28 ADAM ADAM object attracting and fascinating the first woman. Whether it spoke in an articulate voice, like the human, or expressed the sentiments attributed to it by a succession of remarkable and significant actions, may be a subject of reasonable question. The latter is possible, and it seems the preferable hypothesis, as, without a miraculous inter could form a vocal utterance of words; and we cannot attribute to any wicked spirit the power of working miracles. species even yet remaining, though, if it were so, we could not determine its species, for the plain reason, that no name, description, or information whatever is given that could possibly lead to the ascertainment. Yet we cannot but think the more reasonable probability to be, that it was a tree having poisonous properties, stimulating, and intoxicating, such as are found in some exist-vention, the mouth and throat of no serpent ing species, especially in hot climates. On this ground, the prohibition to eat or even touch the tree was a beneficent provision against the danger of pain and death. But the revealed object of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil' was that which would require no particular properties beyond some degree of external beauty and fruit of an immediately pleasant taste. That object was to be a test of obedience. For such a purpose, it is evident that to select an indifferent act, to be the object prohibited, was necessary; as the obligation to refrain should be only that which arises simply, so far as the subject of the law can know, from the sacred wilt of the lawgiver. This does not, however, nullify what we have said upon the possibility, or even probability, that the tree in question had noxious qualities: for upon either the affirmative or the negative of the supposition, the subjects of this positive law, having upon all antecedent grounds the fullest conviction of the perfect rectitude and benevolence of their Creator, would see in it the simple character of a test, a means of proof, whether they would or would not implicitly confide in him. For so doing they had every possible reason; and against any thought or mental feeling tending to the violation of the precept, they were in possession of the most powerful motives. There was no difficulty in the observance. They were surrounded with a paradise of delights, and they had no reason to imagine that any good whatever would accrue to them from their seizing upon anything prohibited. If perplexity or doubt arose, they had ready access to their divine benefactor for obtaining information and direction. But they allowed the thought of disobedience to form itself into a disposition, and then a purpose. Thus was the seal broken, the integrity of the heart was gone, the sin was generated, and the outward act was the consummation of the dire process. Eve, less informed, less cautious, less endowed with strength of mind, became the more ready victim. The woman, being deceived, was in the transgression; but Adam was not deceived' (1 Tim. ii. 14). He rushed knowingly and deliberately to ruin. The offence had grievous aggravations. It was the preferonce of a trifling gratification to the approbation of the Supreme Lord of the universe; it implied a denial of the wisdom, holiness, goodness, veracity, and power of God; it was marked with extreme ingratitude; and it involved a contemptuous disregard of consequences, awfully impious as it referred to their immediate connection with the moral government of God, and cruelly selfish as it respected their posterity. The instrument of the temptation was a serpent; whether any one of the existing kinds it is evidently impossible for us to know. Of that numerous order many species are of brilliant colours and playful in their attitudes and manners, so that one may well conceive of such an This part of the narrative begins with the words, And the serpent was crafty above every animal of the field' (Gen. iii. 1). It is to be observed that this is not said of the order of serpents, as if it were a general property of them, but of that particular serpent. Indeed, this cunning craftiness, lying in wait to deceive' (Eph. iv. 14), is the very character of that malignant creature of whose wily stratagems the reptile was a mere instrument. The existence of spirits, superior to man, and of whom some have become depraved, and are labouring to spread wickedness and misery to the utmost of their power, has been found to be the belief of all nations, ancient and modern, of whom we possess information. It has also been the general doctrine of both Jews and Christians, that one of those fallen spirits was the real agent in this first and successful temptation; and this doctrine receives strong confirmation from the declarations of our Lord and his apostles. See 2 Cor. ii. 11; xi. 3, 14; Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2; John viii. 44. The summary of these passages presents almost a history of the Fall-the tempter, his manifold arts, his serpentine disguises, his falsehood, his restless activity, his bloodthirsty cruelty, and his early success in that career of deception and destruction. The condescending Deity, who had held gracious and instructive communion with the parents of mankind, assuming a human form and adapting all his proceedings to their capacity, visibly stood before them; by a searching interrogatory drew from them the confession of their guilt, which yet they aggravated by evasions and insinuations against God himself; and pronounced on them and their seducer the sentence due. On the woman he inflicted the pains of child-bearing, and a deeper and more humiliating dependence upon her husband. He doomed the man to hard and often fruitless toil, instead of easy and pleasant labour. On both, or rather on human nature universally, he pronounced the awful sentence of death. The denunciation of the serpent pårtakes more of a symbolical character, and so seems to carry a strong implication of the nature and the wickedness of the concealed agent. The human sufferings threatened are all, excepting the last, which will require a separate consideration, of a remedial and corrective kind. Of a quite different character are the penal denunciations upon the serpent. If they be understood literally, and of course applied to the whole order of Ophidia, they will be found to be so flagrantly at variance with the most demonstrated facts in their physiology and economy, as to lead to inferences unfavourable to belief in revelation. Let us examine the particulars: Because thou hast done this cursed art thou Further, going upon the belly' is to none of them a punishment. With some differences of mode, their progression is produced by the pushing of scales, shields, or rings against the ground, by muscular contractions and dilatations, by elastic springings, by vertical undulations, or by horizontal wrigglings; but, in every variety, the entire organization-skeleton, muscles, nerves, integuments-is adapted to the mode of progression belonging to each species. That mode, in every variety of it, is sufficiently easy and the false and cruel seducer sent a beam of light The remaining part of the denunciation upon rapid (often very rapid) for all the purposes of into the agonized hearts of our guilty first pathe animal's life and the amplitude of its enjoy-rents: And enmity will I put between thee and ments. To imagine this mode of motion to be, in any sense, a change from a prior attitude and habit of the erect kind, or being furnished with wings, indicates a perfect ignorance of the anatomy of serpents. Yet it has been said by learned and eminent theological interpreters, that, before this crime was committed, the serpent probably did not go upon his belly, but moved upon the hinder part of his body, with his head, breast, and belly upright' (Clarke's Bible, p. 1690). This notion may have obtained credence from the fact that some of the numerous serpent species, when excited, raise the neck pretty high; but the posture is to strike, and they cannot maintain it in creeping except for a very short distance. Neither do they eat dust. All serpents are carnivorous; their food, according to the size and power of the species, is taken from the tribes of insects, worms, frogs, and toads, and newts, birds, mice, and other small quadrupeds, till the scale ascends to the pythons and boas, which can master and swallow very large animals. The excellent writer just cited, in his anxiety to do honour, as he deemed it, to the accuracy of The same mercy was displayed in still more, tempering the terrors of justice. The garden of delights was not to be the abode of rebellious creatures. But before they were turned out into a bleak and dreary wilderness, God was pleased to direct them to make clothing suitable to their new and degraded condition, of the skins of animals. That those animals had been offered in sacrifice is a conjecture supported by so much probable evidence, that we may regard it as a well-established truth. Any attempt to force back the way, to gain anew the tree of life, and take violent or fraudulent possession, would have been equally impious and nugatory. The sacrifice (which all approximative argument obliges us to admit), united with the promise of a deliverer, and the promise of substantial clothing, contained much hope of pardon and grace. The terrible debarring by lightning flashes and their consequent thunder, and by visible supernatural agency (Gen. iii. 22-24), from a return to the bowers of bliss, are expressed in the characteristic patriarchal style of anthropopathy; but the meaning evidently is, that the fallen creature is unable by any efforts of his own to reinstate himself in the favour of God, and that whatever hope of restoration he may be allowed to cherish must spring solely from free benevolence. Thus, in laying the first stone of the temple, which shall be an immortal habitation of the Divine glory, it was manifested that 'Salvation is of the Lord,' and that grace reigneth through right 6 eousness unto eternal life.' From this time we have little recorded of the lives of Adam and Eve. Their three sons are mentioned with important circumstances in connection with each of them. See the articles CAIN, ABEL, and SETH. Cain was probably born in the year after the fall; Abel, possibly some years later; Seth, certainly one hundred and thirty years from the creation of his parents. After that, Adam lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters, doubtless by Eve, and then he died, nine hundred and thirty years old. In that prodigious period many events, and those of great importance, must have occurred; but the wise providence of God has not seen fit to preserve to us any memorial of them, and scarcely any vestiges or hints are afforded of the occupations and mode of life of men through the antediluvian period [ANTEDILUVIANS]. 2. ADAM, a city at some distance east from the Jordan, to which, or beyond which, the overflow of the waters of that river extended when the course of the stream to the Dead Sea was stayed to afford the Israelites a passage across its channel. AD'AMAH. [ADMAH.] 4 ADAMANT. The word thus rendered is, in Hebrew, SHAMIR. It occurs in Jer. xvii. 1; Ezek. iii. 9; Zech. vii. 12. The Sept. in Jer. xvii. 1, and the Vulgate in all these passages, take it for the diamond. The signification of the word, a sharp point,' countenances this interpretation, the diamond being for its hardness used in perforating and cutting other minerals. Indeed, this use of the shamir is distinctly alluded to in Jer. xvii. 1, where the stylus pointed with it is distinguished from one of iron. The two other passages also favour this view by using it figuratively to express the hardness and ADBEEL Our Authorized obduracy of the Israelites. Version has 'diamond' in Jer. xvii. 1, and adamant' in the other texts: but in the original the word is the same in all. Bochart, however, rejects the usual explanation, and conceives it to mean 'emery. This is a calcined iron mixed with siliceous earth, occurring in livid scales of such hardness that in ancient times, as at present, it was used for polishing and engraving precious stones, diamonds excepted. Rosenmüller urges in favour of this notion that if the Hebrews had been acquainted with the diamond, and with the manner of working it, we should doubtless have found it among the stones of the high-priest's breastplate; and that, as the shamir was not one of the stones thus employed, therefore it was not the diamond. But to this it may be answered, that it was perhaps not used because it could not be engraved on, or was possibly not introduced until a later period. A'DAR (Esth. iii. 7) is the sixth month of the civil and the twelfth of the ecclesiastical year of the Jews. The name was first introduced after the Captivity. The following are the chief days in it which are set apart for commemoration:-The 7th is a fast for the death of Moses (Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6). On the 9th there was a fast in memory of the contention or open rupture of the celebrated schools of Hillel and Shammai, which happened but a few years before the birth of Christ. The 13th is the so-called 'Fast of Esther.' Iken observes (Antiq. Hebr. p. 150) that this was not an actual fast, but merely a commemoration of Esther's fast of three days (Esth. iv. 16), and a preparation for the ensuing festival. Nevertheless, as Esther appears, from the date of Haman's ediet, and from the course of the narrative, to have fasted in Nisan, Buxtorf adduces from the Rabbins the following account of the name of this fast, and of the foundation of its observance in Adar, that the Jews assembled together on the 13th, in the time of Esther, and that, after the example of Moses, who fasted when the Israelites were about to engage in battle with the Amalekites, they devoted that day to fasting and prayer, in preparation for the perilous trial which awaited them on the morrow. In this sense, this fast would stand in the most direct relation to the feast of Purim. The 13th was also, by a common decree,' appointed as a festival in memory of the death of Nicanor (2 Mace. xv. 36). The 14th and 15th were devoted to the feast of Purim (Esth. ix. 21). In case the year was an intercalary one, when the month of Adar occurred twice, this feast was first moderately observed in the intercalary Adar, and then celebrated with full splendour in the ensuing Adar. The forme of these two celebrations was then called the lesser, and the latter the great Purim. ADA'SA, or ADARSA, called also by Josephn: ADAZER, ADACO, and ACODACO, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, said to have been four miles from Beth-horon, and not far from Gophna. It was the scene of some important transactions in the history of the Maccabees (1 Mac. vii. 40, 45; Joseph. Antiq. xii. 10.5; Bell. Jud. i. 1). ADB'EEL, one of the twelve sons of Ishmael, and founder of an Arabian tribe (Gen. xxv. 18, 16). ADDER ADDER, the English name of a kind of serpent. It occurs several times in the English version of the Bible, and is there used not for a particular species, but generally for several of this dangerous class of reptiles. We have before us a list, far from complete, of the erpetology of Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt, in which there are, among forty-three species indicated, about eight whose bite is accompanied with a venomous effusion, and therefore almost all very dangerous. In our present state of knowledge we deem it best to discuss, under the words SERPENT and VIPER, all the Hebrew names not noticed in this article, and to refer to them those occurring in our version under the appellations of asp, cockatrice,' &c.; and likewise to review the allusions to colossal boas and pythons, and, finally, to notice water-snakes and murænæ, which translators and biblical naturalists have totally overlooked, although they must exist in the lakes of the Delta, are abundant on the north coast of Africa, and often exceed eight feet in length. In this place we shall retain that genus alone which Laurenti and Cuvier have established upon characters distinguished from the innocuous coluber, and the venomous vipera, and denominated naja. The genus Naja-Haridi (?) of Savary-is distinguished by a plaited head, large, very venomous fangs, a neck dilatable under excitement, which raises the ribs of the anterior part of the body into the form of a disk or hood, when the scales, usually not imbricated, but lying in juxta-position, are separated, and expose the skin, which at that time displays bright iridescent gleams, contrasting highly with their brown, yellow, and bluish colours. The species attain at least an equal, if not a superior, size to the generality of the genus viper; are more massive in their structure; and some possess the faculty of self-inflation to triple their diameter, gradually forcing the body upwards into an erect position, until, by a convulsive crisis, they are said suddenly to strike backwards at an enemy or a pursuer. With such powers of destroying animal life, and with an aspect at once terrible and resplendent, it may be easily imagined how soon fear and superstition would 5. Naja Haje; and the form of Cneph from the combine, at periods anterior to historical data, to raise these monsters into divinities, and endeavour to deprecate their wrath by the blandishments of worship; and how design and cupidity would teach these very votaries the manner of subduing their ferocity, of extracting their instruments of mischief, and making them subservient to the wonder and amusement of the vulgar, by using certain cadences of sound which affect their hearing, and exciting in them a desire to perform a kind of pleasurable movements that may be compared to dancing. Hence the nagas of the East, the hag-worms of the West, and the haje, have all been deified, styled agathodæmon or good spirit; and figures of them occur wherever the superstition of Pagan antiquitiy has been accompanied by the arts of civilization. The most prominent species of the genus at present is the naja tripudians, cobra di capello, hooded or spectacled snake of India, venerated by the natives; even by the serpent-charmers styled the good serpent to this day, and yet so 6. Naja Tripudians and Cobra di Capello; or, Hooded ferocious that it is one of the very few that will attack a man when surprised in its haunt, although it may be gorged with prey. This species is usually marked on the nape with two round spots, transversely connected in the form of a pair of spectacles; but among several varieties, one, perhaps distinct, is without the marks, and has a glossy golden hood, which may make it identical with the naja haje of Egypt, the undoubted Ihh-nuphi, ceneph, or agathodæmon of Ancient Egypt, and accurately represented on the walls of its temples, in almost innumerable instances, both in form and colour, This serpent also inflates the skin on the neck, not in the expanded form of a hood, but rather into an intumefaction of the neck. As in the former, there is no marked difference of appearance between the sexes; but the psilli, or charmers, by a particular pressure on the neck have the power of rendering the inflation of the animal, already noticed as a character of the genus, so intense, that the serpent becomes rigid, and can be held out horizontally as if it were a rod. This practice explains what the soothsayers of | Pharaoh could perform when they were opposing Moses. That the rods of the magicians of Pharaoh were of the same external character with the rod of Aaron, is evident from no different denomination being given to them: therefore we may infer that they used a real serpent as a rod-namely the species now called hajefor their imposture; since they no doubt did what the present serpent-charmers perform with the same species, by means of the temporary asphyxiation, or suspension of vitality, before noticed, and producing restoration to active life by liberating or throwing down. Thus we have the miraculous character of the prophet's mission shown by his real rod becoming a serpent, and the magicians' real serpents merely assuming the form of rods; and when both were opposed in a state of animated existence, by the rod derouring the living animals, conquering the great typical personification of the protecting divinity of Egypt. This species of serpent may be regarded as extending to India and Ceylon; and probably the naja tripudians is likewise an inhabitant of Arabia, if not of Egypt, although the assertion of the fact (common in authors) does not exclude a supposition that they take the two species to be only one. We are disposed to refer the winged' or flying' serpent to the naja tripudians, in one of its varieties, because-with its hood dilated into a kind of shining wings on each side of the neck, standing, in undulating motion, one-half or more erect, rigid, and fierce in attack, and deadly poisonous, yet still denominated good spirit,' and in Egypt ever figured in combination with the winged globe- it well may have received the name of saraph, swallowing or devouring, and may thus meet all the valid objections, and conciliate seemingly opposite comments (see Num. xxi. 6, 8; Deut. viii. 15; Isa. xiv. 29; xxx. 6). 6 ACHSUB is another name of a serpent which may be considered as specifically different from the former, though it is most probably one more of this group of terrible creatures. The root of the name implies bending back, recurving, but not coiling up, for all snakes have that faculty. The syllable ach, however, shows a connection with the former denominations; and both are perfectly reconcilable with a serpent very common at the Cape of Good Hope, not unfrequent in Western Africa, and probably extending over that whole continent, excepting perhaps Morocco. It is the 'poff-adder' of the Dutch colonists, about three feet in length, and about six inches in circumference at the middle of the body; the head is larger than is usual in serpents; the eyes are large, and very brilliant; the back beautifully marked in half circles, and the colours black, bright yellow, and dark brown; the belly yellow; the appearance at all times, but chiefly when excited, extremely brilliant; the upper jaw greatly protruding, somewhat like what occurs in the shark, places the mouth back towards the throat, and this structure is said to be connected with the practice of the animal when intending to bite, to swell its skin till it suddenly rises up, and strikes backwards as if it fell over. It is this faculty which appears to be indicated by the Hebrew name achsub, and therefore we ADJURATION believe it to refer to that species, or to one nearly allied to it. The Dutch name (poff-adder, or spooch-adder) shows that, in the act of swelling, remarkable eructations and spittings take place, all which no doubt are so many warnings, the bite being fatal. The poff-adder usually resides among brushwood in stony places and rocks, is fond of basking in the sun, rather slow in moving, and is by nature timid [SERPENT ; VIPER]. AD'DON, one of several places mentioned in Neh. vii. 61, being towns in the land of captivity, from which those who returned to Palestine were unable to shew their father's house, or their seed, whether they were of Israel.' This, probably, means that they were unable to furnish such undeniable legal proof as was required in such cases. And this is in some degree explained by the subsequent (v. 63) mention of priests who were expelled the priesthood because their descent was not found to be genealogically registered. These instances show the importance which was attached to their genealogies by the Jews [GENEALOGY]. ADIABE'NE, the principal of the six provinces into which Assyria was divided. Pliny and Ammianus comprehend the whole of Assyria under this name, which, however, properly denoted only the province which was watered by the rivers Diab and Adiab, or the Great and Little Zab (Dhab), which flow into the Tigris below Nineveh (Mosul, from the north-east. This region is not mentioned in Scripture; but in Josephus, its queen Helena and her son Izates, who became converts to Judaism, are very often named (Joseph. Antiq. xx. 2, 4; Bell. Jud. ii. 16, 19; v. 4, 6, 11). AD'IDA, a fortified town in the tribe of Judah. In 1 Macc. xii. 38, we read that Simon Maccabæus set up Adida in Saphela, and made it strong with bolts and bars.' Eusebius says tha Sephela was the name given in his time to the open country about Eleutheropolis. And this Adida in Sephela is probably the same which is mentioned in the next chapter (xiii. 13) as Adida over against the plain,' where Simo Maccabæus encamped to dispute the entrance into Judæa of Tryphon, who had treacherously seized on Jonathan at Ptolemais. In the parallel passage Josephus (Antiq. xiii. 6, 5) adds that this Adida was upon a hill, before which lay the plains of Judæa. One of the places which Josephus calls Adida (Bell. Jud. iv. 9, 1) appears to have been near the Jordan, and was probably the Hadid of Ezra ii. 33. ADJURATION. This is a solemn act or appeal, whereby one man, usually a person vested with natural or official authority, imposes upon another the obligation of speaking or acting as if under the solemnity of an oath. We have an example of this in the New Testament when the high-priest thus calls upon Christ, 1 adjure thee by the living God, tell us ' &c.(Matt. xxvi. 63; see also Mark v. 7; Acts xix. 13; 1 Thes. v. 27). An oath, although thus imposed upon one without his consent, was no only binding, but solemn in the highest degree; and when connected with a question, an answer was compulsory, which answer being as upon oath, any falsehood in it would be perjury. Thus our Saviour, who had previously disdained to |