In the Latter Day Saint movement, a secret combination is a secret society of "people bound together by oaths to carry out the evil purposes of the group."[1] Secret combinations were first discussed in the Book of Mormon, published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. The most notable example of a secret combination is the Gadianton robbers, a conspiracy throughout much of the Book of Mormon narrative. According to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, Cain also entered a secret combination with Satan and became Master Mahan.[2]
Secret combinations in the Book of Mormon[edit]
The Book of Mormon is a religious text held by the Latter Day Saints to be record of several groups of people who inhabited ancient America. The movement holds that prophets of these people proclaimed principles and warnings for latter-day believers. Moroni, a Nephite prophet, addresses his words to later generations and speaks of secret combinations in the Book of Ether: "When ye shall see these things [secret combinations] come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation."[3]
The Book of Mormon denounces secret combinations as "most abominable and wicked above all, in the sight of God."[4] They are also considered to be one of the signs that a people is ripe for the Lord's vengeance, and according to the Book of Mormon, in the last days will be prevalent on the earth.[5]
Moroni also warns that the Gentiles of the latter day should repent of their sins and not allow that "murderous combinations get above you, which are built up to get power and gain."[6] Moroni goes on to warn that anyone who builds up a secret combination "seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies."[7]
Moroni tells an example of a secret combination in the story of a son named Jared who rebels against his father Omer, who is Jaredite king of the land. Trying once and not succeeding to overthrow his father, Jared's daughter tells him of the power of conspiracy and refers to ancient writings of "secret plans to obtain kingdoms and great glory".[8] She devises a plan to establish her father as ruler of the land. She tells him she can dance for Akish, a man of authority, and entice him. If he is pleased with her and desires to wed her, as a condition, he would have to agree to deliver the head of Jared's father, King Omer. To fulfill Jared's wish, Akish formed a circle of men who swore upon their lives that they would never divulge the secret, their plot, or their brethren. To join this secret group one had to perform a series of oaths administered by Akish. Moroni explains that these promises or covenants were "kept up by the power of the devil" through the ages.[9] After finishing the account, Moroni tells of the effect the secret combination had upon the nation saying, "They have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi."[10]
Another group of people that practiced secret combinations in the Book of Mormon are the Gadianton robbers.
Alleged secret combinations in the modern world[edit]
During the Cold War, LDS Apostle Ezra Taft Benson repeatedly described communism as a secret combination.[11] As church president, Benson stated that "a secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world."[12] Church leader Bruce R. McConkie claimed that "[r]eliable modern reports describe their existence among gangsters, as part of the governments of communist countries, in some labor organizations, and even in some religious groups."[13] Apostle M. Russell Ballard described secret combinations as including "gangs, drug cartels, and organized crime families. ... They have secret signs and code words. They participate in secret rites and initiation ceremonies. Among their purposes are to 'murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God.'"[14] LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley compared modern terrorists to the "Gadianton robbers, a vicious, oath-bound, and secret organization bent on evil and destruction."
In the religious texts of the Latter Day Saint movement, Master Mahan is a title assumed first by Cain and later by his descendant Lamech. The title indicates that Cain and Lamech were each the "master" of a "great secret" whereby they covenanted with Satan to kill for personal gain.[1] The term is found in Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible, Genesis chapter 5 (currently published by the Community of Christ), and as an excerpt in the Pearl of Great Price, chapter 5 of the Book of Moses, a religious text of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Scholars approaching the issue from a secular perspective, who argue that Smith's translation of the Bible was influenced by his cultural environment including strong local anti-Masonry, generally suggest that the term is related to "Master Mason", the highest degree of the Blue Lodge of freemasonry.[2] Another suggestion is that the term is related to "Mahoun", a pejorative reference to Muhammad during the Middle Ages which eventually became associated with witchcraft by Smith's era.[3] Apologists, however, generally argue that references to "Master Mahan" were restored by Smith from missing parts of the Bible, and therefore the term has middle-Eastern roots. Consequently, the LDS Church's publications suggest that the term "Mahan" could mean either "mind", "destroyer", or "great one",[4]and one prominent Mormon apologist speculates that the term is related to Arabic and Sanskrit words meaning "keeper of a great secret".[5]
References in the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible[edit]
The reference to "Master Mahan" is found in a revision by Joseph Smith of Genesis chapter 5 of the Bible, now published in the Inspired Version of the Bible (I.V.), Genesis chapter 5, and in the Pearl of Great Price (PGP), Book of Moses chapter 5. The passage discussing the term begins after the ritual sacrifice by Cain and Abel, when God accepted Abel's sacrifice of a sheep, but not Cain's sacrifice of crops.[6] According to this passage, the angry Cain made a secret pact with Satan, who asked Cain to:
- [s]wear unto me by thy throat, and if thou tell it thou shalt die; and swear thy bretheren by their heads, and by the living God, that they tell it not; for if they tell it, they shall surely die; and this that thy father may not know it; and this day I will deliver thy brother Abel into thine hands.[7]
After entering this secret pact with Satan, Cain said, "Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder to get gain."[8] Then, the passage comments, "Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan; and he gloried in his wickedness."[8] This arrangement was referred to as a "secret combination".[9]
Later, the passage states that Cain's descendant Lamech had "slain a man to [his] wounding, and a young man to [his] hurt", and Lamech "entered into a covenant with Satan, after the manner of Cain, wherein he became Master Mahan, master of the great secret which was administered unto Cain by Satan."[10] When a man named Irad, one of the sons of Enoch who knew about Lamech's secret pact, revealed that secret to others, the passage states that Lamech killed him to enforce the blood oath of secrecy.[11]
Theories about the term's etymology[edit]
A footnote to Moses 5:31 in the LDS Church edition of the Pearl of Great Price states that "'Mind,' 'destroyer,' and 'great one' are possible meanings of the roots evident in 'Mahan'"[12] but no further explanation is provided. In referring to this footnote, Matthew B. Brown, a Mormon apologist, has stated that he believes "Mahan" means "destroyer", because "the Hebrew word maha means 'destroy,' and the addition of an n would make the word a noun. Hence, maha(n) = destroy(er)."[13]
Some commentators have suggested that "Master Mahan" is derived or related to "Master Mason", the highest degree of the Blue Lodge of freemasonry.[14][15][16][17] Brown stated that "[a]nti-Mormon critics have long claimed that Master Mahan is a thinly veiled variation of Master Mason" and that they believe that "the presence of this title in LDS scripture clearly demonstrates that Joseph Smith plagiarized Masonic material for his creative ventures".[13] D. Michael Quinn has suggested that this interpretation "ignor[es] textual and linguistic context" of the passage, and as an alternative favors the interpretation of the phrase's derivation from "Mahoun".[18]
In popular culture[edit]
In the video game Assassin's Creed II, the player is required to find and decode "glyphs" in the game world that reveal more of the game's plot. Decoding a particular glyph in the game will begin a puzzle sequence in which Moses 5:31 is quoted.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
A deal with the devil or pact with the devil is a cultural motif, best exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian folktales. The "Bargain with the devil" constitutes motifnumber M210 and "Man sells soul to devil" motif number M211 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.[1] According to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or a lesser demon. The person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, or power.
It was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognizing the devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. The bargain is considered a dangerous one, as the price of the Fiend's service is the wagerer's soul. The tale may have a moralizing end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely, it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the devil, characteristically on a technical point. The person making the pact sometimes tries to outwit the devil, but loses in the end (e.g., man sells his soul for eternal life because he will never die to pay his end of the bargain. Immune to the death penalty, he commits murder, but is sentenced to life in prison).
Great achievements might be credited to a pact with the devil, from the numerous European Devil's Bridges to the violin virtuosity of Niccolò Paganini to the "crossroad" myth associated with Robert Johnson.
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[hide]Overview[edit]
It was usually thought that the person who had made a pact also promised the demon to kill children or consecrate them to the Devil at the moment of birth (many midwives were accused of this, due to the number of children who died at birth in the Middle Ages and Renaissance), take part in Sabbaths, have sexual relations with demons, and sometimes engender children from a succubus, or an incubus in the case of women.
The pact can be oral or written. An oral pact is made by means of invocations, conjurations, or rituals to attract the demon; once the conjurer thinks the demon is present, he/she asks for the wanted favour and offers his/her soul in exchange, and no evidence is left of the pact; but according to some witch trials and inquisitions that were performed, even the oral pact left evidence, namely the diabolical mark, an indelible mark where the marked person had been touched by the Devil to seal the pact. The mark could be used as a proof to determine that the pact was made. It was also believed that on the spot where the mark was left, the marked person could feel no pain. A written pact consists in the same forms of attracting the demon, but includes a written act, usually signed with the conjurer's blood (although sometimes was also alleged that the whole act had to be written with blood, meanwhile somedemonologists defended the idea of using red ink instead of blood and others suggested the use of animal blood instead of human blood).[2] Forms of these include contracts or simply signing your name into Satan's Red Book.
These acts were presented often as a proof of diabolical pacts, though critics claim there is no proof of whether they were authentic, written by insane persons believing they were actually dealing with a demon, or just were fake acts presented by the tribunals of the Inquisition. Usually the acts included strange characters that were said to be the signature of a demon, and each one had his own signature or seal. Books like The Lesser Key of Solomon(also known as Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis) give a detailed list of these signs, known as diabolical signatures.
The Malleus Maleficarum discusses several alleged instances of pacts with the Devil, especially concerning women. It was considered that all witches and warlocks had made a pact with some demon, especially with Satan.
According to demonology, there is a specific month, day of the week, and hour to call each demon, so the invocation for a pact has to be done at the right time. Also, as each demon has a specific function, a certain demon is invoked depending on what the conjurer is going to ask.
In the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is offered a series of bargains by the devil, in which he is promised worldly riches and glory in exchange for serving the devil rather than God. After Jesus rejects the devil's offers, he embarks on his travels as the Messiah[3] (see Temptations of Christ).
Theophilus of Adana, servant of two masters[edit]
The predecessor of Faustus in Christian mythology is Theophilus ("Friend of God" or "Beloved of god") the unhappy and despairing cleric, disappointed in his worldly career by his bishop, who sells his soul to the devil but is redeemed by the Virgin Mary.[4] His story appears in a Greek version of the sixth century written by a "Eutychianus" who claims to have been a member of the household in question.
A ninth-century Miraculum Sancte Marie de Theophilo penitente inserts a Virgin as intermediary with diabolus, his "patron", providing the prototype of a closely linked series in the Latin literature of the West.[5]
In the tenth century, the poet nun Hroswitha of Gandersheim adapted the text of Paulus Diaconus for a narrative poem that elaborates Theophilus' essential goodness and internalizes the seduction of good and evil, in which the devil is magus, a necromancer. As in her model, Theophilus receives back his contract from the devil, displays it to the congregation, and soon dies.
A long poem on the subject by Gautier de Coincy (1177/8–1236), entitled blindfold Theophilus vine a pénitence provided material for a thirteenth-century play by Rutebeuf, Le Miracle de Théophile, where Theophilus is the central pivot in a frieze of five characters, the Virgin and the bishop flanking him on the side of good, the Jew and the devil on the side of evil.
Alleged diabolical pacts in history[edit]
Non-musicians[edit]
- Johann Georg Faust, whose life was the origin of the Faust legend.[6]
- Urbain Grandier, seventeenth-century French priest, who was tried and burned at the stake for witchcraft. One of the documents presented at his trial was a diabolical pact he supposedly signed, which also bears what are supposed to be the seals of several demons, including that of Satan himself.
- Christoph Haizmann, seventeenth-century painter from Bavaria, allegedly signed two pacts to be a “bounden son” to the devil in 1668.[7]
- Jonathan Moulton, eighteenth-century brigadier general of the New Hampshire Militia, alleged to have sold his soul to the Devil to have his boots filled with gold coins when hung by the fireplace every month.
Musicians[edit]
The idea of "selling your soul for instrumental mastery/fame" has occurred several times:
- Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist, who may not have started the rumour but played along with it.[8]
- Giuseppe Tartini, Venetian violinist and composer, who believed that his Devil's Trill Sonata was inspired by the Devil's appearance before him in a dream.[9]
- Tommy Johnson, blues musician[10]
- Robert Johnson, blues musician, whom legend claims to have met Satan at a crossroads and signed over his soul to play the blues and gain mastery of the guitar.[10]
- Infernus, black metal musician; according to the Gorgoroth site, he founded the band "[a]fter making a pact with the Devil in 1992".[11]
Metaphorical use of the term[edit]
The term "a pact with the devil" is also used metaphorically to condemn a person or persons perceived as having collaborated with an evil person or regime. An example of this is the still-controversial case of Rudolf Kastner in Israel, in which the term was used in reference to Kastner's collaboration with Adolf Eichmann during the Holocaust in 1944 Hungary. According to some, the term served to inflame public hatred against Kastner, culminating in his assassination.[12]
See also[edit]
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