THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY.
"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth for ever."--Bible.
Thus, as we have seen, through countless future ages will the sun,
with his incandescent envelope of hydrogen, and the planets, with their
life-sustaining atmospheres of oxygen, fulfil their appointed times
and courses. But if we could conceive that all atmospheres, solar
and planetary, were suddenly blotted out and forever annihilated,
so that these great orbs thenceforth rolled along as they do now,
but only as black globes in an ocean of space of Stygian darkness,
new atmospheres would at once begin to be formed, and these would
soon again surround the sun and planets, precisely like those which
now exist.
Sweeping along in darkness, the force of gravity would gather around
each of these bodies vast accumulations of aqueous vapor and other
gases condensed from the attenuated matter of surrounding space. The
planets, by their axial rotations, would again generate from these
regions, newly occupied as the system drifted along through space,
electrical energy of enormous quantity and potential. Earth would again
hear the mighty mandate, "Let there be light," and from her poles to
her equator the skies would blaze with brush-light auroras. Suddenly,
with a mighty leap, the pent-up currents would flash across to their
opposite electric pole, the auroras would gradually die away, and
instantly the molecules of hydrogen would begin to sift out at the
solar and those of oxygen at the planetary terminals. The electrical
currents driving their furious pathway through the rapidly gathering
hydrogen envelope, the sun would first begin to faintly flicker with
hazy, nebulous light; the light would gather intensity, and soon
flash and glow with energy; the solar nucleus within would become
intensely heated and liquefied or partially volatilized, and again
the solar streams of incandescent heat and light would radiate forth
on every side; the commingled gases, oxygen and nitrogen, would once
more surround each planetary globe, and we should have a new solar
envelope just as we now see it, and new planetary atmospheres like our
own; and then, and not till then, would the opposing generative forces
permanently counterbalance each other and electrolytic decomposition
become practically stationary, except to compensate for the slight
variations constantly liable to occur in the complicated running of
the mechanism. So the mutilated crustacean re-grows his lost claws,
and so our own gaping wounds are healed by the great vis medicatrix
naturæ. The most stable of all things is mutually balanced instability;
perhaps there is no other form of stability.
The "Nebular Hypothesis" of Laplace concerns itself only with the
aggregate matter of which our solar system is composed, and the force
of gravity, including cohesion, ignoring the action of the equally
powerful force of repulsion. But there is another nebular hypothesis
much older than that of Laplace and far more scientific, for it
utilizes both the force of gravity and cohesion and the radiant force
of repulsion in the generation of our solar system. We refer to what is
known as the Mosaic cosmogony. Whatever the origin of this magnificent
narrative may have been, whether written down by Moses originally,
or by him derived from the sacred learning of Egypt, with which he
was fully acquainted, or by the Egyptian scribes drawn from Ethiopia,
and still further back from the sacred traditions of India, it bears
internal evidence, when properly rendered from the Hebrew record, of a
knowledge of these stupendous phenomena (which no human eye could ever
have beheld) which is most remarkable. The commonly accepted versions
do not clearly bring out the full meaning of the original,--indeed,
it would have been impossible for the earlier translators to have
done so,--but when critically and etymologically rendered, very
surprising coincidences with the succession of events as they must
actually have occurred, and the principles involved in the successive
stages of creation, will be found in nearly every part of the record.
This record is embodied in the first chapter and first three verses
of the second chapter of Genesis. The Hebrew was long believed to be
an original, if not an inspired, language, but it is now well known to
have been a derivative or root language, made up much like the English,
and, like it, having the meanings of its words primarily determined
by those of the root-stems from which they have been formed. The
roots of these Hebrew words are to be found among the languages of
many older peoples, and nearly all of them have now been traced to
their immediate origin. Another source of error is in the so-called
Masoretic pointing, which was not introduced for a thousand years
after the time of Moses, and which has often changed the signification
of the older words, and even the form of the words themselves; but
by critical researches the roots and their combinations have been
isolated, so that we are now able to possess a much mere accurate
knowledge of the Mosaic record than was possible in former times,
for, of course, no original copies have come down to us. It is not
a reconstruction of the record which has been made, but a careful
editing by means of the derivation and true signification of the
words used, and by careful comparison among the most ancient versions
accessible to modern research. The English version, while imperfect
in its rendering of this ancient narrative, is not to be considered
by any means a false translation, but it largely errs in failing to
give the full radical meaning of the words employed in the original.
As an illustration of this indefiniteness of rendering in the ordinary
English version let us consider the opening sentences of the narrative:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of
the deep."
In the "beginning" of what? Does it mean the beginning of our own solar
system? or of all systems? or of all space? or of Jehovah (for He has
not yet been mentioned or described)? or of the Aleim themselves,--that
is, did the work begin as soon as the forces began? and did the latter
originate spontaneously, or otherwise? What "God" is meant? Is it
Jehovah, or Aleim, or some other God not yet mentioned or described? If
we will take every name in the Bible which is translated God (and it
may be any of these according to the English rendering), we will have
legion. We shall even find that the same word which is translated "God"
was applied by Jehovah on one occasion to Moses. "Created"? What is
meant by this word? Was the creating a creation out of nothing? out
of something pre-existing? or something coexisting elsewhere? Was
the creation a direct or an indirect one? by the use of the forces
of nature, or by overriding the forces of nature? Was it a physical
creation by an inconceivable action of mere thought, or will? and if
so, was this thought, or will, God himself, or one of his attributes
or powers only? "The heaven"? What heaven? Was it that to which the
virtuous are supposed to go after death? or was it some more physical
heaven? Was the heaven the atmospheric heaven, the interplanetary
heaven, the heaven of interstellar space, or that more extended
heaven which lies beyond our knowledge? Was the heaven one of these
which He created, or did He create all the different heavens of all
the solar systems and nebulæ at the same time? "Without form"? Was
the earth without any form at all? or merely without its present
form? or without some particular form not mentioned? If the earth was
a physical structure it must have had some form; what was it? "And
void"? Was the earth void like a soap-bubble? or void like a ray of
light? or a vacuum? If it was empty, what was it that was empty? How
could the heaven and earth be void after they had been brought into
existence? "Darkness was upon the face of the deep"? What deep? Was
it the sea not yet created? or the earth, which is anything but a
"deep"? was it the atmosphere? or all space? If the latter, did
all other systems of space wait for their light on ours? or did we
wait on theirs? are there no new systems now forming, and none to be
formed hereafter? If all space is meant, where was its outside, or
its face? and what occupied the intervening regions? was it a physical
face or the face of a vacuum? Were these statements to be accepted by
faith or reason? If the former, was it a faith which could only have
come from the experience of after-ages? or was it based on the ipse
dixit of Moses? What was the basis of faith when the record was first
written? was it from generally accepted tradition or by revelation? Is
the record anonymous or does it reveal the name of its author? If to
be endorsed by knowledge and reason, why should not the narrative be
strictly and accurately translated, even at the expense of conciseness
and elegance of diction, in order that the exact force of every word
shall be fully felt and recognized? If the record is from divine
revelation, it is still more essential to know precisely what was
revealed; otherwise we are no better than idolaters; we are worse,
in fact, for we have changed and falsified the landmarks of religion,
and bear false witness against God Himself. We must not interpret
Genesis by records made long subsequently; it must speak for itself
or not at all.
When construed in accordance with the exact definition of the words
themselves quite a new and strange light is thrown upon the history of
the events thus recorded. The great importance of a strict construction
of the translation and fidelity to the original is emphasized by
the fact that the same word was never used in this record to express
a different sense in different parts, nor were two different words
ever used in different places to express the same meaning. It is,
therefore, necessary to give every word of the original its exact
fulness and force. The basis of the following critical translation is
to be found in "Mankind: their Origin and Destiny" (Longmans & Co.,
London, 1872), but a careful comparison has been made with other
accepted authorities, and the root-meanings of the separate words
have been carefully traced out, so that many necessary changes will
be found to have been made in order to bring out the precise sense
of the original. There is no actual literal, critical, etymological,
and scientific rendering embraced in a single translation known to us,
and which is complete in itself; but that which follows will be found,
it is believed, to give every word its particular etymological shade
of meaning, and to employ the same word in the same place, for the same
purpose, and with the same signification as it was understood to have,
in its original form, when first recorded. The specific root-meanings
of the most important words used are further explained in detail in
a separate section below.
The use of Aleim, "the powerful Forces," in the plural, followed by
the verb in the singular, is a Hebraism, and indicates the collective
character of the forces as specially energized, sent forth, and
directed by Jeove (Jeova or Jehovah is the Chaldaic form of the word,
the original Hebrew being Jeove), who does not appear by name in this
narrative, though, as we shall see, specially delegated power from
some higher source is that characteristic which is most emphasized
throughout the record. These forces are personified, as is usual in
ancient records (and, indeed, in modern thought), but they are in
reality the "powers of God." The author of the work above referred
to says, "The idea of Moses was that there was a Supreme God ... and
that He only acts by means of his agents called Aleim, the Gods,
in the plural and indefinite number, or embassadors, or voices." The
ancient belief in the unity of all forces in one creative individuality
is also most clearly shown in some of the oldest Vedaic hymns of India
(see Max Müller, "The Veda"). "Self (Atman) is the Lord of all things,
Self is the King of all things. As all the spokes of a wheel are
contained in the nave and the circumference, all things are contained
in this Self; all selves are contained in this Self. Brahman (Force)
itself is but Self."
Of the religion of the ancient Egyptians (see "Evolution and
Christianity," by J. F. York) it is said, "The chief theological
characteristic of this first of all known civilized religions is
the doctrine of the Divine Unity. As M. de Rougé says, 'One idea
predominates, that of a single and primeval God; everywhere and
always it is one substance, self-existent, and an unapproachable
God.'" The Egyptian cosmogony, as the fragments have come down to us
(see Professor Arnold Guyot, "Creation"), is as follows:
1. The original gaseous form, and the darkness of matter.
2. The successive transformations.
3. Light, as the first step in this development.
4. The separation of the waters below from the waters above the
expanse.
5. Periods of development of indefinite length.
6. The sun, moon, and earth organized last.
The word Mlactou, which occurs several times repeated in the summing
up of this narrative, explains the character of Aleim most fully, as
specially energized and directed agencies or forces. This word never
has any other meaning. Even when applied to a king it was not a king
as a monarch, but as the specially directed agent of God. I. Samuel
xxviii. 17, "The Lord hath sent the kingdom out of thine hand;
... because thou obeydst not the voice of the Lord." When, in Exodus
xiii. 21 it is said that "Jeove went before them by day in a pillar
of a cloud," this is explained, in chapter xiv. verse 19, to mean that
this pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night was Mlac, a messenger,
or agent. It is translated "angel" in the English version, but it
was not a personal angel; it was a specially energized and directed
force. In the earliest times it was not the God of fire, or of force,
or of justice which men feared, but fire, or force, or justice;
the anthropomorphic conception came later with the generalization
of all fire, all force, or all justice. We say now that a malefactor
fears the law; what he really fears, however, is punishment. In this
record we are dealing with the primordial forces of God,--gravity,
electricity, attraction, repulsion, cohesion, vital force, etc., etc.,
but acting with special energy for a predetermined result. Of these
forces Dr. McCosh says, in his work on Christianity and Positivism,
"One God, with his infinitely varied perfections,--his power, his
knowledge, his wisdom, his love, his mercy; we should see that one
Power blowing in the breeze, smiling in the sunshine, sparkling in
the stars, quickening us as we bound along in the felt enjoyment of
health, efflorescing in every form and hue of beauty, and showering
down daily gifts upon us. The profoundest minds in our day, and in
every day, have been fond of regarding this force, not as something
independent of God, but as the very power of God acting in all action;
so that in him we live, and move, and have our being." In more rugged
and virile form this was precisely the old Mosaic philosophy, the
philosophy of the arcana of the Egyptian temples, and of the Vedaic
age of the Aryans of India. Where was the radiant center of this
unfailing search-light which has poured its broad belt of dazzling
brightness down to our day from those old, prehistoric ages?
So De Jouvencel, in his "Genesis according to Science," says, "We
should not place the works of nature on one side and nature on the
other. Nature is a work and not a person."
The word which in the English version is translated "rested," in the
concluding verses of the narrative, does not mean rested from fatigue,
but rested as a pendulum rests when it ceases to vibrate. Had the
word been rendered "came to a state of rest," it would have been far
more accurate and true to the sense of the original. What is meant is
that these pent-up forces had operated, under the guidance of Jeove,
to rupture a state of unstable equilibrium in the attenuated matter of
space, just as similar forces are now said to gather energy to produce
a volcanic eruption of the earth's crust, preceded by earthquakes and
other vast disturbances radiating from the center of rupture of these
tensions between the molecules of matter, accompanied by explosive
expansion and all the phenomena of disorganization and repulsion, and
succeeded by condensation, development, harmony, and final quiescence
of these specially energized and self-opposing forces in a newly
formed state of molecular equilibrium. To quote from Professor Guyot,
"God rests as the creator of the visible universe. The forces of
nature are now in that admirable equilibrium which we now behold,
and which is necessary to our existence." In "The Unity of Nature"
the Duke of Argyle says, "We strain our imaginations to conceive the
processes of Creation, whilst in reality they are around us daily."
The words which conclude the third verse of chapter ii. are also
imperfectly rendered in our English version, and this defect has led to
a popular misconception almost universal. They are construed to mean
"created--and made," as though marking a broad class distinction
between the different processes before described. From this the
inference has been drawn that while, for the more subordinate features,
the word rendered "made" indicated that these were stages in the
process of creation merely involving the use of coexisting materials,
in the grander features of the work it was supposed that there had been
a creation ab initio,--that is, out of nothing. Whole libraries have
been written on this theme; but the words used bear no such meaning;
on the contrary, they signify the exact opposite. There is, however,
a broad distinction between the interpretation of the two words;
but it is that the word which is to be rendered "fashioned like the
work of a sculptor" is narrower and not broader in significance than
the simple word "made;" so that the former is included in, but is
not generically distinct from, the latter. The word Bra means that
these portions of creation were fashioned with the care and artistic
skill of a sculptor, as contradistinguished from turning out the
productions in mass; this distinction does not relate to the origin,
but to the workmanship. However interstellar or primordial space
was formed, or when, if it ever was formed, there is nothing in this
record which excludes a pre-existent space substantially like that
which now is. What we see in the sky, among the nebulæ, are later
developments of like solar systems, in like manner, from the midst
of the substance of the same illimitable and eternal space.
But biology has an interest in this account of creation equally as
great as has cosmology. The word Bra is first applied to the formation
of the individualized substance of the heavens and the earth. They were
fashioned or carved out like a sculpture from something on which the
forces could operate. There was, of course, creation involved, but it
was a mental, not a physical process. When a sculptor has completed
his clay figure he has brought forth a great creation, perhaps, and
the "creation" is still his own, though the figure be cast in bronze
by hired workmen in the foundry, who execute the sculptor's will at
two dollars a day, it may be, each. Beyond this mental element there
is no more creation, in its widest sense, than when a boy "creates"
a new point on his pencil by guiding his hand and knife to sharpen it.
When the "diffused light" came, it is not said that it was "fashioned
like the work of a sculptor," or that it was even "made;" but that it
"came into existence." "Let there be light, and there was light,"
as the English version has it. But when the radiant energy of the
sun came to be formed, on the fourth day, it did not "come into
existence," nor was it "fashioned like the work of a sculptor;" it was
"made." The reason is that it was not a development from the preceding
"diffused light," but a new kind of light, made mechanically by the
electrolysis of aqueous vapor around the sun's body, forming a hydrogen
envelope, and by driving the furious torrents of electricity from the
planets through this atmosphere, while the auroral, "diffused light"
of the earth was gradually dying away during the process. Hence
there was no room for the word Bra, or for the word Iei (came into
existence) here; the word to be used was Osh. And when life was first
introduced,--vegetable life, the primal life,--the word used is not
Bra; this life was not "fashioned" or developed from other life. But
when animal life was afterwards introduced, the word used is Bra;
it was a refashioning. What was this life fashioned out of? It was
not "made;" it did not "begin to exist;" it was developed. In this
manner the earth was finally filled with animal life. Then came
the introduction of the human race. Here we again have the word
Bra, thrice repeated; but when this introduction of mankind was
first projected, and before it was executed, it was in these words,
"We will make [the root Osh] mankind;" or, in the English version,
"Let us make man." There seems here to have been a gradual ascent of
living organisms by development, almost precisely in accordance with
the most recent teachings of science. Two essentially different kinds
of light were successively produced, independently of each other;
the earlier kind "came into being," and the later "was made." The
substance or entity of the heavens and of the earth, generically,
"was fashioned." Three successive introductions of organic life not
essentially different from each other occurred; the first is described
thus: "Let the earth bring forth; ... and the earth brought forth,"
in the English version; or "There shall be made to grow; ... and there
was caused to arise suddenly out of the ground ... vegetation," as
more accurately rendered. The second form of organic life, in order of
time, the animal, was "fashioned." The third form, mankind, was also
"fashioned," and this was done long subsequently to the introduction
of the second.
If the word Bra had any signification of original creation it would
have been applied to the first creation of life, for it was far more
wonderful and original that there should be vegetable life which
grew and developed, which brought forth flowers and then fruit, which
formed germinative seeds, and from these successively and continuously
reproduced its multifarious species, than that animal life should
have been introduced long afterwards to repeat these same things
which vegetation had been, in all its forms, from the lowest to the
highest, already doing for untold ages,--from the third period of the
earth's long history to the fifth; and more especially still when we
consider that vegetable life and animal life, in their lowest forms,
have no positive line of division between them.
And if Osh, which is applied to the genesis of solar light, be capable
of the signification of original creation, then this word should have
been applied to the generation of the "diffused light" of the second
day, for the genesis of light is far more wonderful and original
than the subsequent production of sunlight, after the forming earth
had existed for two whole formative periods, from the second to the
fourth, under the constant illumination of this universally diffused
auroral light. If, on the other hand, the words applied to the first
generation of light and the first generation of life be held to mark
an original creation, then these words are never applied in this whole
narrative to the genesis of the entity of the heavens, or the earth,
or the sun and moon, or to animal life, or the life of man.
The radiant light and heat of the sun were not made until the fourth
day, while the introduction of vegetable life dates from the long
antecedent third day of creation. Prior to the development of the
sun's thermal light there could have been, as we have already shown,
no free oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere; and it is a remarkable
circumstance that vegetation, which is the only form of organic life
which could have existed and propagated its species in an atmosphere
composed of carbonic, nitrogenous, and aqueous vapors, devoid of
oxygen, is that particular form of life which has been selected for
this purpose, and its advent placed prior to the making of the sun. It
would have been far more reasonable (previous to our present knowledge
of these things) to have placed the formation of the sun in advance
of the introduction of life; it is surprising that this was not done,
unless we give to these "ancients" a knowledge of the principles of
natural science far beyond anything hitherto attributed to them.
In the same connection there is described a stage preparatory to and
leading up to the simultaneous development of the sun's light and
heat, and the sifting out of hydrogen around the solar core, and of
oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere, which is equally remarkable. The
"separation of the waters" described in verses 6 and 7 has never been
fully rendered into English, or even understood in the original, as
the words seemed meaningless in their literal sense until correctly
interpreted by the facts set forth in the present work.
We must first note that the separation of the waters of space to
two opposite foci, with an intervening space of attenuated matter,
and their condensation there into two entirely different bodies, was
the work of the second day, while the formation of the terrestrial
rain-clouds and seas, as connected together, was a work of the
third day, and was not accomplished until then, which was long
afterwards. These entirely different operations--different in time,
place, character, and circumstance--have always been confounded with
each other; but one is in reality systemic and the other merely local.
In verse 6 there was decreed an expanse or thinning (an attenuated
region) in the center of the waters, and a separation was made by
the formation of two "spots" (verse 7), one under the expanse and
the other above the expanse; the expanse was space, interplanetary
space. Professor Arnold Guyot, in his book on Creation, says, "It is
to be regretted that the English version has translated the Hebrew
word expanse by the word firmament.... The difficulties they [the
commentators] have created for themselves arose ... from depriving it
of its cosmogonic character and belittling it by reducing the great
phenomena there described to a simple modification of the terrestrial
atmosphere.... They forget that this thin covering of clouds is but
a temporary and ever-changing one, and that the clouds are in that
heaven rather than above it.... They forget that this is not the true
heavens in which are spread the sun and moon and stars.... This grand
day, so dwarfed and misunderstood, is the one in which are described
the generations of the heavens, announced by Moses, which otherwise
find no place in the narrative of the creative week."
The two foci of waters were the solar and terrestrial; around these
bodies were gathered by the attraction of gravity, and there condensed,
the aqueous vapors from the attenuated intervening matter of space; the
earth by its rotation generated the enormous electrical currents which
still continue; when these made their mighty leap across to the sun,
the diffused auroral light around the earth gradually disappeared,
hydrogen and oxygen began to be evolved at the opposite poles--the
sun and the earth--from the condensed envelopes of aqueous vapor
which surrounded them, the sun's hydrogen atmosphere was pierced,
as in the pail-of-water experiment described in an earlier chapter
of the present work, by the planetary electric currents, the sun
became incandescent, and pari passu the earth became fitted, by the
development of oxygen, for the abode of animal life. As taking part
in this great mechanical transformation, the sun was said to have been
"made;" it did not "come into being."
Just prior to the introduction of vegetable life--during the same
creative epoch, in fact, and for the support of which life it was
necessary--the waters under the expanse were condensed into rain-clouds
and seas, and there is a curious reference (verse 9) to the appearance
of the earth's dryness "as produced by the action of an internal fire;"
the gradual cooling of the earth by the radiation of its internal heat
of condensation into space would account for this appearance, and, in
connection with the diffused auroral light throughout the whole sky,
would doubtless have sufficed for the support of vegetable life.
In verse 16 the fixed stars (the suns of other systems) are referred
to, but in a parenthetical statement--almost deprecatory, in fact--that
"the dim and almost extinct lights" the same forces created also,
but when they were created is not stated in the record. The occasion
for this incidental remark is to be found in the preceding statement
that the two new luminaries, the sun and moon, were the two "superior
bodies in size of the starry lights." Having mentioned the stars in
this comparison, the author feels called upon to add that the latter
also had been similarly created,--that is, that they were not original
existences, and of course they are not, but they were not created at
that epoch, and are not said to have been.
In chapter ii. verse 4, which opens the second narrative (quite a
different history, by the way), Jeove appears Himself, joined with
the Aleim, and henceforth this personal connection is maintained;
the English version translates this composite word "The Lord God,"
which means the Master God; the correct reading is, however, the
"God of gods," or what we call the "God of the forces of nature,"
or the "God omnipotent."
In the whole Mosaic cosmogony there is nothing which can even
suggest a gradually closing nebulous mass; the element of rotation is
absent (and it would not have been understood by the people even if
presented); but, with this exception, the processes of development
are substantially in accord with what must really have taken place,
and in the order described. But it is, as before stated, absolutely
essential to understand the root-meanings of all the more important
words used in the original. A superficial translation is not only
meaningless, but misleading; whereas, when accurately understood,
the record is one of the most remarkable ever presented to human
intelligence. The words used were selected deliberately for their
specific shades of meaning, and, unless these are properly rendered,
to the uninformed the narrative will present a simple succession
of startling phenomena, while to the educated student each of these
changes carries within its verbal index its origin, its mode, and the
knowledge of the forces at work. To the one it is a dramatic spectacle
performed on the stage in front; to the other it is the same work
as seen behind the curtain, with all the intermoving mechanism (the
author's manuscript the sole guide), the interplay of complicated
forces, the triumphant successes, the rapt attention, and even the
sudden applause extorted at each wondrous climax from the skilled
actors themselves, who are at the same time unceasingly engaged in
working out the mighty drama of creation. One might readily believe
that the original author of this record was thoroughly acquainted
with the processes involved in the development of a solar system like
our own from the diffused primordial matter of space, substantially
as we have endeavored, in the present work, to deduce them from the
most recent investigations and discoveries of science.
Of the watery vapors condensed above the expanse of space many of
the ancient writers had a far more correct knowledge than had those
who translated these chapters from the original into the various
modern languages. In the Psalms we read, "Praise him, ... ye waters
that be above the heavens;" in the Song of the Three Holy Children,
"O all ye waters that be above the heavens." Theophilus speaks of the
"visible sky as having drawn to itself a portion of the waters of
chaos at the time of the creation." Saint Augustine says that the
firmament has been formed "between the upper and the lower waters,"
and quotes Genesis i. 6 and 7, as his authority.
Thousands of years ago, as far back as the days of the Pythagoreans,
and even long before, mankind was acquainted with the mariner's
compass, telescopic tubes, and glass lenses; they knew that the moon
receives her light by reflection from the sun, of the presence of
mountains and valleys on the lunar surface, that her day and night are
each a fortnight in length, that there were other planets known to the
Egyptians besides the seven known to the Greeks (the Brahmans reckoned
fifteen of them), that the sun is the center of our planetary system,
that the earth and the other planets revolve around it, that the earth
is round and rotates on its own axis daily, that weight is a principal
element in the maintenance of these rotations, that the fixed stars
are suns, and that the Milky Way appears white from the number of
stars which it contains. Kircher quotes from an ancient Syrian author
the philosophy of the sidereal system, dividing it into many layers
or spheres attached to orbits, each presided over by a spirit. In
the eighth sphere are placed the fixed stars, "still higher two other
layers of stars not less luminous, and of different sizes, the nebulæ
and the small stars of the Milky Way, and the whole is surrounded by
the celestial waters, which spread over the whole firmament, and which
compose the great sea of light and the boundless ocean." The sources
of all this wondrous knowledge can be traced back through Chaldea,
Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and, through the colony of Meroë, to India.
ROOT-MEANINGS OF THE PRINCIPAL WORDS USED IN THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE
OF CREATION.
Aleim ("corruptly called Elohim by the modern Jews, but always Aleim
in the synagogue copies") means the Strong Forces (or, by subsequent
impersonation, subaltern gods), operating to carry out the purposes and
execute the plans of Jeove. Al, the root, signifies Strong, strength,
a ram; Al-e means Strong in a personal sense; Aleim (plural) means
the Forces, the Strong-ones, the Powers, and in Egyptian mythology,
the subordinate, or executive, gods, the demi-urgi. Exodus vii. 1,
"And the Lord [Jeove] said unto Moses, See I have made thee a god
[Aleim] to Pharaoh; thou shalt speak all that I command thee."
Bra, carved, cut, fashioned like the work of a sculptor, gave a new
shape to, formed from unformed material. From Br, a knife; br-i,
to carve, to cut.
Brashit, in the commencement or beginning of individualized existence
(with the initial preposition b-). B signifies in; it (which is
related to at) signifies individualized existence; rash, a principle
or beginning, or a commencement.
At, connected with the Chaldaic, signifies substance, essence,
or individuality, "the thing itself" (Latin, ens); it is correctly
translated "individualized substance."
Eshmim, the combination of the preposition e with the substantive
shmim, the word signifying of the visible heavens, or the planisphere.
Artz, the earth in a state of aridity, or as a generalized expression
for the earth; ar signifies the earth, and the termination tz
intensifies the signification of drought, whiteness, aridity; in
contrast with this is adme, red earth, or productive earth or soil.
U- is a conjunction, signifying and or then, in the sense of succession
of time, something like our phrase "and then."
Teou does not mean "without form," nor does ubeou mean "and void," as
rendered in our English version, at least not in the ordinary sense
of these words. "Teou refers to extinct life, or to existence shut
up as in a tomb and in darkness, while u-beou refers to life which
is about reappearing, but still hidden in the egg or the ovary, and
waiting for the word which shall cause the dawn of creation to shine
upon it." These words are more properly rendered "tomb-like darkness
and undeveloped."
Eshc means darkness; not merely an intense darkness, but what may be
denominated a "thick darkness;" it is an enshrouding darkness which
compresses and hinders. It is precisely such a darkness as would be
produced by the interstratified cloud-layers between the convolutions
of a forming spiral nebula, or the cloud-strata surrounding the
earth before electrolytic decomposition of the aqueous vapors had
ensued. With the advent of the sun, in the narrative, this darkness
and the term which expresses it disappear.
Teou-m is the word above explained, with the termination -m,
expressing the idea of arrested, doubtful, indefinite, as applied to
all existence; the word "undifferentiated nature" properly interprets
its vagueness and general character of an abyss of being, in the
etymological sense of "nature" as the totality of things at that time
born or produced.
Rove means breath, in the sense of an expanding, liberating, or
developing spirit; its literal meaning is "the breath, the spirit
which dilates and frees."
Mrepht, brooded with incubating love; reph is composed of re, "to be
full of good-will, to be agreeable," and eph, "to cover, to protect,
to incubate, to brood."
Mim, the seeds of all beings, the waters. It is said, "the choice of
this letter m, to signify water [the alphabetical Egyptian letter m
is represented by the two undulatory lines which in the hieroglyphics
represent water], is connected with the Egyptian ideas of the cause
of the generation of living beings." Numbers xxiv. 7, "He shall
pour the waters out of his buckets, and the seed [zro] in the waters
[b-mim]." The latter word is plural in form, but both singular and
plural in sense.
Aour, diffused light; a light resembling the dawn, but quite distinct
from the light of the sun. The latter was not established until the
fourth day, and its advent is characterized by a new word, leair,
"to cause light to move above the earth."
Joum is day, generically, and lile night.
Rqiô, the expanse; atrqiô, the individualized substance of the
expanse. Space, in the opinion of the Egyptians, "not being a vacuum,
but a material substance, Moses could say, and was even compelled to
say, 'the substance of space, that which constitutes it.'"
Osh, made. This word first occurs in verse 7, and is there applied to
the making a separation between the waters or aqueous vapors condensed
around the earth and those condensed around some similar spot "above,
as regards the individuality of the expanse,"--to wit, the solar core
or nucleus,--to which, attracted by gravity from the attenuated vapors
of the space between, is due the subsequent establishment of the solar
light and heat, as in an electrical arc light, and the presence of
oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere. These processes, involving
the constitution of our atmosphere and of the sun's photosphere
and chromosphere, were not completed until two subsequent cosmical
periods had elapsed, from the third to the fifth. The word osh, in its
different combinations and inflections, is also used in verse 11, where
it signifies "making," as applied to fruit; "yielding" fruit, in verse
12; "they made," as applied to the sun and moon, in verse 16; "made,"
as applied to the entity of quadrupeds and higher animals generally,
in verse 25; "we will make," as applied to man, verse 26; "had made,"
as applied to "every entity of creation," verse 31; "had made," as
applied to the specially directed work as mlactou, chapter ii. verse
2; and finally, in the general summing up in verse 3 of the second
chapter, as an element in a compound substantive phrase "according
to the making-act," or "in accordance with the making of creation."
"Oshout," it is said, "signifies a manual operation, carried on
according to a previously conceived idea, or model."
We find a similar use of the substantive infinitive with a preceding
preposition in verse 21, chapter iii. "Ctnout is derived from tne,
a consoling word. Tnout, the infinitive of the conjugation Piel, adds
to the word the act of causing to be done, and of doing with care."
A similar construction, lraout, is employed in chapter ii. verse
19, translated in the English version, "and brought them unto Adam
to see what ..."; more literally, "as regards the act of seeing,"
or according to a vision, or show. That is, they were brought and
presented to his sight.
The object in writing these two words, bra and l-osh-out, together at
the very end of the narrative was to conclusively establish the fact,
beyond all possible doubt, that the whole work of creation was an
orderly and harmonious progression.
Mlactou, which word is used twice in verse 2 and once in verse 3 of the
second chapter, and not previously, is also introduced for specific
emphasis. It means that the whole preceding work of creation was, in
its nature, "the work of Mlac," a messenger, or a specially energized
and directed agency, sent to fulfil the appointed work of Jeove. Its
purpose was to forever prevent the belief that the work of creation
was due to mere natural forces, on the one hand, operating by chance;
and, on the other, that these forces were independent gods carrying
out their own purposes, and of their own will. It was set up as a
double barrier against rationalism on the one side and polytheism on
the other.
It may be incidentally added that the popular belief that "Adam was
created out of the dust of the earth" is not in accordance with the
original record. In the second narrative, chapter ii. verse 7, the
word ophr is rendered "dust" in our English version, but it does not
signify ordinary terrestrial dust at all; "its radical meaning is to
volatilize a substance, to sublimate it." The true signification of
the word used is analogous to a "material essence." The same word is
used in Numbers xxiii. 10 as a synonym for "seed;" it is said that
"the Septuagint version translates ophr by sperma."
The formation, described in the third chapter, of the female human
being out of one of the ribs of Adam, excised for that purpose (which
is a matter of almost universal popular belief), is not, in reality,
what is stated in the original. In verse 21 of chapter ii. the words
are rendered in our version, "And he took one of his ribs." What is
really said, however, is "And he brought out another one from his
sides." So the similar expression in verse 22 in reality signifies,
"caused to be made according to womankind the individualized substance
of his side."
The word translated "of his ribs" is precisely the same as is
subsequently used by the same writer (Exodus xxxvii. 27) to designate
the location of the supporting rings upon an altar of incense, and
is there rendered, "by the two corners of it, upon the two sides."
The defective translation is due to imperfect knowledge, at that
time, of the processes of organic development. The true signification
is that given in the "Institutes of Manu": "Having divided his own
sub-sistence, the Mighty Power became half male and half female."
The words rendered "help meet" in verses 18 and 20 have a far
higher meaning; "I will make him a help meet" should be translated,
"I will cause to be made for him an overseeing help as a guide,
an instructor, a revealer." And in verse 20 of chapter iii., "And
Adam called his wife's name Eve," the latter word is not translated;
the correct rendering is, "And Adam called the symbolic name of his
wife the female serpent-wise revealer, she who explains, points out
things, who instructs," for that is what the true root-meaning of Eve
signifies. The concluding words of this verse, "because she was the
mother of all living," are obviously mistranslated, for not only was
she not a mother at all, but she did not even conceive, as stated in
the next chapter, until she had left the garden finally. The true
signification is, "because she was the mother of all [spiritual,
see verse 22, as contradistinguished from animal and vegetable] life."
The female human being, the word translated woman, has the generic
root-signification of "flame," while, prior to Eve, that of the
Adamic man is the "red earth." As the male was formed from a material
earthly essence, the female was created one remove further from the
gross and material in the direction of the spiritual; and her powers
were distinctively subjective, those of intuition, while those of
the male were objective, those derived from instruction. Even in the
final curse (so called) the man turns back to the earth to earn his
subsistence, while the woman turns forward to the instruction of
the future men and women, the children; for the words, "In sorrow
shalt thou bring forth children," have left one word of the original
untranslated, and by supplying this the sense is entirely changed,
"and conceiving, and bringing forth, in sorrow shalt thou bring up,
care for, and train children." In those countries childbirth was
never attended with much pain or sorrow.
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,
Phoenicia, 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.