[6453] An analogous remark would apply to Jewish teaching about the good angels, who are rather Jewish elves than the high spiritual beings of the Bible.
[6454] As a curious illustration how extremes meet, we subjoin the following from Jonathan Edwards. After describing how Satan, before his fall, was the chief of all the angels . . . nay, . . . the Messiah or Christ (!), as he was the Anointed, so that in the respect, Jesus Christ is exalted unto his place in heaven;' and that Lucifer or Satan, while a holy angel . . . was a type of Christ,' the great American divine explains his fall as follows: But when it was revealed to him, high and glorious as he was, that he must be a ministering spirit to the race of mankind which he had seen newly created, which appeared so feeble, mean, and despicable, of vastly inferior not only to him, the prince of the angels, and head of the created universe, but also to the inferior angels, and that he must be subject to one of that race which should hereafter be born, he could not bear it, This occasioned his fall' (Tractate on The Fall of the Angels,' Works, vol. ii. pp. 608, 609, 610). Could Jonathan Edwards have heard of the Rabbinic legends, or is this only a strange coincidence? The curious reader will find much quaint information, though, I fear, little help, in Prof. W. Scott's vol. The Existence of Evil Spirits,' London, 1843.
[6455] The Rabbis point out, how Eve had added to the words of God. He had only commanded them not to eat of the tree, while Eve added to it, that they were not to touch it. Thus adding to the words of God had led to the first sin with all the terrible consequences connected with it.
[6456] In Ber R. 56 the accusation is stated to have been brought by the ministering angels.
[6457] From the expression a son in his own likeness,' &c., it is inferred that his previous offspring during the 138 years was not in his likeness.
[6458] The following Haggadah will illustrate both the power of the evil spirits at night and how amenable they are to reasoning. A Rabbi was distributing his gifts to the poor at night when he was confronted by the Prince of the Ruchin with the quotation Deut. xix. 34 (Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark'), which seemed to give the spirit' a warrant for attacking him. But when the Rabbi replied by quoting Prov. xxi. 14 (a gift in secret appeaseth wrath'), the spirit' fled in confusion (Jer. Peah viii. 9, p. 21 b).
[6459] Hamburger ascribes this to the anxiety of the Palestinians to guard Judaism from Gnostic elements. We are, however, willing to recognise in it an indirect influence of Christianity.
[6460] The Tarnegol Bera - a mythical animal reaching fron earth to heaven (Targ. on Ps. 1, 11) - also called Naggar Tura (Gitt. 68 b) from his activity in cleaving mountains.
[6461] Hamburger renders it Ahriman, but it seems rather like Hormuzd. Perhaps the Rabbis wished to combine both. Ahriman is written Ahurmin, Sanh. 39 a, in that very curious notice of a controversy with a Mage.
[6462] The superstition There's luck in odd numbers' has passed to all nations.
[6463] Dr. Kohut's comparison of Rabbinic Angelology and Demonology with Parseeism (Ueber d. jud. Angelol u. Damonol. in ihrer Abhang. vom Parsismus) is extremely interesting, although not complete and its conclusions sometimes strained. The negative arguments derived from Jewish Angelology and Satanology by the author of Supernatural Religion' are based on inaccurate and uncritical information, and do not require detailed discussion. __________________________________________________________________