The obvious effect of the whole inspired or traditionary second narrative is to clearly differentiate the contrasted faculties of the two sexes, and the root-meanings of the words employed, whether Moses himself perceived it or not, are a testimonial of the highest possible character for woman, instead of being, as rendered in the ordinary versions, a mark of inferiority, or even of degradation. In the garden scene, when she partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, she did not do it hastily or from mere temptation; it is said that “she considered it attentively;” the same word being used as was employed in the first narrative to mark the intense interest and almost superhuman character of the consideration by the Aleim of the work, as its successive stages appeared, which they were delegated to perform, and which Jeove himself directed. The prize, to her, far outweighed the penalty, and the aspiring sibyl dared to lift the innermost veil in the adytum of the temple, and grasp the lofty truths which made her as one of the Aleim. So fell Prometheus.
And then, no sooner had the flame-crowned seer won her precious prize, than, woman-like, she turned and laid it before her husband, and he, the innocent one, “did eat.”
The serpent was not a mere snake, be it understood; it was the Egyptian Typhon, the dark Spirit of doubt, the questioner, the tempter, the eternal if, the why, whence, what, and whither?
It was her insatiable aspiration to reach the highest possible limits of human knowledge which gave strength to her daring, and not a childish fancy for an apple. All this, of course, is lost in the translation. It is as though the national standard of a mighty people had been disinterred from the remains of past ages, which had been borne aloft at the head of mighty armies for centuries, and for which thousands had gloriously died in battle in defence of a sacred cause, and which now, its past history untraced, has been catalogued as a brass bird of some sort mounted on a stick.
It is to be regretted that there is no plain, popular work by a thoroughly capable scholar, without theological or anti-theological bias, which treats of the origin, form, root-derivation, usage, accurate signification, and construction of the comparatively few words employed in the ancient narratives which compose the first half-dozen chapters of Genesis, and, we may add, the book of Job; something like those inestimable works which deal with the ancient cosmogonic literature of Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, India, China, Phœnicia, and Central America. Nothing of this sort is to be found, at all events in a form accessible to the general reader, and such a work, in small compass, would be of the highest importance to popular instructors, to students, and to the public as well, for it would throw a flood of light on these extremely valuable but, hitherto, so illy-comprehended records.
THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE OF CREATION.
1. Aleim, the Forces, fashioned like the work of a sculptor, in the commencement of individualized existence, the individualized substance of the heavens and the individualized substance of the earth.
2. And the earth was in tomb-like darkness and undeveloped, and there was compressive hindering darkness on the surface of undifferentiated nature. And the dilating and liberating Spirit of the Forces hovered with incubating love on the surface of the seeds of all beings, the waters.
3. Then Aleim said, There shall be a diffused light; and a diffused light was.
4. And Aleim regarded with attention the individualized substance of the diffused light, because good. And Aleim caused a separation to be made between the diffused light and between the compressive hindering darkness.
5. Then Aleim exclaimed for the diffused light, Day! and for the compressive hindering darkness exclaimed, Night! And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal of light; First Day.
6. Then Aleim said, There shall be an expansion obtained by a thinning in the center of the waters, and there was that which caused a separation to be made by occupying a spot, the waters according to the waters.
7. And Aleim made the individualized substance of the expanse, and caused a separation to exist by the occupation of the spot, of the waters which are under as regards the expanse of space, and by the occupation of the spot, of the waters which are above as regards the expanse of space; and it was so.
8. Then Aleim exclaimed for the expanse of space, The Heavens! and there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal of light; Second Day.
9. And Aleim said, The waters which are underneath the heavens will tend directly, in order to meet in it, towards a single spot fixed upon for their meeting; and of dryness produced by the action of an internal fire the appearance shall be made; and it was so.
10. Then Aleim exclaimed for the dryness, Earth! and for the spot fixed upon for the meeting of the waters exclaimed, Seas! Then Aleim looked attentively at it, because good.
11. And Aleim said, There shall be made to grow from the earth a dwarf vegetation which can be trodden under foot, a maturing plant causing to be sowed around it a seed, the strong and woody substance of fruit making fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself above the earth; and it was so.
12. And there was caused to arise suddenly and full of strength a dwarf vegetation, a maturing plant sowing around it seed after his kind; and the woody substance yielding fruit whose seed is in itself after his kind. Then Aleim considered it, because good.
13. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal of light; Third Day.
14. Then Aleim said, There shall be starry-lights in the expanse of space of the heavens to separate between the duration of the day and between the duration of the night; and they shall be for signs, and for seasons, and for the days which make the year, and for the repetitions of years.
15. And they shall be for luminous bodies in the expanse of space of the heavens to cause light to move above the earth; and it was so.
16. And Aleim made a double individualized substance, the superior in size and excellence of the starry-lights, the individualized substance which was the greater of the luminous bodies to represent the rule of the day, and the lesser luminous body to represent the rule of the night.
Of the dim and almost extinct lights [the stars] they made the individualized substance also.
17. And Aleim established these individualized substances in the expanse of space of the heavens to make light move above the earth.
18. And to be representatives of dominion during the day and during the night, and to separate between the continuance of diffused light and between the continuance of compressive hindering darkness; then Aleim looked attentively at it, because good.
19. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal of light; Fourth Day.
20. Then Aleim said, The waters shall bring forth a swarm of swarming creatures having living breath; and that which flies, the birds, shall be made to fly with strength and fleetness above the earth in the space extended of the heavens.
21. And Aleim fashioned like the work of a sculptor the individualized substance of those which are superior in size of the gigantic reptiles and every individualized substance having living breath, that moveth, which they had produced, swarming from the waters, according to their kind; and every individualized substance of flying thing with wings, after his kind. Then Aleim looked attentively at it, because good.
22. And Aleim blessed these individualities by saying, propagate your species and multiply yourselves, and fill the individualized substance of the waters in the seas; and as for the flying thing, it shall multiply itself on the earth.
23. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal of light; Fifth Day.
24. Then Aleim said, From the earth shall be brought forth the living breath according to its kind, the quadruped, and the being which moveth about, and the terrestrial animal according to its kind; and it was so.
25. And Aleim made the individualized substance of the animal of the earth according to his kind, and the individualized substance of the quadruped according to his kind, and every individualized substance that moveth about of red earth according to his kind. Then Aleim regarded it, because good.
26. Then Aleim said, We will make mankind of a like order of intellect with ourselves, and they shall extend their dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the heavens, and over the quadruped, and over all of the earth, and over all the moving beings that move about over the earth.
27. And Aleim fashioned like the work of a sculptor the individualized substance of mankind in the exactness of a shadow cast upon a wall; on this shadow Aleim carved the individuality; male and female they fashioned the individualized substance.
28. Then Aleim blessed the individualized substance. And Aleim said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the individualized substance of the earth, and subdue it, and extend your dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over all life of the being which moveth about over the earth.
29. And Aleim said, Behold I have given for you every useful plant-substance yielding seed, yielding seed which there is over the surface of all the earth, and every individualized substance of tree which has in it fruit pertaining to a tree yielding seed, yielding seed for you, it shall be for food.
30. And for all animal life of the earth, and for everything that flies in the heavens, and for every being that moveth over the surface of the earth which has in it living breath, every individualized substance which is a green maturing plant shall be for food. And it was so.
31. Then Aleim looked at every individualized substance which they had made, and behold it was as good as possible. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal of light; Sixth Day.
(Chapter ii.) 1. Then the finishing was made of the heavens, and of the earth, and of all the orderly arrangement.
2. And Aleim [the Forces] finished on the seventh day the divinely appointed and directed work which they had performed; and they came again to a state of rest on the seventh day from all the appointed work which they had done.
3. Then Aleim blessed the individualized substance of the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it they returned to their primitive condition from all the divinely appointed and directed work which the Forces had fashioned like the work of a sculptor, in accordance with the making of creation.