Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

riband being put upon the fringe; and, as already observed, they were only the ends of the threads composing the woof, left in order to prevent the cloth unravelling; the blue riband, added by the Israelites, being intended. to strengthen it, and prevent its tearing. These fringed dresses are occasionally represented in the paintings, and pieces of cloth have been found with the same kind of border.'1 It would be interesting and instructive to know how long the Hebrews adhered to this law of undoubted Egyptian origin.

[ocr errors]

An Egyptian word occurs in the law of Lev. xix. 19. It is clearly a compound, of which the parts may be (shaåt), equal, and ■*, × (net) stuff. The former word may denote the equal proportions in which the two heterogeneous stuff's (D) were mixed.

[blocks in formation]

The strict prohibition, however, of the shautnez may induce one rather to look for it in the magical health-preserver, called. The causative would naturally

1

14

appear in Hebrew as , like shaphel; and the n may be expressed or understood. Hence the particular material used may have been called ૪ saat-n-uz. At

any rate the word is allowed to be Egyptian.

The fine linen, entering so profusely into the material of the priestly attire, &c. (Ex. xxv. 4; xxvi. 1, 31, 36; xxvii. 9, 16, 18; xxviii. 5, 6, 8, 15, 39; XXXV. 6, 23, 25; xxxvi. 8, 35, 37; xxxviii. 9, 16, 18; xxxix. 2, 3, 5, 8, 27, 28, 29) is called in Hebrew shesh. Fürst endea

1 ii. pp. 321, 322.

2 Chabas, L'inscription hiéroglyphique de Rosette, p. 19.

See Brugsch: Hieroglyphisch-Demotisches Wörterbuch, 3 Lief. pp. 228, 229.

vours to derive it from a Hebrew root, but not very successfully. It is the old Egyptian word, written ૪ shes on monuments of the V. dynasty.1

[ocr errors]

The hin occurring in so many laws (Ex. xxix. 40, xxx. 24; Lev. xix. 36, xxiii. 13; Num. xv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, xxviii. 5, 7, 14), as a measure of liquid capacity, has in Semitic no satisfactory etymology, but corresponds to the Egyptian hin both in name and use.2

[ocr errors]

The sacred belt prescribed for the priest (Ex. xxviii. 4, 39, 40, xxix. 9, xxxix. 29; Lev. viii. 7, 13, xvi. 4) is the called by Josephus Bavy. The word has no root in Semitic. Gesenius, accordingly, sought for it in the Persian band; and others were not averse to the Indo-germanic etymology. But Fürst, in his Lexicon, thought it might be old Egyptian: and the researches of Egyptian scholars have shown the conjecture to be correct. In their Dictionaries, both Birch and Brugsch give the word banet, meaning to bind, or gird. The aleph is on all hands admitted to be prosthetic; whether as a Semitic preformative, or an Egyptian one, must be left to future investigation.

1 Lepsius: Denkm. Ab. ii. Bl. 67. See Birch's Dictionary of Hieroglyphics in Egypt's Place, &c., vol. v. p. 571.

2 It must be confessed that the capacity of the Egyptian hin, as calculated by Mr. Chabas (Détermination Métrique de deux mesures Égyptiennes, Paris, 1867, p. 10), is very much less than that of its Hebrew namesake. But the modern may be different from the ancient hin; and, as frequently happens, there may have been a greater and a less measure of the same name. The difficulty is complicated, however, by the extremely different relation of the hin to the ephah in the two systems. The Egyptian

apt is believed to be the prototype of the Hebrew ephah: and if= be equivalent to, as supposed by Brugsch (Hierogl. demot. Wörterb. lief. 1, p. 50), then it is only one-third of the hin (Brugsch, ib. ; Chabas, ib. p. 16): whereas the Hebrew ephah contains six hins. See Weights and Measures, Smith's Dict. of the Bible, pp. 1740. 1741.

3 Ant. lib. iii. c. vii. 2.

Egypt's Place, &c., vol. v. p. 382.

[blocks in formation]

The imagery, too, of Ex. xiii. 9 is derived from the Egyptian practice of laying under the head, on the hands, eyes, ears, &c., papyric and mystic emblems inscribed with sacred characters.1

§3.-Legislation of the Pentateuch has Canaan yet only in prospect.

If the laws of the Pentateuch are so deeply tinged with the memories and usages of the country which Israel had just left, they are no less strongly characterised by their attitude towards the land where they were to be reduced to practice. For many of them look forward to the settlement in Canaan as something yet to come, and thus bear on their forehead the unequivocal mark of their Mosaic origin. Such are Ex. xii. 25-27; xiii. 1-14; xxiii. 20–33; xxxiv. 11-26; Lev. xiv. 34–57; xviii. 3-30; xix. 23-37; xx. 22-27; xxiii. 10–22; xxv. 2–55; Num. xv. 2-41; xviii. 20-24; xxxiv. 2-29; xxxv. 2–34.

§ 4.-Legislation of the Pentateuch drawn up in the lifetime of Aaron and Eleazar.

Other laws suppose Aaron and Eleazar still in life at the time they were drawn up, and are addressed to them by name, as the living representatives of the caste to which they belonged. It is the simplicity of ancient legislation, which, in making laws for a class, selects the representative individual as a type of the whole. Examples are Ex. xxviii. 1-43; xxix. 1-46; xxx. 7-10, 18-21; xxxi. 10; Lev. i.-vii. ; xiii. 2–59; xiv. 1–57; xvi. 2–34;

1 Reinisch: Aegypt. Denkmäler in Miramar, pp. 40-42; Chabas: Papyrus Mag. Harris, pp. 98, 99; Pleyte : Études Egyptologiques, Livr. i. pp. 36, 50; Livr. ii. p. 77.

[blocks in formation]

xxii. 2–33; Num. iii. 6–51; iv. 1-33; viii. 1-19; x. 2-10; xviii. 1-32; xix. 1-22.

§ 5.-Legislation of the Pentateuch grows up with the nomad life of Israel.

The legislation of the Pentateuch, besides, is so interwoven with the nomad history of the nation, that we can watch it actually unfolding itself before our eyes-in many of its regulations springing from the passing incidents of the time, and in others impressed indelibly with the marks of its historic origin. The midnight exodus is the starting-point. And that is needed as the historic explanation of the passover, of Jehovah's appropriation of the first-born, and of the feast of unleavened bread. These three things, with their historic associations, had so wrought themselves into the whole system, that they became really a sign upon the hand, and a memorial between the eyes (Ex. xiii. 9); nor could they have recalled recollections so vivid, unless they had taken their rise in the circumstances detailed in the narrative. The passover, in particular, must necessarily have originated, not only before the conquest of Canaan, but even before the desert wanderings began. For the primitive law on the subject (Ex. xii. 1-20) requires each householder to kill the lamb at his house, and to sprinkle the door-posts with its blood. But in Canaan, and even in the desert, the tabernacle was the only legal place of sacrifice, and the Aaronic priesthood the only legitimate ministers. The nomad tents, moreover, of the desert had no door-posts to be marked with the blood. We must, therefore, look to Egypt as the country, and the midnight exodus as the time, of its introduction. In necessary connection with this are the festival of unleavened bread, and Jehovah's special claim on the first-born.

As the journey proceeds, so laws originate from the accidents of the way. In the interval between the Egyptian passover and the first one celebrated in the wilderness a law had been passed (Num. v. 2), removing from the camp those who were polluted by a dead body. The consequence was that some parties in these circumstances (Num. ix. 6) were excluded from the second. passover. Here was a collision of two separate laws: one requiring all to celebrate the passover, another incapacitating some parties from keeping it. The difficulty was such that Moses needed particular instructions how to act; and thus arose the law providing for an additional passover a month after the first (Num. ix. 10-14).

The laws regulating the succession to property furnish an example of the same kind. In Num. xxvi. 52-56 it is ordained, in accordance with patriarchal usage, that the family inheritance descend by the male line. But a case immediately turns up where there happens to be no male issue. Zelophehad had left no sons, but only daughters: and what was to become of the property? How was the succession to be regulated? To meet the case Jehovah orders Moses to proclaim the law of Num. xxvii. 8–11; in virtue of which daughters, in failure of sons, are to succeed. Shortly after, a new difficulty arises. As heiresses the daughters of Zelophehad were now to have property of their own. But if they married out of their tribe, was the property to go with them? (Num. xxxvi. 1-9.) Such a condition would at once have upset the fundamental laws of inheritance. Hence, to avoid the evil, they are enjoined to marry within their own tribe; and a general law to the same effect is promulgated (vv. 8, 9).

In Ex. xxii. 28 is contained the prohibition of blasphemy. A blasphemer, in course of time, is convicted.

« AnteriorContinuar »