Section 10

3 Cp. L.'s note (p. 114 2 ), referring to the above-quoted (p. 68, n. 2) Talmūd passage (1), where the same bowing down is recorded of Jeshu, namely: "he set up a brick-bat and worshipped it." L. again prefers to render the two words here as 'vault' simply. The Talmūd puzzle has never been solved; but the passage of the J. B. above ( p. 55 ) connects it with a coffin, and strongly suggests an Egyptian atmosphere. Cp. now what Josephus ( Antiqq . I. ii.; Cory's An. Fragg . pp. 171, 172), Hebraďzing the Egyptian tradition, says of the Sons of Sēth ( = Sōthis = Sirius), how "they made two [kinds of] monuments, one of brick and the other of stone, and on each engraved their discoveries." This passage is from Manetho's lost work Sothis , on the authenticity of which and its implications, I would refer the reader to my lengthy researches in Thrice-greatest Hermes , i. 99-127: the above passage will be found on p. 114. From this I would venture to suggest that the Talmūd charge against Jeshu of learning 'magic' in Egypt is reflected in the queer term 'brick-bat' or 'bricking.' According to Manetho's legend or tradition the most ancient lore of the priests, of the period of the First Thoth or Hermes, before the Flood, was preserved in the most primitive brick pyramids. The pyramids were originally tombs. That my suggested version is in the right direction is borne out by the following sentence of the text: "They shall be buried in the Darkness." 4 A common Gnostic figure, appearing frequently in Manichćism. In the Christianized Gnosis it is the technical term for the unripe birth from Achamōth, the Wisdom Without. For the most interesting echo in the N.T. cp. Paul's famous utterance: "And last of all he appeared unto me also, as unto 'the Abortion'"— sc . of whom you have all heard. 5 This is presumably ironical = "who thought that ye were not of this world." p. 70 1 That is, presumably, fill the whole of the worlds in their span. 2 The MM. evidently believed that the destruction of Jerusalem was a retribution for the persecution of their community.