The Woman's Bible
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton · English · Gutenberg #9880 · 806,623 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Woman's Bible
Author: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Release date: February 1, 2006 [eBook #9880]
Most recently updated: December 27, 2020
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9880
Credits: Produced by Carrie Lorenz and John B. Hare
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN'S BIBLE ***
Produced by Carrie Lorenz and John B. Hare
THE WOMAN'S BIBLE.
PART I.
Comments on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
"In every soul there is bound up some truth and some error, and each
gives to the world of thought what no other one possesses."--Cousin.
1898.
By
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
REVISING COMMITTEE.
"We took sweet counsel together."--Ps. Iv., 14.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Lillie Devereux Blake,
Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford,
Matilda Joslyn Gage,
Clara Bewick Colby,
Rev. Olympia Brown,
Rev. Augusta Chapin,
Frances Ellen Burr,
Ursula N. Gestefeld,
Clara B. Neyman,
Mary Seymour Howell,
Helen H. Gardener,
Josephine K. Henry,
Charlotte Beebe: Wilbour,
Mrs. Robert G. Ingersoll,
Lucinda B. Chandler,
Sarah A. Underwood,
Catharine F. Stebbins,
Ellen Battelle Dietrick,[FN#1]
Louisa Southworth.
[FN#1] Deceased.
FOREIGN MEMBERS.
Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, Finland,
Ursula M. Bright, England,
Irma Von Troll-Borostyant, Austria,
Priscilla Bright Mclaren, Scotland,
Isabelle Bogelot, France
COMMENTS
ON
GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS AND DEUTERONOMY,
By
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Lillie Devereux Blake,
Rev. Phebe Hanaford,
Clara Bewick Colby,
Ellen Battelle Dietrick,
Ursula N. Gestefeld,
Mrs. Louisa Southworth,
Frances Ellen Burr.
PREFACE.
So many letters are daily received asking questions about the Woman's
Bible,--as to the extent of the revision, and the standpoint from which
it will be conducted--that it seems best, though every detail is not as
yet matured, to state the plan, as concisely as possible, upon which
those who have been in consultation during the summer, propose to do
the work.
I. The object is to revise only those texts and chapters directly
referring to women, and those also in which women are made prominent by
exclusion. As all such passages combined form but one-tenth of the
Scriptures, the undertaking will not be so laborious as, at the first
thought, one would imagine. These texts, with the commentaries, can
easily be compressed into a duodecimo volume of about four hundred
pages.
II. The commentaries will be of a threefold character, the writers in
the different branches being selected according to their special
aptitude for the work:
1. Two or three Greek and Hebrew scholars will devote themselves to
the translation and the meaning of particular words and texts in the
original.
2. Others will devote themselves to Biblical history, old manuscripts,
to the new version, and to the latest theories as to the occult meaning
of certain texts and parables.
3. For the commentaries on the plain English version a committee of
some thirty members has been formed. These are women of earnestness and
liberal ideas, quick to see the real purport of the Bible as regards
their sex. Among them the various books of the Old and New Testament
will be distributed for comment.
III. There will be two or more editors to bring the work of the
various committees into one consistent whole.
IV. The completed work will be submitted to an advisory committee
assembled at some central point, as London, New York, or Chicago, to
sit in final judgment on "The Woman's Bible."
As to the manner of doing the practical work:
Those who have been engaged this summer have adopted the following
plan, which may be suggestive to new members of the committee. Each
person purchased two Bibles, ran through them from Genesis to
Revelations, marking all the texts that concerned women. The passages
were cut out, and pasted in a blank book, and the commentaries then
written underneath.
Those not having time to read all the books can confine their labors
to the particular ones they propose to review.
It is thought best to publish the different parts as soon as prepared
so that the Committee may have all in print in a compact form before
the final revision.
E. C. S.
August 1st, 1895.
INTRODUCTION.
From the inauguration of the movement for woman's emancipation the
Bible has been used to hold her in the "divinely ordained sphere,"
prescribed in the Old and New Testaments.
The canon and civil law; church and state; priests and legislators;
all political parties and religious denominations have alike taught
that woman was made after man, of man, and for man, an inferior being,
subject to man. Creeds, codes, Scriptures and statutes, are all based
on this idea. The fashions, forms, ceremonies and customs of society,
church ordinances and discipline all grow out of this idea.
Of the old English common law, responsible for woman's civil and
political status, Lord Brougham said, "it is a disgrace to the
civilization and Christianity of the Nineteenth Century." Of the canon
law, which is responsible for woman's status in the church, Charles
Kingsley said, "this will never be a good world for women until the
last remnant of the canon law is swept from the face of the earth."
The Bible teaches that woman brought sin and death into the world,
that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned
before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced.
Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period
of suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to
play the role of a dependent on man's bounty for all her material
wants, and for all the information she might desire on the vital
questions of the hour, she was commanded to ask her husband at home.
Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up.
Those who have the divine insight to translate, transpose and
transfigure this mournful object of pity into an exalted, dignified
personage, worthy our worship as the mother of the race, are to be
congratulated as having a share of the occult mystic power of the
eastern Mahatmas.
The plain English to the ordinary mind admits of no such liberal
interpretation. The unvarnished texts speak for themselves. The canon
law, church ordinances and Scriptures, are homogeneous, and all
reflect the same spirit and sentiments.
These familiar texts are quoted by clergymen in their pulpits, by
statesmen in the halls of legislation, by lawyers in the courts, and
are echoed by the press of all civilized nations, and accepted by woman
herself as "The Word of God." So perverted is the religious element in
her nature, that with faith and works she is the chief support of the
church and clergy; the very powers that make her emancipation
impossible. When, in the early part of the Nineteenth Century, women
began to protest against their civil and political degradation, they
were referred to the Bible for an answer. When they protested against
their unequal position in the church, they were referred to the Bible
for an answer.
This led to a general and critical study of the Scriptures. Some,
having made a fetish of these books and believing them to be the
veritable "Word of God," with liberal translations, interpretations,
allegories and symbols, glossed over the most objectionable features of
the various books and clung to them as divinely inspired. Others,
seeing the family resemblance between the Mosaic code, the canon law,
and the old English common law, came to the conclusion that all alike
emanated from the same source; wholly human in their origin and
inspired by the natural love of domination in the historians. Others,
bewildered with their doubts and fears, came to no conclusion. While
their clergymen told them on the one hand, that they owed all the
blessings and freedom they enjoyed to the Bible, on the other, they
said it clearly marked out their circumscribed sphere of action: that
the demands for political and civil rights were irreligious, dangerous
to the stability of the home, the state and the church. Clerical
appeals were circulated from time to time, conjuring members of their
churches to take no part in the anti-slavery or woman suffrage
movements, as they were infidel in their tendencies, undermining the
very foundations of society. No wonder the majority of women stood
still, and with bowed heads, accepted the situation.
Listening to the varied opinions of women, I have long thought it
would be interesting and profitable to get them clearly stated in book
form. To this end six years ago I proposed to a committee of women to
issue a Woman's Bible, that we might have women's commentaries on
women's position in the Old and New Testaments. It was agreed on by
several leading women in England and America and the work was begun,
but from various causes it has been delayed, until now the idea is
received with renewed enthusiasm, and a large committee has been
formed, and we hope to complete the work within a year.
Those who have undertaken the labor are desirous to have some Hebrew
and Greek scholars, versed in Biblical criticism, to gild our pages
with their learning. Several distinguished women have been urged to do
so, but they are afraid that their high reputation and scholarly
attainments might be compromised by taking part in an enterprise that
for a time may prove very unpopular. Hence we may not be able to get
help from that class.
Others fear that they might compromise their evangelical faith by
affiliating with those of more liberal views, who do not regard the
Bible as the "Word of God," but like any other book, to be judged by
its merits. If the Bible teaches the equality of Woman, why does the
church refuse to ordain women to preach the gospel, to fill the offices
of deacons and elders, and to administer the Sacraments, or to admit
them as delegates to the Synods, General Assemblies and Conferences of
the different denominations? They have never yet invited a woman to
join one of their Revising Committees, nor tried to mitigate the
sentence pronounced on her by changing one count in the indictment
served on her in Paradise.
The large number of letters received, highly appreciative of the
undertaking, is very encouraging to those who have inaugurated the
movement, and indicate a growing self-respect and self-assertion in the
women of this generation. But we have the usual array of objectors to
meet and answer. One correspondent conjures us to suspend the work, as
it is "ridiculous" for "women to attempt the revision of the
Scriptures." I wonder if any man wrote to the late revising committee
of Divines to stop their work on the ground that it was ridiculous for
men to revise the Bible. Why is it more ridiculous for women to protest
against her present status in the Old and New Testament, in the
ordinances and discipline of the church, than in the statutes and
constitution of the state? Why is it more ridiculous to arraign
ecclesiastics for their false teaching and acts of injustice to women,
than members of Congress and the House of Commons? Why is it more
audacious to review Moses than Blackstone, the Jewish code of laws,
than the English system of jurisprudence? Women have compelled their
legislators in every state in this Union to so modify their statutes
for women that the old common law is now almost a dead letter. Why not
compel Bishops and Revising Committees to modify their creeds and
dogmas? Forty years ago it seemed as ridiculous to timid, time-serving
and retrograde folk for women to demand an expurgated edition of the
laws, as it now does to demand an expurgated edition of the Liturgies
and the Scriptures. Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew
off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving. Whatever your
views may be as to the importance of the proposed work, your political
and social degradation are but an outgrowth of your status in the
Bible. When you express your aversion, based on a blind feeling of
reverence in which reason has no control, to the revision of the
Scriptures, you do but echo Cowper, who, when asked to read Paine's
"Rights of Man," exclaimed "No man shall convince me that I am
improperly governed while I feel the contrary."
Others say it is not politic to rouse religious opposition.
This much-lauded policy is but another word for cowardice. How can
woman's position be changed from that of a subordinate to an equal,
without opposition, without the broadest discussion of all the
questions involved in her present degradation? For so far-reaching and
momentous a reform as her complete independence, an entire revolution
in all existing institutions is inevitable.
Let us remember that all reforms are interdependent, and that whatever
is done to establish one principle on a solid basis, strengthens all.
Reformers who are always compromising, have not yet grasped the idea
that truth is the only safe ground to stand upon. The object of an
individual life is not to carry one fragmentary measure in human
progress, but to utter the highest truth clearly seen in all
directions, and thus to round out and perfect a well balanced
character. Was not the sum of influence exerted by John Stuart Mill on
political, religious and social questions far greater than that of any
statesman or reformer who has sedulously limited his sympathies and
activities to carrying one specific measure? We have many women
abundantly endowed with capabilities to understand and revise what men
have thus far written. But they are all suffering from inherited ideas
of their inferiority; they do not perceive it, yet such is the true
explanation of their solicitude, lest they should seem to be too self-
asserting.
Again there are some who write us that our work is a useless
expenditure of force over a book that has lost its hold on the human
mind. Most intelligent women, they say, regard it simply as the history
of a rude people in a barbarous age, and have no more reverence for the
Scriptures than any other work. So long as tens of thousands of Bibles
are printed every year, and circulated over the whole habitable globe,
and the masses in all English-speaking nations revere it as the word of
God, it is vain to belittle its influence. The sentimental feelings we
all have for those things we were educated to believe sacred, do not
readily yield to pure reason. I distinctly remember the shudder that
passed over me on seeing a mother take our family Bible to make a high
seat for her child at table. It seemed such a desecration. I was
tempted to protest against its use for such a purpose, and this,
too, long after my reason had repudiated its divine authority.
To women still believing in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures,
we say give us by all means your exegesis in the light of the higher
criticism learned men are now making, and illumine the Woman's Bible,
with your inspiration.
Bible historians claim special inspiration for the Old and New
Testaments containing most contradictory records of the same events, of
miracles opposed to all known laws, of customs that degrade the female
sex of all human and animal life, stated in most questionable language
that could not be read in a promiscuous assembly, and call all this
"The Word of God."
The only points in which I differ from all ecclesiastical teaching is
that I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God, I do
not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians
what they say he did about woman, for all the religions on the face of
the earth degrade her, and so long as woman accepts the position that
they assign her, her emancipation is impossible. Whatever the Bible may
be made to do in Hebrew or Greek, in plain English it does not exalt
and dignify woman. My standpoint for criticism is the revised edition
of 1888. 1 will so far honor the revising committee of wise men who
have given us the best exegesis they can according to their ability,
although Disraeli said the last one before he died, contained 150,000
blunders in the Hebrew, and 7,000 in the Greek.
But the verbal criticism in regard to woman's position amounts to
little. The spirit is the same in all periods and languages, hostile to
her as an equal.
There are some general principles in the holy books of all religions
that teach love, charity, liberty, justice and equality for all the
human family, there are many grand and beautiful passages, the golden
rule has been echoed and re-echoed around the world. There are lofty
examples of good and true men and women, all worthy our acceptance and
imitation whose lustre cannot be dimmed by the false sentiments and
vicious characters bound up in the same volume. The Bible cannot be
accepted or rejected as a whole, its teachings are varied and its
lessons differ widely from each other. In criticising the peccadilloes
of Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel, we would not shadow the virtues of
Deborah, Huldah and Vashti. In criticising the Mosaic code, we would
not question the wisdom of the golden rule and the fifth Commandment.
Again the church claims special consecration for its cathedrals and
priesthood, parts of these aristocratic churches are too holy for
women to enter, boys were early introduced into the choirs for this
reason, woman singing in an obscure corner closely veiled. A few of
the more democratic denominations accord women some privileges, but
invidious discriminations of sex are found in all religious
organizations, and the most bitter outspoken enemies of woman
are found among clergymen and bishops of the Protestant religion.[FN#2]
[FN#2] See the address of Bishop Doane, June 7th, 1895, in the closing
exercises of St. Agnes School, Albany.
The canon law, the Scriptures, the creeds and codes and church
discipline of the leading religions bear the impress of fallible man,
and not of our ideal great first cause, "the Spirit of all Good," that
set the universe of matter and mind in motion, and by immutable law
holds the land, the sea, the planets, revolving round the great centre
of light and heat, each in its own elliptic, with millions of stars in
harmony all singing together, the glory of creation forever and ever.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
THE BOOK OF GENESIS.
CHAPTER I.
Genesis i: 26, 27, 28.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 27 So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female
image, created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Here is the sacred historian's first account of the advent of woman; a
simultaneous creation of both sexes, in the image of God. It is evident
from the language that there was consultation in the Godhead, and that
the masculine and feminine elements were equally represented. Scott in
his commentaries says, "this consultation of the Gods is the origin of
the doctrine of the trinity." But instead of three male personages, as
generally represented, a Heavenly Father, Mother, and Son would seem
more rational.
The first step in the elevation of woman to her true position, as an
equal factor in human progress, is the cultivation of the religious
sentiment in regard to her dignity and equality, the recognition by the
rising generation of an ideal Heavenly Mother, to whom their prayers
should be addressed, as well as to a Father.
If language has any meaning, we have in these texts a plain
declaration of the existence of the feminine element in the Godhead,
equal in power and glory with the masculine. The Heavenly Mother and
Father! "God created man in his own image, male and female." Thus
Scripture, as well as science and philosophy, declares the eternity
and equality of sex--the philosophical fact, without which there could
have been no perpetuation of creation, no growth or development in the
animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms, no awakening nor progressing in
the world of thought. The masculine and feminine elements, exactly
equal and balancing each other, are as essential to the maintenance of
the equilibrium of the universe as positive and negative electricity,
the centripetal and centrifugal forces, the laws of attraction which
bind together all we know of this planet whereon we dwell and of the
system in which we revolve.
In the great work of creation the crowning glory was realized, when
man and woman were evolved on the sixth day, the masculine and feminine
forces in the image of God, that must have existed eternally, in all
forms of matter and mind. All the persons in the Godhead are
represented in the Elohim the divine plurality taking counsel in regard
to this last and highest form of life. Who were the members of this
high council, and were they a duality or a trinity? Verse 27 declares
the image of God male and female. How then is it possible to make woman
an afterthought? We find in verses 5-16 the pronoun "he" used. Should
it not in harmony with verse 26 be "they," a dual pronoun? We may
attribute this to the same cause as the use of "his" in verse 11
instead of "it." The fruit tree yielding fruit after "his" kind instead
of after "its" kind. The paucity of a language may give rise to many
misunderstandings.
The above texts plainly show the simultaneous creation of man and
woman, and their equal importance in the development of the race. All
those theories based on the assumption that man was prior in the
creation, have no foundation in Scripture.
As to woman's subjection, on which both the canon and the civil law
delight to dwell, it is important to note that equal dominion is given
to woman over every living thing, but not one word is said giving man
dominion over woman.
Here is the first title deed to this green earth giving alike to the
sons and daughters of God. No lesson of woman's subjection can be
fairly drawn from the first chapter of the Old Testament.
E. C. S.
The most important thing for a woman to note, in reading Genesis, is
that that portion which is now divided into "the first three chapters"
(there was no such division until about five centuries ago), contains
two entirely separate, and very contradictory, stories of creation,
written by two different, but equally anonymous, authors. No Christian
theologian of to-day, with any pretensions to scholarship, claims that
Genesis was written by Moses. As was long ago pointed out, the Bible
itself declares that all the books the Jews originally possessed were
burned in the destruction of Jerusalem, about 588 B. C., at the time
the people were taken to Babylonia as slaves too the Assyrians, (see II
Esdras, ch. xiv, V. 21, Apocrypha). Not until about 247 B. C. (some
theologians say 226 and others; 169 B. C.) is there any record of a
collection of literature in the re-built Jerusalem, and, then, the
anonymous writer of II Maccabees briefly mentions that some Nehemiah
"gathered together the acts of the kings and the prophets and those of
David" when "founding a library" for use in Jerusalem. But the earliest
mention anywhere in the Bible of a book that might have corresponded to
Genesis is made by an apocryphal writer, who says that Ezra wrote "all
that hath been done in the world since the beginning," after the Jews
returned from Babylon, under his leadership, about 450 B. C. (see II
Esdras, ch. xiv, v. 22, of the Apocrypha).
When it is remembered that the Jewish books were written on rolls of
leather, without much attention to vowel points and with no division
into verses or chapters, by uncritical copyists, who altered passages
greatly, and did not always even pretend to understand what they were
copying, then the reader of Genesis begins to put herself in position
to understand how it can be contradictory. Great as were the liberties
which the Jews took with Genesis, those of the English translators,
however, greatly surpassed them.
The first chapter of Genesis, for instance, in Hebrew, tells us, in
verses one and two, "As to origin, created the gods (Elohim) these
skies (or air or clouds) and this earth. . . And a wind moved upon the
face of the waters." Here we have the opening of a polytheistic fable
of creation, but, so strongly convinced were the English translators
that the ancient Hebrews must have been originally monotheistic that
they rendered the above, as follows: "In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. . . . And the spirit of God (!) moved upon the
face of the waters."
It is now generally conceded that some one (nobody pretends to know
who) at some time (nobody pretends to know exactly when), copied two
creation myths on the same leather roll, one immediately following the
other. About one hundred years ago, it was discovered by Dr. Astruc, of
France, that from Genesis ch. i, v. 1 to Genesis ch. ii, v. 4, is given
one complete account of creation, by an author who always used the term
"the gods" (Elohim), in speaking of the fashioning of the universe,
mentioning it altogether thirty-four times, while, in Genesis ch. ii,
v. 4, to the end of chapter iii, we have a totally different narrative,
by an author of unmistakably different style, who uses the term "Iahveh
of the gods" twenty times, but "Elohim" only three times. The first
author, evidently, attributes creation to a council of gods, acting in
concert, and seems never to have heard of Iahveh. The second attributes
creation to Iahveh, a tribal god of ancient Israel, but represents
Iahveh as one of two or more gods, conferring with them (in Genesis ch.
xiii, V. 22) as to the danger of man's acquiring immortality.
Modern theologians have, for convenience sake, entitled these two
fables, respectively, the Elohistic and the Iahoistic stories. They
differ, not only in the point I have mentioned above, but in the order
of the "creative acts;" in regard to the mutual attitude of man and
woman, and in regard to human freedom from prohibitions imposed by
deity. In order to exhibit their striking contradictions, I will place
them in parallel columns:
ELOHISTIC. --- IAHOISTIC.
Order of Creation: --- Order of Creation:
First--Water. --- First--Land.
Second--Land. --- Second--Water.
Third--Vegetation. --- Third--Male Man, only.
Fourth--Animals. --- Fourth--Vegetation.
Fifth--Mankind; male and female. --- Fifth--Animals.
--- Sixth--Woman.
In this story male and female man are created simultaneously, both
alike, in the image of the gods, after animals have been called into
existence. --- In this story male man is sculptured out of clay,
before any animals are created, and before female man has been
constructed.
Here, joint dominion over the earth is given to woman and man, without
limit or prohibition. --- Here, woman is punished with subjection to
man for breaking a prohibitory law.
Everything, without exception, is pronounced "very good." --- There is
a tree of evil, whose fruit, is said by Iahveh to cause sudden death,
but which does not do so, as Adam lived 930 years after eating it.
Man and woman are told that "every plant bearing seed upon the face of
the earth and every tree. . . To you it shall be for meat." They are
thus given perfect freedom. --- Man is told there is one tree of which
he must not eat, "for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die."
Man and woman are given special dominion over all the animals-"every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." --- An animal, a
"creeping thing," is given dominion over man and woman, and proves
himself more truthful than Iahveh Elohim. (Compare Genesis chapter ii,
verse 17, with chapter iii, verses 4 and 22.)
Now as it is manifest that both of these stories cannot be true;
intelligent women, who feel bound to give the preference to either, may
decide according to their own judgment of which is more worthy of an
intelligent woman's acceptance. Paul's rule is a good one in this
dilemma, "Prove all things: hold fast to that which is good." My own
opinion is that the second story was manipulated by some Jew, in an
endeavor to give "heavenly authority" for requiring a woman to obey the
man she married. In a work which I am now completing, I give some facts
concerning ancient Israelitish history, which will be of peculiar
interest to those who wish to understand the origin of woman's
subjection.
E. B. D.
Many orientalists and students of theology have maintained that the
consultation of the Gods here described is proof that the Hebrews were
in early days polytheists--Scott's supposition that this is the origin
of the Trinity has no foundation in fact, as the beginning of that
conception is to be found in the earliest of all known religious nature
worship. The acknowledgment of the dual principal, masculine and
feminine, is much more probably the explanation of the expressions here
used.
In the detailed description of creation we find a gradually ascending
series. Creeping things, "great sea monsters," (chap. I, V. 21, literal
translation). "Every bird of wing," cattle and living things of the
earth, the fish of the sea and the "birds of the heavens," then man,
and last and crowning glory of the whole, woman.
It cannot be maintained that woman was inferior to man even if, as
asserted in chapter ii, she was created after him without at once
admitting that man is inferior to the creeping things, because created
after them.
L. D. B.
CHAPTER II.
Genesis ii, 21-25.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he
slept; and be took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof.
22 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman,
and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed.
As the account of the creation in the first chapter is in harmony with
science, common sense, and the experience of mankind in natural laws,
the inquiry naturally arises, why should there be two contradictory
accounts in the same book, of the same event? It is fair to infer that
the second version, which is found in some form in the different
religions of all nations, is a mere allegory, symbolizing some
mysterious conception of a highly imaginative editor.
The first account dignifies woman as an important factor in the
creation, equal in power and glory with man. The second makes her a
mere afterthought. The world in good running order without her. The
only reason for her advent being the solitude of man.
There is something sublime in bringing order out of chaos; light out
of darkness; giving each planet its place in the solar system; oceans
and lands their limits; wholly inconsistent with a petty surgical
operation, to find material for the mother of the race. It is on this
allegory that all the enemies of women rest their battering rams, to
prove her inferiority. Accepting the view that man was prior in the
creation, some Scriptural writers say that as the woman was of the man,
therefore, her position should be one of subjection. Grant it, then as
the historical fact is reversed in our day, and the man is now of the
woman, shall his place be one of subjection?
The equal position declared in the first account must prove more
satisfactory to both sexes; created alike in the image of God--The
Heavenly Mother and Father.
Thus, the Old Testament, "in the beginning," proclaims the
simultaneous creation of man and woman, the eternity and equality of
sex; and the New Testament echoes back through the centuries the
individual sovereignty of woman growing out of this natural fact. Paul,
in speaking of equality as the very soul and essence of Christianity,
said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
With this recognition of the feminine element in the Godhead in the Old
Testament, and this declaration of the equality of the sexes in the
New, we may well wonder at the contemptible status woman occupies in
the Christian Church of to-day.
All the commentators and publicists writing on woman's position, go
through an immense amount of fine-spun metaphysical speculations, to
prove her subordination in harmony with the Creator's original design.
It is evident that some wily writer, seeing the perfect equality of
man and woman in the first chapter, felt it important for the dignity
and dominion of man to effect woman's subordination in some way. To do
this a spirit of evil must be introduced, which at once proved itself
stronger than the spirit of good, and man's supremacy was based on the
downfall of all that had just been pronounced very good. This spirit of
evil evidently existed before the supposed fall of man, hence woman was
not the origin of sin as so often asserted.
E. C. S.
In v. 23 Adam proclaims the eternal oneness of the happy pair, "This
is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh;" no hint of her
subordination. How could men, admitting these words to be divine
revelation, ever have preached the subjection of woman!
Next comes the naming of the mother of the race. "She shall be called
Woman," in the ancient form of the word Womb-man. She was man and more
than man because of her maternity.
The assertion of the supremacy of the woman in the marriage relation
is contained in v. 24: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother and cleave unto his wife." Nothing is said of the headship of
man, but he is commanded to make her the head of the household, the
home, a rule followed for centuries under the Matriarchate.
L. D. B.
CHAPTER III.
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 garden?
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 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 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.
13 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, let 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 ground 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.
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 learned professor in Yale College,[FN#3] 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.
[FN#3] Daniel Cady Eaton, Professor of Botany.
As out of this allegory grows the doctrines of original sin, 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 nature, and saw at
a glance the high character of the person he met by chance in his walks
in the garden. He did not try to tempt her from the path of duty by
brilliant jewels, rich dresses, worldly luxuries or pleasures, but with
the promise of knowledge, with the wisdom of the Gods.
Like Socrates or Plato, his powers of conversation and asking
puzzling questions, 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 60,000 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 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 endowed, 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 in 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 disobeyed, Adam endeavors to shield
himself behind the gentle being he has declared to be so dear. "The
woman thou gavest 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 amazed
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. 16. Lastly
the long struggle of man with the forces of nature is portrayed. "In
the sweat of thy face thou 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
severities 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 do 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.
Genesis iv: 1-12, 19, 21.
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 in 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 said 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 be his desire, and
thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abet 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
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
10. And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brothers 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
Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, 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 wives. 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
inventions 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 anaesthetics is essentially mitigated in all cases.
When these remedial agents were first discovered, some women refused
to avail themselves of their blessings, and some orthodox physicians
refused 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 is 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 particular 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 aside the first. 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.
Genesis v: 1, 2.
1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God
created man, in the likeness of God made he him.
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their
name Adam, in the day when they were created.
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 statement 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.
Genesis vi: 1-8, 14-22.
1 And it came to pass, when men began 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 as 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 them 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.
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 cubits.
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 in to 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.
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 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.
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 enforce it.
Nor did he say, all men shall rule over thee. For Adam, not Eve, the
earth was to bring forth the thorn and the thistle, and he was to eat
his bread by the sweat of his brow. Yet I never heard a sermon on the
sin of uprooting weeds, or letting Eve, as she does, help him to bear
his burden. It is when she tries to lighten her load that the world is
afraid of sacrilege and the overthrow of nature.
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.
CHAPTER VI.
Genesis xxi.
1 And the lord visited Sarah as he had said.
2. For Sarah bare Abraham a son in his old age.
3 And Abraham called the name of his son whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
5 And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born
unto him.
6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear
will laugh with me.
9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had home
unto Abraham, mocking.
10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her
son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even
with Isaac.
11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight.
12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight;
in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in
Isaac shall thy seed be called.
13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because
he is thy seed.
14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a
bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder,
and the child, and sent her away; and she departed, and wandered in the
wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under
one of the shrubs.
17 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off: for
she said, let me not see the death of the child. And she lifted up her
voice, and wept.
17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to
Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear
not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and bold him in thine hand: for I will make
him 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.
21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and 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 house.
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, an 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 the 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 the Lord," "Thou shalt," and "Thou shall not."
E. C. S.
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 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 hath, which is
in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth.
14 And Ephron answered Abraham, 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.
19 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 sure unto
Abraham for a burying place 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 Hagar 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 his 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 father 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 making the request.
Sarah's strength of character is shown all through her history.
Wherever she is mentioned the reader is made to feet 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 Jethro 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 position 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 to 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.
CHAPTER VII.
Genesis xxiv.
37 And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shall not 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:
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 the
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 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 shoulder, and
said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she
made the camels drink also.
47 And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said,
The daughter of Bethuel Nabor's son, whom Malcah 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 Laban and Bethuel answered and said. The thing proceedeth from
the Lord: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.
51 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 Rebekah; 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 Rebekah, 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.
61 And Rebekah 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 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 be 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 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 case, 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.
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 substantiates 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 position
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 Rebekah 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 entrusted 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, play things, 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.
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 be
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.
21 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. I
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 he did eat of his venison; but
Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 And Jacob sod pottage: 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
pottage, for I am faint; therefore was his name called Edom.
31 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 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 be 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.
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, or 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 Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the
Hittite;
35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
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
disappointment 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 occasion. 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 absurd ity of pointing the women of the
nineteenth century to these as examples of virtue.
E. C. S.
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 10th 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.
CHAPTER IX.
Genesis xxix.
1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people
of the east.
3 And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and lo, there were
three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered
the flocks; and a great stone was 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 Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said,
Of Haran are we.
5 And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they
said, we know him.
6 And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and
behold Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep.
9 And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's
sheep: for she kept them.
10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban
his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, 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.
11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.
12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he
was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her father:
13 And it came to pass, when Laban 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.
14 And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he
abode with him the space of a month.
15 And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldst
thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?
18 And Jacob loved Rachel: and said, I will serve thee seven years for
Rachel thy younger daughter.
19 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
but a few days, for the love he had to her.
21 If 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 the 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 stronghold of theological
learning, and two of the professors of its famous university have
recently exhibited a courage in Biblical criticism and interpretation
which has further extended the celebrity of the school, if it has not
added to its repute for orthodoxy. In a course of lectures held during
the university holidays, addressed to and largely attended by pastors,
they declared the Old Testament history to "be a series of legends, and
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob mythical persons." Israel, they 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.
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 of their descendants. The chief lesson taught by history
is danger of violating, physically, mentally, or spiritually the
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.
CHAPTER X.
Genesis xxix, xxxi.
18 And Jacob loved Rachel; and said I will serve thee seven years for
Rachel thy younger daughter.
19 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
but a few days, for the love he had to her.
21 And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are
fulfilled.
22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a
feast.
23 And it came to pass in the evening that be took Leah his daughter,
and brought her to him.
26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the
younger before the firstborn.
27 We will give thee Rachel also thou shalt serve with me yet seven
other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 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 have served thee, and
let me go; for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.
17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;
18 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 land of Canaan.
19 And Laban went to shear his sheep; and Rachel had stolen the images
that were her father's
20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he 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 theft 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 seat, 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 the 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 the 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 in 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.
CHAPTER XI.
Genesis xxxv.
8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el
under an oak; and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram,
and blessed him.
10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: Thy name shall not be
called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his
name Israel.
16 And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way
to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.
17 The midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou, shalt have this son also.
18 And it came to pass as her soul was in departing (for she died),
that she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is
Beth-lehem.
20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of
Rachel's grave unto this day.
Why Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, should be interjected here 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 her; can
muster only four. One may smile at this ambition of the women for
children, but a man's wealth was estimated at that time 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 xxxvi.
18 And these are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife: duke Jeush, duke
Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the
daughter of Anah 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.
CHAPTER XII.
Genesis xxxix.
1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar an officer of
Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the
Ishmaelites, 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 he served him: and he made
him overseer over his house and all that he had he put into his hand.
7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife
cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she solicited him.
8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master
wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all
that he hath to my hand.
9 How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he
hearkened not unto her, and she caught him by his garment, and he left
his garment in her hand and fled.
13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in
her hand and was fled forth,
14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them,
saying, See, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in
unto me, and I cried with a loud voice:
15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and
cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled.
16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.
17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew
servant which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he
left his garment with me, and fled out.
19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife,
that his wrath was kindled.
20 And Joseph's master took him; and put him into the prison, a place
where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.
211 But the Lord was with Joseph, 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, he was
the doer of it.
Potiphar'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 {sic} 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 xli.
45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him
to wife Asenath the daughter of Potar-pherah priest of On. And Joseph
went out over all the land of Egypt.
46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king
of Egypt.
50 And unto Joseph were born two sons, before the years of the famine
came: which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare unto
him.
51 And Joseph called the name of the first-born Manassah: For God,
said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused
me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
This is all we ever hear of Asenath, 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 Caesar'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.
THE BOOK OF EXODUS.
CHAPTER 1.
Exodus i.
1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into
Egypt: every man and his household came with Jacob.
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy
souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the
name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah.
16 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 be a
daughter, then she shall live.
17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt
commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them,
Why have ye done this thing and have saved the men children alive?
19 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.
21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made
them houses.
22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born
ye shall cast into the 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. Here 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 example 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.
CHAPTER II.
Exodus ii.
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife 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 put 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.
5 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 nurse 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.
10 And the child grew, and she brought 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.
15 But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of
Midian: and he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and
drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and
helped them, and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that
ye are come so soon to day?
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.
20 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.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses
Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershon: for 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 importance; 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:
Exodus iii.
19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not
by a mighty hand.
20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders
which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians:
and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:
22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighhour, and of her that
sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and
raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters;
and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
The role assigned the women, in helping the children of Israel to
escape in safety from bondage, is by no means complimentary
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.
CHAPTER III.
Exodus iv.
18 And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said
unto him, let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are
in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses,
Go in peace.
19 And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for
all the men are dead which sought thy life.
20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and
he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his
hand.
21 And the Lord said unto Moses, when thou goest to return into Egypt,
see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in
thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the
people go.
22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my
son, even my firstborn:
23 And I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me: and if
thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy
firstborn:
24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him,
and sought to kill him.
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and circumcised her son.
26 So he let him go.
When Moses married Zipporah he represented himself as a stranger who
desired nothing better than to adopt Jethro'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
went 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 of 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.
CHAPTER IV.
Exodus xii.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will
smite all the firstborn in tile land of Egypt, both man and beast: and
against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
18 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye
are: and when I see that blood, I will pass over you, and the plague
not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
43 And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of
the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:
44 But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast
circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of
the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone
thereof.
47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the
passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let
him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the
land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
In commemoration of this promise of the Lord's to pass over their
homes in executing vengeance on the Egyptians, and of the prolonged
battles between Jehovah and Moses on the one side, and Pharaoh and his
Cabinet on the other, the Jews held an annual feast to which all
circumcised males were summoned. The point of interest to us is whether
women were disqualified, not being circumcised, or whether as members
of the congregation they could slip in under the provision in the 47th
verse, and enjoy the unleavened bread and nice roast lamb with the men
of their household. It seems from the above texts that this blessed
feast of deliverance from bondage must have been confined to males,
that they only, could express, their joy and gratitude. But women were
permitted to perform a subordinate part in the grand hegira, beside
carrying their respective infants they manifested their patriotism by
stealing all the jewels of gold and silver, all the rich silks and
velvets from their Egyptian neighbors, all they could carry, according
to the commands of Moses. And why should these women take any part in
the passover; their condition remained about the same under all
dynasties in all lands. They were regarded merely as necessary factors
in race building. As Jewish wives or Egyptian concubines, there was no
essential difference in their social status.
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 is 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 commendable manner?
E. C. S.
CHAPTER V.
Exodus xviii.
1 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of
all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that
the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt;
2 Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after
he had sent her back.
3 And her two sons; of which the name of one was Gershom; for he said,
I have been an alien in a strange land:
4 And the name of the other was Eliezer: for the God of my father,
said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh;
5 And Jethro, Moses father in law, came with his sons and his wife
unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:
6 And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto
thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
7 And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance,
and kissed him, and they asked each other of their welfare; and they
came into the tent.
8 And Moses told his father in law all that the Lord had done unto the
Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail
that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them.
After a long separation the record of the meeting between Moses and
his wife Zipporah I,; very unsatisfactory to the casual reader. There
is some sentiment in the meeting of Jethro and Moses, they embraced and
kissed each other. How tender and beautiful the seeming relation to a
father in law, more fortunate than the mother in law in our time.
Zipporah like all the women of her time was hustled about, sent forward
and back by husbands and fathers, generally transported with their sons
and 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 principle blocks woman's way
to-day to perfect liberty. See the 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 the
persecutions of woman.
We take note of these discriminations of sex, and reiterate them again
and again to call the attention of women to the real source of their
multiplied disabilities. As long as our religion teaches woman's
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 see 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 of the 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.
12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take
heed to yourselves, that ye go not up in to the mount, or touch the
border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to
death..
13 There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or
shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the
trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified
the people; and they washed their clothes.
16 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come
not at your wives.
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 {sic} over superstition.
E. C. S.
CHAPTER VI.
Exodus xv.
20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in
her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with
dances.
21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the
sea.
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.
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To
morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which
ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which
remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
29 See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man
in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
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 15th
verse contains the following warning:
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of
rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he
shall surely 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 men. After purifying themselves by put ting 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.
CHAPTER VII.
Exodus xxxii.
1 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 land of Egypt, we wot not what
is become of him.
2 And Aaron said unto 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 were in their
ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving
tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made
proclamation, and said, To-morrow is 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 sat 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.
CHAPTER VIII.
Exodus xxxiv.
12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in
the midst of thee;
13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down
their groves:
14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, who is a jealous
God.
15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and
they go after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one
call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters
go after their gods, and make thy sons go after their gods.
23 Thrice 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 be left unto the
morning.
26 The first of the first fruits of thy 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
seethe 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.
Exodus xxxvi.
22 And they came, both men and women, as many, as were willing
hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets,
all jewels of gold; and every man offered an offering of gold unto the
Lord.
23 And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine linen, and goats hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers'
skins, brought them.
25 And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands,
and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and
of scarlet, and of fine linen.
26 And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats'
hair.
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 {sic} 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
self-respect 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.
Exodus xxxviii.
8 And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of
the looking glasses of the women assembling at the door of the
tabernacle of 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, exact judgment
and cruel punishment are ordained alike for man and
woman; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand and
foot for foot (Chapter xxi, 23).
In pronouncing punishments, woman's individuality and responsibility
are always fully recognized, alike in the canon and civil laws, which
reflect the spirit of the Mosaic code.
Exodus xxii.
21 Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were
strangers in the land of Egypt.
22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
23 If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I
will surely hear their cry;
24 And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword, and
your wives shall be 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
work 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.
THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS.
CHAPTER I.
Leviticus iv, vi.
22 When a ruler hath sinned and somewhat through ignorance, against
any of the commandments of the Lord his God concerning things which
should not be done, and is guilty.
23 Or if his sin, wherein he hath 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 be done, and be guilty:
28 Then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female
without blemish, for his sin.
24 And this is the law of the meat offering: the sons of Aaron shall
offer it before the Lord, before the altar.
15 And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour of 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.
18 All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall
be a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of
the Lord made by fire: 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 the 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.
12 And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar,
his sons that were left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of the
offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside
the altar: for it is most holy.
13 And ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due, and
thy sons' due, of the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire: for so I am
commanded.
14 And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean
place; thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy
due, and thy sons' due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace
offerings of the children 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.
CHAPTER II.
Leviticus xix.
3 If ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my
sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
20 If And whosoever cohabits with a bondmaid, 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.
Leviticus xx.
9 If For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be
surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood
shall be upon him.
21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing:
he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a
wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with
stones; their blood shall be upon them.
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.
12 If the priest's daughter also be married unto a stranger, she may
not eat of an offering of the holy things.
13 But 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.
10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an
Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the
Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp;
11 And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD,
and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was
Shelomith, the daughter of 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.
Leviticus xxvi.
26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall
bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread
again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
29 And ye shall eat 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 three 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 themselves 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 Romans.
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
sacrifice 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 certain 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.
Numbers i.
And the Lord spake unto Moses in tire wilderness of Sinai, saying,
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel,
after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of
their names, every male by their polls:
3 These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by
the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps
throughout their hosts were six hundred 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 of 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 the
clergy were not allowed to vote nor hold office. Like women, they 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 runs on through chapter ii, and
all these potential soldiers are called children of their fathers.
Although at this period woman's chief duty and happiness was bearing
children, no mention is made of the mothers of this mighty host, though
some woman had gone to the gates of death to give each soldier 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 v.
1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Command the children of Israel. that they put out of the camp every
leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by
the dead:
3 Both male and female that they defile not their camps.
4 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
12 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:
15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall
bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal;
he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is
an offering of jealousy.
17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of
the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take,
and put it into the water:
18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the
woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is
the jealousy offering, and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter
water that causeth the curse:
19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman,
if thou hast not gone aside be thou free from this bitter water that
causeth the curse:
20 But if thou hast gone aside, and if thou be defiled.
21 Then, the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing,
and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and
an oath among they people.
24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth
the curse.
25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's
hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon
the altar:
26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the
memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause
the woman to drink the water.
27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to
pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her
husband, that if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her
husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her,
and become bitter.
28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be
free.
At the first blush it seems very cruel for the Jewish God to order the
diseased and unfortunate to be thrown out of the camp and left in the
wilderness. But commentators suggest that they must have had a
sanatorium near by where the helpless could be protected. Though
improbable, still the suggestion will be a relief to sensitive souls.
This ordinance of Moses probably suggested the first idea of a
hospital. The above account of the unfortunate wife was called "trial
by ordeal," of which Clarke gives a minute description in his
commentaries. It was common at one time among many nations, the women
in all cases being the chief sufferers as in the modern trials for
witchcraft. If the witch was guilty when thrown into the water she went
to the bottom, if innocent she floated 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!
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 against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman whom he had married.
2 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath 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.)
5 And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the
door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came
forth.
6 And He Said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I,
the Lord, 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 mouth, even apparently, and not in
dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold:
wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my Servant Moses?
9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them: and he departed.
10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam
became leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and
behold, she was leprous.
11 And Aaron said unto Muses. Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not
the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have
sinned.
13 And Moses cried unto the Lord, saving Heal her now, O God, I
beseech thee.
15 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people
journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
Here we have the first mention of Moses's second marriage, but the
name of the woman is not given, though she is the assigned cause of the
sedition. Both Aaron and Miriam had received a portion of the prophetic
genius
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