Page:The Deluge in Other Literatures and History.djvu/9

 5. If this is idealized history, that is, history written with a purpose, what was the purpose which the historical statement was intended to serve ? We must remember that we have here two narratives; one from the pen of the prophet, the other from the pen of the priest. Each had his particular purpose, and we must keep these distinct.

The prophetic writer has already told us (1) how man once was innocent and, in this state of innocency, on familiar terms with God and possessed of all the happiness that God could bestow on man, blessed and immortal — but he sinned, and instead of this blessing there was a curse. (2) How one brother kills another and thus crime quickly enters the world, the consequence of sin; (3) how the line of the murderer becomes worse and worse; cities, the centre of corruption and iniquity, are founded; music, sensual in its influence, and weapons of war, for all cruelty and blood-shed, are invented; polygamy is introduced, and all this is the result, the inevitable consequence, and the dire concomitant of sin; (4) how this sin, great enough in itself, is enhanced by the example of angels who left their heavenly abode and mingled with women — their off-spring giants and demons, instigators of lawlessness and crime. (5) And now the end has come. Jehovah has endured all that even a God can endure. Man has become wicked, utterly depraved. There must be a new beginning. The old race shall die; the deluge punishes the world for its sin; the deluge purifies the world of its iniquity. Could anything be more reasonable or more consistent ? What was his purpose ? Clearly and distinctly to show that for sin man must die. The story is told most pathetically. The sacred numbers 7 and 40 are used. They both represent completeness, sufficiency. Sufficient warning was given; rain sufficient came down; a sufficient delay was granted; the time is nothing; the details are nothing, save as they furnish a vivid and pathetic picture. All this is form, coloring. The essential fact, destruction and death sent by a just God for sin, this is real. And the purpose ? the same which has characterized every sentence which we have thus far studied from the prophet's pen, the same which we shall find to characterize every new