The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-07

"0ar Do Gne "OrCS O1 me
 Book of Genesis Really Mean?
 Theories Designed to Upset All
 Traditional Readings of the Hebrew
 Bible and to Solve the Riddles that
 are Believed to Lurk in the Ancient
 Sacred Books are Propounded in q
 Work by an Eminent French
 Scholar. Who Presents an Entirely
 New Translation Purporting to
 Give the Original and Uncorrupted
 Sense of the Scriptures
 (By Arthur 3enington)
 There are people in this world who think they know the Hebrew langu- age-learned rabbis and Talmudists, to say nothing of the millions who use il in their everyday conversation. For twenty-five centuries there have been such, and they have been reading the Scpher- or writings of Moses. believ- ing. nay certain, that they understood them. But it seems they are all wrong, but mistaken; it seems they do not know the meaning of the Mosaic text. for they are utterly ignor- ant of the ancient Hebrew language!
 These statements may astonish men like Paul Haupt. Richard J. H. Gottheil, F. de Sola Mendes and H. Pereira Mendes. who have spent their lives in studying Hebrew, Sansllrit, Arabic and other Semitic tongues; but they are made on the authority of Fabre d'Olivet. the great French sav- ant. who published his most important work in 1S15- This has just been translated into English by Nayan Louise Redfield under the title Tho Hebrew Tongue Restored" (G. P. Putnam's Sons).
 Having restored the Hebrew tongue and found out what it really means NJ. d'OIivet translated the Mosaic ac- count of the creation and fall of man. His translation differs, naturally, from the versions to which we are accus- toned. for. of course, these were made by persons who did not know the meaning of the Hebrew words!
 1F oil hot is hn tongue? Bishop Walton said 1t was the original language spoken by God Adam. Eve and Ene serpent in the Garden of Eden, and that 1t is the tongue in which we shall talk with the angels and patriarchs and saints and with each other when we get to heaven D'Olivet. however, proclaims it to be the pure tdom of the an what tongue the wandering sons Of Jacob spoke when they went into Egypt, their descendants must have lost R in the more than four centur- ies of their sojourn there and must have adopted the language of the Egyptians among whom they lived
 Moses, then, who was learned in all tho mystic lore of Egypt, wrote in priests of Pharaoh; and these writ ings were the books of the law read in the Tabernacle and inclosed in the Ark of the Covenant.
 But the people were ignortant. and few of them understood the writings. for these writings. like all those of that way, had triple meaning, the literal the hgurative and the hiero- glyphfo, corresponding to the natural, the psychic and the divine worlds. and only the deeply learned could fathom their esoterlc depths.
 But the IsraeHteS. a small tribe among the pagan Canaanites, soon corrupted this fine language they had brought from Egypt nd grew further way from understanding the writings oT Moses, always excepting the few who had been initiate into the Kab- bala and handed down its secrets by word of mouth.
 The Israehtes were conquered and led Into captivity no less than four times. The Sepher, however. was pre- served as a Sacred object, although the mass of the people knew nothing about 1t and came to speak another tongue.
 Then there was the massacre of the Tribe of Benjamin. the split between the Kingdoms of Israel and of Judah and in the meantime, other writings. histories, chronicles. allegories, songs of pride and vengeance. voluptuous love stories and poems-all in Ehe vernacular tongue-had become pop uiar.
 The Sepher was forgotten by both Israel and Judah, Saramia and Jeru- salem. How 1t was accidentally found at the bottom of an old coffe., cover ed with dust and preserved beneath a heap of gold, is told in the Book of Chronicles. II. chapter 34. The ten tribes of Israel were scattered over the face of the earth, and only Judah was left