in these relations. The guilt is wholly on the side of the angels; and consists partly, perhaps, in sensuality, partly in high-handed disregard of the rights of God's lower creatures.—It is to be noted, in contrast with analogous heathen myths, that the divine element is exclusively masculine.
3. A divine sentence on the human race, imposing a limit on the term of man's life.—My spirit shall not
3. (
Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters).—(Hebrew characters)] There are two traditional interpretations:
(a) 'abide': so G ((Greek characters)), VSTO; (b) 'judge' (Σ. (Greek characters):
so TJ). The former is perhaps nothing more than a plausible guess
at the meaning, though a variant text has been suspected ((Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters),
etc.). The latter traces the form to the [root] (Hebrew characters); but the etymology
is doubtful, since that [root] shows no trace of med. [H] in Heb. (Nö.
ZDMG, xxxvii. 533 f.); and to call it a juss. or intrans. form is an abuse
of grammatical language (see G-K. § 71 r). A Jewish derivation,
mentioned by IEz. and Calv., connects the vb. with (Hebrew characters), 'sheath'
(1 Ch. 2127),—the body being compared to the sheath of the spirit. The
Ar. dāna (med. w) = 'be humbled' or 'degraded,' yields but a tolerable
sense (Tu. Ew. al.); the Egypt. Ar. dāna, which means 'to do a
thing continually' (Socin; see G-B. s.v.), would suit the context well, but
can hardly be the same word. Vollers (ZA, xiv. 349 ff.) derives it from
[root] (Hebrew characters), Ass. danânu = 'be powerful'; the idea being that the life-giving
spirit shall no longer have the same force as formerly, etc. It would be
still better if the vb. could be taken as a denominative from Ass. dinânu,
'bodily appearance,' with the sense "shall not be embodied in man for
ever."—(Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters), whence Klostermann restores
(Hebrew characters)[1] = 'this humanity,' as distinguished from that originally
created,—an impossible exegesis, whose sole advantage is that it gives
a meaning to the (Hebrew characters) in (Hebrew characters) (v.i.).—(Hebrew characters)—(Hebrew characters) (thus separated)] here =
'not . . . for ever,' as Jer. 312, La. 331; elsewhere (Ps. 155 etc.) the
phrase means 'never.'—(Hebrew characters)] so pointed in the majority of MSS, is
inf. const. of (Hebrew characters), 'err,' with suff. This sense is adopted by many (Tu.
Ew. Bu. Ho. al.), but it can hardly be right. If we refer the suff.
to (Hebrew characters), the enallage numeri ('through their erring he is flesh') would
be harsh, and the idea expressed unsuitable. If we refer it to the
angels, we can avoid an absurdity only by disregarding the accents
and joining the word with what precedes: 'shall not (abide?) in man
for ever on account of their (the angels') erring; he is flesh, and,' etc.
The sentence is doubly bad in point of style: the first member is
overloaded at the end by the emphatic word; and the second opens
awkwardly without a connecting part. Moreover, it is questionable if
the idea of (Hebrew characters) (inadvertent transgression) is appropriate in the connexion.
Margoliouth (Expositor, 1898, ii. 33 ff.) explains the obscure
- ↑ Already proposed by Egli (cited by Bu.).
