Sethitic in ch. v. with its ten members has in view the transition from primitive history to the history of the Flood, and according to iv. 25 sq. a fundamentally different tendency prevails in this line.

TTT

TT

The same narrator who described the fall of man and the murder of Abel now continues the history of Adam and his wife, ver. 25: And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: for Elohim has appointed me another seed for Hebel, because Cain slew him. Instead of DIN, ver. 1, where the history of man after the expulsion from Paradise begins, we here read the proper name D1 iy refers to the two preceding births. Even if this my were absent, as in the LXX., would not be enough to justify the conclusion, that according to the original text Seth was the first son of man (Budde). As at 1 Sam. i. 19 the subject treated of is the blessing of children after long barrenness, so here it is the blessing of children after the parents had lost Abel, and to a certain extent Cain also. The name explanation, to mean the cannot be authenticated. ) signifies the appointer,

seems, according to this appointed, but a passive n

considered as a participle (like viz. of a new beginning, or as a substantive (like ): the settlement in the sense of foundation (comp. n, pillar), and indeed a new foundation. is followed by an oratio directa (not obliqua), as at xxxiii. 31 (comp. 1, xxvi. 7). The metheg inn is a sign of the long a, as at xxxv. 27; Job ix. 20. "Another seed" is equal to another descendant, as D1 Sam. i. 11, means a male descendant, and

by, Mal. ii. 15, a descendant according to the promise. Parents have already a posterity in one descendant,

1 "This DN as a proper name, remarks Budde, cannot proceed from the same hand which wrote the Paradisaic history and iv. 1." Mere cobwebs !

the former ; אלהים and האלהים are related to each other as אדם and האדם

means ὁ ἄνθρωπος, the latter ἄνθρωπος as a proper name. It is J who in iv. 1-16 continues the history of primitive mankind; the different colouring of iv. 17-24 is explained by assuming that he here draws from a different source, and at iv. 25 sq. recurs to the track of his own narrative.

is not always the singular comprehension of many.1 The words are no accessory remark of the narrator, but is, as at 2 Sam. xix. 22, Zeph. ii. 10, in virtue of the preceding nn, equal tonn, Deut. iv. 37; Prov. i. 29. Budde's degradation of " to a patched-on historical remark is even syntactically refuted. The reason for Seth's mother here calling God be is found by Dillmann to be, that he who meant to bring in 266 could not well put m' into the mouth of Eve. But why not? Dillmann himself understands 266 of the solemn worship of Jahveh, which presupposed that men who joined together for such a purpose already knew Him. Hence it would not seem strange to find the word here (comp. iv. 1). Seth, who continues the line of promise, was indeed a gift of the God of the promise. But the fact that Eve here calls God bs, shows that the idea preponderant in her consciousness was that of the creative power, which had renewed the hope that had blossomed in Abel and been destroyed by Cain: Abel had died childless, but in Seth the line of promise, from which Cain had wilfully broken off, is actually continued, ver. 26: And Seth, to him was born a son, and he called his name Enôs; then to declare the name of Jahveh was begun. On N, etiam ei, see Ges. § 121. 3. Similar perhaps is the N (even his) of Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 14. The verb 'N (related to the Arab.)

means to be, or to become weak, frail, like the Assyr. enésu (comp. ȧoléveia, sickness), whence the adj. enšu, weak. This is also undoubtedly the meaning of i, to whom as a personage of primitive history Gajômeret of the Persian myth (who became king in Firdôsi), and whose name, gaja maratan, signifies mortal life, corresponds. And whatever the deriva

1 The Midrash frequently remarks that Esther in 8 DPD (Esth. iv. 14) has in view "that seed" ( 18), viz. King Messiah (see Levy under y). St. Paul too, in Gal. iii. 16, takes his stand upon Jewish thought and diction, according to which may mean an individual, who represents the posterity of one hitherto childless.

tion of is, it designates, according to the usage of the language, man on the side of his impotence, frailty, and mortality; see Ps. viii. 5, ciii. 15; Job vii. 1, 17, especially Ps. xc. 3, where the departing generation is called was, in distinction from that which comes into its place, and Isa. li. 12, where the enemies of God and the persecutors of His Church are said, in contrast to their supposed power, greatness,

and imperishableness, to be, as at Ps. x. 18, N

1

is generally used to refer to some elevating and אָז מן הארץ

joyful occurrence. Even on this account it is improbable that should be intended as passive of Hiph., Ezek. xxxix. 7; and here is related what Jerome cites as a Jewish view (as does also in accordance with the Midrash, Targ. Jer., comp. Abulwalid's np, and Effodi's Grammatik, p. 154), quod tunc primum in nomine Domini et in similitudine ejus fabricata sint idola. But even the construction p b would in this sense be a monstrosity. The LXX. effaces the N and reads Σιπιπ πι, οὗτος ἥλπισεν, for which οὗτος ἦρξεν (ἤρξατο) b, would alone be linguistically possible. Aq. correctly gives τότε ἤρχθη, and Gr. Ven. τότε ἦρκται. It was then begun to call with or by means of the name of Jahveh, i.e. (the obj. being conceived of as the means, Ges. § 138, marginal

=

1 While, with its plural, points back to the verb is, to be strong, (the of which has, according to the Aram. A, Arab.

ül, the value of Л,

εἰς σκεῦος ἀσθενέστερον.

), from the verb WN=1, designates the woman From this same verb seem to be derived, not only vis,

but also w, with its plural D (D as plur. of the wife is

أنس

(DV)

different),, Assyr. nišu, plur. niše (male beings) and the like.

The

verb, to cling to, to be sociable, also offers itself for the ins used of the male relation and of male names in general, and this excites far less suspicion

of being a denominative than the Arab., soft (perhaps peculiar to the female kind); see Friedr. Delitzsch, Proleg. p. 162; comp. Zimmern, Babyl. Busspsalmen, p. 20.

remark), to call upon Him, viz. by prayer (comp. Zeph. iii. 9; Jer. x. 25; Zech. xiii. 9), and by proclaiming Him (Ps. cv. 1 ; comp. Ex. xxxiii. 19, xxxiv. 5, with xxxv. 30). We have here the first link of the chain, xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxi. 33, xxvi. 25. These continuations of the beginning here related show, that the meaning of the narrator is not, that then began the appellation of God by the name Jahveh, which gives Reuss the opportunity for making the cavilling remark: en cela l'auteur se contredit lui-même, but that then began the formal and solemn common worship of God, the proclaiming (preaching) Church, hence the Church form of confessing the God of salvation (see Köhler, Bibl. Geschichte, i. 51 sq.). Certainly there is no lack of connection between the feeling of the nothingness of the earthly expressed in the name Enosh, and the fact that it was just now that the worship of the Church had its commencement.

II.

THE TOLEDOTH OF ADAM, V.-VI. 8.

THE GENEALOGY FROM ADAM TO NOAH, CH. V.

(Parallel, 1 Chron. i. 1-4.)

אלהים יהוה

THE Toledoth of the heaven and the earth are followed by the second main division of Genesis, the Toledoth of Adam, and first by the genealogical table of the ten generations from Adam to Noah, to which this title more especially refers, the beginning of that genealogical chain running through Genesis, the final link of which is formed by the tribes of Israel. The section is Elohistic (by Q). The view and mode of representation of the history of creation, that genealogy of heaven and earth, are here continued; in one passage only, v. 29, is found a retrospective reference to the Jahveh-Elohim section, and we there have and not be. In a rapid survey and so-to-speak in ten strophes, are the first ten patriarchs of the earliest period of history brought before us; the tenth member of the series is however left incomplete, because Noah belongs as much to the post-diluvian as to the ante-diluvian world. In the roll of the Cainites, the contents of which had regard to the history of secular culture, no computation of years was given. Here they begin to form the indispensable scaffolding of the history of redemption, the continuation of which is secured through Seth the substitute of Abel. The narrator computes the years of each patriarch to the birth of the son who was to carry on the line of promise (of Seth therefore, not of Cain in the case of Adam), next those of the remainder of his life, and then adds these two-year marks together with (for which we have, vv. 23, 31, and ix. 29, 7).