Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/43

 The Book of Genesis

25

with the single act of creation, but it goes on day by day, manifest in the wonders of nature and in the still more

wonderful evolution of human history.

God

has

teaches,

Lovingly and wisely endowed man with free-will, as the story of Eden and it rests with man to choose between good and

But even if man does choose wrongly, and evil results from his sinful misuse of God's gifts, this is not the end. For somehow, in ways which the little mind of man can not comprehend, but the indubitable effects and proofs of which he can see in all history, even though man may mean evil, God means it nevertheless for good and in His own time out of all man's evil God somehow brings greater good for all mankind. God has called Israel and revealed to it His law and sent it forth to bring this law unto all the world. But Israel does not work alone, unsupported by God who sent it. God, too, works in His own way, and His providence watches over men and nations. And if Israel but holds fast to its faith in God and in its mission, and labors truly and evil.



one man in (XLII, 13), though danger threaten and the future seem black, it need not fear. God is still with it, and the goal of its labors will surely be attained. loyally as one people, as "brethren, the sons of

the land of Canaan"

Such, in brief,

is

the complete thought of the

Book

of

Genesis.

The Authors of Genesis

The preceding

made it clear that the stories down accidentally nor merely

discussion has

of Genesis were not written

for the sake of the narratives they recount.

Their writers

mass of and couched them in their present form for a definite purpose. Nor was their aim to present the actual facts of history. They must selected

ancient

these

stories

Israelite

have realized that

deliberately

myth, legend,

out

and

in the literal sense

of

a

great

tradition,

much

of their material.