448 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 



stanee of itself would shew that dragon, in place of whale, would be 

 a better translation in Genesis. But (thanin) has a still more compre- 

 hensive meaning. We find two words formed from it, one of which 

 (Leviathan) is the specific name of the crocodile, as is obvious from 

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

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

 cific name of some serpent, as is obvious from the reference to its 

 poison, in Job xx. 14, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 33. In this last pas- 

 sage 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 sufiicient 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 trans- 

 lators 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 which are to be accounted 

 for by the uniformly condensed and brief form of the whole narration. 



We proceed to the work of the sixth epoch, which concluded with 

 the creation of man. 



In the English translation we find creeping- things again included 

 among the beings which were created during this period, and these 

 English terms, in their most commonly received acceptation, imply 

 some of the insect or reptile tribes. We have seen that th6 Septua- 

 gint countenances the interpretation creeping things; but the Hebrew 

 term (remes) does not. This is derived from a verb which signifies 

 to move, and which is so far from being limited in its application to 

 the insects or the reptiles, that, in Psalm civ. 20, 21, we find it applied 

 to the beast of the forest and the young lions : " Thou makest dark- 

 ness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep (tire- 



* 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 probably a seal 

 is meant ; but the passage is highly poetical, and no authority can be given to it to 

 supersede the uniform meaning of the term in all the earlier writers, which we 



ve established in the text. 



