--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1841 to 1842. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 3 number: 22 published: 1842-09-15 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“From Jahn's Biblical Archaeology,” *Times and Seasons* 3, no. 22 (September 15, 1842): 918–919." printed_title: From Jahn's Biblical Archaeology. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-09-15_3_22 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n22.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-09-15_3_22 start_page: 918 end_page: 919 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1842 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-09-15_3_22 publication_year: 1842 --- # From Jahn's Biblical Archaeology Respecting the Knowledge of God before the time of Christ, as developed by Philosophy. Not a single philosopher had any idea of a God of such an exalted character, as to be the agent in the construction of the Universe, till ANAXAGORAS, the disciple of Hermotimus. This philosopher came to Athens in the year 456 before Christ, and first taught, that the world was organized or constructed by some MIND or mental being, out of matter, which this philosopher supposed, had always existed. Socrates, Plato, and others adopted, illustrated, and adorned this opinion. Aristotle, on the contrary, supposed the world to have existed in its organized form eternally, and that the SUPREME BEING, who was coexistent, merely put in motion. The Epicureans believed a fortuitous concurrence of atoms to have been the origin of all things. Many were atheists; many were skeptics, who doubted and assailed every system of opinions. Those, who maintained the existence of a framer of architect of the world, (for no one believed in a creator of it,) held also to an animating principle in matter, which originated from the supreme architect, and which animated, and regulated the material system. Things of minor consequence, especially those, which touched the destiny of man, were referred by all classes, to the government of the gods, who were accordingly the objects of worship, and not the SUPREME ARCHITECT. Paul gives a sufficiently favorable representation of this defective knowledge of God, Rom. 1:19-24. After all, it may be made an inquiry, whether Anaxagoras or Hermotimus had not learnt [learned] some things respecting the God of the Jews from the Jews, who were sold as slaves by the Phoenicians into Greece, Joel 3:6, or from the Phoenicians themselves, who traded in Ionia and Greece, and whether these philosophers did not thus acquire that knowledge, which was thought to have originated with themselves. Perhaps they derived their notions of an eternal architect from the doctrines of the Persians respecting Hazaruam or the endless succession of time, and Ormuz. However this may be, we observe on this topic, I. That the Hebrews remained firm to their religion before their acquaintance with Grecian philosophy, although many receded from it, after forming such an acquaintance. II. The philosophic doctrine respecting the architect of the world, rested on arguments of so subtle a kind, that they could not have been estimated by the Jewish populace, and could not have been applied by them, to confirm their minds in religious truth. For, according to Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, Lib. 1. 6. such was the contention, even among the learned, in respect to the doctrine of the gods, that those who had the most strength and confidence on their side were compelled to doubt. We do not make the above extract so much for the intrinsic value of the article, as to show the danger of philosophising [philosophizing] upon religion:-Paul was well aware of this course when he exclaimed, "beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men; after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The whole doctrine of salvation, as revealed by God at sundry time, has been diametrically opposed to philosophy. The world by wisdom know not God. Before the flood, and after, men, although they had been created upright, sought out many inventions, which, when viewed closely, all go to put God a great way off,-or to make him out a complete-nothing, showing that without the spirit you cannot know the living God. TIMES AND SEASONS. CITY OF NAUVOO, THURSDAY, SEPT. 15, 1842.