Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/274

 is a difficult question, on which see p. 173 below.—12-17. The sign of the covenant. "In times when contracts were not reduced to writing, it was customary, on the occasion of solemn vows, promises, and other 'covenant' transactions, to appoint a sign, that the parties might at the proper time be reminded of the covenant, and a breach of its observance be averted. Exx. in common life: Gn. 21$30$, cf. 38$17f.$" (Gu.). Here the sign is a natural phenomenon—the rainbow; and the question is naturally asked whether the rainbow is conceived as not having existed before (so IEz. Tu.). That is the most obvious assumption, though not perhaps inevitable. That the laws of the refraction and reflection of light on which the rainbow depends actually existed before the time of Noah is a matter of which the writer may very well have been ignorant.—For the rest, the image hardly appears here in its original form. The brilliant spectacle of the upturned bow against the dark background of the retreating storm naturally appeals to man as a token of peace and good-will from the god who has placed it there; but of this thought the passage contains no trace: the bow is set in the cloud by God to remind Himself of the promise He has given. It would seem as if P, while retaining the anthropomorphism of the primitive conception, has sacrificed its primary significance to his abstract theory of the covenant with its accompanying sign. On the mythological origin of the symbol, see below.—14-16. Explanation of the sign.—$14b$ continues $14a$: and (when) the bow appears in the cloud; the apodosis commencing with $15$ (against De.).—The bow seems conceived as lodged once for all in the cloud (so IEz.), to appear at

G adds .—] [E] ; so v.$15$.—12. ] G. + (with S) .—13. ] hardly historic pf. ('I have set'), but either pf. of instant action ('I do set'), or pf. of certainty ('I will set'); see G-K. § 106 i, m, n.—14. ] lit. 'when I cloud with cloud'; see G-K. §§ 52 d and 117 r.—] GV ; so G in v.$16$.—15. ] [E]S (cf. v.$12$).