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This pamphlet, containing important information for the million, showing from the Hebrew scriptures that although Negroes are intellectual beings, possessed of rational accountable and immortal souls, of the same genus with Adam, Are nevertheless an inferior species of that genus, and were made subject to the Adamic race in their creation by the positive command of God, and are so to continue throughout all of their generations; which information is so condensed that it will not be found cumbersome to the reader, containing multum in parvo, and enables the author to offer it to the public at the following low rates, so that every person may possess a copy:
Price, 25 cents per single copy.
Ten per centum discount will be deducted from the single rates on all cash sales by the dozen copies, and twenty per cent. on all cash sales by the hundred copies.
This pamphlet will be promptly sent by mail or express on the receipt of orders accompanied with the cash.
Address the Author at St. Louis, Mo.
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To the Public.
This pamphlet is not designed to take the place of other larger works which have been published by able writers in defence of the peculiar institution of the South, neither does the writer claim that it contains the able arguments in defence of the institution of slavery to be found in many other larger works. All that is claimed for it is that it opens a new, important, and very essential feature of the subject, and assumes to answer, scripturally and reasonably, the foundation argument upon which the abolition heresy has been sustained; viz., that "all intellectual races being children of the same original parentage, are equally entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, undictated by their fellows;" or, in other words, that "the negro race being children of Adam in common with the white, are equally entitled by nature to the domain of the earth." This argument, on which is based the whole anti-slavery sentiment, is answered and refuted, by simply showing that the negro race was created to occupy the position of subjects to the white race, and that they were in their creation indelibly marked with the insignia of their position, which is the color of their skin; and as this insignia is indelible, it serves as a definitely inscribed record of their genealogy, proving them to have descended from an original parentage of the same color, and that parentage a distinct species of the creation, and evidently designed by the Creator to remain so distinct throughout all of their generations.
In short, the writer claims to have discovered the source of the evil which distracts our country and threatens its peace; that this evil has its source in a fundamental error pervading Christian sentiment relative to the origin of the negro race; that this error has arisen from a misconception of the teachings of the sacred text, and that this misconception is the effect of false tradition and the consequent mistranslation of that portion of the sacred text of the original Hebrew scriptures relating to the subject. In this little pamphlet the writer claims that he has furnished the key to unlock the mystery which has
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so long enveloped the origin of this sable race, and thereby has furnished the means of correcting this error in Christian sentiment, the doing of which is believed to be the only remedy adequate to cure the evil that threatens the peace of our country.The writer therefore appeals to the Christian ministers of all denominations, to the statesmen of all political parties, to the conductors of the public press throughout the land, and to all citizens who love their country, to join in this effort harmoniously to correct this mischievous error in popular sentiment, and thus cure the only evil that is potent to destroy the peace of our country, and to overthrow the revered institutions of our fathers.
As the correction of this error in Christian sentiment does not necessarily affect the articles of religion, or of religious faith, in any church or denomination of Christians, it is proposed that local cosmopolitan Christian associations be found, throughout this country and the world, to be united by state councils, national unions, and a general cosmopolitan association of delegates, all devoted to the correction of this error in popular sentiment, and to counteract the influence of the anti-slavery associations now so formidable for evil to our country, and to the southern portion thereof in particular.
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Dedication.
This pamphlet is respectfully dedicated to the President, of the United States, the two houses of Congress, the Governors and Legislators of each of the States, and to all citizens of the United States who honor and respect the constitution and the laws of the confederation of these sovereignties, created by the sovereign people, and constituting the several States of the Caucassian Republic of North America.
Fellow citizens, while inscribing to you this product of years' of toil, earnest and untiring investigations, to find a sure panacea for the evil that threatens the peace of our glorious institutions, permit me to assure you that I am convinced that to impart the truths contained herein relative to the inferior origin of the negro race is the only remedy, and is as sovereign as the need of its immediate application, to save the only government in which man's rightful dominion is guaranteed to the children of Adam, from being torn to pieces by sectional strife about a question of moral righteousness.
Having been raised in a Northern State and educated under the influence of all the prejudices of abolitionism, I have been enabled to reach the ground of their arguments against the institutions of the South, and having found a sure answer and refutation of the premises, from which they conscientiously adduce their conclusions in reference to the domestic institutions of the Southern States, it is charitably believed to be only necessary that this answer and refutation should be furnished them to satisfy their consciences in regard to the moral righteousness of this institution of the South to quiet all this fiery agitation which threatens to dissolve the Union, and thereby firmly to unite all the parts of this great confederacy, which is destined to extend the sovereign dominion of the children of Adam, until every white man shall possess an inheritance of lands, cattle and servants, and sit down under his own vine and fig-tree, where there will be none to molest him or make him afraid.
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I therefore invoke the aid of all who feel an interest in allaying this excitement, and in restoring harmony to the government, to save this our beloved country from the horrors of a civil war. Yes, fellow citizens, I ask your aid in lifting this important ensign of peace to the Nation, placing this pamphlet in the hands of every American citizen, that they may all learn therefrom that it is quite possible that God created the Adamic race white, and gave them dominion over all the earth, and over all the living creatures upon the earth; and that he also created the Nachash, alias Cush, alias negro race, black, and made them subject to the Adamic race throughout all their generations, and that he subsequently cursed all the fruits of the mixture of the seed of these two races to the same subjection.
When this important lesson is learned, the envy of the fruitful Northern States will cease, and the adversaries of the celebrated Southern institution will all be cut off; the thriving Northern people will not then envy the laudable Southern planters, and the commendable institution of the Southern portion of the confederacy will not any longer vex the enterprising citizens of the non-slaveholding States. But they will fly together as upon the shoulders of the people dwelling in the villages towards the West, and by their prosperity spoil the glory of the Eastern nations together. They will lay their hands upon the red-skins and incestuous Mormons, and the mixed sons of their kindred in Mexico will obey them. The distress of the people under foreign rule on the key of the Gulf of Mexico (the Island of Cuba) will be entirely removed; and by the potent exercise of the hands in labor west of the river Mississippi for the construction of the Pacific railroad, the ruling hand of Providence with the people will build the road, and bridge the seven streams that empty into the Gulf, and the people will pass over dry-shod on the highway thus left for their continual travel, even as Israel passed out of Egypt dry-shod through the Red Sea; and I might add that all Christian nations will see and join together; their hearts will fear and be enlarged when they see the commerce of the sea and the substance of all nations gathered into the lap of the true Israel, the nation of sovereign citizens, the sons of Adam restored to their dominion.
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Proem.
This is an age in which the deepest sympathies of the human heart are awakened for down-trodden humanity, and this sympathy begets the most intense hatred towards all tyrants and oppressors of the human species. This sympathy was awakened in 1776, and this hatred is generated from our fathers of the revolutionary struggle for free government. From that time to the present the masses have from time to time been stirred and excited to revolution and insurrection in every country where the doctrine of human equality and free government has been permitted to be taught. The prevailing religious sentiment regarding all the different species of mankind as children of the same original parentage, connected with the doctrine contained in the declaration of independence, subscribed in 1776, by the founders of the United States government, declaring "all men, created free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inaelianable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," has had the effect to stir up the masses in all the countries where this doctrine has been propagated, to strike for the universal liberty of all, both black and white, upon the same terms and at the same cost. The result has been that in all countries where free government has been tried upon the principle of popular sovereignty, including all, without distinction of race, it has proved a failure; and all history demonstrates that popular government can only exist among white men, and that the black and mixed races are incapable of self-government.
The natural cause of this result is shown, in the following treatise, to be the inferior origin of the black and mixed races. The correction of the prevailing religious sentiment relative to the Bible teaching the common origin of all these races as being legitimately from Adam, will at once settle the present exciting question in respect to the rightful position of each race; therefore, the subject treated in the following pages is of the utmost importance to the people of the United States at the
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present time, involving as it does the great principle of political rights relating to the position of the different races of mankind, as well as the moral righteousness of all human governments which permit any of these races to be held in perpetual servitude.The present condition of the different races of the genus homo foreshadows their final destiny, and this destiny is apparent to thousands at the present time; but why Providence ordains the destiny is not so plainly seen. It is manifest to every observer of passing events that the white or Caucassian race is destined to rule the world, and that the mixed races who are doomed to yield the dominion are fast wasting away before the onward march of the white man. It is also very apparent that the negro race is inferior to the white race, and that it must occupy a position either nationally in subordination under the protection of the white man, or otherwise a position immediately subservient, to him. This plainly manifests the inevitable destiny of the inferior race, which fanatics think they can avert by inciting insurrections, rebellions and revolutions. They should therefore be instructed and taught that the different grades in the intellectual creation are the work of the all-wise Ruler, and are essential to the proper workings of his moral government to secure the happiness of all his creatures.
The origin of the different types of mankind has been a subject of much speculation among the learned, resulting in many theories relative thereto. These theorists have mostly disregarded the Bible account of the creation of man, and treated it as spurious, in consequence of having fallen into the common error, that, according to the scriptures, all the different types of the human form are the legitimate children of Adam. Not being able to account naturally for the strange phenomenon of such a variety of fruit to spring from one seed, they have repudiated the account and substituted in its stead their own hypothesis. One of the most prominent of these theories is that endorsed by Andrew Jackson Davis, the clairvoyant, in his "Revelations of Nature." This theory supposes man, in his highest grade to be the ultimate of animal life, produced by nature from the most minute animalcula existence, by the law of progression that each respective grade by this law produced a superior, until finally the negro race was produced with intellectuality from the highest grade of the beasts; the negro in turn produced the red or tawny race, and the red man brought forth the white race by the same law.
There is, however, a theory put forth by a celebrated Christian writer, accounting for the existence of the three most distinct varieties, viz., the white, the black, and the red or tawny
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by a miraculous intervention of the power of God in the family of Noah, whereby Noah and his wife, both being white, are made the propagators of three children in succession, one white, one red or tawny, and the other black, and that these three children are the natural progenitors of the three races, bearing their respective colors. This theory must be regarded as founded in speculation, and far more improbable a hypothesis than the one referred to above. The Bible history gives no account of such an event; but we suppose the hypothesis is assumed on the ground that the significations of the names given to the three sons of Noah, indicate that Japheth was white, and that Ham was black, and from this circumstance it is inferred that Shem was red or tawny. One other circumstance may have contributed to suggest this miraculous hypothesis: Ham is represented in Bible history as the father of certain races known to be black, brown or tawny. But our investigation of the subject will develop how that was effected, without assuming so improbable a hypothesis. According to the Bible account of the creation, as given by Moses, in the first chapter of Genesis, there were intellectual beings called into life at three different times; once in the fifth day or period of the creation, and twice in the sixth day or period; those of the fifth period were called into life from the waters, and those of the sixth period from the earth. Those of the sixth period were two distinct races, only one of whom were placed in dominion, the other in subjection; from these two races, through the process of amalgamation in different degrees of the blood, has sprung all the different types of intelligent beings now extant upon the earth.The race which was placed in dominion was the Adamic race, and they were evidently white; the race placed in subjection was the negro race, as the following pages abundantly demonstrate. It is to correct the Christian sentiment upon the origin of this subject race, that the following pages were written.
The necessity of correcting this error in Christian sentiment at the present time will be readily seen, for the benefit alike of both races; for, if ever the government of the United States is subverted, it will be through the influence of the incorrect sentiment of the people upon this subject.
The subject of negro slavery has been a fruitful source of agitation in the Christian Church ever since the days of Martin Luther, causing many misgivings in the minds of the truly pious, lest they should be found practising, or upholding, an institution of man, contrary to the righteousness of God. In vain have they been pointed to those passages in the Bible, which seem to recognize the relation of servant and master in the Christian Church as admissible; in vain were they
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referred to the law of Moses, regulating the relation of master and servant; in vain were they reminded of the fact that the Patriarchs had many men-servants and maid-servants. These facts were only evidence to them that slavery or involuntary servitude was permitted during the times when the wicked bore rule over the nations of the earth; but would not justify a Christian nation in holding human beings in slavery.In maintenance of this conclusion, the following passages have been referred to: "God is no respecter of persons, but in all nations he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the whole earth." "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so them, for this is the law and the Prophets." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Is not this the fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke." "He that is called, being a servant, is Christ's free man!" And, "except ye are one, ye are not mine." In answer to all this, the curse that Noah pronounced upon his grand-son, Canaan, has been referred to, in justification of the institution of slavery. "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren," &c. Again, the scrupulous have asserted, that Noah's curse was fulfilled under the reign of wickedness, and still insist that a Christian nation should abolish slavery; and that all Christian churches should exclude from their fellowship all who will not use the power of their franchise to break the yoke of the slave and let these captives go free.
In short, it has been impossible for many of the truly pious to reconcile slavery or involuntary servitude, even under the curse of Canaan, with the justice and impartiality of God. Why, say they, should the children suffer in slavery for the sins of their fathers, since the time has come that it shall no more be said in Israel, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge, and the soul that sinneth is to die and suffer for its own iniquity"?
Thus have the churches been agitated with this question, until they have found it no longer practicable to walk together in church-fellowship; and like Paul and Barnabas, they have parted asunder — one portion taking the North, and the other the South.
Finally, the subject has become of such absorbing interest, that the great Kingdom of the people, the Nation of sovereigns, the empire of States of Republican North America, is seriously threatened with the same fate of the churches: the division of the Union is seriously contemplated by many in the North
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and in the South, both in and out of Congress, on the ground that is wrong to hold political fellowship with slaveholders; and vice versa, that it is impracticable to hold political fellowship with those whose conscientious fanaticism leads them to interfere with the domestic relations of their neighbors.That the abolition side of this subject is daily gaining advocates in the non-slaveholding States is not any longer to be disguised; and this heresy is also making inroads upon the border counties of all the most northern slaveholding States; and it is evident, that unless the foundation arguments which are used to support this heresy are reasonably and Scripturally answered, and the answers fairly and zealously published and circulated among the people, there will be but one alternative remaining unto the slaveholding States, and that will be to maintain their right of domain over, and possession of, their slave property by the strong arm of military power, and that too against greater odds than our revolutionary fathers contended with, in their great struggle for political liberty.
All the arguments hitherto used in support of the institution of slavery have failed to check the onward march of this most mischievous of all heresies that ever distracted the political arena of any nation or disturbed the Christian fellowship of any church; for it is as seductive in its nature as that taught in the garden of Eden to our first parents: "Yea, (said the Nachash,) hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Yea, (say the Abolitionists,) hath God said, that slavery was right? "God doth know, (said the Nachash,) that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." God doth know, (say the Abolitionists,) that if ye abolish slavery you shall be more like God, holy and perfect, doing unto others as you would that they should do to you, walking after the golden rule of Christian perfection, and your political blessings will also increase an hundred fold; in short, "then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your darkness shall be as the noon-day, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended."
Thus are thousands constantly being seduced into the abolition sentiment by the application of certain passages of Scripture to the negro, that were only designed to apply to man or the master. They assume that man and the negro have descended from the same parent stock, that both races are children of the same original parentage; in short, that God hath made of one blood the white man and the negro; that both races are alike descendants of Adam and Eve, and consequently are blood relations, and brothers by consanguinity.
These false assumptions not being denied by the
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slaveholding Christian, gives the Abolitionist the ground of his argument, and from this he reasons out his heresy, appealing to the justice and impartiality of God to sustain his argument, which is based upon these false premises. It is true, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the whole earth;" but the negro is not included among the nations of men; his creation was separate and apart from the creation of Adam, as is abundantly proven in the following treatise.The Rev. Geo. Noyes, in a discourse delivered at Hope Chapel, New York, in October, 1859, on the "Irrepressible Conflict between Freedom and Slavery," made the following remark: "Religion alone will at last solve this great question."
To this sentiment we heartily subscribe: Religion, the dictates of conscience, the sense of justice, the internal consciousness of the right or wrong of the institution among those who have the power to perpetuate or to abolish it, will finally decide the question, regardless of constitution, or human laws.
The great Republican and Democratic doctrine that a majority of the people wield the supreme power, and that the people are the source of all governmental power, for the regulation and security of man's rightful dominion in the earth, will finally, doubtless, prevail over all lands and countries, and this majority power will dictate in all the earth what shall be law, and what shall be constitution; and this great truth will float upon the banners of all nations, vox populi, vox Dei. The voice of the people is the voice of God: but the question is asked, who are the people? This question being answered in the broadest possible sense, must include all the children of Adam; and why include all the children of Adam? The answer is plain; — when Adam was created he was commanded to multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and to have dominion not only over all the earth, but also over every living creature in the earth. The children of Adam, therefore, inherit this dominion in common, legitimately from their father, — a majority of whom necessarily possess not only the right of dominion in common with the minority, but also the power to take the dominion by virtue of their numbers. The question of freedom or slavery must finally be decided in accordance with the will of this majority: their sense of justice will not allow them to pronounce in favor of the perpetual slavery of any of the children of Adam, all of whom inherit dominion equally with themselves. If any who are held in perpetual servitude claim to be the legitimate children of Adam, they must be brought to a test of their claims — this test must be the proof of their origin: how is this to be ascertained? If no distinction of color had been made in the creation this
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would have been difficult to ascertain, at this late day, after so many revolutions, and the extensive amalgamation of the two races; but, fortunately, the distinctions of race were placed by the Creator beyond the power of either race to efface; for it is evident, "the Ethiopian can not change his skin no more than the leopard can change his spots." Therefore, as Isaiah saith "the show of their countenance doth witness against them." After being brought to this test before the tribunals of the majority power, if they are found to be of the race of Adam, they will be discharged from service, and an inheritance granted them in the earth under the protection of this majority power; but if not, they will be remanded to service, as the legal subjects of the Adamic race, according to the natural laws of their origin, and their qualifications by nature to fulfil the destiny of their grade of the creation.The question involved is not as stated by the Abolition fanatics, "Is it right to hold human beings in perpetual servitude?" But the question to be solved is this: "Are negroes and mulattoes the legitimate children of Adam?" If they are, their right to freedom is already decided by the majority power; and it is also decided by that august body, that insurrection and revolution is both proper and right until their freedom is attained.
But the question of their origin has never been fully and properly investigated by the people. It is true, an informal judgment has been rendered, without due investigation, and an attempt has been made by Ossawatomie Brown, at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, to execute an informal order for the immediate discharge from service of all the sable race. The opposition the execution of this informal order has had to encounter, suggests that it would be well to suspend that informal judgment, and wait a full and proper investigation of the momentous question of their origin before determining on any further sacrifice of human life, by insurrection and revolution, to obtain the discharge of a race from service, who, it may be proven, are occupying the very position God and nature has ordained them to occupy throughout their generations.
Since the freedom of the negro race is demanded by a portion of Adam's race, on the ground that they are entitled to freedom under the doctrine embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned by the Fathers of the American Republic, by the pledge of their lives, fortunes, and sacred honors, it would be unfair to adjourn the investigation of the important question any longer, and the majority power, evidently are averse to granting a continuance for a future hearing; and, if the slaveholder is not now prepared for a test of his right in holding slave property in negroes and mulattoes
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by the natural laws of their origin, and originally decreed destiny, the verdict is likely to be rendered against them; after which, the majority power will sanction the last resort of down-trodden humanity, viz., Insurrection and Revolution, until the freedom of the Ethiopian race is attained.This crisis has evidently been seen from afar by the statesmen of the south, and with trembling solicitude they have sought for the means to arrest it. They have been inwardly conscious of their right of dominion over the negro race, but how to prove that right satisfactorily to the majority of the people has puzzled the wisest heads: they have, therefore, strove to defer the crisis, in hopes that Providence, who had so wisely and mysteriously directed the adoption of the present Constitution of the United States, under which their rights are conceded, would, ere the crisis should come, develop the necessary evidence to secure the judgment of the majority in favor of their domestic institutions.
The crisis has now come, and slaveholders tremble in anticipation of the result; they feel that their cause is just, but they still know not from whence their deliverance will come. Cast your fears to the winds, ye favored souls! God has raised up one from the east to defend your cause, by producing at this critical moment the essential testimony before the mighty tribunal, the sovereign people, to gain for you the verdict of this court.
And now, as the volunteer Attorney of all the white slaveholders in the United States, I solemnly file in the archives of this honorable court (the Sovereign People of the United States) our Petition for a writ of Injunction against all Insurrections and Revolutionary movements for the freedom and self-government of the negro race, until after a full and careful investigation of the question at issue relative to the origin of this race. As evidence of our right to demand this Injunction, we here append a synopsis of the facts we engage to prove.
We promise to prove, that negroes are not the children of Adam, but are, according to Biblical history, an inferior creation of intellectual beings, made subject to Adam, and to his posterity, by the natural laws of their being, throughout all their generations. This proof we find contained in the account by Moses of the creation, in the original Hebrew.
It can be shown that the negro was called forth into being, before the creation of Adam, under the name of "naphesh chaiyah." Naphesh is derived from naphach, which signifies to puff, to blow, to kindle, as a fire.
Naphesh signifies, first, the soul or immortal spirit, that kindles the fire of natural life in the mortal body, by dwelling in the blood, which hath its seat in the heart. The soul expands
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the body to its full size and development, and then continues its expansion until death, by continually diffusing through the body the blood charged with ample quantities of caloric matter to produce the animal heat, thereby causing respiration.Naphesh, therefore, signifies — first, the immortal spirit or soul. Secondly, it signifies, the blood or life; because the immortal spirit gives value to the vitality of the blood. Thirdly, it signifies, the immortal spirit or soul — the blood or life, and the body, inclusive, — the whole self of an intellectual being; because the presence of the immortal spirit gives value to the body.
Chaiyah is either the feminine form of the adjective chai, "living," signifying "her living;" or it is, in this connexion, the genitive of the substantive Chaiyah, "life," signifying "living creature," or "living being, possessing naphesh;" the latter is the construction Gesneius puts upon it. Naphesh chaiyah would then be properly translated, the "immortal spirit's or soul's living tabernacle or body;" or transposed, the "living creature or being with immortal spirit or soul."
Such was the creature who was called by Adam, Nachash, and he is represented and declared by Moses to be superior to all the beasts of the field, but inferior to Adam. This Nachash is represented as being endowed with speech and reason.
Nachash signifies to view attentively, to learn by attentive observation and experience, to hiss, to whisper, to divine, incantation, enchantment, augury and omen; it signifies also a serpent, so called from its hissing; it also signifies brass, copper, and iron, as inferior metals, chains and fetters. Nachash is evidently derived from the same original root with shachar; by the transposition of the radical letters cheth and shin, dropping the raish of shachar, and substituting the nun prefix, we have Nachash, as the signification of shachar and its derivatives nearly resembles the signification of Nachash. Shachar signifies, first, to cleave, to break, to break in, to pry into, to seek, to seek carefully. Secondly, to be or to become black; that is, the skin. Thirdly, to fascinate, to enchant, to charm.
By the exchange of the harsh guttural cheth in the name Nachash to the hard palatal koph, we have the name Nakosh, which signifies to be snared ond seduced; but in expressing the intransition of the verb, the nun prefix is dropped, and we have kosh, which signifies to lay snares, to lie in wait, and also, to be curved as a serpent, or bowed down to labor as a slave: then, by changing the hard palatal koph in kosh to the more soft palatal caph, we have cush, the Hebrew name for the Ethiopian, the negro.
Thus, by the exchange of these consonants, which changes
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are common in the Hebrew language, we learn that Nachash when applied to the creature that beguiled Eve, is positively a synonim of Cush, the negro; and by properly understanding the laws and usages of the language in which the account of the creation was first written, we are enabled to identify the negro as the very character used as a medium by the old Serpent, the Devil, when he said to the woman, "Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of all the trees of the garden?" &c. This point being established, we have the most positive evidence of the fact, that the negro was an inferior and separate creation from Adam; that he was created as a subject of Adam, and consequently, is not entitled to the dominion of the earth in common with Adam's seed.This lays the axe at the root of the tree of Abolitionism and Freesoilism, removing every ground of argument in favor of the heresy; the ties of consanguinity between the races being severed, the fanatical sympathy of the white race will soon disappear, and the subject will rest upon practicability and law; and when the fanatical props are all removed from the support of this heresy, we have no fears of the result: instead of the contemplation of abolishing slavery in the slave States, the system will very soon be engrafted upon and be adopted by the present non-slaveholding States. Its practicability and usefulness will soon be appreciated by the (at present) most rabid Abolitionists. They will discover that the galling chains of slavery, which have so long been their topic, and the subject of their stirring appeals to the people of the northern States, existed only in their imaginations, or was the necessary result of their fanatical ravings.
When they learn that the negro was created for man's service, and needs a master to care for him, and to direct him, as much as man needs a servant to serve him, or as much as the domestic animals need shepherds to feed them; and also, that it was for the mutual benefit of those three grades of his creation, viz., man, the negro, and domestic animals; that God himself instituted this domestic system, — they can no longer object to its practicability, or fail to see its beneficial results.
The negro, also, learning that freedom will not benefit him, will be content to serve his master in obedience; while those who have no masters will so appreciate the relation of servant to the white man, that they will petition to be thus adopted into respectable families, that they may thus fulfil the purpose of their creation, and be happy.
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Introduction.
As the subject treated in the following pages involves the order of the creation as given by Moses, it may not be inappropriate first to refer to some of the many speculative theories put forth by the learned at different times in relation to the origin and formation of the earth.
The following sketch we copy from the "History of all Nations," by S. G. Goodrich, chap. 17th:
"From the earliest ages the attention of mankind has been directed to the phenomena displayed by the earth's surface, and innumerable theories have been suggested, as well to account for its origin as to point out the process of its formation. Some of these are now known to have contained glimpses of truth, but for the most part they are regarded as vain speculations, and have passed into oblivion or contempt. Yet as the extravagances of human nature may sometimes furnish instruction as well as amusement, we shall give a few specimens of the strange theories of the earth which have been broached by men of learning and ability.
Passing by earlier writers on this subject, we come to John Kepler, one of the greatest astronomers and mathematicians that ever lived. In a work published in 1619, he seriously attempts to prove by argument that the earth is an immense animal, and breathes forth winds through the craters or chasms of volcanoes, which serve as a mouth and nostrils. Certain aspects of the planets, he says, occasions winds and tempests, arising from the sympathy which the earth has with the heavens, whereby it instinctively perceives the position of the stars.
Plato and the Stoics had adopted a similar theory, and Kepler, with them, considered the earth a living creature, which, by the heaving of the huge bellows of his lungs, occasioned the tides. Besides other arguments to prove that the earth is animated, he remarks that in the Scheldt, at Antwerp, the tide rested one whole day, because the earth was in a fainting fit.
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Perhaps, also, in 1550, it was seized with a cough, when, in the British ocean, at the mouth of the Thames, the tide ebbed and flowed several times in twenty-four hours!Other writers have adopted the ideas of Kepler, and, like that great astronomer, have considered the globe itself as possessed of vital faculties. According to them, a vital fluid circulates in it; a process of assimilation goes on in it, as well as in animated bodies; every particle of it is alive; it possesses instinct and volition even to the most elementary molecules, which attract and repel each other according to sympathies and antipathies. Each kind of mineral has the same power of converting immense masses into its own nature, as we convert our food into flesh and blood. The mountains are the respiratory organs of the globe, and the schists its organs of secretion; it is by these latter that it decomposes the water of the seas in order to produce the matter ejected by volcanoes. The veins are carious sores, abscesses of the mineral kingdom; and the metals are products of rottenness and disease, which is the reason that almost all of them have so bad a smell.
William Whiston, an English divine and mathematician, published a "New Theory of the Earth" in 1708, according to which he deduced the origin of the terrestial globe from the condensation of the atmosphere of one comet, and the deluge from the contact of another. Among the daring speculations in which this theorist indulged, there is, however, one which he advanced on fanciful grounds, but which has derived much probability from the researches of recent enquirers. He imagined the existence in the earth of a central nucleus, which, while it was a cometary body, becoming intensely heated by its near approach to the sun, has preserved ever since a great part of the high temperature which it had acquired. This doctrine of central heat and the gradual cooling of the globe found an able advocate in the late Baron Fourier, and many facts have been brought forward in support of it by other writers. There is nothing extravagant in the length of time during which Whiston supposed the process of cooling to have been going on in the earth; for in 1680 a comet passed so close to the sun, that, from the calculations of astronomers, it must have acquired a temperature two thousand times that of red-hot iron, and would require fifty thousand years in cooling. Hence, if the earth was once a comet, its nucleus would still be burning, since the epoch of its access to the sun is supposed not to have exceeded six thousand years.
Benedict de Maillet, who held the office of French consul in Egypt, and was the author of some philosophical works, was a speculator of a different order to the preceding. About the middle of the last century appeared one of his productions,
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containing some geological theories, abundantly absurd and extravagant, but deserving of some notice, as being founded on accurate and extensive observations of existing phenomena. This gentleman in the course of his travels remarking the occurrence of sea-shells and other marine remains on the summits of the highest mountains, inferred that the present continents were entirely formed beneath the surface of the water, which must have originally covered the whole earth; that, ever since the first appearance of islands in the universal ocean, the waters have been gradually decreasing; in proof of which he instanced the formation of the delta of Egypt, at the mouth of the Nile, and of similar tracts in other parts of the world, and the alleged extension of the sea-shores in various places. He supposed this gradual decline of the sea to be still in progress, and his opinions so far have been admitted by many other geologists."But De Maillet not only conceived the whole globe to have been for many thousands of years covered with water, but he further alleged that this water gradually retreated; that all the land animals were originally denizens of the sea; that man himself commenced his career as a fish. Supporting his reveries by adverting to stories of sirens, mermaids, tritons, satyrs, and such like monsters, and asserting that even now animals may be found in the ocean half human and half fish, but whose descendants will in time become perfect men and women.
"Strange and inconsistent as are these speculations, they have been revived and extended by more recent theorists. They suppose that the earth was originally in a fluid state; that the primitive fluid gave existence to animals which were at first only of the most simple kind, as the monads and other infusory and other microscopic species; that in process of time and by assuming different habitudes the races of animals became completed and at length appeared in that diversity of form and character which we now perceive. By means of these various races of animals, part of the waters of the sea have gradually been converted into calcarious earth; while the vegetables, concerning the origin and metamorphoses of which these writers chose to be quite silent, have, on their part, converted a portion of the same water into clay; these two earths, on being deprived of the characters which vitality had impressed on them, are by an ultimate analysis resolved into silex; and hence the reason that the oldest mountains are more silicious than the rest. All the solid parts of the earth, therefore, owe their existence to life, and without life the globe would still be entirely liquid.
"Other theorists ascribe the origin of the earth to fragments which have fallen successively from the heavens, in the manner
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of a×rolites or meteoric stones, and thus account for the relics of strange monsters, which they suppose to have been the inhabitants of unknown worlds."One bold speculator imagines the earth to be hollow, and places within it a magnetic nucleus, which is transported from one pole to the other by the attraction of comets, carrying with it the centre of gravity and the mass of waters on the surface, and thus alternately drowning either hemisphere.
"A few years ago an American officer, named Symms, asserted that the earth is not only hollow, but also that the interior is habitable, or at least accessible; for he alleged that an opening leading to it exists somewhere in the northern hemisphere, and he actually proposed to explore it.
"Leibnetz, in 1680, advanced the bold hypothesis that the earth was originally a burning luminous mass, the gradual refrigeration of which produced the primitive rocks, forming at first a solid crust; and this being ruptured, owing to irregular contraction, the fragments fell into the universal ocean formed by the condensation of vapors on the surface of the globe. He proceeded to trace the production of inundations, convulsions and attrition of solid matter, by its subsequent deposition constituting the various kinds of sedimentary or stratified rocks. Hence, he observes, may be conceived a double origin of primitive masses: 1, by cooling, after igneous fusion; 2, by reconcretion from aqueous solution. ‘Here,’ says Conybeare, ‘we have distinctly stated the great basis of every scientific classification of rock formation.’
"Many writers now successively appeared, who advantageously directed their attention to the investigation of particular topics connected with this subject, as the causes and phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes, the formation of deltas or low tracts at the mouths of rivers, and the description of fossil remains of animal or vegetable origin. Among those who rendered important services to the cause of science by advancing general views of the theory of the earth, were Dr. James Hutton of Edinburg, and Professor Werner, of Erieberg, in Saxony."
These theories of the origin, or original formation of the earth are not to be regarded as correct, only so far as they are supported by the sacred writings or geological research. If the sacred history of the creation is properly understood, it will evidently be found to harmonize with the actual developments of geological science.
It was while examining the original of Moses' history of the creation, some years since, with the view of reconciling his account of that event with the geological history of the earth, that the writer of this treatise first discovered the account of the separate origin of the distinctly marked Ethiopian race
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagefrom that of the prominently developed superior intellectual Caucassian race.
This discovery was at first only mentioned to a few friends, deeming it unwise to make it public until prepared to produce suitable evidence to defend the discovery as a bona fide truth, well knowing that the fact discovered was against the tradition of ages, and its defenders would have to combat the prejudices consequent upon this long established tradition which would raise a thousand and one objections to be answered.
Moses' account of the creation was evidently written, not as a history of the origin of the earth itself, but as a history of the origin of vegetable, animal and intellectual life upon the earth; he therefore, after asserting the existence of the three necessary agencies for their production, begins his account by informing us that light was first brought within the elemental precincts of the earth, and there regulated by fixed laws; then the atmosphere was produced; then vegetable life; then the change of the seasons was produced for the perpetuity of vegetable life by reproduction from the seed; then animal and intellectual life was produced from the waters — then animal and intellectual life from the ground. We think that an error in the translation of the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis has contributed much to array the developments of geological science against the scriptures; we will therefore insert the text as it stands in Hebrew, and analyze it and give what we conceive to be a correct translation, with the view of removing the antagonism apparently existing between this text of Moses and the actual developments of geological science relative to the age of the earth.
Analysis. — beth with sheva is a preposition, and is used for in, at, on, or with; reshith is an abstract noun formed from concrete by the addition of ith, which is an adverbal qualification of the nature of hood, dom, ness, ly, ing and er, in English. The noun and signifies the head, the highest, the chief, the first, as well as the beginning.
bara is a verb signifying, 1st, to cut, to cut out, to carve; 2nd, to form, to create, to produce; 3rd, to beget, to bring forth; 4th, to feed, to eat, to grow fat. Elohim is a plural form from Eloah, which signifies God. eth proceeds from a pronominal stem, and is properly a substantive meaning, essence, but when connected in the construct state with the following noun or suffix, it forms
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagea periphrasis of the pronoun ipse, self, this same. It is also sometimes used as a substantive, denoting nearness, vicinity, and also sometimes it is used as a sign of the definite accusative case. he with pattak stands for the article the, shamayimsignifies heaven in the plural. vav with sheva is a conjunction like the English and. ×rets signifies the earth; the prefix he with kamets standing for the article the, the same as he with pattak prefixed to shamayim.
According to the above analysis of this text of Moses, it will be perceived that it is susceptible of a number of different interpretations, among which will be found the following, which we propose as the proper interpretation:
"With the first begotten Elohim was the heavens and the earth." This interpretation leaves the origin of the earth itself out of the history, and confines the account of Moses to the origin of things and creatures created from the substance of the earth to exist and dwell upon it.
Moses having informed us in the first verse that the first-begotten Elohim, or the first begotten of Elohim, was, or existed with the heavens and the earth; in the second verse he informs us that the earth at that time was empty and desolate; that is, without inhabitants; and furthermore, that darkness was upon the faces of the abyss, but the spirit (or first begotten) of Elohim was brooding upon the faces of the waters.
After thus describing the condition of the earth, Moses informs us that the Elohim spoke, saying, "Let light come: and light came." This was the first creative act of which Moses treats, and it was evidently the first essential work to be done upon the earth, for light was an essential sub-agent for the production of vegetable and animal life. Darkness pervaded the recesses of the fathomless cavern encircled by the elemental composition of the earth's surface, represented by Moses as the faces of the abyss, while the ruach (spirit) of Elohim was brooding upon the surface of this elemental composition, to rarefy it so as to admit the light into the cavern or abyss below; this being done, when light came it was essential in order to make it good, that is, useful, that it should be divided from the darkness, or, in other words, excluded a portion of the time, and thus creating day and night. The rarefaction of a portion of the elemental chaotic composition of which the earth was composed, to the consistency of water, would admit the light, and would necessarily tend to condense other portions to the consistency of solid earth or land, which being sunk beneath the waters would prevent the light from shining through the
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entire earth; hence a revolution of the earth upon its own axis would produce the phenomena of day and night, and divide the light from the darkness.The light evidently proceeded from the sun, which, with its attendant orbs, exclusive of the earth, constituted the heavens, which, as we have already learned, existed with the first-begotten of Elohim prior to this event. Hitherto the light had been obstructed probably by the crust or shell formed on the exterior of the globe, while the elements were in a chaotic, commingling state. This shell is called "the faces of the waters," over which the spirit of Elohim brooded, like as a hen broods her eggs. The waters were evidently produced beneath this shell by the rarefaction of the chaotic elements, and when Elohim said "Let light come," this shell was probably broken into fragments and sank beneath the waters. This shell being removed, left the exterior of the globe one vast sea of waters, through which the light could shine, but not in direct rays, for the visibility of the sun was still obstructed by the waters as in a cloudy day. Each revolution of the earth on its own axis gave light and darkness alternately; the light was called day, the darkness night, and the evening and the morning was the first day.
The days enumerated by Moses were evidently not natural days, but periods of time within which the objects of which he treats were brought into being. His history is not minute, but general: he speaks only of the chief objects produced during each period, that object being the agent or cause of all minor productions of that period. Light being necessary in the elementary organism preparatory to the production of vegetable and animal life, the first period was exhausted in arranging the elements so as to bring light within their precincts, and to arrange it there so as to make it good, that is, useful. Of what use this light was before the creation of either vegetable or animal life we can only conjecture, as the sacred historian has given us no account of the existence in the first period of either vegetable or animal life in any form or grade; but there might have been the fuci and algae species of vegetable life — the rank weeds which grow on the margin of the seas, and the zoצphytes, trilobites, crustaceous animals, shell-fish, and even fish of the sauroid and shark form may have sported in the waters; but no land animals could have existed, for the reason that no atmosphere had yet been created, neither was there any dry land on which they could dwell.
It was not until the second day that the Elohim said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it divide, or separate between, the waters to the waters." This expanse in the midst of the waters Elohim calls heaven; it is
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evident that this expanse was a body of air created in the midst of the waters, and that the waters surrounded it on all sides during the whole of the second day or period; the creation of the atmosphere may have brought new vegetable and animal life into being as a natural product of this new state of the elements, but it is evident that no propagating species were in existence, either of vegetable or animal life. It was not until the third day that the elemental organization was sufficiently perfected to bring even vegetables to their seedling state, and not until the close of the fourth period was the elemental and vegetable organization sufficiently perfected to bring animal life to its generating powers.The first day or period was occupied in the production and regulation of light; the second period was consumed in the creation and direction of the atmosphere; in the third period the waters were gathered from under the atmosphere into one place, and the dry land made to appear, on which vegetation was brought to its seedling state; on the fourth day the sun and moon and stars were made visible by the removal of the waters from above the firmanent, causing the succession of the seasons, thus preparing the seeds of the vegetable kingdom to vegetate or to reproduce their kind. The fifth day was the period in which propagating species of animal life was produced from the waters; but it was reserved for the sixth day or period for the earth to produce, not only her propagating species of land animals, but also living creatures with souls or immortal spirits possessed of generative powers, as well as the Adam who was especially created with dominant authority to command all the inferior creations.
What the length of these periods was we are not informed, but infer from the fact that Adam was created in the sixth period, and that period not yet completed, although some six thousand years have elapsed since its commencement, that, if of equal lengths, these periods were about seven thousand years each; which, if we count the seventh period of rest, which is to follow the present period, and also count as one thousand years the little season spoken of in the Apocalypse, in which Satan is to be loosed after the period of rest, then we have fifty thousand years allotted to this planet from the first appearance of light within the precincts of its elemental organization to the consummation of its object, with only nine thousand years remaining of the time allotted. This calculation may or may not be correct; we only present it as an inference.
Moses evidently asserts the existence of three agencies, either begotten or created, which were instrumental in bringing into being the vegetable, animal and intellectual kingdoms upon the earth. These agencies were, first, the first-begotten of Elohim,,
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagea spiritual intellectual agency; secondly, the heavens, consisting of the sun and his attendant orbs including the moon, which may be termed the inception agency; then, the earth, as a planet, was the producing agency. Thus the intellectual agent directed the inception, and the inception influenced the production, until the earth had produced her propagating species, after which she was constituted the sustaining agent of all these germinating species, as the mother sustains her infant with the lactescent liquid. It is inferable and evident that these three agencies were begotten and made by an infinite Father and Architect, who is revealed in the second chapter of Genesis under the eternal and immutable name JEHOVAH, which signifies properly being self-existing; and that they were begotten and made as the necessary agencies in the construction and final perfection and exaltation of the tabernacled intelligences who have their origin and inheritance upon the earth under the name of Adam, which is evidently an abbreviation of Adonim, signifying lords or masters; the final perfection and exaltation of this race to their dominion as sovereigns and instructors, under God, of the inferior races, being the object and ultimate of the world's existence.
These instrumental agencies, under Jehovah, having completed the propagating species of the vegetable kingdom and established the laws of their perpetuity by the succession of the seasons, and thus closing their work of the fourth day, in the fifth period were engaged in bringing into being generating species of animal life from the waters. This was probably done by first producing ovarious substance or eggs of all the different species of swimming and flying creatures, embracing fish and fowl, and through the influence of sub-agents, among which were light and heat, hatching from these eggs the progenitors of these different species. Among these aquatic or water-produced species of animals was a race of creatures with souls or immortal spirits. (See Genesis, chap. 1, and 20th and 21st verses.)
20. — Vayom×r Elohim yishretsu hammayim sh×r×ts n×phesh chaiyah: vegnoph yegnopheph gnalhaarets, gnalpene rekiagn hashishamayim.
21. — Vayibhra Elohim ×thhattanninim hagedolim: veeth koln×phesh hachaiyah; harom×seth asher sharetsu hammayim
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageleminehem veeth kolgnoph kanoph leminehu vayare Elohim kitobh.
Translation. — 20. "And proposed Elohim to increase abundantly (from) the waters, creeping things, living creatures, with souls, and fowls to fly upon the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens.
21. And to beget Elohim this the Tenninim and Gedolim and this same, all the living creatures with souls and the creeping things which increase abundantly (from) the waters according to their species, and this same, all fowls with wings according to his kind, and look Elohim therefore (it is) good."
We give the above literally from the original Hebrew, and accompany it with our literal translation, that the learned in that language may readily discover the force of the conclusions which are to follow. We assume that, although naphesh may sometimes represent collectively the life, soul and body of an intellectual being, and sometimes only his natural life, as his blood ; yet, when followed by chaiyah, either with or without the article, it cannot mean other than the soul, or immortal spirit, for the reason that the natural life and the body is represented by the last named word chaiyah, which signifies, independent of naphesh, life and living creature; the two words therefore are too redundant in their signification to be interpreted merely living creatures, since the latter word signifies as much without the former attached.
naphesh, says Dr. Adam Clark, in his Commentary on the twenty-second verse of the 17th chapter of the first Book of Kings, "generally means the immortal spirit, and where it seems to refer to animal life alone, it is only such a life as is the immediate and necessary effect of the presence of the immortal spirit;" and in his notes on the eleventh verse of the 28th chapter of Joshua, he says, "Naphesh also signifies the whole self as well as the soul and life. chaiyah is always either the feminine form of the adjective chai, signifying living, or is a substantive of life, signifying living thing, and is rendered sometimes beast, and according to Gesenius, in this formula, connected with naphesh, chaiyah is a substantive in the genitive case, possessing naphesh; i. e., living creature possessing a soul or immortal spirit.
Moses plainly asserts that the Tenninim and the Gedolim were all naphesh chaiyah. tenuoth or tannoth, the first signifying alienation, and the latter abodes, dwellings, habitations, are derived from the same roots with Tenninim, which roots are tanan, and nu. Tennimm is used to
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagerepresent the sea-serpent or dragon, so called from its length; the primitive idea conveyed by the root is to stretch out, to extend, hence, to extend one's place of habitation by leaving the first and going a distance to another; to separate from a united body which is represented by a circle being broken. Gedolim is the plural form of a noun from gadal to twist, to twist or bind together, to be or become great, to be highly prized. Gedolim, therefore, signifies the great associated highly prized ones.
This intellectual race, called Tenninim and Gedolim, were evidently in a state of probation while thus existing in the fifth period, being subject to the laws of their spiritual existence as intellectual intelligences, and it may very properly be inferred that some of them did not keep the laws of this their first estate or probation, and that others did; these latter, it may be inferred, were bound together by intellectual association, as the name Gedolim would seem to imply; while the name Tenninim seems to indicate that those who bore that appellation were alienated from the association, leaving their own original habitation of peace and union, they were stretched out, i. e., separated to enmity, by the breaking of the circle of their union. Hence we infer that the immortal souls of these Gedolim were the sons of the Elohim who in union shouted for joy over the trembling morning stars when the judgment of this period was announced. (See Job, 38th chap., 7th verse.) And may not these be the "living spirits," or souls which were to dwell in the Adam tabernacles; for it may be inferred that when the Elohim breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of lives or living spirits, it was that these might have dominion in the earth by the multiplication of his seed, as a reward for their fidelity; while those who kept not this their first estate were denied the right of dominion in their second estate, and reserved in chains of darkness until the judgment of the sixth period.
These chains of darkness, in Hebrew phraseology, would be nechushtayim choshek; nechustayim is the dual form of nachash, and signifies chains and fetters. Nachash is the name of an intellectual race who dwelt in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, and was the instrument of their fall and consequent banishment from the garden. Choshek signifies darkness, and is evidently a cognate with nachash. Nechustayim choshek signifies literally chains of darkness. It was evidently to this race of intellectual rebels of the fifth period, called the Tenninim, that Jude and Peter the Apostles allude in their General Epistles. Jude says, "And the angels which kept not their first estates, but left their own habitations, he
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagehath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." (See Epistle of Jude, 6th verse.)
The word angel is here, doubtless, used to represent a race of intellectual or spiritual beings, who had an existence somewhere in a state of probation prior to the creation of Adam and the present races of the genus Homo: and we infer that it was upon this planet that they existed, from the fact that they are ranked with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and those who should after live ungodly, all of whom suffer till the judgment of the great day. In the 2nd Epistle General of Peter, 4th chapter and 5th & 6th verses, he says: "For, if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousnes; bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those who should after live ungodly," &c. None will dispute that here is a very plain allusion to a race of intellectual beings, and of their probation and judgment prior to the creation of Adam. Peter speaks of it as an event that happened in regular order, as to time, prior to the deluge, as the deluge happened prior to the overthrow of Sodom; all of which events are set forth as ensamples to those who should after live ungodly. But how are they set forth as ensamples? A sea of stagnant water marks the place where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood. The fossil remains of the denizens of the sea are found embedded in the tops of the highest mountains as evidence of the destruction of the old world by water. But where is the memorial of the judgment of the angels which fell? Jude says, they are reserved in chains under darkness; and Peter says, they are delivered into chains of darkness.
We have shown that the Tenninim and the Gedolim were intellectual and accountable beings, and possessed of immortal souls; now if we show that, in the sixth day creations an intellectual race was created besides the Adamic race, who were inferior to Adam, and were made subject to him by the laws of their creation; and can trace their name through all its changes in the Hebrew, according to the laws and usages of the language, and from thence into Latin and English, and find it to be negro; then, we have most plainly set forth before us, as a memento of their judgment, a race literally reserved in chains of darkness, or negro blackness, unto the judgment of the great day. "For the Ethiopian cannot change his skin;" it is an indelible mark, to continue throughout all of their generations.
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These are merely speculations and conjectures, to account reasonably for the creation of a subject race of intelligently endowed, and morally accountable beings, in the sixth period; which we conceive to be plainly taught in Moses' account of the creation as it stands recorded in the Hebrew Bible, and abundantly proved and established in the following pages.
The doctrine of the pre-existence of the souls of all intellectual beings, in some state or condition, although not a written article of faith, has, nevertheless, been a subject of faith with many Christians of all denominations; it is not, however, we believe, been made a test of fellowship in any denomination, it not being esteemed essential to orthodox faith, pro or con.
We have merely presented the above views for the consideration of those who might wish to comprehend the reason why God, in his infinite justice, saw fit to create one race of intellectually accountable beings with a black skin, and subject them, throughout their generations, to another race of intellectually accountable beings, whom he created with a white skin. Others may account for these grades of the intellectual creation in another way, and at the same time acknowledge that these grades originated by distinct creations, as shown in the following pages. The only point which we engage to make, and sustain, is the separate and inferior origin of the negro race, and their subjection by God's mandate to the Adamic race throughout their generations.
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The Nachash Origin of the Black and Mixed Races.
This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageIn treating upon this subject, we shall first present the account given by Moses, of the production of animal life from the earth, including the intellectual creations of the sixth period, as embraced in the first chapter of Genesis, from the 24th to the 31st verses, inclusive. We copy from Augusti Halm's Hebrew Bible:
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page image24. Vayomer Elohim totse haarets n× phesh chaiyah leminah beh×mah var×mes vechath×rets leminah: vahiken.
25. Vayagnas Elohim ×th chaiyath haarets leminah ve×th-habehemah leminah veeth kolr×mes haadhamah leminehu. Vayare Elohim kitobh.
26. Vayomer Elohim nagnas×a adhom betsalmenu kidhmuthenu: veyirdu bhidhgath hayom ubhgnoph hashshamayim ubhabehemah ubhekol-haarets ubhekol har×ames haromes gnal haarets.
27. Vayibhra Elohim ×th-haadhom betsalmo betsalem Elohim bara otho: Zakor unkebha bara othom.
28. Vayebharek othom Elohim vayomer lahem Elohim peru urbhu umilu ×thhaarets vekibhshuha: urdhu bidhgath hayom ubhgnoph hashshamayim ubhkolchaiyah harom×aseth gnalhaarets.
29. Vayomer Elohim hinne nathatti lakom ×thkolgnesebh zorea z×ra asher gnalpene kolhaarets ve×thkolhagnets asherbo pherignets zorea zara; l×kem Yihey× leakela.
30. Ulekolchiayeth haar×ts ulekolgnoph hashshamayim ulekol romes gnal-h××rets asherbo n×phesh chaiyah ×thkoly×rek gnesebh leakola;
31. Vayehiken. Vayare Elohim ×thkolasher gnasa vehinne-tobh medo; vayehign×srebh vayehibhoker yom hash-shishshi.
24. "And said Elohim, let the earth bring forth living creatures, possessing immortal souls to her kind; cattle and creeping things, and his land animals to her kind; and let them come thus.
25. And made Elohim the land animals to her kind, and the cattle to her kind, and all creeping things of the ground to his kind; and saw Elohim that they were alike good.
26. And said Elohim, let us make Adam in our image, according to our likeness, and let him have dominion in the fish of the sea, and in the fowls of the heaven, and in the cattle, and in all the land, and in all the moving creatures that move upon the land.
27. And formed Elohim the Adam in his image, and in his own likeness Elohim created him, male and female producing them.
28. And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the land, and subdue her, and have dominion in the fish of the sea, and in the fowls of the heaven, and in all living creatures that move upon the land.
29. And said Elohim, behold, my giving to you all herb seeds which is upon the face of all the land; and also, all the
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagetrees whereon is fruit, trees bearing seed, to you shall be for your eating.
30. And to all the land animals, and to all fowls of the heaven, and to all creeping things upon the land, which with him (naphesh chaiyah) the living creature possessing immortal soul, all green herbs shall be for their eating; and let it be thus.
31. And see Elohim all these made, and beheld them very good: and come evening, and come morning, day the sixth."
In the 24th verse of this quotation, Elohim is represented as saying, "Let the earth bring forth naphesh chaiyah to her kind; cattle and creeping things, and the land animals to their kind." Naphesh chaiyah is the first kind ordered forth, and the cattle, creeping things, and the other land animals, inclusive, were the second kind.
It will be noticed, that all the brute creation of the sixth period are included in the second kind. Under the name behemah, translated cattle, are included all domestic animals; and under the name r×mes, translated creeping things, are included all reptiles, from the largest snake to the microscopic worm; and under the name chaiyetho-×rets, translated land animals, are included all the wild beasts of the land — thus including all the brute creations among the second kind, and leaving the first kind (naphesh chaiyah) to occupy the evident position their name implies, that of a super-brute kind.
To further illustrate what we have already said in our introduction relative to the meaning of these two words, naphesh chaiyah, we will here repeat, that naphesh is sometimes used to signify the natural life of an intellectual being, as well as his whole self; but generally it signifies the immortal soul only, and never signifies the life or body of a beast, except when intellectual beings are included with them in the formula or sentence in which the word naphesh is used.
As Dr. Adam Clark says in his Commentary, "naphesh generally signifies the immortal spirit, and when it seems to refer to animal life alone, it is only such a life as is the immediate and necessary effect of the presence of the immortal spirit." The few following examples of its use in the Scriptures will serve to illustrate its signification. Moses, in giving an account of the death of Rachel, Gen. xxxv. 18, says: "And it came to pass as her soul (napheshah) was in departing, (for she died,)" &c. In the law of abstinence from blood, Lev. xvii. 11, the following reason is given for the law: "For the life (naphesh) of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls (napheshothekem); napheshoth is the plural of naphesh, and kem is a pronominal suffix, signifying your); for it is the
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageblood (naphesh) that maketh an atonement for the soul (naphesh)."
It will be perceived that naphesh, in this quotation, is translated, once life, once blood, and twice soul. The text would, however, in our judgment, be better understood if naphesh was uniformly translated soul: it would then read, "For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the soul that maketh atonement for the soul." In the account given of Elijah raising the widow's son, 1st Kings xvii. 22, it is said: "And the soul (naphesh) of the child came into him again." Job (xii. 10), in speaking of the greatness and power of God, says: "In whose hand is the soul (naphesh) of all living." Jeremiah, in speaking of the destruction of his people by famine and the sword, says: "She that hath borne seven languisheth, she hath given up the ghost" (naphesh). Moses, in giving an account of the number of people, out of the loins of Jacob, who went down into Egypt from the land of Canaan, Exodus i. 5, says: "All the souls (naphesh) that came out of the loins of Jacob, were seventy souls (naphesh).
These examples will sufficiently illustrate that naphesh is only used in reference to the presence of the immortal spirit, in any formula, where it seems to imply any other thing, or substance, than the immortal spirit itself.
Chaiyah — in the formula, naphesh chaiyah — is either the feminine form of the adjective chai, living, and signifies her living, (naphesh,) immortal soul; or, otherwise, it is a substantive, in the genitive case, possessing naphesh, or possessed by naphesh, signifying living creature with immortal soul. Gesenius, in his Hebrew Lexicon, says: "In this formula, it is to be noted, that chaiyah, is the genitive of the substantive chaiyah, life or living creature, and not feminine of the adjective chai, living; and hence, may be of either gender," &c.
Naphesh, therefore, in this formula, can not signify the natural life or the body of the creature; for both these are represented by chaiyah, which signifies not only living, but living creature, or creature with life, and that creature possessing naphesh: hence, this latter word could not with propriety be construed so as to signify a mere repetition of the meaning of the former word, more especially as it has a meaning specifically different, and at the same time in harmony with the former word with which it is connected. Naphesh chaiyah was, therefore, most evidently a creature possessing animal life, with an immortal soul.
Such was the creature called forth from the earth as a
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specific kind of super-brute creation, as recorded in the 24th verse of the first chapter of Genesis, and quoted above. And it is evident, from what we have shown, that the translation of this text in the common version of the Bible, rendering naphesh chaiyah merely living creature, is an incorrect translation, because it excludes naphesh entirely from the text, by giving, as the signification of both words, just what chaiyah alone signifies, besides confounding the whole with the cattle, creeping things, and the other land animals, of the second, or brute kind; whereas, we have distinctly shown that the naphesh chaiyah was of the first, and super-brute kind.We will next proceed to show that this super-brute kind of naphesh chaiyah was also a lower and inferior species of the intellectual creatures of the same genus spiritual.
After this species of the naphesh chaiyah was called forth, as recorded in the 24th verse, we are informed in the 26th, 27th and 28th verses, that Elohim made the Adam, in his own image, according to the likeness of the Elohim, and gave him dominion in the fish of the sea, and in the fowls of the heaven, and in the cattle, and in all the land, and in all the moving creatures upon the land.
Here, we find an intellectual race created under the name of Adam, and all the former creations placed under his dominion; the fish and fowls of the creations of the fifth period are first designated as his inheritance; then the two kinds of the former creations of the sixth period, viz., the super-brute kind, naphesh chaiyah, and the brute kind, cattle, creeping things, and other land animals, are all included in one general designation, "all living (chaiyah) creatures that move (romasoth) upon the land," — all of whom Adam is commanded to have dominion over.
We next find the distinction between the Adam and his subjects, naphesh chaiyah, plainly marked in the 29th and 30th verses, in the assignment of food; in the 29th verse, the Adam is informed that the seeds of all herbs, which is the grain, and the fruit of trees yielding seed, should be for his eating; but in the 30th verse, the green herbs are assigned to all his subjects, including the naphesh chaiyah, as a spontaneous production for their eating.
We will next call attention to the particular account given of the creation of the Adam in the second chapter of Genesis, to show that he was a superior species of the same genus-intellectual, with the super-brute naphesh chaiyah, (mentioned in the first chapter) placed under his dominion.
This account will be found in the 7th verse of the 2d chapter, and we give it in the original Hebrew, accompanied with our translation:
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageVaiyyitser Yehovah Elohim ath haadhbm gnapher min haodhamah vaiyiphach beappav nishmath chaiyim: vayehi haadhem len×phosh chaiyahl.
"And Jehovah Elohim formed the Adam of dust, from the ground, and blew into his nostrils living spirits; and the Adam became a (naphesh chaiyah) living creature with immortal soul."
From this, we learn that Adarn was a naphesh chaiyah, as well as the super-brute kind, referred to in the 1st chapter; and that he was made so by the living spirits breathed into his nostril ; and it is to be noted, that the intellectuality thus conferred upon him under the name of spiritual life, is in the plural — chaiyim, lives, instead of chaiyah, life: thus making Adam the possessor of a superior intellectuality, by which he was qualified to exercise dominion over the super-brute, naphesh chaiyah, whose intellectuality is represented in the singular, life.
In the 18th, 19th and 20th verses of this second chapter, we have an account of the first meeting of these two species of the intellectual genus of the creation. After Adam's creation, as recorded in the 7th verse, he was placed in a garden, especially provided for him, containing trees of every desirable variety of fruit, and watered with a springing river; but he was in a state of separation not only from the embraces of the counterpart of his own species, but also from the presence of all his subjects; thus the history contained in the above named verses finds him, and brings him into the presence of his subjects, whom he calls by their names, and particularly recognizes the naphesh chaiyah, as related to him by intellectual genus. We will here copy these verses from the Hebrew text, and follow with our translation:
18. Vayyomer Yehovah Elohim lotobh h×yoth haadhom lebhaddo; ×gnes×hllo gnazer ken×geddo
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19. Vaiyetser Yehovah Elohim minhaedhamah kalchaiyath hassadh×h veeth kolgnoph hashshamayim vaiyabhe ×lhaadhom lireoth mayyikralo; vekol asher yikerald haadhom n×ph×sh chaiyah hu shemo.
20. Vayyikera haadhom shemoth lekolhabbemah ulegnoph liaslishamayim ulekol chaiyath hassadh×h; uleadhom lomatsa gnezer ken×geddo.
18. And, said Jehovah Elohim, it is not good for the existing nature of the Adam (that he should remain) in his separation; I will make manifest to him a helper in his likeness.
19. And Jehovah Elohim organized all the field animals of the ground, and also all the fowls of heaven, and caused to come to the Adam, to show him what was called after him, even all which was called like the Adam, (naphesh chaiyah,) living creature with immortal soul; and he named him (that is, designated his position in the organized kingdom by his name).
20. And the Adam called by their names to all the cattle, and to the fowls of heaven, and to all the field animals; but for Adam no helper was found manifest in his likeness.
The balance of this chapter contains an account of the production of Eve and her marriage with Adam.
We will now sum up what we have shown in the preceding pages, relative to the distinct origin of two species of intellectual beings produced in the sixth period. We have shown from the 24th verse of the first chapter, that a race of naphesh chaiyah was called forth from the earth, particularly named as a distinct kind from all the different species of the brute kind; we have shown from the 26th, 27th, and 28th verses of the same chapter, that Adam was created and placed in authority over all the former creations, including the naphesh chaiyah; and from the 29th and 30th verses, we have shown, that the Adam was provided with one kind of food, and the naphesh chaiyah another; and from the 7th verse of the 2d chapter, we have shown that the Adam was made a naphesh chaiyah by the living spirits breathed into his nostrils: thus showing that the state of being naphesh chaiyah was an intellectual state, and that the Adamic naphesh chaiyah, or intellectual race, was superior to the naphesh cliaiyah, or intellectual race, which was made subject to him, as shown from the first chapter: and we have shown from the 18th, 19th, and 20th verses of this 2d chapter, that the Adamic naphesh chaiyah particularly recognizes his subject, naphesh chaiyah, as related to him by spiritual genera, receiving and naming him accordingly.
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We will next call attention to the particular character of this subject, naphesh chaiyah, and to the name which Adam gave him, the account of which will be found in the third chapter of Genesis, from the first to the fifth verse, inclusive; which also we copy from the Hebrew text, and accompany it with our translation:
1. Vehannachash hay ah gnarum mikol chaiyath hassadh×h asher gnasah Yehovah Elohim; vayyomer ×lhaishshah eph kiamar Elohim lo thokelu mikkol gnets haggon.
2. Vattomer haishshah ×lhannachash; mipperi gnetshaggon nokel.
3. Umipperi hagnets asher bethokhaggon amar Elohim lo thokelu mimmennu velo thiggu bo; penthemuthum.
4. Vayyomer hannachash ×lhaishshah; lomoth temuthun.
5. Ki yodhea Elohim ki beyom akolekem mimmennu vaniph-ekechu gnenekem; viheyithem kelohim yodhe tobh vara.
TRANSLATION. — "Now the Nachash existed wise above all the field animals which Jehovah Elohim made, even saying unto the woman, Is it so, even that Elohim hath said, ye shall not eat from all the trees of the garden?
"But the woman answered and said unto the Nachash, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat ourselves; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim hath said, we should not eat from it, neither should we touch thereof, lest we die.
"Then said the Nachash unto the woman, Ye shall not die! moreover, Elohim knoweth that in the day you eat from it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like Elohim, knowing good and hurtful."
Here we are informed that a creature did exist superior in wisdom to all the field animals, and was also endowed with both speech and reason, and that he was in the garden with Adam and Eve, and was esteemed by them, as not only worthy of
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagecredit, but also qualified to discern and reveal mysteries; for we are informed in the succeeding verses, that this seductive language so influenced the woman, that she put forth her hand, contrary to the direction which had been given to Adam by the Elohim, and took of the fruit of the tree and did eat, and gave also to her husband and he did eat.
We have learned from the 2d chapter, that the super-brute naphesh chaiyah came unto the Adam in the garden, was recognized by him as belonging to the genus intellectual, and was so named; but what that name was we were not there informed; but here we find a creature bearing the description of a naphesh chaiyah, but he is called Nachash; hence we infer, that Nachash is the name Adam gave him at the time referred to in the first chapter, which was before Eve was made manifest to Adam; and it may therefore be inferred, that Eve, finding him in the garden with Adam, when she was first made acquainted with her husband, regarded him as wiser than herself; from which circumstance, she was easily seduced by him into the belief that there was some mistake about the prohibitory command in reference to the tree in controversy.
We will now introduce the account given, in the 14th and 15th verses in the 3d chapt., of the curse which Jehovah Elohim pronounced upon the Nachash in consequence of his using this seductive language to the woman; and we again copy from the Hebrew, and accompany it with our translation:
14. Vayyomer Yehovah Elohim ×lhannachash ki gnasitha zoth arur attah mikkolhabbehemah umikkol chaiyath hassadh×h; gnalgechneka thelek vegnaphar tolek kolyeme chaiy×ka.
15. Veebhah ashith beneka ubhen haishshah ubhen zareaka ubhen zareah; hu yeshupheka rosh vaattah teshuphennu gnakebh.
TRANSLATION. — "And Jehovah Elohim said unto the Nachash, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou, above all cattle, and above all the field animals; for bending thou shalt go forth, and from the dust procure food, all the days of thy life: also, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy posterity and her posterity; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
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From this we learn that the Nachash was changed in position by the transgression, precisely similar to the change in the position of Adam. While Adam was in the garden, he had nothing to do but to direct his servant, the Nachash, to dress the garden and keep it in order, and gather the fruit and eat it. After the transgression, he was driven forth from the garden to eat his bread in the sweat of his face,i. e., to till the ground and produce his food therefrom: The Nachash being his servant, would have to bow himself to labor in tilling the earth, to produce food for himself and master; but the enmity existing between them would cause a collision; the result of which was to be the bruising of Adam's heel, and of his servant's head; this contest would necessarily produce the sweat of Adam's face, with which he was to eat his bread.
It is to be presumed, that the name given by Adam to this creature would have some reference to his character and position; and perhaps of his appearance; we will therefore next see what we can learn of this matter from the derivation and signification of his name.
Nachash, according to Buxtorf and others, has three meanings in the Scriptures, represented however by different pointings. Its first signification is, to view or observe attentively, to learn by experience, to divine or use enchantments. 2d. It signifies brass, fetters of brass, and steel. 3d. It signifies to hiss, or whisper, as the whisperings of sorcery, and mutterings of incantation and augury, and in consequence of this signification an uncertain kind of serpent was anciently called by this name, because of its hissing.
The first signification, which is its primary sense in the Scriptures, is evidence that it originally did not mean a serpent of any kind; and the history given of the creature in the first five verses of the 3d chapter of Genesis, is positive proof that he was a super-brute species of the animal creation.
As this name has such a wide range of meaning, it will be essential to hunt up the root from which it is derived in order to learn accurately its original meaning; this we will be enabled to do by examining carefully all its cognates.
The terminating sibilant (shin) is interchanged with (sin) and with (tav) vary often in the Hebrew, and (tav) is at times exchanged with (teth) and with (daleth.) The middle guttural (cheth) is also often interchanged with the palatals (koph) (caph) (gimel) and, (vav) on account of the similarity of sound. The first consonant of this name (nun) is a liquid, and is often interchanged with the other liquids, (lamedh) (mem) and (resh), and very often
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagewith the palatal (vav). Nun is also very often dropped at the beginning and in the middle of words, and sometimes at the end; thus giving a large scope for cognate roots.
The original and primary sense or meaning of this name Nachash, has evidently been preserved in the obsolete root Yachas, or rather, in its modification, Yachas, as found in the 7th chapter and 5th verse of Nehemiah, Sepher , book or register table and Yachas, genealogical record. The full sense of the original root seems to have been, "a prominent or legible sign of genealogy." A race, on whose persons is stamped, or made to protrude, an indelible sign or record of their genealogy, would most properly be called by this name. This being the primary meaning of the name, it is easy to conceive how the other meaning became attached; the character of the creature, as given in the history of his dialogue with Eve, would readily suggest the first signification as given in the Lexicons, "to view attentively, to learn by experience and attentive observation, to use enchantments," &c.; the second signification, as given in the Lexicons, may have been suggested from the color of the creature, copper ore, from which brass is manufactured, being of a very dark color, and it is probable that the word was first used to represent copper; it may, however, have been suggested by the circumstance of brass and copper plate being used to engrave genealogical records upon for their more sure preservation. The third signification, given by the Lexicographers, was evidently suggested by the circumstances of the transgression; the clandestine, charming assurances given by the Nachash to the woman have always been considered in the light of incantation and sorcery; and this idea has as universally been associated with the hissing and charming of serpents, on account of their deadly sting, which usually follows. Other significations were drawn from the description of this creature both in character and personal appearance, including his curse and position; these are mostly represented by words formed from Nachash by exchange of consonants and by transposition of the letters constituting the name, or by dropping one of the consonants, and adding another.
Lachash, comes from Nachash by the exchange of (nun) for (lamedh); signifies to whisper, to mutter, to speak softly, incantations, magic, and charms of magicians and serpents.
Nachath, is also formed from Nachash by the exchange of (shin) for (tav); signifies to go, or come down, to bend down,
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageevidently kindred with shuach, which may have been formed from Nachash by dropping the nun and transposing the shin and cheth, first forming shach, an adjective signifying depressed, cast down, and afterwards adding the vav thus constituting a distinct root, to be used as a verb, to express the action of the creature in his position as a subject.
Shuach, signifies to sink down, to bow down to the dust, as a servant to labor. Other forms of this root are shachah, and shachach, shachath, and shachat; all of which have the same primary sense, which is, to sink down, and bow down as a subject. From this transposed form also comes shachar, by the addition of (resh) at the end of shach instead of vav in the centre, as in shuach.
Shachar, signifies first — to cleave, to break, to break forth, to break into, to pry into; also, to seek, to seek carefully; like Nachash, to view and observe attentively, for the purpose of learning, but in a wider sense. Second — it signifies to be (or to become) black; that is, the skin. This signification may have been suggested from the black skin of the Nachash, from whose name this verb was undoubtedly secondarily produced. Third — Shachar signifies to fascinate, to enchant, to charm. This signification confirms the root to be a cognate of Nachash, as it evidently refers to the enchantments of the evil spirits who made the Nachash their first agent in seducing Adam from his obedience to the Elohim. But this root has a further meaning — it also signifies the morning, the dawn. This signification is important to our subject; as the Nachash was the first of animal life called forth from the earth in the sixth period or day, and being endowed with (naphesh) an intellectual soul, he might with great propriety be esteemed as the dawn and morning of intellectual life upon the earth; but the singularity of the affair lies in the fact that the same word should be used to denote black or darkness, and evil, that is also used for the dawn or morning, when the Hebrew has other words expressive of light and morning, as applied to the natural day, and also to spiritual life. boker, signifies morning, and is also applied to celestial or spiritual intelligences. In Job xi. 17, speaking of the morning stars singing together, boker used. In Isaiah xiv. 12, Lucifer is called a morning star, or rather, son of the morning; but morning is not there translated from boker — it is translated from this word shachar — he is called the son of shachar; the dawn and the
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagemorning, therefore, represented by this word shachar from Nachash, is not the dawn and morning of light and righteousness, but, on the contrary, it is the dawn of evil, the morning of unrighteousness; hence the same word that represents the color of the first transgressor, black, is also used to represent the dawn and morning of sin; and the evil spirit, who influenced the first transgression, is called the son of that morning of sin, when the first spiritual intelligences fell from the heaven of righteousness and truth.
The name Nachash, as the proper name of a race of intellectual beings, has undergone a number of changes in its application to that race since it was first given by Adam to the creature that beguiled Eve, and has been varied in signification according to the condition and circumstances of the race, at the time the name underwent the change. Directly after the curse pronounced by Jehovah Elohim upon the Nachash for his participation in the transgression; his name was changed to Nakash, by the exchange of (cheth) for (koph); the verb is sometimes written Yakosh, and the intransitive of the verb expressed by kosh, the nun being dropped for that purpose, and the cholem (o) inserted to avoid the harshness of pronunciation. The first of these forms signifies to be snared, caught in a snare; just the position of the Nachash at the time of his curse; the last form signifies, in the relation of verb, to be curved, bent as a bow or the back, expressive of the curse put upon the Nachash. From this form of the verb, the new name of the Nachash was finally derived, by the exchange of koph for caph, thereby forming the name Cush. Under this form of his name history first finds him in the family of Ham after the flood; which name the race still retain in their original locality, ancient Ethiopia; they are, however, called nigers in the Latin, and negroes in the more modern languages. It is probable that niger, in Latin, came from Hebrew, niggar, to be thrust down and delivered into the hands of another; niggar was derived from niggas, to be depressed, harassed with toil, labor — from the root nagas, to urge, to impel, to drive; and nagas, comes from nachats, to urge, to press, and nachats is derived from Nachash by the exchange of shin for tsada. A driver of animals, an ass-driver, is called in Job xxxiii. 7, noges. Hence, it may be inferred, that the Latins took their name of the negro from his occupation and condition at the time their language was formed; they, however, have attached to the name another
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagemeaning, evidently suggested by the color of the race; niger in Latin signifies black, like shachar and cush in Hebrew. The Latin name niger, however, may have retained this latter sense in all its changes from the ancient root Nachash, from which it originated in the Hebrew, as all that is now known of the original Hebrew is what can be gathered from the Sacred writings, all other histories having been written in more modern languages. Indeed we are dependent on tradition for much of the knowledge we have of the ancient Hebrew, the signs of interpunction and the vowel points are all the work of uninspired and comparatively modern hands; for it was not until about the seventh century of the Christian era that vowel-signs or points were attached to the Sacred text. The Talmud and Jerome make no mention of vowel points. The Talmud was composed, the first part (Mishna), in the third, and the second part (Gemara) in the sixth century. It was after the sixth century, therefore, that the points and marks of interpunction were attached to the Sacred text. We have, therefore, in some instances, disregarded these signs of interpunction in our translation, not however without good cause for regarding them as founded on a false tradition of the sense of the Sacred text whereunto they are attached. The tradition, that all intellectual beings or creatures of the creation, of whatever species, and of all colors, were necessarily the legitimate children of Adam, has evidently influenced the punctuation and pointing of the Sacred text, in some instances, contrary to the original direction of the sense. A particular instance of this kind is found in the 10th chapter of Genesis, 6th and 7th verses.
Ubhene cham cush, umitzrim uphut ucanagnan ubhene cush: sebha vachanilah vesabhetah veragnemah; vesabhetteca ubhene ragnemah shebha udedon; vecush yaladh atknimrodh.
TRANSLATION. — "And the sons of Ham and Cush, even Mizraun, and Phut, and Canaan, were even sons of Cush: Seba,and Havillah, and Sabtah, and Eaamak, and Sabtecha; and the sons of Raamah, Sheba, and Dedan; also, Cush bare Nimrod."
In this translation, we have merely disregarded the punctuation of the Hebrew text, and supplied the conjunction between Ham and Cush, where it is most obviously understood
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageand requires a conjunction in our language, but not in the Hebrew; the copula standing at the head of the enumeration of the sons, denoting accession, is properly rendered even; and then again, to mark the distinction between the sons of Ham and Cush, we supply were; although understood in the Hebrew, it is properly supplied in the English.
By this translation, it will be perceived, that instead of Cush being the eldest son of Ham, she was the mother of Canaan, Phut, Mizraim and Nimrod. We translate Yaladh, to bear as a mother, that being its first and chief signification; although it also, signifies to beget as a father, we adopt its first and chief signification as the most reasonable, since it is known and conceded by all, that the Cushites were black; and Ham, being the son of Noah, who was said to be at his birth as white as snow and as red as a rose, could not be the natural progenitor of Cush, a jet black negro.
Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtacha, were all sons of Ham, but not of Cush; while Canaan, Phut, Mizraim, and Nimrod, were sons of both Ham and Cush. This will account for the peculiar form of the sentence, "the sons of Ham and Cush:" their joint sons are first enumerated, and then the sons of Ham who were legitimate. The three first named as the sons of Cush, were evidently older than the legitimate sons named afterwards, while Nimrod was the youngest of all Ham's sons.
It is the opinion of Commentators, that these names are nearly all names of families, and not particularly of individual sons, for the reason that some of them are plural in form, as Mizraim, which is the plural of Mizor, and is also the proper name in the Hebrew for Egypt. Be this as it may, it is admitted that Mizraim peopled Egypt, and it is supposed the Libyans (next to Egypt) descended from Phut, while Canaan peopled the land of Palestine, and Nimrod founded Babylon. None of these nations were black, neither were they white; they were of mixed blood, being descended from both Adam and the Nachash, through Ham and Cush. And although they usurped the dominion of the earth under the lead of the mighty hunter Nimrod, they all inherited the curse of the Nachash, repeated by Noah and applied to Canaan, the first fruits of an unlawful amalgamation of the two races after the flood.
The legitimate sons of Ham (represented as the sons of Cush, in the common version of the Bible) being oppressed by the half-breeds, either amalgamated with them, or, together with the sons of Ham and Japheth, peopled what was called the Isles of the Gentiles, and from the mount of the east to Mesha.
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The Cushites taking to themselves uncontrolled liberty during the reign of their half brothers, relapsed into their wild and vagabond state, from which they had been reclaimed in the family of Noah, and peopled a country afterwards called after their name Cushan, or Ethiopia, since called Africa, where they remain to the present day in the same vagabond and savage state, with the exception of a very few, who have been reclaimed by the institution called domestic slavery from this wild and savage state to their legitimate position as the domestic servants of the sons of Adam.
We have learned from the signification of the name Nachash and its derivatives that this race was created to occupy the position of subjects of Adam and of his seed throughout their generations. We will now present some evidences to show that the name Adam was given to the dominant race as indicating authority vested in them to exercise the prerogative of master to command and govern all the inferior creations. (Genesis, 2nd chapter, last clause of verse 5.)
Veadhom ayin lagnebhodh ×thhaedhamah.
Translation. — "And Adam (was) not, to direct the servant near the ground; "this is literal. The common version reads, "And there was not a man to till the ground." The preceding sentence informs us that Jehovah Elohim had not caused it to rain upon the earth; and the following sentence says, "But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." The idea couched in the sentence seems to be that the ground was dry and needed watering to prepare it for producing the vegetation and fruit necessary for the sustenance of man, and as Adam was not, to direct his servant to irrigate the ground, there went up a mist and watered the ground. "And Adam was not;" (that is, had not been as yet formed and endowed as naphesh chaiyah by the reception of the living spirits to assume the command of his subjects) "to direct his servant to irrigate the ground;" laebod, to, towards, or, for the servant. "Ebed, or Ebhod, is the Hebrew name for a slave, and for servile labor.
The word Adam, translated man, is the name given by Jehovah Elohim to a race created to have dominion over all inferior creations upon the earth: it may therefore be reasonably inferred that the name itself originally indicated the position of the race. It has been supposed that Adam was derived from "Edom," to be red, or from "Adamah," the ground, and that it merely signifies red earth; but we have a higher origin
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagefor the name to present to the consideration of the race than merely red earth. It is evident that Adam is plural and of common gender; from the first and second verses of the 8th chapter of Genesis we learn that Elohim created Adam in the likeness of Elohim, male and female, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. The name Adam was then most evidently a mark of distinction above all other creatures, for no other species of animal life was created in the image of the Elohim, and no others were named by him; all others received their names from Adam. Adam is therefore evidently a name denoting eminence and authority; we therefore suggest that it is an abreviated form of Adonim, the plural form of Adona, which signifies lord, master, dominus, owner and possessor of slaves and of the land. The 3 (mm) and the (yod) being dropped from Adonim, would leave Adam thus: Adonim; Adam. In the Hebrew the nun is very often dropped at the end, in the middle, and at the beginning of words; and the yod, when it represents a vowel, as in this case, is often dropped, and the vowel sign or point alone is used to represent the vowel. In this abbreviated form of Adonim the nun is dropped, and the two vowels o and i are fused into one long a; the short a which commences the name, is lengthened to long a kamets, pronotinced properly Audhaum.
This view of the origin of this name Adam is strengthened by the declaration of the Elohim, as quoted from the 26th and 28th verses of the 1st chapter of Genesis: "Let us make Adam in our image, according to our likeness," * * * * * "And Elohim said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the land and subdue her, and have dominion in the fish of the sea, and in the fowls of the heaven, and in all living creatures that move upon the land."
Here the Elohim proposes to make Adam, and then gives them dominion. The dominion given to Adam was evidently the dominion to which their name entitled them. They were the owners, and consequently the masters of all the land and of all the living creatures that moved upon the land, together with all the fowls and fishes; and all these things they inherited because their name was Adam — the name gave them the title. Adam was therefore created a master and not a servant; and when he was placed in the garden, it is said in the common version, he was commanded to dress the garden and to keep it." But the words to dress are translated from the Hebrew word le abedah. (See Genesis ii. 15, 16, 17.)
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15. Vayyikkach Yehovah Elohim ×thhaadhom; viyyannichehu bheganedhen leahhedhah uleshamerah.
16. Vayetsav Yehovah Elohim gnalhaadhom lemor mikkol gnets haggon akol thokel.
17. Umegnets haddaath tobh varagn lo thokal mimmennu ki beyom akolka mimmennu moth tamuth.
Translation. — "And took Jehovah Elohim the Adam, and put him to dwell in the garden of Eden. On account of the servant, even for a guard, therefore Jehovah Elohim put a precept upon the Adam, to say, "From all the trees of the garden, eating you may eat; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat thereof, because in the day you eat thereof dying you shall die."
In this translation we have disregarded the punctuation of the Hebrew text, for the reason that it was evidently punctuated to favor the former translations, which were made under the influence of the tradition that Adam was not attended by a servant in the garden.
The conduct of the Nachash, as related in the third chapter, shows the wisdom and necessity of this precept. Jehovah Elohim knowing that the servant Nachash would become a willing agent of the evil spirits in seeking the overthrow of Adam's authority as a master and lord of the land, found it necessary to forewarn him by giving him this precept; but the servant knowing this, clandestinely snared Adam through his wife, who had received the precept secondarily through the medium of Adam, and consequently could be more easily persuaded that it was not really a precept from God.
Adam, however, did not by his transgression lose his right of dominion, but he gave his adversary power to dispute his right, and in his contest with his servant he was to eat his bread in the sweat of his face, and experience the bruising of his heel by the insubordination of his servants; this last evil he was to suffer in his posterity.
In the 23rd verse of the 3rd chapter we are informed that Adam was sent forth out of the garden unto his servant, near where he was taken from the ground. (See the Hebrew.)
Vayeshallechehu Yehovah Elohim migganedhen laebhodh athhaedhamah asher lukkach mishssom.
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Translation. — "And Jehovah Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden, unto his servant, near the ground from whence he was taken."
The Nachash is represented as a servant near the ground or land, because he was created to serve Adam in the capacity of a field servant, for the tillage of the land, which before the fall was but a light service, there being no thorns or thistles to eradicate; but after the fall it became a bowing down service, to which the Nachash was cursed that he might bring forth food out of the earth as the slave servant of Adam; while doing which, with the assistance of the cattle, God made the grass to grow spontaneously for the cattle, and herbs for the slave servants of Adam. (See Psalms 104, verses 14th and 15th.)
14. Matsmiach chatsiv labehemah vees×b laabhodhath haadhom; lehotsi l×chem minhaarets.
15. Veyayin yesarnmach lebhabh×nosh lehatshil panim mishshamen velechem lebhabh×ndsh yiseadh.
Translation. — "Who maketh the grass to grow for the cattle and herbage for the slave servants of Adam, that they may bring forth food out of the earth; therefore, wine maketh joyful the heart of Enosh, with the shining countenance from fat, and food the heart of Enosh strengtheneth."
Here we have the domestic arrangement plainly set forth: The name Adam for man, as the master of slave servants, whom, with the assistance of the cattle, are engaged in the tillage of the land, that they may bring forth food out of the earth; and while doing this, the spontaneous growth of grass and herbage supports them; but when the food is produced, the enoshim, (a name used to represent all the genus intellectual, collectively,) make their hearts merry on wine, while their countenance is made to shine from fat, by the strengthening of their hearts with the food produced.
The name Enosh, was first used to represent the mixed races on account of their bearing the mark of the servant race, and were therefore esteemed as laboring under the afflictions of a curse, as the name signifies incurably afflicted; but it gradually grew into use as the name of the poor afflicted men of all races, and especially those devoted to destruction for any cause whatever, and finally it was adopted to represent all mankind collectively, in consideration of their universal afflictions under the dominion of sin. In this latter sense it is evidently used in the text quoted above.
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Ish is another name for man; in the Hebrew it was originally put only for man in his domestic, business and social character, but is used to represent men in all conditions except as dominant rulers. It is of masculine gender, and never includes females. Adam gave this name to himself as the husband of Eve, and at the same time called Eve, Ishah, wife, woman, because from Ish she was taken.
In all cases where reference is made to man as possessing dominant authority, the name Adam is used in the Hebrew; and where such authority is not possessed, the name Adam is used in exchange with Ish, and also with Enosh, to mark other distinctions, and to avoid frequent repetitions of the same word.
Adam is therefore the distinguishing appellation of man as a dominant race in the Hebrew. Ish is his appellation as a husband and as a social and business man, and Enosh is a general term designating the races as under the curse of sin, and therefore in affliction; but all three of these names are often used promiscuously without regard to their distinguishing sense, which circumstance probably influenced the translators of the sacred text to disregard their distinctive features altogether, as they have rendered each of these names man without distinction.
We will here present a few examples of the use of Adam as indicating dominant authority, and of Ish as denoting social and business character, and of Enosh as representing man under affliction, and devoted to destruction, &c.
In Genesis, 16th chapter and 12th verse, the Angel of the Lord, after informing Hager that she should have a son and should call his name Ishmael, because the Lord had heard of her afflictions, says:
Vehu yihey×h p×r× adhbm yadho bhakkol veyadh kol bo; veal pene kol×chayo yishkon.
Translation. — "And he shall be a free Adam; his hand shall be with all, and the hand of all with him, and in the presence of all his brethren he shall abide."
This translation differs somewhat from the common version, but it is nevertheless correct, and agrees better with the context and circumstances connected with the visit of the angel to Hager, for Hager had evidently fled from her mistress to secure the freedom of her child, well knowing that if she remained with her mistress her child would be a slave, according to law. The angel therefore, as an incentive in persuading her to return
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageto her duty, informed her that her afflictions on account of her child had been heard, and that she should indeed have a child, but he should not be a slave; on the contrary, he should not only be free, but should also be an Adam, a master, and his hand should be with all his brethren of that name, and their hand should be with him, and he should abide in their presence; i. e., should not be excluded from their society. This promise agrees exactly with the promise of God to Abraham concerning Ishmael. (See Genesis vxii. 20.) "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee; behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation."
Here then the name Adam is used in the promise to Hager concerning her son, denoting his dominant authority. We next quote Exodus 8th and 17th: "For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man (Adam) and in beast." Here the name Adam is used denoting the dominant character of the Egyptians who were thus afflicted with lice, as the Israelites who were slaves were not thus afflicted. Again, Num. xxii. 3, speaking of the meekness of Moses, says, that he "was very meek, above all the men (Adamah) upon the face of the whole earth;" also, 2nd Sam. vii. 19: "And this is the manner of man, (torath haadom,) the law of Adam, O Lord." These words were spoken by David after Nathan the Prophet had promised him by the word of the Lord that his throne should stand for ever, and that his house and his kingdom should be established for ever. He sat before the Lord, and exclaimed, "Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? and this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and this is the law of Adam;" i. e., this is the law of the dominant race of man that David's throne shall stand for ever, and his house and his kingdom shall remain as the days of heaven. In Psalms 1xxxii. 7, and cxlvi. 3, the name Adam is used synonimous with princes: "But ye shall die like men (Adam) and fall like one of the princes." "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man (Adam), in whom there is no help." Prov xvi. 1: "The preparation of the heart is in man (Adam), and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." Adam, the highest grade of men, dispose the heart, i. e., control the affections; but God by his revelations giveth knowledge, which is imparted by the answer of the tongue. Eccl. xii. 13: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Adam), because the dominant race, designated by the name Adam, owes allegiance to none but
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God. In the 10th verse of the sixth chapter the Preacher says, "That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man (Adam), neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he." Here seems to be a plain allusion to the dominant authority vested in the name Adam; but we are significantly reminded that God is mightier than this lord of the terrestial world. A similiar reference is made to the authority vested in this name, in Isaiah xliv. 10 and 11: "Who hath formed a god or molten a graven image profitable for nothing? behold all his fellows shall be ashamed, and his workmen, they are of men (Adam), let them all be gathered together — let them stand up; yet they shall fear and they shall be ashamed together." Though they are of the Adamic race, their eminence shall not shield them from fear and shame before the God of Israel.We will now offer a few examples of the use of Ish and Enosh for man in his social and business character and under affliction. Gen. vi. 9: "Noah was a just man (Ish); i. e., a man who gave to all their dues. In Genesis xxv. 27, speaking of the business character of Jacob and Esau, Moses says, "Esau was a cunning hunter and a man (Ish) of the field, and Jacob was a plain man (Ish), dwelling in tents." Jacob dwelt upon the plain in tents, keeping cattle; while Esau, more wild perhaps than Ishmael, roamed the field in search of game. Psalms viii. 4: "What is man (Enosh) that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man (Adam) that thou visitest him?" Enosh the menial degraded man, what is he that thou shouldest care for him? or even the exalted son of Adam that thou shouldest visit him, associate with him, and endow him with thy ruling authority upon the earth?
Again, Psalms 1xii. 9: "Surely men (Adam) of low degree are vanity, and men (Ish) of high degree are a lie." The Adam of low degree is vanity because he cannot use his authority, and the Ish of high degree is a lie, because, if he is of high degree, he is not Ish but Adam; i. e., if his eminence is the subject of discourse, he should be designated by the title name Adam; therefore, if designated by the name Ish his degree of eminence is a lie, Ish being only the title name of the husband, householder, and business man, unconnected with any title of eminence whatever.
Again, Psalms xxii. 6: "A brutish man (Ish) knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand." The Ish that is like a brute, and a fool, are equally ignorant of the law of God. Prov. viii. 3, 4: "She (wisdom) crieth at the gates, at the entering in of the city, at the coming in at the doors; unto you, O men (Ishim), I call: and my voice is unto the sons of men" (Adam). Here the business men who come in at the gates of the city are
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called Ishim, in contradistinction to those who bear rule, &c., who are called the sons of Adam. Again, Prov. vi. 12: "A naughty person (Adam belial) and a wicked man (Ish even) walk with a froward mouth." Adam belial should be translated a devilish master, or eminent rogue, and Ish even should be translated wicked husband. Prov. xiv. 14, last clause: "A good man (Ish tobh) shall be satisfied from himself." His satisfaction comes from a consciousness of his own rectitude of conduct towards his fellows. Prov. xviii. 24: "A man (Ish) that hath friends must show himself friendly." He must be friendly in his social intercourse with his fellows. Prov. xxiv. 30: "I went by the field of the slothful (Ish atsel — the slothful Ish,) and by the vineyard of the man (Adam) void of understanding." The slothful Ish has no slave servant; the Adam void of understanding lacks courage to compel his slaves to work. This is a fair illustration of the use of these two names: the slothful Ish is too lazy of himself to cultivate his lands, and having no servant it grows up to weeds; while the Adam having servants, being void of understanding, does not properly direct their labor, and his vineyard is therefore not properly cultivated. In the 34th verse of this same chapter, want is represent as an armed man (Ish), a soldier.These examples are not presented because they are the most striking that are to be found in the Hebrew Bible, but because they are a fair sample of the general use made of these names of man in that volume.
Having, therefore, plainly shown that Adam was created a master and dominant ruler, and that his name was given him as a memorial of the position he occupied in the creation, we will again return to a further consideration of the character and endowments of his subject the Nachash.
Naphesh Chaiyah, the living creature with intellectual soul, the (ebed) slave servant of Adam in the garden, is called Nachash, and translated serpent, in the first verse of the third chapter of Genesis: "Now the serpent (Nachash) was more subtle than any of the beasts 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?"
This description of the Nachash of itself proves that he was not a beast, for he was more subtle than any beast. It also proves him to have been an intellectual being; for it represents him as endowed with both speech and reason; he speaks to the woman, and tauntingly questions the truth of what God had said to his master and mistress relative to their eating of the trees of the garden; and his being in the garden with Adam and Eve, who were made the master and mistress of every living thing that moved upon the earth, proves that he was the
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naphesh chaiyah, the living intellectual earthly being, the (ebed) slave servant of Adam, whom the earth brought forth at the command of God, and over whom Adam received the dominion. Nachash was evidently a name given him before his transgression, and it implies both an acquired character and a natural quality; it is both the name of the action and of the actor; which circumstance has caused much perplexity among commentators in determining who or what creature was the actor or agent used by the Devil in the seduction of our first parents. Some have concluded that there was no corporeal agent, that the Nachash was the Devil himself who appeared in a bodily form to Eve; others, that it was a species of snake having feet; others, that it was the hippopotamus, or the behemoth, or leviathan: but Dr. Adam Clark shows conclusively, in his Commentary on this verse, that all these theories are false, and boldly and pointedly proves that the Nachash was an intellectual being endowed with reason and speech, and was created a subject of Adam, but finally concludes that the beast ourang-outang is the seed of the serpent Nachash; which conclusion is certainly contradictory to the evidence he brings of intellectuality in the Nachash. The following is what he says on the subject:"Gen. iii. 1: ‘Now the serpent was more subtle.’ We have here one of the most difficult, as well as the most important narrations in the whole book of God. The last chapter ended with a short but striking account of the perfection and felicity of the first human beings; and this opens with an account of their transgression, degradation and ruin. That man is in a fallen state, certainly needs no arguments to prove it: the history of the world, with that of the life and miseries of every human being, establish this point beyond successful contradiction.
"But how, and by what agency was this brought about? Here is a great mystery; and I may appeal to all persons who have read the various comments that have been written on the Mosaic account, whether they have ever yet been satisfied on this part of the subject, though convinced of the fact itself. Who was the serpent? Of what kind, in what way did he seduce the first happy pair? These are questions which remain yet to be answered. The whole account is either a simple narration of facts, or it is an allegory. If it be a historical relation, its literal meaning should be sought out: if it be an allegory, no attempt should be made to explain it, as it would require a direct revelation to ascertain the sense in which it should be understood; for fanciful illustrations are
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imageendless. Believing it to be a simple relation of facts, capable of a satisfactory explanation, I shall take it upon this ground, and, by a careful examination of the original text, endeavor to fix the meaning, and show the propriety and consistency of the Mosaic account of the fall of man. The chief difficulty in the account is found in the question, Who was the agent employed in the seduction of our first parents?
"The word in the text, which we, following the septuagint, translate serpent, is Nachash, and, according to Buxtorf, and others, has three meanings in Scripture. 1. It signifies to view, or observe attentively, to divine, or use enchantments, because in them the augurs viewed attentively the flight of birds, the entrails of beasts, the course of the clouds, &c., and under this head it signifies to acquire knowledge by experience. 2. It signifies brass, brazen, and is translated in our Bible not only brass, but chains, fetters, fetters of brass, and in several places steel: see 2 Sam. xxii. 85; Job xx. 24; Psal. xviii. 34; and in one place at least, filthiness or fornication, Ezek. xvi. 36. 3. It signifies a serpent, but of what kind is not determined. In Job xxvi. 13, it seems to mean the whale or hippopotamus: ‘By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.’ Nachash beriach; barach, signifies to pass on, or pass through, and beriach, is used for a bar of a gate or door that passed through rings, &c., the idea of straightness, rather than crookedness, should be attached to it here; and it is likely that the sea-horse is intended by it.
"In Eccles. x. 2, the creature called Nachash, of whatsoever sort, is compared to the babbler: ‘Surely the serpent Nachash, will bite without enchantment, and a babbler is no better.’ Let the reader keep this in mind.
"In Isai. xxvii. 1, the crockadile or alligator seems particularly meant by the original: In that day the Lord shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, &c. And in Isai. 1xv. 28, the same creature is meant as in Gen. iii. 1, for in the words, And dust shall be the serpent's meat, there is an evident allusion to the text of Moses. In Amos ix. 3, the crockadile is evidently intended: ‘Though they be hid in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent (hanachash) and he shall bite them.’ No person can suppose that any of the snake or serpent kind can be intended here; and we see from the various acceptations of the word, and the different senses which it bears in various places in the Sacred writings, that it appears to be a sort of general term, confined to no one
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagesense. Hence it will be necessary to examine the root accurately, to see if its real meaning will enable us to ascertain the animal intended in the text. We have already seen, Nachash, signifies to view attentively, to acquire knowledge or experience by attentive observation; so nachasti, Gen. xxx. 27: I have learnt by experience — and this seems to be its most general meaning in the Bible. The original word is, by the septuagint, translated ophis, a serpent, not because this was its fixed determinate meaning in the Sacred writings, but because it was the best that occurred to the translators; and they do not seem to have given themselves much trouble to understand the meaning of the original; for they have rendered the word as variously as our translators have done; or rather our translators have followed them, as they give nearly the same significations found in the septuagint: hence we find that ophis is as frequently used by them as serpent, its supposed literal meaning, is used in our version. And the New Testament writers, who scarcely ever quote the Old Testament but from the septuagint translation, and scarcely ever change a word in their quotations, copy this version in the use of this word. From the septuagint, therefore, we can expect no light, nor indeed from any other of the ancient versions which are all subsequent to the septuagint, and some of them actually made from it.
"In all this uncertainty, it is natural for a serious inquirer after truth to look everywhere for information. And in such an inquiry, the Arabic may be expected to afford some help from its great similarity to the Hebrew. A root in this language, very nearly similar to that in the text, seems to cast considerable light on the subject: chanas, or khanasa, signifies he departed, drew off, lay hid, seduced, slunk away: from this root comes akhnas, khanasa, and khanoos, which all signify an ape, or satyrus, or any creature of the simia or ape genus. It is very remarkable also that from the same root comes khanas, the Devil, which appellation he bears from that meaning of khanasa, he drew off, seduced, &c.; because he draws men off from righteousness, seduces them from their obedience to God, &c., &c. Is it not strange that the Devil and the ape should have the same name, derived from the same root, and that root so very similar to the word in the text? But let us return and consider what is said of the creature in question.
"Now the Nachash was more subtle, arum, more wise or prudent than all the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made. In this account, we find, 1. That whatever this Nachash was, he stood at the head of all inferior animals for wisdom and understanding. 2. That he walked erect, for this
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is necessarily implied in his punishment, ‘on thy belly (i. e. on all-fours) shalt thou go.’ 3. That he was endowed with the gift of speech; for a conversation is here related between him and the woman. 4. That he was endued with the gift of reason; for we find him reasoning and disputing with Eve, 5. That these things were common to this creature; the woman, no doubt, having often seen him walk erect, talk, and reason, and therefore she testifies no kind of surprise when he accosts her in the language related in the text; and indeed from the manner in which this is introduced, it appears to be only a part of a conversation that had passed between them on the occasion: ‘Yea, hath God said, &c.’"Had this creature never been known to speak before his addressing, the woman at this time, and on this subject, it could not have failed to excite her surprise, and to have filled her with caution, though from the purity and innocence of her nature she might have been incapable of being affected with fear. Now I apprehend that none of these things can be spoken of a serpent of any species. 1. None of them ever did or ever can walk erect. The tales we have had of two-footed and four-footed serpents are justly exploded by every judicious naturalist, and are utterly unworthy of credit. The very name serpent comes from serpo, to creep; and therefore to such it could be neither curse, nor punishment, to go on their bellies; that is, to creep on, as they had done from their creation, and must do while their race endures. 2. They have no organs for speech, or any kind of articulate sound; they can only hiss. It is true that an ass, by miraculous influence, may speak; but it is not to be supposed that there was any miraculous interference here. God did not qualify this creature with speech for the occasion, and it is not intimated that there was any other agent that did it: on the contrary, the text intimates, that speech and reason were natural to the Nachash; and is it not in reference to this, the inspired penman says — ‘The Nachash was more wise or intelligent than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made’?
"Nor can I find, that the serpentine genus are remarkable for intelligence. It is true, the wisdom of the serpent has passed into a proverb; but I can not see on what it is founded, except in reference to the passage in question, where the Nachash, which we translate serpent, following the septuagint, shows so much intelligence and cunning: and it is very probable, that our Lord alludes to this very place, when he exhorts his disciples to be wise, prudent, or intelligent, as serpents; and it is worthy of remark, that he uses the same term employed by the septuagint, in the text in question, ‘the serpent was more prudent or intelligent than all the beasts,’ &c. All these things
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considered, we are obliged to seek for some other word to designate the Nachash in the text, than the word serpent; which, on every view of the subject, appears to me insufficient and inapplicable. We have seen above, that khanas, akhanas, and khanoos, signifies a creature of the ape or satyrus kind. We have seen that the meaning of the root is, he lay hid, seduced, slunk away, &c., and that khanas means the Devil, as the inspirer of evil and seducer from God and truth; see Golius and Witmet. It therefore appears to me, that a creature of the ape or ourang-outang kind is there intended; and that Satan made use of this creature as the most proper instrument for the accomplishment of his murderous purpose against the life and soul of man. Under this creature he lay hid, and by this creature he seduced our first parents, and drew off or slunk away from every eye but the eye of God. Such a creature answers to every part of the description in the text: it is evident, from the structure of its limbs and their muscles, that it might have been originally designed to walk erect, and that nothing less than a Sovereign controlling power could induce them to put down hands in every respect formed like those of man, and walk like those creatures whose claw-armed paws prove them to have been designed to walk on all-fours. The subtlety, cunning, endlessly varied pranks and tricks of these creatures, show them, even now, to be wiser and more intelligent than any other creature, man alone excepted. Being obliged now to walk on all-fours, and gather their food from the ground, they are literally obliged to eat the dust; and though exceedingly cunning and careful in a variety of instances to separate that part which is wholesome and proper for food from that which is not so, in the article of cleanliness they are lost to all sense of propriety: and though they have every means in their power of cleansing the aliments they gather off the ground and from among the dust, yet they never, in their savage state, make use of any. And to this, their utter aversion to walk upright; it requires the utmost discipline to bring them to it, and scarcely any thing offends or irritates them more than to be obliged to do it. Long observation on these animals enables me to state these facts."Should any person who may read this note, object against my conclusions, because apparently derived from an Arabic word, which is not exactly similar to the Hebrew, though to those who understand both languages the similarity will be striking — yet, as I do not insist on the identity of the terms, though important consequences have been derived from less likely etymologies — he is welcome to throw the whole of this out of the account. He may then take up the Hebrew root only, which signifies to gaze, to view attentively, pry into, inquire
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This page contains Hebrew script. Click to see the full page imagenarrowly, &c. &c., and consider the passage that appears to compare the Nachash to the babbler, Eccles. x. 11; and he will soon find, if he has any acquaintance with creatures of this genus, that for earnest attentive watching, looking, &c., and for chattering or babbling, they have no fellows in the animal world. Indeed, the ability and propensity to chatter is all they have left of their original gift of speech, of which they appear to have been deprived at the fall, as a part of their punishment. (?)
"I have spent the longer time on this subject, — 1. Because it is exceedingly obscure; 2. Because no interpretation hitherto given of it has afforded me the smallest satisfaction; 3. Because I think the above mode of accounting for every part of the whole transaction is consistent and satisfactory; and, in my opinion, removes all embarrassment, and solves every difficulty.
"It can be no solid objection to the above mode of solution, that Satan in different parts of the New Testament is called the serpent, the serpent that deceived Eve by his subtlety, the old serpent, &c., for we have already seen that the New Testament writers have borrowed the word from the septuagint, and that the septuagint writers themselves use it in a vast variety and latitude of meaning; and surely the ouran-outang is as likely to be the animal in question, as Nachash and ophis, are likely to mean at once a snake, a crockadile, a hippopotamus, fornication, a chain, a pair of fetters, a piece of brass, a piece of steel, and a conjurer; for we have seen, above, that all these are acceptations of the original word. Besides, the New Testament writers seem to lose sight of the animal or instrument used on the occasion, and speak only of Satan himself as the cause of the transgression, and the instrument of all evil. If, however, any person should choose to differ from the opinion stated above, he is at perfect liberty so to do; I make it no article of faith, nor of Christian communion; I crave the same liberty to judge for myself that I give to others, to which every man has an indisputable right; and I hope no man will call me a heretic for departing in this respect from the common opinion, which appears to me to be so embarrassed as to be altogether unintelligible."
The learned Dr. has in his note most positively and elaborately proven that the Nachash was an intellectual being endowed with speech and reason, and that he was superior to any of the brute creation; also, that he was so intimately connected with man, that he dwelt in the garden with him and was in the habit of engaging in familiar conversation with Adam and Eve, and that he had acquired knowledge by
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experience previous to his addressing the seductive language to Eve.The final conclusion of the learned Dr., in reference to the present character of the descendants of this Nachash, seems to be a digression from the spirit of his bold and consistent reasoning upon the subject; he seems at once to jump from the sublime to the ridiculous, in concluding that the beast ourangoutang was ever an intellectual being, endowed with speech and reason.
By the Doctor's own showing, the Nachash was an intellectual being, capable of receiving and obeying laws; and also capable of comprehending a curse, to whom the Almighty God himself condescends to speak and reveal the consequences of his conduct, which was that he should bow down with his belly to the ground, while culling his food from the dust; and because of an enmity which should spring up between him and his mistress, and between her seed and his seed, his head should get bruised in the contest for the mastery.
His being deprived of reason and speech was certainly no part of this curse or consequence of his conduct, but on the contrary it was essential that he should retain both, that he might realize the curse, and transmit a knowledge thereof to his offspring, that they might realize the same; otherwise the declaration of the curse would have been a mere display of power and authority, without any object whatever — a folly with which we should not like to charge the Almighty Jehovah.
The brute creation are not capable of comprehending law, and therefore cannot hope for future rewards, nor fear future punishments; it would therefore be folly in the extreme to address any of the brute creation in the language of God to the Nachash, "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed," &c.; for the reason that they are incapable of comprehending this language. God, therefore, when he curses the Nachash, refers to the circumstance of his occupying a position above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field;" or, to transpose the sentence, "Because thou art above all cattle and above every beast of the field, and hast done this, thou art cursed; on thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, all the days of thy life;" or, to paraphrase the curse, "thou shalt bow down with thy belly to the ground, and shalt cull thy food from the dust all the days of thy life; and I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." That is, instead of the domestic peace and friendship that has hitherto existed between you and the woman, enmity will spring up between you and her, and between your children
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and her children in their domestic relations one with the other; and because of this enmity the woman's seed will bruise thy head, but thou shalt bruise his heel; or (to put the act of the Nachash in the past tense), because thou hast bruised his heel in seducing the woman from her innocence and inheritance in the garden of Eden, he shall bruise thy head in subjecting thee to a more degraded service.Dr. Clark observes that this sentence or curse is two-fold, it applying equally to the Devil and to the Nachash, his agent, that Satan's head is bruised by the redemption of man from the power of the Devil through Christ, who was born of a virgin, that he might be purely the seed of the woman, and Satan bruises his heel by persecuting the saints, &c. We have no objection to this twofold meaning being adduced from the text; the literal meaning or curse on the agent is the one of which we are now treating.
Dr. Clark further observes that the enmity referred to in the curse "has been generally supposed to apply to certain enmity subsisting between men and serpents; but (says he) this is rather a fancy than a reality. It is yet to be discovered that the serpentine race have any peculiar enmity against mankind, nor is there any proof that men hate serpents more than they do other noxious animals. Men have much more enmity to the common rat and magpie than they have to all the serpents in the land, because the former destroy the grain, &c.; and serpents in general, far from seeking to do men mischief, flee their approach and avoid their dwellings."
This curse of enmity between the Nachash and the woman, and between her seed and his seed, is evidently the natural consequence of the position of the two races after the fall; both are degraded in equal proportion to their former standing, and both partake equally of the influence of the evil spirit, which incites them to hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, envyings, and the like. As we have before observed, the deprivation of the Nachash of his endowment of speech and reason is no part of his curse; he must therefore have retained both, in which event his seed or descendants must be found possessed of both these faculties, and must, therefore, necessarily be morally accountable beings, and religiously subject to the law of God, under the control and dictation of man his master, who was created for dominion "over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Of course, therefore, the Nachash, although an intellectually accountable being, is of an inferior grade, and necessarily a subject of Adam, i. e., of man, and may be compelled to obedience, if it must needs be, by the bruising of his head.
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It is quite probable that the Nachash, after his transgression and curse, fled from his master and remained in a vagabond state until Noah and his sons gathered of his seed to preserve it in the ark, as it is after the flood that the first mention is made of him by his new name Cush. After the flood we find him domesticated in the family of Ham, and there he is called Cush, as the designation of his character and person, showing that the race was then restored from their vagabond state to their original subjection to their masters.
Because Cush, the restored Nachash, became domesticated in the family of Ham, and finally amalgamated with Ham's seed, through the transgression of Ham, it has been supposed that Cush was Ham's son; but there is nothing in nature, or even in the Hebrew Bible, to warrant that conclusion. In giving the genealogy of Ham in the common version, Cush is made the eldest son of Ham; but in the Hebrew Bible, as we have before shown, the sacred historian simply gives the genealogy of Cush in connexion with that of Ham; that is, the genealogy of the half-breeds of Cush, who were also the sons of Ham, he being illegitimately their father.
The Hebrew text may with propriety be translated thus: Gen. x. 6, 7, 8: "And the sons of Ham and Cush — Misraim, and Phut, and Canaan, even the sons of Cush; and Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtachah: and the sons of Ramah, Shebe and Dedan. And Cush bare Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth." Heb. — Vecush yaladh ×th Nimrod. Literally, "and Cush bare, viz., Nimrod."
This is the same as the English text, with the exception of the punctuation and the changing of the position of the conjunction and in two places, and the changing of begat into bare before Nimrod. The Hebrew word "yaladh," from which begat is translated, signifies first to bear as a mother, and secondly to beget as a father. This makes good sense without conveying the unnatural idea that a white man, the son of Noah, (of Noah it was said at his birth that he was as white as snow and as red as a rose,) was the natural father of Cush, the Ethiopian race of woolly-headed, jet-black negroes. Misraim, Phut and Canaan were the sons of Ham by the Ethiopian female Cush, and Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabtachah were the sons of Ham by his wife, a white woman; after which Nimrod was born unto Ham of the Ethiopian Cush. Five of Ham's sons were therefore white, and four were half-breeds; the halfbreeds linked the white and Ethiopian races together by blood in the family of Ham, and this common relationship laid the foundation for the further amalgamation of the two races in different degrees of the blood in the family of Ham, and under
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the reign of Nimrod, many of the descendants of Shem, and perhaps some of Japheth, were induced to amalgamate with the mixed race in order to gain political preferment; and for this reason Abraham was called to separate himself from his country and from his father's house, to go and sojourn in the land of Canaan, the land he was afterwards to receive for an inheritance.Ham's wife is supposed by some to have been the sister of Tubal Cain, the daughter of Lamech, a descendant of Cain, and Zillah the daughter of Cainan, a descendant of Seth. This would make Ham's wife, Naamah, three-fourths white and one-fourth black or Nachash; allowing that Cain's descendants, as enumerated in Genesis, were born of the Nachash female he took to wife in the land of Nod. Some, however, are of the opinion that the posterity of Cain as enumerated in Genesis were of a seed begotten by him before his transgression; that is, that his son Enoch was born before he killed Abel: hence his name, which signifies dedicated; which would seem to indicate that he had dedicated him to God before he committed the murder.
After his transgression he was banished from his race, and he went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, the land of the vagabonds, where he took a wife from the vagabond race, and she bare him a son, who was called Enosh, instead of Enoch; the genealogy of Cain's Enoch being misplaced in the sacred history, confounding his Enoch with this Enosh, the fruit of his marriage after his transgression with the vagabond race of the fugitive Nachash. The genealogy of Enosh, the son of a murderer and vagabond, the fruit of an illegitimate marriage with a fugitive Nachash, surely should have no place in the sacred history.
This view of the subject appears plausible when we consider the character of the descendants of Cain's Enoch; they appear to have been the first who practiced the arts of civilization and improvement; they were the first instructors in every artifice in brass and iron, the first shepherds or keepers of cattle, and the first inventors of instrumental music; and from all that appears on the record to the contrary, they have as good title to the appellation of sons of God as the descendants of Seth. The men, therefore, that began to multiply on the face of the earth, whose daughters the sons of God became enamored of, and took them for wives as they chose, mentioned in the first verse of the sixth chapter of Genesis, were evidently Enosh men, the low degraded men who had sprung from Cain after his transgression by this vagabond Nachash connexion.
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But it says these daughters were fair, tovoth, the Hebrew word from which fair is there translated, means only that they were good, desirable, not light complected; the Hebrew word yaph×, means fair countenance, light complected. They may have been desirable as housewives, being half of the servant race, and they may have been desirable to those whose passions it was their chief object to gratify, and still be yellow, brown, red, or tawny in complexion.
If, therefore, Naamah was Ham's wife, or even Noah's wife, as the Book of Joshua has it, she was undoubtedly as white as Noah himself, of whom it is said in the Book of Enoch that he was as white as snow and as red as a rose; without doubt, Ham's wife, whoever she was, had a Nachash servant or female slave, who was a negro, Cush, with whom Ham cohabited, and by whom he begat Canaan while yet in the ark.
Canaan was undoubtedly the eldest of Ham's sons, though enumerated last in the catalogue, and he was evidently born before Noah and his sons left the ark, as he is especially mentioned by the sacred historian when enumerating the sons of Noah who came out of the ark. Gen. ix. 18: "And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan." From this it would seem that Ham became the father of Canaan while in the ark, and he having violated the law of his race by begetting a mixed offspring after the cleansing of the earth from that curse by the flood, accounts for the contempt he manifested towards his father when he found him uncovered in his tent, as related in the succeeding verses; and it also accounts for the curse pronounced by Noah on that mixed offspring, when he arose from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. Noah evidently did not pronounce this curse arbitrarily in wrath for the contempt his offending son had shown him, but, being inspired by the Spirit of truth, he barely revealed what must necessarily be the destiny of a race begotten by the transgression of a natural law: the mixed races are naturally doomed to servitude with their brethren the Cushite race, while they have a being upon the earth, for the reason that the pure blood of Adam, the dominant race, will not associate with them. Noah did not curse Cush to servitude, for the reason that everybody knew that he was a servant by nature and creation; but Canaan, by referring to his paternity, might claim to be a master, had it not been put upon the statute record as a law from the Almighty that he was a slave and consequently all his posterity with him, and all others of like origin. Cush, instead of being the son of Ham, was evidently the mother of Canaan, Phut, and Misraim.
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But as Dr. Clark observes, that Misraim could never be the name of an individual, because it is the plural of Miser, and the like objection holds good in nineteen other names enumerated in that chapter, and must necessarily allude to different families or tribes instead of sons; so is Cush evidently not the name of an individual, but of a race, and that race the descendants of the Nachash who was created a servant for Adam.
The first use made of this name after the flood being in the family of Ham, and the matrimonial alliance of Ham and his sons with the race, evidently gave rise to the idea that Cush was the son of Ham, and that the Ethiopian race sprang from him.
But it is absurd to suppose that Noah and his wife, they both being white, could have been the natural progenitors of Cush or the Ethiopian race. It is, however, a reasonable conclusion that as the posterity of the Nachash were on the earth at the time of the flood, a seed of them were necessarily in the ark with Noah, and that the race was thus preserved through the flood; and Ham's evident illicit connexion with Cush, the descendants of whom we know to be Ethiopians, negroes, is evidenced by his illegitimate progeny, which we find to be of mixed blood — not full-blood negroes, but only brown, red or tawny.
All the jet-black, woolly-headed Ethiopians are called Cushi or Cushans by themselves and by all other nations, and, indeed, they are so unlike the other descendants of Noah that it is impossible that they should be his children in any degree by natural generation.
The Egyptians were a tawny race with straight hair, and all history agrees that they were the children of Misraim; the Canaanites also were nearly of the same description, and all agree that they were descended from the son of Ham, the son of Noah.
Cush therefore being evidently a negro, could not be the son of Ham, who was the son of Noah, as the present reading of two verses of the Bible would seem to indicate; viz., the sixth verse of the tenth chapter of Genesis, and the eighth verse of the first chapter of Chronicles. The text in Chronicles was evidently copied from the one in Genesis, both in writing and translation, as they are verbatim; hence the correction of the one in Genesis would equally apply to both. We propose, therefore, to correct the reading of the following four verses: first, the 18th verse of the ninth chapter of Genesis should read thus: "And the sons of Noah that went forth out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Canaan the son of Ham (whom the Ethiopian bare unto him)." The sixth, seventh and eighth verses of the tenth chapter should read thus: "The sons of
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Ham and Cush (the sons which the Ethiopean bare unto him): even Caanan, Phut, and Misraim, each the sons of Cush. (The sons of Ham by his wife): Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Ramah, and Sabtacha; and the sons of Ramah were Shebe and Dedan; and Cush (the Ethiopian also) bare (unto Ham) Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one in the earth.Canaan, Phut, and Mizraiin, were evidently born unto Ham by the Ethiopian denominated Cush, in the above verses, before he had any children by his wife, after which he had five sons by his wife; then still after that the Ethiopian bare him Nimrod, who being expert in the chase aspired to become the Captain and Prince of his race; he it was that first conceived the idea of subverting the Patriarchal government of Noah, and establishing an empire upon the earth over which he could rule with despotic authority. This idea, doubtless, was conceived because of the known fact, that he not being of the pure seed of Adam, could not legally aspire to the Chief Patriarchy of the government transmitted from Noah.
This Prince Nimrod attempted to subjugate the whole earth to his control; he built great cities, and founded an empire of the mixed race. Abram was the first who dared to rebel against his authority: being commanded of God, he took to himself as many of the mixed and black races as he needed for servants, and separated himself from the Nimrod Dynasty, which then only extended over the land of Shinah and Chaldea, and went and dwelt in the land of Canaan, where he maintained the Patriarchal government of Noah, and transmitted the same to his posterity. The empire of Nimrod, however, continued to increase, until in process of time God enlarged Japheth, according to the promise made to Noah, and the Nimrod empire was subdued, to become a perpetual desolation.
Canaan being the first mixture of the seed of Adam, after the flood, with the Nachash alias Cush race, the curse pronounced upon him by Noah was equally intended for all his compeers of the mixed blood; hence, Nimrod and all his empire, as well as the Egyptians and families of Canaan, were included in the curse: "A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." And all the white nations descended from Shem and Japheth are included in the blessing pronounced upon them; and are therefore entitled to the services of the mixed races by this law, as much as they are entitled to the services of Nachash alias Cush by creation. Japheth being the eldest son received the right to the Political dominion, and Shem received the Ecclesiastical dominion; but in process of time the Ecclesiastical dominion was also to pass to Japheth, and then he would dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan should be his servant, as at the present day.
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Since, therefore, we can reasonably and scripturally trace the origin of the negro through the flood, from the creation, separate and apart from, the origin of the race of Adam, it is no longer necessary for the Christian believer to adhere to such a dogma and paradox of folly, as that the race of Cush, the Ethiopians, the jet black curly-headed negroes, with their pug-noses, thick lips, almost calfless legs, and flat feet, are our brethren by consanguinity — the flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone; or that they are of one blood with us, who were created for the dominion and inheritance of the whole earth, and every living creature that moves upon the face thereof placed under our dominion and control — the negro, in his creation, most certainly included.
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Origin of the Mixed Races.
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The first name given to the mixed race was Anshey, or Enosh, which is the same name, only the former is in the construct state; and this appears to be the only name by which they were designated before the flood. Their origin before the flood was evidently from the matrimonial alliance of Cain, after his trangression and banishment from his race, with the fugitive, vagabond Nachash race, in the land of Nod.
To illustrate this, we refer to Genesis, 4th chapter, from the 11th to the 16th verses, inclusive: "And now thou (art) cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 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. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth: and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
"And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."
When God said to Cain, "Thou cursed from the earth," he very well knew that he was under the sentence of death, and that every one of his race was an executioner of the sentence, unless God should appoint a particular one to execute it, his only safety being to avoid their presence as a fugitive, and even then if he should be accidentally found he would be killed: he therefore declares his sentence unendurable; meaning, that he could not long stay upon the earth as a fugitive and vagabond, because some one would find him and kill him. God, however, assures him that his sentence of death should not be executed upon him by man, as he had reserved the
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execution thereof to himself. The Lord therefore put a mark oth, a sign, a token, a proclamation upon, or concerning Cain, lest any finding him should slay him. The language indicates that the Lord sent forth a proclamation concerning Cain, that no one should slay him; that he should be permitted to live, and be indeed a fugitive and vagabond in the earth, until his earthly tabernacle should be dissolved by natural decay.After this proclamation of the Lord was sent forth, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, the land of the vagabonds, the land where the tribe of the fugitive Nachash roamed, who were vagabonds, because they roamed about having no fixed habitation; having become fugitives from Adam after they received their curse, they had to bow down and cull their food from the dust — literally, going on their bellies and eating the dust — to sustain their lives, because God had made Adam to hate them for what they had done to Eve, and he would no longer furnish them with food as before the fall, while they were in the garden, to sustain them.
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land where these creatures roamed, and there it is evident he took himself a wife of this Nachash race, who bare him sons and daughters; thus originating the first mixed race, who were designated in Hebrew by the name anslipyor enosh.
This Anshey or Enosh race has been confounded with the descendants of Enoch, a son born to Cain before his transgression, who was dedicated to God, as was the practice of the Patriarchs, with their first-born; hence his name, which signifies dedicated.
This Enoch's geneaology, becoming misplaced in the sacred history, is recorded as if it were the geneaology of the Anshey or Enosh race of Cain's seed, after his transgression and connexion with the vagabond Nachash race.
It is evident from the circumstances connected with the history contained in the fourth chapter of Genesis, and from the signification of the name Enosh, as used in the Hebrew Bible, that the seventeenth verse should follow the second verse of the chapter, and that the name Seth, in the twenty-sixth verse, was originally Cain, and that the geneaology of Cain's Enoch should follow that verse and close the chapter. We will here transcribe the chapter as we conceive it should be arranged, and follow with our comments and reasons for believing that this arrangement was the original composition of the chapter.
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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.
17. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.
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 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 Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper?
10. And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11. And now thou art 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.
13. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
15. And the Lord said unto him, therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should slay him.
16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
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25. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth; for God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
26. And to Cain, to him again there was born a son, and he called his name Enosh; then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord; (that is, they called themselves sons of God to distinguish them from this Enosh race of Cain.)
18. And unto Enoch (Cain's son) was born Irad; and Irad begat Mehujael, Mehujael begat Methusael, and Methusael begat Lamech.
19. And Lamech took unto him two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
20. And Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.
21. And his brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ.
22. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; and the sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah.
23. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
24. If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold.
The next chapter begins the book of the generations of Adam, giving only the genealogy of Seth. Now it seems strange that this chapter should end with the beginning of the genealogy of Seth, and the next chapter begin with a repetition of the same thing. Again, it is evident that the sacred historian was giving an account of what happened contemporaneously with the birth of Seth, or what happened about the time that Seth was born, in the latter end of this chapter, when speaking of the birth of Enosh; whereas, Seth was one hundred and five years old when his Enosh was born. Again, it is evident that the birth of this Enosh was the cause of men's calling themselves by the name of the Lord, that is, sons of God, by way of distinction from this race of Enosh or Anshey, who styled themselves children of men. To illustrate this more fully, we quote the first, second, and a part of fourth verses of the sixth chapter:
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, (tovath, desirable,) and they took them wives of all which they chose.
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4. — "And when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown."
Men of renown is here translated from Anshey, hashshem, the Shem. Shem is translated renown, and Anshey, men. The true translation of Shem is name, and Anshey is the same as Enosh, as we have already seen. The text should therefore be translated thus: "The same became mighty men, which were of old of the name of Anshey or Enosh, evidently alluding to the Enosh at whose birth the white race separated themselves under the appellation of the sons of God, and it was this Enosh race of men that began to multiply, and daughters were born unto them, of whom the sons of God were enamored and seduced into amalgamation of their seed with this cursed race of the mixed blood.
The whole meaning of the text appears to be simply this: Moses is writing concerning those of old, that is, those that were before the flood; and he informs us that those who were of mixed blood were mighty men, and of the name or race of Enosh or Anshey, the children of Cain, after his transgression and alliance with the Nachash race. Instead, therefore, of their being men of renown — as the common version has it — although they were mighty men, they were degraded men, subject to all kind of evil, incurably afflicted; for this is the meaning of the name Enosh, which includes every misery through life, and then death without the hope of a glorious resurrection.
According to the best information we have of the history of these men, this was their certain fate. Misery attended them for an hundred and twenty years before the flood, and then, to fill up the measure of their evils, they all perished in the flood.
That this name was applied to the mixed races after the flood, as a general designating name, and also to those devoted to destruction, or those in any way connected with murderers, bloody men, &c., we will cite the following instances of its use in the Hebrew Bible:
Gen. xxxii 28: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men (Enoshim) and hast prevailed." A more literal translation would be, "For thou art a prince of God, having power with God, with or over men (enoshim, the fallen cursed mixed races who have usurped the dominion of the earth,) thou shalt also prevail. The name Israel may be formed from three Hebrew words, ish (man), raah (he saw), and (El) God; Israel is therefore one restored from the fall, has prevailed with God, and will therefore prevail over the usurpers of Adam's dominion upon the earth — the enoshim,
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illegitimate men, who are the fruits of an unholy and unlawful matrimonial alliance of the race of Adam with the Nachash or negro race.It should be remembered that at the time this blessing was put upon Jacob, the whole earth was under the dominion of the mixed races, and Jacob was the first who had attained to the full knowledge that they were usurpers, having no legal right to the dominion of the earth, because they inherit the murderer's curse, pronounced upon Cain, the first murderer, and re-affirmed and applied to the mixed races after the flood, by Noah, when he said, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren."
Canaan being the first fruit of mixed blood after the flood, represented the whole of the mixed races; and it should be understood that this curse is the same in substance with the curse put upon Cain by God himself, when he said, "Thou art cursed from the earth;" not that he was immediately to die, but the earth was not from henceforth to yield unto him its strength; that is, he was not to possess the earth as an inheritance, as promised to the redeemed of Adam's race, for he should be subject to a power that would move him to and fro in the earth; and if he was not enslaved, it was because of the detestation of his presence by those who had the dominion over him, thus constituting him a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth while he lived, and when he died he had no hope of a glorious resurrection.
The enoshim, therefore, are those who inherit the curse of the murderer Cain, either by following him in his transgression, or by being the fruits of an amalgamation of the blood of the two races, as was Canaan. Israel will therefore prevail with these enoshim, and subject them to servitude, or destroy them from the face of the earth in case of their rebellion.
It appears to be left optional with the race of Adam, to either put the murderer to death, or to subject him to slavery during his natural life. God's dealings with Cain seems to indicate that if the murderer manifests contrition for his crime, and is not likely to commit the like offence again, he should be permitted to expiate his crime by perpetual servitude.
That Enosh is the name used in the Hebrew Bible to denote the mixed races and men doomed to destruction, we further quote the following — Psalms ex. 3: "Thou turnest man (Enosh) to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men;" (Adam) also, Psalm cxxxix. 19: "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men" (Anshey). Again, Isaiah viii. 1: "Moreover, the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll and write in it with a man's pen" (Cheret Enosh, an instrument to engrave the destruction
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of men) concerning Maher-shalalhash-baz." That is, concerning making haste to the spoils or prey. Again, Isaiah xiii. 12: "I will make a man (Enosh) more precious than fine gold, even a man (Adam) than the golden wedge of Ophir." This is spoken in reference to the destruction of the Bablyonian empire by the Medes, who, it is said, in the seventeenth verse, regard not silver and delight not in gold; therefore they will not accept a ransom for these Enosh men, who are devoted to destruction, nor for the Adam men who rule the country, though a whole wedge of the fine gold of Ophir were offered. Babylon must be wholly destroyed, and its inhabitants scattered every one to his own race. Here the name Enosh is used to designate the mixed races constituting the inhabitants of Babylon; but the name Adam is used to denote the authority of that people, not in the sense it is used to denote white men, but rather in the sense of an adjective expressing the quality of the Enosh men of Babylon. I will make the destruction of these men of Babylon more precious than fine gold, even these dominant rulers of the world, than the golden wedge of Ophir. Again, Ezekiel xxxiii. 45: "And the righteous men (enoshim), they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses and after the manner of women that shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands."The Chaldeans, a mixed race, are here called righteous (enoshim), whom God appointed to judge the men (Adam) of Israel, because they had, by whoredoms, polluted their seed with the enoshim race, contrary to the stipulations of the law of God to them, and because they had become partakers with murderers, therefore the more righteous enoshim should judge them. Again, Daniel vii. 7: "I saw in the night vision; and behold, one like the son of man (Enosh) came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him." This was not the son of Enosh, but one like the son of Enosh, and they brought him near before the Ancient of Days. The Ancient of Days was sitting upon the judgment seat of the earth, and they brought this one, like the son of Enosh — like one devoted to destruction — like a criminal, near before the Ancient of Days, to receive his sentence, evidently supposing him to be worthy of condemnation to death; but, to the great disappointment of all that beheld the scene, the Ancient of Days judged him worthy to receive a kingdom so extensive that all people, nations and languages should serve and obey him. This, undoubtedly, has an allusion to Jesus Christ, who was arraigned by the Jews as a malefactor worthy of the judgment of death, but was judged of God his Father worthy to receive all power in heaven and in earth, &c.
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These quotations show conclusively the origin and use of the name Enosh, Enosliim, and Anshey; Enoshim being the plural of Enosh, and Anshey the same name in the construct state.
These distinguishing names of man, Adam, the white man, the master to whom the earth belongs by creation; Ish, the name of this said Adam, among his fellows, in his matrimonial, social, business and political character; Enosh, the name of criminals and the mixed races, and Cush, the Nachash, "the servants of man," or the slave subjects of Adam by creation, when rightly understood, remove at once all obscurity in reference to the origin, natural position, and final destiny of the different races of the human kind. This knowledge also removes for ever the foundation on which freesoilers and abolitionists have based their heresies; which foundation being removed, the whole superstructure comes tumbling down, like the house which the foolish man built upon the sand: when the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon it, it fell, because its foundation was removed; and great was the fall of it. So may it be with the abolition heresy, and so it will be when people are informed on the subject.
This discovery in sacred history of the account of the creation of a race of intellectual beings, separate and apart from the creation of man, or Adam, who are of an inferior grade to man or the Adamic race, and placed under his dominion, accounts scripturally for the existence of the two apparent extremes of the human form.
To account for the origin of the different types of the human species has always been a great puzzle to naturalists, and has led many to doubt the Mosaic account of the creation; falling into the common error, that, according to Scripture, all these types of intellectual beings were the product of the same parentage, they have rather chosen to follow the dictates of reason than to believe such a paradox, as that the jet-black, curly-headed, pug-nosed, blubber-lipped, and almost calfless-legged, flat-footed African race, could have, in any contingency, been the natural offspring of the same parentage with the fair specimens of the Caucassian race.
But having now found the account of the creation of the two apparent extremes, we can easily account for the intermediate types, upon the natural principle of the mixture of the two races in different degrees of the blood; and upon this principle we can reconcile the justice of Noah's curse upon Canaan. He being the offspring of Ham, by a female Ethiopian, or Cushi, negress, who was a slave servant in Ham's family, which fact made him naturally the servant of his mother, who was of the
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servant race, and by virtue of his maternal origin from the servant race he was a servant to the white race by the natural lawof descent; he was, therefore, by the natural circumstances of his existence, literally "a servant of servants;" or, according to the Hebrew, a slave of slaves to his brethren; being the product of the amalgamation of the two races after the flood he apparently belonged to neither race, and was the natural slave of both.This discovery of the origin of the negro, which at once lays the axe at the root of the tree of abolitionism and freesoilism, destroys the natural sympathy arising from the ties of consanguinity, and the effect of fanatical appeals in behalf of the negro race, who have been included in the universal brotherhood of Adam, at once ceases, the tie being cut by a knowledge of the negro's origin; instead of these fanatical appeals, we will hear the more sensible and consistent declarations that the negro is not our brother — he is not the child of our father or of our mother; he is our servant by creation; over him God gave us dominion as well as over the cattle, beasts, creeping things, birds and fishes, and we did not forfeit our right to that dominion by the fall, but was only subjected to the necessity of employing physical force in compelling their service in the labor of the field, and thus producing bread, wine, and oil; hence we eat our bread in the sweat of our face, according to the curse that followed the voluntary transgression of Adam, when he partook of the forbidden fruit.
In all ages of the world the white man has exercised dominion over the negro race, and often over the mixed races, and at no time in the history of man have the negro race been the masters of the white race; the mixed races have had the dominion by usurpation, which God permitted because of the transgressions of the white race, but the negro race was never competent to rule.
Bayard Taylor, writing from Egypt, but a short time since, says that he cannot find in Egypt any traces of the negro in any other capacity than that of servant, and he cannot learn that the race ever did attain to any important degree of civilization, except when cultivated under the dominion of the white race.
Negroes not having been created for dominion, are incapable of self-government; if left entirely to themselves and to their own energies, without the presence or influence of the white race to stimulate them to action, they would retrograde from the cultivation they received in civilized society to what they now are in the interior of Africa, in their uncultivated state, apparently scarcely removed above the brute creation in habits and appearance.
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But under the ruling dominion of the white man, where nature and nature's God designed them to be in the creation, negroes are capable of attaining to a high state of cultivation, that they may be the more useful to their masters, and receive the more benefits from their masters to themselves.
Abraham, the friend of God, had three hundred and eighteen servants born in his house and bought with his money, all able to bear arms; and no doubt he had at least as many more, including the women and children, of whom all were either negroes or of the mixed blood, and some of them had evidently attained to a high state of cultivation, so much so that he could trust them with the transaction of the most important business, such as negotiating with Abraham's brother for a wife for Isaac, as he would not suffer his son to take a wife of the mixed race of Canaan, that his seed might not inherit their curse.
Jesus, the great Christian lawgiver, fearlessly rebuked all that was wrong in the practice of the ancients, such as polygamy, divorce for slight causes, hating enemies, rendering evil for evil, and the like; but he did not rebuke the practice of slavery or abolish the relation of master and servant, but, on the contrary, we find his immediate disciples, the Apostles, sanctioning and encouraging the continuance of the relation, evidently proving it to have been a divine institution, sanctioned by the gospel of Christ, as well as by the law of Moses, and the practice of the patriarchs. This three-fold sanction, from the patriarchs, from the law of Moses, and the gospel of Christ, has been the justifying defence of slaveholders against the maledictions of the fanatical abolitionists; but now by the discovery of the origin of the negro race as an original creation separate and apart from the creation of Adam, and they placed under the dominion of man by the Creator himself, we are forced to the conclusion that slavery as it exists in the Southern States of this Union, is not only morally and religiously right, but it is a duty enjoined upon the race of Adam by the Creator himself.
This discovery removes the source from which has sprung the mischievous heresy that has well nigh, succeeded in overthrowing the last vestige of man's inherent and rightful dominion over the Nachash, alias Cush, the intellectual and indelibly marked black servants of Adam, without which dominion man would be a mere slave himself; for if he had under his dominion all the cattle and other beasts upon the earth — if he had no intellectual servants to feed and use them, he would be much worse off than he would be if he had none.
Our every-day experience teaches us that servants are as essential to the householder and husbandman as beasts of burden, flocks and herds, and indeed more so; for the more
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of the brute creation a man has under his dominion or control, the more servants he must have to feed and use them; and when the servant race are not made to occupy that position, the vacuum is sought to be filled by hired servants of the sovereign race; and we have often heard it urged as an argument in favor of free labor, that hired servants of the Caucassian race are more profitable than slaves.These scrupulously conscientious abolitionists are daily, without scruple, pocketing the profits of the toil of their own race, and, while thus robbing their fellows of their rightful dominion, they expend all their sympathy upon the servants of their neighbors, who are better provided for by far than their Caucassian hired servants, the profits of whose toil they are daily pocketing.
In the beginning, when God created man, he provided for him every essential element that could be created to constitute him happy and comfortable upon the earth; out of the ground he caused to grow the vegetable kingdom, and then the aquatic animal kingdom, the birds and fishes; the naphesh chaiyah was then brought forth as the ne plus ultra of animal life from the ground, and endowed with an intellectual spirit, that he might be a sort of head, president, or manager of the animal kingdom, all of which was created for the use of man.
This animal kingdom was completed with its president at its head; the ebed (slave servant) of Adam was there, but there was not an Adam to command him to do labor on the ground to bring forth bread out of the earth; therefore, the Lord God formed of the dust of the ground, and breathed upon it the breath of lives, and Adam came forth with living souls, constituting him a superior intellectual being, qualified to receive the dominion over the animal kingdom, and to direct its president to do slave labor on the ground, for the purpose of subduing and replenishing the earth, for an inheritance, after the pattern of the garden of Eden, which Adam was commanded to direct his slaves to keep in the order he received it. In this garden of fruit trees was Adam's palace and the seat of his empire, and according to the authority of his position he had indulgently permitted his ebed (slave), the nachash, to lounge about in the garden, eating of the fruit which was made to grow there for the use of Adam, instead of keeping him to work upon the ground and subduing it, for the purpose of enlarging the garden, and feeding him on the herb of the field, which was more congenial to his nature. Through this indulgence he became so important that he assumes to instruct Eve, who, it appears, was much younger than her ebed (slave), the Nachash, and, by tauntingly questioning the truth of the divine law given to Adam in regard to the use to be made of the trees of the garden, he
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recommends his natural religion or the revelation of the Evil Spirit in opposition to the revealed law of God, and by his artful cunning seduces his mistress from the holy commandments delivered unto her race. For this act of sedition against the government of God, the Nachash was cursed, to bow down with his belly to the ground in menial labor, and eat from the dust all the days of his life; and in consequence of the enmity which should spring up between him and his mistress, he should have no further indulgence, but should be compelled to continue his labors incessantly, even with a bruised head.Adam and Eve were driven from their beautiful palace garden in consequence of hearkening to the seductive suggestions of the Evil Spirit, in their black servant, the Nachash. Adam was then like a king dethroned, and banished from his country, together with all his subjects, and they in rebellion against him; he therefore had first to regain his dominion over his subjects, and then to regain his lost inheritance. Finding himself degraded to an equality with his subjects in a physical sense, it was only by his superior intellectual endowments that he could regain his lost dominion; for by his fall Adam became degraded, physically, to an equality with his sable servant the Nachash; this physical equality caused enmity between the two races, and it required the exercise of Adam's superior wisdom to again subject the Nachash to his dominion, which could only be done by the process of bruising his head; for in this way alone could his rebellion be suppressed, and his obedience to Adam's domestic law restored. This process, though severe, was justified by the law of God, as Adam by the fall did not forfeit his right to the dominion, but only the possession of it, which possession he was permitted to regain by his superior intellectual endowments, because it was in accordance with the revealed will of God.
The enmity existing between the two races prevented any amalgamation, until Cain the murderer was sent forth, a fugitive and vagabond from his race; who, finding the fugitive Nachash, also a vagabond, in consequence of his rebellion against his master Adam, the mutual sympathy of condition united them, and Cain took unto himself a wife of the Nachash race. From this unnatural matrimonial alliance the first mulattoes (or the mixed race) were generated, whom, we have already seen were called Enoshim; this was the race that corrupted the earth, and seduced the sons of God from his holy commandments to the practice of polygamy, and a general mixture of the race of Adam with the inferior race of Nachash and with the cursed race of Cain, insomuch that the imagination and thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. Thus was the whole race of Adam corrupted
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and made ripe for destruction, save Noah and his three sons, with their wives; these at the time of the flood were the only uncorrupted seed of Adam remaining on earth, and these were saved alive in the ark. The seductive character of the Nachash being transmitted to the Enosh race of Cain, through their maternal origin, had gradually but surely drawn and decoyed the children of the chosen seed from the holy commandments of God, to the gratification of fleshly lusts and appetites; and through the practice of sensuality, the pure race of man had become so amalgamated with the Nachash race, that it became necessary to bring in the flood upon the earth, and sweep this accursed Enosh race from the face thereof, in order to prevent an entire corruption of that seed, that was to bruise the head of the Nachash and restore man to that dominion from which he had by transgression fallen.As before stated, the first corruption of Adam's seed, after the flood, by the amalgamation with the inferior servant race, called forth the curse of Noah upon Canaan, the first fruits of that amalgamation. "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants (Heb., a slave of slaves) shall he be to his brethren." This curse implies that all the fruits of an amalgamation of the race of Adam with the inferior race of Cush shall be subjected to slavery, in common with the servant race, in the most abject degree.
The illegitimate sons of Ham, who inherited this curse, thought to make the prediction fail, by usurping the dominion of the earth; they, therefore, went forth under the lead of Nimrod, and built great cities and founded empires, and finally commenced to build a tower that would reach to heaven, as the ne plus ultra of their idolatrous religion, and as the token of the triumph of their ambition. Their language becoming confounded, they separated from the tower, went forth and built Nineveh, Babylon, and many other cities; they also founded Egypt, the Chaldean and Assyrian empires; but all these mighty works did not secure to them the continued dominion of the earth, the grand desideratum for which they labored. In process of time the great Christian lawgiver came, the pure seed of the woman, to restore the dominion to the uncorrupted race of man, by the bruising of the head of the Nachash, and by the destruction or subjection of all nations corrupted by his blood, the mixture constituting mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
The God of heaven finally sets up a kingdom with the woman's pure seed, which is destined to break in pieces all these kingdoms of mixed blood, from Babylon to Rome, which have borne rule upon the earth, and this kingdom composed of the woman's pure seed shall stand for ever, and not
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be left to another people, for the reason that the rightful heirs are in possession of it. This kingdom is given to the people of the saints of the Most High God. (See Dan. vii. 27.) In the United States of America, the people of the saints of the Most High God possess this kingdom, in a literal sense, and we should remember to appreciate the possession thereof, and not suffer the tempter, through sympathy falsely conceived for either the black or mixed races, to again seduce us from our dominion. The old serpent is as ready to decoy us from the path of duty now as when he acted through the Nachash in the garden of Eden; his object is the same now as then, to rob man of that dominion which God gave him in his creation, and has restored to him through Christ. Should he succeed this second time to deprive man of his dominion, he gains the dominion to himself, and we must remain his subjects for ever. It is said by Paul to the Hebrews, chapter vi. 4, 5, 6, that "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."But we are consoled by the revealed word of God, that, although individuals may be decoyed from their dominion, and never regain it through the influence of the tempter, the kingdom given to the people of the saints, the pure, unadulterated seed of the woman, given and established through Christ, as in these United States, will never be left, or given, either to the black or mixed races; but the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, will eventually be given to the people of the white race, when the kingdom of Christ shall become universal.
That a temporal dominion is included in the promise through Christ, as well as a spiritual dominion or salvation, is evident from the very nature of the fall, and from the prophecies it can be abundantly proved.
We have seen that man fell from a temporal Paradise by his transgressions in following the instruction of Satan, through his servant the Nachash; that he sold himself to Satan by this act and lost his dominion over the Nachash, is proved by the saying of Paul, "To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." Adam yielded himself to obey Satan and his agent the Nachash, in partaking the forbidden fruit, and he became thereby subject to them, spiritually subject to Satan, and temporarily to the Nachash. But the promise of God that the woman's seed should bruise the head of the
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Nachash, opened to him the door of hope, and by the good word of God and powers of the world to come, vouchsafed to Adam, through the promised Christ, he was enabled to immediately commence the work of regaining his lost dominion, which was to be effected by following strictly the revealed will of God through Christ.With this object in view, Adam went forth from the garden to compel his slaves to labor on the ground, and to eat his bread in the sweat of his face, until this desired end should be obtained; a temporal collision between him and his rebellious servants was anticipated, but, knowing that it would eventuate in the restoration of his rightful dominion over his rebellious subjects, he nerved himself to the task; and though he gained not the object in his lifetime, he saw it afar off, and claimed it for his seed. When Christ shall have destroyed the last enemy death, and him that hath the power of death, which is the devil, this grand desideratum will be realized by his seed in the fullest sense.
As we have before stated, Abraham was the first after the flood that was called to separate himself from the dominion of the mixed races, (which dominion they had usurped under the reign of Nimrod and the children of Ham,) that he might preserve a pure seed upon the earth, through whom the Redeemer could come to restore man to his dominion over all the earth, which had been lost by the fall, and he had only in part regained by faith in the word of God, but which was to be consummated through the Redeemer in the latter days. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (See Gen. xii. 1, 2, 3.)
This contains, first, a plain promise of a temporal dominion: "I will make of thee a great nation, and will bless those that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee." This could not be fulfilled without giving Abraham's seed a temporal dominion on the earth; secondly, it contains a promise of a spiritual dominion in Christ — "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed;" evidently alluding to the final redemption of the race through Christ, who was of Abraham's seed.
In the 17th chapter of Genesis, God points out to Abraham where his temporal dominion shall be. In the eighth verse, he says, "I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." This
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promise points out the precise locality of a temporal dominion which was to be given or restored to Abraham and his seed; but this promise of temporal dominion did not extend to all of Abraham's seed; it was only to that portion which was of the pure blood, unmixed with the Nachash or servant race. We read in the 16th chapter of Genesis, that Sarai, Abraham's wife, being barren, gave to her husband, as a concubine, her hand-maid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar; this concubine became a mother by Abraham, bearing him a son, whom he called Ishmael; but this Hagar, being an Egyptian, was of the mixed blood, and was a servant in Abraham's house; therefore, although Ishmael was Abraham's first-born, he could not inherit the promised temporal dominion of Abraham's seed. Therefore Sarah said unto Abraham, "cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bond-woman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Isaac was of the pure blood, unmixed with that of the Nachash or servant race; he therefore was entitled to the dominion promised to Abraham's seed, which right he acquired by his creation and descent from Adam. We next find this promise of temporal dominion renewed to Isaac, (see 3d verse of the 26th chapter of Genesis,) and confirmed to Jacob, (see 15th verse of the 28th chapter of Gen.,) who was chosen as the seed through whom the Messiah should come; and his blessing prevailed above the blessings of his progenitors, Abraham and Isaac, in the temporal dominion, "even to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills," which necessarily includes the whole earth — see Gen. 49, 26, where he confers this blessing upon Joseph and upon the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. That this greater blessing of Jacob refers to the redemption of man and his restoration to the universal dominion of the earth, is evident from the general tenor of the prophecies and promises given to Jacob and his seed.In the 14th verse of the 28th chapter of Genesis, he says to Jacob, "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Now mark! in the 13th verse, he had confirmed the promise to Jacob of the land of Canaan, which he made to Abram and Isaac, saying: "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and
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to thy seed." The land on which he lay was the land of Canaan, and his seed was to become as the dust of the earth; spreading forth from that land, to the four quarters of the earth, until all the families of the earth were blest in him and his seed. This promise can refer to nothing less than the final restoration of the race of man to his original dominion over all the earth. Those families of the earth that are blessed in Jacob's seed are evidently not his literal descendants; but those who are blessed in his seed, Christ, are undoubtedly the true Israel, and those of the pure blood of Adam, who are redeemed and restored to their dominion upon the earth, through Christ, who was of the literal seed of Jacob. Thus have Jacob's blessings prevailed above the blessings of his progenitors in the temporal dominion through his seed.This promise of a temporal dominion through Christ is plainly foretold in the Prophecy of Daniel, 2d chapter, 44th verse, "And in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to another people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." In the 27th verse of the 7th chapter of Daniel, we are informed that this kingdom was to be a Republican government and a universal dominion of the saints of the Most High God; and this dominion was not to be in Heaven, but, under the whole heavens. "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Now, it is evident that none but the redeemed are saints, and the saints, as a people, are to have the dominion under the whole heaven, and all these dominions of the saints shall serve and obey the Most High. Hence, all the children of Adam who are redeemed from the fall through or in Christ, the seed of Jacob, are blessed in him with the dominion in the capacity of peoples, under the whole heaven; and this dominion is temporal, for it is to break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms. That is, the kingdoms of the mixed races, represented by the Prophet under the figure of the Metallic Image, in the 2d chapter; and by four Great Beasts, in the 7th chapter; these kingdoms were all ruled by men of mixed blood, hence their dominion was usurped, as none but the pure-blooded children of Adam have a legal right to the dominion of the earth; and Christ's mission upon the earth, so far as temporal blessings were to come through him, was to restore them to the possession of that right, not as kings and emperors over their own race, but as sovereign people over all the earth, and over every living creature upon the earth.
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This temporal dominion is, however, only to be obtained by obedience to Christ, as our Lawgiver and Teacher. And any unrighteous exercise of the powers conferred in the dominion given to the Adamic race, will certainly result in a forfeiture of the dominion if reparation is not speedily made; hence it is important, that all laws made by this exalted race, for the government of the inferior races, should be properly seasoned with mercy and benevolence, and so balanced as to secure the greatest possible good to both the citizens and the subjects.
The government of the United States is evidently a pattern of that kingdom, which the God of Heaven was to set up upon the earth in the days of the existence of the ten kingdoms, which sprung into existence from the division of the Roman Empire. And, as it has been decided by the Supreme Court of this government, that negroes are not eligible to citizenship under this government, it is therefore a government of white men, the pure seed of Adam; and negroes and mulattoes are therefore the subjects of the white race, under the Constitution of the United States; and it is the privilege of the law-making power of each of the States to define what shall be the relative position of these subjects to the citizens of their respective commonwealths. Each State is wisely permitted to judge for itself as to the qualifications of these subjects to enjoy liberty, and any interference of the citizens of one commonwealth with the exercise of the right of dominion, over these subjects by the citizens of another commonwealth, is certainly subversive of the principles upon which the government is founded.