The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris.

  • Thaddeus Mason Harris
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    destruction of all the other animals must mean of that country or places adjacent; for I adopt the hypothesis that the flood was as extensive only as human population *: |. Nor is the expression in Gen. vi. 47, “ all flesh under heaven,” contrary to this inter- pretation. Comp. Deut. ii. 25. The difficulty on this subject will be greatly relieved by an attention to the original of the passage. ' Our English version says, “the Lord Gop brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them?” but the word ‘ them” has no authority from the Hebrew text; the pronoun is in the singular number, not plural; and the next sentence expresses this more fully, the words being, not as rendered in our version, ‘* whatsoever Adam called every living creature,” [there is no word in the text for “every,” | but, whatsoever Adam called the living creature, that was the name of 1r. * [n this way, as Dr. SHuckFrorp suggests [Account of the Creation, &c. p. 38], * Gop was pleased to instruct and exer- cise Adam in the use of speech, to show him how he might use sounds of his own to be the names of things; calling him to give a name to one creature, and then another; and hereby putting him upon seeing how words might. be made for this purpose. Adam understood the instruction, and practised according to it:” and accordingly, in the progress of his life, as the creatures came under his observation, he used. this ability, and gave names to them all. © After he had. been called to this trial and exercise of his voice, we find. him able to give name to the woman, and likewise to all other things as his occasions required. Moreover, the giving names seems to imply examination, or at least time and opportunity to mark their respective characters, so as to give them distinctive appellations. ‘Thus the original Hebrew names of many of the beasts and birds of that region are apparently formed by onomatopaia, or in imitation of their natural cries or notes: so the general names given to the tamer animals, sheep and kine, was MNS BEME, in which sound the lowing of the one, and the bleating of the other, seem to be imitated ; so the name of the common ass ty ORUD, and of the wild ass ND. PRA, resembles their braying. ‘The name of the raven, 3*y OREB, was doubtless taken from its hoarse croaking ; of the sparrow, 9X TsIPPOR, from its chirping ; of the partridge, $9) QUERA, from the note she uses in calling her young ; and the murmur of the turtle-dove, is: exactly expressed by its Hebrew, name, 31 TUR, and evidently gave rise to it. Many other in- stances of the kind might be produced; but these are sufficient to show, at least the great probability, that some of the first. 3 Those who feel any hesitation in admitting this, may have their objections removed by consulting SrttLINGFLEET's Origines Sacre, book iii. ch, iv. vol. ii. and SurLIVAN's View of Nature, vol. ii. p. 258. E)