According to the
Encyclopedia,
“Valentine, Saint, is the name associated with two martyrs of the early
Christian Church.
Little is known about
them.
The Roman history of martyrs lists
two Saint Valentines as having been martyred on February 14 by being
beheaded.
One supposedly died in Rome
and the other at Interamna, now Terni,
60 miles from Rome.
There is no conclusive evidence for doubting
the existence of either man.
The
Saint Valentine who died in Rome
seems to have been a priest who suffered death during the persecution of
Claudius the Goth about A.D. 269. A
basilica was built in his honor in Rome in A.D. 350, and a catacomb containing his remains was found on this location .
The custom of exchanging valentines on February 14
can be traced to the English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. He mentioned that birds began to pair off on
that day.”
Today,
Valentine’s Day is a special day when people send greeting cards to their
sweethearts, friends, and members of their family. Most Valentine’s cards have romantic
connotations, verses, and often feature “Cupid” and his arrows aimed at the heart,
with the message, “Be My Valentine.
The Origin of Cupid
The
central figure of Valentine’s Day is Cupid, the Roman god of love. He is called Eros in Greek mythology. Myths describe Cupid as a handsome lad who
united lovers whenever he could. Early
images show him as an athletic young man, but by the mid-300’s B.C. he had evolved
to a chubby naked infant with wings, holding a bow and arrows. If one was shot by one of his arrows, he or
she supposedly fell in love.
The
origin of Cupid and his prominence in pagan religion is discussed in Hislop’s
Two
Babylons. He mentions that the ancient poet Aristophanes declared “we are
informed that he from whom both ‘mighty ones’ and gods derived their origin,
was none other than the winged boy Cupid.”
In a footnote Hislop declares, “Aristophanes says that Eros or Cupid
produced the ‘birds’ and ‘gods’ by ‘mingling all things.’
This evidently points to the meaning of the
name Bel, which signifies at once ‘the mingler’ and ‘the confounder.
This name properly belonged to the father of
Nimrod, but, as the son is represented as identified with the father, we have
evidence that the name descended to the son and others by inheritance”
Cupid
occupied the very same position as Ninus the “son” did to Rhea, the mother of
the gods.
Nimrod was the first of the
“mighty ones” after the Flood, as we read in Genesis, “Cush
became the father of
Nimrod; he was the first on earth to become a
mighty warrior.
He was a mighty hunter
before the LORD” (Gen.10:8-9).
Thus Cupid, the
god of love, was none other than the infant NIMROD, the one who taught
rebellion against the LORD, Yahveh, after the Flood – the one who led the
revolt against God’s laws, and who attempted to build the tower
of Babel, to strike against heaven
and the heavenly host! Cupid is pictured
as a child hunter, with bow and arrows, and grew up to be “the mighty hunter
before [i.e. against] the LORD.”
The Latin for
word “Valentine” alludes to this major trait of Nimrod, the mighty hunter. The Latin word for “Valentine” is
“Valentinus,” a proper name derived from the word valens which means “to
be strong. It literally means, “strong,
powerful, mighty.” Nimrod was, remember,
the “MIGHTY hunter against the Lord.” He
was renown in the ancient world for his muscular strength skillful hunting and
bowmanship, and war-waging prowess.
The Moffatt
Translation says, “Ethiopia
produced Nimrod, the first man on earth to be a despot (he was a mighty hunter
before the Eternal; hence the proverb, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the
Eternal’). His empire at first was Babylon,
Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh, in the land
of Shinar; from which he pushed
out into Assyria . . .” (Gen.10:8-11).
Nimrod was not
only physically powerful, and skillful at hunting game, including voracious
leopards and lions, but he was also a “hunter” of the souls of men, who strove
to lead mankind into idolatry, and worship of pagan gods, of whom he was
considered the chief – a man who declared himself to be “God” in the
flesh.
Aristophanes
says that the boy Cupid, a “winged one,” produced all the birds, “winged ones,”
occupying the very position of Ninus, the “son,” thus identifying him with
Nimrod.
“Ninus is Nimrod,” said the
ancient historian Appolodorus
Written by William F. Dankenbring
