Legends of Old Testament Characters.
Legends Of Old Testament Characters,
From
The Talmud and Other Sources.
By The
Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A.,
_Author of “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” “The Origin and
Development of
Religious Belief,” “In Exitu Israel,” etc._
London and New York:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1871.
[_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved._]
LONDON
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.
PREFACE.
An incredible number of legends exists connected with the personages
whose history is given in the Old Testament. The collection now
presented to the public must by no means be considered as exhaustive.
The compiler has been obliged to limit himself as to the number, it
being quite impossible to insert all. He trusts that few of peculiar
interest have been omitted.
The Mussulman traditions are nearly all derived from the Talmudic
writers, just as the history of Christ in the Koran is taken from the
Apocryphal Gospels. The Koran follows the “Sepher Hajaschar” (Book of
the Just) far more closely than the canonical Scriptures; and the
“Sepher Hajaschar” is a storehouse of the Rabbinic tradition on the
subject of the Patriarchs from Adam to Joshua.
The Jewish traditions are of various value. Some can be traced to their
origin without fail. One class is derived from Persia, as, for instance,
those of Asmodeus, the name of the demon being taken, along with his
story, from Iranian sources. Another class springs from the Cabbalists,
who, by permutation of the letters of a name, formed the nuclei, so to
speak, from which legends spread.
Another class, again, is due to the Rabbinic commentators, who, unable
to allow for poetical periphrasis, insisted on literal interpretations,
and then coined fables to explain them. Thus the saying of David, “_Thou
hast heard me from among the horns of the unicorns_,” which signified
that David was assisted by God in trouble, was taken quite literally by
the Rabbis, and a story was invented to explain it.
Another class, again, is no doubt due to the exaggeration of Oriental
imagery, just as that previously mentioned is due to the deficiency of
the poetic fancy in certain Rabbis. Thus, imagination and defect of
imagination, each contributed to add to the store.
But when we have swept all these classes aside, there remains a
residuum, small, no doubt, of genuine tradition. To this class, if I am
not mistaken, belong the account of Lamech and his wives, and the story
of the sacrifice of Isaac. In the latter instance, the type comes out
far clearer in the Talmudic tradition than in the canonical Scriptures;
and this can hardly have been the result of Jewish interpolation,
knowing, as they did, that Christians pointed triumphantly to this type.
* * * * *
With regard to Jewish traditions, it is unfortunate that both
Eisenmenger and Bartolocci, who collected many of them, were so
prejudiced, so moved with violent animosity against the Rabbinic
writers, that they preserved only the grotesque, absurd, and indecent
legends, and wholly passed over those—and there are many of them—which
are redolent of poetry, and which contain an element of truth.
* * * * *
A certain curious interest attaches to these legends—at least, I think
so; and, should they find favour with the public, this volume will be
followed by another series on the legends connected with the New
Testament characters.
The Author is not aware of any existing collection of these legends,
except that of M. Colin de Plancy, “Legendes de l’Ancien Testament,”
Paris, 1861; but he has found this work of little or no use to him in
composing his volume, as M. de Plancy gives no reference to authorities;
and also, because nearly the whole of the contents are taken from
D’Herbelot’s “Bibliothèque Orientale” and Migne’s “Dictionnaire des
Apocryphes.”
It will be necessary to add a few words on certain works largely quoted
in the following pages.
1. Dr. G. Weil’s “Biblische Legende der Muselmänner,” Frankfurt a. M.,
1845, is derived from three Arabic MS. works—“_Chamis_,” by Husein Ibn
Mohammed Ibn Alhasan Addiarbekri; “_Dsachirat Alulun wanatidjat
Alfuhum_,” by Ahmed Ibn zein Alabidin Albekri; and “_Kissat Alanbija_,”
by Mohammed Ibn Ahmed Alkissai.
2. The Chronicle of Abou-djafar Mohammed Tabari was translated into
Persian by Abou Ali Mohammed Belami, who added sundry traditions
circulating in Persia; and has been rendered into French, in part, by M.
Hermann Zolenberg, for the Oriental Translation Fund, Paris, 1867.
3. The “Sepher Hajaschar,” or Book of Jasher (Yaschar), is quoted from
the translation by Le Chevalier P. L. B. Drach, inserted in Migne’s
“Dictionnaire des Apocryphes.”
4. Eisenmenger, “Neuentdektes Judenthum,” 2 vols. 8vo, Königsburg, 1711,
contains a great many Rabbinic traditions collected from sources
inaccessible to most persons.
5. Bartolocci, “Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica,” 4 vols. fol., Rome,
1675-93, is a very valuable storehouse of information, but sadly
disfigured by prejudice.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE . . . v
I. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS . . . 1
II. ADAM . . . 7
1. The Creation of Man . . . 7
2. The Pre-Adamites . . . 14
III. EVE . . . 15
IV. THE FALL OF MAN . . . 21
V. ADAM AND EVE AFTER THE FALL . . . 34
VI. CAIN AND ABEL . . . 55
VII. THE DEATH OF ADAM . . . 62
VIII. SETH . . . 66
IX. CAINAN SON OF ENOS . . . 69
X. ENOCH . . . 70
1. The Translation of Enoch . . . 70
2. The Book of Enoch . . . 73
XI. THE GIANTS . . . 77
XII. LAMECH . . . 82
XIII. METHUSELAH . . . 84
XIV. NOAH . . . 85
XV. HEATHEN LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE . . . 91
XVI. THE PLANTING OF THE VINE . . . 106
XVII. THE SONS OF NOAH . . . 109
XVIII. RELICS OF THE ARK . . . 111
XIX. CERTAIN DESCENDANTS OF HAM . . . 113
XX. SERUG . . . 116
XXI. THE PROPHET EBER . . . 117
XXII. THE PROPHET SALEH . . . 122
XXIII. THE TOWER OF BABEL . . . 130
XXIV. ABRAHAM . . . 135
1. His Youth and early Struggles . . . 135
2. The Call of Abraham, and the Visit to Egypt . . . 148
3. The War with the Kings . . . 152
4. The Birth of Ishmael . . . 157
5. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah . . . 158
6. The Birth of Isaac . . . 163
7. The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael . . . 167
8. The Strife between the Shepherds . . . 171
9. The Grove in Beer-sheba . . . 172
10. The Offering of Isaac . . . 174
11. The Death of Sarah . . . 183
12. The Marriage of Isaac . . . 187
13. The Death of Abraham . . . 189
XXV. MELCHIZEDEK . . . 191
XXVI. OF ISHMAEL AND THE WELL ZEMZEM . . . 196
XXVII. ESAU AND JACOB . . . 201
XXVIII. JOSEPH . . . 213
XXIX. THE TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS . . . 229
XXX. JOB . . . 231
XXXI. JETHRO . . . 237
XXXII. MOSES . . . 238
1. Israel in Egypt . . . 238
2. The Birth and Childhood of Moses . . . 245
3. The Youth and Marriage of Moses . . . 252
4. Moses before Pharaoh . . . 261
5. The Passage of the Red Sea . . . 268
6. The giving of the Law . . . 273
7. The Manna . . . 278
8. The smitten Rock . . . 279
9. Moses visits El Khoudr . . . 281
10. The Mission of the Spies . . . 284
11. Of Korah and his Company . . . 287
12. The Wars of the Israelites . . . 290
13. The Death of Aaron . . . 293
14. The Death of Moses . . . 296
XXXIII. JOSHUA . . . 301
XXXIV. THE JUDGES . . . 304
XXXV. SAMUEL . . . 305
XXXVI. SAUL . . . 311
1. War with the Philistines.—Goliath slain . . . 311
2. Saul’s Jealousy of David . . . 315
3. The Death of Saul . . . 317
XXXVII. DAVID . . . 318
XXXVIII. SOLOMON . . . 333
1. How Solomon obtained Power . . . 333
2. How Solomon feasted all Flesh . . . 335
3. The Building of the Temple . . . 337
4. The Travels of Solomon . . . 339
5. The History of the Queen of Sheba . . . 344
6. Solomon’s Adventure with the Apes . . . 350
7. Solomon marries the Daughter of Pharaoh . . . 350
8. How Solomon lost and recovered his Ring . . . 352
9. The Death of Solomon . . . 355
XXXIX. ELIJAH . . . 356
XL. ISAIAH . . . 359
XLI. JEREMIAH . . . 362
XLII. EZEKIEL . . . 363
XLIII. EZRA . . . 364
XLIV. ZECHARIAH . . . 366
I.
THE FALL OF THE ANGELS.
In the beginning, before the creation of heaven and earth, God made the
angels; free intelligences and free wills; out of His love He made them,
that they might be eternally happy. And that their happiness might be
complete, He gave them the perfection of a created nature; that is, He
gave them freedom.
But happiness is only attainable by the free will agreeing in its
freedom to accord with the will of God. Some of the angels by an act of
free will obeyed the will of God, and in such obedience found perfect
happiness; other angels by an act of free will rebelled against the will
of God, and in such disobedience found misery.
Such is the catholic theory of the fall of the angels.
Historically, it is represented as a war in heaven. “_And there was war
in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the
dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place
found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world;
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with
him._”[1] The reason of the revolt was that Satan desired to be as great
as God. “_Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation in the sides of the north; I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High._”[2]
The war ended in the fall of Satan and those whom he had led into
apostasy; and to this fall are referred the words of Christ, “_I saw
Satan like lightning fall from heaven_.”[3]
Fabricius, in his collections of the apocryphal writings of the Old
Testament, has preserved the song of triumph which the Archangel Michael
sang on obtaining the victory. This is a portion of it:—
“Glory to our God! Praise to His holy Name! He is our God; glory be to
Him! He is our Lord! His be the triumph! He has stretched forth His
right hand; He has manifested His power, He has cast down our
adversaries. They are mad who resist Him; they are accursed who depart
from His commandments! He knoweth all things, and cannot err. His will
is sovereignly just, and all that He wills is good, all that He advises
is holy. Supreme Intelligence cannot be deceived; Perfect Being cannot
will what is evil. Nothing is above that which is supreme, nothing is
better than that which is perfect. None is worthy beside Him but him
whom He has made worthy. He must be loved above all things and adored as
the eternal King. You have abandoned your God, you have revolted against
Him, you have desired to be gods; you have fallen from your high
estates, you have gone down like a fallen stone. Acknowledge that God is
great, that His works are perfect, and that His judgments are just.
Glory be to God through ages of ages, praises of joy for all His works!”
This song of the Archangel is said to have been revealed to S.
Amadeus.[4]
According to the Talmudists, Satan, whose proper name is Sammael, was
one of the Seraphim, with six wings.[5] He was not driven out of heaven
till after he had led Adam and Eve into sin; then Sammael and his host
were precipitated out of the place of bliss, with God’s curse to weigh
them down. In the struggle between Michael and Sammael, the falling
Seraph caught the wings of Michael and tried to drag him down with him,
but God saved him, whence Michael derives his name (the Rescued). This
is what the Rabbi Bechai says in his commentary on the Five Books of
Moses.[6]
According to a Talmudic authority, the apostate angels having fallen in
a heap, God laid his little finger on them and consumed them.[7]
Sammael was the regent of the planet Mars, and this he rules still, and
therefore it is that those born under the influence of that star are
lovers of war and given to strife.[8]
He was chief among the angels of God, and now he is prince among
devils.[9] His name is derived from Simmé, which means to blind and
deceive. He stands on the _left_ side of men. He goes by various names;
such as the Old Serpent, the Unclean Spirit, Satan, Leviathan, and
sometimes also Asael. In his fall he spat in his hatred against God, and
his spittle stained the moon, and thus it is that the moon has on it
spots.
After his fall, Satan took to himself four wives, Lilith and Naama the
daughter of Lamech and sister of Tubal-Cain, Igereth and Machalath. Each
became the mother of a great host of devils, and each rules with her
host over a season of the year; and at the change of seasons there is a
great gathering of devils about their mothers. Lilith is followed by
four hundred and seventy-eight legions of devils, for that number is
comprised in her name (לילית—478). According to some, Lilith is
identical with Eve. She rules over Damascus, Naama over Tyre, Igereth
over Malta and Rhodes, and Machalath over Crete.[10]
Many traditions date the existence of angels and demons from a remote
period before the creation of the world, but some connect the fall of
Satan and his host with the creation of man.
Abou-Djafar-Mohammed Tabari says that when God made Adam, He bade all
the angels worship him as their king and superior, as says the Koran,
“All the angels adored Adam” (xv. 30), but that Satan or Eblis answered
God, “I will not adore Adam, for he is made of earth and I of fire,
therefore I am better than he” (vii. 11), and that God thereupon cursed
Eblis and gave him the form of a devil, because of his pride, vain
confidence, and disobedience.[11]
Abulfeda says, “After God had made man He thus addressed the angels.
‘When I have breathed a portion of my spirit into him, bow before him
and adore.’ After He had inspired Adam with His spirit, all the angels
of every degree adored him, except Eblis; he, through pride and envy,
scorned to do this, and disobeyed God. Then God cursed him, and He cut
him off from all hope in divine mercy, and He called him Scheithanan
redjiman (Satan devoted to misery), and He cast him out who had been
before an angel of the earth, and keeper of terrestrial things, and a
guardian of Paradise.”[12]
But the general opinion seems to have been that the fall of the angels
preceded the creation of man. Ibn-Ezra dates it on the second day of
creation, others on the first day when God “_divided the light from the
darkness_.” Manasseh Ben Israel says that God has placed the devils in
the clouds, that they might torment the wicked with thunder and
lightnings, and showers of hail and tempests of wind, and that this took
place on the second day, when the firmaments were divided.
As the fall of Satan took place through his aspiration to be God, so it
is closely connected with the origin of idolatry and false worship; for
now that Satan is cast out of heaven, he still seeks to exalt himself
into the place of God, and therefore leads men from the worship of the
true God into demonolatry. Thus the gods of the heathens were regarded
by the first Christians as devils aspiring to receive that worship from
men on earth which they sought and failed to obtain in heaven. Thus St.
Paul tells the Corinthians that “_the Gentiles sacrifice to
devils_.”[13] The temptation of Christ can only be fully understood when
we bear in mind that pride and craving for worship is the prime source
of Satan’s actions: “_All these will I give thee_,” he said to Christ,
“_if Thou wilt fall down and worship me_.” It was a second attempt of
Satan to set himself above the Most High.
Among the heathen, traditions of the Angelic apostasy and war have
remained.
The Indian story is as follows:—
At the head of the apostate spirits is Mahisasura, or the great Asur; he
and those who followed him were once good, but before the creation of
the world they refused obedience to Brahma, wherefore they were cast
down by the assistance of Schiva into the abyss of Onderah.[14]
Mahisasura is also represented as the great serpent Vrita, against which
Indra fought, and which after a desperate struggle he overcame.
The Persian tradition is that Ahriman, the chief of the rebels, is not
by nature evil. He was not created evil by the Eternal One, but he
became evil by revolting against His will, and the ancient books of the
Parsees assert that at the last day Ahriman will return to obedience,
and having been purified by fire, will regain the place among the
heavenly beings which he lost. In this war the Izeds fought against the
Divs, headed by Ahriman, and flung the conquered into Douzahk or hell.
The Norse story is that Loki, the spirit of evil, is one of the gods,
and sat with them at their table till he declared himself their enemy,
when he with his vile progeny, the wolf and the serpent, were cast out.
The wolf is bound, Thorr constrains the serpent, and Loki is chained
under the mountains, and a serpent distils poison on his breast; when he
tosses in agony, the earth quakes.
In Egypt, Typhon was brother of Osiris, but he revolted against him.
Maximus of Tyre, and Apollonius of Rhodes, following Orpheus, speak of
the war of the gods against the angels who rebelled under their chief
Ophion, or the Serpent, and Pherecydes, according to Origen, sang of
this event as having taken place in pre-historic times; so that the
knowledge of it could only have reached man by revelation. He described
the two armies face to face,—one commanded by Saturn, the supreme
Creator; the other by Ophioneus, the old Dragon, and the defeat of the
latter and its expulsion from the realms of bliss to Ogenos, the regions
of annihilation.[15] The story of the Titans is connected with this.
They were the sons of Uranus (heaven) and Ge (earth), and dwelt
originally in heaven, whence they are called Uranidæ. They were twelve
in number. Uranus threw out of heaven his other sons, the Hecatoncheires
and the Cyclopes, and precipitated them into Tartarus. Whereupon Ge
persuaded her sons, the Titans, to rise up against their father, and
liberate their brethren. They did as their mother bade them, deposed
Uranus, and placed on his throne their brother Cronus, who immediately
re-imprisoned the Cyclopes. But Zeus with his brothers fought against
the reigning Titans, cast them out of heaven, and enthroned himself on
the seat of Cronus; and the Titans he enchained in the abyss under
Tartarus.
This is simply the same story told over twice, and formed into a
dynasty. Chronos Titan is the same as the Arabic Scheitan, the Erse
Teitin, the Time-god, and the Biblical Satan, or Lucifer, the Son of the
Morning.
Amongst the Battas of Sumatra exists a myth to this effect: Batara Guru,
the supreme God, from whose daughter Putiarla Buran all mankind are
descended, cast the mountain Bakkara out of heaven upon the head of the
serpent, his foe, and made the home of his son Layanga-layaad-mandi on
the top of this mountain. From this summit the son descended that he
might bind the hands or feet of the serpent, as it shook its head and
made the earth rock.
Connected with the fall of Satan is his lameness. The devil is
represented in art and in legend as limping on one foot; this was
occasioned by his having broken his leg in his fall.
Hephæstus, who pursued Athene and attempted to outrage divine Wisdom,
was precipitated from heaven into the fire-island Lemnos, and was lamed
thereby. Hermes cut the hamstring out of Typhon, therewith to string his
lyre. The Norse god Loki lusted after Freya, and was lamed therefore.
Wieland the smith (Völundr), who ventured to do violence to Beodohild,
was lamed, and was known thereby. Phaethon, daring to drive his father’s
chariot of the sun, was cast out and thrown to earth.
The natives of the Caroline Islands relate that one of the inferior
gods, named Merogrog, was driven by the other gods out of heaven, and he
took with him a spark of fire which he gave to men.[16] This myth
resembles that of Prometheus, “the contriver, full of gall and
bitterness, who sinned against the gods by bestowing their honours on
creatures of a day, the thief of fire,” as Hermes calls him. He
reappears as Tohil among the Quiches, the giver of fire, hated, yet
adored.
The Northern Californians say that the supreme God once created
invisible spirits, of whom one portion revolted against him, headed by a
spirit named War or Touparan, and that the Great Spirit having overcome
him, drove him from the plains of heaven, and confined him along with
his comrades in a cavern, where he is guarded by whales.[17]
The Egyptian Typhon, already alluded to, did not belong to Egypt alone,
but also to Phœnicia and Asia Minor, and thence the story passed into
Greece, where it took root, and has been preserved to us as the attack
of the hundred-headed dragon against the heaven-god Zeus. Typhon desired
to obtain supremacy over gods and men, and, in order to win for himself
this sovereignty, he fought against the gods; but he was defeated,
bound, and precipitated into Tartarus, or, according to another version,
was buried under the flaming mountains.
According to a tradition of the Salivas, a people of New Granada, a
serpent slew the nations, descended from God, who inhabited the region
of the Orinoco, but a son of the God Puru fought him and overcame him,
and bade him depart with his curse, and never to enter his house again,
and, say these Salivas, from the flesh of the serpent sprang the
Caribees, their great foes, as maggots from putrid meat.[18]
But these stories might be infinitely extended. How far they refer to a
tradition common to the human race, and how far they relate to the
strife between summer and winter, sun and storm-cloud, I do not pretend
to decide. It is one of those vexed questions which it is impossible to
determine.
Footnote 1:
Rev. xii. 7-9.
Footnote 2:
Isaiah xiv. 13, 14.
Footnote 3:
Luke x. 18.
Footnote 4:
Fabricius (J. A.), Codex Pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. Hamb., 1722, p.
21.
Footnote 5:
Jalkut Rubeni, 3, sub. tit. Sammael.
Footnote 6:
Fol. 139, col. 1; see Eisenmenger, i. p. 831.
Footnote 7:
Jalkut Rubeni, in Eisenmenger, i. p. 307.
Footnote 8:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 104.
Footnote 9:
Ibid., i. p. 820.
Footnote 10:
Ibid., ii. 416, 420, 421.
Footnote 11:
Chronique de Tabari. Paris, 1867, i. c. xxvii.
Footnote 12:
Abulfeda, Hist. Ante-Islamica. Lipsiæ, 1831, p. 13.
Footnote 13:
1 Cor. x. 20.
Footnote 14:
Majer, Mythologische Lexicon, Th. i. p. 231.
Footnote 15:
Orig. adv. Cels. vi. 42.
Footnote 16:
Lettres Edifiantes, viii. p. 420.
Footnote 17:
Bibliothèque Univ. de Genève, 1827; D’Anselme, i. p. 228.
Footnote 18:
Hist. Naturelle de l’Orinoque, par Tos. Gumilia. Avignon, 1751, t. i.
p 172.
II.
ADAM.
1. THE CREATION OF MAN.
Certain of the angels having fallen, God made men, that they might take
their vacated places.
According to the most authoritative Mussulman traditions, Adam was
created on Friday afternoon at the Assr-hour, or about three o’clock.
The four archangels—Gabriel, Michael, Israfiel, and Asrael—were required
to bring earth from the four quarters of the world, that therefrom God
might fashion man. His head and breast were made of clay from Mecca and
Medina, from the spot where later were the Holy Kaaba and the tomb of
Mohammed. Although still lifeless, his beauty amazed the angels who had
flocked to the gates of Paradise. But Eblis, envious of the beauty of
Adam’s as yet inanimate form, said to the angels: “How can you admire a
creature made of earth? From such material nothing but fragility and
feebleness can come.” However, most of the angels praised God for what
He had done.
The body of Adam was so great, that if he stood up his head would reach
into the seventh heaven. But he was not as yet endowed with a living
soul. The soul had been made a thousand years before, and had been
steeped all that while in the sea of light which flowed from Allah. God
now ordered the soul to enter the body. It showed some indisposition to
obey; thereupon God exclaimed: “Quicken Adam against your will, and, as
a penalty for your disobedience, you shall leave the body sorely against
your will.” Then God blew the spirit against Adam with such force that
it entered his nose, and ran up into his head, and as soon as it reached
his eyes Adam opened them, and saw the throne of God with the
inscription upon it: “There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His
prophet.” Then the soul ran into his ears, and Adam heard the song of
the angels; thereupon his tongue was unloosed, for by this time the soul
had reached it, and he said, “Praise be to Thee, my Creator, one and
only!” And God answered him: “For this purpose are you made. You and
your successors must pray to me, and you will find mercy and
loving-kindness at my hands.” Then the soul penetrated all the members,
reaching last of all the feet of Adam, which receiving strength, he
sprang up, and stood upon the earth. But when he stood upright he was
obliged to close his eyes, for the light of God’s throne shining
directly into them blinded them. “What light is this?” he asked, as he
covered his eyes with one hand, and indicated the throne with the other.
“It is the light of a prophet,” God answered, “who will spring from thee
in later ages. By mine honour I swear, for him alone have I created the
world. In heaven he bears the name of the much-lauded, and on earth he
will be called Mohammed. Through him all men will be led out of error
into the way of truth.”
God then called all created animals before Adam, and told him their
names and their natures. Then He called up all the angels, and bade them
bow before Adam, the man whom He had made. Israfiel obeyed first, and
God gave to him in recompense the custody of the Book of Fate; the other
angels obeyed in order; only Eblis refused, in the pride of his heart,
saying, “Why shall I, who am made of fire, bend before him who is made
of earth?” Therefore he was cast out of the angel choirs, and was
forbidden admission through the gates of Paradise. Adam also was led out
of Paradise, and he preached to the angels, who stood before him in ten
thousand ranks, a sermon on the power, majesty, and goodness of God, and
he showed such learning and knowledge—for he could name each beast in
seventy languages—that the angels were amazed at his knowledge, which
excelled their own. As a reward for having preached this sermon, God
sent Adam a bunch of grapes out of Paradise by the hands of Gabriel.[19]
In the Midrash, the Rabbinical story is as follows: “When God wished to
make man, He consulted with the angels, and said to them, We will make a
man in our image. Then they said, What is man, that you regard him, and
what is his nature? He answered, His knowledge excels yours. Then He
placed all kinds of beasts before them, wild beasts and fowls of the
air, and asked them their names, but they knew them not. And after Adam
was made, He led them before him, and He asked Adam their names, and he
replied at once, This is an ox, that is an ass, this is a horse, that is
a camel, and so forth.”[20]
The story told by Tabari is somewhat different.
When God would make Adam, He ordered Gabriel to bring Him a handful of
every sort of clay, black, white, red, yellow, blue, and every other
kind.[21] Gabriel went to the middle of the earth to the place where now
is Kaaba. He wished to stoop and take the clay, but the earth said to
him, “O Gabriel, what doest thou?” And Gabriel answered, “I am fetching
a little clay, dust, and stone, that thereof God may make a Lord for
thee.” Then the earth swore by God, “Thou shalt take of me neither clay
nor dust nor stone; what if of the creatures made from me some should
arise who would do evil upon the earth, and shed innocent blood?”
Gabriel withdrew, respecting the oath, and took no earth; and he said to
God, “Thou knowest what the earth said to me.”
Then God sent Michael and bade him fetch a little mud. But when Michael
arrived, the earth swore the same oath.
And Michael respected the oath and withdrew.
Then God sent Azrael, the angel of death. He came, and the earth swore
the same oath; but he did not retire, but answered and said, “I must
obey the command of God in spite of thine oath.”
And the angel of death stooped, and took from forty ells below the earth
clay of every sort, as we have said, and therefrom God made Adam.
No one in the world had seen a form like that of Adam. Hâreth or Satan
went to look at him. Adam had lain stretched in the same place for the
space of about forty years. No one thought of him or knew what sort of a
thing he was. Hâreth coming up to him, saw him stretched from east to
west, of huge size and as dry as dry palm leaves. Then Hâreth pushed
Adam, and the dry earth rattled. Hâreth was astonished. He examined the
form more attentively, and he found that it was hollow. Then he went to
the mouth and crept in at it, and crept out again and let the angels
know the doubt that was in his breast, for he said, “This creature is
nothing, its inside is empty, and a hollow thing can easily be broken.
Now that God has made him, He has given him the empire of the world, but
I will fight against him and drive him from the earth as I drove out the
Jins. What is your advice?”
The angels answered, “O Hâreth, if we overcame the Jins it was in
obedience to God’s command. Now that God has created this thing, if He
orders us to submit to it, we must do so.” Now when Hâreth saw that the
angels thought otherwise, he changed his discourse and said, “You speak
the truth, I agree with you, but I wanted to prove you.”
When God gave the soul to Adam, it entered his throat and passed down
into his bosom and belly, and wherever it passed, the earth, the clay,
the dust, and the black mud became bones, nerves, veins, flesh, skin,
and the like. And when his soul entered his head, Adam sneezed, and
said, “Praise be to God.” And when he turned his head, he saw Paradise
and all its delights; and when the soul entered his belly, he wanted to
eat, so he tried to rise and get some food, but the soul had not yet
reached his extremities, which were as yet mere clay, so Gabriel said:
“O Adam, don’t be in a hurry.”[22] Then follows the story of Eblis
refusing to adore Adam. According to another version of the Mussulman
story, the soul showed such repugnance to enter the body, that the angel
Gabriel took a flageolet, and sitting down near the head of the
inanimate Adam, played such exquisite melodies that the soul descended
to listen, and in a moment of ecstasy entered the feet, which began
immediately to move. Thereupon the soul was given command by Allah not
to leave the body again till special permission was given it by the Most
High.[23]
In the Talmud we are told that the Rabbi Meir says that the dust from
which Adam was made was gathered from all parts of the earth: the Rabbi
Hoshea says that the body of the first man was made of dust from Babel;
the head, of earth from the land of Israel, and the rest of his limbs
from the soil of other countries: but the Rabbi Acha adds that his
hinder quarters were fashioned out of clay from Acre.[24] When Adam was
made, some of the dust remained over; of that God made locusts.[25]
A Rabbinical tale is to this effect. God was interrupted by the Sabbath
in the midst of creating fauns and satyrs, after He had made man, and
was obliged to postpone their completion till the Sunday, consequently
these creatures are misshapen. A Talmudic account of the way in which
were spent the hours of the day in which Adam was made, is sufficiently
curious.
At the first hour, God gathered the dust of the earth; in the second, He
formed the embryo; in the third, the limbs were extended; in the fourth,
the soul was given; at the fifth hour Adam stood upright; at the sixth,
Adam named the animals. Having done this, God asked him, “And I, what is
my name?”
Adam replied—“Jehovah.”
At the seventh hour, Adam married Eve; at the eighth, Cain and his
sister were born; at the ninth, they were forbidden to eat of the tree;
at the tenth hour Adam fell; at the eleventh he was banished from Eden;
and at the twelfth, he felt the sweat and pain of toil.[26]
In the Apocryphal Little Genesis, we are told that Adam did not disobey
God till the expiration of the seventh year, and that he was not
punished till forty-five days after. It adds, that before the Fall, Adam
conversed familiarly with the animals, but that by the Fall they lost
the faculty of speech.
God, say the Rabbis, made Adam so tall that his head touched the sky;
and the tree of life, planted in the midst of the garden of Eden, was so
broad at the base that it would take a good walker five years to march
round it, and Adam’s proportions accorded with those of the tree. The
angels murmured, and told God that there were two sovereigns, one in
heaven and one on earth. Thereupon God placed His hand on the head of
Adam and reduced him to a thousand cubits.[27]
To the question, How big was Adam? the Talmud replies, He was made so
tall that he stood with his head in heaven, till God pressed him down at
the Fall. Rabbi Jehuda says, that as he lay stretched on the earth he
covered it completely;[28] but the book Sepher Gilgulim says (fol. 20,
col. 4), that when he was made, his head and throat were in Paradise,
and his body in the earth. To judge how long he was, says the same book,
understand that his body stretched from one end of the earth to the
other, and it takes a man five hundred years to walk that distance.[29]
And when Adam was created, all the beasts of earth fell down before him
and desired to worship him, but he said to them, “You have come to
worship me, but come and let us clothe ourselves with power and glory,
and let us take Him to be king over us who has created us; for a people
chooses a king, but the king does not appoint himself monarch
arbitrarily.” Therefore Adam chose God to be king of all the world, and
the beasts, fowls, and fishes gladly consented thereto.[30] But the sun,
seeing Adam, was filled with fear and became dark; and the angels quaked
and were dismayed, and prayed to God to remove from them this mighty
being whom He had made. Then God cast a deep sleep on Adam, and the sun
and the angels looked on him lying helpless in his slumber, and they
plucked up courage and feared him no more. The book Sepher Chasidim,
however, says, that the angels seeing Adam so great and with his face
shining above the brightness of the sun, bowed before him, and said,
“Holy, holy, holy!” Whereupon God cast a sleep upon him and cut off
great pieces of his flesh to reduce him to smaller proportions. And when
Adam woke he saw bits of flesh strewed all round him, like shavings in a
carpenter’s shop, and he exclaimed “O God! how hast Thou robbed me?” but
God answered, “Take these gobbets of flesh and carry them into all lands
and drop them everywhere, and strew dust on them; and wherever they are
laid, that land will I give to thy posterity to inherit.”[31]
Many are the origins attributed to man in the various creeds of ancient
and modern heathendom. Sometimes he is spoken of as having been made out
of water, but more generally it is of earth that he has been made, or
from which he has been spontaneously born. The Peruvians believed that
the world was peopled by four men and four women, brothers and sisters,
who emerged from the caves near Cuzco. Among the North American Indians
the earth is regarded as the universal mother. Men came into existence
in her womb, and crept out of it by climbing up the roots of the trees
which hung from the vault in which they were conceived and matured; or,
mounting a deer, the animal brought them into daylight; or, groping in
darkness, they tore their way out with their nails.[32]
The Egyptian philosophers pretended that man was made of the mud of the
Nile.[33] In Aristophanes,[34] man is spoken of as πλάσματα πηλοῦ. Among
some of the Chinese it is believed that man was thus formed:—“The book
Fong-zen-tong says: When the earth and heaven were made, there was not
as yet man or peoples. Then Niu-hoa moulded yellow earth, and of that
made man. That is the true origin of men.”[35]
And the ancient Chaldeans supposed man was made by the mixing of the
blood of Belus with the soil.[36]
2. THE PRE-ADAMITES.
In 1655, Isaac de la Peyreira, a converted Jew, published a curious
treatise on the Pre-Adamites. Arguing upon Romans v. 12-14, he contended
that there were two creations of man; that recorded in the first chapter
of Genesis and that described in the second chapter being distinct. The
first race he supposed to have peopled the whole world, but that it was
bad, and therefore Adam had been created with a spiritual soul, and that
from Adam the Jewish race was descended, whereas the Gentile nations
issued from the loins of the Pre-Adamites. Consequently the original sin
of Adam weighed only on his descendants, and Peyreira supposed that it
was his race alone which perished, with the exception of Noah and his
family, in the Deluge, which Peyreira contends was partial. This book
was condemned and burnt in Paris by the hands of the executioner, and
the author, who had taken refuge in Brussels, was there condemned by the
ecclesiastical authorities. He appealed to Rome, whither he journeyed,
and he was received with favour by Alexander VII., before whom he
abjured Calvinism, which he had professed.
He died at the age of 82, at Aubervilliers, near Paris, and Moreri wrote
the following epigrammatic epitaph for him:—
“La Peyrère ici gît, ce bon Israélite,
Huguenot, catholique, enfin pré-Adamite.
Quatre religions lui plurent à la fois;
Et son indifférence était si peu commune,
Qu’après quatre-vingts ans qu’il eut à faire un choix,
Le bon homme partit et n’en choisit aucune.”
The Oriental book Huschenk-Nameh gives a fuller history of the
Pre-Adamites. Before Adam was created, says this book, there were in the
isle Muscham, one of the Maldives, men with flat heads, and for this
reason they were called by the Persians, Nim-ser. They were governed by
a king named Dambac.
When Adam, expelled the earthly Paradise, established himself in the
Isle of Ceylon, the flat-heads submitted to him. After his death they
guarded his tomb by day, and the lions relieved guard by night, to
protect his body against the Divs.
Footnote 19:
Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner. Frankfort, 1845, pp. 12-16.
Footnote 20:
Geiger, Was hat Mohammed aus d. Judenthum aufgenommen? p. 99.
Footnote 21:
So also Abulfeda, Hist. Ante-Islamica, ed. Fleischer. Lipsiæ, 1831, p.
13.
Footnote 22:
Tabari, i. c. xxvi.
Footnote 23:
Collin de Plancy, p. 55.
Footnote 24:
Eisenmenger, Neuentdecktes Judenthum. Königsberg, 1711, i. pp. 364-5.
Footnote 25:
Bochart, Hierozoica, p. 2, l. 8, fol. 486.
Footnote 26:
Tract Sanhedrim, f. 38.
Footnote 27:
Jalkut Schimoni, f. 6.
Footnote 28:
Tract Hagida, f. 12.
Footnote 29:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 367.
Footnote 30:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 368.
Footnote 31:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 369.
Footnote 32:
Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen; Basle, 1855. Atherne Jones, North
American Traditions, i. p. 210, &c. Heckewelder’s Indian Nations, &c.
Footnote 33:
Fourmont, Anciens Peuples, i. lib. ii. p. 10.
Footnote 34:
Aves, 666.
Footnote 35:
Mémoires des Chinois, i. p. 105.
Footnote 36:
Berosus, in Cory’s Ancient Fragments, p. 26.
III.
EVE.[37]
That man was created double, _i.e._ both male and female, is and has
been a common opinion. One Rabbinical interpretation of the text, “And
God created man in His own image, male-female created He them,” is that
Adam and Eve were formed back to back, united at the shoulders, and were
hewn asunder with a hatchet; but of this more presently. The Rabbis say
that when Eve had to be drawn out of the side of Adam she was not
extracted by the head, lest she should be vain; nor by the eyes, lest
they should be wanton; nor by the mouth, lest she should be given to
gossiping; nor by the ears, lest she should be an eavesdropper; nor by
the hands, lest she should be meddlesome; nor by the feet, lest she
should be a gadabout; nor by the heart, lest she should be jealous; but
she was drawn forth by the side: yet, notwithstanding all these
precautions, she has every fault specially guarded against.[38]
They also say that, for the marriage-feast of Adam and Eve, God made a
table of precious stone, and each gem was a hundred ells long and sixty
ells wide, and the table was covered with costly dishes.[39]
The Mussulman tradition is, that Adam having eaten the bunch of grapes
given him as a reward for having preached to the angels, fell asleep;
and whilst he slept, God took from his left side a woman whom He called
Hava, because she was extracted from one living (Hai), and He laid her
beside Adam. She resembled him exactly, except that her features were
more delicate, her hair longer and divided into seven hundred locks, her
form more slender, her eyes softer, and her voice sweeter than Adam’s.
In the meantime Adam had been dreaming that a wife had been given to
him; and when he woke, great was his delight to find his dream turned
into a reality. He put forth his hand to take that of Hava, but she
withdrew hers, answering his words of love with, “God is my master, and
I cannot give my hand to thee without His permission; and, moreover, it
is not proper for a man to take a wife without making her a wedding
present.”
Adam thereupon sent the angel Gabriel to ask God’s permission to take to
him Hava as his wife. Gabriel returned with the answer that she had been
created to be his helpmate, and that he was to treat her with gentleness
and love. For a present he must pray twenty times for Mohammed and for
the prophets, who, in due season, were to be born of him. Ridhwan, the
porter of Paradise, then brought to Adam the winged horse Meimun, and to
Eve a light-footed she-camel. Gabriel helped them to mount and led them
into Paradise, where they were greeted by all the angels and beasts with
the words: “Hail, father and mother of Mohammed!”
In the midst of Paradise was a green silk tent spread for them,
supported on gold pillars, and in the tent was a throne upon which Adam
and Hava were seated. Then they were bathed in one of the rivers of
Paradise and brought before the presence of God, who bade them dwell in
Paradise. “I have prepared you this garden for your home; in it you
shall be protected from cold and heat, from hunger and thirst. Enjoy all
that meets your eye, only of one fruit taste not. Beware how you break
my command, and arm yourself against the subtlety of your foe, Eblis; he
envies you, and stands by you seeking to destroy you, for through you
was he cast out.”[40]
Tabari says that Adam was brought single into Paradise, through which he
roamed eating from the fruit trees, and a deep sleep fell upon him,
during which Eve was created from his left side. And when Adam opened
his eyes, he saw her, and asked her who she was, and she replied, “I am
thy wife; God created me out of thee and for thee, that thy heart might
find repose.” The angels said to Adam: “What thing is this? What is her
name? Why is she made?” Adam replied, “This is Eve.” Adam remained five
hundred years in Paradise. It was on a Friday that Adam entered
Eden.[41]
The inhabitants of Madagascar have a strange myth touching the origin of
woman. They say that the first man was created of the dust of the earth,
and was placed in a garden, where he was subject to none of the ills
which now affect mortality; he was also free from all bodily appetites,
and though surrounded by delicious fruit and limpid streams, yet felt no
desire to taste of the fruit or to quaff the water. The Creator had,
moreover, strictly forbidden him either to eat or to drink. The great
enemy, however, came to him, and painted to him in glowing colours the
sweetness of the apple, the lusciousness of the date, and the succulence
of the orange.
In vain: the first man remembered the command laid upon him by his
Maker. Then the fiend assumed the appearance of an effulgent spirit, and
pretended to be a messenger from Heaven commanding him to eat and drink.
The man at once obeyed. Shortly after, a pimple appeared on his leg; the
spot enlarged to a tumour, which increased in size and caused him
considerable annoyance. At the end of six months it burst, and there
emerged from the limb a beautiful girl.
The father of all living was sorely perplexed what to make of his
acquisition, when a messenger from heaven appeared, and told him to let
her run about the garden till she was of a marriageable age, and then to
take her to himself as his wife. He obeyed. He called her Bahouna, and
she became the mother of all races of men.
The notion of the first man having been of both sexes till the
separation, was very common. He was said to have been male on the right
side and female on the left, and that one half of him was removed to
constitute Eve, but that the complete man consists of both sexes.
Eugubinus among Christian commentators, the Rabbis Samuel, Manasseh
Ben-Israel, and Maimonides among the Jews, have given the weight of
their opinion to support this interpretation. The Rabbi Jeremiah
Ben-Eleazer, on the authority of the text “_Thou hast fashioned me
behind and before_” (Ps. cxxxix. 4), argued that Adam had two faces, one
male and the other female, and that he was of both sexes.[42]
The Rabbi Samuel Ben-Nahaman held that the first man was created double,
with a woman at his back, and that God cut them apart.[43] “Adam,” said
other Rabbis, “had two faces and one tail, and from the beginning he was
both male and female, male on one side, female on the other; but
afterwards the parts were separated.”[44]
The Talmudists assert that God cut off Adam’s tail and thereof formed
Eve.[45]
With this latter fable agrees the ludicrous myth of the Kikapoo Indians,
related in my “Curiosities of Olden Times.”
In Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium of Plato, a myth is given, that
in the beginning there was a race of men of which every member was
double, having two heads, four legs and four arms, and each of both
sexes. This race, says he, was filled with pride, and it attempted to
scale heaven. The Gods desired at once to reduce their might and punish
their temerity, but did not wish to destroy the human race; consequently
at the advice of Zeus, each androgyne was hewn asunder, so as to leave
to each half two arms and a pair of legs, one head and a single sex.
An Indian tradition is to this effect. Whilst Brahma the creator was
engaged in the production of beings, he saw Kaya (body) divide itself
into two parts, of which each part was of a different sex, and thence
sprang the whole human race.[46]
According to another much more explicit version, Viradi, the first man,
finding his solitude intolerable, fell into the deepest sorrow; and,
yearning for a companion, his nature developed into two sexes united in
one. Then he separated into two individuals, but found in that
separation unhappiness, for he was conscious of his imperfection; then
he reunited the existence of the two portions and was happy, and from
that reunion the world was peopled.[47]
In Persia, Meschia and Meschiane, the first man and the first woman,
were said to have formed originally but one body; but they were cut
apart, and from this voluntary reunion all men are sprung.[48]
The idea so prevalent that man without woman, or woman without man, is
an imperfect being, was the cause of the great repugnance with which the
Jews and other nations of the East regarded celibacy. The Rabbi Eliezer,
commenting on the text “He called their name Adam” (Gen. v. 2.), laid
down that he who has not a wife is not a man, for man is the
recomposition of male and female into one.[49]
Bramah, says an Indian legend, being charged with the production of the
human race, felt himself a prey to violent pains, till his sides opened,
and from one flank emerged a boy and from the other a girl. In China,
the story is told that the Goddess Amida sweated male children out of
her right arm-pit, and female children from her left arm-pit, and these
children peopled the earth.[50]
Vishnu, according to an Indian fable, gave birth to Dharma by his right
side, and to Adharma by his left side, and through Adharma death entered
the world.[51] Another story is to the effect, that the right arm of
Vena gave birth to Pritu, the master of the earth, and the left arm to
the Virgin Archis, who became the bride of Pritu.[52]
Pygmalion, says the classic story, which is really a Phœnician myth of
creation, made woman of marble or ivory, and Aphrodite, in answer to his
prayers, endowed the statue with life. “Often does Pygmalion apply his
hands to the work. One while he addresses it in soft terms, at another
he brings it presents that are agreeable to maidens, as shells and
smooth pebbles, and little birds, and flowers of a thousand hues, and
lilies, and painted balls, and tears of the Heliades, that have
distilled from the trees. He decks her limbs, too, with clothing, and
puts a long necklace on her neck. Smooth pendants hang from her ears,
and bows from her breast. All things are becoming to her.”[53]