134 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



It is clear that, from the point of view of the 

 author of Genesis, the chosen seed of Seth should 

 have maintained their separation from a wicked 

 world. Their failure to do this involves them in the 

 wrath of Jahveh and renders the destruction of man- 

 kind necessary, and in this the whole Godhead under 

 its combined aspects of Elohim and Jahveh takes 

 a part. A similar view has caused the Chaldean 

 narrator to invoke the aid of all the gods in his 

 pantheon to effect the destruction of man. 



These considerations farther throw light on the 

 double character of the Deluge narrative in Genesis, 

 which has induced those ingenious scholars who 

 occupy themselves with analysis or disintegration 

 of the Pentateuch to affirm two narratives, one 

 Elohist and one Jahvist. 1 Whatever value may 

 attach to this hypothesis, it is evident that if the 

 history is thus made up of two documents it gains 

 in value, since this would imply that the editor had 

 at his disposal two chronicles embodying the obser- 

 vations of two narrators, possibly of different sects, 

 if these differences were perpetuated in the post- 

 diluvian world ; and farther, that he is enabled to 

 affirm that the catastrophe affected both the great 

 races of men. It farther would imply that these 

 early documents were used by the writer to produce 

 his combined narrative almost without change of 



1 See, for a very clear statement of these views, Professor Green 

 hi Hebraica, January 1889 along with Dr. Harper's rhumt of the 

 Pentateuchal criticism in the previous number. 



