[843]. See Preller, Griech. Mythol. II. 97; Gerhard, Griech. Mythol. § 711.
[844]. For this assertion I must for the present refer to what I have said in an article, Zur Charakteristik der semitischen Völker, in the Zeitschr. für Völkerpsychologie etc. Vol. I. p. 328 et seqq. In Liebner and others’ Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie, V. p. 669 et seqq., there is a long article by Diestel, Der Monotheismus des ältesten Heidenthums, vorzüglich bei den Semiten. He also declares himself averse to the assumption of a primitive Monotheism, because it is destitute of all historical proof. He brings many points judiciously into the light, especially the absence of an accurate conception of Monotheism (p. 684). But when he objects to me, that in the above-quoted article (p. 330) I am too hard on the expression Instinct used by Renan, inasmuch as it is to be understood as implying only an individual disposition of the religious mind, not a momentum of half-animal physical life. I must observe in reply, that I can scarcely imagine how else instinct can be understood but as a ‘half-animal momentum’; and even reason, taken as an instinct, is eo ipso degraded to a momentum of half-animal physical life. And if Diestel here means by instinct a ‘disposition of the mind,’ I can see in such dispositions scarcely anything more than momenta of half-animal physical life. Moreover, I cannot admit any such ‘dispositions of the religious mind,’ which have the special object of their belief determined beforehand. A disposition to reasonableness in general, or to religiousness in general, does dwell in the human mind; but not a disposition so defined as to its object that a limited idea, such as Monotheism, could be a priori inherent in it.
[845]. By J. Olshausen in Hirzel’s Hiob, p. 60 note.—But Ewald says expressly (Ijob, 1854, p. 126) that Rahab is everywhere a mythological name for a sea-monster, even where it stands for Egypt.—Tr.
[847]. See Zeitsch. d. D. M. G., 1849, III. p. 200 et seq.
[848]. Hebrew livyâthân, nâchâs; Sanskrit Vṛtra, Ahi.
[849]. The literal and only possible translation of the first three words of the verse, geʿar chayyath ḳaneh, rendered correctly in the Septuagint and Vulgate; for which the English A.V. unaccountably substitutes ‘Rebuke the company of spearmen,’ while the Prayer-book version goes even further astray.—Tr.
[850]. Baʿal kûn, see Movers, I. 292.
[851]. Job IX. 8; bâmothê yâm.—Tr.
[852]. Is. XIV. 14; bâmothê ʿâbh.—Tr.