cheenc03a.pdf

SINAI AND HOREB
moreover, is regarded as the god of the underworld, for
the stars as they approach the sun become invisible, in
other words, hare their 'shade in the underworld.
Now this 'underworld' aspect of the sun corresponds
to Saturn (Sergrl), the winter siln or the god of the
underworld (Pluto), To the moon accordingly (since
the full moon is in opposition to the run) belongs the
apposite pole of the universe and the opposite planet
Mars (Ninib), which represents the summer sun. By a
complete reversal of all our modern notions, the run is
the deity of winter or the underworld, the moon tile
deity of summer and the upper woild.
Sow when the sun takes up the porition which
properly belongs to it in the universe, that is, when it ir
a winter sun, it ir at the ,""St roafhcriy point of its
murse in the zodiac : and the correspondinn full moon
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ing to the character of the worship exercised at each
given place, and according to the ditleiint methods of
reckoning there employed. The Babylonian view, with
the Mardok (or spring-) cult, taker as its point of
orientation (Mohammedan eibla) the E. (=that which
is before, mp), and thus for it the N. ir to the left, the
S. to the right. and the W. behind. To the older
view, which faces westward, the N. is to the right and
the S. to the left. Thus arises for a later time Ihe
possibility oi an interchange of dlametri~lly opposite
points, according to the point of view assunled by each
writer in his theory. Hence the phenomenon constantly
observed in all forms of mythology, and therefore also
of cosmology, that opposite5 pas5 into one another. that
a given form bears also the marks of its antithesis
The selection of the th.0 names, Horeb and Sinai,
and their cormological meaning thus become clear. As
3, Bearing on man as scholars discovered the importance
of the moon worship in ancient
Horeb asd
. Babylonia, and the name of the moonn-.
goddess Sin, the expianntion of the
namc Sinai as Mountain of the Moon became natual.
proor, indeed, for this explanation of the n-ord cnn be
had only when the significance of thir mountain in the
cosmic scheme ar a whole has been made out ; but this
is accomulished ~reci~ely by means of the other name
of the of ~~hib:~~~~b.
The earth-and so also on a smaller xzle each land
and each sewrate district-ia imaplned - as a mountain
with two surnmits,~ the 'mountain of the countries' of
the Babylonians and Assyrians (fad rnli16tr. urrng bur
kzwa). According to the orientation in each case (and
as regulated by thir the time at which the year war held
to begin, and ro forth) there two points are conceived of
as E. and W. (equinoctial), or as N. and S. (solslitid).
The E. (or N. ) point is that of the light half of the day
07 year, tile W. (or S.) tha of the dark halC For
when the sun is in the E. the day (or the year) begins.
when it is at the northern point of its path it in mldday
or midsummer, and so on. This is the thought which
lies at the bottom of the religious observances on
Ebd and Gerizima (Dt.11~~ 271r$ Josh.83ofl):
SINAI AND HOREB
Gerbim is the mount of blessing, Ebl that of cursing.
that is, of the light and dark halves respectively, of
good and evil omen (right and left are the lucky or
unlucky sides according to the orientation) ; on each
mountnin stand six tribes, for each half of the year has
six signs of the zodiac or six months.'
\\'hen the two summit5 of the sad mgtgte are the
N. and S. points of the cosmos they belong respectively
to the rnmn and to the sun. If Sinai taker its name
from the mom-goddess Sin, Horeb is derived from the
sun, for the name means Mountain of Glowing, Heat
(mn and nn).
the sun at the most northerly part of its
course (our sign ofcancer,sue~mer-solstice) is thcgloiving
sun. Thus Sinai and Horeb bath express like cosrnoloeical
conceotionr.
"~&ing tie mmn point the most northerly of the
sliptic belongs to the old Habylonian order of ideas.
& abylonan * according to a.hich the moo,, stands
at the head of the pantheon and the
~hir would be of importance if ir were he:d proven that
if ir Chuen-aten that is intended by the Pharaoh of
Joseph.% It would seem, in any case, as if a like view
anderlay the designation of Sinai (as of Horeb). for the
mountain upon which Yahwh rereels himself lies on the
S. of the promised land. If, now, Yah\v& has his
dwelling on the moon~mountain situated in Ule S.,
clearly the underlying cosmic orientation is the Egyptian
one which regards the S. as being above (corresponding
to the course of the Nile), whilst the Babylonians had
the conception (mnerponding also to the cowse of the
Euphrates) according to which it is the N. that is above
-the N. oole of the casmor. ar also of the eclintic
(thir last the mmn-point). For the highest godhead
dwells above on therummi! of the 3ad m&t&te. To it,
therefore, belongs the highest part of the ecliptic (the
~ath of the SU~)
as of the sky: the portion which lies to
the N. of the zodiac and thus around the N. pole.
The Egyptian view presupposes the opposite conception,
and, therefore, looks for all these things in the S.
the same time fo; the Gent we mist hold farithat
the Egyptian doctrine and the Ba1,ylonian alike are
daughters of a common view of the universe, and that
their relation to thir is somewhat the same ar that of
the polilical doctrine of two modern Europwn civilired
states to European culture and conception of the
universe: diverse in details, the views of the two are on
the whole identical. It is in agreement with this that
the rise of the nation of Israel is carried back by legend
to Egypt ; and that the region where the nation found
its god-&, the expression of its political unification
and its polirical~religiour tight to an independent exirtence
ar a people, in other words, to sovereignty-uss
stili known to legend as Mu)ri (see MrznArM. MOSES).
Egypt and Musri alike are also in the Babylonian con-
at Shechem, who is identical wirh Trmmuz-is., thc pod of the
two halves ufthe year. Joseph and Joshua axe the correrpondin$
heroic figurer: Wi. 61275 968 Jorcph is mcnuonsd
pnncipal!y in connection wirh &=hem. Joshua's life-work cul.
m~narer 8" Shechem Uosh:24). For Jorhux the attainment of
Shechem is what the arrlval nr Mt. Nebo war for Mores;
Mardllk (More-) dies when thc sun reacher the western point
,"here the kingdom of Nabu (wmter half of the year) berinr.
1 The number twelve always rymbolircr the twelve rlgni of
the lodliac.
1 The deduction wo.ld be that the dwtrine of Yahwism conrclously
links irrclf on to thir molloiheirm s its prodere-r:
see liA n31 z.r.