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by Jacob I. M. Falkenau
In presenting our readers this month with the first part
of the subjoined learned dissertation, we must express our regret that
the author has not applied his extensive reading to an elucidation of an
entire passage of Scripture, where there are different opinions
entertained, rather than to a single phrase, which, important as it is,
presents no point for the establishment of any doctrine of religion.
Nevertheless, we hope that Mr. F. will see the propriety of furnishing
us at a future day with contributions more suitable to our pages than a
verbal criticism such as he has now favoured us with; inasmuch as the
greater portion of our readers must be first impressed with the
necessity of a critical study of the Scriptures, before they can relish
an extensive dissertation on a single sentence.
In saying this we by no means wish to disparage the
value of the exposition of the very difficult text which Mr. F. has
elucidated; only to direct him to subjects of more extensive usefulness
at the present time.
With these brief remarks, we leave Mr. F.
to speak for himself; merely stating that in some respects, we do not
altogether share his views, chiefly with regard to the Hiphil
signification of the verb חלל, and the original
meaning of the root to be hollow;
since this signification is, as far as we can recollect at present, no
where found in the Bible, and it is not likely that the original meaning
of a root should first occur in post-biblical writings, such as the
Mishna and Talmud. In other respects, we share fully in, or are
instructed by, what Mr. F. advances in his Hebrew Researches.
Note on Genesis ch. iv. 26: 'אז הוחל לקרא בשם ה "Then began men to call upon the name of the
Lord." Critical definition of the Hebrew verbs חלל
and קרא, the compound terms
קרא שם and קרא בשם; notes
on, Sam. 14. 35, Judges 13. 16; reasons for the introduction of a new
verb תחל instead of חלל;
criticisms on the Bible translation of Isaiah 40. 26, and Psalms 147. 4.
'אז הוחל לקרא בשם ה
"Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." The English version
here, however supported by some authorities, is not only at variance,
but even in contradiction with the greater part of the biblical
commentators, the Midrash and the ancient Targum; since, with all the
last mentioned, the Hebrew text is considered as a statement that "then
mankind had profaned the name of the Lord."* In any Hebrew lexicon one
may find that חלל signifies, to begin and
to profane. Guided by this, it is easy to comprehend that the word הוחל (the Hophal species of חלל) in the
original text of the Bible, has been considered, in the passage in
question, as decidedly belonging to the one or the other of these two
significations.
Supposing that in this case, as in many
others, the plain original text, critically analysed and defined, will
be the best demonstration, and that all the rest can be left to the
reader's own mind and inquiry, we will only attempt here to analyse the
text, and to present a critical definition of its verbs
חלל and
קרא, together with the compound terms of the
latter, קרא שם
and קרא בש ם.
One of our latest lexicographers on the
verb
חלל, (with which we here commence,) though
seemingly so near ours with regard to the primitive significations of
the root, is still, in the mode and principles of derivation, greatly at
variance, or rather inconsistent with what we suppose it to be; it is,
therefore, that some account of what we hold to be a correct view is
deemed necessary, which, serving at the same time as a preliminary, will
occupy here its proper place.
Turning to Prof. Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon, we see there,
as in many others, the root חלל defined with four
primitive significations.
| 1, to pierce, |
verb active |
(durchbohren,) |
| 2, to dissolve, |
id. |
(auflösen,) |
| 3, to open, |
id. |
(öffnen,) |
| 4, to rend, |
id. |
(zerreissen,) |
and thence are derived many others, as to wound,
&c., &c. We think, however, that none of all these primitives,
nor the derivative to wound, will be admitted to answer for the
root
חלל, on the following grounds:
Neither the Bible, nor any of the subsequent Hebrew writings, offers one
instance which represents by that root plainly any one of these
primitives, and this being the case, we have but to call them all
imaginary.The derivative to wound (to hurt) is evidently
denied in the Bible to either form of that root, as a verb (participle)
Ezek. 28.9, 32.26, (the only instance where it occurs in that form,
besides the one of our next objection); and as a noun, Gen. 34.27; Numb.
31.8, which plainly denote but a slain, a dead person,
excluding even a deadly wounded. So also, Numb. 19.16, 18;
31.19; Deut. 21.1, 3, 6.
As the simplest idea of a verb is expressed in its
simplest form--the Kal species--so the verb חלל,
in the way it is here defined, ought to have in that species an
active transitive sense, and not a passive one, which latter
it decidedly has in Ps. 109.22.
To assign to one root a number of significations, so
loosely connected with each other, serves little to define it, and
rather renders its meaning more doubtful and unsettled. All these
obstacles we may remove at once, and therefore maintain, that the root
חלל has but one primitive--but one
derivative signification. It represents primitively the idea of
hollowness,
either as a noun with its proper vowels
חָלָל, or as a verb with the regular vowels of
verbs
חָלַל, Syr. and Chald. the same הַלַל: to be hollow; (its consonants corresponding entirely with
some modern languages: חלל will give, by
substituting
ה for ח, the same form
as the Engl. hollow, and German. hohl.) In this, its
primitive signification, it is of great frequency in the Jewish Prayers,
the Mishnah, and the later Hebrew writings. The cavity of tubes and
vessels of the animal body, the cavity of the organs of digestion, &c.,
חָלָל; each cavity of the heart חלל הלב, and every cavity of the body חלל הגוף;
this is the only and most correct signification so often met with on
those occasions.
In the Bible, however, this root is transferred from
the primitive
(for which the Bible has נבב) to the
derivative
signification, by way of figurative language--a most frequent and
principal feature in oriental etymology;--and the figure itself is also
quite oriental--human body and soul are tropically represented; the
profane matter--the body--is the exterior; the sacred living
soul--the interior of man; a slain--is a person hollowed,
made void of that interior, a hollow body (no soul within)
חָלָל; hence it never applies to any inferior
animal. Analogical to this idea is the Engl. corpse: a body
deprived of its soul, and therefore more properly applied to a human
being, whilst "carcass" is said of other animals; Lat. corporo:
to form into a body--hence corpus, homo 'inanimatus,' a corpse.
The verb חלל is now in regular
order a neuter
in the Kal species; חָלַל
(Ps. 109.22,) to be hollow, viz. to be slain,* but becomes an active
verb by the power of the Pi'ël species חִלֵל.
And hence the figure is more extensively continued: every thing holy is
considered "body and soul." Nor is it the matter--the body--the
exterior--bit it is an
ideal interior--a sanctified
spirit--a soul that is unlawfully taken and violated by
profanation; hence
חִלֵל
"to profane" and "to slay." and thus
חִלֵל
means "to profane" the sacred rights of a covenant, viz., to break a
covenant--"to profane" the sacred chastity of woman, viz., to prostitute
a woman--"to profane" a vineyard, that is, to make its fruits unholy
by redeeming them in the fourth year, to be then eaten anywhere, instead
of "unredeemed;" "in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be
holy,"
&c. &c., Levit. 19.24, and be eaten as such only in the holy city of the
temple; even as the tithe (Levit. 27.30; Deut. 14.23-25.)
The root חלל, as a verb or a
noun, even in the one signification, of "slaying," bears some affinity
to the other of "profanation," since it stands not for dying a natural
death, nor by the act of criminal murder, but it mostly applied to life
taken in war and battle, and intimates "profane violation of the sacred
human life."
The Hiph'il species הֵחֵל,
"to begin," interferes nowise with what has been said above, when
in accordance with others, we derive it from the primitive idea of
"hollow"--"opening," hence "beginning." But, from the reason to be given
immediately, we must claim for it a compound derivation; and thus we
say, that
הֵחֵל, retaining the primitive significations of
its root, connects with them that of another, חוּל,
gigno--to procreate--to generate--to begin. And in fact this
latter, as a bilateral root חל, is but one and
the same with the trilateral חלל.
The etymology of the Engl. "to begin," we might trace, in the same
way, from the radical "gen," in gender, genesis, genealogy, generate,
&c.; hence "begen" commuted into "to begin."
What we meant to advance is, that in going through all
the passages where this word occurs in the Bible, we shall discover that
it never refers to any subject except those relating to the primitive
meaning of its root;--profanation or slaying. It is,
therefore, only employed to denote actions impairing holiness, religion,
or morality, or those relating to slaughter, war, and similar acts; and
thus by the evidence of the Bible we have to draw the conclusion that
החל never is a pure and simple representative of
the Engl. "to begin," to enter upon any thing.
It is directly connected with, or bears relation to
some action of
slaughter, war, battle, destruction, calamity, or suffering
in the following passages: Gen. 41.54; Numb. 17.11, 12 (Engl. Bible
16.46, 47;) Deut. 2.24, 31; Judges 10.18; 13.5, 25; 16.19; 20.31, 39,
40; 1 Sam. 3.2.12, "When I begin" (punishment and destruction),
&c.--(not as Gesenius takes it);--2 Kings 10.32; 15.37; Jerem. 25.29;
Ezek. 9.6; Jon. 3.4; Nehem. 4.1; Esther 6.13; 9.23. And in all the rest
it speaks of some profaneness, wickedness, transgression, injustice,
impaired holiness or religious laws, or of condescension
of the Lord; as Genesis 6.1, see 5; 9.20, "and Noah 'began,'" &c., "and
was drunken;: 10.8, and 11.6; and 1 Chron. 1.10; (see Josephus' History
of the Antiquities of the Jews, vol. 1. b. ch. 4.;) Gen. 44.12; Numb.
25.1; Deut 2.25, 31; 3.24; 16.9--that day terminated the holy
interdiction of eating new corn (Levit. 23.10, 14, 15); Josh. 3.7;
Judges 16.22; see 17; 1 Sam. 14.35, 'אתו החל לבנות טובה
לה :* "It was he
who began to build an altar unto the Lord," that is, with him, as the
king, began the unholy period--החל--of
building altars unto the Lord--to sacrifice upon--not "to look at," למראה--Josh. 22.10. With the reign of King Saul (Samuel was his
contemporary) commenced the suspension of that holy law which
interdicted to sacrifice at any place but the tabernacle; Levit. 17.4;
Deut 12.; whilst this was in force during the government of all the
preceding judges until the last--the priest Eli--died, and the ark of
God was taken, a period little short of four centuries, from the time
the tabernacle was set up in Shiloh.† Gideon's altar and sacrifices were
but a momentary dispensation induced by divine vision, Judges 6.25-28.
So was Manoah's sacrifices, and the phrase of Judges 13.16, we translate
accordingly thus: "and if thou silt offer a burnt-offering unto the
Lord, thou mayest offer it;" which is fully supported by the
disjunctive tipha (tercha) under the word 'לה.
According to the English, German, and other versions 'לה
should have the conjunctive "muna'h," in order to render it more
separated from the preceding עלה, and connected
with the following
תעלנה. On other occasions we read in Scripture,
"Every man did that which was right in his own eyes," (Ibid. 21.25.) 1
Sam. 22.15, see 13; 1 Chron. 27.24; see 21.1-8; 2 Chron 29.27; 31.21;
(see the commentators;) farther, 34.3; "he was yet a minor;" 31.7, 10,
(see commentators.) It is thought sufficient here to point out those
passages most strongly supporting our position, and to leave others
unnoticed. In both classes, however, of the foregoing quotations, taken
together, we have at once presented a number of passages where the form הֵחֵל
occurs in the Bible, adding some such short remarks as were deemed
necessary to facilitate the reader's own inquiry.
(To be continued.) |
