Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/102

 The Book of Goicsis

84 gigantic

offspring

therefrom.

As

4

v.

implies,

these

giants

must

Of these the ancient myth have been famous for mighty deeds. The references remind forcibly of the undoubtedly told in detail. The ancient Israelite myth may well Greek myth of the Titans. have been similar to that in many respects. The ancient myth, it is But since this conclear, told of many gods and their offspring. ception was so diametrically opposed to the fundamental principles of later Jewish monotheism, the ancient myth was allowed to gradually disappear from Jewish tradition.

We

regret

its

loss,

for naturally

we

wish to know as much as possible of the beliefs, mythology and But at least we are grateful for folklore of our earliest ancestors. these few references, which enable us to vaguely reconstruct one of the myths in which our fathers must have once delighted. V. 3. Possibly there lurks in this verse some mythological idea

comparable to the Greek legend of the four ages, gold, silver, brass and iron, and the reduction in each of the span of human life. Similarly

the

Bible

tells

that

before

the

flood

the

ages

of

men

ranged from the seven hundred and seventy-seven years of Lemech From the to the nine hundred and sixty-nine of Methuselah (V). flood to Abraham the ages were reduced from the six hundred years of Shem to the one hundred and forty-eight of Nahor (XI. 10-32). Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years (XXV, 7), Ishmael one hundred and thirty-seven years (XXV, 17), Isaac, one hundred and eighty years (XXXV, 28), Jacob, one hundred and

(XLVII. 28), Joseph, one hundred and ten years Moses, one hundred and twenty years (Deuteronomy XXXIV, 7), and Joshua, one hundred and ten years (Joshua XXIV, By the time of David, according to Jewish tradition, based 29). upon Psalm XC, 10, the limit of human life had been ifixed by God forty-seven years (L,

26),

.

at

seventy,

tradition

is

The implication of the at the most eighty, years. that each reduction of the span of life A'as due to the or

increasing sinfulness of man.

Nephilim means etymologically, the fallen ones, or those Chiefly upon the basis of this etymology and cast down. this legend, the tradition of the fallen angels who were banished from heaven developed in Jewish lore, and passed thence into the This tradition beliefs and literatures of many peoples and creeds. inspired Milton's Paradise Lost in part. V.

4.

who were

V. 14. The Hebrew word tehah, generally translated ark, really means a kind of box. The same word is used for the little basket or box in which the babe Moses was placed (Exodus II, 2). The use of the word here shows how altogether deficient was our ancestors'