Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

men. , . , He adds: ‘On
re the limitations of
this original history am
and Neptune, visit an old man,
Boeotian city Tanagr
though childless hithe
prayer (Ovid’s Fasti, nd then, ’further,
the heathen accompan
are journeying as men; only Philem
childless wedded pair, receive the
the gods rescue, bearing them away with thehselves, while
they turn the inhospitable region ound the hospitable
hut into a pool of water, a Eut itieIf in’to a
temple (Ovid’s Metam. 8, 611 ff. t the essential distinction
between our ideal facts and these myths, lies in
this, that while the first lie in the center of history as
causal facts or forces, having the most sacred and real
historical results, these latter lie simply on the border
ground of mythology.” To this Gosman adds: “HOW
completely and thoroughly these words dispose of the whole
mythical supposition in this as in other cases!”
7. The Quality of Mercy
In Genesis the wickedness of Sodom (the city which
obviously exercised hegemony of a kind over all the Cities
of the Plain (frequently designated a Pentapolis) is set
forth so realistically that its very name has become pro-
verbial--“a very Sodomy’-and its various kinds of lust
are given a single name, “sodomy.” Yet here we find
Abraham interceding for these people: the righteous man,
the Friend of God, is pleading for mercy for the wicked.
One is reminded of Portia’s eloquent eiicomium on mercy
in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice:
6
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven
poi the place beneath. It is twice bless’d:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
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