The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 31

23. The cho.rncterislics of Egyptian law, so fnr as they arc known to UB, arc well worth noticing The ohject of tho laws was to preserve life 1md reclaim th<l offender; and therefore capital punishment was not inflicted except in caijeB of murrler, and of eomo £ow otLor crimes specially injurious to the community. But the crime of murder was considered so heinous, "thn.t to be tho accidental witness of an attempt to murder without ondeo.vouring to prevent it was a capital offence which could only be pal- liated by bringing proof of inability to act." In the same 1pirit, the witness of any injury to the person of another, or of a robbery, was bound, under the same penalty ne the offender himself, to interfere, or, if that was impossible, to he a prosecutor. 'fhe only exception to the punfahment of death for murder, at least when the royal prerogative was nut exercised, was in the case of infanticide by a father, in which, on the principle of the patria potestas, a lesser punishment was inflicted. Of other crimes, adultery was severely punished in both the offenders. Truth or justice (personified in the go.ddess Thmei, who possessed both these a.ttri·outes, and was often represented as a double form), was regarded as the highest of all virtues, "inasmuch as it related more partuularl.v to otliers," while the other virtues immediately benefit him who possesses them. Whenever therefore a falsehood injured another it was punished, as in the Jewish la,v, according to the lex talionu, and when 11 falsehood. against another was maintained by an oath, it became one of the extreme crimes which were punished by death. "For they considered that it involved two distinct crimes-a contempt for the gods and a violation of faith towards man; the former tho direct promoter of every sin, the latter destructive of all those ties which are most essentiai for the welfare of society." 24. The history and character of Egyptian law have been more particularly noticed, both because Egypt was more nearly connected than any other nation ..,,ith the early history of the people to whom the God of heaven and earth revealed his fow, and also because they supply interesting illustrations of our preceding argu- ment, both in regard to the recognition by man of the Divine order, and also as to the need of law, in its true and proper sense, for national life. The subject of man's natural recognition of this order has been largely discussed by modern writers : there is indeed no nation under heaven, civilised or savage, a nomadic tribe or a vast empire like India, from whose traditions or literature mustrntions of this truth might not be drawn. But there is one ancient nation of the world, which has been of all the furthest removed, in past ages, from the influences of the re- ligious enlightenment and progressive civilisation of more favoured regions, whoso witness to the Divine order, and to its recognition by the spirit of man, specially illustrates our argument, because among them that inward witness is expressly made tho basis of national law. .According to Bunsen,1 "the actual aboriginal tribe of tho primeval home has settled itself in the extreme east of Asia, and maintained itself there up to the present day; forming the most numerous nation of the world, the oldest in history." The Chinese "language forms nn irrefragable testimony to the autochthon- ous character of the unique position which it occupies. Hence whatever may prove to be an indigenou13 product of its religious consciousness, is both relatively and intrin- sically of high import to universal history. It is the undivided main stream o.f history as it issues from its parent source, not a mere lagoon." Without accepting Bunsen's tl1cory, it is at all evonts certain that at o period of very remote antiquity, anterior to the time o.f Abraham, China had its own language, literahtre, and polity. Confuci~s, wl10 lived at the close of the fifth century before Christ, was but the collector of the ancient records and reminiscences of his nation. Ami in these we find 11 quite 1 'God in History,' Doolr. III. chap. v. rENTATEUCII, xviii INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH.