第95篇		Paper 95
黎凡特的麦基洗德教导		The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant
95:0.1 (1042.1) 正如印度兴起过许多东亚宗教和哲学一样，黎凡特也是西方世界诸多信仰的故乡。撒冷传教士们散布到了整个西南亚，历经巴勒斯坦、美索不达米亚、埃及、伊朗和阿拉伯，到处宣讲有关玛可文塔•麦基洗德福音的好消息。在这些地域的某些地方，他们的教导结出了硕果；在其他一些地方他们也取得了不同程度的成功。有时他们的失败是由于缺少智慧，有时则是由于情况超出了他们的控制。		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.
1. 美索不达米亚的撒冷教 ^top		1. The Salem Religion in Mesopotamia ^top
95:1.1 (1042.2) 到公元前2000年时，美索不达米亚的宗教几近失去了塞特族人的教导，并在很大程度上处于两个入侵者族群原始信仰的影响之下，即从西边沙漠渗入的贝都因闪族人和从北边前来的野蛮骑兵。		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.
95:1.2 (1042.3) 但早期亚当族人礼拜一周第七日的习俗，从未在美索不达米亚地区彻底消失过。只不过在麦基洗德时代期间，第七日被视作运气最坏的一日。它受到禁忌所扰。在邪恶的第七日，出行、做饭或生火都是非法的。犹太人将其发现的许多美索不达米亚禁忌带回了巴勒斯坦，它们留在了巴比伦人的第七日、即安息日惯例上。		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.
95:1.3 (1042.4) 尽管撒冷导师们做了很多去改善和提升美索不达米亚的宗教，但他们并未成功将各个民族带到对一神的永久承认中来。这类教导在一百五十多年里获得了优势，之后则渐渐让路于更为陈旧的多神祗信仰。		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.
95:1.4 (1042.5) 撒冷的导师们极大减少了美索不达米亚诸神的数目，一度曾将主神祗的数目减少到七位：彼勒、沙玛什、拿布、安努、埃阿、马杜克和欣。在新教导鼎盛时期，他们将这些神中的三位抬升到了所有其他神之上的至高地位，即巴比伦的三合神：彼勒、埃阿和安努，地神、水神和天神。还有其他的三合神在不同地区发展起来，所有这些都让人想起了安德族人和苏美尔人的三位一体教导，以及基于撒冷人对麦基洗德三环徽章信仰的三位一体教导。		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.
95:1.5 (1042.6) 撒冷的导师们从未完全克服伊丝塔、即诸神之母和性生育之灵的流行。他们做了很多来改善对这位女神的崇拜，但巴比伦人及其邻人从未完全超越他们各种伪装形式的性崇拜。在整个美索不达米亚，所有女性在早期生活中至少要有一次投入到陌生人的怀中，这已成了一种普遍的做法；这被认为是伊丝塔所要求的一种献身，据信生育在很大程度上有赖于这种性奉献。		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.
95:1.6 (1043.1) 麦基洗德教导的早期进展极为令人满意，直到基什学派的领袖纳波达德决定要对寺庙卖淫的流行习俗进行一次协力打击。但撒冷传教士们未能尽力促成这次社会变革，在这次失败的残迹中，所有那些更为重要的灵性和哲学教导都全盘溃败了。		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.
95:1.7 (1043.2) 紧随撒冷福音这次溃败之后的便是伊丝塔崇拜的极大兴起，即已经作为阿斯塔瑞丝侵入巴勒斯坦，作为伊西斯侵入埃及，作为阿芙洛荻特侵入希腊，以及作为阿斯塔蒂侵入北方诸部落的一种仪式。巴比伦的祭司重新转向观星，正是与伊丝塔崇拜的这一复兴有所关联；占星术在美索不达米亚经历了最后一次大的复兴，算命成了时尚，祭司阶层在多个世纪以来越发败坏。		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.
95:1.8 (1043.3) 麦基洗德已告诫过其追随者们要教导关于一神、上父以及造物主的知识，只传扬单靠信仰获得神恩的福音。但新真理的导师们常犯的错误就是尝试太多，尝试通过突然变革来取代缓慢演进。美索不达米亚的麦基洗德传教士们为人们所提出的道德标准太高；他们尝试太多，其高尚的事业归于失败了。他们受托去传扬一个明确的福音，去宣扬有关万有之父真实性的真理，但他们却被卷入了改革习俗这一看似有价值的事业中，因此他们的伟大使命被撇在了一边，几近迷失在挫败与湮没当中。		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.
95:1.9 (1043.4) 在一个世代中，基什的撒冷总部便寿终正寝了，一神信仰的宣传在整个美索不达米亚几近停止了。但撒冷学派的余部却持续了下来。众多小群分布在各地，继续其对唯一造物主的信仰，与美索不达米亚祭司们的偶像崇拜和道德败坏作斗争。		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.
95:1.10 (1043.5) 正是在紧随其教导受拒时期的撒冷传教士们，写下了许多旧约诗篇，将它们刻到石头上，后来的希伯来祭司们在被囚期间发现了它们，随后将它们并入到归于犹太作者所作的诗篇合集中间。这些来自巴比伦的优美诗篇并非在彼勒-马杜克神庙中写成；它们是较早期撒冷传教士的后裔所做，它们与巴比伦祭司的魔法合集形成了鲜明对比。《约伯记》是基什和整个美索不达米亚撒冷学派诸多教导一个相当不错的反映。		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.
95:1.11 (1043.6) 美索不达米亚宗教文化的许多内容，通过埃及阿门内莫普和阿肯那顿的著作而进入到了希伯来文学和礼仪中。埃及人出色地保留了关于社会义务的教导，后者源于较早期安德族美索不达米亚人，并被后来占领幼发拉底河谷的巴比伦人大大遗忘了。		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.
2. 早期埃及的宗教 ^top		2. Early Egyptian Religion ^top
95:2.1 (1043.7) 原初的麦基洗德教导实际上在埃及扎根最深，它们随后从那儿传到了欧洲。尼罗河流域的进化宗教，因诺德族人、亚当族人以及后来幼发拉底河流域安德族人优良血统的到来，而得到了周期性的增强。不时地，埃及许多民事管理者都是苏美尔人。正如这些日子里的印度容有最为混杂的世界种族一样，埃及则培育了玉苒厦(Urantia)上所发现的最为彻底融合的宗教哲学类别，它从尼罗河流域传到了世界上诸多地区。犹太人从巴比伦人那里接受了其创世观念的许多内容，但他们有关神圣天意的观念却是源自埃及人。		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.
95:2.2 (1044.1) 使得埃及比美索不达米亚对撒冷教导更为有利的是政治和道德倾向，而非哲学或是宗教倾向。埃及的每一个部落首领在一路争得王位后，都力图通过宣称其部落神是原初神祗和所有其他诸神的创造者而使其王朝长存下去。就这样，埃及人渐渐习惯了一位超级神的观念，这为后来一位万有之创造者神灵的教义做好了铺垫。这种一神论的观念在埃及来回摇摆了许多个世纪，一神的信仰总是会得势，但却从未完全主导诸多有关多神论的演进观念。		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.
95:2.3 (1044.2) 许久以来，埃及各民族惯于崇拜自然神；尤其是四十个独立部落中的每一个都有一个独特的部族神，一个崇拜公牛，另一个崇拜狮子，第三个则崇拜公羊，依次类推。再早些，他们是图腾部落，很像美洲印第安人。		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.
95:2.4 (1044.3) 埃及人很早便观察到，置于无砖坟墓中的死尸因苏打浸渍过沙子的作用而得以保存 -- 即防腐，而那些埋于砖砌墓穴中的死尸却腐烂了。这些观察导向了那些造成后来为死者防腐习俗的实验。埃及人相信，保存尸体会有助于一个人通往来生。为了在尸身腐烂之后的遥远将来得以适当确认个体，他们会将一个葬礼雕像伴随尸体一同放在坟墓中，在棺材上也会雕刻同样的像。这些葬礼雕像的制作，导致了埃及艺术的极大改进。		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.
95:2.5 (1044.4) 多个世纪以来，埃及人将其信仰放在坟墓之中，将其作为遗体以及死后相继幸福续存的保护措施。后来魔法施展之演进，尽管对于从摇篮到坟墓的一生来说是繁重的，但却他们从坟墓的宗教中最为有效地解脱了出来。祭司们会将护符文字刻到棺材上，据信它们会防止 “一个人在阴间被取走心脏”。不久后这些魔法文字的多样混合被收集起来，并作为《死者之书》而被保存下来。但在尼罗河流域，魔法仪式很早便涉及了良知和品格的领域，达到了那些日子仪式所常未达到的程度。随后，这些伦理和道德的理念而非那些精致的坟墓，成了救赎的依托。		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.
95:2.6 (1044.5) 这些时期的迷信可由对唾液作为疗愈媒介之功效的普遍相信而得到极好的例证，一个源于埃及并自那传到阿拉伯和美索不达米亚的观念。在荷鲁斯与赛特的传奇战斗中，年轻之神失去了他的眼睛，但在赛特被击败之后，这只眼睛被智慧之神托特所复原了，他将唾液吐到伤口上并疗愈了它。		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.
95:2.7 (1044.6) 长久以来，埃及人相信夜空中闪烁的群星代表了贤良死者之魂的存续；他们所认为的其他存续者则被吸入了太阳之中。在某段时期里，太阳崇拜成了祖先崇拜的一种。大金字塔的斜坡式入口通道直指极星，如此君王的灵魂从坟墓中出来时，能够直接前往由固定恒星所组成的既定不动星座，即所谓的君王居所。		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.
95:2.8 (1045.1) 当观察到斜射的太阳光线穿过云中孔隙射向地面时，据信它们预示了一架天梯的放下，君王及其他正义的灵魂将会拾级而上。“君王佩皮脚下生起光辉之梯，他拾级而上前往他母亲那里。”		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.”
95:2.9 (1045.2) 当麦基洗德以肉身出现时，埃及人有过一种远超周边民族的宗教。他们相信一个无实体的灵魂，若适当配以魔法口诀，便能摆脱试图介入的邪灵而前往欧西里斯的审判大厅，在那儿，若无“杀人、抢劫、说谎、通奸、偷窃和自私”的罪行，它便获许进入极乐之境。若这个灵魂被放入天平称量而发现有所欠缺，它便会被送往地狱，送给“吞噬者”。与许多周边民族的信仰相比，这是一种关于来生的相对先进观念。		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.
95:2.10 (1045.3) 对于一个人在凡世肉身生活中所犯罪恶的死后审判观念，从埃及带到了希伯来神学中。审判一词在整个《希伯来诗篇书》中只出现过一次，而那一特定诗篇正是由一位埃及人所写。		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.
3. 道德观念的演进 ^top		3. Evolution of Moral Concepts ^top
95:3.1 (1045.4) 尽管埃及的文化和宗教主要源自美索不达米亚的安德族人，并在很大程度上通过希伯来人和希腊人传给了后继的诸个文明，但埃及人社会和伦理观念论中许多内容，却是作为一种纯进化性的发展而兴起于尼罗河流域。尽管输入了许多来自安德族人的真理和教化，但埃及演进出的道德教化更多是一种纯人性的发展，而不像迈克尔赠与之前任何其他周边地区凭借相似自然手段而出现的道德教化。		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.
95:3.2 (1045.5) 道德的演进并不完全依赖于启示。高等的道德观念可以源自人类的自身经验。人类甚至可以从其亲身经历的生活中演进出灵性价值，生发出宇宙洞见，因为神之灵驻在他身中。良知和品格的这种自然演进也因真理导师们的周期性到来而得到强化，他们在古时来自第二伊甸园，后来则来自撒冷的麦基洗德总部。		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.
95:3.3 (1045.6) 在撒冷福音深入到埃及之前的数千年，其道德领袖们便教导了公平、公正和避免贪婪。在希伯来圣经写成之前三千年，埃及人的格言是：“正义为准者方会立身；依道而行者方会立足。”他们教导温和、节制和谨慎。这一时代一位伟大导师的讯息是：“行事正义，待人公正。”这个时代埃及人的三合神是真理-公平-正义。在玉苒厦(Urantia)所有纯人性的宗教当中，没有一个曾超越尼罗河流域这一人文主义所拥有的社会理念与道德庄严。		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.
95:3.4 (1045.7) 在这些逐步演进的伦理观念和道德理想土壤中，撒冷教的存留教义兴盛起来了。善恶观在相信“和者获生、罪者得死”、“和者乃行善者，罪者乃作恶者”之人的心中得到了迅速的响应。多个世纪以来，尼罗河流域的居民依照这些逐渐出现的伦理和社会标准而生活，直至他们接纳了后来的是非、好坏的观念。		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.
95:3.5 (1046.1) 埃及曾是有理智、有道德的，但却并不极为灵性。在六千年里，只有四位伟大的先知兴起于埃及人中间。阿门内莫普他们追随了一时；欧克班他们杀害了；阿肯那顿他们接受了，但却半心接受了短短一代时间；摩西他们拒绝了。还是政治状况而非宗教状况，使得亚伯拉罕以及后来的约瑟容易代表撒冷的一神教导而对整个埃及发挥了巨大的影响。但当撒冷传教士们最初进入埃及时，他们遇到了这种与美索不达米亚移民改进的道德标准相融合的、极具伦理的进化性教化。这些早期尼罗河流域的导师们最早宣称良知为神之指令，神灵之声。		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.
4. 阿门内莫普的教诲 ^top		4. The Teachings of Amenemope ^top
95:4.1 (1046.2) 一位导师在埃及应运而生，他被许多人称为“人之子”，被另一些人称为阿门内莫普。这位先知将良知抬升到了是非仲裁的最高点，教导对罪恶的惩罚，并宣称通过呼求太阳神祗而获得救赎。		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.
95:4.2 (1046.3) 阿门内莫普教导财富是神的赐与，这一观念彻底影响了后来出现的希伯来哲学。这位崇高导师相信，神之意识是所有行为的决定性因素；要时刻活在对神之临在的觉知中，并活在对神之责任的觉知中。这位圣人的教导随后被译成希伯来文，并成了那一民族的圣书，早于《旧约》成书许久。这位善人的主要说教，与指导他儿子在受任管理岗位上心怀正直诚实有关，这些许久以前的高尚情操，会给任一现代政治家带来荣誉。		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.
95:4.3 (1046.4) 这位尼罗河的智者教导“财富会插翅飞走”-- 即所有世间之物都是易逝的。他伟大的祷文是要“免于恐惧”。他劝诫所有人都要避开“人言”，而转向“神行”。实质上他教导：谋之在人，决之在神。他的教导译成了希伯来文，确立了《旧约•箴言》的哲学。译成希腊文的教导影响了所有后来的希腊宗教哲学。后来的亚历山大哲学家斐洛，便拥有一本《智慧书》。		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.
95:4.4 (1046.5) 阿门内莫普起到了保留进化类伦理和启示类道德的作用，并将其留在其著作中，传给了希伯来人和希腊人。他虽不是这一时代最伟大的宗教导师，但却是最有影响力的，因为他影响了西方文明成长中两大环节的相继思想 -- 即希伯来人，在他们中间演变出了西方宗教信仰之顶峰，以及希腊人，他们将纯粹的哲学思想发展到了其最伟大的欧洲高度。		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.
95:4.5 (1046.6) 在《希伯来箴言书》中，十五、十七、二十章，以及二十二章十七节到二十四章二十二节，几近一字不差地摘自阿门内莫普的《智慧书》。《希伯来诗篇书》的第一篇是由阿门内莫普所写的，它也是阿肯那顿教导的核心。		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.
5. 非凡的阿肯那顿 ^top		5. The Remarkable Ikhnaton ^top
95:5.1 (1047.1) 阿门内莫普的教导慢慢在埃及人心中失去了控制力，这时，通过一位埃及撒冷教医师的影响，一位王室女人信奉了麦基洗德教导。这位女人说服了她的儿子、埃及法老阿肯那顿接受了这些关于一神的教义。		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) 自肉身中的麦基洗德消失以来，到那时为止，没有人像阿肯那顿那样能对撒冷的启示宗教具有这样一种惊人清晰的概念。在某些方面，这位年轻的埃及君王堪称人类历史上最为非凡的人物之一。在美索不达米亚日渐灵性衰颓的这段时间里，他令一神埃尔•埃里昂的教义在埃及保持了生机，从而保持了哲学上的一神论通道，这对当时迈克尔未来赠与之宗教背景来说是至关重要的。正是出于对这一功绩的认可，以及其他一些原因，幼年的耶稣才被带到了埃及，阿肯那顿的一些灵性继承者见到了他，并在某种程度上理解了他对玉苒厦(Urantia)之神圣使命的某些方面。		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) 摩西，这位介于麦基洗德和耶稣之间的最伟大人物，是希伯来民族和埃及王室对世界的联合赠与；假若阿肯那顿具有摩西的才艺及能力，假若他展示出一种与其出色宗教领导才能相匹配的政治天赋，那么埃及将会成为那一时代伟大的一神教国家了；假若这一切发生的话，那么耶稣或许刚好有可能在埃及度过其凡世生活的更大部分时间了。		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) 在历史上从没有哪位君王会像这位非凡的阿肯那顿这样，如此有条不紊地推动将一整个国家从多神教转向一神教。这位年轻的统治者以最为惊人的决心与过去相决裂，改换了名字，放弃了他的首都，建造了一座全新的城市，为一整个民族创造了一种新的艺术和文学。但他走得太快了；他建得太多了，在他离世后都难以为继。此外，他也未能为其民众提供物质上的稳定和繁荣，当随后充满凄惨和压抑的洪流席卷埃及人时，所有这一切都对其宗教教导形成了不利的反应。		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) 假若这位充满惊人卓见和非凡单一意图的人拥有摩西的政治睿智，他将会改变西方世界宗教演进和真理启示的整个历史。在其一生中他能够抑制他所普遍不信任祭司们的活动，但他们秘密保留了他们的教派，并在这位年轻君王离开权位时迅速行动；他们快速将埃及相继而来的麻烦与他在位期间创立的一神教联系起来。		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) 阿肯那顿非常明智地寻求在太阳神的伪装下创立一神教。这种通过将所有诸神纳入到对太阳神崇拜而达至对万有之父崇拜的决定，是由于这位撒冷教医师的提议。阿肯那顿采纳了当时存在的涉及神灵兼具父性和母性的阿顿信仰所包含的泛化教义，创建了一种承认人与神之间亲密崇拜关系的宗教。		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) 阿肯那顿足够明智地保持了对太阳神阿顿的外在崇拜，同时他将其同伴们引入到对一神、即阿顿的创造者和至高的万有之父的变相崇拜中。这位年轻的导师兼君王是一位多产的作家，是题为“唯一神”之著述的作者，一本由三十一章组成的著述，祭司们在重新掌权后将它彻底毁掉了。阿肯那顿还写过一百三十七首诗篇，十二首如今被保留在《旧约•诗篇》中，被记名为希伯来人所作。		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) 阿肯那顿的宗教在日常生活中的至高词是“正义”，他很快又将正行的概念扩展到包含民族及跨民族的伦理。这是充满惊人性个人虔诚的一代，在更为睿智的男女中间，是以发现神并去认识他的真正渴望为特征的。那些日子里，在律法面前，社会地位或财富不会给埃及人任何优势。埃及的家庭生活为保留和增强道德教化做了许多，对后来巴勒斯坦犹太人的家庭生活是一种激励。		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) 阿肯那顿福音的致命弱点恰在于其最伟大的真理，即教导阿顿不仅是埃及的创造者，也是“整个世界、人类与兽类、埃及这片土地以外所有外邦土地，乃至叙利亚和库什的创造者。他令一切各就其位，并令一切获其所需。”这些关于神灵的概念是高等而又尊贵的， 但它们却不是民族性的。这种跨民族性的宗教情感未能在战场上增强埃及军队的士气，却反为祭司们提供了用来反对年轻君王及其新宗教的有力武器。他拥有一种远超后来希伯来人的神灵观念，但它却过于先进而无法为国家构建者的意图而服务。		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) 尽管一神论的理念随着阿肯那顿的去世而受到重创，但一神的观念却持久存在于许多族群的心中。阿肯那顿的女婿与祭司们走到了一起，倒退到对过去诸神的崇拜中，并将其名字改为图坦卡蒙。首府迁回了底比斯。祭司在这片土地上大发横财，最终获得了整个埃及七分之一的财产；不久这个祭司阶层中的一员擅自夺取了王权。		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) 但祭司们未能完全克服一神论的浪潮。他们愈渐被迫去合并和归化其诸神；诸神家族愈渐收缩。阿肯那顿曾将天上的光轮与创世之神关联了起来，在这位年轻革新者过世之后很久，这一观念不断在人们心中闪耀，甚至包括祭司们。一神论的观念从未在埃及和全世界消失过。它甚至持续到了那位神圣之父的造物之子到来之时，他便是阿肯那顿如此热忱宣扬整个埃及去崇拜的一神。		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) 阿肯那顿教义的弱点在于以下事实，即他提出了如此先进的一个宗教，以致只有受过教育的埃及人才能完全理解他的教导。农业劳作者所组成的老百姓从未真正理解他的福音，因此极易和祭司们一同回到对于伊西斯及其伴侣欧西里斯的崇拜中，人们相信后者被黑暗与邪恶之神赛特残酷杀害后又奇迹般地复活了。		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) 对于埃及人来说，所有人都获永生的教导太过先进了。只有君王和富人才获允复活；因此他们才如此小心地将其墓中尸体涂油防腐以待审判之日。但阿肯那顿所教导的全民性救赎与复活最终盛行起来，乃至到了埃及人后来相信喑哑动物也会续存的程度。		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) 尽管这位埃及统治者将一神崇拜强加到其民众身上的努力看似失败了，但应被记下的是，其著述的影响在巴勒斯坦和希腊持续了多个世纪，埃及也因此成了将结合起来的尼罗河进化宗教与幼发拉底河启示宗教传向西方后继各民族的媒介。		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) 这一在尼罗河流域充满道德发展和灵性成长的伟大时代之荣耀，在希伯来人的民族生活逐渐开始之时迅速消逝了，后来在他们旅居埃及之际，这些贝都因人带走了这些教导中的大多内容，并将阿肯那顿的许多教义长久保留在他们的民族宗教之中。		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. 伊朗的撒冷教义 ^top		6. The Salem Doctrines in Iran ^top
95:6.1 (1049.4) 一些麦基洗德传教士从巴勒斯坦继续穿行，经过美索不达米亚而来到了大伊朗高原。五百多年以来，撒冷的导师们在伊朗取得了进展，整个民族都逐渐转向了麦基洗德宗教。这时，统治者的变动引发了一场痛苦的迫害，这实际上终止了撒冷教的一神论教导。亚伯拉罕圣约的教义几近在波斯失传了，此时，在基督前六世纪那个伟大的道德复兴世纪里，琐罗亚斯德出现了，来复兴撒冷福音的阴燃余烬。		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) 这位新宗教的创建者是一个精力充沛、喜爱冒险的年轻人，在其前往美索不达米亚乌尔的首次朝圣中，他得知了卡里迦夏和路西法反叛的传说，连同许多其他传说 -- 所有这一切都对其宗教天性形成了一种强烈的吸引力。相应地，由于在乌尔一个睡梦的结果，他确定了一个回到其北方家园从事其民族宗教重塑的计划。他已吸纳了希伯来人有关公平之神的观念，即摩西关于神的概念。至高神的观念在他心中是清晰的，他将所有其他神贬为魔鬼，将他们归到了他在美索不达米亚所听过的恶魔行列中。他已得知了作为传说萦留于乌尔的七个主位之灵的故事，相应地，他创建了由七位至高神组成的、以阿胡拉•马兹达为首的一群人物。他将这些从属神与正法、善想、贵治、圣行、康健和不朽联系到了一起。		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) 这个新宗教是充满了行动（即行为）的宗教，而非充满祈祷和仪式。它的神是一位充满至高智慧的存在，是文明的庇护者。它是一种富于战斗性的宗教哲学，敢于和邪恶、无为和畏缩作斗争。		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) 琐罗亚斯德并未教导对火的崇拜，而是寻求利用火焰作为充满普遍至高性主导的纯粹明智之灵的一种象征。（事实上，他后来的追随者们确实既敬畏又崇拜这一象征之火。） 最终，在一位伊朗君王皈依之际，这个新的宗教便倚仗刀剑得以传播了。琐罗亚斯德也为他所信仰的“光明之主真理”而英勇战死。		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) 琐罗亚斯德教是唯一一个使达拉玛希亚和伊甸园有关七个主位之灵教导长存下来的玉苒厦人(Urantian)教义。尽管它未能演进出三位一体的概念，但它确实在某种意义上接近了神之七重者的概念。原初的琐罗亚斯德教并非是一种纯粹的二元论；尽管其早期的教导的确将恶描绘为善的一种时间对应物，但它肯定会永恒淹没在善的终极实相中。只是在后来时善与恶同等抗衡的信仰才获得了相信。		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) 在希伯来圣经中所记载的有关天堂和地狱的犹太传说以及魔鬼的教义，尽管是基于残留的路西法和卡里迦夏传说，但却主要源于犹太人处在波斯人政治和文化主导时期的琐罗亚斯德教教徒。琐罗亚斯德像埃及人一样教导了“审判日”，但他将这一事件与世界末日联系了起来。		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) 在波斯，即便是接替琐罗亚斯德教的宗教也都明显受到了它的影响。当伊朗祭司们寻求推翻琐罗亚斯德的教导时，他们复兴了古老的密特拉崇拜。密特拉教传遍了黎凡特和地中海地区，有段时间曾与犹太教和基督教处于同一时代。琐罗亚斯德的教导由此相继影响了三大宗教：犹太教、基督教，以及通过它们而产生的伊斯兰教。		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) 但琐罗亚斯德的崇高教导和高贵诗篇，却与帕西人对其福音的现代曲解相去甚远，后者怀有对死者的巨大恐惧，外加对琐罗亚斯德所从来不屑一顾的诡辩信仰的接受。		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) 这位伟人是在基督前六世纪涌现出的那一独特群体中的一员，为的是在微弱燃烧的撒冷之光给黑暗世界中的人类指明通向永生的光明之路时，防止它最终完全熄灭。		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. 阿拉伯的撒冷教导 ^top		7. The Salem Teachings in Arabia ^top
95:7.1 (1050.6) 麦基洗德关于一神的教导，在相对近来的日子才在阿拉伯沙漠确立起来。在阿拉伯，正如在希腊一样，撒冷传教士们由于他们对麦基洗德涉及过度组织化指示的误解而失败了。他反对一切通过武力或民事强制来扩展福音的努力，但他们并未因其对这一告诫的阐释而由此受到牵制。		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) 就连中国和罗马也从未像在这片如此靠近撒冷本身的沙漠地区这样失败得如此彻底。在东西方各民族中大多数都成了佛教徒和基督教徒之后许久，阿拉伯沙漠仍像过去几千年来一样继续着。每个部落都崇拜其旧有的物神，许多个体家庭都拥有他们自己的家神。巴比伦人的伊丝塔、希伯来人的雅威、伊朗人的阿胡拉以及基督徒的主耶稣基督之父之间的斗争长久不断，从未有一种概念能够完全取代其他概念。		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) 阿拉伯到处都有一些坚持模糊一神观念的家庭和氏族。这些群体珍视麦基洗德、亚伯拉罕、摩西和琐罗亚斯德的传统。有众多中心或许已对耶稣教的福音有所回应，但沙漠地区的基督教传教士们，与地中海国家担当传教士的妥协者和革新者相比，是一个严厉而不妥协的群体。假若耶稣的追随者们更为认真地听他的劝告“去到全世界宣扬福音”，假若他们在那布道方面更宽容一些，在他们自己设计出的附加社会要求上不那么严格，那么包括阿拉伯在内的许多地方都将会接受这位木匠之子的简朴福音。		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) 尽管有大黎凡特区的一神论没能在阿拉伯扎根这一事实，但这片沙漠地区却有能力产生一种信仰，尽管在社会要求上不那么苛刻，但却可以是一神论的。		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) 关于这个沙漠原始的、无组织的信仰，只有唯一一个具有部落性、种族性或是民族性本质的因素，那便是几近所有的阿拉伯部落，都愿意对麦加一个特定神庙里的一块特定黑石物神致以特有而普遍的敬意。这点共同的接触和敬畏，随后导致了伊斯兰教的创立。火山之灵雅威之于犹太闪族人，就如同克尔白石之于其阿拉伯兄弟一样。		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) 伊斯兰教的长处在于它将安拉清晰而明确地呈现为唯一神灵；其弱点则在于用武力伴随其传播，外加它对女人的贬低。但它却始终不移地坚持它对万有之一贯神灵的阐述，“他尽知可见与不可见之物，他是宽容而又慈悲的。”“神对所有人是确为至善的。”“当我病时，是他治愈了我。”“无论何时三人同语，神必居其四。” 因为他难道不是“最初的也是最终的，可见的和隐藏的”？		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) [由内巴顿(Nebadon)的一位麦基洗德所呈献。]		95:7.7 (1051.5) [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]