from the Agâdâ; the Scripture says not a word of it. For the solar character of Nimrod, which is however independently clear from the Biblical statements, the Agâdâ has again preserved a valuable datum, viz. that 365 kings (equal to the days of the solar year) appear ministering to him.[1] This is the same conception of the myth as that Enoch, of whom again the solar event of the Ascension is preserved only in tradition, lived 365 years; or that Helios had herds of 350 cattle (7 herds of 59 each); and that in the Veda the Sun-god is blessed with 720 twin children, i.e. 360 days and nights,[2] and that his chariot is drawn by seven horses, i.e. the seven days of the week.[3]
The Agâdâ, again, has preserved the following mythical expression, which Professor Schwartz interprets in this sense:[4] 'Abraham was in possession of a precious stone which he wore round his neck all his life; when he died, God took the stone and hung it on the Sun.'[5] As has been fully proved with regard to Aryan mythology, especially by Schwartz and Kuhn, the myth calls the sunshine and other luminous bodies stones in general, or more specifically precious stones.[6] By night, as long as Abraham (the nightly heaven) lives, he bears the precious stone himself; when the night dies, God takes this stone (the moonlight) and hangs it on the sun.
How cautiously we must proceed in the mythological application of the Agâdâ, is obvious to all who know the nature and origin of the Agâdâ and the Agadic collections. I will adduce one other example to show how easily one might be led astray by yielding too trustingly and unconditionally to the temptation to employ this source in the interpretation of myths.
- ↑ Bêth ham-midrâsh: Sammlung kleiner Midrashim und vermischter Abhandlungen aus der jüdischen Literatur, ed. Ad. Jellinek, Vienna 1873, V. 40.
- ↑ Max Müller, Essays [German translation of Chips], II. 147; not in the English.
- ↑ Rigveda, L. 8; CCCXCIX. 9.
- ↑ Sonne, Mond und Sterne, p. 4.
- ↑ Bab. Bâbhâ bathrâ, fol. 16. b.
- ↑ See Kuhn, Ueber Entwickelungsstufen der Mythenbildung (Abhandl. der kön. Akad. d. W. 1873, Berlin 1874), p. 144.
