1849.] Meaning of br. 219 passively, to be subdued. The primary sense seems to be to weaken, or render powerless; or, intransitively, to become powerless. In Joel 4:10, we have the derivative adjective, in the same sense of debilis, weak-without energy. This seems well adapted to the context here. Its position after is some evidence that it means a state or process posterior in nature, and time to dissolution-something which follows death, and which therefore cannot be referred to the sickness or debilitation which precedes it. The rendering of our common version -wastes away-as though referring to the body in the grave, has nothing to warrant it in any other application of the word. We cannot help regarding it as having here, very much such a sense as the Greeks attached to their word xaμóvτes, when applied by them, not to the body, but to the departed shade, or ghost. As in the Iliad III. 278. Καὶ οἱ ὑπένερθε ΚΑΜΟΝΤΑΣ ἀνθρώπους τίνυσθον, ὅτις κ ̓ ἐπίορκον ομόσσῃ· So also the Odyssey XXIV. 16. Ψυχαὶ εἴδωλα ΚΑΜΟΝΤΩΝ. Buttmann regards this as merely a euphemism for the dead, the weary, the weak—as though referring to the body. It seems astonishing, that he should not have seen that this is utterly inconsistent with most of the passages in which the term occurs, and especially those where the xapóvrɛs are spoken of as the subjects of moral retribution,―as in the first of the last two quoted; or where they are described as acting and conversing-as in the example from the Odyssey XXIV.14. It rather represents the most ancient Greek conception of the state of the departed yet still existing spirits. Their condition, although one of continuous, and, to a great extent, conscious being, was yet comparatively the mere shade or umbra of the former life. The post-mortem animation, we might almost say, was regarded as the ghost of the former intelligence; very much as the ghostly form itself represented the appearance of the former living body. They appear to have, in imagination, transferred to this state of existence the continuance of the phenomena first presented, and of the thoughts immediately suggested by dissolution. Hence the yuz itself was regarded as weak, emaciated, powerless; and we may almost say, although it implies a seeming paradox, mindless and senseless. Thus the ghosts are so frequently called, in Homer, ἀμενηνὰ κάρηνα, φυλ' αμενηνά, etc. They were said to be without goéves, having no thought or recollection of previous existence; in fact, reduced or carried back very far towards the rudimentary or embryo state of human animation. Hence is is said of Tiresias (Odyss. X. 493), that his mind, or poéves, remained firm (¿unɛdo noɑr),1 and that to him alone it was given, as a special favor, to exercise understanding (nɛnvuodas), whilst the others were but fitting shades (τοὶ δὲ σκιαὶ ἀΐσσουσιν) who had to drink of the blood-the ancient symbol of life, or rather the life itself-before they could have firm thoughts or recollections. According to Herder, and as we think can be shown from various passages in the Old Testament, something of this kind entered also into the common conceptions of the Jews, and of the people around them, respecting the inhabitants of Sheol. The departed were regarded as still having an animate though shadowy existence, and yet without that living power and activity which distinguished them in this world. Quietness was the predominant idea, and yet it was not strictly repose. Instead of a real life of energy, and of motion regarded as proceeding from thought and purpose, they wandered, or to use the more appropriate phrase, which has ever been applied to the motion of ghosts they only flitted about in the realms of the dead, in the valley of Tzalmaveth (y), the shadow of death, or the nether world of shades, as we think was intended by this expression in its most primary sense, although it is sometimes used metaphorically of sombre scenes and circumstances in the present life.2 For other passages illustrative of the word xauóvres, and of the ideas of Homer and the other Greek poets on this subject, see the Odyssey XI. 475-Aesch. Supplices 231, where the xauórzes are also represented as subjects of justice, and of punishment by the Infernal Zeus. A similar use of the perfect participle xɛxμýxotɛs, may be seen in Aesch. Sup. 164; Eurip. Troad. 96; Eurip. Sup. 758; Plato, Legg. 718 A.; Thucyd. III. 59. A very strong proof that the Hebrew conception, in this respect, was about the same with the Greek, is found in a Hebrew word for the shades or manes, namely . Gesenius rightly defines it, from its etymology, umbrae, manes in orco degentes, quos et sanguine et vi vitali destitutos, neque tamen animi viribus, ut memoria, plane carentes, sibi fingebant veteres Hebraici. See Isa. 14: 19: 10. Ps. 88: 1 Some critics have regarded this expression as having reference to the unfailing nature of the prophecies of Tiresias, and not to any peculiarity of his ghostly state. That it refers, however, to the active exercise of mind, in distinction from the condition of the other shades, will appear from comparing Odyss. X. 240. 2 In Ps. 23: 4, there is strong reason to believe that a state after death is intended. Though I walk through the valley of shades, the terra umbrarum, still thou wilt be with me. In Job 38: 17, the gates of Tzalmaveth, come in the parallelism after the more common expression, the gates of death, as though denoting something more interior, consummate, and remote.-Portae mortis umbrarum. 1849. Job does not doubt the Possibility of a Separate State. 221 11. Prov. 2: 18. 9: 18. 21: 16, and Job 26: 5, where it is applied to the manes, or ghosts, beneath the waters; referring, in all probability, to the ancient sinners who were swept away by the flood, and whom Peter describes as the spirits in prison, 1 Pet. 3: 19. This other Hebrew term, n, which we are now considering, seems to have the same etymological significance, and to be grounded on the same idea in its applications to the departed, as the Greek xaμóvres. So also the similar word,, as used Isa. 14: 10, where the ghosts are represented as saying to the descending shade of the Babylonian monarch,— "Hast thou also become feeble (aμɛvηvós), like one of us?" The whole passage, in this view, may be thus paraphrased: “Man dies, and lies down among the xauórras, the , the shadowy, nerveless, dreamy tribes of the ghostly world, whose thoughts," that is, their active schemes and purposes, "have perished” (Ps. 146: 6), and who have no more part in anything that takes place beneath the sun. Man exhales his breath, and Oh! where is he? To what region of the Terra Umbrarum has he departed; to what undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller has ever yet been known to return?" This explanatory manner of putting the question, shows that Job was far from denying the possibility of a separate existence for the soul after death, whatever he may have thought of any future revivification of the body. It is the tone and language of one striving to pierce the unknown, and yet with feelings of repressing awe, rather than of dogmatic and denying scepticism. It is very much in the spirit of the famous interrogatory, Eccles. 3: 21-Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth up, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? The ancient traditionary distinction is not there denied by the soliloquizing philosopher; it is only intended to suggest the incompetency of man ever, in this life, to pass beyond the mere fact, or to explain the law of the matter, or to trace the way of the spirit, either in its upward or downward course; or to show how the spiritual and material elements do respectively return, at dissolution, to their appropriate departments There is probably something of this same strange conception of a state of conscious animation, yet almost without mind or memory, in Ecclesiastes 9: 10 bisya naan) jiawn y 18" “For there is no work, no invention, or purpose, no wisdom in Sheol." We cannot think that is intended to denote absolute cessation, or annihilation, but rather a state of being almost entirely rudimentary and introspective-without outward energy, or purpose, or that active employment of means to ends which characterizes the present busy life-a state where men are no longer úλønovaì, gain-seeking, enterprising, etc. as Homer styles them, but are reduced to an inward rudimentary condition of life, it may be (although this is very imperfectly revealed in the O. T.), as preparatory to a more perfect existence. πνεῦμα μὲν πρὸς αἰθέρα τὸ σῶμα δ' εἰς γῆν. The resemblance between this comparison of the tree and the striking lines of Moschus, in his epitaph on Bion, have attracted the notice of almost all classical and biblical scholars. Αἱ αἱ ταὶ μαλάχαι μὲν ἐπὴν κατὰ καποῦ ὅλωνται, V. 11. The waters fail; more properly, depart, flow away. This verb is of comparatively rare occurrence, but is evidently allied to the more common br, fluxit, which is ever applied to water. See 1 Sam. 9: 7, where the present word is used of food; also, Deut. 32: 36, where it is used of strength; and Prov. 20: 14, where it denotes a secret withdrawal. The LXX. render it onαviteza. Grotius and Rosenmüller understand, not as the sea, but as a stagnant lake. There is, however, no need of any such explanation (having no warrant from any other passage), if we regard the comparison as purely hypothetical; which seems to be the most natural view of it. As if the waters failed from the sea, so man, etc.-intimating the most complete view that could be taken of his dissolution under this mere physical aspect. There is a fountain of nature, from whence the tree may drink a new supply of life; but when man dies, it seems to us as though the ocean had failed, the very source of physical life had been (for him) forever dried up. Or it may be intended as a measure of an immensely long period, by way of heightening the conception, here presented, of the apparently long sleep of the grave. The LXX. seem to have had some idea of this kind. Χρόνῳ γὰρ σπανίζεται θάλασσα—in time, or at length, even the sea fails, or may be supposed to fail; that is, the longest processes in nature may be regarded as having their determined periods; but "man lieth down and riseth not." Can this be! 'Eurip. Sup. 533. 2 Alas! the herbs, the tender herbs, that in the garden lie; The spring returns, they live again, and bloom once more to die; Or, as the last part has been accidentally paraphrased in a modern hymn: 1849.] Germs of Spiritual Truth in the Old Test. 223 Is man so inferior to nature!—is the silent query that underlies the passage. Such may be regarded as the implied force of the declaration; which, instead of intending doubt or denial, may have been used rather to bring the gloomy thought distinctly before the mind, in order that its contrasted shade might give relief and distinctness to the feeling which seeks encouragement for the opposite hope. But of this elsewhere. V. 12. may be rendered-until-or quamdiu-as long as the heavens are-usque dum non erunt coeli-that is, nunquam, as Rosenmüller observes. It might be maintained that here is an assigned period, and that it was meant that then, when the heavens were no more, man should awake out of his sleep; at the last trump, when the elements were melting with fervent heat, and the heavens were departing as a scroll. Although it is said that such an interpretation "is not countenanced by the most respectable critics,' and would be inconsistent with the usus loquendi," etc., still it might be maintained to be in harmony with that analogy of faith, or that evangelical and apostolical law of hermeneutics, which regards all the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments, as being not merely the productions of the authors whose names are attached to them, but as the work of one Eternal Spirit, and as designed to have relation, more or less, in every part, to one harmonious system of revealed truth. On the ground of such an analogy of inspiration-an analogy in the highest degree rational if revelation itself is a rational idea-it would be no absurdity to refer to a passage in Peter by way of illustration of one in Job, any more than to cite, as Paul does, the books of Genesis and Leviticus in support of doctrines maintained in the Epistle to the Galatians. One who held this view might give all due weight to the common objections arising from the age, and style, and historical circumstances of particular books, as far as they were not carried to the extreme of breaking up into a fragmentary chaos the whole canon of Scripture. He might admit that particular views and doctrines are more naturally to be looked for in certain parts than in others. With all this, he would most rationally contend, that some account be taken of the fact-if it be a fact-that the Bible is a supernatural revelation from God, and cannot, therefore, have been written like any other book. He might maintain that this at once introduces a new, and, to say the least, modifying law of hermeneutics which it would be most absurd for one who believes in it to overlook, and that warrants the most rational expectation of finding germs, at least, of evangelical truths, more or less vividly presented, in portions where the neologist never discovers them, for the plain reason, that he cannot, in any case, |
