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he slept : then he brought one to his side whq ^ e flesh" ( sc , uterus ) " he had enclosed ia her plaqe . " But the last instance I would beg leave to quote in support of Dr . Henderson ' s rule , and to shew that , how
much soever Mr . Bellamy ' s pages are neglected by a Professor of Arabic , they are both deservedly read and valued by others , is the well-kuown 22 nd verse of Gen . iii . It is useless to pretend that in the LXX ., the VuU gate , and our English Common Version , this verse has any but an absurd meaning . If any signification whatever can be attached to it according to these Versions , it must be , that " to prevent man ( who had become
like God , to know the difference between good and evil ) from living for ever , the Almighty banished him from the garden of Ederu" But this version involves two glaring absurdities ; for , in the first place , it states , that it was only after sinning that man became like God ! — and , secondly , it
maintains that the Almighty — notwithstanding the numerous assertions , both in the Old and New Testament , to the contrary—willed the death of the sinner , inasmuch as , by banishing him from Eden , he took measures to prevent his living for ever ! In short , there is a manifest contradiction to
the tenor of the whole word of God in the translation of this verse , as we find it in the Authorized and Common Versions . Let us now turn to the pages of Mr . Bellamy , so willingly neglected by Professor Lee , and we shall find a translation of the verse in
question as beautiful as it is literal ; a version , Mr . Editor , for which , had I a Doctor ' s hat—whether of Halle or any other university—I would cheerfully renounce it in favour of Mr .
Bellamy ; in short , a version which , as it shews that the original , instead of a curse , contains the first direct
promise of eternal life to man after the fall , is and will be entitled to the gratitude of every sincere reader of the Bible who becomes acquainted with it . Mr . Bellamy ' s Version runs thus : " Moreover , Jehovah God said , Behold , the man was as one of us ,
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with the knowledge of good and e ? U ^ therefore ^ bow surely \§ sljLall jm * forth his hand , and take also of the tree of lifej yea , be shall eat and five for ever ! " Before , however , adding Mr . Bellamy ' s arguments in favour of this translation , 1 must beg leave to quote the version of Dr , Lewder Van Ess , the well-known Ex-Frofesaor of
Marpurg , in his Version of the Bible in German , ( Sulzbacb , 1822 , ) wherein , although he differs souaewhat from Bellamy , ( the First Part of whose Translation , by the way , was
published ia 1819 , ) he yet agrees with him in giving the sense of the promise . Ver . 22 : " Da sprach Jehova Gott : Siehe ! der Mensch ist misers gleiehea worden , so class er Gutes uod BSses
erkernt . Nun—soil er rucht die Hand aus strecken und noch dazu rom Baurae des Lebens nehmen und da von essen und so ewig leben > ir I have said that Mr . Bellamy ' s Version is literal * The Hebrew verb rrn , ia the tirat clause of the verse , is strictly u > #$ , and no where in the Bible means is
become . The words , a $ one qfy $ , cj <* not refer to God , but are applied by the writer to the human race at large ; and the general meaning" is , that iqau was appointed Us any one of us ugw , or as we all , are ) to know both good and evil . The whole meaning of the
second clause , which contains the promise of Jehovah , turns on the signification attached to the word JB which Bellamy proves , from various passages ia the original , as well as on the authority of the learned Tar ^ umists , Onkelos and Jonathan , who , it must
be remembered , wrote when the Hebrew was a living language , to signify verilyt truly , indeed ; ai $ the subsequent verb n ^> tt *> being in the future , gives the sense , surely he shall stretch forth his hand , &c . &c .
I fear , Mr . Editor , that I may have trespassed too much on your patience , and that of your readers , an one fitting : allow me , therefore * to apologize , and at the same time to request , that , if I may have erred in any thing I have advanced , one of your numerous corresponded will be kind enough to set me to rights . p
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9 St Professor JL $ & , Dr . Henderson and Mjr . ifelfamv *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/28/
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