Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/101

 The Flood

83

be presented completely in one lesson; otherwise it will fail of its In the succeeding lesson or lessons the teacher can return purpose. to

the

detail,

story with proht, and amplify and reinterpret and with more direct and wider application.

it

in

.i^reater

NOTES V.

This chapter records the tradition that ten generations elapsed This tradition, too, was borrow-ed from to the flood.

from creation

Babylonian myth, which told of ten successive kings, men, who reigned in unbroken succession from creation to The tenth and last of these kings was the hero of the the flood. Babylonian flood story, just as Xoah, the tenth in the Bililical list, was the hero of the Biblical flood story. The names of several of these mythical Babylonian kings seem to be identical with some of the names in the Biblical list; this is additional proof of the relaThe Babylonian myth, furthertionship of these two traditions.

an

ancient

the

brst

more, represents these kings as ruling for inordinately long periods, as the Biblical tradition ascribes exceeding length of days to

just

For further consideration of each of these pre-diluvian patriarchs. The names of these legendary ages. cf. note to VI, 3 and VII, 6. the majority of these patriarchs here are practically identical with Undoul)tedly these two passages record given in IV, 17-23. varying versions of one and the same tradition, at one time current

those

in

ancient Israel.

Vv. 21-23 contain a fragment of an ancient Israelite myth, of which Enoch was the hero. The three hundred and sixty-fi;ve years of his life suggest the three hundred and sixty-live days of a solar In all likelihood Enoch was a solar hero, and the Enoch year. story was a solar myth, similar in many respects to the solar myths Later Jewish tradition speculated quite of other ancient peoples. freely al^out this figure of Enoch and his translation to heaven. Eventually it made Enoch the hero of one of the earliest, best known and most important Jewish apocalyptic works, the Book of Enoch This book represents Enoch (cf. Jeimsh Encyclopedia V, fi.). as being taught by the angels, after he had been carried to heaven, all the mysteries of heaven and earth, of time and eternity. VI, 1-4. These verses, in their present form and position, are Actually intended to depict the increasing depravity of mankind. they constitute the remains of an ancient myth, which must have been This myth must have told current in Israel, at a very early period. of marriages of the sons of the gods with human maidens, and of