Asia {64} Minor, where the
Israelites formed a considerable and influential element of the population,
an intermingling of the old native traditions and the religion of the
strangers from the other side of the Taurus must have occurred.

This mixture certainly took place in the mysteries of Sabazius, the
Phrygian Jupiter or Dionysus.[31] They were very similar to those of Attis,
with whom he was frequently confounded. By means of an audacious etymology
that dates back to the Hellenistic period, this old Thraco-Phrygian
divinity has been identified with "Yahveh Zebaoth," the Biblical "Lord of
Hosts." The corresponding expression ([Greek: kurios Sabaoth]) in the
Septuagint has been regarded as the equivalent of the _kurios Sabazios_
([Greek: kurios Sabazios]) of the barbarians. The latter was worshiped as
the supreme, almighty and holy Lord. In the light of a new interpretation
the purifications practised in the mysteries were believed to wipe out the
hereditary impurity of a guilty ancestor who had aroused the wrath of
heaven against his posterity, much as the original sin with which Adam's
disobedience had stained the human race was to be wiped out. The custom
observed by the votaries of Sabazius of dedicating votive hands which made
the liturgic sign of benediction with the first three fingers extended (the
_benedictio latina_ of the church) was probably taken from the ritual of
the Semitic temples through the agency of the Jews. The initiates believed,
again like the Jews, that after death their good angel (_angelus bonus_)
would lead them to the banquet of the eternally happy, and the everlasting
joys of these banquets were anticipated on earth by the liturgic repasts.
This celestial feast can {65} be seen in a fresco painting on the grave of
a priest of Sabazius called Vincentius, who was buried in the Christian
catacomb of Praetextatus, a strange fact for which no satisfactory
explanation has as yet been furnished. Undoubtedly he belonged to a
Jewish-pagan sect that admitted neophytes of every race to its mystic
ceremonies. In fact, the church itself formed a kind of secret society
sprung from the synagogue but distinct from it, in which Gentiles and the
Children of Israel joined in a common adoration.

If it is a fact, then, that Judaism influenced the worship of Sabazius, it
is very probable that it influenced the cult of Cybele also, although in
this case the influence cannot be discerned with the same degree of