Both Ray and Cecile are keen students of the Bible. They want to take advantage of such common Paris attractions as going up the Eiffel Tower, taking a boat ride down the Seine on a bateau-mouche, strolling down the Champs-Elysées or peeping over the shoulder of an artist painting in Montmartre’s Place du Tertre. In addition, they are determined to see at least some of the many places in France that are connected with religious history and the Bible. It is therefore with keen anticipation that they step off their plane at the ultra-modern Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.

Friendly Advice at the Branch Office

After a night of rest, Ray and Cecile decide first to visit the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are shown the offices and home (Bethel), but learn that the printing, magazine and shipping departments are located in Louviers/​Incarville (Normandy), some 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Paris. They are planning to rent a car after visiting Paris. So they look forward to seeing the rest of the branch a little later.

Right now they are anxious to know what is of interest to the Bible student in and near Paris. “First and foremost, the Louvre,” replies their Bethel guide. “But since today is Saturday and entrance to the Louvre is free on Sundays, I would suggest that you see a few other interesting places today.”

The Latin Quarter

The suggestions he gives take them first to the Latin Quarter or student section of Paris. To get there, they take a number 72 bus from the Porte-de-Saint-Cloud to the Place du Châtelet, an interesting ride along the Right Bank of the Seine. From there, they walk across the Pont-au-Change bridge onto the Ile de la Cité, the island where the ancient Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia was located. They continue on across the Pont-Saint-Michel bridge, onto the Left Bank of the Seine and up the Boulevard Saint Michel until they come, on the left, to the Cluny Museum, housed partly in what remains of the Roman thermae, or public baths.

Downstairs, in a crypt, they are intrigued by blocks of stone (labeled “Pilier des Nautes” in French) from a Gallo-Roman altar bearing the names of several pagan gods and an inscription revealing that it was built “when Tiberius was Caesar,” that is, at the time Jesus was on earth. “Hey, Cecile, look what it says on this notice.” Ray interprets for her and explains that this pagan altar was discovered in 1711 under the choir of Notre Dame cathedral. “Imagine that,” he exclaims, “the most famous Catholic church in France was built on the site of a pagan temple! Significant, eh?”

In that same crypt, Ray and Cecile examine the mutilated stone heads representing the kings of Judah, all that remain of 28 statues that, in 1793, the French revolutionaries brought crashing down from the front of Notre Dame cathedral, thinking that they were statues of French monarchs. These 13th-century stone heads, doubtless reverently buried by a monarchist, were discovered under a Paris courtyard as recently as April 1977. “My word!” exclaims Cecile. “They certainly show what people will do when they get mad at the church systems!”

Huguenot Museum

After a quick lunch in a little restaurant, Ray and Cecile walk to the impressive Place du Panthéon, where they take the 84 bus to the rue des Saints-Pères. At number 54 they find, at the back of a courtyard, the quaint little Library and Museum of French Protestantism (open from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday; Tuesday only, from August 1 to September 15). In the various glass cases to the right, they are intrigued to see a 1520 edition of Luther’s book Prelude Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the [Catholic] Church, a 1523 edition of his book Concerning the Wrong Use of Mass (French: Du mauvais usage de la Messe) and a 1561 English edition of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, all three of which were key works in bringing about the Protestant Reformation. They also look at some very old Protestant Bibles in French exhibited here.

Crossing the room, they examine, in a glass case, various articles and sermon books used in the “Desert” (underground) by the Huguenots during the persecution they underwent in the 17th and 18th centuries. Going back toward the entrance, Ray tries out his French on the historical documents and posters banning any non-Catholic religious meetings in France. Cecile shudders as he translates these infamous decrees. She begins to understand better why her forebears decided to flee from France.

After leaving that very interesting but somewhat musty building, Ray and Cecile are glad to get out into the air and walk down the rue des Saints-Pères to the Seine, where they catch a beautiful view of the Louvre across the river. They turn right and amble along the embankments, past the French Academy building and the characteristic stalls of the bouquinistes (secondhand-book sellers) perched on the embankment wall, until they come to the bridge leading to Notre Dame cathedral.

Notre Dame

They pause in front of this 12th-century Gothic cathedral and gaze at the central porch, where the weighing of souls in the “Last Judgment” is depicted. “After seeing that,” remarks Ray, “I don’t see how any Catholic could deny that his church teaches physical torment of the damned in hell.”

Cecile calls Ray over to look at the left portal, the “Porch of the Virgin.” Pointing to the sculptured scene above the doors, where Mary is shown being crowned by an angel while Christ hands her a scepter, Cecile says dryly: “Boy, they’ve really got her fixed up as the Queen of Heaven!” “Well, yes,” Ray replies, “it all fits in. Notre Dame means ‘Our Lady.’ The whole cathedral is dedicated to the worship of the Queen of Heaven. Yet even the Catholic Jerusalem Bible [Jer. 7:18, footnote] identifies the Queen of Heaven with Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility.”

Turning right, into the rue du Cloître-Notre-Dame, they head for number 10, the Notre-Dame-de-Paris Museum (open Saturday and Sunday only, from 2:30 to 6 p.m.). This small museum is well worth a visit, if only to see in a glass case to the right of a passageway between the two inner rooms the late Cardinal Verdier’s “red hat,” and a notice explaining that cardinals receive the red hat from the pope as a symbol of the fact that they must show themselves intrepid, “to the point of shedding blood,” in furthering the interests of the Roman Catholic Church.

Various documents exhibited in glass cases or on the walls of the innermost room show, on the one hand, how the clergy collaborated with the monarchy and then with Napoleon, and, on the other hand, what happened to the clergy and to church property during the French Revolution. “It gives you an idea of what could happen when the prophecies of Revelation, chapters 17 and 18, are fulfilled on Babylonish false religion, doesn’t it?” remarks Cecile, as she and Ray head for their hotel room, tired but satisfied.

The Louvre, Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye

The following day, Sunday, Ray and Cecile decide to visit the Louvre. They take the Métro and get off the train at the Louvre station, which is an artistic masterpiece in its own right. The Louvre opens at 10 a.m. So they devote the morning to the Department of Oriental Antiquities and the afternoon to the Department of Egyptian Antiquities. Bible in hand, they follow the itinerary outlined herein on pages 13 and 14.

Monday, our two Bible students rent a car and spend the morning in Versailles. Cecile, quite informed on French history, is particularly eager to see the palace, symbol of royal luxury, yet also the scene of the birth of the French Republic. Ray, for whom royal palaces have no particular attraction, is nevertheless intrigued when his eye catches a Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters of the divine name Jehovah or Yahweh) above the altar of the palace chapel. He also reminds Cecile, while she is admiring the 246-foot- (75-meter-) long Hall of Mirrors, that it was here, on June 28, 1919, that the peace treaty was signed, which included the Covenant of the League of Nations (succeeded by the United Nations). Cecile is impressed, since the United Nations seems destined to play such an important part in the modern-day fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Just a short drive from Versailles is Saint-Germain-en-Laye, with a fine castle housing a very well-set-out museum containing interesting artifacts from Gallo-Roman times (open 9:45 a.m.​—12 noon and 1:30—​5 p.m. every day except Tuesday). Here Ray and Cecile go straight to Room IX. There they open their Bible to Luke 19:43, 44. A scale model, based on archaeological finds, shows how the Romans besieged the Gauls in Alesia, in 52 B.C.E., using “a — (continued on page 15) What France Offers (Cont’d from page 11) fortification with pointed stakes” as they did to besiege Jerusalem 121 years later, in 70 C.E. Upstairs in Room X, in glass case 1, they see proof that the Gauls worshiped a Trinity of gods long before Christendom’s Nicene Council adopted a triune God in 325 C.E. In Room XI, Ray and Cecile are amazed to see that the same thing holds true with regard to Mariolatry. Several statues (for example, in case 9) of Gallic mother-goddesses with child remind them of “Virgin and Child” images and statues to be seen in the churches of Christendom.

The Louvre with Bible in Hand

The Louvre Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesday (entrance free on Sunday). The Department of Oriental Antiquities closes from 12 to 2 p.m. Some departments are open on Friday evening, from 9 to 11 p.m.

MAIN DENON ENTRANCE: Left through Denon Gallery, left of Grand Staircase, down corridor toward “Venus of Milo” (fertility goddess identified with Greek Aphrodite, Canaanite Ashtoreth and Babylonian Ishtar). To the right, just before “Venus”:

1. Statue of Marsyas being flayed on a torture stake (good example of true meaning of Greek words stauros in Matthew 27:40 and xylon in Acts 5:30).

Retrace your steps and turn right into Caryatid Room; at far end descend to the Sully Crypt. In second bay to right:

2. Cast of Greek notice from Herod’s temple: “Gentiles Keep Out Under Pain of Death.” Throws light on Acts 21:27-29; Eph. 2:14.

3. Cast of the eighth century B.C.E. Siloam Inscription, apparently describing the excavation of the tunnel Hezekiah made to bring water into Jerusalem.​—2 Ki. 20:20; 2 Chron. 32:30.

4. Original Moabite Stone (French: Stèle de Mésa); inscription giving the Moabite version of the events related in 2 Kings 3:4, 5, 21-27. Dating from the 10th century B.C.E., this inscription is the oldest non-Biblical text containing the divine name (to the right on the 18th line).

5. [In glass case] Reconstructed Dead Sea Scroll jar.

Up staircase into Room I (103) of Oriental Antiquities Department:

6. [To the right] Stele of the Vultures: one side, conquered people in net (good illustration of Habakkuk 1:15-17); other side, king and troops with flowing hair (exemplifies Judges 5:2).

7. [Room IV (106)] Original Code of Hammurabi, inscribed with 282 ancient Babylonian laws based on retaliation (compare Leviticus 19:18 for superiority of Mosaic law).

8. [Wall on right] Enameled brick lion from Babylon’s Processional Way, as seen by Jewish captives.​—Compare Jeremiah 50:17; Daniel 7:4.

9. [Room V (107)] Pottery and jewelry found at Shushan (French: Suse).​—Compare Esther 2:3, 8; 5:1, 2.

10. [Room VII (109)] Huge column-capital and crossbeam of cedarwood from the palace of Darius I, Xerxes or Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes in Shushan.​—Compare Esther 1:2; Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1.

11. [Room VIII (110)] Cylinder seals and signet rings from Shushan.​—Compare Esther 8:2, 10.

Down into the Marengo Crypt and up into Rooms XVI (116) to XXII (122):

12. [Room XVIII (118)] Collection of Baals and Astartes, or Ashtoreths, found at Ugarit (Ras Shamra) on the coast of Syria.​—Compare Judges 10:6.

13. [Room XXII (121)] In two glass cases to left, ivory work from bed of Hazael, king of Syria, one ivory being inscribed with his name.​—Compare 1 Kings 19:15; 22:39; Amos 1:4; 6:4.

14. [In glass case to right] Fragment of bronze plate showing Assyrian King Esar-haddon, mentioned in 2 Kings 19:37.

15. [On walls to left] Stone panels found in palace of Assyrian King Sargon II, mentioned in Isaiah 20:1.

16. [Room XXII (122)] Huge winged bulls from Sargon’s palace in Khorsabad; the wings remind Bible students of Isaiah 8:7, 8.

17. [Stairway in middle of Room XXII] Stone panels from Assyrian King Ashurbanipal’s palace in Nineveh, showing the cruelty of the Assyrians.​—Compare 2 Kings 17:6; Nahum 1:1; 2:11-13; 3:1.

The most convenient way to begin a visit to the Department of Egyptian Antiquities is to retrace your steps to the “Venus of Milo” and descend staircase at end of corridor, or to reenter the Louvre by the Champollion Door.

From “Venus of Milo” or Champollion Door, descend into crypt:

18. [Room 137] Sphinx found at Tanis, Greek name for Zoan, mentioned in Numbers 13:22. The name of Pharaoh Sheshonk I (Shishak) is inscribed on the left shoulder. This pharaoh is mentioned in 1 Kings 11:40 and 2 Chronicles 12:1-9.

19. [Room 135] Mastaba funeral chapel, where family and priests met to pray for deceased person’s soul. Proof that long before the Greeks and Christendom’s churches, the Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul.​—Compare Ecclesiastes 9:10; Ezekiel 18:4.

20. [Room 133] Near window, low-relief limestone fragment depicting famine conditions.​—Compare Genesis 41:30, 31.

21. [Room 131] Several steles depicting a false door, separating the living from the dead, to allow the souls of the deceased to return.​—Compare Deuteronomy 18:10, 11.

22. [Room 129] Famous Seated Scribe statue. The history of Egypt was written by such scribes, often trained by priests who did not hesitate to delete from the records anything uncomplimentary to the ruling pharaoh or to his gods. This explains why the events related in Exodus, chapters 12 to 14, are not mentioned in Egyptian historical records. A blatant example of the unreliableness of Egyptian inscriptions is to be seen in the next room.

23. [Next room (unnumbered)] Colossal statue of a pharaoh. Ramses II dishonestly had this king’s name chiseled out and his own put in.

24. [Room 127, under room number] Squatting military commander holding picture of baboon-shaped god Thoth, moon god of magical arts, healing, rain and thunder, light and darkness. Hence, the god humiliated by Plagues 3, 6, 7 and 9.​—Ex. 8:18; 9:11, 23-26; 10:22, 23.

25. [Room 126 (Galerie d’Alger), facing wall between windows 3 and 4] Stele C. 286, famous “Hymn to Osiris,” a popular divinity identified with Babylonian god Tammuz and suggested as being Nimrod deified.​—Gen. 10:8.

26. [Center of 5th window] “Stele of the Necklace” (C. 213). Perfect illustration of Genesis 41:42.

27. [7th window] Low-relief (B. 56, B. 57) showing scene of lamentation in which the Semite ethnic type is easily recognizable.

28. [Room 125 (Galerie Henri IV) to right of door] Head and feet of colossal statue. Name of original pharaoh dishonestly removed by Amenophis III and replaced with his own. List of conquered peoples inscribed under pharaoh’s feet.

29. [West (left) wall] Statue of Hekatefnakht, wearing Persian costume, confirming Persia’s domination of Egypt.​—Compare Isaiah 43:3; 45:1; Esther 1:1.

Return to entrance of Room 125 and go up “Egyptian Stairway”

30. [Upper landing] Sphinx​—further example of dishonest name-replacement. Statue first usurped by Ramses II, then by his son Merneptah.

31. [Room B (238)] Case 4 (in middle of room): Models of granaries, showing scribes registering the amount of grain stored.​—Compare Genesis 41:35, 48, 56.

32. [Room C (240)] Cases 13 and 14: Papyrus “Book of the Dead,” showing the judgment of the dead person by Osiris. Notice, in case to the right, heart being weighed on scales, and in case to the left, soul hovering above body. All of this is reminiscent of “Last Judgment” depicted on central porch of Notre Dame cathedral.

33. [Room E (244)] Case 6 (near window): Small painted ivory engraving of Pharaoh Tutenkhamon (Tutankhamen) depicted picking grapes. Proof that Herodotus was wrong and that grapes grew in ancient Egypt.​—Gen. 40:9-11.

34. [Room F (246)] Case 3: Bronze Sphinx (N. 515) and another artifact (E. 17 107) inscribed with the name of Apries or Hophra. (Jer. 44:30) [Case 8] Gold triad (triad of Osorkon II) of the Egyptian deities Isis, Osiris and Horus. Proof that the Trinity idea existed long before the Catholic Church adopted it.