agree with Modern Geology ? 69 



' that this translation is erroneous. In fact, neither the Greek 

 nor the English translators have been consistent with them- 

 selves in translating the Hebrew word (than) or (thanin), for it 

 occurs in both these forms. We find them in other places 

 translating it severally by the terms ^§««&)v, and dragon. It 

 would be tedious to quote the passages where they have thus 

 varied from themselves. We shall refer to Ezekiel xxix. 3. for 

 the latter sense, " I am against thee, Pharaoh, King of Egypt, 

 the great dragon (hathanim hagadol) that lieth in the midst of 

 his rivers,'^ where the Septuagint has tov "^^cckovtu. tov f^iyxu The 

 figure in this passage is evidently borrowed from the crocodile 

 of tlie Nile, and this circumstance of itself would shew that 

 dragon, in place of whale, would be a better translation in 

 Genesis. But (thanin) has a still more comprehensive meaning. 

 We find two words formed from it, one of which (Leviathan) 

 is the specific name of the crocodile, as is obvious from descrip- 

 tions of Job chap. xli. and of Isaiah chap, xxvii. 1, in which 

 last passage (thanin) is also used, — and the other (Pethan) is 

 the specific name of some serpent, as is obvious from the refe- 

 rence to its poison, in Job xx. 14, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 33. 

 In this last passage we also find poison ascribed to the thanin ; 

 " Their wine is the poison of dragons (thaninim), and the cruel 

 venom of asps (pethanim) -^ so that here it is evidently meant 

 to express a serpent, as in Ezekiel and Isaiah, as we have seen 

 above, it signifies one of the lacertine species. 



These references, which we could have greatly extended, 

 were it necessary, are sufficient to prove that (than) or (thanin) 

 was a sort of generic, or rather classical, name, to designate the 

 serpent and lizard tribes ; and that instead of great whales in 

 the 21st verse, the translators should have given the words 

 great reptiles *. 



The result of our criticism is, that the work of the fifth epoch, 

 as described in Genesis, was the creation of the inhabitants of 

 the waters ; of the birds, winged insects, and reptiles ; in fact, 

 of the oviparous races named in detail, with some omissions, 



• There is only one passage in which (than) means, with certainty, any 

 thing else than a serpent or reptile, which is Lamentations iv. 3, where pro- 

 bably a seal is meant ; but the passage is highly poetical, anil no authority 

 can be given to it to supersede the unilbrm meaning of the term in all the 

 earlier writers, which we have established in the text. 



