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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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sacred Writings , but because it was the best that occurred to the translators ; and they do not seem to have given themselves much trouble to understand the meaning of the original '; for they have rendered the word as variously as our translators have done ; or rather our
translators have followed them , as they give nearly the same significations found in thei Septuagint : hence we find that o < pi $ is as frequently used by them as serpent , its supposed literal meaning , is used in our version . And the New
Testament writers , who scarcely ever quote the Old Testament , but from the Septuagint translation ,, and scarcely ever change a word in their quotations , copy this version in the use of this word . From the
Septuagint therefore , we can expect no light , nor indeed from any other of the antient versions , which are all subsequent to the Septuagint , and some of them actually made from it . In all this uncertainty , it is natural for a serious inquirer after truth , to look every where for information . And in such an
inquiry , the Arabic may be expected to afford some help from Its great similarity to the Hebrew , A root in this language very nearly similar to that in the text , seems
to cast considerable light on the subject . Chanas or khana $ a signifies he departed ^ drew off , lay hid , reduced , slunk atpay : front this root come akhnas , khana&a , and
khanots , which All signify an apt , or Satyrys , or any creaturfc of the simia or p , pe genu $ . It is very remarkably also , that frdfti thedarafe ropt comes khands , the » EVii , j
which appellative he bears from that meatiing of khanasa ^ lie drew off ^ seduced , # c . because he draws men ojf fxom righteousness , seduces
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them from their obedience to Godj &c Is it not strange that the devil and the ape should have the same name , derived from the same , root , and thai root so very similar to the word in the text ? But let
us return and consider what is said of the creature in question . Now the nachash was more subtle , drum , more wise or prudent than all the beasts of the field , which the Lord God had made . In this Account
we find , 1 . That whatever this « achash was , he stood at the head of all inferior animals for wi&dorii and understanding * 2 . That he walked erect , for this is necessarily implied in his punishment , —on thy belly ( L e . on all fours ) shalt thou
go . 3 . That he was endued with the gift of speech ^ For a conversation is here related between him and the woman * 4 . Tnai He was also endued with the gift of reason , for we find him reasoning and
disputing with Eve , . 5 . That these things were common to this creature , the woman no doubt having often seen him walk erect ^ talk and reason , and therefore sh * testifies no kind of surprise when , he accosts her in the language related in the text ; and indeed ^ from the manner in which this is
introduced , it appears to be only a part of a conversation that had pasSed between them on the qc » casion . Yea , hath God said ^ $ yc ~ jhlad this creature never beers
known to speak before his addressing the woman sit ihis time , and on this subject , it could not have failed to excite he * surprise-, and
to have filled her with caution $ though from the purity and innocence of her irature she , might have been incapable of being affected with fear . Now Jf apprehend , that none of these tkrrfg *
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Dr . Adam Clarice , on the Nature of the Serpent , &en . iii . I . if
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VOL . VII ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1812, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1744/page/17/
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