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CHAPTER III.
Chapter 3 Genesis iii; 1-24.
1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the gardcn?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God bath said Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees in the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden. and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
s3 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve:
because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.
22? And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever;
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the groaod from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
====================
~Gemesis iii: 1-24.
Now the serpent was more subtleS than any heast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said onto the woman, Yea, bath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
a And the woman said onus the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
lint of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not sorely die:
s For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree seas good for food, and that it eras pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to he desired to make eve wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her? and be did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves together, and made tiseneselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the pres. ence of the Lord God amongst the trees in the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where ad thou?
so And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
SS And he said, Who told thee that thou wad naked? Irlast thou eaten of the tree, wheroof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?
sa And the man said, The woman whom thou gayest to be with me, she gave sue of the tree, and I did eat.
s3 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou base done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
u~ And the Lord God said onto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou ad cursed above oil cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
s5 And I will pot enmity between tI w and the s'omon, and between thy seed and he. seed: it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
,6 Unto the woman be said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorro~v thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy hunband, and he shall role over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Becaune thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wile, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, say. ing, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat a/it all the days of thy life:
,8 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field
,9 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground: for out of it wase thou taken: for dust thou ad, and unto dent shalt thou return.
so And Adam called his wife's name Eve:
because she was the mother of all living.
a, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.
as ? And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever;
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man: and be plated at the east of the garden of Eden cherub,m. and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
==================
ADAM CLARKE, in his commentaries, asks the question, ?is this an allegory?? He finds it beset with so many
difficulties as an historical fact, that he inclines at first to
regard it as a fable, a mere symbol, of some hidden truth. His
mind seems more troubled about the serpent than any other personage in the drama. As snakes cannot walk upright, and have never been known to speak, he thinks this beguiling creature must have been an ourang-outang, or some species of ape. However, after expressing all his doubts, he rests in the assumption that it must be taken literally, and that with higher knowledge of the possibilities of all living things, many seeming improbabilities will be fully realized.
A leatned professor in Yale College,* before a large class of students, expressed serious doubts as to the forbidden fruit being an apple, as none grew in that latitude. He said it must have been a quince. If the serpent and the apple are to be withdrawn thus recklessly from the tableaux, it is feared that with advancing civilization the whole drama may fall into discredit. Scientists tells us that ?the missing link? between the ape and man, has recently been discovered, so that we can now trace back an unbroken line of ancestors to the dawn of creation.
As out of this allegory grows the doctrines of original sink the fall of man, and woman the author of all our woes, and the curses on the serpent, the woman, and the man; the Darwinian theory of the gradual growth of the race from a lower to a higher type of animal life, is more hopeful and encouraging. However, as our chief interest is in woman's part in the drama, we are equally pleased with her attitude, whether as a myth in an allegory, or as the heroine of an historical occurrence.
In this prolonged interview, the unprejudiced reader must be impressed with the courage, the dignity, and the lofty ambition of the woman. The tempter evidently had a profound knowledge of human iii~tur& and saw at a glance the hig< character of the person he met by chance in his walks in the garden. He did not try to tempt her from the patlYof duty b7 brilliant jewels; rich dresses, worldly luxuries or pleasures,_but
I
~y~4h~promise of kiege, with the wisdom of the Gods.
COMMENTS ON GENESIS.25
Like Socrates or Plato, his powers of conversation and asking puzzling~ayestions, were no doubt marvellous, and he roused in the woman that intense thirst for knowledge, that the simple pleasures of picking flowers and talking with Adam did not satisfy. Compared with Adam she appears to great advantage through the entire drama.
The curse pronounced on woman is inserted in an unfriendly spirit to justify her degradation and subjection to man. With obedience to the laws of health, diet, dress, and exercise, the period of maternity should be one of added vigor in both body and mind, a perfectly natural operation should not be attended with suffering. By the observance of physical and psychical laws the supposed curse can be easily transformed into a blessing. Some churchmen speak of maternity as a disability, and then chant the Magnificat in all their cathedrals round the globe. Through all life's shifting scenes, the mother of the race has been the greatest factor in civilization.
We hear the opinion often expressed, that woman always has, and always will be in subjection. Neither assertion is true. She enjoyed unlimited individual freedom for many centuries, and the events of the present day all point to her speedy emancipation. Scientists now give 85,000 years for the growth of the race. They assign 6o,ooo to savagism, 20,000 to barbarism, and 5,000 to civilization. Recent historians tell us that for centuries woman reigned supreme. That period was called the Matriarchate. Then man seized the reins of government, and we are now under the Patriarchate. But we see on all sides new forces gathering, and woman is already abreast with man in art, science, literature, and government. The next dynasty, in which both will reign as equals, will be the Amphiarchate, which is close at hand.
Psychologists tell us of a sixth sense now in process of development, by which we can read each other's mind and communicate without speech. The Tempter might have had that sense, as he evidently read the minds of both the creature and
26THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
the Creator, if we are to take this account as literally true, as
Adam Clarke advises.E.C.S.
Note the significant fact that we always hear of the ?fall of man,? not the fall of woman, showing that the consensus of human thought has been more unerring than masculine interpretation. Reading this narrative carefully, it is amazing that any set of men ever claimed that the dogma of the inferiority of woman is here set forth. The conduct of Eve from the beginning to the end is so superior to that of Adam. The command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge was given to the man alone before woman was formed. Genesis ii, 17. Therefore the injunction was not brought to Eve with the impressive solemnity of a Divine Voice, but whispered to her by her husband and equal. It was a serpent supernaturally en-dower!, a seraphim as Scott and other commentators have claimed, who talked with Eve, and whose words might reasonably seem superior to the second-hand story of her companion? nor does the woman yield at once. She quotes the command not to eat of the fruit to which the serpent replies ?Dying ye shall not die,? v. 4' literal translation. In other words telling her that if the mortal body does perish, the immortal part shall live forever, and offering as the reward of her act the attainment of Knowledge.
Then the woman fearless of death if she can gain wisdom takes of the fruit; and all this time Adam standing beside her interposes no word of objection. ?Her husband with her? are the words of v. 6. Had he been the representative of the divinely appointed head in married life, he assuredly would have taken upon himself the burden of the discussion with the serpent, but no, he is silent in this crisis of their fate. Having had the command from God himself he interposes no word of warning or remonstrance, but takes the fruit from the hand of his wife without a protest. It takes six verses to describe the ?fall ? of woman, the fall of man is contemptuously dismissed ill a line and
a half.
The subsequent conduct of Adam was to the last degree dastardly. When the awful time of reckoning comes, and the Jehovah God appears to demand why his command has been disoheycd, Adam endeavors to shield himself behind the gentle being he has declared to be so dear. ?The woman thou gayest to be with me, she gave me and I did eat,? he whines?trying to shield himself at his wife's expense! Again we are amazerl that upon such a story men have built up a theory of their superiority!
Then follows what has been called the curse. Is it not rather a prediction? First is the future fate of the serpent described, the enmity of the whole human race??it shall lie in wait for thee as to the head? (v. 15, literal translation). Next the subjection of the woman is foretold, thy husband ?shall rule over thee,? v. i6. Lastly the long struggle of man with the forces of nature is portrayed. ? In the sweat of thy face tllou shalt eat food until thy turning back to the earth ? (v. 19, literal translation). With the evolution of humanity an ever increaSIng number of men have ceased to toil for their bread with their hands, and with the introduction of improved machinery, and the uplifting of the race there will come a time when there shall be no seventies of labor, and when women shall be freed from all oppressions.
?And Adam called his wife's name Life for she was the
mother of all living? (v. 20, literal translation).
It is a pity that all versions of the Bible (10 not give this word instead of the Hebrew Eve. She was Life, the eternal mother, the first representative of the more valuable and important half of the human race. L. D. B
================================
CHAPTER IV.
Page 28 chapter IV
Genesis iv: 1-12, 19, 23
1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And its process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the Lord sad unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well; shalt thou not be accepted: and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door: and unto thee shall he his desire, anh thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 ? And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
19 ? And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adab, and the name of the other Zillah.
23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillab, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech.
============================
And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived, and bare Cain. and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
a And she again bare his hrothoi Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
~And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
~And Abel, he also hrought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
~But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the Lord sa.d unto Cain, Why art thou wrath? and why is thy countenance fallen?
~If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted:
sod if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door: and unto thee skallie his desire, ahd thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and me came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother,and slew him.
9 ? And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
zo And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from tha ground.
ii And now ar~ thou cursed from the earth which bath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
sa When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
?9 ? And Lumech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillab.
S3 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillab, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech.
ONE would naturally suppose that Cain's offering of fruit indicated a more refined and spiritual idea of the fitness of
things than Abel's of animal food. Why Cain's offering
was rejected as unworthy does not appear.
There is something pathetic in Eve's joy and faith at the advent of her first-born: ?Lo I have a man child from the Lord.? She evidently thought that Cain was to be to her a great blessing. Some expositors say that Eve thought that Cain was the promised seed that was to bruise the serpent's head; but Adam Clarke, in estimating woman's reasoning powers, says, ?it was too metaphysical an idea for that period.? But as that is just what the Lord said to Eve, she must have had the capacity to understand it. But all speculations as to what Eve thought in that eventful hour are vain. Clarke asserts that Cain and Abel were twins. Eve must have been too much occupied with her vacillating joys and sorrows to have indulged in any connected
train of thought. Her grief in the fratricidal tragedy that followed can be more easily understood. The dreary environments of the mother, and the hopeless prophesies of her future struggling life, banished to a dreary, desolate region, beyond the love and care of her Creator, is revenged on her children. If Adam and Eve merited the severe punishment inflicted on them, they should have had some advice from the Heavenly Mother and Father as to the sin of propagating such an unworthy stock. No good avails in increasing and multiplying evil propensities and deformities that produce only crime and misery from generation to generation. During the ante-natal period the mother should be held sacred, and surrounded with all the sweetest influences that Heaven and earth can give, loving companionship, beautiful scenery, music and flowers, and all the pleasures that art in its highest form can produce.
As the women at this period seem to be myths, no one takes the trouble to tell from whence they came. It is sufficient that their husbands know, and it is not necessary that the casual reader should. The question is often asked, whom did Cain marry? Some expositors say that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters living in different parts of the planet, and that they married each other.
There seems to have been no scarcity of women, for Lamech, Cain's great grandson, took unto himself two wlves. Thus early in the history of the race polygamic relations were recognized. The phraseology announcing the marriage of Lamech is very significant.
In the case of Adam and Eve the ceremony was more imposing and dignified. It was declared an equal relation. But with the announcement of Lamech's, he simply took two wives, Adah and Zillah. Whether the women were willingly captured will ever remain an open question. The manner in which he is accustomed to issue his orders does not indicate a tender relation between the parties.
Hear my voice: ye wives of Lamech, and hearken unto my
speech
As the wives made no reply, it shows that they had already
learned that discreet silence is the only security for domestic
happiness.
Naamah the sister of Tubal Cain was supposed to be the wife of Noah. Her name in Hebrew signifies the beautiful or the gracious. Jewish doctors say her name is recorded here because she was an upright, chaste woman, but others affirm the contrary because ?the whole world wandered after her.? But the fact that Naamah's beauty attracted the multitude, does not prove that she either courted or accepted their attentions.
The manner in which the writer of these chapters presents the women so in conflict with Chapters i and v, which immediately precede and follow, inclines the unprejudiced mind to relegate the ii, iii and iv chapters to the realm of fancy as no part of the real history of creation's dawn.
The curse pronounced on Cain is similar to that inflicted on Adam, both were to till the ground, which was to bring forth weeds abundantly. Hale's statistics of weeds show their rapid and widespread power of propagation. ?A progeny,? he says, ?more than sufficient in a few years to stock every planet of the solar system.? In the face of such discouraging facts, Hale coolly remarks. ?Such provisions has the just God made to fulfil the curse which he promised on man.
It seems far more rational to believe that the curses on both woman and man were but figments of the human brain, and that by the observance of natural laws, both labor and maternity may prove great blessings.
With all the modern appliances of steam and electricity, and the new ip.ventions in machinery, the cultivation of the soil is fast coming to be a recreation and amusement. The farmer now sits at ease on his plough, while his steed turns up the furrows at his will. With machinery the sons of Adam now sow and reap their harvests, keep the wheels of their great manufactories in motion, and with daily increasing speed carry on the commerce of the world. The time is at hand when the heavy
burdens of the laborer will all be shifted on the shoulders of these tireless machines. And when the woman, too, learns and obeys the laws of life, these supposed curses will be but idle dreams of the past. The curse falls lightly even now on women who live in natural conditions, and with an~sthetics is essentially mitigated in all cases.
When these remedial agents were first discovered, some women refused to avail themselves of their blessings, and some orthodoxphysicians i~hised to administer them, lest they should interfere with the wise provisions of Providence in making
maternity a curse.E. C. S.
MYTHS OF CREATION.
Nothing would be more interesting in connection with the ?Woman's Bible? than a comparative study of the accounts of the creation held by people of different races and faiths. Our Norse ancestors, whose myths were of a very exalted nature, recorded in their Bible, the Edda, that one day the sons of Bor (a frost giant), Odin, Hoener, and Loder, found two trees on the sea beach, and from them created the first human pair, man and woman. Odin gave them life and spirit, Hoener endowed them with reason and motion, and Loder gave them the senses and physical characteristics. The man they called Ask, and the woman Embla. Prof. Anderson finds in the brothers the threefold Trinity of the Bible. It is easy to fancy that there is some philological connection between the names of the first pair in the Bible and in the Edda. Perhaps the formation of the first pair out of trees had a deep connection with the tree of life, Ygdrasil, which extended, according to Norse mythology throughout the universe, furnishing bodies for mankind from its branches. It had three great roots, one extending to the nebulous world, and this was constantly gnawed by the serpent Nidhug. There was nothing in the Norse mythology that taught the degradation of woman, and the lay of Sigdrifa, in the Edda, is one of the noblest conceptions of the character of woman in all literature.
North American Indian mythology has the human race born of the earth, but the writer cannot learn that women held an inferior place. Among the Quiches the mothers and fathers of old slept in the waters, covered with green, under a limpid twilight, from which the earth and they were called out by a mighty wind. The Algonkins believed the human family were the children of Michabo, the spirit of the dawn, and their supreme deity. In their language the words earth, mother and father were from the same root. Many tribes claim descent from a raven, symbolizing the clouds; others from a dog, which lS the symbol of the water goddess.
Dr. and Madame Le Plongeon relate that in their discoveries among the buried remains of the Mayas in Yucatan, everything marks a very high state of civilization. In one of the exhumed temples they found pictures on the walls, which seem to be a combination of the stories of the Garden of Eden and Cain and Abel. The Serpent was always the royal emblem, because the shape of Yucatan is that of a serpent ready to spring. It was the custom among the Mayas for the oldest son of the king to be a priest, and the second son to marry the oldest daughter. The pictures represent that the oldest son in this partTcular case was dissatisfied with this arrangement, and wanted to marry the sister himself. To tempt her he sends a basket of apples by a messenger. He stands watching the way in which the present is received, and the serpent in the picture (indicating the royal family), makes it curiously suggestive of the temptation of Eve. The sister, however, rejects the present, and this so enrages the elder brother that he kills the younger, who accordingly is deified by the Mayas. The image of Chacmohl was discovered by the Le Plongeons, and is now in the possession of the Mexican Government. Perhaps these brothers were twins, as the commentator says Cain and Abel were, and that gave rise to the jealousy.
Nothing can surpass in grandeur the account in the first
chapter of Genesis of the creation of the race, and it satisfies
the highest aspirations and the deepest longings of the human
soul. No matter of what material formed, or through how many ages the formative period ran, or is to run, the image of God is the birthright of man, male and female. Whatever the second chapter may mean, it cannot set asich~ ~ It probably has a deep spiritual significance which mankind will appreciate when cavilling about the letter ceases. To the writer's mind its meaning is best expressed in the words of Goethe: ?The eternal womanly leads us on.? C. B. C.
CHAPTER V.
G,eesise': I, 2.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. s Male and female created he them; and blessed
In the day that God created man, in the likenessthem, and called their name Adam, in the day
of God made he him,when they were treated.
HERE we have the first account of the dual creation verified.
Man and woman a simultaneous creation, alike in the
image of God.
The dual relation, both in the Godhead and humanity, is here again declared, though contradicted in the intervening chapters. In this and the following chapters we have a prolix statelnent of the births, deaths, and ages in the male line. They all take wives, beget sons, but nothing is said of the origin or destiny of the wives and daughters; they are incidentally mentioned merely as necessary factors in the propagation of the male line.
The men of this period seem to have lived to a ripe old age, but nothing is said of the age of the women ; it is probable as child-bearing was their chief ambition, that men had a succession of wives, all gathered to their fathers in the prime of life. Although Eve and her daughters devoted their energies to this occupation, yet the entire credit for the growth of the race is given to Adam and his male descendants. In all this chapter the begetting of the oldest son is made prominent, his name only is given, and the begetting of more ?sons and daughters? is cursorily mentioned. Here is the first suggestion of the law of primogeniture responsible for so many of the evils that perplexed our Saxon fathers. E. C. S.
COMMENTS ON GENESIS.
Genesis vi- i-A', 14-22.
a And it came to pass, when men hegan to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days:
and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 ? And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lard said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
13 And God said unto Noah,
14 ? Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms
shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits and the height of it thirty cuhits.
16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.
18 But with thee will I establish my covenant:
and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee: they shall be male and female.
20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth, after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
22 Thus did Noah: according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
===================
4~,esis en: i-h', 24-22.
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were horn unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of ~?en that they ester, fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; ~and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same Lecame mighty men which score of old, men of renown.
s ? And God saw that the wickedness of man seas great in the earth, and that every imagination of the t'houghts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
B But Noah found grace in the eyesof the Lord.
~3 And God said unto Noah,
?4 ? Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms
shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
?5 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of; The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits and the height of it thirty cubits.
ifi A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; suith lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
?7 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.
z8 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wtves with thee.
?9 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth, after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
2? And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it slsall be for food for thee, and for them.
22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
The Jews evidently believed the males the superior sex. Men are called ?the sons of God,? women ?the daughters of men.? From the text it would seem that' the influence of the wives was not elevating and inspiring, and that the sin and misery resulting from their marriages, all attributed to the women. This condition of things so discouraged the Creator that he determined to blot out both man and beast, the fowls of the air and the creeping things on the earth. How very human this sounds. It shows what a low ideal the Jews had of the great first cause, from which the moral and material world of thought and action were evolved.
It was in mature life, when chastened by the experiences and trials of her early day, that Seth was born to Eve. It was among the descendants of Seth that purer morals and religion were cultivated. Intermarriage with the descendants of Cain
3S
36THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
had corrupted the progeny, perplexed the Creator, and precipitated the flood.
The female of each species of animal was preserved; males and females all walked into the ark two by two, and out again in equal and loving companionship. It has been a question with critics whether the ark was large enough for all it was supposed to contain. Commentators seem to agree as to its capacity to accommodate men, women, children, animals, and the food necessary for their preservation. Adam Clarke tells us that Noah and his family and the birds occupied the third story, so they had the benefit of the one window it contained.
The paucity of light and air in this ancient vessel shows that woman had no part in its architecture, or a series of port holes would have been deemed indispensable. Commentators relegate all difficulties to the direct intervention of Providence. The ark, made by unseen hands, like a palace of india rubber, was capable of expanding indefinitely; the spirit of all good, caused the lion and lamb to lie down peaceably together. To attribute all the myths, allegories, and parables to the interposition of Providence, ever working outside of his own inexorable laws, is to confuse and set at defiance human reason, and prevent all stimulus to investigation.
In several following chapters we have the history of Abram and Sarah, their wanderings from the land of their nativity to Canaan, their blunders on the journey, their grief at having no children, except one son by Hagar, his concubine, who was afterwards driven from their door, into the wilderness. However, Sarah in her old age was blessed with a son of her own, which event gave them great joy and satisfaction. As Sarah did not possess any of the heroic virtues, worthy our imitation, we need not linger either to praise or blame her characteristics. Neither she nor Abraham deemed it important to speak the truth when any form of tergiversation might serve them. In fact the wives of the patriarchs, all untruthful, and one a kleptomaniac, but illustrate the law, that the cardinal virtues are seldom found in oppressed classes. E. C. S.
COMMENTS ON GENESIS.37
A careful study of the Bible would alter the views of many as to what it teaches about the position of women. The trouble is too often instead of searching the Bible to see what is right, we form our belief, and then search for Bible texts to sustain us, and are satisfied with isolated texts without regard to context, and ask no questions as to the circumstances that may have existed then but do not now. We forget that portions of the Bible are only histories of events given as a chain of evidence to sustain the fact that the real revelations of the Godhead, be it in any form, are true. Second, that our translators were not inspired, and that we have strong presumptive proof that prejudice of education was in some instances stronger than the grammatical context, in translating these contested points. For instance, the word translated obey between husband and wife, is in but one instance in the New Testament the word used between master and servant, parent and child, but is the word that in other places is translated defer. The one instance states Sarah obeyed Abram. Read that history and you will find that in both instances in which she obeyed, God had to interfere with a miracle to save them from the result of that obedience, and both Abram and Sarah were reproved. While twice, once by direct command of God, Abram obeyed Sarah. You cannot find a direct command of God or Christ for the wife to obey the husband.
It was_Eve's curse that her desire should be to her husband and he should rule over her Have you not seen her clinging to a drunken or brutal husband, and read in letters of fire upon her forehead her curse? But God did not say the curse was good, nor bid Adam~nforceJL Nor did he say, all men ThfftFThTe over thee. For Adam, not Eve, the earth wa~ tn Iring I tithe thorn and the thistle, and he was to eat his bread byTh~sweat76Yhis brow. Yet I never heard a sermon on the sin of iii btPfi~W~&ffs7or letting Eve, as she does, help ?iiii~ to be~f1iis bin~den. It l5~.whep ?die. tre.' to lighten her lo~&tli~.t the world is afraid- of-saeri1eg~ -andAh&~xerthrow of
natuj~C. B. C.
In the story ?of the sons of God, and the daughters of men ??we find a myth like those of Greek, Roman and Scandinavian fable, demi-gods love mortal maidens and their offspring are giants. Then follows the traditional account of some great cataclysm of the last glacial epoch. According to the latest geological students, Wright, McGee and others; the records of Niagara, the falls of St. Anthony and other glacial chasms, indicate that the great ice caps receded for the last time about seven thousand years ago; the latest archeological discoveries carry our historical knowledge of mankind back nearly four thousand years B. C., so that some record of the mighty floods which must have followed the breaking of great glacial dams might well survive in the stories of the nations.
Abram who came from Ur of the Chaldees brought with him the Chaldean story of the flood. At that time Ur, now a town fifty miles inland, was a great seaport of the Persian gulf. Their story of the flood is that of a maritime people; in it the ark is a well built ship, Hasisadra, the Chaldean Noah takes on board not only his own family, but his neighbors and friends; a pilot is employed to guide the course, and proper provision is made for the voyage. A raven and a dove are sent out as in the biblical account, and a fortunate landing effected.
L.D.B.
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CHAPTER VI.
Genesus xxi.
a And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and took bread. axxd a bottle of water, and gave i~
a For Sarah bare Abraham a son in his old unto Hagar, patting ix en her shoulder, and tlxe
age.
~And Abraham called the name of his son whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
~And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
6 ? And Sarah said, God bath made me to laugh,
so that all that hear will laugh with me.
~ ? And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mockin~
so Wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this boudwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
ax And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's eight.
sa ? And God said unto Abraham. Lot it not be grievous in thy sight; in all that Sarah bath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
23 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I
make a nation, because he is thy seed.
54 And Ahrabam rose up early in the morning,
15 And cIte water was spent in the battle, and
she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off: for sixe said, Let me not sco the death of the child. And she lifted up her voice, and wept.
17 And God bcard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fesr not, for God bath heard the voice of the lad wlxere be is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine
baud: furl will make hint a great nation.
19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well
of water: and she went, and filled the bottle with
water, and gave the lad drink.
20 And God was with the lad: and he grew.
and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an
archer.
as And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and
his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt
===================
Geneses xx,.
And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said.
2 ror Sarah bare Abraham a son in his old age.
3 And Abraham called the name of his son whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
~ And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was horn unto him.
6 ? And Sarah said, God bath made me to laugh.
*0 that all that hear will laugh with me.
~ ? And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egypuan, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking.
,o Wherefore she said onto Abraham. Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
?? And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's right.
52 ? And God said unto Abraham Let it not he grievous in thy sight; in all that Sarah bath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed he called.
53 And also of the son of the hondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
?4 And Abraham rose up early in the morning,
and took bread, and a hottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, patting it en her shoulder, and the child, and sent her aaay; and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of lieer-shelc?.
s~ And the water was spent in the hattie, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
?7 And she went, and sat her down over against Aim a good way off: for she said, Let toe not see the death of the child. And she lifted up her voice, and wept.
?7 And God hcard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to 1-lagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear no:, for God bath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
?8 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand: for I will make hint a great natIon.
?9 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water: and she went, aIld filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
no And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and l,ecame an archer.
si And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran : ani his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt
THE great event of Isaac's birth having taken place, Sarah is represented through several chapters as laughing, even
in the presence of angels, not only in the anticipation of motherhood, but in its realization. She evidently forgot that maternity was intended as a curse on all Eve's daughters, for the sin of the first woman, and all merry-making on such occasions was unpardonable. Some philosophers consider the most exalted of all forms of love to be that of a mother for her children. But this divine awakening of a new affection does not seem to have softened Sarah's heart towards her unfortunate slave Hagar. And so far from Sarah's desire being to her husband, and Abraham dominating her, he seemed to be under her control, as the Lord told him ?to hearken to her voice, and to obey her command.? In so doing he drives Hagar out of his housc.
In this scene Abraham does not appear in a very attractive light, rising early in the morning, and sending his child and its mother forth into the wilderness, with a breakfast of bread and water, to care for themselves. Why did he not provide them with a servant, a~n ass laden with provisions, and a tent to shelter them from the elements, or better still, some abiding, resting place. Common humanity demanded this much attention to his own son and tne woman who bore him. But the worst feature in this drama is that it seems to have been done with Jehovah's approval.
Does any one seriously believe that the great spirit of all good talked with these Jews, and really said the extraordinary things they report? It was, however, a very cunning way for the Patriarchs to enforce their own authority, to do whatever they desired, and say the Lord commanded them to do and say thus and so. Many pulpits even in our day enforce their lessons of subjection for woman with the same authority, ?Thus saith t e ord,? ?Thou shalt,? and ?Thou shall not.? E. C. S.
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Genesis xxiii.
1 And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old.
2 And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,
4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you:
give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him.
6 Hear us, my lord : thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre.
7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land.
8 And be communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my
sight, hear me and entreat Ephron the son of Zobar.
9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field: for as much money as it is worth.
14 And Epbron answered Anraham, saying unto him.
15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver: what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
16 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre.
20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sire unto Abraham for a burying place by the sons of Heth.
=================
Genesis xxiii.
And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old.
a And Sarah died in Kitjath-arba; the same is
Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
~ ? And Abraham stood up from before his dead,
and spake unto the suns of Heth, saying,
~I am a stranger and a sojourner with you:
give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him.
6 Hear us, my lord : thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury tby dead; noae ot us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre.
7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land.
8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my
sight, hear me, and entreat Ephron the son of Zohar.
9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he bath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth.
?4 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him.
?5 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is na,rik four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
ifi And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
?9 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre.
en And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made stire unto Abraham for a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.
It is seldom that the age and death of any woman, are recorded by the sacred historian, but Sarah seems to have been
specially honored, not only in the mention of her demise and
ripe years, but in the tender manifestations of grief by Abraham, and his painstaking selection of her burial place. That Abraham paid for all this in silver, ?current money with the merchant,? might suggest to the financiers of our day that our commercial relations might be adjusted with the same coin, especially as we have plenty of it.
If our bimetallists in the halls of legislation were conversant
with sacred history, they might get fresh inspiration from the
views of the Patriarchs on good money.
Some critics tell us that there was no coined money at that
time; the Israelites had no written language, no commerce with
neighboring tribes, and that they could neither read nor write.
Whilst we drop a tear at the tomb of Sarah, we cannot recommend her as an example to the young women of our day, as she lacked several of the cardinal virtues. She was undignified, untruthful, and unkind to Hagar. But our moral standard differs from that of the period in which she lived, as our ideas of right and wrong are not innate, but depend on education. Sarah probably lived up to the light that was in her. E. C. S.
The cruelty and injustice of Abraham and Sarah, as commented on by Mrs. Stanton, doubtless stand out much more prominently in this condensed account than their proper proportions to the motives which actuated the figures in the drama. If we take any part of the story we must take it all, and remember that it had been promised to Abraham that of Ishmael a great nation should be born. Whether this was an actual revelation from God, or a prophetic vision that Abraham had, or is interpolated by the historian to correspond with the actual facts that transpired, in either case the firm belief that no harm could come to Ishmael, must be taken into account when estimating the motives which led Abraham and Sarah, for doubtless Abraham told Sarah of his vision, to send Hagnr and her son off into the wilderness; just as much as the firm belief that the promise of God with regard to his seed would be fulfilled made Abraham, a little afterward, prepare to offer up bis son Isaac.
Abraham loved and honored his wife very greatly, probably admiring equally her beauty and strength of character. Abraham was ten years older than Sarah and we read that he was seventy-five years old when he started from Haran for the land of Canaan. Some time after this driven, by famine, he went down into Egypt, and here when she must have been at least seventy years of age the Egyptians saw that she was very fair, and the princes of Pharaoh so praised her beauty to their royal master that he sent and took her for his wife. The same thing happened when she was ninety years old, when she was seized by Abimelech, king of Gerar. In both cases they told, not a lie, but a half truth, for Sarah was Abraham's half sister. it being then the custom for children of the same fathes- by different mothers to marry. Abraham s deceit was brought about by cowardice, while Sarah connived at the fraud for love of her husband, being besought to do so to save his life. Perhaps, too, she might have been amenable to the gracious tribute to her beauty that Abraham gave in makingthe request.
Sarah's strength of character is shown all through her history. Wherever she is mentioned the reader is made to feel that she is an important part of the narrative, and not merely a connecting link between two generations. In this story she carries her point, and Abraham follows her instructions implicitly, nay, is even commanded by God to do so.
Notwithstanding that Abraham mourned Sarah so sincerely, within three years after she died, and when at the ripe age of a hundred and forty years, he married again and the six children he begat by Keturah he took quite as a matter of course, although half a century before, when told that a son should be born to him, he laughed incredulously. Abraham had his failings, some of which are shared by the moderns, yet doubtless he was a moral giant compared with other men of the land from which he came and of the nations around him. As such he was chosen as the founder of a race whose history should promulgate the idea of the one true God. Certainly the descendants from this remarkable trio have retained their own
peculiar characteristics and have ever been worshippers at the
shrine of Jehovah.
A singular fact may be mentioned here that Mrs. Souvielle in her book ?The Sequel to the Parliament of Religions,? has shown that from Midian, one of the sons of Keturah, came J ethro or Zoroaster.
Western thinkers are so matter-of-fact in their speech and thought that it might not have occurred to them that the true value of this story of Sarah and Hagar, like that of all else, not only in our own Bible but in the scriptures of other faiths, lies in the esoteric meaning, had it not been for Paul, that prince of occult philosophers, who distinctly says, according to the old version, that it is an allegory; according to the revised, that it contains an allegory: ?for these women are two covenants,? one bearing children unto bondage, the other unto freedom. It is our privilege, Paul goes on to teach, to be children of the free woman, but although we are this by birthright, yet there has to be a personal appreciation of that fact, and an effort to maintain our liberty. The mystical significance of this allegory has never been elucidated in reference to the position of woman, but it may well be considered as establishing her claim, not only for personal freedom, but for the integrity of the home. Acting according to the customs of the day, Sarah connived at her own degradation. Later, when her womanly dignity was developed by reason of her motherhood she saw what should be her true p5~iti6n in her home, and she made her rightful demand for unrivalled supremacy in that home and in her husband's affections. She was blessed of God in taking that attitude, and was held up to the elect descendants of Abraham nearly 1660 years later by the Apostle Peter as an example to be imitated. And these later women are to be Sarah's daughters, we are told, if like her, they ?are not afraid with any amazement,? or as the new version hath it, if they ?are not put in fear by any terror.?
Even as mere history the life and character of Sarah
certainly do not intimate that it was the Divine plan that
woman was to be a subordinate, either in person or in her
home. Taken esoterically, as all ancient Oriental writings must be to get their full significance, it is an inspiration ta woman to-day to stand for her liberty. The bondwoman must be cast out. All that makes for industrial bondage, for sex slavery and humiliation, for the dwarfing of individuality, and for the thralldom of the soul, must be cast out from our home, from society, and from our lives. The woman who does not claim her birthright of freedom will remain in the wilderness with the children that she has borne in degradation, heart starvation, and anguish of spirit, only to find that they are Ishmaels, with their hand against every man. They will be the subjects of Divine care and protection until their destiny is worked out. But she who is to be the mother of kings must herself be free, and have surroundings conducive to maintaining her own purity and dignity. After long ages of freedom shall have eradicated from woman's mind and heart the thought habits of the slave, then will she be a true daughter of Sarah,
the Princess.C. B. C.
Abraham has been held up as one of the model men of sacred history. One credit he doubtless deserves, he was a monotheist, in the midst of the degraded and cruel forms of religion then prevalent in all the oriental world ; this man and his wife saw enough of the light to worship a God of Spirit. Yet we find his conduct to the last degree reprehensible. While in Egypt in order to gain wealth he voluntarily surrenders his wife to Pharaoh. Sarah having been trained in subjection to her husband had no choice but to obey his will. When she left the king, Abraham complacently took her back without objection, which was no more than he should do seeing that her sacrifice had brought him wealth and honor. Like many a modern millionaire he was not a self-made but a wife-made man. When Pharaoh sent him away with his dangerously beautiful wife he is described as, ?being rich in cattle, in silver and in gold,? but it is a little curious that the man who thus gained wealth as the price of his wife's dishonor should have been held up as a model of all the patriarchal virtues. L. D. B.
COMMENTS ON GENESIS.
Chapter VII
Genesis xxiv.
37 And my master made me swesr, saying, Thou shall not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the cannanites in whose land I dwell.
38 But thou shalt go unto my fahers house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.
39 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me.
40 And he said unto me, The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house:
42 And I came this day unto the well, and said, o Lord God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go:
43 Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink:
44 And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed out for my master's son.
45 And before I had done speaking in mine heart behold Rebekab came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder: and she went down unto the well, and drew water: and I said unto her; Lot me drink, I pray thee.
46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink alto.
47 And I asked her, and said, whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel Nahor's son, whom Malcab bare unto him: and I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands.
49 And now, if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.
50 Then Lahan and Bethuel answered and said. The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.
50 Behold, Rebekah is before thee: take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken.
53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekab; he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
56 And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master.
57 And they said, we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth.
58 And they called Rebekab, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
59 And they sent away Rebekab their sister. and her nurse and Abraham's servant, and his men.
60 ? And Rebekab arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man:
and the servant took Rebekah and went his way.
63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, the camels were coming.
64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she lighted off the camel.
65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us' And the servant had said, It is my manter: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.
66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac wan comforted after his mother's death.
===================
Genesis xxw.
3~ And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shall nor take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell.
38 But thou shalt go unto my fathers house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.
39 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me.
40 And he said unto me, The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house:
45 And I came this day unto the well, and said,
o Lord God of my master Abraham, if now thou do
prosper my way which I go:
43 Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink:
~4 And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same tie the woman whom the Lord bath appointed out for my master s son.
45 And before I had done speaking in mtne heart behold Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the well, and drew water: and I said unto her; Let me drink, I pray thee.
46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoalder, and said, nrink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink also.
~And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter
art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel Nahor's son, whom Malcab bare unto him: and I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands.
~ And now, if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, teji me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.
5o Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said.
The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we cannot
speak unto thee bad or good.
~, Behold, Rebekab is before thee: take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken.
53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them ta Rebekah; he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
~6 And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord bath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master.
57 And they said, we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth.
~8 And they called Rebekab, and said unto her. Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister. and her nurse and Abraham's servant, and his men.
6s ? And Rebekab arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man:
and the servant took Rebekab and went his
way.
63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw. and behold, the camels were coming.
64 And Rebekab lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she lighted ofl the camel.
6~ ror she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.
66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekab, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
HERE is the first account we have of a Jewish courtship. The women seem quite as resigned to the custom of? being taken? as the men ? to take.? Outside parties could
no doubt in most cases make more judicious selections of
partners, than young folks themselves under the glamour of their ideals. Altogether the marriage of Isaac, though rather prosaic, has a touch of the romantic.
It has furnished the subject for some charming pictures, that decorate the galleries in the old world and the new. ?Rebekah at the well,? has been immortalized both on canvas and in marble. Women as milk-maids and drawers of water, with pails and pitchers on their heads, are always artistic, and far more attractive to men than those with votes in their hands at the polling booths, or as queens, ruling over the destinies of nations.
In fact, as soon as man left Paradise, he began by degrees to roll off of his own shoulders all he could of his curse, and place it on woman. Why did not Laban and Bethuel draw the water for the household and the cattle. Scott says that Eliezer had attendants with him who might have saved Rebekah the labor of drawing water for ten camels, but he would not interfere, as he wished to see whether she possessed the virtues of industry, affability and cheerfulness in being serviceable and hospitable.
It was certainly a good test of her patience and humility to draw water for an hour, with a dozen men looking on at their ease, and none offering help. The Rebekahs of 1895 would have promptly summoned the spectators to share their labors, even at the risk of sacrificing a desirable matrimonial alliance. The virtue of self-sacrifice has its wise limitations. Though it is most commendable to serve our fellow-beings, yet woman s first duty is to herself, to develop all her own powers and possibilities, that she may better guide and serve the next generation.
It is refreshing to find in the fifty-eighth verse that Rebekah
was really supposed to have some personal interest and rights
in the betrothal.
The meeting of Isaac and Rebekah in the field at eventide is charming. That sweet restful hour after the sun had gone down, at the end of a long journey from a far-off country. Rebekah must have been in just the mood to appreciate a strong
right arm on which to rest, a loving heart to trust, on the threshold of her conjugal life. To see her future lord for the first time, must have been very embarrassing to Rebekah. She no doubt concealed her blushes behind her veil, which Isaac probably raised at the first opportunity, to behold the charms of the bride whom the Lord had chosen for him. As Isaac was forty years old at this time, he probably made a most judicious and affectionate husband.
The 67th verse would be more appropriate to the occasion if the words ?took Rebekah? had been omitted, leaving the text to read thus: ?And Isaac brought her into his mother's tent, and she became his wife, and he loved her.? This verse is remarkable as the first announcement of love on the part of a husband at first sight. We may indulge the hope that he confessed his love to Rebekah, and thus placed their conjugal relations on a more spiritual plane than was usual in those days. The Revising Committees by the infusion of a little sentiment into these ancient manuscripts, might have improved the moral tone of our ancestors' domestic relations, without falsifying the important facts of history. Many ancient writings in both sacred and profane history might be translated into more choice language, to the advantage of the rising generation. What we glean in regard to Rebekah's character in the following chapter shows, she, too, is lacking in a nice sense of honor.
With our ideal of the great first cause, a God of justice, wisdom and truth, the Jewish Lord, guiding and directing that people in all their devious ways, and sanctioning their petty immoralities seems strangely out of place; a very contradictory character, unworthy our love and admiration. The ancient Jewish ideal of Jehovah was not an exalted one.
E.C.S.
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This romantic pastoral is most instructive as to the high position which women really held among the people whose religious
history is the foundation of our own, and still further substanti
ates our claim that the Bible does not teach woman's subordination. The fact that Rebekah was drawing water for family use does not indicate lack of dignity in her position, any more than the household tasks performed by Sarah. The wives and daughters of patriarchal families had their maid-servants just as the men of the family had their man-servants, and their posltion indicates only a division of responsibility. At this period, although queens and princesses were cooks and waiters, kings and princes did not hesitate to reap their own fields and slay their own cattle. We are told that Abraham rushed out to his herd and caught a calf to make a meal for the strangers, and that while he asked Sarah to make the cakes, he turned over the calf to a man servant to prepare for the table. Thus the labor of securing the food fell upon the male sex, while the labor of preparing it was divided between both.
The one supreme virtue among the patriarchs was hospitality, and no matter how many servants a person had it must be the royal service of his own hands that he performed for a guest. In harmony with this spirit Rebekih volunteered to water the thirsty camels of the tired and way-worn travellers. It is not at all likely that, as Mr. Scott suggests, Eliezer waited simply to test Rebekah's amiability. The test which he had asked for was sufficiently answered by her offering the service in the first place, and doubtless it would have been a churlish and ungracious breach of courtesy to have refused the proffered kindness.
That the Jewish women were treated with greater politeness than the daughters of neighboring peoples we may learn from the incident narrated of the daughters of Jethro who, even though their father was high priest of the country were driven away by the shepherds from the wells where they came to water their flocks. Of all outdoor occupations that of watering thirsty animals is, perhaps, the most fascinating, and if the work was harder for Rebekah than for our country maidens who water their animals from the trough well filled by the windmill she had the strength and the will for it, else she would have en-
trusted the task to some of the damsels of whom we read as her especial servants and who, as such, accompanied her to the land of Canaan.
The whole narrative shows Rebekah's personal freedom and dignity. She was alone at some distance from her family. She was not afraid of the strangers, but greeted them with the self-possession of a queen. The decision whether she should go or stay, was left wholly with herself, and her nurse and servants accompanied her. With grace and modesty she relieved the embarrassment of the situation by getting down from the altitude of the camel when Isaac came to meet her, and by enshrouding herself in a veil she very tactfully gave him an opportunity to do his courting in his own proper person, if he should be pleased to do so after hearing the servant's report.
It has been the judgment of masculine commentators that the veil was a sign of woman's subject condition, but even this may be disputed now that women are looking into history for themselves. The fashion of veiling a prospective bride was common to many nations, but to none where there were brutal ceremonies. The custom was sometimes carried to the extent, as in some parts of Turkey, of keeping the woman wholly covered for eight days previous to marriage, sometimes, as among the Russians, by not only veiling the bride, but putting a curtain between her and the groom at the bridal feast. In all cases the veil seems to have been worn to protect a woman from premature or unwelcome intrusion, and not to indicate her humiliated position. The veil is rather a reflection upon the habits and thoughts of men than a badge of inferiority for women.
How serenely beautiful and chaste appear the marriage customs of the Bible as compared with some that are wholly of man's invention. The Kamchatkan had to find his future wife alone and then fight with her and her female friends until every particle of clothing had been stripped from her and then the ceremony was complete. This may be called the other extreme from the veil. Something akin to this appears among our own kith and kin, so to speak, in modern times. Many instances of
marriage en chemise are on record in England of quite recent dates, the notion being that if a man married a woman in this garment only he was not liable for any debts which she might previously have contracted. At Whitehaven, England, 1766, a woman stripped herself to her chemise in the church and in
-that condition stood at the altar and was married.
There is nothing so degrading to the wife in all Oriental customs as our modern common law ruling that the husband owns the wife's clothing. This has been so held times innumerable, and in Connecticut quite recently a husband did not like the gowns his wife bought so he burned them. He was arrested for destruction of property, but his claim was sustained that they were his own so he could not be punished.
As long as woman's condition, outside of the Bible, has been as described by Macaulay when he said: ?If there be a word of truth in history~ women have been always, and still are over the greater part of the globe, humble companions, playthings, captives, menials, and beasts of burden,? it is a comfort to reflect that among the Hebrews, whose records are relied on by the enemies of woman's freedom to teach her subjection, we find women holding the dignified position in the family that was held by Sarah and Rebekah. C. B. C.
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COMMENTS ON GENESIS.
Chapter VIII
Genesis xxv.
1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
2 And she bare him Zimran and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
5 ? And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, unto the east country.
7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, a hundred and three score and fifteen years.
8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost.
9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the grave of Machpelah.
10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth; there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
11 And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
24 ? And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled she bore twins.
27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field: and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
28 And Isaac loved Esau, because lie did eat of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 ? And Jacob made potage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint.
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red potage; for I am faint; therefore was his name called Edom.
32 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold. I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, swear to me this day: and he sware unto him; and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose sip, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
===================
Genesis xrv.
z Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Kecurab.
s And she bare him Zimran and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and fihuab.
~ ? And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, unto the east country.
~ And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, a hundred and three score and fifteen years.
8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost.
~ And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the grave of Machpelah.
so The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Izleth; there was Abralsans buried, and Sarah his wtfe.
ss And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
24 ? And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled she bore twins.
27 And the boys grew: and Esaa wasoca,,nmg hunter, a man of the field ; and Jacol, was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
28 And Isaac loved Esan, because he cli,l eat of his venison; but Rebekab loved Jac.1~.
29 ? And Jacob sod pottage: and Esatt came from the field, and he was faint.
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red portage: for I am faint; therefore was his nante called Edom.
3? And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy l,irthright.
32 And Esan said, Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day: and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
~4 Then Jacob gave Esan bread and poccage of lentlles; and he did eat a,,d drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
IN these verses we have the account of Abraham's second marriage, and the birth of several sons. It does not seem
clear from the text whether Keturah was a legal wife, or one of the Patriarch's numerous concubines. Clarke inclines to the latter idea, on account of Abraham's age, and then he gave all that he had to Isaac, and left Keturah's sons to share with those of other concubines, to whom he gave gifts and sent them away from his son Isaac to an eastern country. Abraham evidently thought that the descendants of Isaac might be superior in moral probity to those of his other sons, hence he desired to keep Isaac as exclusive as possible. But Jacob and Esau did not fulfill the Patriarch's expectations. Esau in selling his birthright for a mess of pottage, and Jacob taking advantage of his brother in a weak moment, and overreaching him in a bargain, alike illustrate the hereditary qualities of their ancestors.
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Genesis xxvi.
6 ? And Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife: and he said, She is my sister; for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall
surely be put to death.
34 ? And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Been the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite
35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
==================
Genesis xxvi.
fi ? And Isaac dwelt in Gerar.,s And Abimelech charged all his people, say
~And the men of the place asked him of his log, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall wife; and he said, She is my sister; for he feared surely be put to death.
to say. She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of ~ ? And Esan was forty years old when he took
the place should kill me for Rebekab; because she to wife Judith the daughter of Been the Hittite, was fair to look upon. and Bashemath the daughter of Elan the Hit-
~And Abimelech called Isaac, and said Behold, tite;
of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, 35 which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Rehekab.
Because I said, Lest I die for her.
The account of the private family affairs of Isaac and Rebekah; their partiality to different sons; Jacob, aided and abetted by his mother, robbing his elder brother of both his birthright and his father's blessing; the parents on one of their eventful journeys representing themselves as brother and sister, instead of husband and wife, for fear that some potentate might kill Isaac, in order to possess his beautiful wife; all these petty deceptions handed down from generation to generation, show that the law of heredity asserted itself even at that early day.
Abraham through fear denied that Sarah was his wife, and Isaac does the same thing. The grief of Isaac and Rebekah over Esau, was not that he took two wives, but that they were Hittites. Chapter xxvii gives the details of the manner that Jacob and his mother betrayed Isaac into giving the blessing to Jacob intended for Esau. One must read the whole story in order to appreciate the blind confidence Isaac placed in Rebekah's integrity; the pathos of his situation; the bitter disappointmellt of Esau; Jacob's temptation, and the supreme wickedness of Rebekah in deceiving Isaac, defrauding Esau, and undermining the moral sense of the son she loved.
Having entirely undermined his moral sense, Rebekah fears the influence of Jacob's marriage with a daughter of the Hittites, and she sends him to her own people, to find a wife in the household of her uncle Laban. This is indeed a sad record of the cruel deception that Jacob and his mother palmed off on Isaac and Esau. Both verbal and practical lying were necessary to defraud the elder son, and Rebekah was equal to the
occaslon. Neither she nor Jacob faltered in the hour of peril. Altogether it is a pitiful tale of greed and deception. Alas! where can a child look for lessons in truth, honor, and generosity, when the mother they naturally trust, sets at defiance every principle of justice and mercy to secure some worldly advantage. Rebekah in her beautiful girlhood at the well drawing water for man and beast, so full of compassion, does not exemplify the virtues we looked for, in her mature womanhood. The conjugal and maternal relations so far from expanding her most tender sentiments, making the heart from love to one grow bountiful to all, seem rather to have narrowed hers into the extreme of individual selfishness. In obedience to his mother's commands, Jacob starts on his journey to find a fitting wife. If Sarah and Rebekah are the types of womanhood the Patriarchs admired, Jacob need not have gone far to find their equal.
In woman's struggle for freedom during the last half century, men have been continually pointing her to the women of the Bible for examples worthy imitation, but we fail to see the merits of their character, their position, the laws and sentiments concerning them. The only significance of dwelling on these women and this period of woman's history, is to show the absurdity of pointing the women of the nineteenth century to these as examples of virtue.E. C. S.
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Keturah is spoken of as a concubine in I Chronicles i, 32. As such she held a recognized legal position which implied no disgrace in those days of polygamy, only the children of these secondary wives were not equal in inheritance. For this reason the sons of Keturah had to be satisfied with gifts while Isaac received the patrimony. Notice the charge of Abimelech to his people showing the high sense of honor in this Philistine. He seems also in the ioth verse to have realized the terrible guilt that it would have been if one of them had taken Rebekah, not knowing she was Isaac's wife. With all Rebekah's faults she seems to have had things her own way and therefore she did
not set any marked example of wifely submission for women of to-day to follow. Her great error was deceiving her husband to carry her point and this is always the result where woman is deprived in any degree of personal freedom unless she has attained high moral development. C. B. C.
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COMMENTS ON GENESIS.
CHAPTER IX.
C.nesis xxix.
Then Jacob went on his journey, asid came into the land of the people of the east.
2 And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and lo, there we,-e three flocks of sheep lying hy it; f,~r out of that well they watered the flocks; and a great stone eras upon the well's mouth.
3 And thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place.
4 And Jacoh said unto them, My brethren, whence he ye'? And they said, Of Haran ae-e we.
~ And he said unto them, Know ye Lahan the son of Nahor? And they said, we know Aim.
6 And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and behold Rachel his daughter conieth with the sheep.
9 ? And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep: far she kept them.
so And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Lahan his mother's hrother, and the sheep of Lahan, his mother's brother, and Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
ii And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.
is And Jacob told Rachel that he seas her father's brother, and that be was Rebekah's son:
and she ran and told her father:
?3 And it tame to pass, when Labsa heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things.
i4 And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month.
s5 ? And Lahan said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy waxes be?
,8 And Jacob loved Rachel: and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
t9 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another mao:
abide with me.
20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him hut a few days, for the love he had to her.
2! ? And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled.
JACOB'S journey to the land of Canaan in search of a wife, and the details of his courtship, have a passing interest with
the ordinary reader, interested in his happiness and success. The classic ground for the cultivation of the tender emotions in these early days, seems to have been near a well, where the daughters of those who were rich in flocks and herds found opportunities to exhibit their fine points in drawing water for men and cattle. From the records of these interesting events, the girls seemed ready to accept the slightest advances from passing strangers, and to give their hands and hearts as readily as they gave a drink of water to the thirsty. Marriage was as simple a contract as the purchase of a lamb, the lamb and the woman having about an equal voice in the purchase, though
the lamb was not quite as ready to leave his accustomed grazing ground. Jacob loved Rachel at first sight, and agreed to serve Laban seven years, but when the time expired Laban did not keep his agreement, but insisted on Jacob taking the other sister, and serving seven years more for Rachel. Jacob submitted, but by the knowledge of a physiological law of which Laban was ignorant, he revenged himself, and obtained all the strongest and best of t'he flocks and herds. Thus in their business relations as well as in family matters, the Patriarchs seem to have played as sharp games in overreaching each other as the sons of our Pilgrim Fathers do to-day. In getting all they could out of Laban, Jacob and Rachel seem to have been of one mind.
A critical study of the Pentateuch is just now agitating the
learned classes in Germany. Bonn is an ancient strong-
hold of theological learning, of its famous university have age in Biblical criticism and further extended the celebrity added to its repute for orthodoxy. during the university holidays, attended by pastors, they declared to ?be a series of legends, and mythical persons.? Israel, they
and two of the professors recently exhibited a courinterpretation which has of the school, if it has not In a course of lectures held addressed to and largely the Old Testament history Abraham, Isaac and Jacob declared, was an idolatrous
people, Jehovah being nothing more than a ?God of the Jewish Nation.? This radical outbreak of criticism and interpretation has aroused considerable attention throughout Germany, and a declaration against it and other teachings of the kind has been signed by some hundreds of pastors and some thousands of laymen, but so far it has produced no effect whatever on the professors of Bonn, and there is no prospect of its doing so. It is fortunate for the faith thus assailed that the critical and rhetorical style of the ordinary German professor is too heavy for export or general circulation. So that the theories of Messrs. Graef and Meinhold are not likely to do the faith of the Fatherland any particular harm. That country has always
been divided into two classes, one of which believes nothing and the other everything, the latter numerically preponderant, but the former exceeding in erudition and dialectic?a condition of things quite certain to continue and on which a few essays more or less in destructive criticism can produce little effect.
E. C. S.
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Mrs. Stanton's statements concerning the undeveloped religious sentiment of the early Hebrews cannot be criticized from the orthodox standpoint as in this account, where the God of Abraham is represented as taking an active personal interest in the affairs of the chosen people, they did not trust wholly to Him, but kept images of the gods of the neighboring tribes in their houses, Laban feeling sorry enough over their loss to go seven days' journey to recover them while his daughter felt she could not leave her father's house without taking the images with her as a protection.
The faults of Laban, of Jacob and of most of his sons are brought out without any reserve by the historian who follows the custom of early writers in stating things exactly as they were. There was no secrecy and little delicacy in connection with sexual matters. It may, however, be noticed that while this people had the same crude notions about these things that were common to other nations, yet every infraction of the Divine law of monogamy, symbolized in the account of the creation of woman in the second chapter of Genesis, brings its own punishment whether in or out of the marriage relation. When one or another people sinned against a Jewish woman the men of the family were the avengers, as when the sons of Jacob slew a whole city to avenge an outrage committed against their sister. Polygamy and concubinage wove a thread of disaster and complications throughout the whole lives of families and its dire effects are directly traceable in the feuds and degeneration ~ their degcendants. The ~hjcf 1~sson taught by history is danger of violating, physically, mentally, or spiritually th~ personal integrity of woman. Customs of the
country and the cupidity of Laban, forced polygamy on Jacob, and all the shadows in his life, and he had no end of trouble in after years, are due to this. Perhaps nothing but telling their stories in this brutally frank way would make the lesson so plain.
If we search this narrative ever so closely it gives us no hint of Divinely intended subordination of woman. Jacob had to buy his wives with service which indicates that a high value was placed upon them. Now-a-days in high life men demand instead of give. The degradation of woman involved in being sold to a husband, to put it in the most humiliating way, is not comparable to the degradation of having to buy a husband. Euripides made Medea say: ?We women are the most unfortunate of all creatures since we have to buy our masters at so dear a price,? and the degradation of Grecian women is repeated?all flower-garlanded and disguised by show?in the marriage sentiments of our own civilization. Jacob was dominated by his wives as Abraham and Isaac had been and there is no hint of their subjection. Rachel's refusal to move when the gods were being searched for, showed that her will was supreme, nobody tried to force her to rise against her own desire.
The love which Jacob bore for Rachel has been through all time the symbol of constancy. Seven years he served for her, and so great was his love, so pure his delight in her presence that the time seemed but as a day. Had this simple, absorbing affection not been interfered with by Laban, how different would have been the tranquil life of Jacob and Rachel, developing undisturbed by the inevitable jealousies and vexations connected with the double marriage. Still this love was the solace of Jacob's troubled life and remained unabated until Rachel died and then found expression in tenderness for Benjamin, ?the son of my right hand.? It was no accident, but has a great significance, that this most ardent and faithful of Jewish lovers should have deeper spiritual experiences than any of his
predecessors.C. B. C.
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COMMENTS ON GENESIS.
CHAPTER X.
Ge,,esis, xxix, xxxi.
iS And Jacob loved Rachel; and said I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
59 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man; abide with me.
20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him bat a few days, for the love he had to her.
2! ? And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled.
zi And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast.
23 And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him.
s6 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the first. born.
27 We will give thee Rachel also thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
iS And Jacob did so; and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
25 ? And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto my mine own place, and to my country.
26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I hove served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.
57 ? Then Jacob rose up, and set his~ sons and his wives upon camels;
21 And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padan-aram, for to go to Isaac his father in the loud of canaan.
29 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the imagcs that 2mm' her father's
20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the syrian, in that be told him not that he fled;
22 And it was told Laban on the third day, that Jacob was fled.
23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
WHILE Laban played his petty deceptions on Jacob, the latter proved himself in fraud and overreaching fully
his match. In being compelled to labor fourteen years for Rachel instead of seven, as agreed upon, he amply revenged himself in getting possession of all Laban's best cattle, availing himself of a physiological law in breeding of which Laban was profoundly ignorant.
The parting of Jacob and Laban was not amicable, although they did not come to an open rupture. Rachel's character for thett and deception is still further illustrated. Having stolen her father's images and hidden them under the camel's saddles and furniture, and sat thereon, when her father came to search for the images, which he valued highly, she said she was too ill to rise, so she calmly kept her Feat, while the tent was searched and nothing found, thus by act as well as word, deceiving her father.
Jacob and his wives alike seemed to think Laban fair game for fraud and deception. As Laban knew his images were gone, he was left to suspect that Jacob knew where they were, so little regard had Rachel for the reputation of her husband. In making a God after their own image, who approved of whatever they did, the Jews did not differ much from ourselves; the men of our day talk too as if they reflected the opinions of Jehovah on the vital questions of the hour. In our late civil war both armies carried the Bible in their knapsacks, and both alike prayed to the same God for victory, as if he could be in favor of slavery and against it at the same time.
Like the women, too, who are working and praying for woman suffrage, both in the state legislature and in their closets, and others against it, to the same God and legislative assembly. One must accept the conclusion that their acquaintance with the Lord was quite as limited as our own in this century, and that they were governed by their own desires and judgment, whether for good or evil, just as we are; their plans by day and their dreams by night having no deeper significance than our own. Some writers say that the constant interposition of God in their behalf was because they needed his special care and attention. But the irregularity and ignorance of their lives show clearly that their guiding hand was of human origin. If the Jewish account is true, then the God of the Hebrews falls far short of the Christian ideal of a good, true manhood, and the Christian ideal as set forth in the New Testament falls short of our ideal of the Heavenly Father to-day. We have no fault to find with the Bible as a mere history of an ignorant, undeveloped people, but when special inspiration is claimed for the historian, we must judge of its merits by the moral standard of to-day, and the refinement of the writer by the questionable language in which he clothes his descriptions.
We have often wondered that the revising committees that have gone over these documents so often, should have adhered so closely to such gross translations. Surely a fact related to us in coarse language, is not less a fact when repeated in choice.
words. We need an expurgated edition of most of tile books called holy before they are fit to place in the hands of the rising generation.
Some members of the Revising Committee write me that tile tone of some of my comments should be more reverent in criticising the ?Word of God.? Does any one at this stage of civilization think the Bible was written by the finger of God, that the Old and New Testaments emanated from the highest divine thought in the universe? Do they think that all the men who wrote the different books were specially inspired, and that all the various revising committees that have translated, interpolated, rejected some books and accepted others, who have dug round the roots of the Greek and Hebrew to find out the true meaning, have one and all been watched and guided in their literary labors by the great spirit of the universe, who by immutable law holds the solar system ii~ place, every planet steadily moving in its own elliptic, worlds upon worlds revolving in order and harmony?
These great object-lessons in nature and the efforts of the soul to fathom the incomprehensible, are more inspiring than any written page. To this ?Word of God? I bow with reverence, and I can find no language too exalted to express my love, my faith, my admiration.
To criticise the peccadilloes of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel does not shadow the virtues of Deborah, Huldah and Vashti; to condemn the laws and customs of the Jews as recorded in the book of Genesis, does not destroy the force of the golden rule and the ten commandments. Parts of the Bible are so true, so grand, so beautiful, that it is a pity it should have been bound in the same volume with sentiments and descriptions so gross
and immoral.E.C.S.
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62THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
CHAPTER XI.
Geseds xxxv.
B But Dehorsh Rebekah's nnrse died, and she ?7 The midwife said unto her, Fear not; tho,~
was buried beneath Beds-el under an oak: and the shalt have this son also.
eame of it was called Allonhachuth.iS And it caine to pass as her soul was in depert~
q ? And God appeared unto Jacob again, when lug (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni~
he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him,but his father called him Benjamin.
so And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: ig And Rachel died, and was buried in the way
Thy name shall not be called any morejacob, but to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.
Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name so AndJacob set a pillar upon her grave: that be
Israel.the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. s6 ? And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there
was hut a little way to come to Ephrath: and
Rachel travelled, and she had hard labor.
WY Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, should be interjected here
H does not appear. However, if all Isaac's and Jacob's
children had been intrusted to her care through the perils of infancy, it was fitting that the younger generation with their father should pause in their journey and drop a tear to her memory, and cultivate a tender sentiment for the old oak tree at Bethel.
There is no manifestation of gratitude more beautiful in family life than kindness and respect to servants for long years of faithful service, especially for those who have watched the children night and day, tender in sickness, and patient with all their mischief in health. In dealing with children one needs to exercise all the cardinal virtues, more tact, diplomacy, more honor and honesty than even an ambassador to the Court of St. James. Children readily see whom they can trust, on whose word they can rely.
In Rachel's hour of peril the midwife whispers sweet words of consolation. She tells her to fear not, that she will have a son, and he will be born alive. Whether she died herself is of small importance so that the boy lived. Scott points a moral on the death of Rachel. He thinks she was unduly anxious to have sons, and so the Lord granted her prayers to her own
destruction. If she had accepted with pious resignation whatever weal or woe naturally fell to her lot, she might have lived to a good old age, and been buried by Jacob's side at last, and not left alone in Bethlehem. People who obstinately seek what they deem their highest good, ofttimes perish in the attainment of their ambition. (Thus Scott philosophizes.)
Jacob was evidently a man of but little sentiment. The dying wife gasps a name for her son, but the father pays no heed to her request, and chooses one to suit himself. Though we must admit that Benjamin is more dignified than Ben-oni; the former more suited to a public officer, the latter to a household pet. And now Rachel is gone, and her race with Leah for children is ended. The latter with her maids is the victor, for she can reckon eight sons, while Rachel with hcr~ can muster only four. One may smile at this ambition of the women for children, but a man's wealth was estimated at that tine by the number of his children and cattle; women who had no children were objects of pity and dislike among the Jewish tribes. The Jews of to-day have much of the same feeling. They believe in the home sphere for all women, that wifehood and motherhood are the most exalted offices. If they are really so considered, why does every Jew on each returning Holy Day say in reading the service, ?I thank thee, oh Lord! that I was not born a woman!?? And if Gentiles are of the same opinion, why do they consider the education of boys more important than that of girls ? Surely those who are to fill the most responsible offices should have the most thorough and liberal education.
The home sphere has so many attractions that most women prefer it to all others. A strong right arm on which to lean, a safe harbor where adverse winds never blow, nor rough seas roll, makes a most inviting picture. But alas ! even good husbands sometime die, and the family drifts out on the great ocean of life, without chart or compass, or the least knowledge of the science of navigation. In such emergencies the woman trained to self-protection, self-independence, and self-support holds
the vantage ground against all theories on the home sphere.
The first mention we have of an aristocratic class of Kings
and Dukes, is in the line of Cain's descendants.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Genesis xxxvd
xlAnd these are the sons of Aholibamab, Esan's erele the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daugh. wife: duke Jeusts, dulceJaalam, duke Korah: these ter of Anab Esau's wife.
The name Aholibamah has a suggestion of high descent, but the historian tells us nothing of the virtues or idiosyncrasies of character, such a high-sounding name suggests, but simply that she was the daughter of Anah, and the wife of Esau, and that she was blessed with children, all interesting facts, which might have been intensified with a knowledge of some of her characteristics, what she thought, said and did, her theories of life in general. One longs all through Genesis to know what the women thought of a strictly masculine dynasty.
Some writers claim that these gross records of primitive races, have a deep spiritual meaning, that they are symbolical of the struggles of an individual soul from animalism to the highest, purest development of all the Godlike in man.
Some on the Revising Committee take this view, and will
give us from time to time more exalted interpretations than the
account in plain English conveys to the ordinary mind.
In my exegesis thus far, not being versed in scriptural metaphors and symbols, I have attempted no scientific interpretation of the simple narration, merely commenting on the supposed facts as stated. As the Bible is placed in the hands of children and uneducated men and women to point them the way of salvation, the letter should have no doubtful meaning. What should we think of guide posts on our highways, if we needed a symbolical interpreter at every point to tell us which way to go? the significance of the letters? and the point of compass indicated by the digital finger? Learned men have revised the Scriptures times without number, and I do not propose to go back of the latest Revision. E. C. S.
#######################
COMMENTS ON GENESIS.
CHAPTER XII.
Genesis xxxix.
And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the IshmacilIes, which bad brought him down thither.
2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and l,e served him: and be mode him overseer over his house and all that he bad he put into his hand.
~ ? And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wile cast her eyes uponJoseph; and she solicited him.
8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wolteth not what is with sue in the house, and be bath committed all that he bath to my hand.
9 How then can I dothia great wickedness and sin against God?
so Audit came to pass, as abe spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, and ehe caught him by his garment, and he left his garment tuber hand and fled.
23 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled forth,
54 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, be bath
brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me, and I cried with a loud voice:
s~ And it came to pass, when be l,eard that I titled up my voice and cried, that he left his gar~ mint with me, and fled.
s6 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.
t7 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying. The Hebrew serva,,t which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
xl And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that be lelt his garment with me, and fled out.
29 And it came to pass, when his master beard the words of his wile, that his wrath was kindled.
20 AndJoseph's master took him; and put him into the prison, a place where tl2e king's pris~ oners were bound: and be was there in tb~. prison.
25 ? But the Lord was withJoseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
22 And the keeper of the prison commItted to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatever they did there, be was the doer a/it.
P OTIPHAR'S wife surpasses all the women yet mentioned in perfidy and dishonor.
Joseph's virtues, his dignity, his honor, go far to redeem the reputation of his ancestors, and the customs of his times. it would have been generous, at least, if the editor of these pages could have given us one woman the counterpart of Joseph, a noble, high-minded, virtuous type. Thus far those of all the different nationalities have been of an ordinary low type. Historians usually dwell on the virtues of the people, the heroism of their deeds, the wisdom of their words; but the sacred fabulist dwells on the most questionable behavior of the Jewish race.
and much in character and language that we can neither print nor
answer.
Indeed the Pentateuch is a long painful record of war, corruption, rapine, and lust. Why Christians who wished to convert the heathen to our religion should send them these books, passes all understanding. It is most demoralizing reading for children and the unthinking masses, giving all alike the lowest possible idea of womanhood, having no hope nor ambition beyond conjugal unions with men they scarcely knew, for whom they could not have had the slighest sentiment of friendship, to say nothing of affection. There is no mention of women except when the advent of sons is announced. When the Children of Israel go down into Egypt we are told that the wives of Jacob's sons were taken too, but we hear nothing of Jacob's wives or concubines, until the death and burial of Leah is incidentally mentioned. Throughout the book of Genesis the leading men declare from time to that the Lord comes to them and promises great fruitfulness. A strange promise in that it could only be fulfilled in questionable relations. To begin with Abraham, and go through to Joseph, leaving out all conjugal irregularities, we find Abraham and Sarah had Isaac, Isaac and Rebekah had Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Rachel (for she alone was his true wife), had Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph and Asenath had Manassah and Ephraim. Thus giving the Patriarchs just seven legitimate descendants in the first generation. If it had not been for polygamy and concubinage, the great harvest so recklessly promised would have been meagre indeed.
##################
Genesis xZi.
45 ? And Pharaoh called Joseph's name ath the daughter of Poti-pherab priest of Onbare
Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wile unto him.
Asenath the daughter of Potar.pherab priest of si AndJoseph called the name of the first-born
On.And Joseph went out over all the land, of Manassab: For God, said he, hath made me-
Egypt.forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
46 ? And Joseph was thirty years old when he ~s And the name of the second called he
stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.Ephraim: For God bath caused me to he fruitful
3o And untoJoseph were born two eons, he- in the land of my affliction.
forethe years of the famine came: which AsenThis is all we ever hear ofAsenath, that she was a good woman,~~
.
probably worthy of Joseph, it is fair to infer, for had she been otherwise her evil deeds would have been recorded. A few passing remarks where ever we find the mention of woman is about all we can vouchsafe. The writer probably took the same view of the virtuous woman as the great Roman General who said ?the highest praise for Ci~sar's wife is that she should never be mentioned at all.?
The texts on Lot's daughters and Tamar we omit altogether, as unworthy a place in the ?Woman's Bible.? In the remaining chapters of Genesis, the brethren of Joseph take leave of each other; the fathers bless their sons and grandsons, and also take leave of each other, some to go to remote parts of the country, some to die at a ripe old age. As nothing is said of their wives and daughters, the historian probably knew nothing of their occupations nor environments. Joseph was a hundred and ten years old when he died. They embalmed him according to the custom in Egypt, and put him in a coffin, and buried him in the land of his fathers, where his brethren had promised to take his bones after death to rest with his kindred at last.
E.C.S.
The literal translation of the first verse of chapter xxxix
of Genesis is as follows:
?And Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar,
Pharaoh's eunuch, chief of the cooks, an Egyptian bought him
of the Ishmaelites who brought him down.?
These facts which are given in Julia Smith's translation
of the Bible throw a new light on the story of Joseph and the
woman who was Potiphar's wife only in name.L. D. B.
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THE BOOK OF EXODUS.
CHAPTER I.
jexodus A
Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt: every man and his household came with Jacob.
a Reuben, Simeon, Levi. andjudah,
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
~ And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls : for Joseph was in Egypt a?re~dy.
s~ ? And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shipbrab and the name of the other Puah:
s6 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and they bare a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it iv a daughter, then she shall live.
s7 But the midwives feared God, end did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
.8 And the kingof Egypt called fortite midwives, and said Unto them, Why have ye done this thing and have saved the men children alive?
t~ And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are delivered ere the midwives come in Unto them:
20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives:
and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
as And it came to pass, hecause the midwives-feared God, that he made them houses.
aa And Pharaoh chatged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into tl,e river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
THE Book of Exodus or the Departure, so called because of the escape of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,
and their wanderings in the Wilderness for forty years, are herein
recalled.
The unparalleled multiplication of the children of Israel renewed Pharaoh's anxiety especially as the Israelites were very large and strong as compared with the Egyptians, and their numbers were computed to double every fourteen years. Hence their multitude and power grew more formidable day by day in the eyes of the Egyptians, though they feared their presence, yet as their labors added greatly to the wealth of the nation, they were unwilling to let them go. Pharaoh hoped by making their daily tasks much harder and killing all the male children at birth, they would be so crippled and dispirited that there would be no danger of rebellion against his government.
For a list of the seventy souls, turn to Genesis, chapter xlvi, where Dinah, Jacob's daughter, and Sarah, Asher's daughter, are mentioned among the seventy souls. It is certainly curious that there should have been only two daughters to sixty-eight sons. But perhaps the seventy souls refer only to sons, and the daughters are merely persons, not souls. It is not an uncommon idea with many nations that women have no souls. A missionary to China tells of a native who asked him why he preached the Gospel to women. ?To save their souls, to be sure.? ?Why,? said he, ?women have no souls.? ?Yes they have,? said the missionary. When the thought dawned on the Chinaman that it might be true, he was greatly amused, and said, ?Well, I'll run home and tell my wife she has a soul, and we will sit down and laugh together.? We find at many points that the Bible does not reckon women as souls. It may be that because there is no future for them is the reason why they punish them here more severely than they do men for the same crimes. 1-lere it is plainly asserted that all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy in number. The meaning conveyed may be that the man supplies the spirit and intellect of the race, and woman the body only. Some late writers take this ground. If so, the phraseology would have been more in harmony with the idea, if the seventy souls had emanated, Minerva-like, from the brain of father Jacob, rather than from his loins.
The children of Israel multiplied so rapidly that Pharaoh
became alarmed, lest the nation should become mightier than
-the Egyptians, so he ordered all the males at birth to be slain. To this end he had a private interview with The midwives, two women, Shiphrah and Puah, and laid his commands upon them. But they did not obey his orders, and excused themselves on the ground that the Jewish women seldom needed their services. Here we have another examp~1e of women who ?feared God,? and yet used deception to accomplish what they deemed right.
The Hebrew God seemed to be well pleased with the deception, and gave them each a house for their fidelity in saving the lives of his chosen children. Such is the plain English of the .story. Origen ascribes a deep spiritual meaning to these passages, as more recent writers and speakers do, making the whole Bible a collection of symbols and allegories, but none of them are complimentary to our unfortunate sex. Adam Clarke says if we begin by taking some parts of the Scriptures figuratively we shall soon figure it all away. Though the midwives in their comfortable homes enjoyed the approbation of God, Pharaoh was not to be thwarted by their petty excuses, so he ordered his own people to cast into the river every Jewish boy that was born. We are so accustomed to the assumption that men alone form a nation, that we forget to resent such texts as these. Surely daughters in freedom could perpetuate family and national pride and honor, and if allowed to wed the men of their choice, their children would vindicate their ancestral dignity. The greatest block to advancing civilization all along the line has been the degradation of woman. Having no independent existence, no name, holding no place of honor or trust, being mere subjects in the family, the birth of a son is naturally considered more important than a daughter, as the one inherits because of sex all the rights and privileges denied the other.
Shiphrah and Puah, Aben Ezra tells us, were probably at the head of their profession, and instructed others in the science of obstetrics. At this time there were five hundred midwives among the Hebrews. This branch of the profession was, among the Egyptians, also in the hands of the women. Statistics show that the ratio of deaths among mothers and children at birth was far less than when under male supervision exclusively.
Moses spent the first forty years of his life in Egypt, the next forty with Jethro his father in law, and the next forty wandering in the wilderness. One writer said the Lord must have buried Moses, and no one ever knew where. There is no record of the burial place of Moses. As his life had been surrounded with mysteries, perhaps to verify his providential guidance in that long journey in the wilderness, he chose
to surround his death also with mystery, and arranged with members of the priesthood to keep his last resting place a profound secret. He was well versed in all the law and mythology of the Egyptians, and intended the people should no doubt think that Jehovah had taken the great leader to himself. For the purpose of controlling his followers in that long journey through the wilderness, he referred all his commands and actions to Jehovah. Moses declared that he met him face to face on Mount Sinai, veiled in a cloud of fire, received minute instructions how to feed and conduct the people, as well as to minister to their moral and spiritual necessities. In order to enforce his teachings, he said the ten commandments were written on tablets of stone by Jehovah himself, and given into his hands to convey to the people, with many ordinances and religious observances, to be sacredly kept. In this
-way the Jewish religion and the Mosaic code were established.
As these people had no written language at that time, and could neither read nor write, they were fitting subjects for all manner of delusions and superstitions. The question naturally suggests itself to any rational mind, why should the customs and opinions of this ignorant people, who lived centuries ago, have any influence in the religious
thought of this generation?E. C. S.
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THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
CHAPTER II.
Erodse ii.
And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to a*4/e a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman bare a son: and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and pot the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
s ? And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side: and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nutse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me. and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
so And the child grew, and shebrought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
t~ But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
ifi Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to woter their father's flock.
57 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
s8 And when they came to Renel their father, he said. How is it that ye are come so soon today?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
ao And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
as And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
sa And she hare him a son, and he called his name Gershon: fer he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
THE account of the birth of Moses, his mother's anxiety in protecting him from the wrath of Pharaoh, and the
goodness of the king's daughter, make altogether an interesting story, and is almost the first touch of sentiment with which the historian has refreshed us; a pleasant change from the continued accounts of corruption, violence, lust, war and petty falsehood, that have thus far marked the history of this people. The only? value of these records to us is to show the character of the Jewish nation, and make it easy for us to reject their ideas as to the true status of woman, and their pretension of being guided by the hand of God, in all their devious wanderings. Surely such teachings as these, should have no influence in regulating the lives of women in the nineteenth century. Moses' conduct towards the seven daughters of the priest at the well, shows that there were some sparks of chivalry here and there in a few representative souls, notwithstanding the contempt for the sex in general. These Hebrew wooings and weddings were curiously similar, alike marked for the beauty and simplicity of the daughters of the land, the wells, the flocks, the handsome strangers, the strong, active young men who will prove so helpful in cultivating the lands. The father-in-law usually gets the young husband completely under his thumb, and we hear nothing of the dreaded mother-in-law of the nineteenth century. If we go through this chapter carefully we will find mention of about a dozen women, but with the exception of one given to Moses, all are nameless. Then as now names for women and slaves are of no imp~rtance; they have no individual life, and why should their personality require a life-long name? To-day the
-woman is Mrs. Richard Roe, to-morrow Mrs. John Doe, and again Mrs. James Smith according as she changes masters, and she has so little self-respect that she does not see the insult of the custom. We have had in this generation one married ~woman in England, and one in America, who had one name from birth to death, and though married they kept it. Think of the inconvenience of vanishing as it were from your friends and correspondents three times in one's natural life.
In helping the children of Israel to escape from the land of
Egypt the Lord said to Moses:
##########
.Ex~sias iii.
t~ ? And I am sore that the king of Egypt willaa But every woman shall borrow of her neigh.
outlet you go, no, not by a mighty hand,boor, and of her that sojourueth in her house.
ao And I will stretch out my hand, and smite jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raimens:
Egypt with all my wonders which I seill do iu the and ye shall put tRees upon your sons, and
midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. upon your daughters: and ye shall spoil the
as And I will give this people favour in the sightEgyptians.
of the Egyptians : and it shall come to pass, that,
sehws ye go, ye shall not go empty:
The role assigned the women, in helping the children of
Israel to escape in safety from bondage, is by no means compli-mentary to their heroism or honesty. To help bear the expenses of the journey, they were instructed to steal all the jewels of silver and gold, and all the rich raiment of the Egyptian ladies. The Lord and Moses no doubt went on the principle that. the Israelites had richly earned all in the years of their bondage. This is the position that some of our good abolitionists took,. when Africans were escaping from American bondage, that the slaves had the right to seize horses, boats, anything to help them to Canada, to find safety in the shadow of the British lion. Some of our pro-slavery clergymen, who no doubt often read the third chapter of Exodus to their congregations, forgot the advice of Moses, in condemning the abolitionists; as the Americans had stolen the African's body and soul, and kept them in hopeless bondage for generations?they had richly earned whatever they needed to help them to the land of freedom. Stretch the principle of natural rights a little further, and ask the question, why should women, denied all their political rights, obey laws to which they have never given their consent, either by proxy or in person? Our fathers in an inspired moment said, ?No just government can be formed without the consent of the governed.?
Women have had no voice in the canon law, the catechisms, the church creeds and discipline, and why should they obey the behests of a strictly masculine religion, that places the sex at a. disadvantage in all life's emergencies?
Our civil and criminal codes reflect at many points the spirit of the Mosaic. In the criminal code we find no feminine pronouns, as ?He,? ?His,? ?Him,? we are arrested, tried and hung, but singularly enough, we are denied the highest privileges of citizens, because the pronouns ?She,? ?Hers? and ?Her,? are not found in the constitutions. It is a pertinent question, if women can pay the penalties of their crimes as ?He,? why may they not enjoy the privileges of citizens as ?He??
E.C.S.
##################
COMMENTS ON EXODUS.
CHAPTER III.
.Exodu., w.
s8 ? And Moses went and returned toJeshro his those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put im father in law, and said unto him, let me go, I pray shine hand: but I will harden his heart, that I.e shee, and return unto my brethren which ave ia shall not let the people go.
Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And cc And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. the Lord, Israel is my son, even soy firstborn:
sg And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, a~ And I say unto thee let my son go, that he
return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which may serve me: anti if thou refase to let hiso go, besought thy life, hold, I will slay thy son, ~.z's,s thy ftrssl,orn:
so And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set 24 ? And it came to pass by the way in the inn,
them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of that the Lord met him, and sought to kill hiso.
Egypt : and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. 25 Then Zipporab took a sharp stone, and ciras And the Lord said onto Moses. when thou cumcised her son.
goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all a6 So he let him go.
WHEN Moses married Zipporah he represented himself as a
stranger who desired nothing better than to adoptJethro's mode of life, But now that he desired to see his own people, his wife has no choice but to accompany him. So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt.
The reason the Lord met them and sought to kill the son, was readily devined by Zipporah; her son had not been circumcised; so with woman's quick intuition and natural courage to save the life of her husband, she skillfully performed the necessary operation, and the travellers ~vent on their way rejoicing. The -word circumcision seems to have a very elastic meaning ?uncIrcumcised lips? is used to describe that want of power to speak fluently, from which Moses suffered and which he so often deplored.
As in every chapter of Jewish history this rite is dwelt upon it is worthy of remark that its prominence as a religious observance means a disparagement of all female life, unfit for offerings, and unfit to take part in religious services, incapable of consecration. The circumcision of the heart even, which women might achieve, does not render them fit to take an active part in any f the holy services of the Lord. They were permitted to violate the moral code of laws to secure liberty for their people, but they could not officiate in any of the sacraments~ nor eat of the consecrated bread at meals. Although the Mosaic code and customs so plainly degrade the female sex, and their position in the church to-day grows out of these ancient customs, yet many people insist that our religion dignifies women. But so long as the Pentateuch is read and accepted as the Word. of God, an undefined influence is felt by each generation that-destroys a proper respect for all womankind.
It is the contempt that the canon and civil law alike express for women that has multiplied their hardships and intensified man's desire to hold them in subjection. The sentiment that statesmen and bishops proclaim in their high places are responsible~ for the actions of the lower classes on the highways. We scarce take up a paper that does not herald some outrage committed on a matron on her way to church, or the little girl gathering wild flowers on her way to school; yet you cannot go so low down in the scale of being as to find men who will enter our churches to desecrate the altars or toss about the emblems of the sacrament; because they have been educated with some respect for churches, altars and sacraments. But where are any lessons. of respect taught for the mothers of the human family? And yet as the great factor in the building of the race, are they not more sacred than churches, altars, sacraments or the priesthood?
Do our sons in their law schools, who read the old common law of England and its commentators, rise from their studies. with higher respect for women? Do our sons in their theological seminaries rise from their studies of the Mosaic laws and Paul's epistles with higher respect for their mothers? Alas! in both cases they may have learned their first lessons of disrespect and contempt. They who would protect their innocent daughters from the outrages so common to-day, must lay anew the foundation stones of law and gospel in justice and equality, in a profound respect of the sexes for each other. E. C. S.
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Clt.xlnTvl~ IV.
Exodus xii.
,e For I will pass through the land of l-l~vpt this night, and will smite till the fnrsshorii iii tiw lied nil Egypt, both man and beast : asid acinisist ill gods of Egypt I will esecuse jodgmesnt I ann she Lord.
,I And the blood shall he to you li.nr a tinkin nip is the houses nehere ye ns~-n'- eel sn-lien I s-s-c blood, I will pass over you, and iii bent,. not be upon you so destroy vent, in lee l nenite the land of Egypt.
43 ?1 And she Lord said unto Moan neil Attn ii. This is she ordinance of the passover [her,' small no stranger eat thereof:
~ But every mali's sersansis sin-isis Inoniglit fir money, when thou hess circumcised him, ~i:en shill he eat thereof.
4; ..~n fiirengei-r its,1 a mini I ..-rs.nnt ~in II ii tiniri I.
4tn In mm,' lni:ini-.3.. U it in. nit-ni s-i lilt
titeanrey Sirs:. ens> , : ti- :n .?i :, - . ill nif sine tins- - in,-n tin-n ~:i ~.. nib a i-i,.
ilni-nen 4.
43 thin1 Oh-u.n Sinini.. i Sii.i.i 5-.;? ii~~n~ iii U
iii; iii:iii-e i-n nirn inni?, I, .iniI -a b-s i. inn i--ne. ini-iranninll. n-nm u:.i.i~i ii-.?... ii.. is inn,
?cii isi ti;n- Inisil hr no into an-- in inizisci nat tiniri.. it.
IN commemoration of this I)romise of the Lords to pass over their homes in executing veligeance 011 tile lUgv~)ti:tl1s, antI
of the prolonged battles between Jehovah and Mo-nes (ml? tIle iSlIC side, and Pharaoh and his Cabinet on the other, the Jeu 5 lIeu1 an annual feast to which all circumcised males were sll;flInolletl. The point of interest, to us is whether women Were slistjualifletl, not being circumcised, or whether as members of the congregiltion they could slip in under the provision in the 47th verse, anti enjoy the unleavened bread and niCe r(iast lalflb with tile mcli of their household. It seems from the above texts that this blessesl feast of deliverance from bondage must have been coIlfilled ts males, that they only, could express their joy and gratitlltie. But women were permitted to l)erfftrln a snl)t)rdinate part in the grand hegira, beside cllrryilig their respective infants they manifested their patriotism by stealing all the jewels tif gtti~i anti silver, all the rich silks and velvets from their lKgy1aian neighbors, all they could carry, according t(i the einll?rn:tll(ls ttf Moses. And why should these women take iiy hart ill the itlIsslIver tileir condition remained about the same ulliler all dynasties in all lands. They were regarded merely' as neC C55llf~ factors in race building. As Jewish wives or Egyptian concubines. there was no essential difference in their social sto-tus.
As Satan, represented by a male snake, seemed to be women's counsellor from the beginning, making her skillful in cunning and tergiversation, it is fair to suppose that they were destined to commune with the spirit of evil for ever and ever, that is if women have souls and are immortal, which is thought to be doubtful by many nations. There is no trace thus far that the Jews believed in a future state, good or bad. No promise of immortality is held out to men even. So far the promise to them 15 a purely material triumph, ?their seed shall not fill the earth.?
The firstborn of males both man and beast are claimed by the Lord as his own. From the general sentiment expressed in the various texts, it is evident that Satan claims the women as his own. The Hebrew God had very little to say in regard to them. If the passover, the lamb and the unleavened bread, were necessary to make the males acceptable in religious services, the females could find no favor in the eyes of either God or man.
In most of the sacrifices female animals are not accepted, nor a male, born after a female by the same parent. Males are the race, females only the creatures that carry it on. This arrangement must be providential, as it saves men from many disabilities. Men never fail to dwell on maternity as a disqualification for the possession of many civil and political rights. Suggest the idea of women having a voice in making laws and administering the Government in the halls of legislation, in Congress, or the British Parliament, and men will declaim at once on the disabilities of maternity in a sneering contemptuous way, as if the office of motherhood was undignified and did not comport with the highest public offices in church and state. It is vain that we point them to Queen Victoria, who has carefully reared a large family, while considering and signing all state papers. She has been a pattern wife and mother, kept a clean court, and used her influence as far as her position would admit, to keep peace with all nations. Why should representative American women be incapable of discharging similar public and private duties at the same time in an equally com
mendable manner?E. C. S.
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ChAPTER V.
E.atodus xrniii.
when Jeshro, shepriessofMidian,Moses' father
in law, heard of all that God had done br Mows, and for Israel his people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt:
a Then Jethro, Moses father in law, took Zipp~
orah, Moses wife, alter he had sent bier hack.
~ And her ssvo sons; of which tine name of one was Gershom : for he said, I have keen an alien in a strange land:
~And the name of the other was Eliecer: for the God of my father, said he. seas miae Ineip, and delivered me from the sneord of Phartsoh
5 And Jeshro, Moses father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the means of God:
6 And he said unto Moses. 1 tiny f.,sbni'r in list Jeshro am come (Into thee, and tiny wit e, miii I Inir
to-n sinus wish her.
? And Moses went osts to flint lit sniltir in lass. anni cliii olwis;niini', .ini I d-in~r'i hum - inn! sty asked ezich other of their welnarr ; tin' I si-n-f into sine 5n'iit -
S Aniti Moses tnnld his fninlnn'r iii no- iii l,ornl had done onto lih.,rtninht isi I ?? site Vs sinus for lsrtielns sake, utednill liii' rc.nn.iil ibit tn-i inns,' uposs them by the stay, and ii~tni sunS l.nrl ninliser' ed them,
AFTER a long separation the record of the meeting between Moses and his wife Zipporah is very unsatisfaCtory to tile
casual reader. There is some sentiment in the meetilig t~f Jethiro and Moses, they embraced and kissed each other. Ilow tninther and beautiful the seeming relation to a father in la~v, more fnrtnllate than the mother in law in our time. Zipporab like all the women of her time was hustled about, sent forward an(l haCk by husbands and fathers, generally transported with their sons antI belongings on some long?suffering jackass. Nothing is said of the daughters, but the sons, their names and their significance seem of vital importance. We must smile or heave a sigh at all this injustice, but different phases of the same guiding prineil)le blocks woman's way to-day to perfect liberty. See tile struggle they have made to gain admittance to the schools and colleges, the trades and professions, their civil and political rights. The darkest page in history is tile persecutions of woman.
We take note of these discriminations of sex, and reiterate them again and again to call the ;tttention of women to the real source of their multiplied disabilities. As long as our religion teaches ~vomans subjection and man's right of dominatIon, we shall have chaos in the world of morals. Women are never referred to as persons, merely as property, and to sec why,
you must read the Bible until you also see how many other opportunities for the exercise of sex were given to men, and why the single one of marriage to one husband was allowed to women.
In all the directions given Moses, for the regulation ofthe social and civil life of the children of Israel, and in the commandments. on Mount Sinai, it is rarely that females are mentioned. The regulations are chiefly for males, the offerings are male, the transgressions referred to are male.
When the Lord was about to give the ten commandments to the children of Israel he gave the most minute directions as to the preparatory duties of the people. It is evident from the text that males only were to witness Moses' ascent to Mount Sinai and the coming of the Lord in a cloud of fire.
Exodus xix.
ta And thou shalt set bounds unto the people beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet round aboul. saying, Take heed to yourselves, soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
that ye go eot up intothe mount, or touch the bord- 54 ? And Moses went down from the mount oner of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be to the people, and sanctified the people; and they surely put to death, washed their clothes.
t~ There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall s6 And he said unto the people, Be reedy against
surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it tIe the third day: come not atyour w,ves.
The children of Israel were to sanctify themselves for this great event. Besides a thorough cleaning of their persons and clothes, they were to have no affiliations or conversations with women for the space of three days. The Hebrew laws regulating the relations of men and women are never complimentary to the latter.
This feeling was in due time cultivated in the persecutions women endured under witchcraft and celibacy, when all women were supposed to be in collusion with the spirit of evil, and every man was warned that the less he had to do with the ?daughters of men? the more perfect might be his communion with the Creator. Lecky in his History of Rationalism shows what women endured when these ideas were prevalent, and their sufferings were not mitigated until rationalism took the place of religion, and reason trumphed over superstition. E. C.
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CHAPTER VI.
Exodus xv.I
so ? And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of a, And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand: and all the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse women went out after her with timbrels and with and his rider hash he thrown into the sea.
dances.
AFTER many previous disappointments from Pharaoh, the
children of Israel were permitted to start from Egypt and
cross the Red Sea, while Pharaoh and his host in pursuit, were
overwhelmed in the waters.
Then Moses and the children of Israel expressed their gratitude to the Lord in a song, comprising nineteen verses, while Miriam and the women expressed theirs in the above two. Has this proportion any significance as to the comparative happiness of the men and the women, or is it a poor attempt by the male historian to make out that though the women took part in the general rejoicing, they were mutinous or sulky. We know that Miriam was not altogether satisfied with the management of Moses at many points of the expedition, and later on expressed her dissatisfaction. If their gratitude is to be measured by the length of their expression, the women were only one-tenth as grateful as the men. It must always be a wonder to us, that in view of their degradation, they ever felt like singing or dancing, for what desirable change was there in their lives?the same hard work or bondage they suffered in Egypt. There, they were all slaves together, but now the men, in their respective families were exalted above their heads. Clarke gives the song in metre with a chorus, and says the women, led by Miriam, answered in a chorus by themselves which greatly heightened the effect.
Exodus xvi.
a~ And he said unto them. This is that which 29 See, for that the Lord hath given you the the Lord bath said, To morrow is the rest of the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day holy sabbath unto the Lord: hake that which ye the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh and that which remaineth over lay up for you to day.
be kept until the morning.I 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
In these texts we note that the work of men was done on the sixth day, but the women must work as usual on the seventh. We see the same thing to-day, woman's work is never done. What irony to say to them rest on the seventh day. The Puritan fathers would not let the children romp or play, nor give their wives a drive on Sunday, but they enjoyed a better dinner on the Sabbath than any other day; yet the xxxi chapter and I 5th verse contains the following warning:
a5 Sint days may work be done: but in the whosoever doesh any work in the sabbath day, he
seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: shall sorely be put to death.
As the women continued to work and yet seemed to live in the flesh, it may refer to the death of their civil rights, their individuality, as nonentities without souls or personal responsibility.
A critical reading of the ten commandments will show that they are chiefly for mei. After purifying themselves by putting aside their wives and soiled clothes, they assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai. We have no hint of the presence of a woman. One commandment speaks of visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. There is an element of justice in this, for to talk of children getting iniquities from their mothers, in a history of males, of fathers and sons, would be as ridiculous as getting them from the clothes they wore.
?Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.? With the majority of women this is impossible. Men of all classes can make the Sabbath a day of rest, at least a change of employment, but for women the same monotonous duties must be performed. In the homes of the rich and poor alike, most women cook, clean, and take care of children from morning till night. Men must have good dinners Sundays above all other days, as then they have plenty of time in which to eat. If the first born male child lifts up his voice at the midnight hour, the female attendant takes heed to his discontent; if in the early morning at the cock crowing, or the eventide, she is there. They who watch and guard the infancy of men are like faithful sentinels, always on duty.
The fifth commandment will take the reader by surprise. It is rather remarkable that the young Hebrews should have been told to honor their mothers, when the whole drift of the teaching thus far has been to throw contempt on the whole sex. In what way could they show their mothers honor? All the laws and customs forbid it. Why should they make any such manifestations? Scientists claim that the father gives the life, the spirit, the soul, all there is of most value in existence. Why honor the mother, for giving the mere covering of flesh. It was not her idea, but the father's, to start their existence. He thought of them, he conceived them. You might as well pay the price of a sack of wheat to the field, instead of the farmer who sowed it, as to honor the mother for giving life. According to the Jewish code, the father is the great factor in family life, the mother of minor consideration. In the midst of such teachings and examples of the subjection and degradation of all womankind, a mere command to honor the mother has no significance. E. C. S.
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CHAPTER VII.
Exodus xxxzt
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
a And Aaron saidunto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
And all the people brake off the golden earrings which nt~re in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
And he received them at their hand, and fash.
ioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it
a molten calf: and they said, These Re thy gods,
0Israel, which brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt.
~ And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow it a feast to the Lord.
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. and the people sac down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 ? And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
SO tired were the children of Israel waiting at the foot of Mount Sinai for the return of Moses, that Aaron to pacify
them made a golden calf which they worshipped. To procure the gold he took the jewelry of the women young and old, men never understanding how precious it is to them, and the great self-sacrifice required to part with it. But as the men generally give it to them during courtship, and as wedding presents, they feel that they have a vested right therein for emergencies.
It was just so in the American Revolution, in 1776, the first delicacy the men threw overboard in Boston harbor was the tea, woman's favorite beverage. The tobacco and whiskey, though heavily taxed, they clung to with the tenacity of the devil-fish. Rather than throw their luxuries overboard they would no doubt have succumbed to King George's pretensions. Men think that self-sacrifice is the most charming of all the cardinal virtues for women, and in order to keep it in healthy working order, they make opportunities for its illustration as often as possible. I would fain teach women that self-development is a higher duty ?than self-sacrifice.
The pillar of cloud for day and light for night, that went before the children of Israel in the wilderness, was indeed a marvel. It was an aqueous cloud that kept them well watered by day, and shadowed from the heat of the sun ; by night it showed its light side to the Israelites, and its dark side to whatever enemy might pursue them. It is supposed that about 3,200,000 started on this march with 165,000 children. They carried all their provisions, cooking utensils, flocks, herds and all the gold, silver, precious stones and rich raiment that they borrowed (stole) of the Egyptians, besides the bones of the twelve sons of Jacob. It is said the Israelites spent forty years wandering in the wilderness, kept there because of their wickedness, though they might have accomplished the journey in a few weeks. They disobeyed the commandments given them by Moses, and worshipped a golden calf, so they journeyed through deep waters, woe and tribulation. Fire was always a significant emblem of Deity, not only among the Hebrews but many other ancient nations, hence men have adopted it as a male emblem. They talk of Moses seeing God; but Moses says: ?ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spoke unto me on Mount Horeb out of the cloud of fire.? E. C. S.
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CHAPTER VIII.
Exodus x.rxiv.
sa Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a
covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou guess, lest is be for a snare in the midst of thee;
sy But ye shall destroy their altars, break their tmages, and cut down their groves:
s4 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, who eta jealous God.
e~ Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of she bind, and they go after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice:
s6 And thou sake of their daughters unto thy suns, and their daughters go after their gods, and make thy suns go after their gods.
a~ ? Thrive in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
24 For I will cast out the nations before thee. and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year.
25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover he left unto the morning.
a6 The first of the first fruits of ?hy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
THE Jews did not seem to have an abiding faith in the attractions of their own religion. They evidently lived in
constant fear lest their sons and daughters should worship the strange gods of other nations. They seem also to have had most exaggerated fears as to the influence alien women might exert over their sons. Three times in the year all the men were to appear before the Lord. Why the women were not commanded to appear has been a point of much questioning. Probably the women, then as now, were more conscientious in their religious duties, and not so susceptible to the attractions of alien men and their strange gods.
If the Lord had talked more freely with the Jewish women and impressed some of his wise commands on their hearts, they would have had a more refined and religious influence on the men of Israel. But all their knowledge of the divine commands was second hand and through an acknowledged corrupt medium.
?Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.? After all the learning critics have bestowed on this passage, the simple meaning, says Adam Clarke, seems to be this: Thou shalt do nothing that may have a tendency to blunt thy moral feelings, or teach thee hardness of heart. Even human nature shudders at the thought of taking the mother's milk to see
the flesh of her own dead lamb. With all their cruelty towards alien tribes and all their sacrifices of lambs and kids, there is an occasional touch of tenderness for animal life among the Hebrews that is quite praiseworthy.
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Eatodus xxxvi.
aa And they came, both mett and women, as z~ And all the women that were wise hearted many as were willing hearted, and brought did spin with their:hands, and brought that which bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all they had spun, Roth of blue, and of purple aeni of jewels of gold; and every man offered an offering scarlet, and of fine linen.
of gold unto the Lord.afi And all the women whose heart stirred them
a~ And every man, with whom was found blue, up in wisdom spun goats hair.
and purple, and scarlet~ and fine linen, and goats'
Rair, and red skins of ranss, and badgersi skins, brought them.
Women were always considered sufficiently clean to beg, work and give generously for the building and decoration of churches, and the support of the priesthood. They might always serve as inferiors, but never receive as equals.
Great preparations were made for building the Tabernacle, and all the willing hearted were invited to bring all their ornaments and all manner of rich embroideries, and brilliant fancy work of scarlet, blue and purple. As usual in our own day the Jewish women were allowed to give generously, work untiringly and beg eloquently to build altars and Tabernacles to the Lord, to embroider slippers and make flowing robes for the priesthood, but they could not enter the holy of holies or take any active part in the services.
Some women in our times think these unhappy Jewesses would have been much ?wiser hearted? if they had kept their jewelry and beautiful embroideries to decorate themselves and their homes, where they were at least satellites of the dinner pot and the cradle, and Godesses at their own altars. Seeing they had no right inside the sacred Temple, but stood looking-glass in hand at the door, it would have indicated more selfrespect to have washed their hands of all that pertained to male ceremonies, altars and temples. But the women were wild with enthusiasm, just as they are to-day with fairs and donation parties, to build churches, and they brought such loads of
bric-a-brac that at last Moses compelled them to stop, as the supply exceeded all reasonable demand. But for the building of the Tabernacle the women brought all they deemed most precious, even the most necessary and convenient articles of their toilets.
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Exodus xxxviii.
8 ? And he made the layer of brass, and the women assembling at the door of the tabernacle of
foot of it of brass, of the lookiog glasses of the - the congregation.
The men readily accepted the sacrifice of all their jewelry, rich laces, velvets and silks, their looking glasses of solid precious metal. These being made of metal could be used for building purposes. The women carried these with them wherever they went, and always stood with them in hand at the door of the Tabernacle, as they were the doorkeepers standing outside to watch and guard the door from those not permitted to enter.
An objective view of the manner these women were imposed upon, wheedled and deceived with male pretensions and the pat use of the phrase ?thus saith the Lord,? must make every one who reads indignant at the masculine assumption, even at this
late day.E.C.S.
At every stage of his existence Moses was indebted to some woman for safety and success. Miriam, by her sagacity, saved his life. Pharaoh's daughter reared and educated him and made the way possible for the high offices he was called to fill; and Zipporah, his wife, a woman of strong character and decided opinions, often gave him good advice. Evidently from the text she criticised his conduct and management as a leader, and doubted his supernatural mission, for she refused to go out of Egypt with him, preferring to remain with her sons under her father's roof?Jethro, a priest of Midian. After the destruction of Pharaoh's host, when the expedition, led by Moses seemed to be an assured success, she followed with her father to join the leader of the wandering Israelites. (Chapter xviii, 2.)
In the ordinances which follow the ten commandments.
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Exodus xxii.
as ? Thou shalt neither vent a stranger, nor a~ If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry
oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land ofat all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;
Egypt. 24 And my nerath shall want lint, and I will kill
aa ? Ye shall not afflict any widow, or father-you with the sword, and yonnr wives shall he
less child,widows, and your children fatherless:
This special threat against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, has a touch of tenderness and mercy, but if the vengeance is to make more widows and fatherless, the sum of human misery is increased rather than diminished. As to the stranger, after his country has been made desolate, his cities burned, his property, cattle, lands and merchandise all confiscated, kind words and alms would be but a small measure of justice under any circumstances.
In closing the book of Exodus, the reader must wonder that the faith and patience of the people, in that long sorrowful march through the wilderness, held out as long as it did. Whether fact or fiction, it is one of the most melancholy records in human history. Whether as a mere \vork of the imagination, or the real experience of an afflicted people, our finer sentiments of pity and sympathy find relief only in doubts of its truth.L.D.B.
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BOOK OF LEVITICUS.
CHAPTER I.
twiticus iv, vi.
sa When a ruler hath sinned and somewhat through ignorance, against any of the consrnandmenls of the Lord his G0d concerning things which should not he done, and is guilty.
23 Or if his sin, wherein he bath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:
27 ? And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to he done, and he guilty
sS Then he shall bring his offering, a kid of ~he goats, a temale without blemish, fur his sin.
i~ ? And this is the law of the meat offering:
the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord. before the altar.
z~ And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour ot the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, even the memorial of it, unto the Lord.
~3 All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shaLt he a statute for ever in your generations conceming the offerings ol the Lord made by 6re: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.
THERE seems to have been some distinction of sex even in the offerings of male and female animals. For rulers,
priests and people of distinction male animals were required, but for the common people a female lamb or goat would do. There is a difference of opinion among writers as to tne reason of this custom, some say because all female animals were considered unclean, others that the females were too valuable for wholesale slaughter. Farmers use the male fowls for the table because the hens are too valuable producing eggs and chickens. The fact has some significance, though Adam Clarke throws no light on it, he says ?the whole sacrificial system in this book refers to the coming sacrifice of Christ; without this spiritual reference, the general reader can feel no spiritual interest in this book.? For burnt offerings males were required, but for peace offerings and minor sins the female would answer.
As the idea of sacrifice to unknown gods, was the custom with all nations and religions, why should the Jewish have more significance than that of any other people. For swearing, an offence to ears polite, rather than eternal justice, a female creature or turtle dove might be offered.
The meat so delicately cooked by the priests, with wood and coals in the altar, in clean linen, no woman was permitted to taste, only the males among the children of Aaron. Seeing that the holy men were the cooks, it seems like a work of supererogation to direct them to clean themselves and their cooking utensils. Perhaps the daughters of Israel were utilized for that work.
It is clearly shown that child-bearing among the Jews was not considered a sacred office and that offerings to the Lord were necessary for their purification, and that double the time was necessary after the birth of a daughter.
In several of the following chapters the sins of men and women are treated on equal grounds, hence they need no special comments. In reading many of these chapters we wonder that an expurgated edition of these books was not issued long ago. We trust the volume we propose to issue may suggest to the next Revising Committee of gentlemen the propriety of omitting many texts that are gross and obscene, especially if the Bible is to be read in our public schools.
###########
Leviticus x.
22 ? And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto sacrifices of the Lord made by fire: for so I am Eleazar and unto Ititamar, his sons that were commanded.
left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of s~ And the wave breast and heave shoulder the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat shall ye eat in a clean place; thou, and thy sons, it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy holy. due, and thy sons' due, which are given out of 13 And ye shall eat it tn the holy place, be- the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children
cause it is thy due, and thy sons' due, of the of Israel.
Why the daughters cannot eat with the sons in the thirteenth verse and may in the fourteenth we cannot conjecture. We notice, however, that where the sons eat alone is called a ?holy place,? where the daughters eat with them it is called simply a ?clean place.? We are thankful, however, that in the distribution of meats the women come in occasionally for a substantial
meal in a clean place.
All the directions given in the eighteenth chapter are for men and women alike, for all nations and all periods of human development. The social habits and sanitary conditions prescribed are equally good for our times as when given by Moses to the children of Israel. The virtue of cleanliness so sedulously taught cannot be too highly commended. E. C. S.
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COMMENTS ON LEVITICUS.93
CHAPTER II.
.t.ez,iticsu xix.
3 ? Ye shall rear every man his mother, and his ~ther, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
20 And whosoever cohabits with a handmaid,
betrothed to a husband, and not at all redeemed,
nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged:
they shall not be put to death, because she was not
free.
21. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto
the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the
,congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering.
22 And the priest shall make an atonement for
him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
BY what possible chance the mother is mentioned first here,
it is difficult to conjecture, but we do see the cruel injustice of the comparative severity of the punishment for man and woman for the same offence. The woman is scourged, the man presents the priest with a ram and is forgiven.
L~cs~ticus xx.
g ? For every one that curseth his father or his 27 ? A man also or woman that hath a amiliar
mother shall be surely put to death: he bathspirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to
cursed his father or his mother; his blood skallAedeath : they shall stone them with stones; their
upon him,blood .,Izallbe upon them.
25 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it
is an unclean thing: he bath uncovered his
brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
Clarke remarks that all language that tends to lessen respect for father or mother, is included in this judgment. In this chapter we have still further directions for race and family purity. I suppose in the 21st verse we have that stumbling-block in the British Parliament whenever the deceased wife's sister's bill comes up for passage. Here, too, those who in times past have persecuted witches, will find justification for their cruelties. The actors in one of the blackest pages in human history, claim Scripture authority for their infernal deeds. Far into the eighteenth century in England, the clergy dragged innocent women into the courts as witches, and learned judges pronounced on them the sentence of torture and death. The chapter on witchcraft in Lecky's History of Rationalism
contains the most heartrending facts in human history. It is unsafe to put unquestioned confidence in all the vagaries of mortal man. While women were tortured, drowned and burned by the thousands, scarce one wizard to a hundred was ever condemned. The marked distinction in the treatment of the sexes, all through the Jewish dispensation, is curious and depressing, especially as we see the trail of the serpent all through history, wherever their form of religion has made its impress. In the old common law of our Saxon fathers, the Jewish code is essentially reproduced. This same distinction of sex appears in our own day. One code of morals for men, another for women. All the opportunities and advantages of life for education, self-support and self-development freely accorded boys, have, in a small measure, been reluctantly conceded to women after long and persevering struggles.
###########
Leviticus xxii.
~a If the priest's daughter also be married unto
a stranger, she may not eat of an effering of the
holy things.
23 Hut if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto
her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of
her father's meat: but there shall no stranger eat
thereof.
These restrictions on the priests' daughters would never be tolerated by the priests' sons should they marry strangers. The individuality of a woman, the little she ever possessed, is obliterated by marriage.
##################
Leviticus xxiv.
in ? And the son of an Israelllish woman,
whose father was an Egyptian, went out among
the children of Israel: and this son of the
Israclitish woman and a man of Israel strove
together in the camp;
11 And the Jarselitish woman's son bIasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of together in the camp; Dibri, of the tribe of Dan;)
The interesting fact here is that a woman is dignified by a name, the only one so mentioned in the book of Leviticus. This is probably due to the fact that the son's character was so disreputable that he would reflect no lustre on his father's family, and so on his maternal ancestors rested his disgrace. If there had been anything good to tell of him, reference would no doubt have been made to his male progenitors.
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COMMENTS ON LEVITICUS95
.Lemtzc,~s xxvi.
26 Andwhen I have broken the staff of your
bread, ten women shall bake your bread In
oven, and they shall deliver you your bread
again by weight; and ye shall eat, and not be
satisfied.
29 And ye shall rat the flesh of your sons,
and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
There could be no greater punishment in ordinary life than for ten women to bake in one oven. As every woman would necessarily look at her pies and cakes two or threc times, that would involve a frequent looking in, which might make the contents heavy as lead. A current of cold air rushing in too often, would wreck the most perfect compound. But perhaps heavy bread was intended as part of the punishment of the people for their sins. Some commentators say that the labors of the ten women are symbolical of the poverty of the family. When people are in fortunate circumstances, the women are supposed, like the lilies of the valley, to neither toil nor spin, but when the adverse winds blow they suddenly find themsclvcs compelled to use their own brains and hands or perish.
The 29th verse at last gives us one touch of absolute equality, the right to be eaten. This Josephus tells us really did occur in the sieges of Samaria by Benhadad, of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and also in the last siege of Jerusalem by the
Roman s.E. C. S.
#######
Amid the long list of directions for sacrifices and injunctions against forbidden actions, chapter xii gives the law of purification, not only degrading motherhood by the observance of certain ceremonies and exclusion from the sanctuary, but by discriminating against sex, honoring the birth of a son above that of a daughter.
According to the Levitical law, the ewe lambs were not used for sacrifices as offerings to the Lord, because they were unclean. This was an idea put forth by the priests and Levites. But there was a better and more rational reason. To sacrifice the ewes was to speedily deplete the flocks, but beyond a ceK?
tam number needed as sires for the coming generation, the males could be put to no better use than to feed the priests, the refuse of the animal, the skin, feet, etc., constituted the sacrifice to the Lord.
Bishop Colenso, in his remarkable work on the Pentateuch, gives the enormous number of lambs annually sacrificed by the Hebrews. A certain portion of the flocks were assigned to the priests, who were continually provided with the best mutton.
L.D.B.
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THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
CHAPTER I.
t~umbess i.
And the Lord spake unta Moses in the wilder-
ness of Sinai,
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation ot
of the children of Is, on
~ ? Thrve are tho,e which were numbered
by ti,,' louse of their
fathers : all those that were :,u,,,t,ere'l of tt~'the children of Israel, after their ta,nilie~,, hy cops throughout their t,o.,t.~ ~,? ~ sit t,undrn,t the house of thetr fathers, with the number of thousand and three thousand ant tire hundred
their names, every male by their potls:attd fifty.
IN this chapter Moses is commanded to number the people and
the princes of the tribe, males only, and by the houses 1)1 their fathers. As the object was to see how many effective men there were able to go to war, the priests, the women, the feeble old men and children were not counted. Women have frequently been classified with priests in some privileges and disabilities. At one time in the United States tlle clergy were not allowed to vote nor hold office. Like women, tlley were considered too good to mingle in political circles. For them to have individual opinions on the vital questions of the hour might introduce dissensions alike into the church and the home.
This census of able bodied men still rulls on through chapter ii, and all these potential soldiers are called children of their fathers. Although at this period wom:tns chief duty and happiness was bearing children, no mention is made of the mothers of this mighty host, though solne woman had gone to the gates of death to give each suldicr life ; provided him with rations long before he could forage for himself, and first taught his little feet to march to tune and time. But, perhaps, if we could refer to the old Jewish census tables we might
find that the able bodied males of these tribes, favorites of Heaven, had all sprung, Minerva-like, from the brains of their fathers, and that only the priests, the feeble old men and the children had mothers to care for them, in the absence of the princes and soldiers.
However, in some valuable calculations of Schencher we learn that there was some thought of the mothers of the tribes by German commentators. We find in his census such references. as the following: The children of Jacob by Leah. The children of Jacob by Zilpah. The children of Jacob by Rachel. The children of Jacob by Bilhah. But even this generous mention of the mothers of the tribe of Jacob does not satisfy the exacting members of the Revising Committee. We feel that the facts should have been stated thus: The children of Leah, Zilpah, Rachel and Bilhah by Jacob, making Jacob the incident instead of the four women. Men may consider this a small matter on which to make a point, but in restoring woman's equality everywhere we must insist on her recognition in all these minor particulars, and especially in the Bible, to which people go for their authority on the civil and social status of all womankind.
E.C.S.
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COMMENTS O.V N1~~!RE RN.
CHAPTER II.
Numbers a.
And the Lord apake unto Moses, saying.
a Commasd the children of Israel. that they put out of the camp every leper, and every (sOC that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the (lead:
E,th male and female that they defile nut their camps.
~? Awl the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, IS If any man's wife go aside and commit a trespass against him.
14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and she be defiled or if she be not defiled
~ Then shall the man bring his wile unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, tite tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; t'e shall pour no oil upon it. nor put frankincense thereon ; for it is a,, offering of jealousy.
17 And the priest sitall take holy water tn an earthen vessel and of the dust tltat is ia the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:
~8 Awl the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the wo,nan's head, awl put the offering of memorial in her hands.wltict, is the jealousy offering, and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:
19 And the priest shall ettarge hr l'v an t,afl,.
anti say unto the won,r,n, it tietta t~.n.t it,,t ~,i aside be titno free tram thia Ititter w ,,t'r tl,d caus,tl, the etnes,.
so lint it thou t,ast gtttt,? Ilile at,tl it titto be defiled.
ni ittt.u the ;trist sit all It arg e the w ,n,an with an tall, ot tnt sing, tot itt' l~e'~t sttall utttct It o wot,tan, lItt. lot itik,- tI to at, roe anti all uattt attttttt~ the
04 Attd ito Ott;,t1 tittot lit'' otto In t,,lr ink the t,itter svatt'r that rat,-.etl, tt
2~ ?Ittell the Itriest sitalt tIlte ti to o.tl ,ttt.vt,ffertug ttot t,t tttt. wtnt;ntt's tott I 1,11 wIet? the offering belttte tite let, till tile it ttjn,ln Itte altar:
offerirtg, even the ntrrtt,tti;tl tltert ott I tsrt,,~ u1.tt ttte Ilt;tr alt' I tttte,ssa,> Is .Ini11 t
u-Itt-C, 11,0 it stt~tl tIt,, It tO-, f/ta! I the toettter ittttt her, tint ft ante Itttter.
slAnt-I if tite svtt,,tan Ite Itot tittiletI, Itut be clean tlte~ site sItati be tree.
AT the first blush it seems very cruel for the Jewi-1t (sod ti) order the diseased and unfortunate to he thrown titt of tlte
camp and left in the wilderness. But comment;itors suggest that they must have had a sanatorium near by where the Ilelhtless could he protected. Though improbable, still tIle stiggestion will be a relief to sensitive souls. This ordinance t)f Moses probably suggested the first idea of a hospital. The ahove account of the unfortunate wifc was called trial It)' ortle;tl.? of which Clarke gives a minute (lescription in Ins cttnimctit;tries. It was common at one time among many il;it;ons, tile wIlliten in all cases being the chief sufferers ;ts in the Ill t(lerll tri;ils for witchcraft. If the witch was guilty \vlleIl titrowli ill Iii tite water she ~vent to tile hottom, if itlllttCCtlt >hie flo.ted on the surface
and was left to sink, so in either case her fate was the same. As men make and execute the laws, prescribe and administer the punishment, ?trials by a jury or ordeal? for women though seemingly fair, are never based on principles of equity. The one remarkable fact in all these social transgressions in the early periods as well as in our modern civilization is that the penalties whether moral or material all fall on woman. Verily the darkest page in human history is the slavery of women I
The offering by the priest to secure her freedom was of the cheapest character. Oil and frankincense signifying grace and acceptableness were not permitted to be used in her case. The woman's head is uncovered as a token of her shame, the dust from the floor signifies contempt and condemnation, compelling the woman to drink water mixed with dirt and gall is in the same malicious spirit. There is no instance recorded of one of these ?trials by ordeal? ever actually taking place, as divorce was so easy that a man could put away his wife at pleasure, so he need not go to the expense of even ?a tenth part of an ephah of barley,? on a wife of doubtful faithfulness. Moreover the woman upon whom it was proposed to try all these pranks might be innocent, and the jealous husband make himself ridiculous in the eyes of the people. But the publication of these ordinances no doubt had a restraining influence on the young and heedless daughters of Israel, and they serve as landmarks in man's system of jurisprudence, to show us how far back he has been consistent in his unjust legislation for woman.
E.C.S.
################
COMMENTS ON NT VBERS.
CHAPTER III.
Numbers xii.
And Miriam and Aaron spake agairtst Moses because ot the Ethiopian woman whom he had married.
~ And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Illones? Itath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.
3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
And the Lord came down lathe pillar of
the cloud and stood in the door of the taber.
nacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both cam, forth.
6 And He said, Hearnaw my words: If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lorti. will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
8 With him will I speak mouth to molitit, even apparently, and not in dark speeches;
and tile vimitilutle of the l~ortl shall he behold:
wherefore tlt,'n w,re ye nt't afraid It~ speak against my v~rsa,tt Mst.es
q Atttl Itte anger tf the lord was kindled against theul : aitti lie depart,ttl.
in Anti tltc cltu,l d,~1,artetl (r,,m off the taber. nacle ; anti. l,eltt'ld. Miriam b,ca,,s,' 1e1,rous, svitit~ av snow: al.tl Aaron l,,oked upon Nllrla,n. anti beittid, vile was leprous.
iiAni Aaron saill unto Moses. Alas, my lorti, I beseech Iltee, lay nttt Ilse sin upon us. seltereits we Itare done foolishly, and wherein we Itave slnneti.
23 And Mttses cried unto the Lard, saving Heal iter nttw, 0 God, I beseech thee.
25 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seem days : and the 1teuple journeyed not till Miriam was brought In again.
HERE we have the first mention of Moses's second marriage, but the name of the ~~?oman is not given, though she is
the assigned cause of the sedition. Both Aaron and Miriam had received a portion of the prophetic genius that distinguished Moses, and they naturally thought that they should have some share in the government, at least to make a few suggestions. when they thought Moses made a blunder. Miriam ~vas older than Moses, and had at this time the experience of 120 years. When Moses ~vas an infant on the River Nile, MirIam was in-trusted by his parents to ~vatch the fate of the infant in the bulrushes and the daughter of Pharaoh in her daily walks by the river side. It was her diplomacy that secured the child's own mother for his nurse in the household of the King of Egypt.
It is rather remarkable, if Moses was as meek as he is represented in the third verse, that he should have penned that strong assertion of his own innate modesty. There are evidences at this and several other points that Moses was not the sole editor of the Pentateuch, if it can be shown that he wrote any part of it.
Speaking of the punishment of Miriam, Clarke in his commentaries says it is probable that Miriam was chief in this mutiny; hence she was punished while Aaron was spared. A mere excuse for man's injustice; had he been a woman he would have shared the same fate. The real reason was that Aaron was a priest. Had he been smitten with leprosy, his sacred office would have suffered and the priesthood fallen into disrepute.
As women are supposed to have no character or sacred office, it is always safe to punish them to the full extent of the law. So Miriam was not only afflicted with leprosy, but also shut out of the camp for seven days. One would think that potential motherhood should make women as a class as sacred as the priesthood. In common parlance we have much fine-spun theorizing on the exalted office of the mother, her immense influence in moulding the character of her sons ; ?the hand that rocks the cradle moves the world,? etc., but in creeds and codes, in constitutions and Scriptures, in prose and verse, we do not see these lofty p~ans recorded or verified in living facts. As a class, women were treated among the Jews as an inferior order of beings, just as they are to-day in all civilized nations. And now, as then, men claim to be guided by the will of God.
In this narrative we see thus early woman's desire to take some part in government, though denied all share in its honor and dignity. Miriam, no doubt, saw the humiliating distinctions of sex in the Mosaic code and customs, and longed for the power to make the needed amendments. In criticising the discrepancies in Moses's character and government, Miriam showed a keen insight into the common principles of equity and individual conduct, and great self-respect and self-assertion in expressing her opinions~qualitie5 most lacking in ordinary women.
Evidently the same blood that made Moses and Aaron what they were, as leaders of men, flowed also in the veins of Miriam. As daughters are said to be more like their fathers and sons like their mothers, Moses probably inherited his meekness and distrust of himself from his mother, and Miriam her self-reliance and heroism from her father. Knowing these laws of heredity, Moses should have averted the punishment of Miriam instead of allowing the full force of God's ~vrath to fall upon her alone. If Miriam had helped to plan the journey to Canaan, it would no doubt have been accomplished in forty days instead of forty years. With her counsel in the cabinet, the people might have enjoyed peace and prosperity, cultivating the arts and sciences, instead of making war on other tribes, and burning offerings to their gods. Miriam was called a prophetess, as the Lord had, on some occasions, it is said, spoken through her, giving messages to the women. After their triumphal escape from Egypt, Miriam led the women in their songs of victory. With timbrels and dances, they chanted that grand chorus that has been echoed and re-echoed for centuries in all our cathedrals round the globe. Catholic writers represent Miriam ?as a type of the Virgin Mary, being legislatrix over the Israelitish women, especially endowed with the spirit of prophecy.?
##################
Numbers xx.
Then came the children of Israel, even the first month: and the peo?le abode In Kadesh;
whole congregatlen, Into the desert of Zin in the and Miriam died there, and was burled here.
Eusebius says her tomb was to be seen at Kadesh, near the city of Petra, in his time, and that she and her brothers all died in the same year, it is hoped to reappear as equals in the res
urrection.E.C.S.
CHAPTER IV.
Numbers vi.
And the Lord said unto Moses, ~ All the days of the vow of his separation
a Speak unto the children of israel, and say,there shall no razor come upon his head; until
when either man or woman shall separatethe days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth
themselves to vow a vow ot a Nazarite, unto thehimself unto the Lord, he shalt be holy, and
Lord,shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
THE Nazarites, both men and women, allowed their hair to
grow long, as the hair of the Nazarine was a token of subjection, the man to God, the woman to man. St. Paul no doubt alluded to this custom when he said the woman ought to have power upon her head, that is, wear her hair and veil and bonnet in church as a proof of her subjection to man, as he is to the Lord. The discipline of the church to-day requires a woman to cover her head before entering a cathedral for worship.
The fashion for men to sit with their heads bare in our churches, while ~vomen must wear bonnets, is based on this ancient custom of the Nazarine. But as fashion is gradually reducing the bonnet to an infinitesimal fraction it will probably in the near future be dispensed with altogether. A lady in England made the experiment of going to the established church without her bonnet, but it created such an agitation in the congregation that the Bishop wrote her a letter on the impropriety and requested her to come with her head covered. She refused. He then called and labored with her as to the sinfulness of the proceedings, and at parting commanded her either to cover her head or stay away from church altogether. She choose the latter. I saw and heard that letter read at a luncheon in London, where several ladies were present. It was received with peals of laughter. The lady is the wife of a colonel in the British army.
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COMMENTS ON NUMBER.~.
Numbers xxv.
6 ? And, behold, one of the children of Israel 14 Now the name of the Israelite that was
came and brought unto his brethren a Midian.slain, even that was slain with the Midianilish
itish woman in the sight of Moses and all the woman, was Zimri, the son of 5alu, a prince of
congregation of the children of Israel.a chief house among the Simeonites.
~ And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, theis And the name of the Midianitish woman son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and took that was slain was crebi, the daughter of Zur;
a javelin in his hand;he was head over a people, and of a chief house
8 And he went after the man of israel into the in Midian.
tent, and thrust both of them through, the man
of Israel, and the woman.
Some commentators say the tie between Zimri and Cozbi was a matrimonial alliance, understood in good faith by the Midianitish woman. He was a prince and she was a princess. But the Jewish law forbade a man going outside of his tribe for a wife. It was deemed idolatry. But why kill the woman. She had not violated the laws of her tribe and was no doubt ignorant of Jewish law. Other commentators say that Zimri was notorious at the licentious feasts of Baal-poer and that the Midianitish women tempted the sons of Israel to idolatry. Hence the justice of killing both Zimri and Cozbi in one blow. It is remarkable that the influence of woman is so readily and universally recognized in leading the strongest men into sin, but so uniformly ignored as a stimulus to purity and perfection. Unless the good predominates over the evil in the mothers of the race, there is no )aope of our ultimate perfection. E. C. S.
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The origin of the command that women should cover their heads is found in an old Jewish or Hebrew legend which appears in literature for the first time in Genesis vi. There we are told the Sons of God, that is, the angels, took to wives the daughters of men, and begat the giants and heroes, who were instrulTiental in bringing about the flood. The Rabbins held that the way in which the angels got possession of women was by laying hold of their hair; they accordingly warned women to cover their heads in public, so that the angels might not get possession of them. It was believed that the strength of people lay in their hair, as the story of Samson illustrates. Paul merely repeats this warning which he must often have heard at the feet of Gamaliel, who was at that time Prince or President of the Sanhedrim, telling women to have a ?power (that is, protection) on their heads because of the angels:? I Corinthians, chapter xi, verse io. ?For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.? Thus the command has its origin in an absurd old myth. This legend will be found fully treated in a German pamphlet?Die paulinische Angelologie und Daemonologie. Otto Everling, Gottingen, i888.
If the command to keep silence in the churches has no higher origin than that to keep covered in public, should so much weight be given it, or should it be so often quoted as having Divine sanction?
The injunctions of St. Paul have had such a decided influence in fixing the legal status of women that it is worth our while to consider their source. In dealing with this question we must never forget that the majority of the writings of the New Testament were not really written or published by those whose names they bear. Ancient writers considered it quite permissible for a man to put out letters under the name of another, and thus to bring his own ideas before the world under the protection of an honored sponsor. It is not usually claimed that St. Paul was the originator of the great religious movement called Christianity, but there is a strong belief that he was divinely inspired. His inward persuasions, and especially his visions appeared as a gift or endowment which had the force of inspiration; therefore, his mandates concerning women have a strong hold upon the popular mind, and when opponents to the equality of the sexes are put to bay they glibly quote his injunctions.
We congratulate ourselves that we may shift some of these
biblical arguments that have such a sinister effect from their
firm foundation. He who claims to give a message must satisfy
us that he has himself received such message.
L.S.
####################
COMMENTS ON NUMBERS.
CHAPTER V.
Numbers xxvii.
Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son ot Manasseh, of the families of Manasech, the son of Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahish, Noah, and Hogiab, and Milcab, and I'trzah.
a And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,
3 Our father died In the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together againstihe Lord intise com. pany ot Korab.
4 Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he bath no son? Give us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.
~And Moses brought their cause before the Lord.
6 ? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.
~The daughters of Zelophehad speak right:
thou shalt surely give them a possession of urn inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the Inheritance of their father to pass unto them.
8 And thou shalt speak unto the ettildren of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son. then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
q And if be have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren.
so And if behave no brethren, then ye shall
give his inheritance unto his father's brethren.
xiAnd if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, sod he shalt possess it; and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the Lord commanded Moses.
THE respect paid to the daughters of Zelophehad at that early day is worthy the imitation of the rulers in our own
times. These daughters were no doubt fine-looking, well-developed women, gifted with the power of eloquence, able to impress their personality and arguments on that immense assemblage of the people. They were allowed to plead their own case in person before the lawgivers, the priests, and the princes, the rulers in State and Church, and all the congregation, at the very door of the tabernacle. They presented their case with such force and clearness that all saw the justice of their claims. Moses was so deeply impressed that he at once retired to his closet to listen to the still sITiall voice of conscience and commune with his Maker. In response, the Lord said to him: ? The daughters of Zelophehad speak right, if a man die and leave no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughters.? It would have been commendable if the members of the late Constitutional Convention in New York had, like Moses, asked the guidance of the Lord in deciding the rights of the daughters of the Van Rensselaers, the Stuyvesants, the Livingstons, and the Knickerbockers. Their final action revealed the painful fact that they never thought to take the case to the highest court in the moral universe. The daughters of Zelophehad were fortunate in being all of one mind; none there to plead the fatigue, the publicity, the responsibility of paying taxes and investing property, of keeping a bank account, and having some knowledge of mathematics. The daughters of Zelophehad were happy to accept all the necessary burdens, imposed by the laws of inheritance7 while the daughters of the Knickerbockers trembled at the thought of assuming the duties involved in self-government.
As soon as Moses laid the case before the Lord, He not only allowed the justice of the claim, but gave ?a statute of judgment,? by which the Jewish magistrates should determine all such cases in the division of property in the land of Canaan in all after ages.
When the rights of property were secured to married women in the State of New York in 1848, a certain class were opposed to the measure, and would cross the street to avoid speaking to the sisters who had prayed and petitioned for its success. They did not object, however, in due time to use the property thus secured, and the same type of women will as readily avail themselves of all the advantages of political equality when the right
of suffrage is secured.E.C.S.
#######
The account given in this chapter of the directions as to the division or inheritance of property in the case of Zelophehad, and his daughters shows them to be just, because the daughters are to be treated as well as the sons would be; but the law thereafter given, apparently suggested by this querying of Zelophehad's daughters in reference to their father's possessions is obviously unjust, in that it gives no freedom to the owner of property as to the disposition of the same after his death, i. e. leaves him without power to will it to any one, and leaves unmentioned the female relatives as heirs at law. Only ?brethren? and ?kinsman? are the words used, and it is very plain that only males were heirs, except where a man had no son,
but had one or more daughters.?The exception proves the
rule.?P. A. H.
##############
CHAPTER VI.
Numbers xviii
sI And this is thine; the heave offering of their z~ All the heave offerings of the holy things. gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of which the children of tsrael offer onto the LORD, Israel: I have given them unco thee, and to tity have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughtera sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute with thee, by a statute for ever; it is a covenant for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall of salt for ever before the LoRD unto thee and to eat of it. thy seed with thee.
THE house of Aaron was now thoroughly confirmed in the
priesthood, and the Lord gives minute directions as to the provisions to be made for the priests. The people then, as now, were made to feel that whatever was given to them was given to the Lord, and that ?the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.? That their minds might be at peace and always in a devout frame, in communion with God, they must not be perplexed with worldly cares and anxieties about bread and raiment for themselves and families. Whatever privations they suffered themselves, they must see that their priests were kept above all human wants and temptations. The Mosaic code is responsible for the religious customs of our own day and generation. Church property all over this broad land is exempt from taxation, while the smallest house and lot of every poor widow is taxed at its full value. Our Levites have their homes free, and good salaries from funds principally contributed by women, for preaching denunciatory sermons on women and their sphere. They travel for half fare, the lawyer pleads their cases for nothing, the physician medicates their families for nothing, and generally in the world of work they are served at half price. While the common people must be careful not to traduce their neighbors lest they be sued for libel, the Levite in surplice and gown from his pulpit (aptly called the coward's castle) may smirch the fairest characters and defame the noblest lives with impunity.
\
rhis whole chapter is interesting reading as the source of priestly power, that has done more to block woman's way to freedom than all other earthly influences combined. But the chief point in this chapter centers in the above verses, as the daughters of the Levites are here to enjoy an equal privilege with the sons. Scott tells us ?that covenants were generally ratified at an amiable feast, in which salt was always freely used, hence it became an emblem of friendship.? Perhaps it was the purifying, refining influence of this element that secured these friendly relations between the sons and daughters of the priesthood on one occasion at least. From the present bitter, turbulent tone of our Levites, I fear the salt we both manufacture and import must all have lost its savor. E. C. S.
##################
CHAPTER VII.
Numbers xxii.
as And Balsam rose up in the mornIng, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
22 ? And God's anger was kindled because he went : and the angel 01 the Loan stood in the way br an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balsam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
24 But the angel of the Loan stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall be-zng on this side, and a wall on that side.
25 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wail, and crushed Balsam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
a6 And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
27 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balsam: and Balsam's anger was kindled, and he atnota cite ass with a staff.
aS And the Loim opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balsam, What have S done unt& thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
29 And Balsam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me; i would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
30 And the ass said unto Balsam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since Iwas thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
32 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balsam, and he saw the angel of the Loan standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
32 And the asgel of the Loan said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:
~ And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
34 And Balsam said unto tbe angel of the LORD, I have sinned for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.
THE chief point of interest in this parable of Balaam and his ass, is that the latter belonged to the female sex. This
animal has been one of the most remarkable characters in literature. Her virtues have been quoted in the stately cathedral, in the courts of justice, in the editorial sanctum, in both tragedy and comedy on the stage, to point a moral and adorn a tale. Some of the fairest of Eve's daughters bear her baptismal name, and she has been immortalized in poetry and prose. Wordsworth sends her with his Peter Bell to enjoy the first flowers of early spring. To express her love of the beautiful ?upon the pivot of her skull she turned round her long left ear? while stolid Peter makes no sign?
?A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.?
The courage and persistence of the ass has made her as famous in war as in literature. She is a marked feature everywhere in military stations, alike in the camp and the field, and her bray always in the minor key, gives a touch of pathos to the music of the band! The ass accompanied Deborah and Barak when they went to fight their great battle, she has gone with pioneers in all their weary wanderings, and has taken an active part in the commerce of the world, bearing the heaviest burdens though poorly fed and sheltered. At one time this animal voted at three successive elections in the state of New York. The property qualification being $250, just the price of a jackass, Ben Franklin facetiously asked ?if a man must own a jackass in order to vote,?who does the voting, the man or the jackass ?
It so happened once that the same animal passed into the hands of three different owners, constituting all the earthly possessions of each at that time and thus by proxy she was represented at the polls. Yet with this world-wide fame, this is the first time the sacred historian has so richly endowed and highly complimented any living thing of the supposed inferior sex. Far wiser than the master who rode her, with a far keener spiritual insight than he possessed, and so intensely earnest and impressible, that to meet the necessities of the occasion, she suddenly exercised the gift of speech. While Balaam was angry, violent, stubborn and unreasonable, the ass calmly manifested all the cardinal virtues. Obedient to the light that was in her, she was patient under abuse, and tried in her mute way to save the life of her tormentor from the sword of the angel. But when all ordinary warnings of danger proved unavailable, she burst into speech and opened the eyes of her stolid master. Scott, who considers this parable a literal fact, says in his commentaries, ?The faculty of speech in man is the gift of God and we cannot comprehend how we ourselves articulate. We need not therefore be surprised that the Lord made use of the mouth of the ass to rebuke the madness of His prophet, and to shame him by the reproof and example of a brute. Satan spoke to Eve by a subtle male serpent, but the Lord chose to speak to Balaam by a she ass, for He does not use enticing words of man's wisdom, but works by instruments and means that men despise.?
Seeing that the Lord has endowed ?the daughters of men? also with the gift of speech, and they may have messages from Him to deliver to ?the sons of God,? it would be wise for the prophets of our day to admit them into their Conferences, Synods and General Assemblies, and give them opportunities for speech.
The appeal of the meek, long suffering ass, to her master, to remember her faithfulness and companionship from his youth up, is quite pathetic and reminds one of woman's appeals and petitions to her law-givers for the last half century. In the same language she might say to her oppressors, to fathers, husbands, brothers and sons, have we not served you with faithfulness; companions from your youth up; watched you through all your infant years; and carried you triumphantly through every danger? When at the midnight hour or the cock crowing, your first born lifted up his voice and wept, lo! we were there, with water for his parched lips; a cool place for his aching head; or patiently for hours to pace with him the chamber floor. In youth and manhood what have we not done to add to your comfort and happiness; ever rejoicing in your triumphs and sympathizing in your defeats?
This waiting and watching for half a century to recover our civil and political rights and yet no redress, makes the struggle seem like a painful dream in which one strives to fly from some impending danger and yet stands still. Balaam, unlike our masters, confessed that he had sinned, but it is evident from his conduct that he felt no special contrition for disobedience to the commands of his Creator, nor for his cruelty to the creature. So merely to save his life he sulkily retraced his steps with a determination still to consider Barak's propositions. Whether he took the same ass on the next journey
does not appear.
It must have been peculiarly humiliating to that proud man, who boasted of his eyes being open and seeing the vision of the Almighty, to be reproved and silenced by the mouth of a brute. As the Lord appeared first to the ass and spake by her, he had but little reason to boast that his eyes were opened by the Lord. The keen spiritual insight and the ready power of speech with which the female sex has been specially endowed, are often referred to with ridicule and reproach by stolid, envious observers of the less impressible sex. E. C. S.
####################
Numbers xx.
And Moses 3pake unto the heads of the tribes
concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is
the thing which the Lord hath commanded.
2 If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
~ If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth;
4 And her father bear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath hound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her ; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.
5 But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth, not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she had bound her soul, shall stand; and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father
disallowed her,after that
6 And if she had at all a husband, when sheher iniquity.
vowed, or uttered aught out of her lips, wherewith s6 These are the statutes, which the Lord com-
she bound her soul;matided Moses, between a man and his wife,
7 And her husband beard it, and held his peacebetween the father and his daughter, being yet in
at her in the day that be heard it; then her vowsher youth in her father's house.
shall stand, and hei bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.
8 But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it, then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect; and the Lord shall forgive her.
g But every vow of a widow, and of her that is
divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls,
shall stand against her.
53 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict
the soul, her husband may establish it, or her
husband may make it void.
54 But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her:
he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.
55 But if he shall any ways make them void
he bath heard them; then he shall hear
AVOW is a religious promise made to God, and yet in the face of such a definition is placed the authority of husband
and father between the woman and her God. God seems thus far to have dealt directly with women when they sinned, but in making a religious vow, or dedication of themselves to some high purpose, their fathers and husbands must be consulted. A man s vow stands; a woman's is always conditional. Neither wisdom nor age can make her secure in any privileges, though always personally responsible for crime. If she have sufficient intelligence to decide between good and evil, and pay the penalty for violated law, why not make her responsible for her words and deeds when obedient to moral law. To hold woman
in such an attitude is to rob her words and actions of all mril character. We see from this chapter that Jewish ~Volflell, as well as those of other nations, were he]d in a condition of Perl)ettldl tutelage or minority under the authority of tile father until married and then under the husband, hence vows if in their presence if disallowed ~vere as nothin'g. That Jewish Iflen appreciate the degradation of womans position is Seen ill a p;trt of their service in which each man says on every Sabbath day, ??I thank Thee, oh Lord, that I ~~?as not born a woman ? and the won~an meekly responds, ?I thank Thee, oh Lord, that I am what I am, according to Thy holx' will.?
The injunction in the abo~'e texts in regard to the interference of fathers is given only once, while tile IltIsbalIds authority is mentioned three times. If the \VOlfi.llI Was betrothed, even the future husband had the right to disallow her vows. It is supposed by some expositors that by a parity of reason minor sons should have been under the Salfie restrIctions as daughters, but if it were intended, it is extraordinary that daughters alone should have been mentiolled. Seott, ill extenuating the custom, says: ??Males were certainly allowed more liberty than females ; the vows of the latter migilt lIe adjudged more prejudicial to families ; or tile SOflS heillg xii re immediately under the father's tilition migllt be thloilgilt less liable to be inveigled into rasil engagements of any kind.?
F;. c. s.
##############
Woman is here taught that she is irresponsible. The father or the husband is all. They are wisdoln, power, responsibility. But woman is a nonentity if still in her father's house, or if Mile has a husband. I object to tilis teaeiiing. It is unjust to man that he should have the add'2d responsibility of his daughter's or wife's word, and it is cruel to woman because tile irresponsibility is enslaving in its iliflLlence. It is contrary to true Gospel teaching, for only in freedoln to (Jo rigilt can a soul dwell in that love which is the fulfilling of the law.
The whole import of this chapter is that a woman's word is worthless, unless she is a widow or divorced. While an unmarried daughter, her father is her surety; when married, the husband allows or disallows what she promises, and the promise is kept or broken according to his will. The whole Mosaic law in this respect seems based upon the idea that a woman is an irresponsible being; and that it is supposed each daughter will marry at some time, and thus be continually under the control of some male?the father or the husband. Unjust, arbitrary and debasing are such ideas, and the laws based upon them. Could the Infinite Father and Mother have give them to Moses? I think not. P. A. H.
#####################
Numbers xxxi.
9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.
so And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles with fire.
sa And they brought the captives, and the prey. and the spoil, unto Moses and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan neat-Jericho.
54 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
t5 And Moses said unto them, have ye saved all else women alive?
,6 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of i3elaam, to commit trespass agauist the Lord in the matter of Peor. and there
was a plague among die congregation of the Lord.
t7 Note therefore kiU every male am,sn, the little ones, and kill every woman that hath Lnosen man.
,8 Hut all the women children, that l,av, not known a man keep alive for yourselves.
a~ ? And the Lord spake unto NIo,.e.o, ~.iy,e,.
s6 ?lake the sum of tloe prey that wos t.,k,ot. Ls,ek of tnan and of beast, tloou, and Eleazar the ~ and the chief fathers of the congre~atiooe
3t And Moses stool l..Ieazar the priest olid as tlto, Lord commanded NIoses.
35 And the booty, l'eoo.g the rest ~f tloc prey which the m,'n of war load caught. wos s,s l,undred tlonusand and seventy tI,aus:tnd anol live thausanI sheep.
33 And tloreescore and twelve tI,o,us;oood bees cg,
34 And threescore an,l cone tI,ott~an,l ;mss.s
3l And thirty and tw,o thotosand pvrLnoo. 0,, of women that had not knoown man.
IT appears from the enumeration here of the booty, that the Israelites took in this war against the Midianites seventy-
two thousand beeves, six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, sixty-one thousand asses and thirty-two thousand women virgins, beside the women and children killed, (as they said) by God's order. The thirty-two thousand women and women children were given to the soldiers and the priests. Why should tile social purity societies in England and America who believe ill the divine origin of all Scripture object to the use of women children by their statesmen and soldiers when the custom was 11Cr-mitted to the chosen people of Israel ? True,thle welfare of tile priests, lawgivers and soldiers was carefully guarded in selecting for them the purest of the daughters of tl3e Mithianites.
Surely such records are enough to make tIle most obstinate
believer doubt the divine origin of Jewish history and the claim
of that people to have been under the special guidance of Jehovab. Their claim to have had conversations with God daily and to have acted under His commands in all their tergiversations of word and action is simply blasphemous. We must discredit their pretensions, or else the wisdom of Jehovah himself. ?Talking with God,? at that period was a mere form of speech, as ?tempted of the devil? was once in the records of our courts. Criminals said ?tempted of the devil, I did commit the crime.? This chapter places Moses and Eleazar the priest, in a most unenviable light according to the moral standard of any period of human history. Verily the revelations in the Pall Mall Gazette a few years ago, pale before this wholesale desecration of women and children. Bishop Colenso in his exhaustive work on the Pentateuch shows that most of the records therein claiming to be historical facts are merely parables and figments of the imagination of different writers, composed at different periods, full of contradictions, interpolations and discrepancies.
He shows geologically and geographically that a flood over the whole face of the earth was a myth. He asks how was it possible to save two of every animal, bird and creeping thing on both continents and get them safely into the ark and back again to their respective localities. How could they make their way from South America up north through the frigid zone and cross over the polar ices to the eastern continent and carry with them the necessary food to which they had been accustomed, they would all have perished with the cold before reaching the Arctic circle. While the animals from the northern latitudes, would all perish with heat before reaching the equator. What a long weary journey the animals, birds and fowls would have taken from Japan and China to Mount Ararat. The parable as an historical fact is hedged with impossibilities and so is the whole journey of forty years from Egypt to Canaan; but if we make up our minds to believe in miracles then it is plain sailing from Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy. Both Ezra and Jeremiah are said to have written the last book of the Pentateuch, and some, question whether Moses was the author of either. Bishop Colenso also questions the arithmetical calculations of
the historians in regard to the conquest (of tile Midianites, as
described in the book of Numbers.E. C. S.
##########
But how thankful we must be that we are no longer obliged to believe, as a matter of fact, of vital consequence to) OtIr eternal hope, each separate statement contained in the ltel3t;ltetlel), slIell fo or instance, as the story related in Numbers xxxi!?where we ;lretolol that a force of twelve thousand Israelites slew a/i the malts (of the Midianites, took captive d1 the females anti children, seizeol all their cattle and flocks, (seventy-two thousand oxen, sixty-one thousand asses, six hundred anti seventy-five tilotlsanti sheep,) and all their goods, and burnt all their cities, and all their goodly castles, without the loss of a single man.~ and then, by command of Moses, butchered in cold blood all the women, except ?the women-children and virgins, to be given to the priests and soldiers.?
They amounted to thirty-two thousand, mostly, ~ve suppose, under the age of sixteen. \Ve may fairly' reckon th;tt thert: were as many more under the age of forty, and half as many lilore above forty, making altogether eighty thousand females, of wilom, according to tl3e story, Moses ortlereti forty?eight tl3otlsalld to) be killed, besides (say) twenty thousand young boys. ~Ihe tr;lgetiy (of Cawnpore, where three hundred were butchered, would sink into nothing, compared with such a massacre, if, indeed, we were required to believe it.
The obvious intention of Moses, as shown in these directions, was to keep the Jewish race from amalgamatiton. But tile great lawgiver seems to have ignored the fact, or been ignorant of it, that transmission of race qu;llitles is even greater through the female line than through the male, and if they kept the w(omen children for themselves they were Inakilig sure tIle fact tilat in days to come there woould be Jewish deseenohimnts who migilt be
ewsnalne,a w- ens in spirit.
Jinbut, tisrotlgh tioc I~of hereohity, :ol
The freedom of the natural law will m;tke itself evident, for so?
called natural law is divine.I'. A. II.
##########
Zipporah the wife of Moses was a Midianite, Jethro her father was a priest of some sagacity and consideration. When he met Moses in the desert he gave him valuable advice about the government of his people, which the great lawgiver obeyed.
The sons of Zipporah and Moses, Gershon and Eliezer, were therefore of Midianite blood, yet Moses sent an army of twelve thousand armed for war; a thousand of each tribe, with orders to slay every man. If the venerable Jethro was still alive he must have been murdered by his grandsons and their comrades. This is a most extraordinary story. If after the men, women and male children were all killed, thirty thousand maidens and young girls still remained, the Midianites must have been too large a tribe to have been wholly destroyed by twelve thousand Israelites, unless the Jewish God fought the battle.
L.D.B.
################
Numk,~r xxxvi.
And the thief f~thers of the families of the children of Gilead drew near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:
is And they said, The Lord commanded my lord to give the latod for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel : and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
3 And if they be married to any of the sons of the eo'o'to'r tribes of the children of Israel then slooll their inheritance be taken from the itoheritance of nor fathers, and shall he put to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received : so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.
4 And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall he, then shall their inheritance he pot uloto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received
s And Moses commanded the children of Israel
according to the word of the ls,rol. Liyiflg, The tribe of the sons ofJoseph hath szoi,l selL
6tlor Lord dooth comnotond concernisog the
daughters cof ieloploeh:ool. s.oyinc. I At them marry to whcoon they tloonk i est ?sly too the homily of the tribe oO their father silo I thy ezo ocr.
Moo shootli loot the ioohoror.on o' of the choldren of Israel r 0000-v root rd's 0,0 0 nI -e for os- ery o,ooe of the cloildreoo of lsr:oel slo:oU bee1, loino..elf to the inheritance of the 0 robe 0 lois (zoo loers.
8 AntI every o;;ooogloto.r, okot I' ssessotlo an in. heritotoce ioo any trolco oof oh,, cloololrtn ?of Israel. shall lie wife onto one oof lo,. lion, ily of thor teOloo. oof her father, that the cloilolren of Isrovl nosy enisoy every man the inheritance oof lois f;oohers.
oo Even a, the Eccool onnototonoleol Moosos, so dod the dauchoers of Zelco1ohoelo.ooh
toand were married unto~ tloeir fother's brothers' sons.
I N a former chapter there was a sense of justice shown towards the daughters of Zelophehad, but here a ne~v complication
arises. The uncles of these girls had their eyes on the property and perhaps feared that their sons had not found favor in the eyes of their cousins, as they might have seen and admired some fine looking young men from other tribes. So the crafty old uncles moved in time to get a statute passed that ~vould compel daughters to marry in the tribe of their fathers and got a direct command from the Lord to that effect, then the young women, compelled to limit their predilections, married their cousins, setting the laws of heredity quite aside pro~)erty in all ages being considered of more importance than I)C~S~lS Thus, after making some show of justice in giving the daughters of Zelophehad the inheritance of their fathers, the Israelites began to consider the loss to their tribe, if peradventure the five sisters should marry into other tribes and all this property be transferred to their enemles.
They seemed to consider these noble women destitute of the virtue of patriotism, of familyc pride, of all the tender sentiments of friendship, kindred and home, and so with their usual masculine arrogance they passed laws to compel the daughters of Zelophehad to do what they probably would have done had there been no law to that effect. These daughters were known by the euphonious names of Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, and they all married their father's brothers' sons. Cousins on the mother's side would probably have been forbidden.
If Moses, as the mouthpiece of God, aimed to do exact
justice, why did he not pass an ordinance giving property in all
cases equally to sons and daughters.E. C. S.
##########
Moses gave what appears to be, in the light of this Christian era, a just judgment when he decided that the daughters of Zelophehad should inherit their father's property, but he gave as the law of inheritance the direction that ?if a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter ;? thus, as I think, unjustly discriminating between women who have brothers and women who have none, and he goes on further to deal unjustly with women when he directs that the daughters of Zelophehad marry so that the inheritance justly awarded them should not go out of the family of the tribe of their fathers.
?Let them marry to whom they think best,? and those words seemingly recognize their righteous freedom. But immediately he limits that phrase and informs the five women they must only marry in their father's tribe, and were limited also to their father's family. The result was that each married her own cousin. If this was contrary to physiological law, as some distinguished physiologists affirm, then they were compelled by the arbitrary law of Moses to break the law of God.
P. A. H.
#############
Deutere.nvoo,ey ~in year, in
3 And it came to pass the fortiethv~ole. and in the south. anot by too.' s,,.s sioi,.. to oloc the eleventh month, on the first dozy of the month, 0 lototol of tloo Canaunites, tood ono.' l.elo.tooo'tt. otnos tloa.t Moves spake onto the children of Isrool. tIe, trot river. tloe rivo'r Eooj,booooo,..
according unto all that the Lord had given hiooo inI ,.?o, II. Iloos,' sot 0 Ii'. l.boo. II,': . v,'io: O' Ott
commandment unto them ;onol l~'~~'?~ tlt,' l:ooo.l ovloiilo the Iri ~o..o r,? 0000 0o
6 The Lord our God spake unto us in Iloreb, your fotloers, Alorohozoooo. I,.o:oo ,:o,oh I.'. oh. o, ove
saying, Ye have dwelt long enooogh in this mosootot : unto theist otool to tlO,ir so.,, I otor o.ooo.
7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go toto Tloo' I.,orol yoooor 0;,,, I both oiioohoihobo,..h so.
the mount of the Amorites, and unto all Sloe to'ooos beh,101. ye ut-c obois oloy ,o~ thin ,,o.or~ ot lioteto or
nigh thereunto, in the plaito, in the hills, and in the multitudo.
THIS book contains an account of what passed in the wilderness the last month of the fortieth year. which is stll)l)005e01
to be written by Ezra, as the history is contintle(l several (lays after the death of Moses. Moses' farewell atidress to) tile children of Israel is full of wisdom, with a touch of p;ltilos. This had been a melancholy year with the lIei)rews ill time death of Miriam, Aaron and Moses. The manner in which this people were kept wandering up and down on the very verge of the land of Canaan because they were rebellious mitoes seem like child's play. No wonder they were discouraged and murnsureml. It is difficult from the record to see that these people ~eere any better fitted to enter the promised land at the end of forty years than when they first left Egypt. But the promise that tiie~' should be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, accortling to Adam Clarke, had been fulfilled, lie tells us that only three thousand stars can be seen by the naked eye. while the children of Israel numbered at this time six hundred thousanti fIghting men, beside all the women and children. Astronomers, however, now estimate that there are over seventy-five Inillion stars within the range of their telescopes. If census takers had prophetic telescopes, they could no doubt see the promises to the Hebrews fully realized in that one line of their ambition.
##############
Deuteronomy ii.
34 And we took all his cities at that time, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to
ntterly destroyed the men, and the women, and remain.
Though the women were ignored in all the civil affairs and religious observances of the Jews, yet in making war on other tribes they thought them too dangerous to be allowed to live, and so they killed all the women and children. The women might much better have helped to do the fighting, as it is far easier to die in the excitement of the battlefield than to be murdered in cold blood. In making war on neighboring tribes, the Jewish military code permitted them to take all the pure. virgins and child women for booty to be given to the priests and soldiers, thus debauching the men of Israel and destroying all feelings of honor and chivalry for women. This utter contempt for all the decencies of life, and all the natural personal rights of women as set forth in these pages, should destroy in the minds of women at least, all authority to superhuman origin and stamp the Pentateuch at least as emanating from the most obscene minds of a barbarous age.
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Deuteronomy e, ei.
n6 ? Honour thy father and thy mother, as the ist Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's
Lord thy God bath commanded thee; that thywife, neither shale thou covet thy neighbour's
days may be prolonged, and that it may go wellhouse, his field, or his manservant, or his maid-
with thee, on the land which the Lord thy Godservant, his ox, or his ass, or any Ming that is thy
giveth thee,neighbour's.
t7 Thou shalt not kill. s That thou miglotest fear the Lord thy God, tG
18 N~hhrr ~huIt thou rt3mmit ~dtiI Wryokrep nfl his slnnnts mId his f.ftmmnndmplIl)~ whith
sg Neither shalt thou steal.I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's
so Neither shalt thou bear false witness againstson, all the days of thy life; and that thy days
thy neighbour.may be prolonged.
The best commentary on these texts is that no Revising Committee of Ecclesiastics has found it necessary to make any suggestions as to whom the commandments are addressed. Suppose we reverse the language and see how one-sided it would seem addressed only to women. Suppose this were the statement. Here is a great lawgiver and he says: ?Thou art to keep all God's commandments, thou and thy daughters and thy daughter's daughters, and these are the commandments:
?Thou shalt honor thy mother and thy father.' ?Thou shalt not steal nor lie.' ?Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's husband, nor her field, nor her ox, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.?'
Would such commandments occasion no remark among Biblical scholars? In our criminal code to-day the pronouns she, her and hers are not found, yet we are tried in the courts, imprisoned and hung as ?he,? ?him? or ?his,? though denied the privileges of citizenship, because the masculine pronouns apply only to disabilities. What a hustling there would be among prisoners and genders if laws and constitutions, Scriptures and commandments, played this fast and loose game with the men of any nation.
--V.
=======
Adam Clarke in his comments on chapter iv, says, ?there was no form of worship at this time on the face of the earth that was not wicked and obscene, puerile and foolish and ridiculous, except that established by God himself among the Israelites, and every part of this taken in its connection and reference may be truly called a wise and reasonable service. Almost all the nations of the earth manifested in time their respect for the Jewish religion by copying different parts of the Mosaic code as to civil and moral customs.?
As thoughtful, intelligent women, we question all this:
First.?We see no evidence that a just and wise being wrote either the canon or civil laws that have been gradually compiled by ecclesiastics and lawgivers. Second.?We cannot accept any code or creed that uniformly defrauds woman of all her natural rights. For the last half century we have publicly and persistently appealed from these laws, which Clarke says all nations have copied, to the common sense of a more humane and progressive age. To-day women are asking to be delivered from all the curses and blessings alike of the Jewish God and the
ordinances he established.In this book we have the ten com-
mandments repeated.E.C.S.
############
Deuteromozmy nil.
When the lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it and bath cast out many nations before thee.
is Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:
~Neither sh-3t thou make marriages with them;
thy daughter t on shalt not gve unto his son, nor hint sucbter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 tor they will turn away thy son from following me.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall de.
stroy their altars, and break down their images,
and cut down their groves, and burn their gravan omages with fire.
6 For thou art a holy people.
~The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, becauso ye were more in number than any people; for ye tooeee ohe fewest of all people:
8 But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he bad sworn unto your fathers, bath the Lord brought you out with a mighty band, and redeemed you out ofehehouse of bondmea, from the hand of Pharaoh king cof Egypt.
WITH the seven nations that God cast out, the children of Israel were commanded to make no covenants, nor
matrimonial alliances lest they should fall into idolatry. As men are more given to wandering in strange countries than women these injunctions are intended specially for them. Adam Clarke says, the heart being naturally inclined to evil, the idolatrous wife would more readily draw aside the believing husband, than the believing husband the idolatrous wife. That being the case, could not the believing wife with her subtle influence have brought over the idolatrous husband? Why should she not have the power to convert to one religion as well as another, especially as there was no choice between them. There could not have been anything worse than the Jewish religion illustrated in their daily walk and conversation, as described in their books, and if the human heart naturally inclined to evil, as many converts might have been made to the faith of Moses as to any other.
With this consideration it is plain that if the Jews had offered
women any superior privileges, above any other tribe, they
could have readily converted the women to their way of think-
ing. The Jewish God seems as vacillating and tempest-tossed between loving and hating his subjects as the most undiciplined son of Adam. The supreme ideal of these people was pitiful to the last degree and the appeals to them were all on the lowest plane of human ambition. The chief promise to the well-doer was that his descendants should be as numerous as the sands of the sea.
In chapter ix when rebellion at Horeb is described, Aaron only is refered to, and in chapter x when his death is mentioned, nothing is said of Miriam. In the whole recapitulation she is forgotten, though altogether the grandest character of the three, though cast out of the camp and stricken with leprosy, in vengeance, she harbors no resentment, but comforts and cheers the women with songs and dances, all through their dreary march of forty years.
Deaterooo,ny x.
s8 He doth execute the judgment ef the father.t~ Lo'oe ye therefore the stranger: flor ye were
less and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving strangers in the land of Egypt.
him food and raiment.
The sacred fabulist has failed to give us any choice examples in which the Jews executed just judgments for widows or fatherless girls; on the contrary in all their dealings with women of all ranks, classes and ages they were merciless and unjust.
As to the stranger, their chief occupation was war and wholesale slaughter, not only of the men on the battlefield, but of innocent women and children, destroying their cities and making their lands desolate. A humane person reading these books for the first time without any glamour of divine inspiration, would shudder at their cruelty and blush at their obscenity.
Those who can make these foul facts illustrate beautiful symbols must have genius of a high order.
############
Deuteronomy xii.
st But thou must eat them before the Lord thy rejoice before the Lord thy God is all that thou
God in the place which the Lord thy God shall pattes: tloine hands unto.
choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and 09 Take heed to thyself tlo;ot thou forsake on~ thy manservant, and tlty maidservant, and the the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.
Levite that is within thy gates; and thou shalt
If women have been faithful to any class of the human family
it has been to the Levite. The chief occupation of their lives next to bearing children has been to sustain the priesthood and the churches.
With continual begging, fairs and donation parties, they have helped to plant religious temples on every hill-top and valley, and in the streets of all our cities, so that the doleful church bell is forever ringing in our ears. The Levites have not been an unqualified blessing, ever fanning the flames of religious persecution they have been the chief actors in subjugating mankind.
E. C. S.
####################
Deuteronomy xiii.
6 ? If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, other end of the earth;
or thy friend, which is as chine own soul, entice 8 Thou shalt not consent unto hits, nor hearke, thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other unto him; neither shall thine eye pity hits, toniohet gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him;
3~thers;9 But thou shalt surely kill him; Chine hand
7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are shall be first upon him to put him to death, and
round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from afterwards the band of all the people.
HERE is the foundation of all the terrible persecutions for a
change of faith so lamentable among the Jews and so intensified among the Christians. And this idea still holds, that faith in the crude speculations of unbalanced minds as to the nature of the great first cause and his commands as to the conduct of life, should be the same in the beginning, now and forever. All other institutions may change, opinions on all other subjects may be modified and improved, but the old theologies are a finality that have reached the ultimatum of spiritual thought. We imagine our religion with its dogmas and absurdities must remain like the rock of ages, forever.
Deuteronomy ztiO.
on And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within ood, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, atod thy gates.
cey manservant, and thy maidservant, and the t~ 5even days shalt thou keep a solemn feast ,.,evioe that is within thy gates, and the stranger, unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among shall choose.
you, in the place which the Lord thy God bath t6 ? Three times in a year shall all thy males chosen to place his name there, appear before the Lord thy God in the place which
t4 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread.
thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of
and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, tabernacles.
In the general festivities women of all ranks were invited to take part, but three times a year Moses had something special to say to the men; then women were not allowed to be present. We have no instance thus far in the Jewish economy of any direct communication from God to woman. The general opinion seemed to be that man was an all-sufficient object of worship for them, an idea not confined to that period. Milton makes his Eve with sweet humility say to Adam, ?God thy law, thou mine.?
This is the fundamental principle on which the canon and civil laws are based, as well as the English classics. It is only in the galleries of art that we see the foreshadowing of the good time coming. There the divine artist represents the virtues, the graces, the sciences, the seasons, day with its glorious dawn, and night with its holy mysteries, all radiant and beautiful in the form of woman. The poet, the artist, the novelist of our own day, are more hopeful prophets for the mother of the race than those who have spoken in the Scriptures.
E.C.S.
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Deuteronomy az'z~
is Thou shalt nof sacrifice unto the Lord thy or any of the hose of heaven, which I have not Ood any bullock or sheep, wherein is blemish, commanded;
o,-any evil favootredness; for that is an abomln- 4 And it be told thee, and thou base heard ofit, atfun unto the Lord thy God, and inquired diligently, and, behold, itbe true, and
~? It there be found among you, man orwoman, fhe thingcertain, that such abomination inweought
that bath wrought wickedness fn the night of the in Israel:
Lord thy God, in transgreoosing his covenant:5 Then shall thou bring forth that man or that
~And bath gone and served other gods, and woman unto thy gates and shalt stone them with worshipped them, either the sun, or the moon, scones, till they die.
This is certainly a very effective way of strengthening religions faith. Most people would assent to any religious dogma, however absurd, rather than be stoned to death. As all their healthy tender lambs and calves were eaten by the priests and rulers, no wonder they were so particular to get the best. To delude the people it was necessary to give a religious complexion to the sacrifices and to make God command the people to bring their choicest fruits and grains and meats. It was very easy for these accomplished prestidigitators to substitute the offal for sacrifices on their altars, and keep the dainty fruits and meats for themselves, luxuries for their own tables.
The people have always been deluded with the idea that what they gave to the church and the priesthood was given unto the Lord, as if the Maker of the universe needed anything at our hands. How incongruous the idea of an Infinite being who
made all the planets and the inhabitants thereof commanding his creatures to kill and burn animals for offerings to him. It is truly pitiful to see the deceptions that have been played upon the people in all ages and countries by the priests in the name of religion. They are omnipresent, ever playing on human credulity, at birth and death, in affliction and at the marriage feast, in the saddest and happiest moments of our lives they are near to administer consolation in our sorrows, and to add blessings to our joys. No other class of teachers have such prestige and power,
especially over woman.E. C. S.
#####################
CHAPTER IV.
Deuteronomy xviii.
9 ? When thou art come info the land which
the Lord thy God givech thee, thou shalt not
learn the ahomfuations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any
one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.
ONE would think that Moses with his rod taking the children of Israel through the Red Sea, bringing water out of a
rock and manna from heaven, going up into a mountain and there surrounding himself with a cloud of smoke, sending out all manner of pyrotechnics, thunder and lightning, and deluding the people into the idea that there he met and talked with Jehovah, should have been more merciful in his judgments ot all witches, necromancers and soothsayers. One would think witches, charmers and necromancers possessing the same power and manifesting many of the same wonders that he did, should not have been so severely punished for their delusions. Moses had taught them to believe in miracles. When the human mind is led to believe things outside the realm of known law, it is prepared to accept all manner of absurdities. And yet the same people that ridicule Spiritualism, Theosophy and Psychology, believe in the ten plagues of Egypt and the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea. If they did go through, it was when the tide was low at that point, which Moses understood and Pharaoh did not. Perhaps the difficulty is to be gotten over in much the same way as that employed by the negro preacher who, when his statement, that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on the ice, was questioned on the ground that geography showed that the climate there was too warm for the formation of ice, replied : ?Why, this happened betore there was any geography P' The Jews, as well as the surrounding nations, were dominated by all manner of supernatural ideas. All these uncanny tricks and delusions being forbidden
shows thay they were extensively practised by the chosen people, as well as by other nations.
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Deuteronomy xx, xxi.
t4 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, eeen all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enamies, which the Lord thy God bath given thee.
10 ? When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wile;
12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month; and after that she shall be thy wife.
14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go wither she will but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humled her.
15 ? If a man have two wives, one beloved,
and another hated, and have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers thut was hated:
16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons.
to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborne before thr son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborne.
17 But he shall acknowledge the sonof the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he bath for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
==
All this is done if the woman will renounce her religion and accept the new faith. The shaving of the head was a rite in accepting the new faith, the paring of the nails a token of submission. In all these transactions the woman had no fixed rights whatever. In that word ?humbled? is included the whole of our false morality in regard to the equal relations of the sexes. Why in this responsible act of creation, on which depends life and immortality, woman is said to be humbled, when she is the prime factor in the relation, is a question difficult to answer, except in her general degradation, carried off without her consent as spoils of war, subject to the fancy of any man, to be taken or cast off at his pleasure, no matter what is done with her. Her sons must be carefully guarded and the rights of the first-born fully recognized. The man is of more value than the mother in the scale of being whatever her graces and virtues may be. If these Jewish ideas were obsolete they might not be worth our attention, but our creeds and codes are still tinged with the Mosaic laws and customs. The English law of primogeniture has its foundation in the above text. The position of the wife under the old common law has the same origin.
When Bishop Colenso went as a missionary to Zululand, the horror with which the most devout and intelligent of the natives questioned the truth of the Pentateuch confirmed his own doubts of the records. Translating with the help of a Zulu scholar he was deeply impressed with his revulsion of feeling at the following passage : ?If a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. ~Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.? Exodus xxi: 20, 21. ?I shall never forget,? says the Bishop, ?the revulsion of feeling, with which a very intelligent Christian native, with whose help I was translating these last words into the Zulu tongue, first heard them as words said to be uttered by the same great and gracious Being, whom I was teaching him to trust in and adore. His whole soul revolted against the notion, that the Great and Blessed God, the Merciful Father of all mankind, would speak of a servant or maid as mere ?money,' and allow a horrible crime to go unpunished, because the victim of the brutal usage had survived a few hours!?
Though they had no Pentateuch nor knowledge of our religion, their respect for the mother of the race and their recognition of the feminine element in the Godhead, as shown in the following beautiful prayer, might teach our Bishops, Priests and Levites a lesson they have all yet to learn.
EVENING PRAYER
?0 God, Thou hast let me pass the day in peace: let me pass the night in peace, 0 Lord, who hast no Lord! There is no strength but in Thee: Thou alone hast no obligation. Under Thy hand I pass the day! under Thy hand I pass the ntght! Thou art my Mother, Thou my Father !
Placing the mother first shows they were taught by Nature that she was the prime factor in their existence. In the whole Bible and the Christian religion man is made the alpha and omega everywhere in the state, the church and the home. And we see the result in the general contempt for the sex expressed freely in our literature, in the halls of legislation, in church convocations and by leading Bishops wherever they have opportunities for speech and whenever they are welcomed in the popular magazines of the day.
---Elizabeth Cady Stanton
####
COMMENTS ON DEUTERONOMY, CHAPTER V.
Deuteronomy xxiv.
1 - When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of
his home,
2 - And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
3 - And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house: or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife:
4 - Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled for that is abomination before the Lord: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inherit.
5 - When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.
ALL the privileges accorded man alone, are based on the
principle that women have no causes for divorce. If they had equal rights in law and public sentiment, a large number of cruel, whiskey drinking and profane husbands, would be sued for divorce before wives endured one year of such gross companionship.
There is a good suggestion in the text, that when a man takes a new wife he shall stay at home at least one year to cheer and comfort her. If they propose to have children, the responsible duties of parents should be equally shared as far as possible. In a busy commercial life, fathers have but little time to guard their children against the temptations of life, or to prepare them for its struggles, and the mother educated to believe that she has no rights or duties in public affairs, can give no lessons on political morality from her standpoint.
Hence the home is in a condition of half orphanage for the want of fathers, and the State suffers for need of wise mothers.
It was customary among the Jews to dedicate a new house, a vineyard just planted, or a betrothed wife to the Lord with prayer and thanksgiving, before going forth to public duties. This idea is enforced in several different chapters, impressing on men with families that there are periods in their lives when
==============
??their sphere is home'' their primal duty to look after the wife, the house and the vineyard.
Deuteronomy xxv.
? If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall take her to wife.
6 -And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his hrother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
7 - And if the mao like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go op to the gate unto the elders, and say, my husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Ismel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.
8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her:
p Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot.
I would recommend these texts to the consideration of the Bishops in the English House of Lords. If a man may marry a deceased brother's wife, why not a deceased wife's sister? English statesmanship has struggled with this problem for generations, and the same old platitudes against the deceased wife's sister's bill are made to do duty annually in Parliament.
Deuteronomy xxviii.
~6 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward her husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her children which she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
64 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the
fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the
increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereo l I spake unto thee, thot shalt see it no more again : and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for boudmen and boudwomen, and no man shall buy you.
This is addressed to men as most of the injunctions are, as to their treatment of woman in general. In enumerating the good things that would come to Israel if the commandments were obeyed, nothing is promised to women, but when the curses are distributed, woman comes in for her share. Similar treatment is accorded the daughters of Eve in modern days. She is given equal privileges with man, in being imprisoned and hung, but unlike him she has no voice in the laws, the judge, the jury, nor the manner of exit to the unknown land. She is denied the
right of trial by her own peers; the laws are made by men, the courts are filled with men; the judge, the advocates, the jurors, all men!
Moses follows the usual ancient idea that in the creation of
=======
human life, man is the important factor. The child is his fruit, he is the soul. The spirit the vital spark. The woman merely the earth that warms and nourishes the seed, the earthly environment. This unscientific idea still holds among people ignorant of physiology and psychology. This notion chimes in with the popular view of woman's secondary place in the world, and so is accepted as law and gospel. The word ?beget? applied only to men in Scripture is additional enforcement of the idea that
the creative act belongs to him alone.This is flattering to male
egoism and is readily accepted.E. C. S.
In the early chapters of this book Moses' praises of Hebrew valor in marching into a land already occupied and utterly destroying men, women and children, seems much like the rejoicing of those who believe in exterminating the ahoriginees in America. Evidently Moses believed in the survival of the fittest and that his own people were the fittest. He teaches the necessity of exclusiveness, that the hereditary traits of the people may not be lost by intermarriage. Though the Israelites, like the Puritans, had notable foremothers as well as forefathers, yet it was not the custom to mention them. Perhaps the word fathers meant both, as the word man in Scripture often includes woman. In the preface by Lord Bishop Ely, to what is popularly known as the Speaker's Bible, the remark is made that ?whilst the Word of God is one, and does not change, it must touch at new points the changing phases of physical, philological and historical knowledge, and so the comments that suit one generation are felt by another to be obsolete.? So, also, it is that with the higher education of women, their wider opportunities and the increasing sense of justice, many interpretations of the Bible are felt to be obsolete, hence the same reason exists for the Woman's Commentary, which is already popularly known as the Woman's Bible.
Deuteronomy is a name derived from the Greek and signifies that this is the second or duplicate law, because this, the last
============
book of the Pentateuch, consists partly in a restatement of the law, as already given in other books. Deuteronomy contains also, besides special commands and advice not previously written, an account of the death of Moses. Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia states that ?the authority of this book has been traditionally assigned to Moses, but, of course, the part relating to his death is not supposed to be written by himself, and indeed the last four chapters may have been added by another hand.? DeWette declares that Moses could not have been the author. He not only points to the closing chapters as containing proof, but he refers to the anachronisms in earlier chapters, and insists that the general manner in which the Mosaic history is treated belongs to a period after the time of Moses. And Rev. John White Chadwick in his ?Bible of To-day? declares that ?Prophetism created Deuteronomy.? He speaks of Malachi, the last of the Prophets, as the first to mention the Mosaic law, and says that in the eighth century before Christ there was no Mosaic law in any modern sense. The Pentateuch in anything like its present form was still far in the future. Deuteronomy more than a hundred years ahead. Leviticus and Numbers nearly three hundred. * * * The book of Deuteronomy was much more of a manufacture than any previous portion of the Pentateuch. * * * Not Sinai and Wilderness, but Babylon and Jerusalem, witnessed the promulgation of the Levitical law. Its priest was Ezra and not Aaron; but who was its Moses the most patient study is not likely ever to reveal. The roar of Babylon does not give up its dead. It would seem as if the Rev. Dr. George Lansing Taylor shared some of these ideas when, in his poem at the centennial of Columbia College, he said:
?Great Ezra, Artaxerxes' courtly scholar?
Doctor, ere old Bologna gave that collar,
A ready scribe in all the laws of heaven,
From Babylon ascends, to Zion given,
Armed with imperial power and proclamation,
To rear God's house and educate a nation.
=========
As editor for God, the first in story,
He crowns the editorial chair with glory.
Inspired to push Jehovah's mighty plan on
He lays its corner-stone, the Bible canon.
His Bible college, Bible publication,
Convert the city, crown the Restoration,
And fix the beacon date for History's pages
The chronologic milestone of the ages.
This chapter of Deuteronomy in the solemnity and explicitness of its blessing and cursings must produce a deep impression on those who are desirous of pursuing a course which would promote personal and national prosperity. Reading chapter xix and remembering the history of the Jews from Moses to this day I reverently acknowledge the sure word of prophecy therein recorded. Chapter xxx also has high literary merit. Its euphony is in accordance with its solemn but encouraging warnings and promises. It touches the connection divinely ordained and eternally existing between life and goodness, death and sin, emphasizing the apostolic injunction, ?cease to do evil, learn to do well.? This chapter, giving the last directions of Moses and intimations of his departure from earth, is one of deep interest. How the Lord communicated to him that his end approached does not appear, but deeply impressed with the belief, he naturally called together Joshua and the Levites and gave his final charge. Whether fact or fiction this farewell is deeply interesting. The closing chapters, containing the ?song of blessing,? comes to all lovers of religious poetry as the swan song of Moses. Though doubting its authorship, one may enjoy its beauty and grandeur. Chapter xxxiv narrates the death of
Moses:
?By Nebo's lonely mountain, On this side Jordan's wave.
It tells briefly the mourning of the children of Israel over their great leader's departure and affirms the appointment of
======
Joshua, the son of Nun, as his successor, and fitly closes the valuable collection of writings called the Pentateuch.
Since I have proposeed the elimination of some of the coarser portions of Deuteronomy, I wish to add the testimony of Stevens in his ?Scripture Speculations,? as to the general morality of this ancient code. ?Barbarous as they were in many things, childish in more, their laws are as much in advance of them as of their contemporaries,?were even singular for humanity in that age, and not always equaled in ours. We forget that there were contemporary nations which justified stealing, authorised infanticide, legalized the murder of aged parents, associated lust with worship. None of these blots can be traced on the Jewish escutcheon. By preventing imprisonment for debt, Moses anticipated the latest discovery of modern philanthropy. * * * Even the mercy of Christianity was foreshadowed in his provision for the poor, who were never to cease out of the land; the prospered were to lend without interest, and never to harden their heart against a brother. The hovel of the poor was a sanctuary, and many a minute safeguard like the return of the debtor's garment at nightfall, to save him from suffering during the chilliness of the night, has waited to be brought to light by our more perfect knowledge of Jewish customs.? But that the Scriptures, rightly interpreted, do not teach the equality of the sexes, I must be permitted to doubt. We who love the Old and New Testaments take ?Truth for authority, and not authority for truth,? as did our sainted Lucretia Mott, whose earnest appeals for liberty were often jewelled, as were Daniel Webster's most eloquent speeches, with some texts from the old Hebrew Bible.
P.A. H.
###################
THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS.
CHAPTER I.
twiticus iv, vi.
sa When a ruler hath sinned and somewhat through ignorance, against any of the consrnandmenls of the Lord his G0d concerning things which should not he done, and is guilty.
23 Or if his sin, wherein he bath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:
27 ? And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to he done, and he guilty
sS Then he shall bring his offering, a kid of ~he goats, a temale without blemish, fur his sin.
i~ ? And this is the law of the meat offering:
the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord. before the altar.
z~ And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour ot the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, even the memorial of it, unto the Lord.
~3 All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shaLt he a statute for ever in your generations conceming the offerings ol the Lord made by 6re: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.
THERE seems to have been some distinction of sex even in the offerings of male and female animals. For rulers,
priests and people of distinction male animals were required, but for the common people a female lamb or goat would do. There is a difference of opinion among writers as to tne reason of this custom, some say because all female animals were considered unclean, others that the females were too valuable for wholesale slaughter. Farmers use the male fowls for the table because the hens are too valuable producing eggs and chickens. The fact has some significance, though Adam Clarke throws no light on it, he says ?the whole sacrificial system in this book refers to the coming sacrifice of Christ; without this spiritual reference, the general reader can feel no spiritual interest in this book.? For burnt offerings males were required, but for peace offerings and minor sins the female would answer.
As the idea of sacrifice to unknown gods, was the custom with all nations and religions, why should the Jewish have more significance than that of any other people. For swearing, an offence to ears polite, rather than eternal justice, a female creature or turtle dove might be offered.
The meat so delicately cooked by the priests, with wood and coals in the altar, in clean linen, no woman was permitted to taste, only the males among the children of Aaron. Seeing that the holy men were the cooks, it seems like a work of supererogation to direct them to clean themselves and their cooking utensils. Perhaps the daughters of Israel were utilized for that work.
It is clearly shown that child-bearing among the Jews was not considered a sacred office and that offerings to the Lord were necessary for their purification, and that double the time was necessary after the birth of a daughter.
In several of the following chapters the sins of men and women are treated on equal grounds, hence they need no special comments. In reading many of these chapters we wonder that an expurgated edition of these books was not issued long ago. We trust the volume we propose to issue may suggest to the next Revising Committee of gentlemen the propriety of omitting many texts that are gross and obscene, especially if the Bible is to be read in our public schools.
#############
Leviticus x.
22 ? And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto sacrifices of the Lord made by fire: for so I am Eleazar and unto Ititamar, his sons that were commanded.
left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of s~ And the wave breast and heave shoulder the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat shall ye eat in a clean place; thou, and thy sons, it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy holy. due, and thy sons' due, which are given out of 13 And ye shall eat it tn the holy place, be- the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children
cause it is thy due, and thy sons' due, of the of Israel.
Why the daughters cannot eat with the sons in the thirteenth verse and may in the fourteenth we cannot conjecture. We notice, however, that where the sons eat alone is called a ?holy place,? where the daughters eat with them it is called simply a ?clean place.? We are thankful, however, that in the distribution of meats the women come in occasionally for a substantial
meal in a clean place.
All the directions given in the eighteenth chapter are for men and women alike, for all nations and all periods of human development. The social habits and sanitary conditions prescribed are equally good for our times as when given by Moses to the children of Israel. The virtue of cleanliness so sedulously taught cannot be too highly commended. E. C. S.
############
COMMENTS ON LEVITICUS.
CHAPTER II.
.t.ez,iticsu xix.
3 ? Ye shall rear every man his mother, and his ~ther, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
20 And whosoever cohabits with a handmaid,
betrothed to a husband, and not at all redeemed,
nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged:
they shall not be put to death, because she was not
free.
21. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto
the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the
,congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering.
22 And the priest shall make an atonement for
him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
BY what possible chance the mother is mentioned first here,
it is difficult to conjecture, but we do see the cruel injustice of the comparative severity of the punishment for man and woman for the same offence. The woman is scourged, the man presents the priest with a ram and is forgiven.
L~cs~ticus xx.
g ? For every one that curseth his father or his 27 ? A man also or woman that hath a amiliar
mother shall be surely put to death: he bathspirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to
cursed his father or his mother; his blood skallAedeath : they shall stone them with stones; their
upon him,blood .,Izallbe upon them.
25 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it
is an unclean thing: he bath uncovered his
brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
Clarke remarks that all language that tends to lessen respect for father or mother, is included in this judgment. In this chapter we have still further directions for race and family purity. I suppose in the 21st verse we have that stumbling-block in the British Parliament whenever the deceased wife's sister's bill comes up for passage. Here, too, those who in times past have persecuted witches, will find justification for their cruelties. The actors in one of the blackest pages in human history, claim Scripture authority for their infernal deeds. Far into the eighteenth century in England, the clergy dragged innocent women into the courts as witches, and learned judges pronounced on them the sentence of torture and death. The chapter on witchcraft in Lecky's History of Rationalism,
94THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
contains the most heartrending facts in human history. It is unsafe to put unquestioned confidence in all the vagaries of mortal man. While women were tortured, drowned and burned by the thousands, scarce one wizard to a hundred was ever condemned. The marked distinction in the treatment of the sexes, all through the Jewish dispensation, is curious and depressing, especially as we see the trail of the serpent all through history, wherever their form of religion has made its impress. In the old common law of our Saxon fathers, the Jewish code is essentially reproduced. This same distinction of sex appears in our own day. One code of morals for men, another for women. All the opportunities and advantages of life for education, self-support and self-development freely accorded boys, have, in a small measure, been reluctantly conceded to women after long and persevering struggles.
Leviticus xxii.
~a If the priest's daughter also be married unto
a stranger, she may not eat of an effering of the
holy things.
23 Hut if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto
her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of
her father's meat: but there shall no stranger eat
thereof.
These restrictions on the priests' daughters would never be tolerated by the priests' sons should they marry strangers. The individuality of a woman, the little she ever possessed, is obliterated by marriage.
Leviticus xxiv.
in ? And the son of an Israelllish woman,
whose father was an Egyptian, went out among
the children of Israel: and this son of the
Israclitish woman and a man of Israel strove
together in the camp;
11 And the Jarselitish woman's son bIasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of together in the camp; Dibri, of the tribe of Dan;)
The interesting fact here is that a woman is dignified by a name, the only one so mentioned in the book of Leviticus. This is probably due to the fact that the son's character was so disreputable that he would reflect no lustre on his father's family, and so on his maternal ancestors rested his disgrace. If there had been anything good to tell of him, reference would no doubt have been made to his male progenitors.
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.Lemtzc,~s xxvi.
26 Andwhen I have broken the staff of your
bread, ten women shall bake your bread In
oven, and they shall deliver you your bread
again by weight; and ye shall eat, and not be
satisfied.
29 And ye shall rat the flesh of your sons,
and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
There could be no greater punishment in ordinary life than for ten women to bake in one oven. As every woman would necessarily look at her pies and cakes two or threc times, that would involve a frequent looking in, which might make the contents heavy as lead. A current of cold air rushing in too often, would wreck the most perfect compound. But perhaps heavy bread was intended as part of the punishment of the people for their sins. Some commentators say that the labors of the ten women are symbolical of the poverty of the family. When people are in fortunate circumstances, the women are supposed, like the lilies of the valley, to neither toil nor spin, but when the adverse winds blow they suddenly find themsclvcs compelled to use their own brains and hands or perish.
The 29th verse at last gives us one touch of absolute equality, the right to be eaten. This Josephus tells us really did occur in the sieges of Samaria by Benhadad, of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and also in the last siege of Jerusalem by the
Roman s.E. C. S.
##########
Amid the long list of directions for sacrifices and injunctions against forbidden actions, chapter xii gives the law of purification, not only degrading motherhood by the observance of certain ceremonies and exclusion from the sanctuary, but by discriminating against sex, honoring the birth of a son above that of a daughter.
According to the Levitical law, the ewe lambs were not used for sacrifices as offerings to the Lord, because they were unclean. This was an idea put forth by the priests and Levites. But there was a better and more rational reason. To sacrifice the ewes was to speedily deplete the flocks, but beyond a ceK?
tam number needed as sires for the coming generation, the males could be put to no better use than to feed the priests, the refuse of the animal, the skin, feet, etc., constituted the sacrifice to the Lord.
Bishop Colenso, in his remarkable work on the Pentateuch, gives the enormous number of lambs annually sacrificed by the Hebrews. A certain portion of the flocks were assigned to the priests, who were continually provided with the best mutton.
L.D.B.
####################
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
CHAPTER I.
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
Numbers i~
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilder.
ness of Sinai, saying.
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation ot the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number ~,t heir names, every male by their polis:
32 ? These are those which were numbered
of the children of Israel hv the house ~f their
fathers : all those that were tiucnil,ere'I uf the
coups throughout their hosts ~ C six honcireil
thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.
IN this chapter Moses is commanded to number the people and
the princes of the tribe, males only, and by the houses 1)1 their fathers. As the object was to see how many effective men there were able to go to war, the priests, the women, the feeble old men and children were not counted. Women have frequently been classified with priests in some privileges and disabilities. At one time in the United States tlle clergy were not allowed to vote nor hold office. Like women, tlley were considered too good to mingle in political circles. For them to have individual opinions on the vital questions of the hour might introduce dissensions alike into the church and the home.
This census of able bodied men still rulls on through chapter ii, and all these potential soldiers are called children of their fathers. Although at this period wom:tns chief duty and happiness was bearing children, no mention is made of the mothers of this mighty host, though solne woman had gone to the gates of death to give each suldicr life ; provided him with rations long before he could forage for himself, and first taught his little feet to march to tune and time. But, perhaps, if we could refer to the old Jewish census tables we might
find that the able bodied males of these tribes, favorites of Heaven, had all sprung, Minerva-like, from the brains of their fathers, and that only the priests, the feeble old men and the children had mothers to care for them, in the absence of the princes and soldiers.
However, in some valuable calculations of Schencher we learn that there was some thought of the mothers of the tribes by German commentators. We find in his census such references. as the following: The children of Jacob by Leah. The children of Jacob by Zilpah. The children of Jacob by Rachel. The children of Jacob by Bilhah. But even this generous mention of the mothers of the tribe of Jacob does not satisfy the exacting members of the Revising Committee. We feel that the facts should have been stated thus: The children of Leah, Zilpah, Rachel and Bilhah by Jacob, making Jacob the incident instead of the four women. Men may consider this a small matter on which to make a point, but in restoring woman's equality everywhere we must insist on her recognition in all these minor particulars, and especially in the Bible, to which people go for their authority on the civil and social status of all womankind.
E.C.S.
#############
CHAPTER II.
Numbers a.
And the Lord apake unto Moses, saying.
a Commasd the children of Israel. that they put out of the camp every leper, and every (sOC that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the (lead:
E,th male and female that they defile nut their camps.
~? Awl the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, IS If any man's wife go aside and commit a trespass against him.
14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and she be defiled or if she be not defiled
~ Then shall the man bring his wile unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, tite tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; t'e shall pour no oil upon it. nor put frankincense thereon ; for it is a,, offering of jealousy.
17 And the priest sitall take holy water tn an earthen vessel and of the dust tltat is ia the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:
~8 Awl the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the wo,nan's head, awl put the offering of memorial in her hands.wltict, is the jealousy offering, and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:
19 And the priest shall ettarge hr l'v an t,afl,.
anti say unto the won,r,n, it tietta t~.n.t it,,t ~,i aside be titno free tram thia Ititter w ,,t'r tl,d caus,tl, the etnes,.
so lint it thou t,ast gtttt,? Ilile at,tl it titto be defiled.
ni ittt.u the ;trist sit all It arg e the w ,n,an with an tall, ot tnt sing, tot itt' l~e'~t sttall utttct It o wot,tan, lItt. lot itik,- tI to at, roe anti all uattt attttttt~ the
04 Attd ito Ott;,t1 tittot lit'' otto In t,,lr ink the t,itter svatt'r that rat,-.etl, tt
2~ ?Ittell the Itriest sitalt tIlte ti to o.tl ,ttt.vt,ffertug ttot t,t tttt. wtnt;ntt's tott I 1,11 wIet? the offering belttte tite let, till tile it ttjn,ln Itte altar:
offerirtg, even the ntrrtt,tti;tl tltert ott I tsrt,,~ u1.tt ttte Ilt;tr alt' I tttte,ssa,> Is .Ini11 t
u-Itt-C, 11,0 it stt~tl tIt,, It tO-, f/ta! I the toettter ittttt her, tint ft ante Itttter.
slAnt-I if tite svtt,,tan Ite Itot tittiletI, Itut be clean tlte~ site sItati be tree.
AT the first blush it seems very cruel for the Jewi-1t (sod ti) order the diseased and unfortunate to he thrown titt of tlte
camp and left in the wilderness. But comment;itors suggest that they must have had a sanatorium near by where the Ilelhtless could he protected. Though improbable, still tIle stiggestion will be a relief to sensitive souls. This ordinance t)f Moses probably suggested the first idea of a hospital. The ahove account of the unfortunate wifc was called trial It)' ortle;tl.? of which Clarke gives a minute (lescription in Ins cttnimctit;tries. It was common at one time among many il;it;ons, tile wIlliten in all cases being the chief sufferers ;ts in the Ill t(lerll tri;ils for witchcraft. If the witch was guilty \vlleIl titrowli ill Iii tite water she ~vent to tile hottom, if itlllttCCtlt >hie flo.ted on the surface
r
100THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
and was left to sink, so in either case her fate was the same. As men make and execute the laws, prescribe and administer the punishment, ?trials by a jury or ordeal? for women though seemingly fair, are never based on principles of equity. The one remarkable fact in all these social transgressions in the early periods as well as in our modern civilization is that the penalties whether moral or material all fall on woman. Verily the darkest page in human history is the slavery of women I
The offering by the priest to secure her freedom was of the cheapest character. Oil and frankincense signifying grace and acceptableness were not permitted to be used in her case. The woman's head is uncovered as a token of her shame, the dust from the floor signifies contempt and condemnation, compelling the woman to drink water mixed with dirt and gall is in the same malicious spirit. There is no instance recorded of one of these ?trials by ordeal? ever actually taking place, as divorce was so easy that a man could put away his wife at pleasure, so he need not go to the expense of even ?a tenth part of an ephah of barley,? on a wife of doubtful faithfulness. Moreover the woman upon whom it was proposed to try all these pranks might be innocent, and the jealous husband make himself ridiculous in the eyes of the people. But the publication of these ordinances no doubt had a restraining influence on the young and heedless daughters of Israel, and they serve as landmarks in man's system of jurisprudence, to show us how far back he has been consistent in his unjust legislation for woman.
E.C.S.
##################
CHAPTER III.
Numbers xii.
And Miriam and Aaron spake agairtst Moses because ot the Ethiopian woman whom he had married.
~ And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Illones? Itath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.
3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
And the Lord came down lathe pillar of
the cloud and stood in the door of the taber.
nacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both cam, forth.
6 And He said, Hearnaw my words: If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lorti. will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
8 With him will I speak mouth to molitit, even apparently, and not in dark speeches;
and tile vimitilutle of the l~ortl shall he behold:
wherefore tlt,'n w,re ye nt't afraid It~ speak against my v~rsa,tt Mst.es
q Atttl Itte anger tf the lord was kindled against theul : aitti lie depart,ttl.
in Anti tltc cltu,l d,~1,artetl (r,,m off the taber. nacle ; anti. l,eltt'ld. Miriam b,ca,,s,' 1e1,rous, svitit~ av snow: al.tl Aaron l,,oked upon Nllrla,n. anti beittid, vile was leprous.
iiAni Aaron saill unto Moses. Alas, my lorti, I beseech Iltee, lay nttt Ilse sin upon us. seltereits we Itare done foolishly, and wherein we Itave slnneti.
23 And Mttses cried unto the Lard, saving Heal iter nttw, 0 God, I beseech thee.
25 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seem days : and the 1teuple journeyed not till Miriam was brought In again.
HERE we have the first mention of Moses's second marriage, but the name of the ~~?oman is not given, though she is
the assigned cause of the sedition. Both Aaron and Miriam had received a portion of the prophetic genius that distinguished Moses, and they naturally thought that they should have some share in the government, at least to make a few suggestions. when they thought Moses made a blunder. Miriam ~vas older than Moses, and had at this time the experience of 120 years. When Moses ~vas an infant on the River Nile, MirIam was in-trusted by his parents to ~vatch the fate of the infant in the bulrushes and the daughter of Pharaoh in her daily walks by the river side. It was her diplomacy that secured the child's own mother for his nurse in the household of the King of Egypt.
It is rather remarkable, if Moses was as meek as he is represented in the third verse, that he should have penned that strong assertion of his own innate modesty. There are evidences at this and several other points that Moses was not the sole editor of the Pentateuch, if it can be shown that he wrote any part of it.
Speaking of the punishment of Miriam, Clarke in his commentaries says it is probable that Miriam was chief in this mutiny; hence she was punished while Aaron was spared. A mere excuse for man's injustice; had he been a woman he would have shared the same fate. The real reason was that Aaron was a priest. Had he been smitten with leprosy, his sacred office would have suffered and the priesthood fallen into disrepute.
As women are supposed to have no character or sacred office, it is always safe to punish them to the full extent of the law. So Miriam was not only afflicted with leprosy, but also shut out of the camp for seven days. One would think that potential motherhood should make women as a class as sacred as the priesthood. In common parlance we have much fine-spun theorizing on the exalted office of the mother, her immense influence in moulding the character of her sons ; ?the hand that rocks the cradle moves the world,? etc., but in creeds and codes, in constitutions and Scriptures, in prose and verse, we do not see these lofty p~ans recorded or verified in living facts. As a class, women were treated among the Jews as an inferior order of beings, just as they are to-day in all civilized nations. And now, as then, men claim to be guided by the will of God.
In this narrative we see thus early woman's desire to take some part in government, though denied all share in its honor and dignity. Miriam, no doubt, saw the humiliating distinctions of sex in the Mosaic code and customs, and longed for the power to make the needed amendments. In criticising the discrepancies in Moses's character and government, Miriam showed a keen insight into the common principles of equity and individual conduct, and great self-respect and self-assertion in expressing her opinions~qualitie5 most lacking in ordinary women.
Evidently the same blood that made Moses and Aaron what they were, as leaders of men, flowed also in the veins of Miriam. As daughters are said to be more like their fathers and sons like their mothers, Moses probably inherited his meekness and
distrust of himself from his mother, and Miriam her self-reliance and heroism from her father. Knowing these laws of heredity, Moses should have averted the punishment of Miriam instead of allowing the full force of God's ~vrath to fall upon her alone. If Miriam had helped to plan the journey to Canaan, it would no doubt have been accomplished in forty days instead of forty years. With her counsel in the cabinet, the people might have enjoyed peace and prosperity, cultivating the arts and sciences, instead of making war on other tribes, and burning offerings to their gods. Miriam was called a prophetess, as the Lord had, on some occasions, it is said, spoken through her, giving messages to the women. After their triumphal escape from Egypt, Miriam led the women in their songs of victory. With timbrels and dances, they chanted that grand chorus that has been echoed and re-echoed for centuries in all our cathedrals round the globe. Catholic writers represent Miriam ?as a type of the Virgin Mary, being legislatrix over the Israelitish women, especially endowed with the spirit of prophecy.?
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Numbers xx.
Then came the children of Israel, even the first month: and the peo?le abode In Kadesh;
whole congregatlen, Into the desert of Zin in the and Miriam died there, and was burled here.
Eusebius says her tomb was to be seen at Kadesh, near the city of Petra, in his time, and that she and her brothers all died in the same year, it is hoped to reappear as equals in the res
urrection.E.C.S.
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CHAPTER IV.
Numbers vi.
And the Lord said unto Moses, ~ All the days of the vow of his separation
a Speak unto the children of israel, and say,there shall no razor come upon his head; until
when either man or woman shall separatethe days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth
themselves to vow a vow ot a Nazarite, unto thehimself unto the Lord, he shalt be holy, and
Lord,shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
THE Nazarites, both men and women, allowed their hair to
grow long, as the hair of the Nazarine was a token of subjection, the man to God, the woman to man. St. Paul no doubt alluded to this custom when he said the woman ought to have power upon her head, that is, wear her hair and veil and bonnet in church as a proof of her subjection to man, as he is to the Lord. The discipline of the church to-day requires a woman to cover her head before entering a cathedral for worship.
The fashion for men to sit with their heads bare in our churches, while ~vomen must wear bonnets, is based on this ancient custom of the Nazarine. But as fashion is gradually reducing the bonnet to an infinitesimal fraction it will probably in the near future be dispensed with altogether. A lady in England made the experiment of going to the established church without her bonnet, but it created such an agitation in the congregation that the Bishop wrote her a letter on the impropriety and requested her to come with her head covered. She refused. He then called and labored with her as to the sinfulness of the proceedings, and at parting commanded her either to cover her head or stay away from church altogether. She choose the latter. I saw and heard that letter read at a luncheon in London, where several ladies were present. It was received with peals of laughter. The lady is the wife of a colonel in the British army.
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2V'umhers xxv.
6 ? And, behold, one of the children of Israel 54 Now the name of the Israelite that was came and brought unto his brethren a Midian. slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish itish woman in the sight of Moses and all the woman, was Zimri, the son ot Salo, a prince of congregation of the children of Israel. a chief house among the Simeoniles.
7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the 55 And the name of the Midianitish woman
son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and took that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur;
a javelin in his hand;he was head over a people, and of a chiet house
8 And he went after the man of Israel isto the in Midian.
tent, and thrust both of them through, the man
of Israel, and the woman.
Some commentators say the tie between Zimri and Cozbi was a matrimonial alliance, understood in good faith by the Midianitish woman. He was a prince and she was a princess. But the Jewish law forbade a man going outside of his tribe for a wife. It was deemed idolatry. But why kill the woman. She had not violated the laws of her tribe and was no doubt ignorant of Jewish law. Other commentators say that Zimri was notorious at the licentious feasts of Baal-poer and that the Midianitish women tempted the sons of Israel to idolatry. Hence the justice of killing both Zimri and Cozbi in one blow. It is remarkable that the influence of woman is so readily and universally recognized in leading the strongest men into sin, but so uniformly ignored as a stimulus to purity and perfection. Unless the good predominates over the evil in the mothers of the race, there is no liope of our ultimate perfection. E. C. S.
The origin of the command that women should cover their heads is found in an old Jewish or Hebrew legend which appears in literature for the first time in Genesis vi. There we are told the Sons of God, that is, the angels, took to wives the daughters of men, and begat the giants and heroes, who were instrulTiental in bringing about the flood. The Rabbins held that the way in which the angels got possession of women was by laying hold of their hair; they accordingly warned women to cover their heads in public, so that the angels might not get possession of them. It was believed that the strength of people lay in their hair, as the story of Samson illustrates. Paul merely repeats this warning which he must often have heard at the feet of Gamaliel, who was at that time Prince or President of the Sanhedrim, telling women to have a ?power (that is, protection) on their heads because of the angels:? I Corinthians, chapter xi, verse io. ?For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.? Thus the command has its origin in an absurd old myth. This legend will be found fully treated in a German pamphlet?Die paulinische Angelologie und Daemonologie. Otto Everling, Gottingen,
If the command to keep silence in the churches has no higher origin than that to keep covered in public, should so much weight be given it, or should it be so often quoted as having Divine sanction?
The injunctions of St. Paul have had such a decided influence in fixing the legal status of women that it is worth our while to consider their source. In dealing with this question we must never forget that the majority of the writings of the New Testament were not really written or published by those whose names they bear. Ancient writers considered it quite permissible for a man to put out letters under the name of another, and thus to bring his own ideas before the world under the protection of an honored sponsor. It is not usually claimed that St. Paul was the originator of the great religious movement called Christianity, but there is a strong belief that he was divinely inspired. His inward persuasions, and especially his visions appeared as a gift or endowment which had the force of inspiration; therefore, his mandates concerning women have a strong hold upon the popular mind, and when opponents to the equality of the sexes are put to bay they glibly quote his injunctions.
We congratulate ourselves that we may shift some of these
biblical arguments that have such a sinister effect from their
firm foundation. He who claims to give a message must satisfy
us that he has himself received such message.
L.S.
#################
COMMENTS ON NUMBERS.
CHAPTER V.
Numbers xxvii.
Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son ot Manasseh, of the families of Manasech, the son of Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahish, Noah, and Hogiab, and Milcab, and I'trzah.
a And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,
3 Our father died In the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together againstihe Lord intise com. pany ot Korab.
4 Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he bath no son? Give us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.
~And Moses brought their cause before the Lord.
6 ? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.
~The daughters of Zelophehad speak right:
thou shalt surely give them a possession of urn inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the Inheritance of their father to pass unto them.
8 And thou shalt speak unto the ettildren of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son. then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
q And if be have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren.
so And if behave no brethren, then ye shall
give his inheritance unto his father's brethren.
xiAnd if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, sod he shalt possess it; and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the Lord commanded Moses.
THE respect paid to the daughters of Zelophehad at that early day is worthy the imitation of the rulers in our own
times. These daughters were no doubt fine-looking, well-developed women, gifted with the power of eloquence, able to impress their personality and arguments on that immense assemblage of the people. They were allowed to plead their own case in person before the lawgivers, the priests, and the princes, the rulers in State and Church, and all the congregation, at the very door of the tabernacle. They presented their case with such force and clearness that all saw the justice of their claims. Moses was so deeply impressed that he at once retired to his closet to listen to the still sITiall voice of conscience and commune with his Maker. In response, the Lord said to him: ? The daughters of Zelophehad speak right, if a man die and leave no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughters.? It would have been commendable if the members of the late Constitutional Convention in New York had, like Moses, asked the guidance of the Lord in deciding the rights of the daughters of the Van Rensselaers, the Stuyvesants, the Livingstons, and the Knickerbockers. Their final action revealed the painful fact that they never thought to take the case to the highest court in the moral universe. The daughters of Zelophehad were fortunate in being all of one mind; none there to plead the fatigue, the publicity, the responsibility of paying taxes and investing property, of keeping a bank account, and having some knowledge of mathematics. The daughters of Zelophehad were happy to accept all the necessary burdens, imposed by the laws of inheritance7 while the daughters of the Knickerbockers trembled at the thought of assuming the duties involved in self-government.
As soon as Moses laid the case before the Lord, He not only allowed the justice of the claim, but gave ?a statute of judgment,? by which the Jewish magistrates should determine all such cases in the division of property in the land of Canaan in all after ages.
When the rights of property were secured to married women in the State of New York in 1848, a certain class were opposed to the measure, and would cross the street to avoid speaking to the sisters who had prayed and petitioned for its success. They did not object, however, in due time to use the property thus secured, and the same type of women will as readily avail themselves of all the advantages of political equality when the right
of suffrage is secured.E.C.S.
#########
The account given in this chapter of the directions as to the division or inheritance of property in the case of Zelophehad, and his daughters shows them to be just, because the daughters are to be treated as well as the sons would be; but the law thereafter given, apparently suggested by this querying of Zelophehad's daughters in reference to their father's possessions is obviously unjust, in that it gives no freedom to the owner of property as to the disposition of the same after his death, i. e. leaves him without power to will it to any one, and leaves unmentioned the female relatives as heirs at law. Only ?brethren? and ?kinsman? are the words used, and it is very plain that only males were heirs, except where a man had no son,
but had one or more daughters.?The exception proves the
rule.?P. A. H.
###################
CHAPTER VI.
Numbers xviii
ss And this is thine; the heave offering of their
gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.
59 All the heave offerings of the holy things,
which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD,
have I given thee, and thy suns and thy daughters
with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant
of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to
thy seed with thee.
rhis whole chapter is interesting reading as the source of priestly power, that has done more to block woman's way to freedom than all other earthly influences combined. But the chief point in this chapter centers in the above verses, as the daughters of the Levites are here to enjoy an equal privilege with the sons. Scott tells us ?that covenants were generally ratified at an amiable feast, in which salt was always freely used, hence it became an emblem of friendship.? Perhaps it was the purifying, refining influence of this element that secured these friendly relations between the sons and daughters of the priesthood on one occasion at least. From the present bitter, turbulent tone of our Levites, I fear the salt we both manufacture and import must all have lost its savor. E. C. S.
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CHAPTER VII.
This text reads right}} NOT proofed}}}
Numbers xxii.
as And Balsam rose up in the mornIng, and saddled
his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
22 ? And God's anger was kindled because he went : and the angel 01 the Loan stood in the way br an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balsam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
24 But the angel of the Loan stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall be-zng on this side, and a wall on that side.
25 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wail, and crushed Balsam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
a6 And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
27 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balsam: and Balsam's anger was kindled, and he atnota cite ass with a staff.
aS And the Loim opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balsam, What have S done unt& thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
29 And Balsam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me; i would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
30 And the ass said unto Balsam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since Iwas thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
32 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balsam, and he saw the angel of the Loan standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
32 And the asgel of the Loan said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:
~ And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
34 And Balsam said unto tbe angel of the LORD, I have sinned for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.
THE chief point of interest in this parable of Balaam and his ass, is that the latter belonged to the female sex. This
animal has been one of the most remarkable characters in literature. Her virtues have been quoted in the stately cathedral, in the courts of justice, in the editorial sanctum, in both tragedy and comedy on the stage, to point a moral and adorn a tale. Some of the fairest of Eve's daughters bear her baptismal name, and she has been immortalized in poetry and prose. Wordsworth sends her with his Peter Bell to enjoy the first flowers of early spring. To express her love of the beautiful ?upon the pivot of her skull she turned round her long left ear? while stolid Peter makes no sign?
?A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.?
The courage and persistence of the ass has made her as famous in war as in literature. She is a marked feature everywhere in military stations, alike in the camp and the field, and her bray always in the minor key, gives a touch of pathos to the music of the band! The ass accompanied Deborah and Barak when they went to fight their great battle, she has gone with pioneers in all their weary wanderings, and has taken an active part in the commerce of the world, bearing the heaviest burdens though poorly fed and sheltered. At one time this animal voted at three successive elections in the state of New York. The property qualification being $250, just the price of a jackass, Ben Franklin facetiously asked ?if a man must own a jackass in order to vote,?who does the voting, the man or the jackass ?
It so happened once that the same animal passed into the hands of three different owners, constituting all the earthly possessions of each at that time and thus by proxy she was represented at the polls. Yet with this world-wide fame, this is the first time the sacred historian has so richly endowed and highly complimented any living thing of the supposed inferior sex. Far wiser than the master who rode her, with a far keener spiritual insight than he possessed, and so intensely earnest and impressible, that to meet the necessities of the occasion, she suddenly exercised the gift of speech. While Balaam was angry, violent, stubborn and unreasonable, the ass calmly manifested all the cardinal virtues. Obedient to the light that was in her, she was patient under abuse, and tried in her mute way to save the life of her tormentor from the sword of the angel. But when all ordinary warnings of danger proved unavailable, she burst into speech and opened the eyes of her stolid master. Scott, who considers this parable a literal fact, says in his commentaries, ?The faculty of speech in man is the gift of God and we cannot comprehend how we ourselves articulate. We need not therefore be surprised that the Lord made use of the mouth
of the ass to rebuke the madness of His prophet, and to shame him by the reproof and example of a brute. Satan spoke to Eve by a subtle male serpent, but the Lord chose to speak to Balaam by a she ass, for He does not use enticing words of man's wisdom, but works by instruments and means that men despise.?
Seeing that the Lord has endowed ?the daughters of men? also with the gift of speech, and they may have messages from Him to deliver to ?the sons of God,? it would be wise for the prophets of our day to admit them into their Conferences, Synods and General Assemblies, and give them opportunities for speech.
The appeal of the meek, long suffering ass, to her master, to remember her faithfulness and companionship from his youth up, is quite pathetic and reminds one of woman's appeals and petitions to her law-givers for the last half century. In the same language she might say to her oppressors, to fathers, husbands, brothers and sons, have we not served you with faithfulness; companions from your youth up; watched you through all your infant years; and carried you triumphantly through every danger? When at the midnight hour or the cock crowing, your first born lifted up his voice and wept, lo! we were there, with water for his parched lips; a cool place for his aching head; or patiently for hours to pace with him the chamber floor. In youth and manhood what have we not done to add to your comfort and happiness; ever rejoicing in your triumphs and sympathizing in your defeats?
This waiting and watching for half a century to recover our civil and political rights and yet no redress, makes the struggle seem like a painful dream in which one strives to fly from some impending danger and yet stands still. Balaam, unlike our masters, confessed that he had sinned, but it is evident from his conduct that he felt no special contrition for disobedience to the commands of his Creator, nor for his cruelty to the creature. So merely to save his life he sulkily retraced his steps with a determination still to consider Barak's propositions. Whether he took the same ass on the next journey
does not appear.
It must have been peculiarly humiliating to that proud man, who boasted of his eyes being open and seeing the vision of the Almighty, to be reproved and silenced by the mouth of a brute. As the Lord appeared first to the ass and spake by her, he had but little reason to boast that his eyes were opened by the Lord. The keen spiritual insight and the ready power of speech with which the female sex has been specially endowed, are often referred to with ridicule and reproach by stolid, envious observers of the less impressible sex. E. C. S.
#############
Numbers xx
1And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord bath commanded.
2 If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear
an oath to hind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all tbat proceedeth out of his moutb
3 If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord,
and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth;
4 And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she bath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bath bound her soul shall stand.
5 But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth, not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she had bound her soul, shall stand; and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.
6 And if she had at all a husband, when she vowed, or uttered aught out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul;~And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it; then her vowsshall stand, and her bands wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.8 But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it, then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect; and the Lord shall forgive her.9 But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.13 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.i~ But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her:he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.s5 But if he shall any ways make them void after that he bath heard them; then he shall hear her iniquity.s6 These are the statutes, which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her youth in her father's house.
==
AVOW is a religious promise made to God, and yet in the
face of such a definition is placed the authority of husband and father between the woman and her God. God seems thus far to have dealt directly with women when they sinned, but in making a religious vow, or dedication of themselves to some high purpose, their fathers and husbands must be consulted. A man s vow stands; a woman's is always conditional. Neither wisdom nor age can make her secure in any privileges, though always personally responsible for crime. If she have sufficient intelligence to decide between good and evil, and pay the penalty for violated law, why not make her responsible for her words and deeds when obedient to moral law. To hold woman
in such an attitude is to rob her words and actions of all iUnl;tl character. We see from this chaptcr that Jewish Women, as well as those of other nations, were held in a condition ot perpettlal tutelage or minority under the authority of the father until married and then under the husband, hence vows if ill their presence if disalIo~ved ~vere as nothing. That Jewish men appreciate the degradation o~ woman s position iS seen ill a part of their service in which eac~: man says on every Sabbath day. ?I thank Thee, oh Lord, that I was not born a woman ~? and the woman meekly responds. I thank Thee, oh Lord, that I am what I am, according to Thy holy will.?
The injunction in the above texts in regard to the interference of fathers is given only once, while the htlsbantV authority is mentioned three tilnes. If the ~VOlThtn was betrothed, even the future husband had the right to disallow her vows. It is supposed by solflC expositors that by a parity of reason minor sons should have been under tIle same restrictions as daughters, but if it were intended, it is extraordillarv that daughters alone should have been melitioned. Scott, in extenuating the custom, says Males were certainly ;tll4)wt~l more liberty than females ; the vo~vs of the latter might l)e adjudged more prejudicial to families ; or tIle sons heillg more immediately under the father's tuition might he tilotiglIt less liable to be inveigled into rash engagements of ally kind.?
F;. c. s.
#######
Woman is here taught that she is irresponsible. The father or
the husband is all. They are wisdom, power, respOnSil)ility.
But woman is a nonentity if still in her father's house, or if sile
a~.unjust to mall
has husband. I object to thisteacllineIt is
that he should have the added responsibility of his daughter's or wife's word, and it is cruel to wolnan because the irresponsIbility is enslaving in its influence. It is contrary to true Gospel teaching, for only in freedom to jo right can a soul dwell in that love which is the fulfilling of the law.
uSTHE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
The whole import of this chapter is that a woman's word is worthless, unless she is a widow or divorced. While an unmarried daughter, her father is her surety; when married, the husband allows or disallows what she promises, and the promise is kept or broken according to his will. The whole Mosaic law in this respect seems based upon the idea that a woman is an irresponsible being; and that it is supposed each daughter will marry at somL time, and thus be continually under the control of some male?the father or the husband. Unjust, arbitrary and debasing are such ideas, and the laws based upon them. Could the Infinite Father and Mother have give them to Moses? I think not. P. A. H.
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COMMENTS ON NLMBERS.?9
CHAPTER IX.
Numkr: xxxi.
~And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and ~-~sj the spoil of all their cattle, and all their Elocks. and all their goods.
so And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles with fire.
na And they brought the captives, and the prey. and the spoil, unto Moses and Eleazar the priest, and onto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan ,seaejericho.
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which caine from the battle.
s5 And Moses said unto them, have ye saved all the women alive!
nfl Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of aa~aam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Poor, and there
was a plague among the congregation of the lord.
s~ Nose therefore kill every male ismasng the little ones, and kill every woman that hsth known man.
iS But all the women children, that lonve tiot known a man keep alice for yourselees.
25 ? And the Lord spake unit Moses, savie~.
s6 ?lake the sum of the prey ths~st wis tiLt,. ?si~h of man and of beast, thou, and Elcanar the Irmi. and the chief fathers of the congregation
35 And Moss-s atid Ileazar the priest thid .ss thin Lord commanded Moses.
35 And the booty, /eing th. rest itt II,,, prey which the mt-n of war had c:tugh,s. was sin Itundred thousand -and seventy thous;snd and tise thousand sheep,
~And shreescore and twelve thi,us~tt,d ls.esi's.
3~ And threescore antI sine thiou,anh :1535-s
35 And thirty and two thousand ~wr~,ite 5 of women that had not known man.
IT appears from the enumeration here of the booty, that the Israelites took in this war against the Midianites seventy-
two thousand beeves, six hundred and sevcnty-fivc thousand sheep, sixty-one thousand asses and thirty-two thousand women virgins, beside the women and children killed, (as they said) by God's order. The thirty-two thousand women and ?women children were given to the soldiers and the priests. Why should tile social purity societies in England and America who helieve in the divine origin of all Scripture object to the use of women children by their statesmen and soldiers when the custom was permitted to tile chosen people of Israel ? True,tlle ~velfare of tile priests, lawgivers and soldiers was carefully' guar(le(l in selecting for them the purest of tue daughters of the Midianites.
Surely such records are enough to make tile most obstinate
believer doubt the divine origin of Jewish ilistory and the claim
of that people to have been un'Jcr the special guidance of Jellovah. Their claim to have had conversations with God daily and to have acted under His commands in all their tergiversations of word and action is simply blasphemous. We must discredit their pretensions, or else the wisdom of Jehovah himself. ?Talking with God,? at that period was a mere form of speech, as ?tempted of the devil? was once in the records of our courts. Criminals said ?tempted of the devil, I did commit the crime.? This chapter places Moses and Eleazar the priest, in a most unenviable light according to the moral standard of any period of human history. Verily the revelations in the Pall Mall Gazette a few years ago, pale before this wholesale desecration of women and children. Bishop Colenso in his exhaustive work on the Pentateuch shows that most of the records therein claiming to be historical facts are merely parables and figments of the imagination of different writers, composed at different periods. full of contradictions, interpolations and discrepancies.
He shows geologically and geographically that a flood over the whole face of the earth was a myth. He asks how was it possible to save two of every animal, bird and creeping thing on both continents and get them safely into the ark and back again to their respective localities. How could they make their way from South America up north through the frigid zone and cross over the polar ices to the eastern continent and carry with them the necessary food to which they had been accustomed, they would all have perished with the cold before reaching the Arctic circle. While the animals from the northern latitudes would all perish with heat before reaching the equator. What a long weary journey the animals, birds and fo~vls would have taken from Japan and China to Mount Ararat. The parable as an historical fact is hedged with impossibilities and so is the whole journey of forty years from Egypt to Canaan; but if we make up our minds to believe in miracles then it is plain sailing from Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy- Both Ezra and Jeremiah are said to have written the last book of the Pentateuch, and some, question whether Moses was the author of either. Bishop Colenso also questions the arithmetical calculations of the historians in regard to the conquest of the Midi;tnitcs, as
described in the book of Numbers.E. C. S.
But how thankful we must be that wc arc no longcr ohligcd to believe, as a matter of fact, of vital consequence to our eternal hope, each separate statement contained in the l'entatetlell, stIcli f ir instance, as the story related in i~umbers xxxi ?where we are told that a force of twelve thousand Israelites slew all the in;iles of the Midianites, took captive all the females and children, seized all their cattle and flocks, (seventy-two thousand oxen, sixty-one thousand asses, six hundred an(1 seventy-five thousand sheep,) and all their goods, and burnt all their cities, and all their goodly castles, without the loss of a single man,? aVId then, by command of Moses, butchered in COld blood all the women, except ?the women-children and virgins, to be given to the priests and soldiers.?
They amounte(l to thirty-two thousand, mostly, we suppose, under the age of sixteen. We may fairly reckon that there were as many more under the age of forty, and half as many more above forty, making altogether eighty thousand females, (If whom, according to the story, Moses or(lere(l forty?eight thousand to he killed, besides (say) twenty thousand young boys. The tragedy (If Cawnpore, ~vhere three hundred \vere butchered, would sink jl3tl) nothing, compared \Vith such a massacre, if, indeed, we were required to believe it.
The obvious intention of Moses, as shown in these directions, was to keep the Jewish race from amalg;nnation. But the great lawgiver seems to have ignored the fact, or been ignorant of it, that transmission of race qualities is even greater through the female line than through the male, and if they kept the women children for themselves they were Iflakillg sure tile fact that in day-s to come there would he J ~w~sh (lescelld;llsts who might be
ews in flalne,IW- ns in s1irit.
Jhilt, thIrollghI tile I(If liered itv, al ic
The freedom of the natural law ~eill Iflake itself evident, for 5(3?
called natural law is (hixilSe.I'. A. II..
Zipporah the wife of Moses was a Midianite, Jethro her father was a priest of some sagacity and consideration. When he met Moses in the desert he gave him valuable advice about the government of his people, which the great lawgiver obeyed.
The sons of Zipporah and Moses, Gershon and Eliezer, were therefore of Midianite blood, yet Moses sent an army of twelve thousand armed for war; a thousand of each tribe, with orders to slay every man. If the venerable Jethro was still alive he must have been murdered by his grandsons and their comrades. This is a most extraordinary story. If after the men, women and male children were all killed, thirty thousand maidens and young girls still remained, the Midianites must have been too large a tribe to have been wholly destroyed by twelve thousand Israelites, unless the Jewish God fought the battle.
L.D.B.
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COMMENTS ON NL-MBEES.12?,
ChAPTER X.
JVtrmlce,.o xxxtt.
And the chief f~shm-s of the families of the
children ci Gilead drew near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers r the children of Israel:
2 And they said, The Lord commanded my lord
to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded
by the Lord to give the inheritance of zelophehad our hrosher onto his daughters.
And if they he married to any of the sons of
the et/tie- trihes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance he taken from she inheritance of our fathers, and shall he pot to she inheritance of the trihe whereunto they are received so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.
4 And when the juhilee of the children of Israel shall he, then shall their inheritance he put onto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they ace received:
And Moses commanded the children of Israel
according ~o the ward of she lord, saying, The tribe of she sons scfJoseph hath suitl nell.
6the Lord dcith command concerning she daughters cit Zeloplielcail. saying, I ~-t th,m marry to whom they think i ess -iii, p ii, the tarmily tif the nh, u1 th,-ir tat her shill Icy marry -
Pci vicar11 cit the icchci-rii .cni,-ccl the children of Israel ri-rilicce Iruni true iii trill-. fur every iittr of the children cit Israel shall Let1 Iciniself so she inheritance of the trill, it los fat hers.
8 Attil every ihiciglit ir. iliart -ssessttli an in? herit.itcce iii any trilie ut tIcs- chi,hilr,n it Israel. shall lie wife onto one cit Ii,- fAncily ii ili, trihus cit her father, that the children of Israel may tejoy every man the inheritance cit hi-a fathers.
so Eec-n as the Ic-crc1 i cinimauncleil Musts, so did
the daughtrrs of Zehcu1ilielcail
ss-red were tuacrird unto their fasthrrs
brotbcrs sons.
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CHAPTER X.
Numits-o x7rn-ci.
And the chief f~t!ters of the families of the children of Gilead drew near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers c. the children of Israel:
And they said, The Lord commanded my lord to give the laird for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give she inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
3 And if they be married to any of the sons of the cct/sc'e- tribes of the children of Israel, then shtarll their inheritance he taken from the itcheritance of our fathers, and shall he pot to the inheritance of the trihe whereunto they are received : so sharll it be taken from Ihe lot oh our inheritance.
4 And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall he, then shall their inheritance be pcrt ourso the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received:
s And Moses commanded the children of Israel
according ~o she word of the loril. saying. The tribe of she sons tifJoseph hash sariti n-elI.
- 6thus- Lord chub comniarud concernitig the daughters cut Zelophuehuaril. sarying, I at them marry to whcucn they think i r?t -cc p icc rIce tarmuly of the tribe u-cl thi-ir father sharI1 thu-v inarrr-,.
7 Pci sharI1 icc-ct the ucuhuu-ruca,nuc cut the children of Israel ri- cuuucce Irocci rile tic tn1-,- : tim is- cry tune of the children cut I rareh -hc~rhl Let1. ha inu'-elt so the inheritance of rhi- t ribs- ml his hart hers.
8 And every cl.iiuczhuttr, than p -ssesst-ili an in. heritautice in any trihmi ii f thur c1c uhulrre rut Israel. shall Ice wife onto one cut thur lainrily iii thur trihie cut her father, that the children of Israrrl nray enjoy every man she inheritance of his farthers.
so Even as the Icurul commarnuleul Musts, so did the daughters of Zehcmhihus-huariI
isand were cuairricd unto their farther's brothcrs' sons.
IN a former chapter there was a sense of justice shown towards the daughters of Zelophehad, but here a new complication
arises. The uncles of these girls had their eyes on the property and perhaps feared that their sons had not found favor in the eyes of their cousins, as they might have seen and admired some fine looking young men from other tribes. So the crafty old uncles moved in time to get a statute passed that would compel daughters to marry in the tribe of their fathers and got a direct command from the Lord to that effect, then the young women, compelled to limit their predilections, marrIed their cousins, setting the laws of heredity quite aside ; property in all ages being considered of more importance than ~ Thus, after making some show of justice in giving the daughters of Zelophehad the inheritance of their fathers, the Israelites began to consider the loss to their tribe, if peradventure the five sisters should marry into other tribes and all this property be transferred to their enemies.
124THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
They seemed to consider these noble women destitute of the virtue of patriotism, of family' pride, of all the tender sentiments of friendship, kindred and home, and so with their usual masculine arrogance they passed laws to compel the daughters of Zelophehad to do what they probably would have done had there been no law to that effect. These daughters were known by the euphonious names of Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, and they all married their father's brothers' sons. Cousins on the mother's side would probably have been forbidden.
If Moses, as the mouthpiece of God, aimed to do exact
justice, why did he not pass an ordinance giving property in all
cases equally to sons and daughters.E. C. S.
Moses gave what appears to be, in the light of this Christian era, a just judgment when he decided that the daughters of Zelophehad should inherit their father's property, but he gave as the law of inheritance the direction that ?if a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter ;? thus, as I think, unjustly discriminating between women who have brothers and women who have none, and he goes on further to deal unjustly with women when he directs that the daughters of Zelophehad marry so that the inheritance justly awarded them should not go out of the family of the tribe of their fathers.
?Let them marry to whom they think best,? and those words seemingly recognize their righteous freedom. But immediately he limits that phrase and informs the five women they must only marry in their father's tribe, and were limited also to their father's family. The result was that each married her own cousin. If this was contrary to physiological law, as some distinguished physiologists affirm, then they were compelled by the arbitrary law of Moses to break the law of God.
P. A. H.
#####################
THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.
CHAPTER 1.
Desdeeowonsy i.
3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in s-aChe, and in the south, anit Ity stir' s,c,s si,i, tint tire the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, laud of tIre casnaanites. artid out. l..hi.aciutt. irtits that Moces spake unto the children of Isruch. thu. criart rid-ur, tIre ris-r~r Iiuhchitvr cs -according unto all that the Lord had given hun in-' - -- S IlIum huh Ihcaic,, sit thu. hitch I u,.:im. siuc gi in commandment unto them roil ~u~-cu'-as thus- haiti1 ss-huiihr rIce jrl snr r' cmii iii
6 The Lord our God spake onto us in Horehc, ymcur fatthrers, .Xhurarhcartic, Stan auir- I In ,fii,u j.tce
saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this micuctit : unto theni inch iii thu-ic ~ucm I ar:rr ihmcur -
7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go ticso ?llcc' l,urrl 5'uccir I html math nut1 im1ihiri I viii. are-!,
the mount of the Amorites, and unto nIl the ~b/uri-u-~ beh~hul. ye arc' sIns cIty is tIme sc.rr, it fm-tic-ri time
nigh thereunto, in the plaits, in the hills, and in the multitude.
###################
THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.
CIIAPT1:R I.
Desrteeotweey i.
3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in varle, and in the' south. anit Iny stir' sr,.s si,i.. tin sIre the eleventh month, on the fir-ct day of the month, launch of tIc' canannir',, rind ant, lr.hi.rui~.tt. crn,s that Moves spake onto the children of Isrnul. thu.. cr-ant riser, she ris-,.e IKuu1uhu,-:ri,.s.
according onto all that the Lord had giren hunt in. - S It-lu ill. I crc,. si-i thu. rim-I hi,:.,:, s-.,iu- gin in commandment unto them annul huuus-ainin-as thin! U~til sthuiLhi tIme Inch sir rr.' mmiii,, 6 The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeli, yuuur farthners, Ahinrarhuaruui, Inn:, mini-h hum cli. t in -~ince
naying, Ye have dwelt long enocrgh in this mucununt : unto theni arniul nuns liii r si-n.m I at :u n-c i mccci.
7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go tiso ?liii' L,urrl y.iunr 4mn I mmli nmmunhumhuhmc.mI sum. in-!,
the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the ,bhmr-c-~behuhul. ye tree this ui.ry ar-a time urn, ut hm,-.rsc?nr uir
nigh thereunto, in the plain,, in the hills, and in thu multitude.
THIS book contains an account of what passed in the wilderness the last month of the fortieth year, which is sll11IiIsed
to be written by Ezra, as the history is contintled several days after the death of Moses. Moses' fare~vcll a(1(lress to the children of Israel is full of wisdom, with a totlch of 1latht-ts. This had been a melancholy year with the hebrews ill tIle death of Miriam, Aaron and Moses. The manner in wIliell this people were kept wandering up and down on the very' verge of the land of Canaan because they ~vere rebellious does seem like child's play. No wonder they were discouraged anIl murlfitlresl. It is difficult from the record to see that these IseolIle were any' better fitted to enter the promised land at the eVILl (If forty' years than when they first left Egypt. But the promise that tllev should be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, accortling tIl Adam Clarke, had been fulfilled. lie tells us that only three thousand stars can be seen by the naked ey'e, while the children of Israel numbered at this time six hundred thflusand fighting men, beside all the women and children. Astronomers, however, now estimate that there are over seventy-five Iflillion stars within the range of their telescopes. If census takers had prophetic telescopes, they could no doubt see the promises to the Hebrews fully realized in that one line of their ambition.
.
############
Deutecromtsny ir;
34 And we took all his cities at that time, and she little ones, of every city, we left none to
titterly destroyed the men, and she women, and remain.
Though the women were ignored in all the civil affairs and religious observances of the Jews, yet in making war on other tribes they thought them too dangerous to be allowed to live, and so they killed all the women and children. The women might much better have helped to do the fighting, as it is far easier to die in the exciteme~ of the battlefield than to be murdered in cold blood. In making war on neighboring tribes, the Jewish military code permitted them to take all the pure, virgins and child women for booty to be given to the priests and soldiers, thus debauching the men of Israel and destroying all feelings of honor and chivalry for women. This utter contempt for all the decencies of life, and all the natural personal rights of women as set forth in these pages, should destroy in the minds of women at least, all authority to superhuman origin and stamp the Pentateuch at least as emanating from the most obscene minds of a barbarous age.
Deuteronomy a, vi.
.6 ? Honour thy father and thy mother, as she as Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's
Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thywife, neither shalt thou Covet shy neighbour's
days may be prolonged, and that it may go wellhouse, his field, or his manservane, or his maid-
with thee, in the land which the Lord thy Godservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy
giveth thee,neighbour's.
57 Thou shalt not kill. z That thou miglrtess fear the Lord thy God, to
nB Neither shalt thou commit adultery.keep all his statutes and his commandments, which
sg Neither shalt thou steal.I command thee, thou, and shy son, and thy son's
so Neither shalt thou hear false witness againstson, all she days of thy life; and that thy days
thy neighbour.may be prolonged.
The best commentary on these texts is that no Revising Committee of Ecclesiastics has found it necessary to make any suggestions as to whom the commandments are addressed. Suppose we reverse the language and see how one-sided it would seem addressed only to women. Suppose this were the statement. Here is a great lawgiver and he says: ?Thou art to keep all God's commandments, thou and thy daughters and thy daughter's daughters, and these are the commandments:
?Thou shalt honor thy mother and thy father.' ?Thou shalt not steal nor lie.' ?Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's husband, nor her field, nor her ox, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.?~
Would such commandments occasion no remark among Biblical scholars? In our criminal code to-day the pronouns she, her and hers are not found, yet we are tried in the courts, imprisoned and hung as ??he,~~ rr~jflj~~ or ??his,? though denied the privileges of citizenship, because the masculine pronouns apply only to disabilities. What a hustling there would be among prisoners and gendr~rs if laws and constitutions,
Scriptures and commandments,:tLyed this fast and loose game
with the men of any nation.
#####
Deuteronomy ion
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and 7 For what nation is there tO great, who hoth
judgments, even as she Lord my God commandedGod so nigh unto them, as she Lord our God is in
me, that ye should do so in she land whither yeall things that we call upon him/er P
go to possess it. 8 And what nation is there so great, that hash
6 Keep therefhre and do them: for this is yourstatutes and judgments so righteous as all this law,
wisdom and your understanding in she sight of thewhich I set before you this day!
stations, which shall hear all these statutes, and
say, Surely this great nation is a wise and under
standing people.
Adam Clarke in his comments on chapter iv, says, ?there was no form of worship at this time on the face of the earth that was not wicked and obscene, puerile and foolish and ridiculous, except that established by God himself among the Israelites, and every part of this taken in its connection and reference may be truly called a wise and reasonable service. Almost all the nations of the earth manifested in time their respect for the Jewish religion by copying different parts of the Mosaic code as to civil and moral customs.?
As thoughtful, intelligent women, we question all this:
First.?We see no evidence that a just and wise being wrote either the canon or civil laws that have been gradually compiled by ecelesiastics and lawgivers. Second.?We cannot accept any code or creed that uniformly defrauds woman of all her natural rights. For the last half century we have publicly and persistently appealed from these laws, which Clarke says all nations have copied, to the common sense of a more humane and progressive age. To-day women are asking to be delivered from all the curses and blessings alike of the Jewish God and the
ordinances he established.In this book we have the ten com-
mandments repeated.E.C.S.
########
Deuteronomy vii.
when the I .ord thy God shall heing thee into and cut down their groves, and burn their graven
the land whither thou guest so possess it and bath m -~rages with fire.
cast out many nations before thee.6 roe thou art a holy people.
2 Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy 7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor
them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, choose you, because ye were more in number than
nor shew mercy unto them:any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
3 Neither sh-.lt thou make marriages with them; 8 Buthecause the Lord loved you, and because
thy daughter s on shalt not give unto his son, nor he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
his i suchter shalt thou take unto thy son,your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with
4 - roe they will turn away thy son from follow- a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
ing me.of boodmen, from the band of Pharaoh king of
s But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall de-Egypt.
stroy their altars, and break down their images,
#############
Desrteeotsoewy vii.
when the I ord thy God shall heing thee into and cut down their groves, and burn their graven
the land whither thou goest so possess rt and hath - - ae.~.rges with fire.
cast out many nations before thee.6 ror thou art a holy people.
2 Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy 7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nee
them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, choose you, because ye were more in number than
nor shew mercy unto them:any people; for ye were the fewest of all people;
~Neither sh-.lt thou make marriages with them; 8 Butbecause the Lord loved you, and because thy daughter t on shalt not give unto his son, nor he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
his i sughter shalt thou take unto thy son,your fathers, bath the Lord brought you out with
4 - r0~- they will turn away shy son from follow- a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of thehotsse
ing me.of boudmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of
s But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall de-Egypt.
stroy their altars, and break down their images,
WITH the seven nations that God cast out, the children of
Israel were commanded to make no covenants, nor matrimonial alliances lest they should fall into idolatry. As men are more given to wandering in strange countries than women these injunctions are intended specially for them. Adam Clarke says, the heart being naturally inclined to evil, the idolatrous wife would more readily draw aside the believing husband, than the believing husband the idolatrous wife. That being the case, could not the believing wife with her subtle influence have brought over the idolatrous husband? Why should she not have the power to convert to one religion as well as another, especially as there was no choice between them. There could not have been anything worse than the Jewish religion illustrated in their daily walk and conversation, as described in their books, and if the human heart naturally inclined to evil, as many converts might have been made to the faith of Moses as to any other.
With this consideration it is plain that if the Jews had offered
women any superior privileges, above any other tribe, they
could have readily converted the women to their way of think-
Deuteronomy vii.
?when she I ord thy God shall heing thee into the land whither thou guess to possess it and hath cast out many nations before thee.
2 Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither nh?Ic thou make marriages with them; thy daughter t on shalt not give unto his son, nor his i soghtershailt thou take unto thy son.
4 - 5or they will turn away shy son from following me.
~But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images,
and cut down their groves, and burn their graven rs?-es with fire.
6 For thou art a holy people.
7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 Butbecause the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, bath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out ofthehouse of boudmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
WITH the seven nations that God cast out, the children of Israel were commanded to make no covenants, nor
matrimonial alliances lest they should fall into idolatry. As men are more given to wandering in strange countries than women these injunctions are intended specially for them. Adam Clarke says, the heart being naturally inclined to evil, the idolatrous wife would more readily draw aside the believing husband, than the believing husband the idolatrous wife. That being the case, could not the believing wife with her subtle influence have brought over the idolatrous husband? Why should she not have the power to convert to one religion as well as another, especially as there was no choice between them. There could not have been anything worse than the Jewish religion illustrated in their daily walk and conversation, as described in their books, and if the human heart naturally inclined to evil, as many converts might have been made to the faith of Moses as to any other.
With this consideration it is plain that if the Jews had offered
women any superior privileges, above any other tribe, they
could have readily converted the women to their way of thinking. The Jewish God seems as vacillating and tempest-tossed between loving and hating his subjects as the most undiciplined son of Adam. The supreme ideal of these people was pitiful to the last degree and the appeals to them were all on the lowest plane of human ambition. The chief promise to the well-doer was that his descendants should be as numerous as the sands of the sea.
In chapter ix when rebelhi- ,~:t at Horeb is described, Aaron only is refered to, and in chapter x when his death is mentioned, nothing is said of Miriam. In the whole recapitulation she is forgotten, though altogether the grandest character of the three, though cast out of the camp and stricken with leprosy, in vengeance, she harbors no resentment, but comforts and cheers the women with songs and dances, a11 through their dreary march of forty years.
Desrteroecony r.
s8 He doth easecute she judgment of the father-s~ Lo'me ye therefore she stranger: firr ye were
less and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving strangers in the land of Egypt.
him food and raiment.
###########
Desdororcoey nt
s8 He doth execute she judgment cc the father-s~ Love ye iberefore the stranger: 6rr ye were
less and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving strangers in the land of Egypt.
him food and raiment.
The sacred fabulist has failed to give us any choice examples in which the Jews executed just judgments for widows or fatherless girls; on the contrary in all their dealings with women of all ranks, classes and ages ?they were merciless and unjust.
As to the stranger, their chief occupation was war and wholesale slaughter, not only of the men on the battlefield, but of innocent women and children, destroying their cities and making their lands desolate. A humane person reading these books for the first time without any glamour of divine inspiration, would shudder at their cruelty and blush at their obscenity.
Those who can make these foul facts illustrate beautiful symbols must have genius of a high order.
Deuteronomy xii.
s8 But thou most eat them before the Lord thy God in she place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and shy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and tIny maidservant, and the Levise that is within thy gates; and thou shalt
rejoice hefore the Lord shy God in all that tlso,a
puttest thuine hands unto.
t9 Take heed so thyself tlnmrt thou forsake s~e she Levise as long as thou livest upon the earth.
If women have been faithful to any class of the human family it has been to the Levite. The chief occupation of their lives next to bearing children has been to sustain the priesthood and the churches.
With continual begging, fairs and donation parties, they have helped to plant religious temples on every hill-top and valley, and in the streets of all our cities, so that the doleful church bell is forever ringing in our ears. The Levites have not been an unqualified blessing, ever fannv~- the flames of religious persecution they have been the chief actors in subjugating mankind.
E. C. S
###########.
ffeutemeonomy xiii.
6 ? If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thee, from the one end of she earth even unto Site thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of shy bosom, other end of the earth;
or thy friend, which is as shine own soul, entice 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve uthen ~ - gusto him; neither shall shine eye pity hint, treithesgods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor th) - - shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
fathers; g But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand
7 Namely, of the gods of the people which tareshall he first upon him to pus him so death. and
round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off fromafterwards the hand of all the people.
HERE is the foundation of all the terrible persecutions for a
change of faith so lamentable among the Jews and so intensified among the Christians. And this idea still holds, that faith in the crude speculations of unbalanced minds as to the nature of the great first cause and his commands as to the conduct of life, should be the same in the beginning, now and forever. All other institutions may change, opinions on all other subjects may be modified and improved, but the old theologies are a finality that have reached the ultimatum of spiritual thought. We imagine our religion with its dogmas and absurdities must remain like the rock of ages, forever.
#############
Deuteronomy xvi.
Cs And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord shy r3od, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, arsd toy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levity that is within shy gates, and the stranger, and she fatherless, and she widow, that are among you, in the place which the Lord shy God hath chosen to place his name there.
14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and shy manservant, and thy maidservant, and she Levite, the stranger,
and the fatherless, and she widow, that tree within thy gates.
n~ Seven days shalt thou keep a sniemn feast unto the Lord thy God in she place which thus Lord shall choose.
s6 ? Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in she place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feant of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
In the general festivities women of all ranks were invited to take part, but three times a year Moses had something special to say to the men; then women were not allowed to be present. We have no instance thus far in the Jewish economy of any direct communication from God to woman. The general
opinion seemed to be that man was an all-sufficient object of worship for them, an idea not confined to that period. Milton makes his Eve with sweet humility say to Adam, ?God thy law, thou mine.?
This is the fundamental principle on which the canon and civil laws are based, as well as the English classics. It is only in the galleries of art that we sce the foreshadowing of the good time coming. There the iivine artist represents the virtues, the graces, the sciences, the seasons, day with its glorious dawn, and night with its holy mysteries, all radiant and beautiful in the form of woman. The poet, the artist, the novelist of our own day, are more hopeful prophets for the mother of the race than those who have spoken in the Scriptures.
E.C.S.
##############
Deuterononsy xvsL
Thou shall nof sacrifice unto the Lord thy or any of she host of heaven, which I have not God any bullock or sheep, wherein is blemish, commanded;
o~-any evil favouredness: for Ihat is an abomin- 4 And it be told Ihee, and thou hans heard ofit, atfon unto fhe Lord ihy God, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it tIe true, and
a ? If iherebe found among you, man orwoman, the Ihingeertain. ihat such abomination inweought
that hath wrought wickedness in Ihe sight of the in Israel;
Lord Ihy God, in tranngreosing his covenant:s Then shalt thou bring forfh thai man or that
3 And hafh gone and served oilier gods, and woman unto thy gates and shalt stone them with
worshipped them, either the sun, or the moon, stones, till they die.
This is certainly a very effective way of strengthening religjous faith. Most people would assent to any religious dogma, however absurd, rather than be stoned to death. As all their healthy tender lambs and calves were eaten by the priests and rulers, no wonder they were so particular to get the best. To delude the people it was necessary to give a religious complexion to the sacrifices and to make God command the people to bring their choicest fruits and grains and meats. It was very easy for these accomplished prestidigitators to substitute the offal for sacrifices on their altars, and keep the dainty fruits and meats for themselves, luxuries for their own tables.
The people have always been deluded with the idea that what they gave to the church and the priesthood was given unto the Lord, as if the Maker of the universe needed anything at our hands. How incongruous the idea of an Infinite being who made all the planets and the inhabitants thereof commanding his creatures to kill and burn animals for offerings to him. It is truly pitiful to see the deceptions that have been played upon the people in all ages and countries by the priests in the name of religion. They are omnipresent, ever playing on human credulity, at birth and death, in affliction and at the marriage feast, in the saddest and happiest moments of our lives they are near to administer consolation in our sortows, and to add blessings to our joys. No other class of teachers have such prestige and power,
especially over woman.E. C. S.
#############
Deuteronomy xviii.
g ? ?when thou art come into the land which is Or a charmer, or a consulter wtth fasssll~,.
the Lord thy God givesh thee, thou shalt not spirits, or a wizard, or a necromnninm~
learn the abominatiorts of those nasioun.sa For all that do these things are as
no There shalt not be found among you ony ination unto the Lord.
one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,-
ONE would think that Moses with his rod taking the children of Israel through the Red Sea, bringing water out of a
rock and manna from heaven, going up into a mountaln and there surrounding himself with a cloud of smoke, sending out all manner of pyrotechnics, thunder and lightning, and deluding the people into the idea that there he met and talked with Jehovah, should have been more merciful in his judgments ot all witches, necromancers and soothsayers. One would think witches, charmers and necromancers possessing the same power and manifesting many of the same wonders that he did, should not have been so severely punished for their delusions. Moses had taught them to believe in miracles. When the human mind is led to believe things outside the realm of known law, it is prepared to accept all manner of absurdities. And yet the same people that ridicule Spiritualism, Theosophy and Psycholegy, believe in the ten plagues of Egypt and the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea. If they did go through, it was when the tide was low at that point, which Moses understood and Pharaoh did not. Perhaps the difficulty is to be gotten over in much the same way as that employed by the negro preacher who, when his statement, that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on the ice, was questioned on the ground that geography showed that the climate there was too warm for the formation of ice, replied: ?Why, this happened betore there was any geography!? The Jews, as well as the surrounding nations, were dominated by all manner of supernatural ideas. All these uncanny tricks and delusions being forbidden
##################
Deuteronomy xx, xxs.
x~ But the women, and the little ones, and time cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyselt; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord tiny God bath given thee.
sO ? ?when (boo guest forth to war against thtne enemies, and the Lord thy God bath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
ss And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wile;
s2 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
13 And she shall pun the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain ho shine house, and bewail her father and her mother a f~sll month: and after that she shall be thy wife.
t4 And it small be, if thou have no delighit in her, then thou shalt let her gini whither sire will but thou shalt not veil her at ali for snnonies, slums shall not make merchandise ot her, tinerauise thou hast tttccuttcied her.
ss ? If a man have two wives, use lmi:hmivsil, and another hated, and tirey tins-c tuornue tihsss children, Ito/h the hehosed and the haled : aunt
-?:he firstborn son be tiers that wam huarhc-ul
x6 Then it shall he, when ice mahuc-Ib his sons to inherit that which he halt,, t/uctt Ire ncarv nunS make the son of the beloved hiummlhicurn hiefote tins, son of the hated, oh nc/n ni jucdcind the hirsuhortr
sy But he shall acknowledge thu sun of Ike hated for lIne flrstlrorn, by givinig turn a duicnhule portion of all that he bath: for he i.u she hreginning of his strength: lice right of the firstborn in his.
All this is done if the woman will renounce her religion and accept the new faith. The shaving of the head was a rite in accepting the new faith, the paring of the nails a token of submission. In all these transactions the woman had no fixed rights whatever. In that word ~humbledct is included the whole of our false morality in regard to the equal relations of the sexes. Why in this responsible act of creation, on which depends life and immortality, woman is said to be humbled, when she is the prime factor in the relation, is a question difficult to answer, except in her general degradation, carried off without her consent as spoils of war, subject to the fancy of any man, to be taken or cast off at his pleasure, no matter what is done with her. Her sons must be carefully guarded and the rights of the first-born fully recognized. The man is of more value than the mother in the scale of being whatever her graces and virtues may be. If these Jewish ideas were obsolete they might not be worth our attention, but our creeds and codes are still tinged with the Mosaic laws and customs. The English law
-of primogeniture has its foundation in the above teXt. The position of the wife under the old common law has the same
origin.
When Bishop Colenso went as a mtssionary to Zululand,
the horror with which the most devout and intelligent of the
natives questioned the truth of the Pentateuch confirmed his own doubts of the records. Translating with the help of a Zulu scholar he was deeply impressed with his revulsion of feeling at the following passage : ?If a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Sotwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for Ii~: is his money.? Exodus xxi: 20, 21. ?I shall never forget,? says t'? Bishop, ?the revulsion of feeling, with which a very intelligent Christian native, with whose help I was translating these last words into the Zulu tongue, first heard them as words said to be uttered by the same great and gracious Being, whom I was teaching him to trust in and adore. His whole soul revolted against the notion, that the Great and Blessed God, the Merciful Father of all mankind, would speak of a servant or maid as mere ?money,' and allow a horrible crime to go unpunished, because the victim of the brutal usage had survived a few hours!?
Though they had no Pentateuch nor knowledge of our religion, their respect for the mother of the race and their recognition of the feminine element in the Godhead, as shown in the following beautiful prayer, might teach our Bishops, Priests and Levites a lesson they have all yet to learn.
EVENING PRAYER.
?0 God, Thou hast let me pass the day in peace: let me pass the night in peace, 0 Lord, who hast no Lord! There is no strength but in Thee: Thou alone hast no obligation. Under Thy hand I pass the day! under Thy hand I pass the night! Thou art my Mother, Thou my Father!
Placing the mother first shows they were taught by Nature that she was the prime factor in their existence. In the whole Bible and the Christian religion man is made the alpha and omega everywhere in the state, the church and the home. And we see the result in the general contempt for the sex expressed freely in our literature, in the halls of legislation, in church convocations and by leading Bishops wherever they have opportunities for speech and whenever they are welcomed in the popular magazines of the day.E. C. S.
##################
CHAPTER VI.
THE PENTATEUGH.
THE primal requisite for the more accurate understanding of
the Bible is its translation from the past to the present tense.
It has been studied as history, as the record of a remote past whose truth it has been well-nigh impossible to verify. It should be studied as a record of the present, the present experience of the individual and the race which is to ultimate in the perfect actualization of generic possibilities.
Like the tables of stone the Bible is written on both sides; or it has a letter which is its exterior and an interior spirit or meaning. The history which constitutes its letter illustrates those principles which constitute its meaning. The formless must be put into form to be apprehended. Mistaking the form for that substance which has been brought to the level of human apprehension by its means, is the error which constitutes the basis of dogmatic theology. Error in a premise compels error in conclusions. It is no wonder that woman's true relation to man and just position in the social fabric has remained unknown. A Moses on Pisgah's height is needed to-day to see and declare this promised land; and he must be revelator, first, to women themselves, for they especially need enlightenment upon the true nature of the Bible.
So long as they mistake superstition for religious revelation they will be content with the position and opportunities assigned them by scholastic theology. They will remember and ?keep their place? as thus defined. Their religious nature is warped and twisted through generations of denominational conservatism; which fact, by the way, is the greatest stumbling block in the path of equal suffrage to-day, and one to which the leaders of that movement have seemed unaccountably blind.
Thus woman's strongest foes have been of her own sex; and
-w
144THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
because her sense of duty and religious sentiment have been operative according to a false ideal, unintentionally women have been and will continue to be bigoted until they allow a higher ideal to penetrate their minds; until they see with the eye of reason and logic, as well as with the sentiment which has so long kept them the dependent class. The Bible from beginning to end teaches the equality of man and woman, their relation as the two halves of the unit, but also their distinctiveness in office. One cannot take the place of the other because of the fundamental nature of each. The work of each half in its own place is necessary to the perfect whole.
The man has more prominence than the woman in the Bible because the masculine characters in their succession represent man as a whole?generic man. The exterior or male half is outermost, the interior or female half is covered by the outer. One is seen, the other has to be discerned, and can be discerned by following the harmonious relativity between the two halves of the unit. There is a straight line of ascent from the Adam to the Christ, within which is the straight line of ascent from the Eve to the Mary. The book of Genesis is the substance of the whole Bible, its meaning is the key to the meaning of the whole; it is the skeleton around which the rest is builded. If the remainder of the Old Testament were destroyed its substance could be reconstructed from Genesis. As the bony structure of the physical body is the framework which is filled in and rounded to symmetrical proportions by the muscular tissue, so Genesis is the framework which is symmetrically rounded and filled by the other books, which supply the necessary detail involved in basic principles.
The first chapter of Genesis is not the record of the creation of the world. It is a symbolical description of the composite nature of man, that being which is male and female in one. The personal pronoun ?He? belongs to his exterior nature; and the characters which illustrate this nature and the order of its development are men. The pronoun ?She? belongs to the interior nature, and all characters?fewer in number?which il
~1
THE PENTA TE UCH.IsS
lustrate it, are women. ?Male and female created he them.? The second chapter describes the nature and origin of the visible
-world, the nature and origin of the soul, their relation to each other and to this dual being. With the third chapter begins the symbolical illustration ofthe soul's existence?of its continuity of existence which is unbroken till its highest possibilities are actualized, till all the inherent capabilities of the dual being are fully manifested.
The leading characters of Genesis?Adam, Enos, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?seven in number, represent the seven chief stages of the soul's existence which follow each other like the notes in the musical scale. It is our own experience that is there portrayed, both present and prospective. What we as individuals, and nations are now going through in our efforts for betterment, is told in the story of Genesis. More than this, the clue to assured betterment is found there also. This experience is on two lines which are always distinct but never separate?the male and the female. These are indissolubly bound together ?from the beginning,? the same principles, necessitating the same moral standards and spiritual ideals, and governing both. The largest measure ofour individual and national perplexities and sufferings has come from the ignorant straining apart of that which ?God hath joined together? and which we can not successfully and permanently ?put asunder.?
The remaining four books of the Pentateuch, supply the detail beginning between the Adam and Noah of Genesis, rounding out that part of the skeleton. The Exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, represents the soul's growth out of purely sense~con5ciOu5ne55 by the help of spiritual perception. Moses is the personification of this faculty inherent in and operative from the eternal ego, the dual being, which is ?the Lord of the Bible. The Old Testament presents the outer or masculine nature of this ?Lord? as the Jehovah. The New Testament presents the inner or feminine nature as the Virgin.
The children of Israel according to their tribes, represent the
ranging characteristics or parts which i~ake up the soul of self.
146THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
consciousness. They are the ?chosen people? because when the soul sees with its spiritual insight as well as with its sensuous outsight, it can, if it will, choose between the two as guides. Their experiences in the wilderness are what we are passing through to-day; for there is now a people who have made this choice and are following the higher leader in their work for the human race, which is the only satisfactory way of working for themselves. But this leader?spiritual perception?cannot put the soul in possession of its promised land?a higher state of existence or quality of self-consciousness. It sees the higher and leads in its directiun; but understanding of fundamental, therefore unvarying and always applicable, principles is necessary for that realization which ~s the attainment of the higher, or its possession.
Moses' death before crossing Jordan illustrates this limitation, which is also the limitation of earnest reformers to-day. They can see for us and point out that which awaits them; but they can never take those others ?into the land.? They must travel on their own feet.
Joshua, as the leader after Moses, is the personification of this understanding. He is Moses' sepulchre, for Moses is buried in him. Spiritual insight develops understanding which is its continuity. Hence the continuation of experiences under Joshua the ?Saviour? through whom the soul takes ?possession? of its higher state. In the ?wilderness? of transition from the old to the new, mistakes occur which mar their consequences. In this illustration of the Pentateuch, Miriam ?speaks against? Moses, is stricken with leprosy and ?set without the camp,? and the people cannot journey till all is ?brought in again.?
Woman's intellectual development after ages of repression. has resulted with many of the sex, in an agnosticism which, at first liberal, has grown to be a dogmatic materialism. She ?speaks against? spiritual insight and its revelations. In forsaking her dogmas and creeds she has forsaken religion. She is to be ?brought in again ??brought to see that religion is of the soul and is individual; while dogma and doctrine are from the
sensuous out-side alone. The one tends to true freedom, the other generates bondage. Broadly, women of to-day are of two classes; those who are still held by the conservatism of creeds, and those who have gone to the other extreme through the exhilaration of intellectual activity. Both classes must meet upon a common ground, recognition of fundamental principles and effort to apply them?before the New Testament can become the practical ethical standard.
An outline of a subject so vast and profound as the nature and meaning of the Pentateuch, must necessarily be more or less unsatisfactory. It cannot be detached from the rest of the Bible which is a complete organic body. Its meaning is consecutive and harmonious with first premises, from beginning to end. The obvious inconsistencies and absurdities involve only its letter, which may or may not be true as history without affecting the truth of the book itself which lies in its meaning.
The projectors of ?The Woman's Bible? must not avoid the whirlpool of a masculine Bible only, to split upon the rock of a feminine Bible alone. This would be an attempt to separate what is intensely joined together and defeat the end desired. The book is the soul's guide in the fulfilling of its destiny?that destiny which is involved in its origin ; and the soul, in sleep, is sexless. Its faculties and powers are differentiated are masculine and feminine.
If the question is asked ?What is your authority for this view of the Bible?? the answer is ?I have none but the internal evidence of the book itself. When joined it is self-evident truth, requiring no external authority to give it support.?
U.N.G.
APPENDIX.
As the Revising Committee refer to a woman's translation of the Bible as their ultimate authority for the Greek, Latin and Hebrew text, a brief notice of this distinguished scholar is important:
Julia Smith's translation of the Bible stands out unique among all tr.tn4ation~. It i~ the on1y one ever made by a woman, and the only one it appears. ever mule by man or woman without help. Wyclif. ?the morning star of the Reformatim,? itiade a translation from the Vulgate, assisted by Nicholas of Hereford. II,- was not sufficiently familiar with Hebrew and Greek to translate from those tongue~.. Cover-dale's translation was not done alone. In his dedication to the king he sax lie has humbly followed his interpreters and tlsat under correction. Tynilale, in hi, translation, Isad tbe assistance of Frye, of William Roye, and also of Miles C~,vcrdale. Julia Smith translated the whole Bible absolutely alone, without consultation with any one. And this not once, hut five times?twice from the hebrew, twice from the Greek and once from the Latin. Literalness was one end she kept constantly in view. though this does not work so well with the Hebrew tenses. But she did not mind that. Frequently her wording is an improvement, or brings one closer to the uri'inal than the common translation. Thus in I. Corinthians viii, s, of the King J tines translation, we have: ?Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.? Julia Smith version: ?Knowledge puffs up and love builds the house.? She uses ?love? in place of ?charity? every time. And her translation was made nearly forty years before the revised version of our day, which also does the same. Tyndale, in his translation nearly three hundred and seventy-five years ago, made the same translation of this word ; hut Julia Smith did not know that and never saw his translation. This word ?charity? was one of the words that Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England. charged Tyndale with mistranslating. The other t~vo words were ?priest? and ?church,? Tyndale calling priests ??seniors,? and church ?congregation.? flotli Julia Smith and the revised version call them priests and church. And she give. the word ??Life'' for ??Eve:? ?And Adam will call his wife's Imamne Life, for she was ?the mother of all living.?
One more illustration ??Now when Jesus was born iTt Bethlehem of Judes in tlm~ jays of Herod the king, behold there canse wise men from the ead to Jerusalem.? King Jan~s translation. ?Now when Jesus was born, etc., behold timer~ canine wue men from the aunrisir.gs to Jerusalem.? Julia Smith version. She claims to have made a perfectly literal translation, and according to the verdict of competent authorities, Hebrew scholars who have examined her Bible, she has done so. Her work has had the endorsement of various learned men. A Hebrew professor of Harvard College (Prof. Young) called on her soon after her Bible was issued and examined it. He was much astonished that she had trinslated so correctly without consulting some learned man. He expressed surprise that she should have put the tenses as she did. She said to him: ?You acknowledge that I have translated according to the Hebrew idiom?? He replied: ?0 yes, you have translated literally? That was just what she aimed at, to get an exact literal translation, without regard to smoothness. She received many letters from scholars, all speaking of the exact, or literal translation. Some people have criticised this feature, which is the great merit of the hook.
Julia Smith was led to make the translation at the time of the Miller excitement in 5843, when the world was to come to a sudden termination when the saints were preparing their robes for ascension into the empyrean, and wicked unbelievers 1the vast majority) were to descend as far the other way. She and her family were much interested in Miller's predictions, and she was anxious to see for herself if, in the original Hebrew text of the Bible there was any warrant for Miller's predictions. So she set to work and studied Hebrew, having previously translated the New Testament, and also the Septuagint from the Greek. So absorbed did she become in her work that the dinner bell was unheded, and she would undoubtedly have many times gone to bed both dinnerless and supperless had not the family called her off from her work. Once a week she met with the family and a friend and neighbor, Miss Emily Moseley, to read over and discuss what she had translated during the week. This practice was kept up for several years. When she came to publish the work, (the manuscripts of which had lain in the garret some twenty-five or thirty years) the cashier of the Hartford bank, where the sisters had kept their money, told her she was very foolish to throw away her money printing this Bible; that she would never sell a copy. She told him it didn't matter whether she did or not ; that she was not doing it to make money; that she found more satisfaction in spending her money in this way than in spending it all on dress. Thanks to our more enlightened age, this translation did not meet with the opposition the early translators had to contend with. The scholars of those days thought learning should he confined to a select few ; it was, in their view, dangerous to put the Bible into a language the common people could understand, especially women. Here is what one Henry de Knyghton, a learned monk of that day, said: ?This Master John Wiclif bath translated the gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had intrusted with the ekrgy and doctors of the Church that they might minister it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times and the wants of men. But now the gospel is made vulgar and more open to the laity, and even to women who can read, than it used to he to the most learned of the clergy and those of the best understanding.? To say nothing of reading the Bible, what would this learned man have thought of a woman translating it, and five times at that! It would seem as if the bare suggestion must have stirred his dry hones with indignation.
King James appointed fifty-four men of learning to translate the Bible. Seven of them died and forty-seven carried the work on. Compare this corps of workers with one little woman performing the Herculean task without one suggestion or word of advice from mortal man I This Bible is ten by seven inches, and is printed in large,
APPENDIX.131[
clear type. There are two styles of binding, cloth and sheepskin. The cloth binding was $~.5o at the time it was issued and while Julia Smith lived and the othrr was 53.oo, but as they are getting scarcer the price may have gone up. They will be a rarity in the next century and will be much sought after by bibliomaniacs, to say nothing of scholars who will want it for its real value. Julia Smith had the plates of her Bible preserved, but where they are now is more than I know. It was published by the American Publishing Company, of Hartford, in 1876.
Julia Evelina Smith, of Glastonbury, Coon., was one of five sisters of a somewhat motable family, the father and mother both having strong traits of character and marked individuality. The mother, Hannah Hickok, was a fine linguist and mathematician. She once made an almanac for her own convenience, almanacs being rather scarce in those days. She could tell the time of night whenever she happened to awake by the position of the stars. She was an omnivorous reader and a great student, and in those days before the invention of stoves, her father, in order to allow her the requisite retirement to gratify her studious tastes, built her a small glass room. In the days of the Abby and Julia Smith excitement, when they refused to pay Ilineir taxes, some writer was so wicked as to say that Julia Smith's grandfather shut liner mother up in a glass cage. Seated in this glass enclosure, placed in a south room, with the sun's rays beating down upon her, as upon a plant in a conservatory, she could pursue her studies to her heart's content. She was an only child and adored by her father; and so much did she think of him that in Isis last illness, wlinen slse was away at school, she rode four hundred miles on Isorseback in order to see him before he died.
Julia Smith's father, the Rev. Zephaniah H. Smith, a graduate of Yale, was settled in Newtown, Coon., near South Britain, where line married Hannah Hickok. He preached but four years, resigning his position on the ground that the gospel should be free; that it was wrong to preach for money?ideas promulgated by tb~ Sandemanians of those days, the followers of Robert Sandeman, a Scotebman, who organized the sect in England and in this country, it having originated with his father-in-law, John Glas, the sect being called either Glassites or Sandemanians, the former being given the pteference in Scotland and England. TIne ideas of these people were followed out by the Smith family, and at Abby and Julia Smith's funeral, as at the funerals of those wIno had gone before tlsem, there was no officiating minister and no services. Simply a chapter of the Bible was read, and one or two who wished, made remarks. On a fly-leaf of the Bible Julia Smith read every day was written the request that she should be buried by her sisters in Glastonbury, and with no name on the tombstone but that of her own maiden name. This request was followed out. The names of the Smith sisters are so unique, and inasmuch as they have meyer been known to be printed correctly, it may not be out of place to give them here, preceding them by tlsose of their parents, making a slinort family record for future reference
Zephaniab H. Smith, horn August 59, 1758. Died Felinruary n, 1836.
Hannah Hickok, born August 7, 1767. Died December 27, 1850.
They were married May 3!, 1786.
nAUGsITERs 05~ TIlE ABOVE:
Haney Zephina, born March i6, 5787. Died June 30, 5871.
Cyrinthia Sacretia, boris May s8, 1788. Died August s~, 186.1.
Laurilla Aleroyla, born November 26, 1789. Died March iinj, 1857.
V
152THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
Julia Evelina, born May 27, 5792. Died March 6, s886.
Abby Hadassab, born June I, 5797. Died July 23, 1878.
Julia was educated at Mrs. Emma Willard's far-famed seminary at Troy, New York. Abby, the youngest of the family, was the one who added to their fame, when, in November, 1873, at a town meeting in Glastonbury, she delivered a speech against taxation without representation. She had just attended the first Woman's Congress in New York, and on her way back said she was going to make a speech on taxation; that she should apply to the authorites to speak in town ball on town meeting day. She and Julia owned considerable property in Glastonbury and their taxes were being increased while those of their neighbors (men) were not. She applied to the authorities, bunt they would not let her speak in the ball, so she spoke from a wagon outside to a crowd of people. This speech was printed in a Hartford paper (the Courant) and was copied all over the country, and the cry: ?Abby Smith and her cows? was caught up everywhere. Abby Smith's quaint, simple speeches attracted attention, and the sale of the cows at the sign-post aroused sympathy, and from that time on their fame grew apace. The hitherto light mail-bags of Glastonbury came loaded with mail matter from all quarters for the Smith sisters. And this continued for some years, or till the death of Abby in 1878, which was followed by the marriage of Julia the following spring, and the discontinuance of the sale of the cows at the public sign-post. She married Mr. Amos A. Parker, both being eighty-seven years of age. Julia Smith sold the old family mansion in Glastonbury and bought a house at Parkville, Hartford. She died there in s886 and her husband died in 5893, nearly one
hundred and two years of age.F. E. B.
PRESS COMMENTS
ON THE
WOMAN'S BIBLE
The comments are right up to date.? Cincinnati Tnbune.
The most humorous book of the year.? The Harttord Seminary Record.
Of all possible books this is perhaps the most extraordinary possible.?The Week, Toronto, Canada.
A very clever analysis of passages relating to the sex.?Publme Opinion, N. Y. City.
The new woman s Bible is one of the remarkable productions of the century?Denver News.
A unique edition of the Scripture. An extraordinary presentment of Holy writ I? Denver Times.
The work is unique- Its aim is to help the cause ot woman in her battle for equality.?Beacon, Akron, Ohio.
Robert G. Ingersoll is the only person on earth capable of a work equal to Mrs.
Stanton's sensation, ?The woman's Bible.?
?Chicago Times-Herald.
The attack of the new woman on the King James Bible will be observed with interest where it does not alarm. But let ?The woman's Bible? and the truth prevail. It may be that Lot himself was turned into a pillar of salt.?Chicago Post.
It has come at last, as it was bound to come?the emancipated woman's Bible. The wonder is it has been delayed so long. This is not a blasphemous book.?The Egyptian Gazette, Alexandria, Egypt.
The ?new woman? has broken out in a fresh direction and published ?The woman's Bible.? In it the conduct of Adam, the father of the race, is described as ?to the last degree dastardly.??Westtninster Budget, London, Eng.
One of the most striking protests devised by woman for the purpose of showing her rejection of the conditions under which our mothers lived. It is evidently the mission of ?The woman's Bible? to exalt and dignify woman.?The Morning, London, Eng.
we have read some of the passages of the commentary prepared for ?The woman's Bible? by that very accomplished American woman and Biblical student, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They are a great deal more satisfactory than many of the comments upon the same texts that we have read in other and more pretentious commentaries. Mrs. Stanton's interpretative remarks are shrewd and sensible.? Editorial N. Y. Sun.
Of man-made commentaries on the Bible we have had sufficient to stock a library and yet they have left room for this commentary by women. These revisers have proved the need of an intelligent examination of the Scriptures from the woman's point of yiew. The lady commentators are not wanting in a sense of humor?the quality in which biblical critics of the male sex are usually unhappily deficient. There is much that is very funny and very interesting in this new coiimentary upon the Bible.?7 he Daily Chronicle, London, Eng.
The Standard says, ?The Sisterhood of Advanced Women has taken a bold step towards emancipation. It has long groaned under certain implications of servitude contained in a few passages nf Scripture, and has, therefore, determined to abolish these disabilities by publishing ?The Woman's Bible.'? It is not only the type that is new. New readings of old passages are given, and the volume contains suggestions to show that the verses about women's inferiority really mean the opposite of the ordinary acceptation. In it Eve is rather praised than otherwise for having eaten the apple. It is pointed out that Satan did not tempt her with an array of silks and satins, and gold watches, or even a cycling costume?the things which some people think most seductive to her descendants?but with the offer of knowledge; a man being of such a lethargic and groveling nature that a similar lofty ambition never entered his mind. Besides, if the fruit was not to be eaten, Eve should have been informed of the fact at first hand, and not through an agent.?PaU Mall Gazette, London, Eng.
The above books will be sent, ineRt prepald, on receipt of price, by
EUROPEAN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
68 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
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