214 THE STONE AGE — PAST AND PEESENT. 



without tlie hammer being so called because all hammers were 

 originally stones. ■*■ 



Among the Semitic race, however, it seems possible to bring 

 forward better evidence than this of an early Stone Age. If 

 we follow one way of translating, we find in two passages of 

 the Old Testament an account of the use of sharp stones or 

 stone knives for circumcision ; Exodus iv. 25, " And Zipporah 

 took a stone" ("1^, tzor), and Joshua v. 2, "At that time Je- 

 hovah said to Joshua, Make thee knives of stone" (Hilin 

 D^nV, charvoth tzurim). As they stand, however, these pas- 

 sages are not sufficient to prove the case, for there is much 

 the same ambiguity as to the original meaning of tzor, tzur, as 

 in the etymologies of some of the words just mentioned. Ge- 

 senius refers them to ^*l^ tzur, to cut, and the readings " an 

 edge, a knife," and "knives of edges, i.e. sharp knives," have 

 so far at least an equal claim. It remains to be seen which 

 view is supported by further evidence. 



In the first place, the Septuagint altogether favours the 

 opinion that the knives in question were of stone, by reading 

 in the first place yfr7i(f)ov, a stone, or pebble, and in the second, 

 fj.a')^aipa<i Trerpi'va? ex Trerpa'i aKporo/iov, stone knives of sharp- 

 cut stone. These are mentioned again in the remarkable pas- 

 sage which follows the account of the death and burial of 

 Joshua (Joshua sxiv. 29-30), "And it came to pass after these 

 things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, 

 died, being a hundred and ten years old, and they buried him 

 in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Serah, which is in 

 Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash." Here 

 follows in the LXX. a passage not in the Hebrew text which 

 has come down to us. " Kal eKel edrjKav fier avrov eh ro 

 fjuvrj fjuelov iv w eOa-^jrav avrbv eKel, Ta? fxa-)(aipa<i Ta'i 7reTp[va<;, 

 iv ctl? irepiere/jie roix; vlov<i 'lapayX iv TaX'yakoL'i, ore i^i']'yajev 

 auToii? i^ AlyvTTTOV KaOa avvera^e Kvpio^' koI iKel elalv ew? 

 T^9 arjfMepov rip,epa<;."" " And there they laid with him in the 



^ In this connexion see the meanings of afman in Boehtlingk & Roth, and 

 Benfey, G. W. L., part i. p. 156. 



2 LXX., Ed. Field, Oxford, 1859. Elscwliere Gilead instead of Gaash, and 

 other differences. 



