Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Being...

[3:2] According to Persian legend, Arimanes, the Evil Spirit, by eating a certain kind of fruit, transformed himself into a serpent, and went gliding about on the earth to tempt human beings. His Devs entered the bodies of men and produced all manner of diseases. They entered into their minds, and incited them to sensuality, falsehood, slander and revenge. Into every department of the world they introduced discord and death.

[4:1] Inasmuch as the physical construction of the serpent never could admit of its moving in any other way, and inasmuch as it does not eat dust, does not the narrator of this myth reflect unpleasantly upon the wisdom of such a God as Jehovah is claimed to be, as well as upon the ineffectualness of his first curse?

[5:1] "Our writer unmistakably recognizes the existence of many gods; for he makes Yahweh say: 'See, the man has become as ONE OF US, knowing good and evil;' and so he evidently implies the existence of other similar beings, to whom he attributes immortality and insight into the difference between good and evil. Yahweh, then, was, in his eyes, the god of gods, indeed, but not the only god." (Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 51.)

[5:2] In his memorial sermon, preached in Westminster Abbey, after the funeral of Sir Charles Lyell. He further said in this address:—

"It is well known that when the science of geology first arose, it was involved in endless schemes of attempted reconciliation with the letter of Scripture. There was, there are perhaps still, two modes of reconciliation of Scripture and science, which have been each in their day attempted, and each have totally and deservedly failed. One is the endeavor to wrest the words of the Bible from their natural meaning, and force it to speak the language of science." After speaking of the earliest known example, which was the interpolation of the word "not" in Leviticus xi. 6, he continues: "This is the earliest instance of the falsification of Scripture to meet the demands of science; and it has been followed in later times by the various efforts which have been made to twist the earlier chapters of the book of Genesis into apparent agreement with the last results of geology—representing days not to be days, morning and evening not to be morning and evening, the deluge not to be the deluge, and the ark not to be the ark."

[5:3] Gen. i. 9, 10.

[5:4] Gen. ii. 6.

[6:1] Gen. i. 20, 24, 26.

[6:2] Gen. ii. 7, 9.

[6:3] Gen. i. 20.

[6:4] Gen. ii. 19.

[6:5] Gen. i. 27.

[6:6] Gen. ii. 7: iii. 22.

[6:7] Gen. i. 28.

[6:8] Gen. ii. 8, 15.

[6:9] Gen. i. 28.

[6:10] Gen. ii. 7, 8, 15, 22.

[6:11] Gen. ii. 4-25.

[6:12] Gen. iii.

[6:13] Gen. i. 1-ii. 8.

[6:14] Gen. iii. 1, 3, 5.

[6:15] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 171-173.

[6:16] Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 59.

[7:1] The Relig. of Israel, p. 186.

[7:2] Von Bohlen: Intro. to Gen. vol. ii. p. 4.

[7:3] Lenormant: Beginning of Hist. vol. i. p. 6.

[7:4] See Ibid. p. 64; and Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 31.

[8:1] "The Etruscans believed in a creation of six thousand years, and in the successive production of different beings, the last of which was man." (Dunlap: Spirit Hist. p. 357.)

[8:2] Quoted by Bishop Colenso: The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 115.

[8:3] Intro. to Genesis, vol. ii. p. 4.

[8:4] Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 63.

[8:5] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 158.

[9:1] See Chapter xi.

[9:2] Mr. Smith says, "Whatever the primitive account may have been from which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident that the brief narration given in the Pentateuch omits a number of incidents and explanations—for instance, as to the origin of evil, the fall of the angels, the wickedness of the serpent, &c. Such points as these are included in the cuneiform narrative." (Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 13, 14.)

[9:3] Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 88.

[9:4] Ibid. p. 89.

[9:5] Ibid. p. 91.

[10:1] Murray's Mythology, p. 208.

[10:2] Kalisch's Com. vol. i. p. 64.

[11:1] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 87.