JO 



♦ KNOV/LEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 1, 1885. 



eisely true in every detail, therefore they ought not to be 

 examined like -writings -which may perchance contain 

 error. If thus true, these passages must give just the 

 sort of information (be the amount greater or less) -which 

 science requires ; if by any possibility they are erroneous 

 (or have been erroneously interpreted), then we should 

 adopt such a modified view of the doctrine of inspiration 

 as -n-ill save us from the gi-ievous mistake of attributing 

 error (or imjjerfect expression of truth) to the All-Wise. 



It is tolerably clear to any one -who reads the first 

 chapter of Genesis that, apart from any question of a 

 religious revelation partially involved or implied in it, 

 there is, underlying the -whole narrative, a certain system 

 of science. We can indeed only form a brief abstract 

 of the science of those days from this remarkable account. 

 For it seems to have been part of tlie writer's plan to avoid 

 details as far as possible : as though he felt that, -while it 

 -was impossible to speak otherwise than in harmony -n'ith 

 the science of his day, it would be better to avoid 

 stP..tements too definitely in accordance with scientific 

 views -vvhich might in after ages be corrected. Still the 

 -writer -was manifestly -well acquainted with the accepted 

 scientific views of his day. 



Consider, for instance, the sixth and following verses 

 of Genesis i. We know that even to a much later age 

 than thot of the original authors of the book of Genesis 

 (in its present form it is undoubtedly a revision and in 

 part a compilation, as Dean Plumptre points out in the 

 work before us) the idea -n-as entertained that a solid 

 partition of perfect transi^arency separates the -n'aters of 

 the sea from that store of -waters above whence clouds 

 and rain proceed. That the sun raises the vapour of 

 -water from the sea, and that this vapour becomes con- 

 densed into cloud, -whence, under particular conditions, 

 rain falls, -would doubtless liave seemed to them a 

 wild and fanciful notion. Accordingly, in the ancient 

 Assyrian cosmogony, of which fragments have been 

 found in baked clay tablets, we recognise traces of the 

 meteorological ideas which remained prevalent until men 

 discovered the true interpretation of cloud and rain. The 

 Assyri-an record is far older, or at least presents ideas 

 belonging to a far older time, than that of the writer of 

 the Elohistic narrative in the Book of Genesis ; for Sayce 

 and Smith have traced the origin of the clay tablet 

 literature to the Akkadians, an older race than the 

 Assyrians, or even than the early Br.bylonians. (Some 

 of the Babylonian tablets are fully a thousand years 

 older than Assyrian copies.) But the Hebrew account, 

 while in harmony with the science of its time, is care- 

 fully freed from definite error.* It runs thus, "and 

 Elohim " [lit. the Powers, equivalent to Spencer's Infinite 

 and Eternal Energy] "said. Let thtre be an expanse in 

 the midst of the waters, and let it divide between waters 

 and waters. And Elohim made the expanse, and 

 divided between the waters which were beneath the 

 expanse and the waters which were above the ex- 

 panse ; and it was so. And Elohim called the expanse 

 'Heaven.'" For "expanse" the real meaning of the 

 Hebrew word in this account, the Septuagiut has 

 aTfpiufxd, which really means "a solid body"; the Vul- 

 gate has " firmamentum " which also definitely implies 

 solidity; and both the authorised and the revised English 



* Dr. I'ayne Smitli and manj' other theologians entertain as pos- 

 sible the most unlikely doctrine, that the account in Genesis is an 

 older version (o£ which Abraham had a copy, says Dr. Smith, 

 naive!;/) in his clay-tablet library, which he probably carried with 

 him wlien he left Ur for religious reasons. The fact that it has 

 been freed fiom polytheistic ideas proves it to be more recent than 

 the Assyrian version. 



versions have the word " firmament," which only fails to 

 be similarly definite because it has now lost its primary 

 significance and is understood in its applied sense only. 

 Milton was the first to use the word " firmament " in 

 this erroneous sense, where he sang of " the Firmament, 

 expanse of liquid, pure transparent elemental air " ; but 

 as he knew well that the original Hebrew reall)' signified 

 " an expanse, " which might or might not be solid, so also 

 he knew perfectly well that the word " firmamenttim " 

 meant something not only solid but rigid. It may be 

 said that the original Hebrew narrative, in another place, 

 implies that the expanse was really solid ; for in describ- 

 ing the flood, it says that "the floodgates of the heaven 

 were opened," as though that part of the water which 

 came from above the expanse were let out through open- 

 ings in some solid partition : but we may fairly regard 

 this as poetical. (It is followed by words which are 

 certainly poetical; for the words translated "in the 

 self-same day," which in the Elohistic narrative follow 

 immediately after the words relating to the floodgates of 

 heaven, really signify " in the hone of this day.' )* 



Compare, again, the Hebrew and the Assyrian accounts 

 of the sun, moon, and stars. The Assyrian account is 

 unfortunately not quite complete, btit from what remains 

 of it -we see that not only was it mixed up with much 

 belonging to some ancient system of Sabaistic worship, 

 showing its superior antiquitj' (for polytheism long pre- 

 ceded monotheism) ; but it was full of details relating to 

 the (erroneou.s) scientific ideas of the times to which it 

 belonged. It ran thus : — 



1. All that was fixed by the great gods (probably akin 

 to the plural form Elohim, and not necessarily implying 

 more gods than one, any more than that form does) was 

 good. 



2. He (Elohim, understood in the rest of the account 

 as one god) arranged the stars in figures of animals. 



3. To fix the year through the observation of their 

 groupings. 



4. He arranged twelve monthly signs of stars in three 

 rows (qy. in sets of three, i.e.. to correspond to the fotir 

 seasons — three signs to a season). 



5. From the day when the year commences unto the 

 close. 



6. He marked the positions of the wandering stars 

 (that is, of the planets) to shine in their paths, 



7. That they may not do any injurj-, and may not 

 trouble any one. Manifestly that they may not injure each . 

 other, or come into collision ; for in the Assyrian system 

 of astrology the malign influences of some of the planets 

 were clearly recognised — so that they were certainly not 

 supposed incapable of doing any harm to men and 

 animals. 



8. The position of the gods Bel and Hea (Jupiter and 

 Saturn) he assigned 



9. And he opened the great gates in the darkness 

 shrouded 



10. The fastenings were strong on the left and right 



11. In its mass (that is, the lower chaos) he made a 

 boiling 



12. The god Urn (the moon) he caused to rise out, the 

 night he overcame 



13. To fix it also for the light of the night until the 

 rising of the day 



14" That the month might not be broken, and might 

 be resrular in length. 



* Compare Job xxvi. 2. and xxxvii. 18: 2 Samuel xsii. 8 ; Psalms 

 l.xxviii. 2o, 



