cheenc03a.pdf

SETHITES
Israelitirh circles represented by J had a genealogy of
primitive heroes which agreed in all essential% with the
genealogy given by P. We may put the two lists,
harmonised as proposed in CAINLTES. § 12, and without
any attempted emendation of thc names, over against
each other.
, . . . .
SETHITEB, the name given to the descendants of
Seth mentioned in Gen. 5 (P). We shall deal with thir
subject almost entirely nr one belonging to the history
of early Hebrew beliefs respecting prin~itive humanily :
the intricate study of the later exegesis on Gen. 5 f , to
which R. H. Charles has recently made such valuable
contributions. lies too mmch anart to be treated here.
We venture to begin with a criticism of
criticised. the term ' Sethites,' which presupposes
that there are two reoarate . senellorries - 0
of the patriarchs-ie., of the herms of the primitive
logies e en. 417~24 and 5). one of which, as i; now
stands, starts from a son of Adam named Cain, the
other from Adam and a son of Adam named Seth or
sheth (,,g. ~ ~ e ) ~h~ . two linking in their
present form, appear to account for the double genealogy
by stating that Seth was born to 611 the place of Abel.
When, however, we Look into the genealogies we
quickly see that there is a strong affinity between them.
and a critical examination of the two 'linking verses'
shows thal the passage is no longer in its original form,
hut has underzone " both cormotion and editorial eroansion.
We have also found reason elsewhere to suspect
that the story of Cain and Abel and the cainite
eenealoev came from seoarate trud1tion;ll sources (see
?*IN, 54: CAINLTES, '§ 2) : if this is correct, 'the
Yahwist (J) cannot have represented Seth as u substitute
for the murdered Abel. Instead of (Cainites' and
(~ethites.' therefore, it would be better to speak of the
members of the two parallel genealogies due respectively
to J and to P.
11 is the geneaiagy in Gen.5 that ir mainly to
occupy us. We may assume that it is parallel to, and
,. One 1" its present form later than, the
genealogy: genealogy in Gen.4. We may also
its origin, regard Stade's view [Ahad. Reden, 247)
as fairiy probable, that in its original
form the eenealoevinGn1.4 - . wansethite aswell as Cainile.
that u f in a simpler form, in~ludi~tgthe words, 'and
Enos begot a son, and called his name Cain," once
stood before 41,. also that in the original Yahwiatic
genealogy, of which wc possess only an extract, the
tenth place was occupied by Noah.% if this be so, the
Nosh
Noah
Even if we doubt whether the genealogy of the
Yahwist in its original form contained ar many as teil
namer, it is a fact that that of the Priestly Writer (P)
has come down to us rith ten, and it is natural (when we
consider that P, as often as he can, uses old material)
to connect thir wifh the fact that Beriisrus places ten
antediluvian kings at the head of the history of &%bylonia.
The names of these kings (see Miiller, Fragm.
Hid. Gr 2+99 f ) are 'Ahupor. 'Aidrepor. 'Audhwv,
'ApAvuv. Jlrydhapar, Abwvar, E6rdhpo~or. 'Awp+~uJr,
'Ortbpnlr. ZioauOpor. Now the solidarity of the early
Oriental culture, under Babylonian influence, nas such
that we could not be surprised to find some of the
namer given by BZ.rariur, in their original forms (when
these forms can be traced). underlying namer in the two
Hebrew genealogies which lie before us. The idea is
suggested by the coincidelice of numkr between P's
list and that of BCrarrui, but. of course, we have to
compare the names in both the Hebrew lirtr, ro far as
they seem to be akin.
11 is remzrkahle, huwevcr, how extremely few of the Hebrew
call even
be connected with names in the
respecting any one of the primitive heroes are derived
from Bnbylonian lore. That Noah who, a5 the text
stands (both in J and in P passages), is the hero of the
Hebiew Deluae-story is, in virt\~e of his connection with
that story, p&llrl ia Xiruthrur, cannot be doubted.
Zimmern(Beitri#e, rr6, n, n)andGunkel (Gen. lor f ).
however, add a comparison of Enoch, who 'walked '
with God and war taken to God, rith the Ebedhpa~os
of nav~lp~pha (=Sippar) in Berorsur-i.e., En-medur-anki,"
mythic king of Sippar, to whom the guild
of Babylonian 6.2~-priests traced its origin. Thir
king is designated 'the favourite of Anu, Bel, and Eu.'
and raid to have been ,called (7) by the gods .$amas
and Adad into their fellowship.' also to have been
initiated into the 'secrets of heaven and earrh' (Ritualtablet,
no. 14). Now it is true that both Enoch and
Eardhpaxor occupy the seventh place in the respective
listr. Thir, however, is !lot important ; in J's list, as
thir againriit-thht there =re very rfrong reiiionr for holding
thar 'Adam' (rrther kbridZrn) and 'Enor'nre "Of the forms
which originally rfovd in the genedagy, and therefore not to be
treated L5 rynonymr meaning 'man,'or, as Slade erprciied it,
that Adam rnd Enor are 'doppclgin~er'
The number two therefore remains.
2 Dur-anki k the name of P mythic Imality (Zi~mcrn): cp
JNLTOW, RRA 139.
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