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ILLUSTRATIONS

OF THE

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

GENESIS.

CHAP. 1. Ver. 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Notwithstanding the industrious attempts of many skeptical writers to array the evidence deducible from geological discoveries against the Mosaic account of the creation, nothing has yet been advanced to invalidate the testimony of the inspired record, as nothing has yet been brought to show that its statements, when rightly understood, are at all at variance with any of the clear and undoubted results of scientific research. We say, when rightly understood; for that the conclusions of the geologist, even the most legitimate and demonstrable, may be inconsistent with the popular interpretation of the sacred narrative, we by no means deny; but it is obvious that such interpretation may be erroneous, and that all that is requisite to bring the two departments into perfect harmony, may be the fixing of the genuine sense of the writer by a purely philological process. Until, therefore, it is established beyond controversy that the language of Moses cannot, by any possibility of fair construction, be made to tally with, or at least not to contradict, the admitted truths of geological science, it is vain to charge revelation with uttering oracles at variance with the irrefragable teachings of nature. But this, it is to be remembered, never has been, and we are confident never will be, done. The material fabric of the universe and the book of inspiration are the works of the same author, and we may be sure that the truths pertaining to the one cannot be at war with those belonging to the other. The following remarks of the Rev. Bartholomew Lloyd, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, on the drift of the sacred penman in the first chapter of Genesis, cannot but commend themselves to every enlightened reader: "The sacred writer prefaces his history of God's government over his chosen people, by informing us, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,' and it seems equally certain that he here speaks of the original creation of all things out of nothing. This, indeed, is a great subject, and though nothing circumstantial is here revealed to us concerning it, yet the sacred importance of the truth, assured to us by this simple expression, is every way suitable to the prominent place assigned to it; for it is nothing less than the authoritative statement of the first and fundamental article of all true religious faith. By it we are taught that selfexistence is an attribute of the one supreme Being, and that all things besides owe their existence to His unlimited power. How necessary it was to mankind to have an authoritative declaration on this subject, we may readily convince ourselves by adverting to the errors into which the most celebrated men of all antiquity had fallen, who presumed to speculate on these matters, so far beyond the reach of human reason, without other guidances. Among these erroneous opinions, or rather among those wild conjectures, we find the following:-that matter was eternal; that the Deity was the soul of the world; agreeably to which, the material frame of nature was to be regarded as his body, and not as his work. Now, in this his first sentence, the inspired writer settles definitively what we are to believe on this subject, by stating the primary rela

tion which all things in common bear to the supreme Being; and with this information he forbears from mixing up any other matter. For it will be perceived that the statement is made without any specification of time or other circumstance; seemingly, because no addition of this kind could be of use in aiding our conceptions of a truth purely religious, or in strengthening our faith in the authority on which it was proposed; but chiefly because it was the sole object of the writer, in this first sentence, to claim for God the creation of all things whatsoever, and that this claim must remain unshaken, however we may decide on other questions which may be raised about the creation; such as that relative to the time when it occurred; how long before the origin of the human race; whether all the parts of the universe were brought into existence simultaneously, or at different and widely distant epochs. It is plain, then, that in this place the sacred writer furnishes no helps for the decision of such questions. Let us look to what follows. In proceeding to those arrangements by which the earth was to be fitted for the residence and support of man, and the other inferior tribes by which it was then to be tenanted, we find him describing its preceding condition; informing us that it was then without form and void,' and that darkness was upon the face of the deep.' Now, I confess that this always seemed to me very like the description of a ruined world: and if such was the earth at that time, it would be difficult to suppose that it had not existed long before. But this is not all. When he does come to the work of the six days, we find the description of each day's work introduced by an expression of a particular form, and concluded by another, by which it appears that the original work of creation, spoken of in the first verse, is excluded from the series of performances belonging to those days; and, if excluded, then, perhaps, removed to an indefinite distance; for had it immediately preceded, we might naturally expect to find it spoken of, either as the work of the first of a series of seven days, or as part of the work of the first of the six days. This, then, would seem to remove the work of the original creation far beyond that of the reconstruction of the globe. It is true, that nothing is exhibited to our imaginations to mark the interval between these performances; but to deny that there was such an interval, and for that reason, would be to conclude about as wisely as the peasant, who supposes the clouds to be contiguous to the stars, because when looking up he discerns nothing between them."

Dr. Chalmers, in his treatise on the Evidences of Christianity, speaks to the same effect. "Does Moses ever say, that when God created the heavens and the carth, he did more, at the time alluded to, than transform them out of previously existing materials? Or does he ever say, that there was not an interval of many ages between the first act of creation, described in the first verse of the book of Genesis, and said to have been performed in the beginning, and those more detailed operations, the account of which commences at the second verse, and which are described to us as having been performed in so many days? Or, finally, does he ever make us understand, that the generations of man went further than to fix the antiquity of the

species, and of consequence that they left the antiquity of the globe a free subject for the speculations of philosophers?"

"We do not know," says Sharon Turner, "and we have no means of knowing, at what point of the ever-ilowing eternity of that which is alone eternal-the Divine subsistence the creation of our earth, or of any part of the universe began, nor in what section of it we are living now. All that we can learn explicitly from revelation is, that nearly 6000 years have passed since our first parent began to be. Our chronology, that of Scripture, is dated from the period of his creation; and almost 6000 years have elapsed since he moved and breathed a full-formed man. But what series of time had preceded his formation, or in what portion of the anteceding succession of time this was effected, has not been disclosed, and cannot by any effort of human ingenuity be now explored.-Creation must have begun at some early part of anteceding eternity; and our earth may have had its commencement in such a primeval era, as well as in a later one."

Professor Hitchcock, in an elaborate and very able essay on the connexion between Geology and the Mosaic History, (Biblic. Reposit. Oct. 1835,) undertakes to establish, and we think with entire success, the following positions, which we give in his own words:-" In the first place, we maintain that between geology and revelation there are several unexpected and remarkable coincidences, such as could have resulted only from veracity on the part of the sacred historian; and that the points of agreement are far more numerous than the points of apparent collision; and, therefore, even geology alone furnishes a strong presumptive evidence in favour of the truth of the Mosaic history. We maintain, secondly, that the first chapter of Genesis is a portion of Scripture that has always occasioned much difficulty in its interpretation, apart from geology, and that those portions of it about which commentators have differed most, are the very ones with which geology is supposed to come into collision; so that in fact scarcely any new interpretation has been proposed to meet the geological difficulty. We admit, thirdly, that the geological difficulty is real; that is, the established facts of geology do teach us that the earth has existed through a vastly longer period, anterior to the creation of man, than the common interpretation of Genesis allows. We maintain, fourthly, that most of the methods that have been proposed to avoid or reconcile the geological difficulty are entirely inadequate, and irreconcilably at variance either with geology or revelation. We maintain, fifthly, that at least one or two of these proposed modes of reconciling geology and Scripture, although not free from objections, are yet so probable, that without any auxiliary considerations, they would be sufficient, in the view of every reasonable man, to vindicate the Mosaic history from the charge of collision with the principles of geology. And finally, we maintain, that though all these modes of reconciliation should be unsatisfactory, it would be premature and unreasonable to infer that there exists any real discrepance: first, because we are by no means certain that we fully understand every part of the Mosaic account of the creation; secondly, because geology is so recent a science, and is making so rapid advances, that we may expect from its future discoveries that some more light will be thrown upon cosmogony: and thirdly, because, as geology has been more and more thoroughly understood, the apparent discrepances between it and revelation have become less numerous."-B.

Ver. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

We have before remarked, that, during the first and second days of the creation, the earth must have presented to the view, (had any human eye existed to look upon it,) a solid globe of spheroidal form, covered with a thin coat of aqueous fluid, and already revolving on its axis as a member of the solar system. We are fully authorized in coming to this latter conclusion, from the distinct mention made in the record, of the days, comprising, like our present days, the evening and the morning, with the darkness and the light following each other in regular succession. The sun, it is true, had not yet been made visibly to appear, or to shine through the, as yet, cloudy atmosphere. It was

now the will of the Creator that the earth should no longer be "invisible" under its watery covering; and, accordingly, the command was given, that "the waters should be gathered together unto one place," that the "dry land" might appear. In considering this great event, it becomes a natural and fair question, as it has been left open to us by the record, as to the mode or means by which it must have taken place. The well-poised earth had already begun to revolve upon its axis; and the laws of gravitation and of fluids had consequently begun to act in our system. By these laws, it was impossible that the waters could have been gathered together by accumulation, or above the general level, as the solids of the earth might have been. We can, therefore, come to no other conclusion than that to which we are also led by various parts of the inspired writings, viz. that God did "rend the depths by his intelligence," and formed a depression, or hollow, on a part of the solid globe, within which, by the appointed laws of fluids, the "depths" were "gathered together." The following beautiful reflections on this part of our subject are from the enlightened mind of Mr. Granville Penn, who may, indeed, be called the first great advocate for the Mosaic Geology, among the men of science of our day. "The briefness of this clause, (Genesis i. 9,) and the nature of the subject, have caused it to be little contemplated in proportion to its importance, and to the fulness of the instruction which it conveys; and, therefore, it has not been observed that the same sublimity which is universally perceived in the clause, 'Let there be light, and there was light,' subsists equally in this clause; 'Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land be seen, and it was so.' The sentiment of sublimity in the former clause, results from the contemplation of an instantaneous transition of the universe from the profoundest darkness to the most splendid light, at the command of God. All men familiarly apprehend the sadness of the former, and the delight of the latter; and they are, therefore, instantly sensible of the glorious nature of the change which was then so suddenly produced. But the nature of the change which must necessarily have taken place, in suddenly rendering visible a part of a solid globe, the universal surface of which had been overflowed and concealed by a flood of waters, is not so familiarly or so instantly apprehended; the mind, therefore, does not care to dwell upon it, but is contented with receiving the general information that the sea was formed. Hence, both commentators and geologists have equally failed to draw the immediate and necessary inference from the revelation of that great and undeniable geological fact."-FAIRHOLME'S GEOLOGY, p. 51-54.

Ver. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth and it was so. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also. 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth.

It is admitted that the Scriptures generally describe the phenomena of the natural world as they appear, rather than according to strict scientific truth. Thus the sun and moon are said to rise and set,-the stars to fall,-and the moon to be turned into blood. Consequently, if this history of the creation were designed to describe the effects of the six days' work as they would have appeared to a spectator, had one been present,-a supposition rendered probable from its being said, " Let the dry land appear," (Heb. be seen,) when as yet there was no eye to see it, then we may reasonably conclude that the sun was formed on the first day, or perhaps had been created even before our earth, and was in fact the cause of the vicissitudes of the three first days and nights. But as the globe of the earth was during that time surrounded by a dense mass of mingled air and water, the rays of the sun would be interc: pted; only a dim glimmering light, even in the daytime, would appear; and the bodies of the heavenly luminaries would be entirely hidden,

just as they now are in a very cloudy day. Let it be supposed then that on the fourth day the clouds, mists, and vapours were all cleared away, and the atmosphere made pure and serene; the sun of course would shine forth in all his splendour, and to the eye of our imagined spectator would seem to have been just created; and so at night of the moon and stars. This effect of the Divine power, according to the usual analogy of the Scriptures, is described from its appearance, and the language employed,"let there be lights in the firmament,"-and-" he made two great lights, and set them in the firmament"-is to be interpreted on the principle above stated. They might then be said to be "made," because they then first began to be visible, and to perform the office for which they were designed. The original word for " made" is not the same as that which is rendered "create." It is a term frequently employed to signify constituted, appointed, set for a particular purpose or use. Thus it is said that God "made Joseph a father to Pharaoh"-" made him lord of Egypt"-" made the Jordan a border between the tribes"-"made David the head of the heathen;" and so in innumerable other instances. As, therefore, the rainbow was made or constituted a sign, though it might have existed before, so the sun, moon, and stars may be said to have been made and set as lights in the firmament, on the fourth day, though actually called into existence on the first, or previously.-BUSH.

CHAP. 2. ver. 18. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help-meet for him.

This is the polite way of speaking of a wife in the East, though it must be confessed that they associate with this term too much of the idea of a servant. Does an aged person advise a young friend to get married; he will not say, "Seek for a wife," but "Try to procure a thunive, a help-meet." A man who repines at his single state, says, "I have not any female help in my house." A widower says, "Ah! my children, I have now no female help." A man, wishing to say something to his wife, will address her as follows: "My help-meet, hear what I am going to say." It is worthy of observation, that the margin has for help-meet, "as before him ;" and this gives a proper view of her condition, for she literally has to stand before her husband to serve him on all occasions, and especially when he takes his food; she being then his servant. Say to a woman, "Leave thy husband!" she will reply, "No, no; I will stand before him."-ROBERTS.

Ver. 19. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

The verb was is not in the original text; and, therefore, the sentence may run in the present, with equal propriety as in the past; and, indeed, according to the genius of the language, with more propriety in the present-that is the name thereof. Hence the names by which the lower animals were known in the days of Moses, were those which Adam gave them in Paradise; and as these are pure Hebrew, the legitimate conclusion is, that Hebrew was the language spoken by Adam before the fall.

This argument receives an accession of strength from the ideal character of the Hebrew language. It is admitted, that all languages participate more or less of the ideal character; but it is one of the most remarkable circumstances by which the Hebrew is distinguished. A number of its words, as in other languages, are mere arbitrary signs of ideas; but, in general, they derive their origin from a very few terms, or roots, that are commonly expressive of some idea borrowed from external objects; from the human constitution; from our senses or our feelings. The names of men, and of the lower animals, and the names of many places, particularly in the remoter ages, allude to some remarkable character in the creature named; or, in reference to place, to some uncommon circumstance or event. Scarcely a proper name can be mentioned, which alludes not to something of this kind. To give a few examples: Korè, the partridge, received its name from the verb Kara, to call, in imitation of the note which that bird uses in calling its young. The camel is in Hebrew, Gamal, from a verb of the same form, which signifies to recompense, because that creature is remarkable for remember

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Ver. 20. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a help-meet for him.

With respect to the original language which Moses describes our first parents as making use of, from their very first creation, we are nowhere informed in what manner they first acquired it, nor how it was communicated to them. It is, indeed, probable that the inspired historian addressed himself to those who were much less skeptical on such subjects than ourselves; and that this remarkable endowment, peculiar to the human race, and by which they so far excel all other created beings, was never, in early times, doubted as having been directly communicated from the same wise and provident source from whence the human race itself had arisen; and the researches of the wisest and most learned men of all ages have invariably led them to the same natural conclusion.

We have no direct means of positive knowledge as to what relation the primitive language of the earth may have had with existing tongues; but, in the absence of such evidence, we may form some conjectures on the subject, which are certainly marked with the highest probability. In the first place, we must consider that the numbers of the antediluvian human race, and their consequent divisions into nations, could not have been nearly so great as in the present day, from the comparatively short period they had existed, and from the comparatively unrefined condition natural to a primitive race of beings, on whom the gift of reason was obviously bestowed by the Creator for the purposes of exertion, and of gradual cultivation and improvement. We must not here suppose, however, with too many advocates of an erring philosophy, that man was, at first, Laturally sarage, or in the state we now find the wild and uncultivated natives of savage countries; or that religion and knowledge were, in the first days, in the debased condition we now too often find them in the remote corners of the earth.

The savage state is not natural to man; but, on the contrary, is brought on by erring from the true path of knowledge, in which both Adam and Noah must have brought up their first descendants; and which, in both instances, was communicated in a direct manner, from the unerring source of every good which mankind now enjoys. In considering the progressive stages of society, we are too apt to content ourselves with merely looking back, from our own times, into the darker ages of barbarism, and thus to form our ideas on the false supposition, that the primitive nature of man is one of perfect ignorance, and such as we now find among the savages of Africa or America: whereas, if we trace the progress of society, in its proper and natural course, by descending from the creation, and from the deluge, instead of ascending from our own times, we shall find that the primitive state of mankind, even immediately after the creation, was one of intelligence and understanding, if not in arts and sciences, at least on the leading point of religion, which is, of all others, that in which the savage falls most short of the civilized man. It pleased his Creator to bestow upon primitive man a full and perfect conception of the relation in which he stood towards the Supreme Being; and it was in order to preserve a knowledge of the true religion among men, that a certain family and race were afterward expressly chosen; we find, accordingly, that to whatever state of idolatrous ignorance, or savage barbarity, the various ancient nations of the earth were, from time to time, reduced, there was always some portion of the world, and especially of the Jewish race, which adhered to the true faith, and which was, consequently, preserved from that state of unnatural debasement from which man has a constant tendency and desire to emancipate himself. It is, therefore, highly probable that, as we hear of no diversity of language on the earth until after the deluge, the whole primitive race was "of one language, and of one speech," and that that language must, consequently, have been the

same spoken by those few individuals who were preserved | from the flood.

Now, when we consider the great scheme of the Almighty, foretold from time to time, from the days of Adam to those of Abraham, and continued from thence, in a welldefined course of history, to our own times; when we consider the wonderful and miraculous events that were foretold, and were afterward so literally fulfilled, in the line of the chosen people of God;-that, through them, and through their language, the Inspired Writings of the early times were to be for ever handed down to the generations of men; that, of all the languages of the earth, the Hebrew tongue, like the Hebrew people, has hitherto withstood every change and every calamity; and been, like them, miraculously preserved by the Almighty will for a great and beneficent end; and when we further consider the strong analogy and filiation, so easily traced, in all the languages of the earth, to the Hebrew, as the most probable postdiluvian original tongue;-when all these considerations are combined, is it unreasonable to conclude to the high probability of the original language of the Sacred Scriptures being the pure and original tongue first communicated to man by his Maker? In considering, then, the language of the Hebrews as the most probable source from whence all other tongues have been derived; and when we trace in all these other tongues the gradual varieties that have arisen, and are still now proceeding in the dialects of the earth, by the secondary causes, and, seemingly, trivial accidents, by which the different shades of language are brought about, are we not justified in drawing a comparison betweeen the miraculously preserved primitive language, and the no less miraculously preserved chosen people, who are the constant living miracle, bearing unwilling witness to the truth of Inspiration, to all the generations of mankind? We are reminded, that it was repeatedly foretold in prophecy, that the Hebrew nation should be dispersed into all countries; yet that they should not be swallowed up and lost among their conquerors, but should subsist, to the latest times, a distinct people; that, "though God would make an end of the nations, their oppressors, He would not make an end of them."-FAIRHOLME.

The names which men and things received at the beginning of time, are so strikingly similar to those which they bore when the Hebrew was certainly a living language, that its claim to the honour of being the primeval speech of the human family, can scarcely be rejected. It is ever reckoned a proof of similar origin, when many words in any two languages have the same form, the same sound, meaning, and reason. But the names of the first generations of men, like those of the lower animals, are as pure Hebrew as the names of Peleg, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or those of David and Solomon, or Malachi. They have the Hebrew form, are constructed according to Hebrew rules, are founded on certain reasons, like Hebrew names; and, in fine, are not to be distinguished in any one respect from pure Hebrew.

It deserves also to be remarked, that the reason assigned for these names will not correspond with any other language. The garden of Paradise was called Eden; because among the Hebrews it signifies pleasure or delight. The place of Cain's exile was for this reason called the land of Nod, from a root which signifies to wander. Adam received his name because he was taken out of the ground; but if the term for ground in the first language had been terra, or yn, or earth, there had been no propriety in the designation. Eve was called by this name, because she was the mother of all living; but it is derived from a pure Hebrew verb which signifies to live; and to this relation the name owes all its propriety and significance. Cain was named from the Hebrew verb Kana, to possess, because his mother had got him from the Lord; and in this instance also, the name is inseparably connected with the Hebrew root. The proper name Seth is derived from the Hebrew verb Shooth, to appoint; because, said our first mother, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. The same mode of reasoning might be carried through all the names of the Adamitic age; but these instances are sufficient to show the near affinity, if not the positive identity, of the language which Adam spoke, with the Hebrew of the Old

Testament.

The names ascribed by the inspired writer to the found

ers of our race, are not interpretations of primitive terms; for he declares they are the very names which were given at first; and as they are derivatives from pure Hebrew verbs, the language then spoken must have been the same in substance and structure. Had they been translations, we have reason to think the same method would have been followed as in several instances in the New Testament, where the original term is used, and the interpretation avowedly subjoined. But Moses gives not a single hint of his translating these terms; he asserts, on the contrary, that they are the original words employed; and the truth of his assertion is rendered indubitable by the reasons assigned for their imposition, which are inseparably connected with the Hebrew language. Nor does Moses, in the whole course of his history, when speaking of the names of persons and places, utter a single word from which we can infer the existence of an earlier language.

When the minute and extensive acquaintance with the natural character and temper of the numerous animals to which our first father gave names in Paradise, which he certainly had not time to acquire by his own industry, and which we have no reason to believe he owed to intuition, is considered, we must admit, that the language in which he conversed was not his own contrivance, but the immediate gift of Heaven. When Jehovah breathed into Adam and Eve the breath of life, he inspired them in the same moment with the knowledge of the tongue in which they were to express their thoughts. A similar favour was bestowed at the beginning of the New Testament dispensation, on the apostles and other ministers of the gospel; who were inspired in a moment with the perfect knowledge of many different languages.-PAXTON."

CHAP. 4. ver. 3. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

The margin reads, " at the end of days;" and this is truly Oriental. "When the days are ended, I will fulfil my promise." "After those days are ended, I shall have peace." "When the days come round, (in their circle,) I will do that for you."-ROBERTS.

Ver. 7. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

D'Oyly and Mant interpret this, "Your sin will find you out." Thy punishment is not far off." They also say sin may be rendered SIN-OFFERING; and several other commentators take the same view, and think this is its true and only meaning. The victim proper for a sin-offering was lying at the door, and therefore was within his reach.

There are some who affect to smile at the idea of SIN

lying at the door: it is, however, an Eastern figure. Ask a man who is unacquainted with Scripture, what he understands by sin lying at the threshold of the door; he will immediately speak of it as the guilt of some great crime which the owner had committed. A man accused of having murdered a child, would be accosted in the following language:-"If you have done this, think not to escape; no! for sin will ever lie at your door: it will descend from generation to generation." To a man accused of having committed any other dreadful crime, it would be said, "Ah! if I had done it, do I not know sin would ever lie at my door?" The idea is sin personified in the shape of some fierce animal crouched at the door. Its criminality and punishment remain.

If Cain had done well, would there not have been "the excellency?" (see margin ;) but if not well, then sin, like a monster, was crouching at his door. Taking the other view of it, seems to amount to this; now, Cain, if thou doest well, that will be thy excellency, thou shalt be accepted: but if thou doest not well, it is a matter of no very great consequence, because there is a sin-offering at thy door.

*I would here observe, once for all, that I have gone regularly through the marginal readings, and have found, with few exceptions, that they literally agree with Eastern language in idiom and figure. In the course of this work, most of them will be illustrated; and I think few readers will doubt that they are the correct translations.

God's design appears to have been to induce Cain to do well, by speaking of the reward of righteousness, and to make him afraid of doing evil, by showing him the punishment of sin.-ROBERTS.

Ver. 13. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

The margin has, "Mine iniquity is greater thanbe forgiven.' This form of speech is very common. Has a person committed a great crime; he will go to the offended individual, and piteously plead for mercy; and at intervals keep crying," Ah! my guilt is too great to be forgiven. My hopes are gone."-ROBERTS.

Ver. 14. And it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

It has been tauntingly asked, How could every one slay Cain? Has a man escaped from prison; the people say, "Ah! all men will catch and bring that fellow back." Has a man committed murder; "Ah! all men will kill that murderer." This means, the feeling will be universal; all will desire to have that individual punished.ROBERTS.

CHAP. 7. ver. 11. The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

The margin has, the "flood-gates of heaven were opened." In the East, when the rain falls in torrents, the people say, "the heavens are broken."-ROBERTS.

Ver. 21. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man.

We have some reason to doubt, from the fossil remains of animals now discovered, which have not yet been found alive upon the present earth, whether every living creature was included in this strong expression; and though, from the remarkable circumstance of the similarity of all languages in certain common expressions, and in the universal tradition of the deluge found among the most distant and savage nations, we feel assured that the whole existing race of man on the whole earth, has sprung from Noah and his family; we have no evidence to lead us to the same conclusion with respect to quadrupeds, or birds. It appears probable, that we ought to consider the strong expression used in the record, of every living thing of all flesh," in the same sense as we find it in various other parts of Scripture; and, indeed, as such expressions are often used in our own, and in other languages, that is, not as literally meaning every created being over the whole globe, but merely a great number.-FAIRHOLME.

up the rising grounds, a cataract or sheet of water, several feet deep, would be gushing all the way in his face, besides impending water from the "flood-gates" of heaven, momentarily rushing over him; he would instantly become a prey to those mighty waters.-Scrip. Geology, Lond. 1828. CHAP. 8. ver. 4. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

We walked into the fields to gaze upon Mount Ararat, and reflect upon the time when Noah in this very valley builded an altar unto the Lord, and offered that acceptable sacrifice of a sweet savour, which procured for himself and his posterity a divine title to the earth and its productions, and the solemn covenant that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." We first saw that mountain the morning we entered Nakhcheván, and during the three weeks we were in the valley of the Aras, nothing but cloudy weather during a few days obscured it from our sight. It was nearer at any point between here and Eriván, but perhaps nowhere did we have a better view of it than from this place. The natives know it under no other name than Másis in Armenian, and Aghur

dagh (heavy mountain) in Turkish. The name of Ararat, by which it is called among Europeans, is applied in Scripture only to a country, which is in one instance called a kingdom. The similar name of Ararád was given by the Armenians, long before they had received the Scripture account of the flood by their conversion to Christianity, to the central, largest, and most fertile province of their country, the one which, with the doubtful exception of some 230 years, was the residence of their kings or governors from the commencement to the termination of their political existence, and nearly in the centre of which this mountain stands. The singular coincidence, considering the ease with which so distinguished a province might be named by foreigners for the kingdom itself, argues much for the identity of the Ararat of Scripture with the Ararád of Armenia. It was on the mountains of Ararat that the ark rested after the flood; and certainly not among the mountains of Ararád, or of Armenia generally, or of any part of the world, have I seen one, the majesty of whose appearance could plead half so powerfully as this, a claim to the honour of having once been the stepping-stone between the old world and the new. lies N. 57 W. of Nakhcheván and S. 25° W. of Eriván, on the opposite side of the Aras; and from almost every point between the two places, the traveller has only to look across the valley, to take into one distinct field of vision, without a single intervening obstacle, the mighty mass from its base to its summit. At Eriván it presents two peaks, one much lower than the other, and appears to be connected with a range of mountains extending towards the northwest, which, though really elevated, are in comparison so low, as only to give distinctness to the impression of its lonely majesty. From Nakhcheván, not far from a hundred miles distant, and also from our present

It

Ver. 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of point of observation, it appears like an immense isolated life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

What a scene of terrific and awful desolation does this narrative of the Bible convey! If the reader be affected as the writer was, when he first contemplated the Scriptural character of this sad transaction, he will literally tremble when he meditates on the dread catastrophe. He will, moreover, discover how inadequate, how puerile, and infinitely below the facts of the real case, are all those representations of the deluge to which we have been accustomed; and those comments which exhibit animals and men as escaping to the highest grounds and hills, as the flood advanced. Even Mr. Buckland supposes that animals, when the waters began to enter their caves under ground, might have rushed out and fled for safety to hills. The impossibility of any such escape may be immediately seen. Neither man nor beast, under such circumstances, could either advance or flee to any distance. Any animal found in the plain when the flood began, would thus be merged in water seven or eight feet deep in a quarter of an hour! independent of the overwhelming torrents, dashing upon his head. And were he to attempt advancing

cone of extreme regularity, rising out of the low valley of the Aras; and the absence of all intervening objects to show its distance or its size, leaves the spectator at liberty to indulge the most sublime conceptions his imagination may form of its vastness. At all seasons of the year, it is covered far below its summit with snow and ice, which occasionally form avalanches, that are precipitated down its sides with the sound of an earthquake, and, with the steepness of its declivities, have allowed none of the posterity of Noah to ascend it. It was now white to its very base with the same hoary covering; and in gazing upon it, we gave ourselves up to the impression, that on its top were once congregated the only inhabitants of the earth, and that, while travelling in the valley beneath, we were paying a visit to the second cradle of the human race.

Two objections are made to the supposition that Scripture refers to this mountain when it speaks of "the mountains of Ararat." One is, that there are now no olive-trees in its vicinity, from which Noah's dove could have plucked her leaf. And it is true, so far as we could learn, that that tree exists neither in the valley of the Koor nor of the Aras, nor on the coast of the Caspian, nor anywhere

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