1. IN these days in Egupt there were houses of records, where the affairs of the state, and of the king and governors, were recorded; and there were recorded also the births and marriages and deaths of people.
2. The languages of the learned were Fonecean and Parsi'e'an; but the native languages were Eguptian, Arabaic and Eustian and Semis. The times by the learned gave two suns to a year, but the times of the tribes of Eustia gave only six months to a year. Accordingly, in the land of Egupt what was one year with the learned was two years with the Eustians and Semisians.
3. God said: My people shall reckon their times according to the place and the people where they dwell. And they did this. Hence, even the tribes of p. 497b Israel had two calendars of time, the long and the short.
4. To events of prophecy there was also another calendar, called the ode, signifying sky-time, or heavenly times. One ode was equivalent to eleven long years; three odes, one spell, signifying a generation; eleven spells one Tuff. Thothma, the learned man and builder of the great pyramid, had said: As a diameter is to a circle, and as a circle is to a diameter, so are the rules of the seasons of the earth. For the heat or the cold, or the drouth or the wet, no matter, the sum of one eleven years is equivalent to the sum of another eleven years. One SPELL is equivalent to the next eleventh spell. And one cycle matcheth every eleventh cycle. Whoever will apply these rules to the earth shall truly prophesy as to drouth and famine and pestilence, save wherein man contraveneth by draining or irrigation. And if he apply himself to find the light and the darkness of the earth, these rules are sufficient. For as there are three hundred and sixty-three years in one tuff, so are there three hundred and sixty-three days in one year, besides the two days and a quarter when the sun standeth still on the north and south lines.
5. In consequence of these three calendars, the records of Egupt were in confusion. The prophecies and genealogies of man became worthless. And as to measurements, some were by threes, some by tens, and some by twelves; and because of the number of languages, the measurements became confounded; so that with all the great learning of the Eguptians, and with all the care bestowed on the houses of records, they became even themselves the greatest confounding element of all.
6. Jehovih had said: For two thousand years I gave My enemies a loose rein; and they have the longest line of kings in all the world; and yet in the midst of their prosperity they fall down like a drunken man. Even their language is become like a pearl that is lost in a mire.
7. Jehovih said: Because the kings of Egupt have outlawed My people, and denied them the right to obtain great learning, behold My people are divided also. One tribe hath one speech, another tribe another speech, and so on, till they can not now understand one another; save, in fact, in their rites, and signs, and passwords.
8. Yea, the kings have perceived that to keep My people in ignorance is to keep them forever in bondage. But I will raise up a leader, Moses, amongst My chosen, and I will send him even into the house of the king, and the king shall give him great learning; he shall master all languages, and be capable of speaking with all My people.
9. Because the Israelites (Faithists) worshipped not the Gods and Lords, but the Great Spirit only, and because they resented not injury done by another, they had been limited into servitude by the Eguptian laws, which had stood for fifteen hundred years. These laws were called the Sun laws, after the manner of the division of the Osirian system, which was:
10. The sun is a central power; its accompanying planets are satellites. In like manner the king of Egupt was the Sun King, and his sub-kings (governors) were satellites. Osiris, the highest angel in heaven, was the Sun God, that is, God of Gods; for all other Gods were his satellites. He revealed certain laws to mortals, and these were the Sun laws; and all minor laws were satellites. A Sun law extended over all of Egupt, but a satellite law pertained to the minor affairs of a city or province; but it must conform to the Sun laws. For in those days the spirits of darkness taught that the sun once whirled so fast it cast off its outer extreme, and so made the earth, and moon, and stars; and this was the accepted philosophy of the learned Eguptians of that period. Because the worlds run in circles (orbits), the circle was the highest measure, or sun measure; and the diameter of the circle was called, the ode, a Fonecean word, signifying short measure. And this name, ode, was applied to the Israelites in satire, as the Anglo-Saxon word, odius, is used to this day. But the Israelites made sweet songs and called them odes also.
11. Amongst the Sun laws were the following, to wit: The God of Gods (i.e., Osiris) decreeth: Whoso boweth not down to me shall not partake of me. Behold, mine is the sign of the circle! My enemies shall not receive great learning.
12. They shall not hold sun places (be employers), but be as servants only all their lives. And these signs shall discover them:
13. If they worship not me, but the Great Spirit;
14. If they deny that the Creator is in the image of a man;
15. If they circumcise, and will not serve as soldiers;
16. Then their possessions are forfeited already; nor shall they possess houses in their own names; nor send their children to the schools; for they shall be servants and the servants of servants forever.
17. Under the Eguptian laws it was accounted a sufficient crime of idolatry to worship the Great Spirit, Jehovih, that the Israelites were not even admitted to the courts to be tried for an offence, but fell under the jurisdiction of the master for whom they labored, and his judgments were unappealable.
18. Now at the time of the birth of Moses, there were in Egupt thirteen millions of inhabitants; and of these, four millions were Faithists (Israelites), more or less. For amongst the Israelites not all were of full faith, but many, to shirk the rigors of the Sun laws, professed to be worshippers of God (Osiris), and they would also enlist as soldiers, and otherwise connive in the ways of men, for sake of favors.
19. For which reason the Sun King (Pharaoh) feared the time might come when the Israelites might revolt against the Sun laws or become soldiers and confederate with foreign kingdoms for the overthrow of the Eguptian dynasty.
20. For more than three hundred years the God Baal and the Goddess Ashtaroth had driven the foreign kingdoms to war; and in consequence of these wars the Faithists had fled into Egupt, and even accepted servitude rather than be slain elsewhere.
21. Jehovih had said: Behold, mine enemies in killing one another, frighten off My chosen. Now will I lead them into Egupt together and give unto them a great leader, and he shall restore My doctrines unto them, and I will afterward deliver them into lands of their own.