Satya (the Just), finds the deity Brahma in the form of a fish on the bank of the river Wirini, and carries him at his request into the Ganges, and finally into the ocean; whereupon Manu receives from Brahma the command to build a ship (naus), and to enter it with seven holy wise men and seed of all kind (víjáni sarváni, in which the animal kingdom is included): this is ordained, as the world has to be purified again by a sort of lustration, and as an inundation (pralaya) is destined shortly to overflow all things both fixed and moveable. Manu executes the command; the flood comes on, and increases until the earth. is no longer visible: but Brahma himself conducts the ship, and it lands at length on the holy central country of the Hindoos (Aryâvarta), on the highest summit of the Himalaya, which thence receives the name of Naubandhanam, or Ship's-binding [i. e. ship's mooring?]. Manu becomes the first father of mankind, and is thence frequently called 'prince of men,' Manavendra, whilst mortals are called Manujas, 'born from Manu,' and the seven wise men interfere but little with this patriarchal progenitorship. The Hindoo myth contains the same fundamental idea as the other legends; but it has sprung so fresh from the Indian soil', and is so Brahminical, (which indeed Frank2 and Rhodes have already remarked,) that the notion of any external influence may be at once rejected. We have spoken in another work of the American legends of the Peruvians, Brazilians, Mexicans, and the inhabitants of Cuba: these may have been brought over from Asia, or they may have originated in the West; and we

4

1 [See Milman's beautiful translation of the Hindoo myth of the deluge, in his poetical works, vol. iii. p. 293.]

2 Vyâsa, p. 134.

3 Ueber relig. Bildung der Hind. ii. 134.

4 Alt. Indien, i. 217.

cannot be sure whether single points of coincidence may not be attributable to the Christians who transmitted the legends. So that, if we are to proceed with complete certainty, we can only reckon on possessing a separate parallel account in the Hindoo description; for in the Chaldæan account we have perhaps only the repainting of a picture already in existence. When however both are considered in connection with the narratives derived from them, which prove how readily popular poetry had adopted and retained them, they will fully suffice to show the Biblical narrative to be a grand poem; and more modern critical exposition, or exegesis, has so far confirmed this view, that it refers the account to a local flood embellished with poetic colouring. To such colouring would belong the circumstances, that the Deity orders every detail, that the animals are collected together and preserved, that mankind bring upon themselves the anger of the Deity by deeds of violence, that the particular period of the duration of the flood amounts to a complete year1, and that the flood itself is universal. Indeed the ancients had too limited an horizon to include more than their own native land in the circle of their ideas, and the general extension of the poetical account of the deluge among different nations may have been influenced by the observation of shells on lofty mountains, which led Herodotus2 to the somewhat similar conclusion with respect to Egypt, that that country had formerly been under the

sea.

1 [See the remarks at the end of this Section.] 2 Herod. ii. 11, 12.

CHAPTER VI.

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on 2 the earth, and daughters were born unto them, then the

CHAPTER VI., verse 1.-Vater has well remarked, that the first verse in this chapter is awkwardly connected with the second

verse.

5

Verse 2.-The expression "sons of God" was used in various senses: it denoted magistrates and judges1, and it was also employed to signify pious men and worshipers of God. According to later ideas, derived from other countries, it meant heavenly beings, who appeared in the divine presence at the general council before the Deity3, and who were ranked with the stars as heavenly hosts. The older interpreters of the passage were desirous to avoid this allusion to Chaldæan polytheism, and among them Ephraem [in the fourth century], whom Jahn follows, understood the Benei ha' Elohim (sons of God) to mean pious men, or in other words the descendants of Seth, who had opposed the divine intentions by intermingling with the race of Cain. Rosenmüller also considers the word men or' Adam [in the expression "daughters of men "] to mean the descendants of Cain, regarding them as an inferior portion of the human race, "deterior humani generis pars." According to Schumann's view, the expression sons of God" referred to men who were formed after the likeness of God. Nothing of this kind however appears in the text, but the "sons of God" are merely mentioned in contrast with "the daughters of men"; and from the union of the two arises the race of giants. This doctrine [of the origin of the giants] was widely spread in the theogonies of ancient polytheistic religions; the violence of

1 Exod. xxi. 6; xxii. 8; Psalm lxxxii. 6.

2 Deut. xiv. 1; Psalm lxxiii. 15, as the sons of Chemosh, Numb. xxi. 29. 3 Job i. 6; ii. 1. 4 Job xxxviii. 7.

5 See Lengerke, De Ephra. Syr., p. 36.

sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and took to themselves wives of all who pleased them. 3 Then said Jehovah, My spirit shall not rule for long in

the giants occasions the flood in the Hebrew narrative, and, according to the Hindoos, giants stole the Vedas, which sacrilegious act was the cause of the subsequent destructive deluge. The Greek mythology represents the giants as storming heaven1, and Plato calls them δαίμονες θεῶν παῖδες, describing them as demigods begotten by gods from earthly women-hui co2. Hence the meaning of this passage may be considered as ascertained, and the most ancient interpreters are agreed on the subject: the words ayyeλo Toû Оcoû (angels of God) occur in the most authentic manuscripts of the Septuagint; Philo3, Josephus, the Fathers of the Church, and the Rabbins regard this phrase1 as referring to the fall of the angels who were driven out of heaven, -a supposition which is favoured by the fourth verse. Jonathan and the apocryphal book of Enoch (vi. 1.), to which the Epistle of Jude (verse 14) refers, even call these angels by name, and mention the works of art, mirrors, rouge, &c., which they had brought for the daughters of men.

Verse 3.-This verse would more properly follow verse 6, as in its present position it interrupts the account of the giants, and there is some difficulty in explaining it. Yadon [translated 'rule'] appears in this passage only; there can however be no doubt but that it signifies 'to judge,' 'to rule or govern,'-as Gesenius, Ewald, Maurer, and others interpret it, (Dùn being used for Din, whence also 'Adon, ‘lord.') 'To rule in man' merely means 'to remain in man,' and, as in the Septuagint karaμeivy, the expression refers to the divine appointment of a certain term for the life of man.

Ruach (translated 'spirit') is the divine breath of life", as Ephraem

1 Compare Genesis xi. 1, &c.

De Gigant. ii. 358, and Pfeiffer.

5 Lehrgeb., p. 409.

7 See Gen. ii. 7.

2 Cratyl. iii. 260. (Bipont. edit.)

4 See Eisenmenger, i. 380.

6 Krit. Grammatik, p. 418.

man, since he indeed is flesh, and his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

4 There were giants on the earth at that time; and also afterwards, when the sons of God went in unto the

1

Syrus at an early period interpreted it; and it is opposed to the earthly Bas'ar (flesh), from which lusts or pleasures proceed. Běshaggam (since) has been translated according to the conjecture of Bernd from their erring,' or 'on account of their transgression,'-as the infinit. of shagag with the vowel patach (a short) on account of the guttural. Hù' (he) is demonstrative for 'behold (or see) that man is flesh.' This construction however is harsh: the Masorites introduce a stop after le olam (for long); andʼadam (man) is construed as a singular: hence we agree with the ancients in considering ba'ăsher gam hù', &c. to mean since he indeed (or truly) is flesh.' In the Septuagint the expression is translated dià rò eivai avroùs σápкas (sh. præf. with patach,-Judges v. 7: Job xix. 293). The fact that gam has the vowel kametz (a long) in this place might seem to confirm the above conjecture with respect to the vowel points in the Hebrew, but nevertheless too much stress should not be laid upon it.

The number of 120 years, considered as the highest limit of man's life, was afterwards attained by Moses, and it was mentioned by Herodotus as a characteristic of the length of life among the Macrobian Ethiopians; the same number possesses a distinctive meaning in the Chaldæan astrology 5.

Verse 4.-Nefilim, according to all the ancients, signifies yíyavres, giants,—for which interpretation the passage in Numbers xiii. 32, 33, is decisive. Verse 2 confirms the meaning of 'fallen ones or 'rebels' for this word, which is also corroborated by the ancient ideas on the subject.

1 See Lengerke, de Ephr. Syr. arte herm. p. 231.

• Exercitat. Crit. Philolog. (Halle, 1732.)

3 See notes on Genesis xlxix. 10.

5 See Introduction to Chapter V.; Alt. Indien, ii. 302.

4 Herodot. iii. 23.