Alexander Hislop

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Alexander Hislop (Born at Duns, Berwickshire, 1807; died Arbroath, 13 March 1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister famous for his outspoken criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the son of Stephen Hislop (died 1837), a mason by occupation and an elder of the Relief Church. Alexander's brother was also named Stephen Hislop (lived 1817–1863) and became well known in his time as a missionary to India and a naturalist.

Alexander was for a time parish schoolmaster of Wick, Caithness. In 1831 he married Jane Pearson. He was for a time editor of the Scottish Guardian newspaper. As a probationer he joined the Free Church of Scotland at the Disruption of 1843. He was ordained in 1844 at the East Free Church, Arbroath, where he became senior minister in 1864. He died of a paralytic stroke the next year after being ill for about two years.

He wrote several books, his most famous being The Two Babylons: Papal worship Revealed to be the worship of Nimrod and His wife.

Contents

[edit] The Two Babylons

Main article: The Two Babylons

This book was initially published in 1853 as a pamphlet, then greatly revised and expanded and released as a book in 1858.

He claimed the Roman Catholic Church was a Babylonian mystery cult, and pagan, whereas Protestants worshipped the true Jesus and the true God. He contended that Roman Catholic religious practices are actually pagan practices grafted onto true Christianity during the reign of Constantine. At this point, he alleged, the merger between the Roman state religion and its adoration of the mother and child was transferred to Christianity, merging Christian characters with pagan mythology. The Goddess was renamed Mary, and Jesus was the renamed Jupiter-Puer, or "Jupiter the Boy".

Hislop's theory was that the goddess, in Rome called Venus or Fortuna, was the Roman name of the more ancient Babylonian cult of Ishtar, whose origins began with a blonde-haired and blue-eyed woman named Semiramis.

According to Hislop, Semiramis was an exceedingly beautiful woman, who gave birth to a son named Tammuz, was instrumental as the queen, and wife of Nimrod the founder of Babylon, and its religion, complete with a pseudo-Virgin Birth. This he called a foreshadowing of the birth of Christ, prompted by Satan. Later, Nimrod was killed, and Semiramis, pregnant with his child, claimed the child was Nimrod reborn.

Hislop claimed that the cult and worship of Semiramis spread globally, her name changing with the culture. In Egypt she was Isis, in Greece and Rome she was called Venus, Diana, Athena, and a host of other names, but was always prayed to and central to the faith which was based on Babylonian mystery religion.

Then, according to Hislop, Constantine, though claiming to convert to Christianity, remained pagan but renamed the gods and goddesses with Christian names to merge the two faiths for his political advantage, under Satan's guidance.

The book has been severely criticized by many of being insidiously hateful, and in much of it supporting evidence being found in ante -nicene testimonies, as well as Josephus, and other ancient varifications as some existing evidence: for instance, the Roman state religion before Christianity did worship a central Mother Goddess, Venus and Cupid. Yet many women named Semiramis lived centuries after Nimrod, and not all could be the famed original, and some legend seems to mix them. Hislop also makes some questionable linguistic connections and fanciful word plays, e.g. the letters IHS on hosts in Catholic Holy Communion are alleged to stand for Egyptian deities Isis, Horus and Seth, but in reality they are an abbreviation for Ihsous, the Latin spelling of Jesus's name in Greek (Ιησους), although popularly, they stand for the Latin Iesus Hominum Salvator meaning Jesus, Savior of Mankind.

Despite this, and the fact that his book, if proven true, would discredit Christian traditions as a whole, since the concepts that it attacks in Roman Catholicism are shared by some Protestants, this book was, and still remains in some circles, a staple of anti-Catholic polemic. Hislop is a favorite source of Jack Chick, who published reprints of his book, and Dave Hunt, who on occasion alludes to his work. While strong criticisms of this book have been published, it is still considered by many as a definitive work of Protestant Christian apologetics.

[edit] External links

[edit] Books by Alexander Hislop

(Sources of information include COPAC )

  • Christ's Crown and Covenant: or national covenanting essentially connected with national revival (Arbroath and Edinburgh, 1860)
  • Infant Baptism, according to the Word of God and confession of faith. Being a review, in five letters, of the new theory of Professor Lumsden, as advocated in his treatise entitled, "Infant baptism: its nature and objects." (Edinburgh, 1856)
  • The Light of Prophecy let in on the dark places of the Papacy (exposition of 2 Thess 2: 3–12) (Edinburgh, 1846)
  • The Moral Identity of Babylon and Rome (London, 1855)
  • The Red Republic; or Scarlet Coloured Beast of the Apocalypse (Edinburgh, 1849)
  • The Rev. E.B. Elliott and the "Red Republic" (Arbroath, circa 1850)#
  • The Scriptural Principles of the Solemn League and Covenant : in their bearing on the present state of the Episcopal churches (Glasgow, 1858)
  • The Trial of Bishop Forbes (A lecture delivered in East Free Church, Arbroath) (Edinburgh, 1860)
  • Truth and Peace (in reply to a pamphlet, entitled "Charity and mutual forbearance" by "Irenicus") (Arbroath, 1858)
  • The Two Babylons; or, the Papal Worship proved to be the worship of Nimrod and his wife (Edinburgh, 1853 & 1858)
  • Unto the Venerable the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland : the petition of the undersigned (relates to James Lumsden on "Infant Baptism": Hislop was head signatory of this petition) (Edinburgh, 1860)

[edit] Bibliography

  • Ewing, William: Annals of the Free Church of Scotland 1843–1900 (Edinburgh, 1914)
  • The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland, 1 April 1865, Obituary
  • Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 9 (London, 1908), Article on Stephen Hislop
  • Smith, George: Stephen Hislop, Pioneer Missionary & Naturalist in Central India from 1844 to 1863 (London, 1888)
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