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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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tive , though it has been stamped anew as a proper name , baa suffered do change in its form ; for example , Misraim ( manifestly a Dual , Double Province , from the parting of iEgypt by the Nile ) , Sidon ( Fishery J 9 Eber ( country on the other sidej , whence Ibri ( Hebrews , i . e . people from the other sidej . It is plain , that we have bere to do , not with distinct details , but with the views of a Hebrew genealogist of nations .
It will be useful to throw a clearer light upon the relation of these views to what is otherwise historically probable . 1 . Several of the national alliances , here specified , are fully confirmed by proofs of a very different kind , among which the existence of kindred languages is one of the most important ; for example , the connexion between the Southern Arabians and the ^ Ethiopians . In other cases there is at least no ground from existing facts to suppose the contrary , as in the case , for example , of what is said of the derivation of the Philistines and Creta ns *
On the other hand , there are some representations which historical criticism can scarcely admit ; and in several the ground of the view , which appears opposite to historic truth * may be easily assigned , as , for example , when the Canaanites and the Hebrews are derived from completely different stocks , though the great correspondence and even identity of their language indicates a common origin . Here the national hatred towards the Canaanites , which produced the mythical accounts of the cursing of Canaan , appears also to have influenced the view taken of their genealogy . From a different motive the Hebrews are represented as sprung from the first-born of the
progenitor . 2 . Many of these nations are referred to a different origin in other genealogies contained in Genesis , especially in the 25 th and 36 th chapters . Thus ( ver . 23 ) Uz is immediately derived from Aram ; but in Gen , xxii . 21 , from the Aramaean Nahor , and in xxxvt . 28 , from Seir . On Dedan , corn-r pare x . 7 , with xxv . 3 ; on Sheba , x . 7 , 28 , with xxv . 3 .
3 . It has even been thought probable , that the three sons of Noah , the progenitors of the newly-formed nations , are only mythical personages , whose names indicate the districts of the earth , which their descendants are supposed to have inhabited . This is pretty evident with Dn ( heat , south ) , and J 1 D' ( width , extension , from HJ 1 D , Gen . ix . 27 ); but less clear with CDtiS , which has been explained to mean height , highland , from [ + * „ to be
high . The Arabian genealogies of nations , in Gen . xxv ., xxxvi ., and the list of the encampments in the desert of Sinai ( Num . xxxiii . ) , next deserve mention as geographical documents . The book of Joshua presents in chap . xv . —xxi . a statistical and geographical picture of Palestine , according to the distribution of the tribes , which is , however , partly ideal , since it reckons in the territory of the Hebrews
districts and towns which never came into their power ; for example , those of the Philistines a-nd Sidonians ( as if they were Partes Infideliom ) . Whether in Joshua xviii . 9 , a map of the country , or a list of towns , is meant , does not clearly appear from the expressions used . The remaining historical books contain only indirect geographical testimonies , and the poets and prophets pre-eminently contribute to the mythical and popular geography , of which we shall speak hereafter . Since the time of Alexander the Great , when so many Jews dispersed themselves through the world , it might have
? De Wette , Kritik der Israel . GeacK . p . 72 ; Buttwann voin My ^ hus der Sundfluth , p . 58 .
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Biblical GeBgrnphy . 435
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 435, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/3/
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