they failed to satisfy Him. All were inhabited by man, a thousand generations of whom He cut off, leaving no record of them. 45
(
b
) After these first essays in creation, God was left alone with His great Name, and recognized at last that no world would satisfy Him unless it offered man a means of repentance. Hence, before making a new start, He created seven things: the Law, Gehenna, the Garden of Eden, the Divine Throne, the Celestial Pavilion, the Messiah’s Name, and Repentance. 46
(
c
) When two Divine Days—namely two thousand terrestrial years—had passed, God asked the Law, who had become His counsellor: ‘What if I should create yet another world?’ ‘Lord of the Universe,’ she asked in return, ‘if a king has neither army nor camp, over what does he rule? And if there is no one to praise him, what honour has he?’ God listened and approved. 47
(
d
) Yet some say that the Law pleaded against God’s creation of mankind with: ‘Do not leave me at the mercy of sinners who drink evil like water!’ God answered: ‘I created Repentance as a remedy for such; the Divine Throne as my Seat of Judgement; the Pavilion, to witness sacrifices of atonement; the Garden of Eden, to reward the righteous; Gehenna, to punish the unrepentant; yourself, to occupy the minds of men; and the Messiah, to gather in the exiles.’ 48
***
1.
It is not known whether the discovery of fossils far older than the four thousand years which had elapsed since Adam’s day troubled the rabbis. If so, their account of previous experimental creations was more plausible than the theory held by such Victorian zoologists as Philip Gosse: God, he said, had inserted fossils in the rocks to try the Christian’s faith.
2.
It became an article of belief that the Law was eternal (cf.
Matthew
V. 18), and had existed before Creation. Hebrew myth, a charter confirming successive historical changes in religion, becomes allegorical at this late stage and defines the doctrine of individual salvation (see 61. 5).
3.
Gehenna was the Jewish Hell. Its name is borrowed from the Valley of Hinnom at Jerusalem, which included Tophet (2
Kings
XXIII. 10): a site originally used for human sacrifices to the God Moloch (2
Chronicles
XXXIII. 8), afterwards for burning the city’s rubbish.
4
. The equivalence of one divine day with a thousand terrestrial years is derived from
Psalm
XC. 4: ‘A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday.’
6
THE PRIMEVAL MONSTERS DESCRIBED
(
a
) In the days before Creation, Rahab, Prince of the Sea, rebelled against God. When commanded: ‘Open your mouth, Prince of the Sea, and swallow all the world’s waters,’ he cried: ‘Lord of the Universe, leave me in peace!’ Whereupon God kicked him to death and sank his carcase below the waves, since no land-beast could endure its stench. 49
(
b
) Others hold that God spared Rahab’s life, and that afterwards, when envious angels stole and threw into the sea ‘The Book of Raziel’, a compendium of divine wisdom which God had given Adam, He ordered Rahab to dive down and recover it. The Prince of the Sea obeyed without demur, yet later comforted God’s enemies by supporting the Egyptians in their quarrel with the Children of Israel, and pleading for Pharaoh’s army which God was about to drown in the Red Sea. ‘Spare the Egyptians’, he cried, ‘be content with the rescue of Israeli’ But God, lifting His hand, destroyed Rahab and all his helpers. Some style Rahab ‘the Celestial Prince of Egypt’. Others do not distinguish him either from Leviathan or Oceanus; or from the boastful Great Dragon who claimed to have created all seas and rivers, but whom God hauled ashore in a net, with his progeny, afterwards shattering their skulls and piercing their sides. When they still would not die, He set guardians to watch over the Great Dragon, who will finally be despatched on the Day of Reckoning. 50
(
c
) Leviathan’s monstrous tusks spread terror, from his mouth
(
b
) After these first essays in creation, God was left alone with His great Name, and recognized at last that no world would satisfy Him unless it offered man a means of repentance. Hence, before making a new start, He created seven things: the Law, Gehenna, the Garden of Eden, the Divine Throne, the Celestial Pavilion, the Messiah’s Name, and Repentance. 46
(
c
) When two Divine Days—namely two thousand terrestrial years—had passed, God asked the Law, who had become His counsellor: ‘What if I should create yet another world?’ ‘Lord of the Universe,’ she asked in return, ‘if a king has neither army nor camp, over what does he rule? And if there is no one to praise him, what honour has he?’ God listened and approved. 47
(
d
) Yet some say that the Law pleaded against God’s creation of mankind with: ‘Do not leave me at the mercy of sinners who drink evil like water!’ God answered: ‘I created Repentance as a remedy for such; the Divine Throne as my Seat of Judgement; the Pavilion, to witness sacrifices of atonement; the Garden of Eden, to reward the righteous; Gehenna, to punish the unrepentant; yourself, to occupy the minds of men; and the Messiah, to gather in the exiles.’ 48
***
1.
It is not known whether the discovery of fossils far older than the four thousand years which had elapsed since Adam’s day troubled the rabbis. If so, their account of previous experimental creations was more plausible than the theory held by such Victorian zoologists as Philip Gosse: God, he said, had inserted fossils in the rocks to try the Christian’s faith.
2.
It became an article of belief that the Law was eternal (cf.
Matthew
V. 18), and had existed before Creation. Hebrew myth, a charter confirming successive historical changes in religion, becomes allegorical at this late stage and defines the doctrine of individual salvation (see 61. 5).
3.
Gehenna was the Jewish Hell. Its name is borrowed from the Valley of Hinnom at Jerusalem, which included Tophet (2
Kings
XXIII. 10): a site originally used for human sacrifices to the God Moloch (2
Chronicles
XXXIII. 8), afterwards for burning the city’s rubbish.
4
. The equivalence of one divine day with a thousand terrestrial years is derived from
Psalm
XC. 4: ‘A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday.’
6
THE PRIMEVAL MONSTERS DESCRIBED
(
a
) In the days before Creation, Rahab, Prince of the Sea, rebelled against God. When commanded: ‘Open your mouth, Prince of the Sea, and swallow all the world’s waters,’ he cried: ‘Lord of the Universe, leave me in peace!’ Whereupon God kicked him to death and sank his carcase below the waves, since no land-beast could endure its stench. 49
(
b
) Others hold that God spared Rahab’s life, and that afterwards, when envious angels stole and threw into the sea ‘The Book of Raziel’, a compendium of divine wisdom which God had given Adam, He ordered Rahab to dive down and recover it. The Prince of the Sea obeyed without demur, yet later comforted God’s enemies by supporting the Egyptians in their quarrel with the Children of Israel, and pleading for Pharaoh’s army which God was about to drown in the Red Sea. ‘Spare the Egyptians’, he cried, ‘be content with the rescue of Israeli’ But God, lifting His hand, destroyed Rahab and all his helpers. Some style Rahab ‘the Celestial Prince of Egypt’. Others do not distinguish him either from Leviathan or Oceanus; or from the boastful Great Dragon who claimed to have created all seas and rivers, but whom God hauled ashore in a net, with his progeny, afterwards shattering their skulls and piercing their sides. When they still would not die, He set guardians to watch over the Great Dragon, who will finally be despatched on the Day of Reckoning. 50
(
c
) Leviathan’s monstrous tusks spread terror, from his mouth
Similar Books
