Comte de Gabalis [1913], at sacred-texts.com
HHNo less an authority than St. Paul, himself an Initiate, declares that "Moses was learned. in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," (Acts vii, 22). The Greek word Sophia (Wisdom) has the same root and cabalistically the same number (780) as the Greek word Ophis, (Serpent), and often signifies Wisdom of the Serpent, Solar Force, and is here used by St. Paul in this sense. We must, therefore, conclude that Moses was an Initiate, which conclusion is confirmed by Manetho, "high priest and scribe of the sacred adyta in Egypt and a citizen of Heliopolis" in the reign of Ptolemy, who makes the following statement, "It is said also that the priest, who ordained their polity and laws, was by birth of Heliopolis, and his name Osarsiph, from Osiris the god of Heliopolis: but that when he went over to these people his name was changed, and he was called Moyses." † In the Egyptian language the word Moses is spelled MSS, and means child, which word is not infrequently used in sacred writings with the meaning of Child of God or Initiate. * Accurately speaking, Moses is neither a surname nor a patronymic, but a
title bestowed upon the leader of Israel by his followers in recognition of his God-enlightenment or Initiation. Thus we perceive Moses to have been an Initiate and a priest of Osiris, as well as the servant of Jehovah, and a channel through which the esoteric teachings of Egypt flowed into the Jewish, Christian and Muhammedan religions, moulding their inner Truth in its own likeness. "That which is called the Christian Religion existed among the ancients, and never did not exist, from the beginning of the race until Christ came in the flesh, at which time the true religion which already existed began to be called Christianity." (St. Augustine).
In sacred writings letters not only have hidden meanings but numerical values as well. And the key to many sacred allegories is concealed in the numbers represented by the words used. Thus we find a clue to the meaning of the story of the Brazen Serpent in the fact that, according to the Rabbis, the number of the word Messiah and of the Hebrew word for serpent are identical, being 358.
Book of Numbers, chapter xxi, verses 5-9.
5. "And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread,Ineither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread." In this verse the children of Israel are portrayed
as turning from divine direction and giving way to the desires of the carnal nature.
6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, "The Hebrew word here used for serpent is Saraph, which properly signifies to burn," * and may he literally translated as Serpent Fire, Solar Force. And the Lord sent the Serpent Fire among the people, and because they had given way to their lower natures, the manifestations of this Force "bit (burned) the people, and much people of Israel died."
7. "Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
8. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live." This verse states plainly that Moses was direéed to place before his followers the image of the serpent lifted up, or direted upward upon a pole, that "those who were bitten," those in whom the Serpent Fire was manifesting ungoverned to their destruction, might have knowledge of its upward diretion, govern it, be regenerated and live.
9. And 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. In the Gospel of St. John, § iii, 14, we read "and just as Moses lifted high the serpent in the Desert, so must the Son of Man be. lifted up in order that every one who trusts in him may have the Life of the Ages" (literally of the Solar Force). † This verse intimates that the serpent and the Son of Man or Messiah are manifestations of the same Divine Force, a fact which their identity of numerical value indicates and which Masonry confirms, "In the Templar and Philosophical degrees, the serpent is an emblem of Christ." The Royal Masonic Cyclopædia, page 663.
284:* COMPARE Isaiah lxv., 20, Luke xviii., 17.
284:† I. P. CORY, "ANCIENT FRAGMENTS," PAGE 181.
286:* Cruden's Concordance, Page 628, Ed. 1855.
287:§ Testament in Modern Speech.
287:† Compare Saint Paul an Initiate, Page 213 Commentary Continued.