few, and their progress very slow, but they were suited to the
then condition and circumstances of man, as is evident even
in the art of clothing. Placed in the salubrious and mild air
of paradise, our first parents could hardly want any other covering
than what decency required. Accordingly we find that
the first and only article of dress was the חגורה chagora, the
belt, (not aprons, as in the established version). The materials
of which it was made were fig leaves; (Gen. iii. 7.) the
same tree that afforded them food and shelter, furnished them
likewise with materials for covering their bodies. But when
in consequence of their transgressions they were to be ejected
from their blissful abode, and forced to dwell in less favourable
regions, a more substantial covering became necessary,
their merciful Creator made them (i. e. inspired them with
the thoughts of making for themselves) כתנות עור coats of
skins. (Gen. iii. 21.) The original word is כתנת c'thoneth,
whence the Greek (
Greek characters) the tunic, a close garment that was
usually worn next the skin, it reached to the knees, and had
sleeves (in after times it was made either of wool or linen.)
After man had subdued the sheep (Hebrew כבש caves from
כבש to subdue[1]) and learned how to make use of its wool,
we find a new article of dress, namely the שמלה simla, an
upper garment: it consisted of a piece of cloth about six yards
long and two or three wide, in shape not unlike our blankets.
This will explain Gen. ix. 23, 'And Shem and Japheth took
a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went
backward and covered the nakedness of their father.' It
served as a dress by day, as a bed by night, (Exod. xxii. 26,)
- ↑ There is not the least shadow of truth in support of such a deduction; and particularly so since the general tenor of the Scriptures leads to a very different conclusion. We are, therefore, not authorized to give our support to any such hypothesis. The history of the Sheep and Goat is so interwoven with the history of man, that those naturalists have not reasoned correctly, who have thought it necessary to refer the first origin of either of them to any wild stock at all. Such view is, we imagine, more in keeping with the inferences to be drawn from Scripture History with regard to the early domestication of the sheep. Abel, we are told, was a keeper of sheep, and it was one of the firstlings of his flock that he offered to the Lord, and which, proving a more acceptable sacrifice, excited the implacable and fatal jealousy of his brother Cain. (See Part ii. pp. 217 and 293.)
