Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/91

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Cain and Abel

73

takes creep into our copy, which can be corrected only by careful and

minute comparison with the original. In ancient Israel similar condiIn copying manuscripts scribes were only too liable to tions obtained. err. Nor did they always exercise sufficient care in copying and correcting. Mistakes once made, were necessarily perpetuated in In consequence more or copies made from the defective manuscript. less numerous mistakes exist in the Hebrew text of all the books of the Bible. Those books, which for one reason or another were regarded

as

quently and

least

sacred,

and

were

with least care, as

for

copied

accordingly

least

fre-

example the Books of Samuel

and Ezekiel, contain the most mistakes, or, as it is generally stated, Hebrew text is most corrupt. On the other hand, the books which were considered most sacred, the Torah for example, were not only copied most frequently, but also with the most scrupulous care in consequence they were subject to the least liability of error and to the greatest possibility of correcting errors by comparison with Therefore, while here and there some mistakes other manuscripts. do occur in their text, they are nevertheless the least corrupt of all Not infrequently the nature of the mistake the books of the Bible. can be readily discerned from the context or in other ways, and it their

Quite often, too, with the help of parallel passages

can be corrected. in

the Bible, or by retranslating the very oldest translations of the

Hebrew, the original text can be recovered. OccaAnd however, all these established, scientiitic methods fail. while, for one reason or another, ungrammatical Hebrew for example, or lack of proper context, we can not fail to recognize that the Hebrew text is corrupt, we are totally unable to amend the text, or even to guess with any degree of certainty what the original This explanation will apply reading and meaning may have been. to a small number of such hopelessly corrupt and untranslatable pasV. 7 is such a passages, with which we shall be compelled to deal. Bible back into

sionally,

sage.

V.

9.

indicates

V.

10.

revenge.

Notice the

the

cleverness

true artist's

of

both

question

At the bottom of

this

verse

lies

has been killed,

is

member of one family some member of the family, clan, life.

answer.

It

the conception of blood

In the desert the law of blood revenge

principle of social

and

hand.

If a

the fundamental

or clan or tribe

or tribe of the

Otherwise, it was thought, murderer must be killed in his stead. if no blood were shed or no vengeance taken, the soul of the murdered person could not rest, but must torment the surviving rela-' This is the tives until the proper blood revenge was exacted.