Continuing with Mr.Aaron's book:
THE FERTILITY PARADE
Hurry! The parade is about to pass this way! A crowd is
quickly gathering along the street in front of us; others are
preparing to watch from the flat roofs of buildings that line the
route. Anticipation soars.
Here it comes! We hear singing now. As we listen, the songs
tell of love making in the frankest terms. Girls are carrying
baskets of fruit with grapes, representing wine, and pomegranates
with their numerous seeds to symbolize fertility. Some of the men
and women participants are wearing masks and playing the part of
nymphs, satyrs, and fauns. Young girls, nude, are dancing in and
out as the procession passes by.
Before long we see the most important entry of the parade, a
huge figure of Bacchus, being carried along. Our attention is
drawn to his exceptionally large phallus. "This is to symbolize
fertility," someone explains. But look! Suddenly the phallus,
which was hanging down, swings up into erection! The crowd
cheers. Upon inquiry, we are told a spring provides the swift
movement into the upright state. Other idols about eighteen
inches high, with phalli nearly as large, are carried by young
women who move the disproportionate phalli up and down by pull
strings. Where are we? With differences only in details, this
fertility parade might have been observed in Athens, among the
Romans, or in Egypt.
Did the Israelites also conduct such fertility processions?
Apparently they did. Isaiah warned against the practice: "They
lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and
hire a goldsmith; and he makes it a god: they fall down, yea,
they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry
him" (Isaiah 46:6,7). Such gods, the prophet pointed out, cannot
hear, cannot talk, and cannot even walk - they must be carried!
The same point was made by Jeremiah: "They are upright as the
palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne [carried),
because they cannot go" (Jeremiah 10:5). Some think the wording
"upright as the palm tree," indicates these were idols with an
erect penis. The phrase is a bit obscure, for only here is
"miqsha"h translated upright. The same word is translated
"cucumber," from a root meaning "to be hard" (See Strong's
Concordance, 4749,4750,7180). Considering the Bible's euphemistic
use of words and the parallel practices of the time, a phallic
meaning here is very possible.
This most definitely seems to have been the case with the
god Chiun that the Israelites carried in procession: Amos said:
"Ye have borne [carried] the tabernacle your Moloch and Chiun
your image" (Amos 5:26). Chum, mentioned only here, corresponded
to Priapus, from a word meaning to be erect (Strong's
Concordance, 3594,3559).
Similar rites have been known at other times and places
also. In Alexandria a six foot phallus was paraded through the
streets. Herodotus mentions images with moveable phalli in the
festivals of Osiris. In Greece, the phallus was carried about and
prominently exhibited in the rites of Dionysus.
In Italy during the Carnival, as late as the eighteenth
century, a figure called "il santo membro" with phallus as high
as his chin, was paraded through the town of Trani. In Upper
Burma, at the New Year Feast, "an indecent figure" of the same
type was paraded and obscene antics indulged in all along the
route?
Hastings describes the practice among an African tribe: "On
festival occasions the phallus is borne aloft in procession with
great pomp, fastened to the end of a long pole. The worshipers
dance and sing round it, and the image is waved to and fro, and
pointed toward the young girls, amidst the laughter and
acclamations of the spectators. Sometimes the phallus is
concealed by a short skirt ... which a man causes to fly up by
pulling a string." In 1787, in the Congo, a French marine
witnessed masked men carrying an enormous priapic figure worked
by means of a spring.
To emphasize a god's abilities, one might be shown with
several arms - to show his power against his enemies; another
might have several legs - showing his ability to move quickly
from place to place; another might have several heads to show
intelligence. The goddess Diana was shown with numerous breasts -
to emphasize her powers of motherhood. So was it with the
fertility gods: they were shown with exaggerated phallic
proportions (haptism) or in erection (ithyphallic) to symbolize
their powers of fertility.
Hastings' "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics" gives
numerous examples of this practice: on certain Eastern Indian
islands ithyphallic statues are frequently found. Among the
Nuforese of New Guinea, every village temple-house has posts
adorned with human figures with exaggerated pudenda. The people
of Nias, an island off the coast of Sumatra, use wooden images of
gods with the male sex emphasized in the same way. The Battak of
Sumatra pray to ithyphallic images of their long dead ancestors
for offspring. Among the Bare'e-Toradja, temples contain
ithyphallic figures as well as female breasts and genital parts
of both sexes portrayed on supporting columns.
With no vulgar intent, but for the sake of illustration, we
have included (from among thousands in existence) three examples
of ithyphallic idols. From left to right, a carved wooden
Indonesian figure is called "The Father of the Tribe." Next, from
first century Pompeii, an ithyphallic faun, now in the National
Museum at Naples. The third example, a Sumerian figure from the
British Museum, is believed to be over 4,000 years old.
(I have not reproduced [pun intended] the illustrations given by
Mr.Aaron. They are the errect penis - enough said - Keith Hunt)
Though there is speculation concerning its original meaning,
another example of ithyphallic image is the Cerne giant in
England. Cut in the turf of the chalk hills, this ancient nude
figure is 180 feet long. Seen from the air, as in the
illustration given here, its overall form is clearly defined. But
on the ground it is not as obvious. Tourists walking around on it
have asked guides where they are, often while standing on the
most embarrassing part! Local people believe barren women can
become pregnant by making love on the giant's phallus.
Throughout the Slave Coast of Western Africa the worship of
a divinity named Legba is prevalent. Among the Ewhe his image,
made of red clay, is always nude, always represented as squatting
down, and looking at the organ of generation, which is enormously
disproportionate. In India, women of the Ambig caste carry an
image called Jokamar "whose private parts are three times as
large as the rest of his body."
Some of the Shinto gods of Japan are ithyphallic,
represented in wood and stone, and are the object of offerings
and worship. Many such figures are shown on Egyptian monuments.
Osiris, as the principle of life, is often thus represented.
Among the Israelites, special mention is made about an
ithyphllic image used by king Asa's mother. During a period of
reform, king Asa "took away the sodomites out of the land, and
removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maachah
his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had
made an idol ... and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the
brook Kidron" (1 Kings 15:11-13). The word that is here
translated "idol" has a specific phallic linkage, concerning
which Rabbi Solomon Jarchi wrote: "She made a horrible statue ...
'ad instar membri virilis,' and used it daily." There can be
little doubt it was a statue of Priapus. According to the
Vulgate, Maachah was "chief in the sacred rites of Priapus." In
his commentary, Adam Clarke has written: "What the Roman Priapus
was I need not tell the learned reader; and as to the unlearned,
it would not profit him to know." But we have not hesitated to
explain that Priapus was an idol with a large penis in erection.
Among the fertility cults, sometimes just an image of the
erect penis was worshipped. Called the "lingam" in India, such
was a central part of the worship of Siva as shown here. In the
old Shinto religion of Japan, it was set up everywhere along the
roadsides. A temple near the ancient capital of Japan housed a
large upright; with a resemblance to the male organ so striking t
there was no doubt what it represented. At Cyllene, the image of
Hermes that the people revered exceedingly was nothing but the
erect male organ on a pedestal. Similar objects were from remote
times common in Italy. Evidence of large stone monuments
regarded as phallic representations is particularly abundant in
France and the neighboring countries. Large stone phalli have
been due up in, Tennessee, Georgia, and California.. Such
fertility stones may be seen in Hawaii. As a standard work on the
subject sums it up, the use of upright objects as pallic
fertility symbols is "universally found."
Was the idolatry into which the Israelites fell basically
the same phallic worship as these other nations? Definitely. Over
and over we read they committed the "abominations of the heathen"
(2 Kings 16:3), "they did according to all the abominations of
the nations" (1 Kings 14:24). They "went a whoring after the gods
of the people" (1 Chronicles 5:25), "a whoring after their idols"
(Ezekiel 6:9), "a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith
their god" (Judges 8:33; 9:46). Hannay may be right when he says
Baal-berith was a circumcised phallus, for berith means "cutting"
(Strong's Concordance, 1285, 1286).
"The image of Jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy"
(Ezekiel 8:3), placed within the Jerusalem temple, was in all
probability a huge phallus. As Scofield says, they were "given
over to phallic cults." The word translated "provoketh" means to
erect (Strong's concordance, 7069) and the word "jealousy" has
been translated passion: "The image of Lust to arouse lustful
passion" (New English Bible).
In their idolatrous passion, they would "set up the wood of
their graven image" (Isaiah 45:20) and "fall down to the stock of
a tree" (Isaiah 44:19), "saying to a stock [a phallic object
carved out of wood], Thou art my father; and to a stone [an
oblong stone placed in an erect position], Thou hast brought me
forth [margin: begotten me]" (Jeremiah 2:27). Thus did they
worship the creature, the phallus, as the creator.
Repeatedly the prophets cried out for reform in Israel with
orders to "cut down the groves" (Exodus 34:13; 2 Kings 18:4; 2
Chronicles 14:3). Not realizing that our translators have used an
euphemism here, some have wondered if these men had something
against trees!
Of course these "groves" were not groves of trees (as such),
for the Israelites "set them up groves...under every green tree"
(2 Kinds 17:10). Manasseh "made a grove" and placed it in the
house of the Lord (2 Kings 21:3,7). Later, "Josiah brought out
the "grove" from the house of the Lord" (2 Kings 23:6). It is
evident they were not moving a grove of trees in and out of the
temple!
To put it plainly a "grove" was the image of a phallus -
either as an actual replica or a simple pillar. The Hebrew word
is "asherah" from a word meaning to be straight, upright, erect.
The ancient Phoenicians called the penis Asher, based on this
same meaning. The phallic "groves" were commonly made from trees
- sometimes living trees were topped and the phallus carved from
the remaining trunk - or a piece of wood so fashioned was set
erect in the ground. This is the only link between a grove of
trees and the word "grove" used by our translators.
During times of spiritual apostasy, "the children of
Israel... served Baalim and the groves" (Judges 3:7). "They made
their groves, provoking the Lord to anger" l Kings 14:15). In
those days, one might have seen hills with many such uprights,
for the fertility cult was widespread with "groves in every high
hill, and under every green tree" (2 Kings 17:10). Throughout
Judea in all the various towns and streets were "altars to that
shameful thing" (Jeremiah 11:13).
Altars for the worship of "that shameful thing" were common.
Some of the men who opposed "grove" worship were: Gideon, who
"destroyed " the alta of Baal...and cut down the grove that was
by it" (Judges 6:25); Elijah, who ordered that "prophets of the
groves" be killed (1 Kings 18:19,40); Hezekiah, who "removed the
high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves" (2
Kings 18:4); Asa, who "took away the altars of the strange gods
...and cut down the groves" (2 Chronicles 14:3); and Jehosaphat,
who "took away the groves out of Judah" (2 Chronicles 17:6).
To us, to set up a large image of a penis, seems down right
stupid - and we marvel that the Israelites were so often tempted
with such. But to many of them, it did not seem stupid at all,
for this reason: it was widely believed that to imitate a desired
result would help cause it to happen. This is sometimes called
sympathetic or imitative magic. Since the penis was the
instrument whereby life was reproduced, to set up and honor an
erect phallic object, was supposed to insure fertility.
A good example fimitative magic may be seen in the way the
Philistines returned the ark to Israel. While the ark was in
their possession, for seven months their land was infested with
mice. They also suffered from that affliction which, in pun, has
been the butt of jokes: hemorrhoids! "Emerods in their secret
parts" (1 Samuel 5:9). Counting on imitative magic to reverse the
situation, they made "five golden emerods, and five golden mice,"
placed them on a cart with the ark, and sent it back to the
Israelites (1 Samuel 6:1-12).
When "Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole,
and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he
beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Numbers 21:9), he was
using a similar object to obtain a desired result.
When Jacob was promised all cattle that were streaked, he
cut rods from trees and peeled the bark off so they looked
streaked and placed them before the cattle while they mated. His
objective was to produce cattle that were streaked! (Genesis
30:37-41).
Amon sorcerers, imitative magic might consist of making a
doll in the image of an enemy then s pins into it to cause bad
luck to an enemy.
The priestly practice of taking water from the pool of
Siloam and pouring it upon the altar at a yearly feast in
Jerusalem, was a rain making ritual. According to Jewish belief:
"The Holy One, Blessed be He! said, Pour out water before me at
the Feast, in order that the rains of the year may be blessed to
you."
Because the life of the flesh is in the blood - the shedding
of which meant death - the Israelites smeared blood on their
doorposts so that the death angel, seeing the blood, would
"pass over" them (Exodus 12:13). Since water washes away dirt
from the body, so water is used in baptism, "the like figure,"
whereby sin is washed from the soul (1 Peter 3:21; Acts 22:16).
In one way or another, all of these examples show how it
was believe that a like thing, used ritually, could accomplish a
greater, though like, objective. It was on this basis that some
tribes engaged in open sexual acts and orgies, believing such
would have a magical effect on their own fertility and that of
their crops and cattle!.
When the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, they ate,
drank, and in the "naked" state, "rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6,
25), an expression that implies "fornication and adulterous
intercourse; and in some countries the verb to play is still used
precisely in this sense. It was all a part of the fertility
concept that to imitate a thing in one way will cause it to
happen in a greater way.
During such fertility festivals, phallic objects might be
given a central place of display (as in the accompanying
illustration), or a priest might display his own genitals. Such
was forbidden by the law of Moses. "Neither shalt thou go up by
steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered
[exposed] thereon" (Exodus 20:26).
The practice of baking cakes in the shape of genitalia was
widespread in antiquity. Hastings says phallic cakes "were among
the sacred objects carried about in Greece at the Thesmophoria,
and in the basket of firstfruits, at the Orphic rite of the
Liknophoria, as well as at marriages. They were included in the
mystic food partaken of by the women at the Haloa. They were,
there can be little doubt, part of the 'sacra' presented in the
Eleusinian mysteries."
Apparently the "cakes" that were offered to the "queen of
heaven" in the days of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:1; 44:9), were also
hallic in shape. The word translated "cakes" appears only in
these two Biblical references and stems from a word meaning "to
be erect (i.e. stand perpendicular)" (Strong's Concordance, 3559,
3561), implying these cakes were placed in an upright position
when offered to the queen of heaven. Jeremiah had condemned these
practices, but the people argued that when they quit presenting
"cakes" to the queen of heaven, they suffered from famine and
lacked "all things"! (Jeremiah 44:17-19).
Still another use of phallic objects involved fear of the
"evil eye." The phallus, says Hastings' "Encyclopedia ofReligion
and Ethics," was commonly used with the belief that it could
divert or confuse the evil eye. Because of this belief, the word
"fascinum" (a Latin word for the male organ) has given us the
words "fascinate" and "fascination." The phallic image, the
fascinum, was suspended from the necks of children, sculptured on
the walls of buildings, and displayed on the carts of Roman
generals to fascinate the evil eye, thereby adverting bad luck!
Another object aimed at confusing the evil eye, and even
found on some church buildings, was a figure of a naked woman
squatting with her legs apart to show her vulva. Hastings says:
"They were frequently carved on churches in the Middle Ages. Many
have been preserved until recently in Ireland .... They are known
by the name of Sheila-na-gig.""
In Italy and other Mediterranean countries, an obscene
gesture was made by closing the fist with the thumb protruding
between the first and second fingers, known as the "fig." The
action of forming the fig was considered an assault on the evil
eye.
A similar obscene sign, very well known in the modern
Western world, is the middle finger gesture. The extended middle
finger represents an erect penis, the bent fingers on each side,
the testicles. The intercourse typified by this sign is forced
and rude intercourse, and often understood in the sense of
buggery. The gesture dates back at least 2,000 years and was
known by the Romans as "digitus impudicas." Suetonius mentions
that Caligula would stick out his middle finger and wag it
obscenely:
In the Bible, "the putting forth of the finger" (Isaiah
58:9) is probably not the middle finger gesture, but that of
pointing the index finger in scorn. In another text, we read that
"a wicked man ...winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his
feet, he teacheth with his fingers" (Proverbs 6:12-14). Though
this passage probably does not refer, specifically, to the middle
finger gesture, it does properly describe the caliber of people
who go about giving others the finger!
Figure 1 in some countries means simply O.K.; in others it
signifies the vulva, as does also figure 5. Some see a double
meaning in figure 7 - seemingly a priestly blessing, yet in
shadow a devilish sign! Figures 2, 3, 4, and 6 are obscene signs
with sexual connotations.
[I have not reproduced any of the drawings in this book. But some
of the finger expressions of crude sexuality are still used today
in the western world - Keith Hunt]
In another gesture, instead of a finger, the penis itself
was used. In a quarrel, one man might back off from the other and
uncover his penis as a sign of defiance. In Germany and other
places, for a man to pull down his pants and aim his posterior at
another, has long been a sign of contempt. Among the 500 year old
drawings that illustrated Martin Luther's book "Against the
Papacy at Rome," is the one reproduced here. The translation
says: "Don't frighten us, Pope, with your ban, and don't be such
a furious man. Otherwise we shall turn away and show you our
rears."
Phallic worship, along with its pillars and other idolatrous
objects used to honor false gods, was repeatedly condemned by the
prophets. But, ironically, not all symbolic pillars were
condemned - especially in the earlier portion of the Old
Testament. It must be remembered that Yahweh went before Israel
"by day in a pillar of a cloud ... and by night in a pillar of
fire" (Exodus 13:21). Even Moses set up pillars. "And Moses ...
rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the hill,
and twelve pillars ... and he sent young men of the children of
Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace
offerings of oxen unto the Lord [Yahweh]" (Exodus 24:4,5).
After Jacob dreamed that Yahweh stood on a ladder that
reached into heaven and promised him great fertility, he "awaked
out of his sleep - and took the stone that he had put for his
pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top
of it" (Genesis 28:10-22).
On another occasion, we read that God appeared to Jacob and
promised that "nations" would come out of his loins. "And Jacob
set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a
pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he
poured oil thereon" (Genesis 35:9-15).
There can be little doubt that setting up a stone, as Jacob
did on these occasions, had phallic significance for the
following reasons:
1. The shape of the stone. To be set up as a pillar, the stone
had to be oblong. Had it been round in shape, it could not be
"set up." Being stone, its hardness was also fitting for the
intended symbolism.
2. Pouring oil on the top of it. If the upright stone symbolized
the erect penis, oil on the "top" of it would symbolize the male
ejaculation by which life is produced.
3. Context. Jacob's actions were unmistakably tied with the idea
of fertility and offspring. The immediate context says he was to
"be fruitful and multiply," that abundant seed would come out of
his "loins."
It is obvious that Jacob considered his actions, even though
sexually symbolic, to be honorable and proper. He was simply
following an established custom of the time. Sir George Birdwood
(in 1910) told the Royal Society of Arts: "When Jacob took the
stone on which he slept ... and set it up on end for a pillar,
and poured oil on the top of it, and called it 'Beth-el,' 'the
house of God,' he performed a distinct act of phallic worshp,
such as may still be witnessed every day at every turn in India."
Clarke has written that setting up consecrated stones and
pouring oil on them, as Jacob did, was "very common in different
ages and places .... Theophrastus marked this as a strong feature
in the character of the superstitious man: 'Passing by the
anointed stones in the streets, he takes out his phial of oil,
and pours it on them; and having fallen on his knees, and made
his adorations, he departs'."
In Greece, stones set up along roadways to honor the god
Hermes were anointed with oil by travellers who passed by. From
this practice boundary stones in general came to he called
"Hermes" by the Greeks and Romans. Among some tribes, the
practice was to pour oil on the phallus of an image, an idea
represented here in the drawing of Priapus. The drawing is based
on the original first century statue now in the National Museum
at Naples.
Some see a parallel between the custom of anointing the top
of a pillar and that of pouring oil upon the bead of a king, as
when "Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed [David]"
(1 Samuel 16:1,13) or "Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out
of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon" (1 Kings 1:39). If such
anointing was linked with fertility for kings to have successors
to the throne - the use of a horn, long regarded as a phallic
symbol, would also fit the intended symbolism.
The word used for any oily substance to the Old Testant is
in Hebrew "shemen" [semen[ (Strong's Concordance, 8081). But as
Hannay says: "It is very suggestive ... of the old Hebraic
writings, when we find that the 'oil of anointing' for phallic
pillars, priests, kings, etc., is called 'semen,' the word used
by the Romans and our medical men for the fructifying liquid of
the male."
When Solomon built the temple, two huge pillars were placed
at the entrance. Notice the dimensions of the pillars:
Hiram out of Tyre... cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen
cubits [27 feet] high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits
[18 feet] did compass either of them about. And he made two
chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the
pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits [7
1/2 feet], and the height of the other chapiter was five
cubits [7 1/2 feet] ...and he set up the pillars in the
porch of the temple (I Kings 7:13-16).
The chapiter (or, as we would say, the cap) on top of each
pillar was rounded, spheroidal, as an inverted bowl. Because of
the proportional relationship between the cap or head portion and
the rest of the pillar (see scale drawing), some believe these
pillars were phallic symbols. The fact that the chapiters were
decorated with pomegranates and lilies (1 Kings 7:19,20), well
known fertility symbols in many countries including Egypt, China,
India, Japan, Greece, and Rome, tends to reinforce this theory.
Then, too, we know that the use of phallic shaped pillars in
front of temples was a common architectual form of the time.
Hastings says: "Before the temples of Paphos and Hierapolis there
were likewise two pillars...they formed a part of that phallic
worship of which we are finding more and more traces in the
ancient world."
The ancient Lucian gave the following description of the
temple at Hierapolis:
The magnificent temple at Hierapolis is situated on a
commanding eminence in the midst of the city. The porch of
the temple is 200 yards in circumference. Within this porch,
in front of the temple, are two enormous phalli, each a
hundred and fifty yards high. At the right of the temple is
a little brazen man with an enormous erect phallus. Outside
the temple there is a very large brazen altar and a thousand
brazen statues of gods and heroes, priests, and kings.
Within the temple is a sanctum, which is entered only by the
high priest and his most holy associates.
Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible" says the origin of
Solomon's pillars must be sought among the Syrians and
Phoenicians who commonly erected such pillars in front of their
temples - with special mention of the two pillars in front of the
temple of the Syrian god Melkart at Tyre.
At Tyre! The fact that Solomon expressly hired "Hiram out of
Tyre...who came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work ... he
cast two pillars of brass" (1 Kings 7:13-15), strongly, suggests
the architectural style of the Jerusalem temple was influenced by
the one at Tyre.
That Solomon's pillars were regarded as fertility symbols is
implied by the names given them. The one pillar, Boaz, was named
after Solomon's great grandfather. Bible readers will recall how
the young widow, Ruth, went to where Boaz was sleeping to
"uncover his feet, and lay down there" (Ruth 3:7). Moffatt, less
euphemistically, translates it: "...uncovered his waist, and lay
down there." When he awoke, somewhat startled to find this "young
woman" in bed with him, she proposed marriage! Unoffended, Boaz
eventually did marry her, "went in unto her," and fathered a
child even in his old age (Ruth 4:10-12). Solomon, no doubt proud
of the sexual exploits of his great grandfather, considered the
name "Boaz" quite appropriate for one of the pillars in front of
his temple.
The other pillar, Jachin, was also quite fittingly named.
Jachin, mentioned in Genesis 46:10, was the head of a Simeonite
clan, his descendants being called Jachinites (Numbers 26:12). He
must have been fruitful, for he and four brothers produced a
tribe of 22,200 people (verse 15).
Rabbi Brasch, pointing out that the pillars were "two
giantsized, stylized phalli," makes this point about the two
names: "Their very names, though later interpreted
ecclesiastically, were sexually suggestive. Jacin (the pillar on
the left) stood for 'he will erect,' while Boaz (the pillar on
the right) means 'in him is strength'."
Even today, perfectly normal and innocent names such as Dick
and Peter are used as euphemisms for the phallus. Coincidentally,
the Hebrew word meaning "opener" (Exodus 13:2; Ezekiel 20:26) is
"peter" (Strong's Concordance, 6363). The name Peter that we use
in English, comes from the Greek "petra" meaning rock.
"Petrified" wood is so called because it has turned to rock. The
hardness of rock provides a basis for the name Peter as an
euphemism. Our word "stud," a common word used for a male animal
kept for breeding, provides a basis for the slang expression
"stud." Interestingly, in a frame building, a stud is an upright
to which boards are nailed. So, pillars - not objects lying down
in a horizontal manner - but upright and erect, provided a
fitting phallic symbol.
Since Solomon's pillars were not used in an idolatrous way;
their phallic shape would not have been considered improper. In
Hebrew belief, it should be remembered, the very sign of the
Divine covenant was a distinct mark - not on the face, or hand,
or foot - but on the penis (Genesis 17:10).
.................
To be contiuned with "The Phallic Covenant."
Entered on this Website July 2007
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