Because the movie "Noah" will be released tomorrow, I have put Hugh Nibley's essay here to explain, among other things, that in the time of Noah, all nature was reacting to man's evilness.
JAN.–FEB. 1981 New Era Magazine
MAN’S DOMINION
BY HUGH W. NIBLEY
The Two Ways.
The contemporary reappraisal of man’s
relationship to his environment now confronts society at large with a question
that has always been of major concern to the leaders of Israel, namely, What is
man’s dominion? The key scriptural passage on the subject reads:
“And God
blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue [kivshu] it: and have dominion over [rdu b] … every living
thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28).
The words kivshu and rdu both
have a basic root-meaning of exerting pressure, that being, however, merely a
point of departure for a whole spectrum of derivatives, so that scholars have
translated the words according to individual taste and temperament to convey
various ideas and types of dominion. Thus the dictionaries tell us that radad,
with the basic meaning of trampling the earth, in Genesis 1:28 [Gen. 1:28],
specifically means “to plow,” while kavash, with the original idea of squeezing
or hugging, can mean everything from “violate” to “cherish.” 1
In all the interpretations we are confronted by
two opposing concepts of dominion that have always divided the human race.
From
the beginning men have been asked to choose between them.
Thus the Clementine
Recognitions tell us that:
Abel’s claim to dominion was challenged by Cain,
Noah was challenged by the giants (the “Watchers” of Enoch’s day),
Abraham by
Pharaoh,
Isaac by the Philistines,
Jacob by Esau,
Moses by the magicians of
Egypt,
Christ by the adversary in person,
Simon Peter by Simon Magus,
the
Apostles by the whole world,
and finally, in the last days,
Christ by the
anti-Christ again. 2
In each case the challenger argued from a position of
strength and promised “all the kingdoms of the world” with all their power and
glory to those who would worship and follow him, while the other offered the
kingdom of heaven hereafter to those who worship the Lord and serve him only
(See Luke 4:5–8).
Each of the great leaders before entering upon
his mission was allowed to make his own choice between the two ways, the case
for each being presented personally to him by the highest authority on either
side.
Thus Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the ancient apostles, Joseph
Smith, and, of course, the Lord himself were not only privileged to speak with
God face to face, “even as a man talketh one with another,” but were also
exposed to intimate and personal interviews, however harrowing and unsolicited,
with the prince of darkness as well.
Their opponents in each of the
dispensations were also favored with direct ministrations from both sides, and
each made his choice between enjoying power and dominion here or hereafter.
Adam’s Dominion.
In commanding Adam to “be fruitful, and
multiply,” God also informed him that he had given the identical command to all
his other creatures, furthermore that he was putting Adam in charge of things
to see to it that His purposes were fulfilled. Specifically, he was to
“replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over” every living thing
in the biosphere (Abr. 4:28).
There are two clearly marked departments—
the
earth itself as a storehouse and source of life, which Adam is to keep
replenished (“filled” is the word),
and the creatures that move about on and
over the earth, over which he is to have dominion.
As Brigham Young explains
it, while “subduing the earth” we must be about “multiplying those organisms of
plants and animals God has designed shall dwell upon it,” 3 namely “all forms
of life,” each to multiply in its sphere and element and have joy therein.
The ancients taught that Adam’s dominion was
nothing less than the priesthood, the power to act for God and in his place.
The idea is that God, while retaining his unshakable throne in the heavens,
“extended his glory to a new world below in the work of the Creation; then as
the culmination of that work he created man to be in charge [li-mshol] of all
the beings he had created,” 4 with the understanding that “from this time forth
man must work to improve the earth and preserve and take care of all that is in
it, exactly as God had done before.” 5
“The Spirit of the Lord and the keys of the
priesthood,” said Brigham Young, “hold power over all animated beings. … In
this dispensation the keys will be restored.”
6 God is a god of the living
(Matt. 22:32) and gives Adam dominion over every living thing, so that his rule
ceases where life ceases. A king’s glory and success are measured by the
happiness, prosperity, and increase of his subjects, even as the power and
glory of God show forth, according to the Sefer Yeshira, in the exuberance of
living things upon the earth; 7 his “work and his glory” are to bestow the
prerogatives of divinity on those below him (Moses 1:39).
“From the hour in
which I created the world it was my task to bless my creatures,” the Lord tells
Abraham in making the covenant of the priesthood with him, “but from now on it
will be you who bestows the blessing.” 8 “As I put Adam and then Noah in charge
of all my creatures, so now I put you in charge, in order that you might bestow
my blessing on them.” 9
All creatures are duly overawed by the presence
of God’s representative and image: “Even the fierce beasts of prey fear man,”
says the Zohar, “as long as he keeps his covenant, his kingly dignity, and his
eye fixed on God in whose image he is.”
10 For “God formed man in his own heavenly
form and made him to be Lord over them. Whenever man stands upright and lifts
his eyes toward heaven, then all the animals raise their heads too, and look to
man, fearing and trembling in his presence.” 11
Throughout history an
indispensable fixture of royalty has everywhere been the great animal park,
Paradise, or royal forest in which majesty could display itself in the role of
God on earth, parent of the human race, and patron and protector of all lesser
beings.
In a word, the concept of man’s dominion as a holy calling and high
responsibility has been the common heritage of the human race throughout
history. 12 God’s rule is before all a rule of love: “I love my creatures far
more than you ever could!” the Lord tells Esdras in a vision. 13
There is a
tradition that Melchizedek, instructing Abraham in the things of the
priesthood, explained to him that Noah earned his blessings by his charity to
the animals, recalling how in the Ark, “We did not sleep because all night long
we were setting food before this one and before that one.” Taking this lesson
to heart, Abraham himself made a sort of Garden of Eden near Hebron, and there
practiced charity toward all creatures that thus he might “become a possessor
of heaven and earth.” 14
Adam, according to many accounts, was the great friend
and companion of all the animals when they lived together in perfect peace and
happiness, and they continued true to him even after the Fall. 15 Indeed, “Adam
before he came to this earth was intimately acquainted with all the great
spirits in heaven, and also with all the holy beasts,” so that he was
peculiarly fitted in his priestly office to serve as mediator between the
worlds as well as between higher and lower forms of life. 16
The teaching of Israel laid the heaviest emphasis
on responsibility. Since man is quite capable of exercising the awesome powers
that have been entrusted to him as the very image of God, he must needs be an
example to all, and if be fails in his trust, he can only bring upon himself
the condemnation of God and the contempt of all creatures. 17 “When men lose
their vicious dispositions,” said the Prophet Joseph, “… the lion and the lamb
will lie down together.” 18
A favorite theme of Brigham Young was that the
dominion God gives man is designed to test him, to enable him to show to
himself, his fellows, and all the heavens just how he would act if entrusted
with God’s own power; if he does not act in a godlike manner, he will never be
entrusted with a creation of his own, worlds without end. 19
So there is risk
involved: “The rule over the world is in the hand of God,” says Ben Sirach,
“and at the right time He sets over it one that is worthy”; but if that rule is
ever exercised in an arbitrary or arrogant manner, it is quickly taken away and
given to someone else. 20
“If you fail in your duty,” God tells Adam, “the
beasts over which you ruled shall rise up against you, for you have not kept my
commandment;” 21 and all creatures are quick to recognize the hand of the
oppressor and impostor.
Some of the profoundest human commentary is
contained in the vast and ancient corpus literature of the animal fables, a
protest literature in which the beasts bring accusation against the human race
for their shabby performance in the days of their probation. 22
They are,
moreover, responsible for more than their own survival, “For by God’s rule for
the animals, if humanity perishes, then all perish; but if man lives, then all
may live.” 23 What kills men destroys other forms of life as well, and having
dragged them down with us in the Fall (“On account of thee,” they say, “our
natures have been transformed” 24 ), we are answerable for them: “The Lord will
not judge a single animal for its treatment of man, but He will adjudge the
souls of men towards their beasts in this world, for men have a special place.”
25
A familiar early Jewish and Christian teaching was that the animals will
appear at the bar of God’s judgment to accuse those humans who have wronged
them. 26
“Happy is he who glorifies all the works of the Lord, but cursed is he
who offends the creation of the Lord; for nothing will go unnoticed and
unrecorded.” 27
Jesus referred to God’s intimate concern for all when he said
of the sparrows, “not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6; Matt.
10:29), and has declared in these last days: “
I the Lord … make every man
accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings, which I have made and
prepared for my creatures” (D&C 104:13).
The traditions that Adam dwelt with beasts in the
preexistence, and that the animals will accuse man at the judgment, call
attention to the ancient teaching, restored in this dispensation, that animals
have spirits. “The spirits of all beasts have their proper paradise in the
great plan of things, and at the judgment all the spirits of beasts will accuse
man.” 28
G. R. Driver has recently called attention to an
important but forgotten teaching: “Few, if any, readers of the Old Testament
seem to have noticed that, as our text stands and as it can only be read
without violating normal standards of interpretation, they are committed to the
strange doctrine of resurrection not only of man and of birds and beasts but
also of … ‘gliding things innumerable’ which swim in the sea.” 29
Modern
revelation confirms this: “For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I
have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the
earth. … in heaven created I them. …” (Moses 3:5.) “Every tree … that is
pleasant to the sight of man … became also a living soul. For it was spiritual in
the day that I created it. …” (Moses 3:9).
“Always keep in view,” Brigham Young exhorts us,
“that the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms—the earth and its
fulness—will all, except the children of man, abide their creation—the law by
which they were made, and will receive their exaltation.” 30
We are all going
to move together into the eternities, and even now look forward to “heaven, the
paradise of God, the happiness of man, and of beast, and of creeping things,
and of the fowls of the air; that which is spiritual being in the likeness of
that which is temporal; … the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, and
also the spirit of beast, and every other creature which God has created”
(D&C 77:2).
What an admonition to proceed with reverence and care! It is
only because the Latter-day Saints are ignorant of these things, according to
President Young, that God has not already cursed them for their brutal and
callous treatment of God’s other creatures. 31
Normative Judaism and Christianity, following the
lead of Aristotle and the doctors of Alexandria, have always rejected and
resented the idea that animals might in any degree be classed with men, who
alone, according to the perennial doctrine of the schools, enjoy the powers of
speech and reason, the mark of divinity that sets them uniquely and absolutely
apart. “Man is bound to treat dumb animals kindly and abstain from unnecessary
(sic) cruelty,” an eminent churchman has recently written, “not because these
animals possess any real rights (for only intelligent beings can have real
rights) but because they are creatures of God.” 32 The Latter-day Saints, on
the other hand, “have divine knowledge that they [animals] think … and reason”
33 and do possess real rights, “For all things have an equal right to live!” as
President Joseph F. Smith would say. 34
We are told that early Christian groups
avoided the eating of meat, “not as the flesh of irrational beasts, but as
belonging to creatures having rational souls.” 35
Schopenhauer observed that
the two most serious defects of Christian teaching are
(1) the denial of
spirits to all creatures but man, and
(2) the denial of life to all worlds but this one.
These closely related doctrines have formed the common ground on which
fundamentalism and scientism have joined hands, the former horrified at the
thought of being related to lower creatures than man, the latter scorning any
suggestion that we might be related to higher ones. 36
Cain’s Dominion.
God and Satan both presented plans of dominion to
Adam and then to his son Cain.
The father chose one plan, the son the other.
It
must be admitted that the second proposition was a very tempting offer and very
skillfully presented—“Satan tempted me” is the stock excuse for giving in.
But
we must go back to Adam to see how clever the thing really is.
The story is told not only of Adam but of the
other great patriarchs as well. Noah was confronted by the same party with the
same proposition while he was working in his garden after the flood. 37 Abraham
too had an Eden and an altar, and while he was once calling upon God in prayer,
Satan suddenly showed up with an insolent, “Here I am!” and proceeded with his
sales pitch. 38
Moses like Christ was tempted on a mountain, by the same person
and with the same proposal: “If thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” 39
Adam is thus only the first; the elements of the story that follow are found in
various combinations among the many texts of the growing Adam literature that
is coming to light in our generation. The texts often take dramatic form
indicative of ritual origin. 40
As Adam was praying one day, runs the story, a
distinguished gentleman appeared on the scene and engaged him in conversation.
There was nothing of the hippy or tramp about the stranger; he was
well-dressed, and came to Adam with “cunning and smooth talk, as a true friend
genuinely concerned for his welfare.” 41
He began with some harmless
generalities—the weather and the scenery: it was, he observed, a most glorious
and beautiful world. This, however, by way of leading up to his next point,
which was that he happened to be the owner and proprietor of it all. Yes sir,
as far as the eye could see it was all his, and he tolerated no nonsense in it:
nobody dared make trouble where he was in charge. This was all hokum, of course;
“Satan never owned the earth; he never made a particle of it;” said Brigham
Young, “his labor is not to create, but to destroy.” 42
But to demonstrate his
authority, when three strangers (usually described as angels) 43 appeared on
the scene at this moment, he at once challenged them as trespassers, asking
them if they had any money. He explained to Adam that everything in his world
could be had for money, 44 and then got down to business. For the fellow was
all business, a person of integrity, ready to keep his part of an agreement
(the agreement always turns out to be a trap for the other party), pious and
God-fearing, 45 dedicated to hard work—he works, in fact, “like a demon.” He
was there to offer Adam the chance of a lifetime to buy in on a scheme that
would give him anything he wanted in this world. It was an ingenious and simple
self-financing operation in which one would buy power with wealth and then more
wealth with the power, until one might end up owning and controlling
everything.
The initial capital?
It was right under their feet!
You begin by
taking the treasures of the earth, and by exchanging them for the services of
important people in key positions; you end up running everything your way.
What
if your rule is one of blood and terror? Better to rule in hell, as Milton’s
Satan puts it, then to be ruled in heaven!
Satan’s tempting proposition has been the theme
of much popular legend and great literature.
A transitional figure between the
ritual and the literary is Pluto or Hades, the god of wealth: “All the riches
of gems and precious metals hidden beneath the earth are his, but he owns no
property above the ground. …” 46
So he brutally kidnaps the fair Proserpine,
who represents all the beauty and harmony of nature, to establish his claim
over the earth 47 ; but the marriage is barren—Pluto can intimidate and coerce,
but like his Egyptian counterpart Seth he can neither beget nor create; what he
buys with the treasures of the earth is nothing but a rule of blood and horror.
48
But Greek comedy and Roman satire depict with agonizing frankness the
irresistible success of Pluto’s program in a decadent world. In Aristophanes’s
last play, Plutus, Hermes the messenger of Zeus comes to earth as a prophet to
denounce mankind for having turned from the worship of heaven to the worship of
wealth or Pluto: “You have all committed a great sin,” he says, “and must be
destroyed.”
But seeing how well the people are living he soon decides to change
sides and asks for a job with the establishment; next, the high priest of Zeus,
finding himself unemployed, is forced to apply to Pluto for a job; what is his
surprise when he finds none other than Zeus himself now working in the front
office of Pluto Inc.! 49
The cynical conclusion is that no one can resist Satan’s
bargain, and in the history of the world very few people have.
The first to
accept was Cain, who “loved Satan more than God,” though at the latter’s advice
he continued to make offerings to the Lord. (Moses 5:18, 21.) The “great
secret” of success that he learned from his new teacher was that he could get
anything in this world by the calculated use of force, with no need to be
ashamed since it could all be done in the sacred name of freedom: instead of
being appalled at the blood on his hands, Cain “gloried in that which he had
done, saying: I am free; surely the flocks [wealth, pecus, Vieh] of my brother
falleth into my hands” (Moses 5:31–33). Cain slew Abel not, as we like to
think, in a fit of passion but with cold calculation, “for the sake of getting
gain” (Moses 5:50, 38). He was all business.
As for the victim, he was quite
able to take care of himself, and if he failed, that, by the rules of the new
game, was his hard luck: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Significantly enough, when
this forthright, no nonsense economy, unencumbered by enervating
sentimentality, worked against Cain, he straightway became a bleeding heart in
his own behalf, and appealed for the mercy he would not give. “My punishment is
greater than I can bear!” (Gen. 4:13).
In making an example of Cain, God
absolutely forbade the use of Cain’s own methods against him: “Whoever slayeth
thee, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold” (Moses 5:40).
One of the best known teachings of the Jews is
that when man (Israel in particular) falls away from God, all nature becomes
his enemy. 50
Modern revelation confirms this: when all the people became
wicked in Enoch’s day, “the earth trembled, and the mountains fled … and the
rivers of water were turned out of their courses; and the roar of lions was
heard out of the wilderness. …” 51 Just so, in the last days “all the growing
things will be blighted by the … great lawlessness, and plagues will come over
all creatures of all the earth. …” 52 Where people refuse the gospel, according
to Brigham Young, “that land will eventually … become desolate, forlorn, and
forsaken,” as nature refuses her bounties. 53
The explanation of this all-out hostility is
simple. “The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms abide the law of their
Creator; the whole earth and all things pertaining to it, except man, abide the
law of their creation,” while “man, who is the offspring of the Gods, will not
become subject to the most sensible and self-exalting principles.” 54
With all
things going in one direction, men, stubbornly going in the opposite direction,
naturally find themselves in the position of one going the wrong way on the
freeway during rush hour; the struggle to live becomes a fight against nature.
Having made himself allergic to almost everything by the Fall, man is given the
choice of changing his nature so that the animal and vegetable creation will
cease to afflict and torment him, 55 or else of waging a truceless war of
extermination against all that annoys him until he renders the earth completely
uninhabitable.
This second course is Cain’s dominion. Satan,
spitefully determined to destroy everything that God has commanded to live and
multiply, began his earthly career by making war on the birds and fishes and
systematically destroying the animals and trees. This, we are told, was because
he was envious of the beautiful rapport that existed between Adam and the
animals. 56
Next, under the administration of his pupil Cain, all the forests
of the earth rapidly disappeared, while that hero “wandered through the earth
with his bow for 130 years, looking for anything to kill—a human angel of
death.” 57
While Noah refused Satan’s plan to divide up the world and rule with
an iron hand, 58 his sons accepted it, each driving out from his property all
the animals as trespassers, so that the beasts that had loved Noah began to
fear and hate man. 59 In particular, Ham organized secret combinations “to work
iniquity and to shed blood … and after that, they sinned against the beasts and
birds, and all that moves and walks on the earth.” 60
Next Ham’s son Nimrod,
the mighty hunter who boasted that no animal could escape his bow, turned that
bow against men as well as animals and so subdued all things to his will,
ruling all the earth with his inspired violence. He was the mortal enemy and
rival of Abraham, and whereas Abraham gave Adam’s blessing to the beasts,
“Nimrod assembled all the animals and slaughtered them.” 61
This he was able to
do through possession of the garment of the priesthood that had once belonged
to Adam and that Ham had stolen from Noah; seeing him in this garment, all
creatures willingly came and submitted to him, mistaking the dominion of Cain
for the dominion of Adam. 62
From Nimrod, Esau, another hunter, inherited the
garment but lost it to Jacob, from whom it passed down to Moses, who when it
wore out replaced it with a garment of cotton or hair rather than skins to
avoid the shedding of animal blood. 63
These interesting old stories might be dismissed
as literary oddities were it not that the annals and chronicles of real
history, “a continual scene of wickedness and abominations”
(Moro. 2:18), are
completely dominated by the Nimrod type.
“The greatest acts of the mighty men”
proclaim the nature of their dominion: “Before them the earth was a paradise,”
said Joseph Smith, “and behind them a desolate wilderness.” There is another
plan: “The designs of God, on the other hand” are that “the earth shall yield its
increase, resume its paradisean glory, and become the garden of the Lord.” 64
Meanwhile, when “we see all the world trying to lord it over God’s heritage,”
we can be sure that “it is in this spirit that the evil principle and power is
trying to overcome and rule over the divine principle planted here. This
constantly leads the children of men astray.” 65
To render its appeal
irresistible, the program is pushed by a clever rhetoric and high ethical tone;
Babylon has never wanted for dedicated and highly paid apologists to justify
the ways of those who “seek for power, and authority, and riches” (3 Ne. 6:15;
Hel. 13:26–28).
Man’s dominion is a call to service, not a
license to exterminate.
It is precisely because men now prey upon each other
and shed the blood and waste the flesh of other creatures without need that
“the world lieth in sin.” (D&C 49:19–21.) Such, at least, is the teaching
of the ancient Jews and of modern revelation.
````````````
Notes
1. The
Septuagint renders the two words “rule throughout” (katakyrieusate) and “be
first” or “govern” (archete). Both the Hebrew words have the two main ideas of
(1) bringing pressure to bear, and (2) treading the earth and walking about on
it. Very ancient parallels suggest that the original idea was that of the new
master of the earth going about on his royal rounds of inspection and
discovery, as we read in the Egyptian Coffin Texts, Spells 80, 132, 136.
2.
Clementine Recognitions III, 61 (Migne, Patrol Graec. I, 1308f).
3.
Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, p. 168.
4. N.
Sed, “Une cosmologie Juive,” Rev. des Etudes Juives, vol. 124 (1965), pp.
48–51, for the text.
5. M. J.
bin Gorion, Sagen der Juden (Frankfurt, 1913), I, 83, 354, (for sources).
6.
Brigham Young History, s.v. April 26, 1846 (Church Historical Department).
7. Sefer
Yeshira, p. 148f.
8. Rab.
Nehemiah, in M. G. Braude, The Midrash on Psalms (Yale University, 1959), p. 8.
9. Bin
Gorion, S. J., II, 137, 424, citing a number of sources.
10.
Zohar, 27a, 57b, 58a, 93b.
11. 4
Esdras 8:47.
12.
Discussed by us in Western Political Quarterly, vol. 4 (1951), pp. 235–44.
13. 4
Esdras 8:47.
14.
Braude, Midr. Ps. 37:1 (pp. 422–3); Midr. Prov. 23:17a; bin Gorion, II, 268f,
428.
15. Vita
Adae et Evae 8:3 (in R. H. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old
Testament [Oxford, 1964], II, p. 135).
16. Bin
Gorion, S.J., I, 288.
17. “Ever
since Cain slew Abel, the animals have followed the example of Man,” according
to the Pure Brethren of Basra, text in F. Dieterici, Thier und Mensch (Leipzig,
1881). p. 36; cf. A. Vaillant, Livre des Secrets d‘Henoch (Paris, 1952), p.
57f, chap. 15 of the text. The teaching is attested to in very early times: L.
Kakosy, in Acta Orientalia, vol. 17 (1964), p. 205.
18.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 71.
19.
Discussed in BYU Studies, Summer 1972, cf. The Gospel of Philip, 112:14f, and
E. Brunner-Traut, in Ztschr, f. aeg. Sprache, vol. 80 (1955), pp. 27, 29.
20. Ben
Sirach, 10:4.
21. Book
of Adam and Eve, 24:4, in R. H. Charles, op. cit., p. 147.
22.
Perhaps the most impressive treatment of the theme is the entire volume of F.
Dieterici, above, no. 18.
23. Bin
Gorion, S.J., I, 198.
24.
Apocal. of Moses, 11:2; Jubilees III, 28; R. Eisler, lesous Basileus, I, 523.
25.
Secrets of Enoch 58:4f (in R. H. Charles, op. cit. II, 464); cf. the Vaillant
text, chap. XV.
26. Ibid.
chap. XV.
27.
Vaillant, Secrets d’Henoch, chap. XIII, pp. 46, 55, and chap. XV, p. 57.
28. Ibid.
chap XV.
29. G. R.
Driver, in Journal of Semitic Studies, vol. 7 (1962), p. 12ff.
30. JD
8:191.
31. JD
15:227.
32. F. J.
Connell, in American Ecclesiastical Review, vol. 146 (1962), p. 270f.
33.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Man’s Origin and Destiny, p. 194.
34.
Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Teachings (1971 Melchizedek Priesthood Manual), I, 372,
cf. 337–9.
35.
Apostolic Constitutions, 6:10; Philastrius in Migne, Patrol. Lat. 12: 1209,
1214.
36. On
the problem of preserving man’s uniqueness and dignity, A. Lovejoy, The Great
Chain of Being (Harper Torchbooks, 1960), p. 121ff. Synesius, in Patrol. Graec.
66:1289, 1292, recognizes both upward and downward relationships.
37. Midr.
Rab. Noah 36:3; bin Gorion, I, 228.
38.
Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews, I, 269f; Genesis Apocryphon, p. 23; Testament of
Abrahamin, Jewish Quarterly Rev., vol. 7 (1895), p. 584f.
39. Moses
1:12–19; Luke 4:6–8.
40. The
writer is preparing an extensive study on the subject. Some of the old sources
describing the confrontation of Adam and Satan are the Testament of Adam,
various “Adam Books,” the Lives of Adam and Eve, the Cave of Treasures,
Flavius, Encomium of Demetrius, the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan,
sources in bin Gorion I, 92ff, 254ff, Manichaean Hymns, Tha’labi, Testament of
Abraham, Apocalypse of Moses, Slavic Adam and Eve, Secrets of Enoch, Bp.
Theodosius on the Abbaton, the Precious Jewel, Midrash, etc.
41. JQR
7:584f.
42. JD
10:320.
43. They
are the “Sent Ones” who come to instruct Adam.
44. The
theme is dramatically treated in the Testament of Job, chaps. vi, vii,
xxii–xxiii, where Satan says, “For money you can have anything you want!”
45. To
Moses he even claims to be the Son of God, Moses 1:19; he speaks only with
reverence of the Father as his father.
46. R.
Graves, The Greek Myths (Penguin Books, 1955), 31e (I, 122).
47.
Homer, Hymn to Demeter, lines 16–19ff.
48.
Graves, 31f; on Seth, E. Hornung, Orientalish Litteraturzeitung, vol. 65 (19 ),
p. 19; S. Schott, Sieg ueber Seth, p. 18.
49. G.
Murray, Aristophanes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1933).
50.
Discussed by O. Holtzmann in Ztschr. f. Neutest, Wissenschaft, vol. 11 (1910),
pp. 231, 226f.
51. Moses
7:13; Zohar, Vayera, 97a; bin Gorion, I, 153.
52.
Apocal. of Abraham, 29:16.
53.
Millennial Star, vol 38 (1876), p. 344.
54. JD
9:246.
55. When
man changes his nature, “every animal and creeping thing shall be filled with
peace; and the soil of the earth will bring forth in its strength.” JD 1:203.
56.
Psalms of Thomas, I, 35f; bin Gorion I, 151, on the destruction of the forests;
ibid., 151, on Satan’s jealousy of the animals.
57. Bin
Gorion, I, 151, 148ff.
58. Midr.
Rab., Noah 36:3.
59. Bin
Gorion, I, 226.
60.
Jubilees, VII, 14, 23.
61.
Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. Nimrod.
62. Pirke
Rab. Eleazer, chap. xi; Zohar, Noah 73b.
63. R.
Eisler, op. cit., II, 34.
64.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 248.
65. JD
9:107.
