Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/80

62 V. 20. The name Eve (chavvah) is here represented as being etymologically akin to the word chay, "a living being".

V. 21. Skins of animals are here said to have been the first regular human garments. The fig leaf girdle of V. 7 was, of course, only a temporary covering of nakedness.

V. 22. This verse not only implies that eternal life was thought to be an attribute of the gods, but, as the language clearly indicates, it also pictures the ancient belief in the existence of more than one god. Cf. note to I, 26. We need no longer feel shocked at the thought that our ancestors passed through the polytheistic stage of religious belief before they finally arrived at the idea of monotheism, and that a few vestiges of the ancient belief still survive in the oldest passages of the Bible.

V. 24. Eden apparently is here located at the extreme western end of the earth, since the only entrance is from the east. In II, 8 it is located in the extreme east.

The cherubim are usually conceived of as a class of angels or subordinate divine beings, represented generally with a human face and head, the body of one kind of animal, the legs and feet of another, and the wings of a bird. The conception is probably of Babylonian origin. Psalm XVIII, 11 represents God as riding upon a cherub.

It is not certain just what "the flaming sword which turned every way" was. It was probably based upon some peculiar, mythological conception.