Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/158

 The Book of Genesis

140

good and happiness and love shall obtain, when all men shall truly walk with God, and, in the prophet's inspired words, The earth shall be full As the waters cover the

of the knowledge of the Lord,

(Isaiah XI, 9.)

sea.

NOTES The question is frequently asked whether this story of the deof Sodom and Gomorrah is literally true. ]Many devout

struction

and enthusiastic travellers have laboriously sounded the waters of the Dead Sea for some trace of the lost cities. But all in vain. The reason is obvious. A Httle mature consideration must show that this is not history but mythology. Just as with the creation and flood stories,

their

our ancestors laid hold of an

own

use,

and made

it

the

mental principle of Judaism, of God's for mercy and

for

myth,

adapted

expressing the

it

to

funda-

tempered by His desire adds greatly to the value

justice,

Certainly

forgiveness.

ancient

vehicle

of the story to understand and interpret

it

it

in this light.

However, inasmuch as the topography of the country east of the Dead Sea, and probably also the deep depression of the Dead Sea itself, is due to very remote volcanic activity and other geological disturbances, it may well be that the ancient myth was based upon a dim reminiscence of this fact. Chapter

XVHI,

The confusion

22.

to be

noted here, as well as

between God speaking as if alone and the three angels in human form, and the frequent, and otherwise inexplicable, change from singular to plural, are due to

in

the

earlier

verses

of

the fact that the story in

some

this

its

chapter,

present literary form

the result of

is

two ancient versions of this myth. One version told that God alone visited Abraham, while the o^her told of the visit of three angels. Otherwise the two versions seem to have been practically identical. Chapter XIX, 1. Lot was sitting at the gate of the city, through which, of course, all Iravellers had to enter. The rabbis inferred from this that Lot practiced hospitality in the same manner as Abraham. The gate of the city was and is still the common meetingplace in Oriental towns and cities and there very much of the public business is transacted; cf. XXTTT. 10: XXXTV. 20: I Samuel IV, 8; II Samuel XV. 2; Psalm LXIX, 13; Proverbs I, 21; Job XXTX, 7.

the combination by

skillful

editor of

V. 3. By "the broad place" the public square of meant. The gate of the city generally opened upon

the

city

is

this,

just

as