On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
( Gen . vii . 11 , viii . 2 ; 2 Kings vii . 19 ) . There also are the magazines of the snow , hail , &c . ( Job xxxviii . 22 , &c ) , and above the celestial aea are the dwelling and throne of Jehovah ( Ps . xxvii . 3 , 10 , civ . 3 , cxlwiii . 41 ) . Such at least is the usual representation , besides which the heaven is also called an outstretched awning ( Isa . xl . 22 ) , and the correct view is given of the origin of clouds and rain in the Jehovah document at the beginning of Genesis ( ii .
6 ) , and in the speeches of Elihu ( Job xxxvi . 27 , &c ) . The representation of several heavens , three for example ( 2 Cor . xii . 2 ) , is a new conception . Lastly , deep under the earth and the sea ( Job xxvi . 5 ) was the kingdom of the shades pNttf ) , with gates ( Isa . xxxviii . 10 ) , but not rivers , as some have been disposed to infer from a false interpretation of Ps . xviii . 5 , and from the analogy of the Grecian Orcus . In the middle of the inhabited earth the Hebrew placed his own country , and he made Jerusalem the middle point
of it ( Ezek . v . 5 ) , as the Arabians made Mecca , the monks of the East Mount Sinai , the Greeks Delphi ( Cic . de Divin . 11- 56 ) , the Persians and Indians the sacred mountain of the Gods , Albordsh and Mem . The Bible , indeed , also mentions this mountain of the Gods , spoken of in the mythical geography of Asia , and calls it the mountain of assembly ( "ty * D " ) n , Isa . xiv . 13 ) , but places it in the distant Worth , and the high mountains of Caucasus appear to have occasioned this idea . But , as the Persians supposed
the other mountains to proceed from this primitive mountain , and the other rivers from one primitive river , * so the mythical geography of the Hebrews supposes the four principal rivers of the known earth ,+ namely , the Tigris , Euphrates , Gihon ( probably the NileJ , and Pison ( probably the GangesJ > to proceed from a primitive source in the paradisiacal region of Eden , a
representation originating in an imperfect knowledge of the circuit and course of these rivers , to which , besides the conceptions of the Persians already referred to , parallels are found even among the Greeks—the opinion , for example , that the Nile and the 'Euphrates are one river , the former only a continuation of the latter ( Paus . Corinth . 2 ) , or that the Rhine and Rhone are one stream dividing itself into several arms . J
Biblical geography extends eastward as far the Indians ( nn o ^ iai JJL £ Hindu , Esther i . 1 , viii . 9 ) and the Chinese ( D' 3 'D Isa . xlii . 12 , in Aramaean and Arabic . y j ^ ^ ) . It places in the North the mythical people Gog and Magog , ' which some time before the corning of the Messiah is to afflict the Jewish people by an invasion and to suffer a defeat in Palestine ( Ezek . xxxviii . 39 , comp . the mythi of the Koran , Sur . xviii . 94—99 , xxi . 96 ) . Of the West with its islands and coasts ( D'H *> K Isa . xi . 11 , xxiv . 15 , Ps . lxxii . 10 ) only a few names were known , of which the furthest point was Tarsis ( Tartessus ) in Spain , celebraied as the principal aim of the Phoenician commerce in the Mediterranean sea . That somewhat rude
conceptions of the structure of the universe remained among the Jews even to a late period , appears from the book of Enoch , in which the prophet is carried
* See Bundehesch 7 . Compare Wahl ' s altes u . ueues Vorder . u . Mittel . Asicn , 1 > . 752 . -f The Arabians also spoke of four principal rivers . See Ebn Batuta , ed . Kosegarten , p . 15 . Comp . Achmed Effeudi , in VVahl , 1 . 1 . X See Vo 98 on Virgil ' s Georges , I . 480 , &c , p . 197 . That such a region \» not to be nought for in real geography , unprejudiced antiquarians have long been aware . See , for example , Bellcrinann , Bibl . Geographie , Pt . I . p . 149 , although even our age lias produced some fresh attempts of this kind , which indeed are not » o ridiculous as those of Hud beck and Hasse , but are as far from really hitting the mark .
Untitled Article
Biblical Geography . 437
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 437, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/5/
-