolatry among mankind. (The Amsterdam chronograph believes that the idol of Vilov was erected not by Nin, but by Semiramis, for he says that Semiramis was the daughter of Vilus, and Nin was the son-in-law; but the majority claims that Nin was the son of Vilus and it was he who erected the image of his father.) In the Egyptian countries, this also joined the beginning of idolatry: a certain glorious nobleman named Syrophanis, weeping and sobbing for his dead son and wanting to have consolation in his sorrow, made an idol similar to his son, and placed it over the tomb of the deceased; looking at him, he partially tempered his grief. The people who were under his power, doing what was pleasing to their master, began to honor this idol with sacrifices and worship. Saint Chrysostom recalls this in his conversations on the Epistle to the Ephesians, saying: “A certain rich man, lamenting bitterly about his son and having no consolation in his sobbing, tempered his sadness in the following way: he made a soulless image of the deceased and, constantly looking at it, thought that in this image he saw the deceased alive. Some caressing people, whose belly is God (Phil. 3:19), began to serve this image in honor of this rich man, and they performed this idolatry.” It is also written in stories that this Egyptian nobleman Syrophanis, seeing the honor done by his assistants to the image of his son, created a church in memory of the latter over the tomb of the deceased and assigned priests to it so that they would constantly remain, serving in the church, for which purpose he established a line for them so that they would serve, replacing one another. The following law was given to these priests: while serving in their own capacity, they had to abandon all worldly concerns and not communicate with their wives, but remain in all abstinence. This law subsequently penetrated into the midst of the idolatrous priests who spread everywhere: they began to abstain from meat and wine (except for the sacrificed food, which they had to eat) and not only their wives, but even their children, they refused to see them during the course of their service, and did not even enter into conversation with their relatives. They constantly practiced (as the Stoic Herimon relates) in the science of stargazing and magic, and understanding the nature of visible creatures. All this is remembered here so that the spiritual order that exists among us would think about the following: if the priests serving demons maintained such a restrained life, avoiding overeating and drunkenness, not communicating with their wives before completing their turn, leaving all external cares and not in idleness, but spending time in their pagan cares, then what should Christian priests be, serving the true God and offering the bloodless sacrifice of the Son of God Himself for the whole world? Will not the idolatrous priests put to shame some Christian priests who are drunkards, who live badly, who indulge in vanity beyond measure, who are not devoted to the soul-beneficial reading of holy books, who do not teach others, but who perform their services with a bestial (ignorant) mind and bestial life? Will these not be condemned to the deepest hell and to more severe torment than those? For those, not knowing the true path, observed such great abstinence, and these, although the path of salvation was opened to them and entrusted to instruct others in salvation, however, they remain without abstinence in voluptuousness and drunkenness. Those listen to the demonic service with great reverence, but these also stand in the service of Christ without fear. Oh woe to priestly corruption and uncorrection! How will they appear before the face of Christ, whom they did not serve even with such zeal with which the idolatrous priests serve their vain gods? You might be interested in: