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Equestrian Wisdom & History Books Astonishing Rides, Rescues & Races
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by Jeremy JamesOne of the many anomalies surrounding biblical injunctions concerns the treatment of animals, abused or otherwise, during the formative stages of Christianity.
Certainly we are apprised of animal presence in biblical writing in both Old and New Testaments, of animals being there and of recognising them as part of the landscape. Yet rarely do we encounter what might be considered a fully blown message concerning animal welfare per se: that they are part of a creation, and therefore have an inviolable right to life - should you prefer to apprehend it like that - or prefer not to – and view them rather as accidents of the environment, without specific divine attachment.
And yet there are moments when we are made aware that this is not case: how a sparrow might not fall without the knowledge of the Almighty. But, when it comes to isolating a species such as equines, which must have been abundant at the time, we find nothing, apart from their being set in symbolic role: for example, Christ and the donkey; Christ and the colt. However, if you really start casting about into biblical scriptures, a few startling moments come to life.
Perhaps most people are aware of the many bibles that exist in the world: AB, ASV, CEV, D-RB, ESV, GNB, GSB, Knox, NJB, (NT), NKJV, Reader’s Digest Bible, Wycliffe, Coptic, Ethiopian, Amharic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Word Wide English, Young’s Literal Translation, Ethnic versions and so on. etc etc: the Bible comes in many shapes and forms, many languages, many types and styles. But, exisiting outside the norm, are the Gnostic Gospels, which have things to say that are not present in the more commonly accepted teaching of Western Christianity, which is based largely upon the pronouncements of the Council of Nicea.
The Council of Nicea was an august body of men who, in 325 AD, drew up the foundations of what was to be regarded as the unified, definitive doctrine of Christianity, morally, spiritually and, of course, politically. In other words the Council established a canon of accepted orthodoxy: Nicea dictated what should and what should not go into what was to become the New Testament.
However, in a Gnostic version of the Gospels, The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, which escaped the pronouncements of the Council of Nicea – I emphasise its authority is challenged – this section is to be found: Lection XXI, verses 1 to 6. Jesus Rebuketh Cruelty to a Horse: '1. And it came to pass the Lord departed from the City and went over the mountains with his disciples. And they came to a mountain whose ways were steep and there they found a man with a beast of burden. 2. But the horse had fallen down for it was over-laden, and he struck it till the blood flowed. And Jesus went to him and said: 'Son of cruelty, why strikest though thy beast? Seeist thou not it is too weak for its burden, and knowest though not that it suffereth?' 3. But the man answered and said: 'What hast thou to do therewith? I may strike it as much as it pleaseth me, for it is mine own, and I bought it with a goodly sum of money. Ask them who are with thee, for they are of mine acquaintance and know thereof.' 4. And some of the disciples answered and said: 'Yea, Lord, it is as he saith, We have seen when he bought it.' And the Lord said again: 'See ye not then how it bleedeth, hear ye not also how it waileth and lamenteth?'’ But they answered and said: 'Nay, Lord, we hear not that it waileth and lamenteth.' 5. And the Lord was sorrowful and said to them: 'how it lamenteth and crieth unto the heavenly Creator for mercy. But thrice woe unto him against whom it crieth and waileth in its pain.' 6. He went forward and touched it, and the horse stood up, and its wounds were healed. But to the man he said. 'Go now thy way and strike it henceforth no more, if thou also desirest to find mercy.'
There are many other Lections (readings) within the Gospel of The Holy Twelve which refer not only to the ill-treatment of other animals but also reveal a pronounced tenderness toward animal creation as a whole and indeed, it might be fair to suggest that its entire drift is vegetarian.
Setting that argument aside for a moment and dealing with the horse issue alone, cross-checking the date of the Council of Nicea with the building of the Hippodrome in New Rome, (Constantinople) one finds that they coincide almost exactly: or rather, perhaps, that they clash. The Hippodrome was completed in 324 AD and the Council of Nicea convened a year later, in the heyday of the Hippodrome, in 325 AD.
The chariot races that formed the spectacle in the Hippodrome at the time raised a huge deal of money for the exchequer and were, more pertinently, exceedingly popular. That hippodrome sat 100,000 people at once. The races took place regularly.
One wonders then, that since this was the case, any reference to what might have been regarded as politically subversive, or politically incorrect would have been rejected outright by the Emperor (Constantine the Great), the public at large, and more pertinently, with big business and vested interests of the time. (Plus ça change, huh?) They would not have accepted any minority, grass roots, animal rights benchmark which would have interfered with the holding of the races, which were brutal to both man and horse, but particularly to horses. One is therefore impelled to question that any such reference would have precluded the addition of any welfare standard finding its way into what was to become state approved religion.
In so doing, further generations right up to the present day were exonerated of any sense of duty of care toward their charges. Lay onto this Descartian principle of animals being mere automatons and you have soulless, feelingless, lumps of flesh, wholly lacking in sentience, that man may do with as he wills. Glue that together with the Genetic word, that Man Hath Dominion over all creation and bingo, you’ve got mass exploitation at full rein.
It’s a difficult one, I admit and is hardly a foregone conclusion, but nevertheless, one is bound to wonder that a great deal were deliberately eliminated if it were the case, and that fighting to get Lection XXI, verses 1 to 6 of the Gospel of The Holy Twelve reinstated is a battle yet to be joined.
If proven, and if some of these Gnostic Gospels are to taken in preference to the received wisdom of the sanitised and politically correct version of the Council of Nicea, then we might witness a potent backlash in a fundamental view of Christianity, which not only embraces mankind as its brethren, but all kinds of birds and animals, including horses, and will give rise to a re-evaluation of the use of animals in any sphere such as we have not yet even begun to imagine.
Jeremy James, a Founding Member of The Long Riders' Guild, is often known as "The Poet of the Saddle." He is the author of many celebrated books, including Saddletramp, Vagabond and the Byerley Turk. |
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