68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1893. 



THE INTERPRETATION OF CERTAIN VERSES OF THE FIRST CHAPTER 

 OF GENESIS IN THE LIGHT OF PALEONTOLOGY. 



BY HENRY C. CHAPMAN, M. D. 



To those unfamiliar with the fact that the text of Genesis has 

 before now constituted a subject of discussion before the Academy, 1 

 some apology on the part of the author might be thought appropri- 

 ate for the introduction of such a subject for its consideration. It 

 might naturally be supposed also that there could be but little left 

 to say as to the interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis in the 

 light of paleontological research, especially in view of the consid- 

 eration recently given to that subject by such distinguished contro- 

 versialists as Mr. Gladstone 2 and Prof. Huxley. 3 As the latter dis- 

 cussion, as well as many other similar ones, appears to have been 

 based almost entirely upon the text of the English version of the 

 Old Testament, revised or otherwise, it may not be regarded as 

 superfluous if the order of the creation of life as given in the 

 original Hebrew and literally translated, be compared with the 

 order in which life appeared according to the testimony of the 

 rocks. To those having no knowledge of Hebrew it should be 

 mentioned that the language is an exceedingly elastic one, especially 

 in the hands of those skilled in Hebrew exegesis — the same word 

 having undoubtedly very many different meanings, according to the 

 context, etc. By far the greater number of the stem words in Hebrew 

 consist of three consonants and the system of "pointing," or the 

 vocalization of such stem words by the addition of points, was 

 introduced by the Jews with the view of fixing definitely the mean- 

 ing of the stem words. Thus, for example, the word DIN Adm, 

 read in Hebrew from right to left, will mean either " he was red," 

 " red," or " man," according as DIN is written with the points, as 

 DTK, D1X, D1X. The system of pointing or the vocalization of 



the stem words was, however, only introduced in comparatively 

 recent times (in the interval between the composition of the Targum 

 from the third to the sixth centuries and the making of gram- 

 mars by the Jews in the Arabic language in the beginning of the 

 tenth century) and therefore long after the original Manuscript 



1 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 1854. 



2 Nineteenth Century, 1885, 1886. 



3 Nineteenth Century, 188), 1886 — Essays upon some Controverted Questions, 

 1892. 



