"an edge, a knife," and " knives of edges, i.e. sharp knives," have so far at least an equal claim. It remains to be seen which view is supported by further evidence.
In the first place, the Septuagint altogether favours the opinion that the knives in question were of stone, by reading in the first place ψῆφον, a stone, or pebble, and in the secend μαχαίρας πετρίνας ἐκ πέτρας, stone knives of sharp-cut stone. These are mentioned again in the remarkable passage which follows the account of the death and burial of Joshua (Joshua xxiv. 29—30), "And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, being a hundred and ten years old, and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash." Here follows in the LXX. a passage not in the Hebrew text which has come down to us. "Καὶ ἐκεῖ ἔθηκαν μετ' αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον ἐν ᾧ ἔθαψαν αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ, τὰς μαχαίρας τὰς πετρίνας, ἐν αἶς περιέτεμε τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἐν Γαλγάλοις, ο͂τε ἐξήγαγεν αὐτοὺς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου καθὰ συνέταξε Κύριος καὶ ἐκεῖ εἰσὶν ἔως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας."[1] "And there they laid with him in the tomb wherein they buried him there, the stone knives, wherewith he circumcised the children of Israel at the Gilgals, when he led them out of Egypt, as the Lord commanded. And they are there unto this day." Any one who is disposed to see in this statement a late interpolation, may imagine an origin for it. The opening of a tumulus containing, as they so commonly do, a quantity of sharp instruments of stone, might suggest to a Jew who only knew such things as circumcising knives, the idea that he saw before him the tomb of Joshua, and, buried with his body, the stone knives wherewith he circumcised the children of Israel.
How far the modern Jews follow the translation "stone," "knives of stone," I cannot entirely say, but two modern Jewish translations of the Pentateuch which I have consulted read "stone" in Exodus iv. 25. It is to be remarked that the Rabbinical law admits such a use; it stands thus:—
- ↑ LXX., Ed. Field, Oxford, 1859. Elsewhere Gilead instead of Gaash, and other differences.
