The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-12-21
NASHVILLE, December Z, 1867.

| 10 -.
DEAE SIR have received your kind favor OF Sc
instant and the accompanying pamphlet nreply t'
''Arcl' by ''Opician," for which please accept my
| best thanks. B; this mMl sen YOU DR.. Robert A
Young reply, with The kind respects Of the young
man who has had ii printed by j. W. NlcEerran
fear from what he says, that it was an u1iortu'
nate investment forh him. Ifyou thinkapy copies can
be sod in Charleston, to save him from loss, please
address him on the subject.
[ have read 'Speculu.n.' and my only astonlsh-
mont from reading that, and D.. j. L. Girardeau
and DR.. Young is, that such an amount OF iSno-
rance-rank, stark ignorance-cculd be found
ander cover OF DDS. Inotice your note on page
%, Upon thy belly shalt thou go, ETC.. and what
1t saws. Please look over the words Of the curse,
as stated in our Bible. and as being pronounced
by God on the serpent e? and you will not fall TO
observe the following facts: U that the curse
vas one of degradation only-"Thou art cursed
bove all cattle and above every beast OF the
aeld;" and (2) as in our Bible goes on TO say.
Upon thy belly shalt thou 90 and cat dust all the
lavs OF thy liie" (3 That this serpent had to cat
20 live-cat dust; a. That nc WAS capable OF en-
rnity; 90 That he should propagate his species on
earth; (G) and that he should die-"eat dust all
the days of thy life. Docs this refer to the devil:
He is 10 be punished in everlasting fire--he don't
at dust all the days Of his life, neither does any
serpent-he don't propagate his species by mar
riaee or otherwise on earth. God said, Il will put
cnmity between thy seed and her seed" etc., etc.
How then are we to understand it? The words
upon thy belly shalt thou CO. is an Interpolation
in the manuscript from which our Bible was trans
lated. How do 1 know it? know it from the
following facts: ~ The Hebrew word Nacash
translated Serpent don't meant serpent and
never did ~ The root means "to see, ITO
gaze" ''to look atcntvely," ''to observe closely
Now is rule laid down by phllologists and lex
icographers, that any meaning claimed for de
riyativc word, the principle of that moaning must
DC foun, in the root-e. g.-you have two apple
trees. one produces sour and the other sweet ap-
pies. Now, the principle that makes the one sour
md the other sweet must be contained in the root.
Now, "serpent" is not contained in tho root, nor
is it in reality in the derivative Nacash. How then,
camo it to be translated ''serpent?" Simply flom
the mistake of the copyst above referred to, in
iuterpolating "upon thy belly shalt thou SO" and
as nothing went on the belly but serpent, our
translators without further examination of other
Ms forced "serpsnt" as the translation, just as
they have forced into modern Hebrew Lexicons,
the words ''brass' and "brazen" as parts of the
meaning OF Nacash, to comply with Numbers xxi,
6, et sig. But Nacash means simply ''to view
attentively," $50 gaze ut ntently' Ito acquire in
formation by iutent observation" 'to acquire
knowledge by experience" Had our translators look
ed at other manuscripts equally old, Chadean, Syri-
ac, Ethiopic, Arabic Il a they would not have COM
mtted so great blunder as they have. The curse
when pronounced By God on 'NdcaSh" was ard is,
Thou art cursed above ali cattle, and above every
beast of the field, and above every creeping thing
of mugs that go upon their belly and eat from of
the dust all the DAYS of their life" This version
# it is plain and simple and true, and is required
by our Bible ITSELF when the whole curse is ana
yzed. shall. God willing, notice all these in my
mex. publication.
Yours truly, ARIEL.