Part 2 (2/2)

A nice speci may be found in Dr Sy usually turn for help in regard to any difficulties in connection with the sacred fetish they call the word of God Smith says:

”The most probable explanation seems to be, that at the caravanserai either Moses or Gershom was struck hat seemed to be a mortal illness In some way, not apparent to us, this illness was connected by Zipporah with the fact that her son had not been circumcised She instantly performed the rite, and threw the sharp instrument, stained with the fresh blood, at the feet of her husband, exclaiony of a mother's anxiety for the life of her child, 'A bloody husband thou art, to cause the death of my son' Then when the recovery from the illness took place (whether of Moses or Gershoain, 'A bloody husband still thou art, but not so as to cause the child's death, but only to bring about his circu that thisto nores the priment can be interpreted One little fact is sufficient to refute it The Jews never use the word _Khathan_, ie

The word room, but not husband The Revised Version, which always follows as closely as possible the Authorised Version, translates ”a bridegroom of blood” But this makes it evident that Moses was not addressed, for no woroo of the incident--that by the blood covenant of circumcision, Zipporah entered into kinshi+p with Jehovah and thereby claimed his friendshi+p instead of ennise the family bond or ties of blood could be relied on Herbert Spencer, in his _Ceremonial Institutions_, contends that bloody sacrifices arise ”fro a sacred bond between living persons by partaking of each other's blood: the derived conception, being that those who give soering near, effect with it a union which on the one side implies submission, and on the other side friendliness”

Dr T K Oheyne, in his article on Circumcision in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, takes the story of Moses at the inn as a proof that circuinally not 'husband,' but 'a newly admitted member of the family' So that 'a khathan of blood' e, but by circu confirmed by the derived sense of the Arabic _khatana_, ”to circue of puberty

The English of the Catholic Douay version is not so good as the Authorised Version, but it brings us nearer the realof the story It runs thus:

”And when he was in his journey, in the inn, the Lord met him and would have killed him Immediately Sephora took a very sharp stone, and circumcised the foreskin of her son, and touched his feet, and said: A bloody spouse art thou to o after she had said: A bloody spouse art thou unto me, because of the circumcision”

Here it is evidently the feet of the Lord that are touched, as was the ancient practice in rendering tribute, and we see that the foreskin was a propitiatory offering

Dr Tru book on the Blood Covenant, says: ”The Hebreord _Khathan_ has as its root idea, the binding through severing, the covenanting by blood; an idea that is in the e-rite, as the Orientals view it, and that is in the rite of circumcision also” Dr True, and consequently that italready married, did not need to enter into the blood covenant with Moses, but with Jehovah, so that to her and hers the Lord ht henceforth be friendly

We do not make much of the inn There were no public-houses between Midian and Egypt Probably the reference is only to a resting-place or caravanserai We would, therefore, render the passage thus:

The Lord ht to kill him Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at [made it touch] his [the Lord's] feet, and she said: Surely a kinsh blood] art thou to me So he [the Lord] let hie, in connection with the place where it is inserted, indicated that circumcision was a substitute for child sacrifice Any way, it may safely be said that the n that his ancestry worshi+pped a deity who sought to assassinate Moses, and was only to be appeased by an offering of blood

THE BRAZEN SERPENT, AND SALVATION BY SIMILARS

Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy, is usually credited with the introduction of the s are cured by like Those ould dispute his originality need not refer to the ancient saying fa that bit you”; they reat source of all inspiration--the holy Bible

The book of Numbers contains several recipes which would be invaluable if divine grace would enable us to re-discover and correctly employ them There is, for instance, the holy water described in chap v, the effects of which will enable any jealous husband to discover if his wife has been faithful to hiuilt enable him to dispense with the services of Sir James Hannen

But perhaps the most curious prescription in the book is that recorded in the twenty-first chapter The Israelites wandering about for forty years, without travelling forty ot tired of the heavenly manna hich the ”universal provider” supplied them They looked back on the fried fish, which they ”did eat in Egypt freely,” the cucuarlic, wherein the Jewish stoe of diet Upon reyptian lentils rather than celestial mushrooms, the Lord of his tender mercy sent ”fiery serpents” (the word is properly translated ”seraphim”), and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died Then the people prayed Moses to intercede for theainst the Lord and against thee;” and Jahveh, in direct opposition to his own commandment, directed Moses to ”make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live” Moses accordingly made a serpent of brass, we presuyptians, which had the desired effect

Instead of being but one ht immediately cured the wounds, and these seraphi beaten by their brazen brother, skedaddled Of course it may be contended that a seraph is neither in the likeness of anything in heaven above, in earth beneath, or in the water, or fire, under the earth, and that consequently Moses in no wise infringed the Decalogue

Commentators have been puzzled to account for this evident relic of serpent worshi+p in a religion so abhorrent of idolatry as that of the Jews These gentry usually shut their eyes very close to the uided people were always falling into the idolatries of the surrounding nations Noe know that the Babylonians, in coreat nations of antiquity, worshi+pped the serpent It has been thought, indeed, that the name Baal is an abbreviation of Ob-el, ”the serpent God” In the Apocryphal book of Bel and the Dragon, to be found in every Catholic Bible, it says (v 23): ”And in that saon, which they of Babylon worshi+pped And the king said unto Daniel, Wilt thou also say that this is of brass? Lo, he liveth, he eateth and drinketh, thou canst not say that he is no living God; therefore worshi+p him” Serpent worshi+p is indeed so widely spread, and of such great antiquity, that it has been conjectured to have sprung from the antipathy between our end the brazen serpent is benevolent, but more usually that reptile represents the evil principle Thus a story in the Zendavesta (which is clearly allied to, and ested that in Genesis) says that Ahriman assumed a serpent's form in order to destroy the first of the huly poisoned In the Saddu we read: ”When you kill serpents you shall repeat the Zendavesta, whereby you will obtain great merit; for it is the same as if you had killed so many devils” It is curious that the serpent which is the evil genius of Genesis is the good genius in Nu himself to it (John iii

14) An early Christian sect, the Ophites, found serpent worshi+pping quite consistent with their Christianity

It see been made by Moses, was a priestly invention to account for its being an object of idolatry as xviii 4, it orshi+pped down to the time of Hezekiah, that is 700 years after the time of Moses Hezekiah, we are told, broke the brazen serpent in pieces, but it ain, for the identical article is still to be seen, for a consideration, in the Church of St Aard the brazen serpent as a talise of astrology Others say it was a forainst disease Others again declare it was only set up _in terroreainst the wall as a warning Rationalising co by the n-post to a ca over an aether pervert the text, and e The resemblance of the object set up was of the essence of the cure, as may be seen in 1 Sa like, instead of being a modern discovery is a very ancient superstition The old medical books are full of prescriptions, or rather charnised principles in savage s like each other, however superficially, affect each other in a mystic way, and possess identical properties Thus in Melanesia, according to Mr Codrington,

”a stone in the shape of a pig, of a bread fruit, of a yas prolific, and fertilised bread, fruit trees, and yam plots

See Myths in Medicine and Old Time Doctors, by Alfred C

Garratt, MD