D'ion-nuso-s signifies "THE SIN-BEARER," * a name entirely appropriate to the character of him whose sufferings were represented as so mysterious, and who was looked up to as the great "purifier of souls."
* The expression used in Exodus 28:38, for "bearing iniquity" or in a vicarious manner is "nsha eon" (the first letter eon being ayn). A synonym for eon, "iniquity," is aon (the first letter being aleph). In Chaldee the first letter a becomes i, and therefore aon, "iniquity," is ion. Then nsha "to bear," in the participle active is "nusha." As the Greeks had no sh, that became nusa. De, or Da, is the demonstrative pronoun signifying "That" or "The great." And thus "D'ion-nusa" is exactly "The great sin-bearer." That the classic Pagans had the very idea of the imputation of sin, and of vicarious suffering, is proved by what Ovid says in regard to Olenos. Olenos is said to have taken upon him and willingly to have borne the blame of guilt of which he was innocent. Under the load of this imputed guilt, voluntarily taken upon himself, Olenos is represented as having suffered such horror as to have perished, being petrified or turned into stone. As the stone into which Olenos was changed was erected on the holy mountain of Ida, that shows that Olenos must have been regarded as a sacred person. The real character of Olenos, as the "sin-bearer," can be very fully established. (see note below)
Now, this Babylonian god, known in Greece as "The sin-bearer," and in India as the "Victim-Man," among the Buddhists of the East, the original elements of whose system are clearly Babylonian, was commonly addressed as the "Saviour of the world." It has been all along well enough known that the Greeks occasionally worshipped the supreme god under the title of "Zeus the Saviour"; but this title was thought to have reference only to deliverance in battle, or some suck-like temporal deliverance. But when it is known that "Zeus the Saviour" was only a title of Dionysus, the "sin-bearing Bacchus," his character, as "The Saviour," appears in quite a different light. In Egypt, the Chaldean god was held up as the great object of love and adoration, as the god through whom "goodness and truth were revealed to mankind." He was regarded as the predestined heir of all things; and, on the day of his birth, it was believed that a voice was heard to proclaim, "The Lord of all the earth is born." In this character he was styled "King of kings, and Lord of lords," it being as a professed representative of this hero-god that the celebrated Sesostris caused this very title to be added to his name on the monuments which he erected to perpetuate the fame of his victories.