Select Paragraphs from Bush's Notes.
By G. W. A.
I AM reading through, with some attention, Prof. Bush's Notes on the Pentateuch, and finding many things which are interesting to me, I herewith make some selections for the benefit of the Review. "The original word implies 'breath,' and so denotes an animal which lives by breathing. It is chiefly applied in the Scriptures to creatures capable of sensation, and thus distinguished from inanimate matter. Though spoken of man, it does not by itself denote the intellectual or rational faculty, which enters into our ideas of the human soul." On Chap. i, 29, God's grant of food to Adam, the words, "I have given you every herb bearing seed, . . . to you it shall be for meat," he remarks: "There is no difficulty in supposing animal food not in use in the primitive times; for it can hardly be said to be so, generally speaking, in Asia, at the present day. The mass of the people have it only occasionally, and in small quantities, and many do not eat flesh-meat more than two or three times a year." Gen. ii, 2, "On the seventh day God ended his work," is interpreted as follows: "These words, literally understood, would seem to imply that the Almighty performed some part of the work of creation on the seventh day. But as we are elsewhere informed that six days only were actually thus employed, it would, perhaps, be equally proper to render the original 'had ended,' instead of 'ended,' as is done by many commentators." On the ordinal word "seventh" he remarks: "The original word for 'seventh,' comes from a root, signifying to be full, complete, entirely made up. 'Seven,' therefore, is often called a perfect number, being used for many, or for a full number, however large." Chap. ii, 3, "God blessed the seventh day," has the following note: "A peculiar eminence and distinction are here clearly attributed to the seventh day above the other six, for upon it alone was bestowed the express benediction of the Deity. As it cannot be conceived how any particular day can be said to be 'blessed,' otherwise than by being made the appointed time for the communication of some benefit or happiness to intelligent creatures, when God blessed the seventh day, he must have pronounced it to be the time for conferring his choicest blessings on man. He blessed it, therefore, by connecting inestimable blessings with the proper observance of it. He consecrated it as a day of holy rest and worship; as a season set apart for the devout contemplation of the Creator's works, and the divine perfections manifested in them, and whoever honors the day with a corresponding observance will not fail to experience the peculiar blessings of Heaven in consequence." Gen. ii, 7, the history of man's creation, on the phrase, "Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," we find: "Heb. Nishmath chayim, (breath of lives); intimating, as some have supposed, that man possesses the vegetative life of plants, the sensitive life of animals, and that higher rational life which distinguishes humanity. Still it is not certain that this is the import of the plural in this word, nor is it possible to say with confidence what is. As to the action here attributed to the Creator, we are not to suppose that any such process was actually performed by him as breathing into the nostrils of the inanimate clay which he had molded into human form. This is evidently spoken after the manner of men; and we are merely to understand by it a special act of omnipotence imparting the power of breathing or respiration to the animal fabric that he had formed, in consequence of which it became quickened and converted to a 'living soul,' that is, a living and sentient creature. This act is indicated by the phrase, 'breathed into his nostrils,' because the function of respiration is chiefly visible in this part of the human frame." On the phrase, "Became a living soul," Mr. Bush speaks like a candid critic, although a believer in the common view of the nature of man: "The phrase 'living soul' is in the foregoing narrative repeatedly applied to the inferior orders of animals which are not considered to be possessed of a 'soul' in the sense in which that term is applied to man. It would seem to mean the same, therefore, when spoken of man, that it does when spoken of beasts, viz., an animated being, a creature possessed of life and sensation, and capable of performing all the physical functions by which animals are distinguished, as eating, drinking, walking," &c. "Indeed it may be remarked that the Scriptures generally afford much less explicit evidence of the existence of a sentient immaterial principle in man, capable of living and acting separate from the body, than is usually supposed." His note on the organic appearance of the serpent who was the medium in Eve's deception, Gen. iii, 1, is, in our opinion, the only consistent view of the matter. Proceeding on the hypothesis that it was some creature quite different from the common serpent, he says: "We find a general belief both among the ancient Jews and the early Christians that the serpent before the fall was not only gentle and innocuous, but in form and appearance among the most beautiful of creatures. In Num. xxi, 6, it is said that 'the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.' Here the original phrase is seraphim, or burning serpents, probably from their resplendent color, in which they resembled an order of angelic beings called also seraphs, or seraphim. Isaiah also, chap. xiv, 29, speaks of a 'flying fiery serpent,' doubtless of a similar species. We know therefore of no insuperable objection to considering the serpent of Eden as a far more splendid and beautiful creature than the common reptile so denominated." On the view that the serpent was but the passive instrument of Satan's malignity, Mr. Bush quotes the apostle's statement, "And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light," and adds: "We know from Scripture of no other period in the history of this arch-apostate when the transformation here predicated of him is so likely to have taken place as that now referred to when he perhaps assumed the form of a bright, glorious, and winged serpent, of that kind which in Scripture are called seraphs or seraphim, from their luminous, burning, glowing appearance, an appearance that might very naturally have suggested the phrase 'angel of light.'" This is in beautiful harmony with Spiritual Gifts, Vol. III, pp. 39, 40, to which the reader is referred. Gen. iii, 4, in the serpent's colloquy with Eve, on the phrase, "Ye shall not surely die," Mr. Bush gives the following worthy note: "Heb., 'Ye shall not dying die.' Greek, 'Ye shall not die the death.' Improving the advantage he had already gained in securing Eve's ear to his suggestions, he proceeds to question in direct terms the grounds of her fears as to the penalty threatened. 'It is not so certain as you imagine that such a direful consequence will follow. True, indeed, God has said it, but you cannot suppose he was really in earnest. He made use of this language merely as an expedient to keep you in awe, or he had some mystical meaning in the words, different from that conveyed by the simple letters. Do not then give way to such unworthy thoughts of an infinitely kind and gracious Being. Do not suppose that for so trivial an offense as eating a little fruit he will doom you to perdition, and thus suddenly destroy the most excellent work of his hands.' Thus the enemy proceeded to impugn the divine veracity, charging God with nothing short of a lie. And such is usually the method adopted by his artful emissaries. They begin by suggesting doubts, often in the form of specious interrogatories, and end in positive assertions, denying, ridiculing, or openly blaspheming the divine declarations. In allusion to the policy of Satan on this occasion, our Saviour says, John viii, 44, 'When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it.' Accordingly here, as far as we know, is his first-begotten lie. Gen. iii, 7, in commenting on the result of eating the forbidden fruit, the Professor says: "And the eyes of them both were opened. That is, the eyes of their minds. They had the mental perception of their guilt and misery. They had a sense, a discovery, of the consequences of their sin, which they never had nor could have before. A similar effect always follows the commission of known sin. A terrible light is let in on the soul to which, during the process of the temptation, it was a comparative stranger. It is in fact the experimental knowledge of the difference between good and evil." Chap. iii, 14, where the degradation of the nachash, or serpent, is predicted, his Notes remark: "Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. But another phrase for the extremest subjection and degradation. To what extent this sentence involved the doom of a change in the external form and motion of the serpent, it is not possible confidently to affirm. If the suggestions thrown out in a preceding note respecting the primitive shape and appearance of the creature here employed be well founded, there was doubtless a signal transformation made to pass upon him in consequence of the curse now inflicted. From having formerly moved by the aid of wings, or with the head and breast elevated above the ground, he was now reduced from this imposing posture, and become in the fullest sense of the term, a reptile, vile and loathsome, and incapable of eating any food but what should be more or less mingled with the dust." We will complete our selections and remarks for this time by referring to one more passage with its usual interpretation. Gen. vi, 14, God's order to Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher-wood," &c., Mr. Bush proceeds to say: "Of gopher-wood. Heb. atze gopher, probably trees or rather woods of pitch, i. e., such as the pine, fir, cypress, turpentine, cedar, and other trees of a pitchy kind adapted to the purpose of ship-building." "If any particular species of tree of this description be intended more than another, it is probably the cypress (kuprissos), as the radical consonants in the Greek and Hebrew words are the same, and as the cypress is eminently distinguished for its durability and the power of resisting the injuries incident to other kinds of wood, while its resinous properties would tend to render it impenetrable to water. Being a very compact and heavy kind of wood, and not liable to rot or become worm-eaten, it was much used in the construction of coffins among the Athenians, and of mummy-cases among the Egyptians. It is said, too, that the gates of St. Peter's church at Rome, which lasted from the time of Constantine to that of Eugene the fourth, that is to say, eleven hundred years, had in that period suffered no decay. This tree, therefore, if any, would seem to have the best title to the credit of having furnished the material for the ark, though it is highly probable that different kinds of pitchy or resinous wood would be employed in different parts of the structure." Let the reader compare the foregoing with Spiritual Gifts, Vol. III, p. 66, and note the coincidence. We shall make more extracts hereafter from the same author, on various points, as occasion may furnish.