FORM OF THE SERPENT. MILTON thus describes the Tempter's approach to Eve: So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed These beautiful lines certainly present distinct images to the mind, but they involve a physical impossibility; for no animal formed as the serpent is could ever advance in the manner here described, and it is remarkable that the poet says of him immediately after (v. 631), in apparent contradiction to what he had asserted above, He leading swiftly rolled To mischief swift. And he had before said: : Close the serpent sly Insinuating wove with Gordian twine His braided train.-iv. 347. We may perceive then that Milton held the prevalent opinion —prevalent even at the present day-that "upon thy belly thou shalt go" was a part of the serpent's doom; he may however have only meant that he was to lose the power of going in any other way. Now we think that the Scriptural Y narrative may be relieved of a great difficulty by showing that it is not at all necessary to understand it in this manner. The scope of the narrative seems to be, that to each of the offending parties there was made an addition of suffering and hardship to their previous condition. Thus the man, who had been placed in the Garden of Eden "to dress it and to keep it," was now "in the sweat of his brow" to derive his sustenance from a less genial soil; the woman, who, from the whole tenour of the narrative, was to bear children, was now to bring them forth "in sorrow," and was to be ruled over by her husband. All analogy then leads us to conceive that the serpent always went on his belly, and that the punishment was that, instead of fruits we may suppose, he was to "eat dust," and there was to be enmity between him and the seed of the woman. The passage, then, according to all the principles of the Hebrew language, may be rendered-" Going upon thy belly thou shalt eat dust," etc.; and there is no necessity of supposing, with Dr. Adam Clarke, that the serpent was an ape, or of adopting any of the other unnatural solutions of the difficulty that have been offered. EXCURSUS I. JACOB'S DREAM. We know nothing in the whole circle of truth or fiction more calculated to make a profound impression on a susceptible imagination than the dream of Jacob "in the field of Luz." It appears to us however that the full force of the impression has been weakened by the circumstance of all the versions-including that of the LXX.-agreeing to represent Jehovah as standing above the ladder, and thence addressing the slumbering patriarch. No doubt the words of the original will bear this sense; but if we can show that they will also allow us to suppose the ladder rising up indefinitely toward heaven, while Jehovah stands at the head of the slumberer, we think we shall have added strength to the image. The Hebrew phrase rendered “stood above” (nissâb'âlâu, v?y) occurs again (in the plural) in Gen. xviii. 2, where it is rightly rendered "stood by him;" and in vv. 3 and 8 of the same chapter we find the preposition ('al, y) rendered in a similar manner. Surely then we need not hesitate to understand the phrase in the same sense in Jacob's dream. We have only to suppose that Jehovah was conceived to have descended before the angels. In a similar manner in the Ilias (ii. 20), σrî d'ap' Vπèρ κepaλns is used of the dream sent to Agamemnon, which we must suppose, as it took the form of Nestor, to have stood at the head of the prince, instead of hovering over him in the air.* We would make this further observation. In conformity with the designs of Providence, the religious ideas of the people of Israel were of a sensuous and material character, of which we have had an instance in their giving an aerial vehicle to Jehovah himself. The celestial ladder or stairs may then have formed a portion of the religious imagery of Israel, of the real existence of which there may have been no doubt, though only this once, and that in a dream, was it permitted to mortal eye to gaze on it: it may remind one of the Arabian tradition of the Garden of Irem. We should remember that the angels of the Old * As Agamemnon was lying, and the Dream standing, the prep. over is properly employed: it is the same in Jacob's dream. In Gen. xviii. 2 Abraham is sitting and the wayfarers are standing; in v. 3 he is bowed down before them; in v. 8 they are sitting and he is standing; and therefore in all these places the prep. over is used: see also Job i. 6; Is. vi. 2. So with the Latin sub: it must sometimes be rendered in, as in "Grato Pyrrha sub antro;" but the sense of under is always present. Testament are not represented as having wings, and that therefore a material medium may have been supposed requisite for their passage to and fro between earth and heaven. We have seen that Milton makes this ladder a reality, but he seems to terminate it at the World.* We must however recollect that his angels are winged. EXCURSUS II. ging, ging; év μéo, åvà μéoov. Many erroneous conceptions have, in our opinion, been caused in various places of Scripture by the translators not understanding the true meaning of this phrase. That meaning is, as we shall now show, directly opposite, and hence in the middle, as being then opposite all parts. And it came to pass when Moses went unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle; and it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses; and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door. . . . And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua. . . departed not out of (in) the tabernacle. Here translators, commencing with the LXX., from not understanding the import of this phrase, have vitiated the meaning of the whole passage; for the Hebrew does not say that Moses went into the tabernacle quite the contrary. What is rendered until he was gone into should be while he was going to, and entered into should be was going to; finally, not out of should be not from before. We are to observe that the tabernacle stood at some distance from the camp, with the cloudy pillar on it. The people saw Moses going thither with Joshua ; they saw the pillar descend and stand at the door and there converse with Moses, whom they saw return, leaving Joshua after him. Now as they thus witnessed everything, it seems evident that Moses could not have gone into the tabernacle, and the Hebrew does not say that he did so; and consequently it was before it that Joshua remained. In 1 Sam. ix., when Saul and his man had been directed by the maidens whom they met outside of the city to Samuel, “As soon," said they, "as you come to the city ye shall meet him;" "they went up to the city, going direct (i) to the city, and behold! Samuel was coming out toward In Dante (Par. xxi, terz. 10) it ascends out of sight from the sphere of Saturn : Vid' io uno scaléo eretto in suso, ૧ them; . . . and Saul drew near to Samuel before (i) the gate." It must be quite manifest, we think, to any one who reads the original, that they did not enter the city. Omitting other places of the Old, we will consider those of the New Testament in which év péo occurs. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them (ev μéow),” Matt. xiv. 6. Here the translators have given the exact sense; for the tables at which the guests lay being at the upper end of the room, she must have danced in the space between them and the door. "They found him in the temple, sitting in the midst (èv μéow) of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions," Luke ii. 46. Here critics observe that the scholars sat at the feet of the doctorson the ground, of course-i.e. before them. Render then év péo as in the above place of Matthew, and all is correct. "And I beheld, and lo! in the midst (èv péo) of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb," Rev. v. 6. "For the Lamb which is in the midst (åvà μéσov) of the throne," vii. 17. The place where the Lamb stood was on the sea of glass directly opposite the throne, and so he was in the middle of, or opposite (in), the beasts and the elders. The employment of ảvà péσov here as equivalent to ev μéo will serve to elucidate the following very difficult passage. 66 Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren ?" 1 Cor. vi. 5. This certainly seems plain enough; but when we look at the Greek, we find that it is between his brother (ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἁυτοῦ), an expression which is hard to understand. But if we render it in presence of, etc., and recollect that the parties stood before the judge, the difficulty will be much diminished. There are many other passages where this appears to be the right meaning of the phrase; in the New Testament we may notice the following,-Luke xxiv. 36; John viii. 3, 9, xx. 19, 26; Acts i. 15, iv. 7; Col. ii. 14; 2 Thess. ii. 7. The second of these appears to be parallel to the place just considered, so that after ev μéow we should supply avrov and not λáov, as the woman was brought before Jesus as a judge. THE END. J. R. TAYLOR, PRINTER, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. |
