Blavatsky H.P. - Is this an Error: Difference between revisions

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In the Editors’ notes to the article on “The Crucifixion of Man,” in the May number of ''Lucifer'', a quotation is given from the ''Key to the Hebrew-Egyptien Mystery in the Source of Measures''. I have not seen this work and do not know the name of its author, but, judging from this specimen of his writings, he is very far from being a safe guide. From his way of treating the subject of the quotation, he is evidently not aware that the two Evangels in which the exclamation has been preserved reproduce the Chaldee translation or Targum of ''Psalms'', xxii, 1. This would have been more familiar than the Hebrew {{Page aside|276}}original to a Jew of the period in the habit of mixing with and teaching the people, and might well have fallen from the lips of such an one dying under such circumstances. To confront the Chaldee with the Hebrew here, and claim that the one is a falsification of the other is to make an unwarranted statement. But there is a still greater mistake even than this in the quotation, for, to get the reading, “My God, my God, how thou dost glorify me!” out of the Chaldee translation, the author substitutes <big>'''שבהתני'''</big>: for <big>'''שבקתני'''</big>:, and, by so doing, himself falsifies the accepted utterance. When it is realized that the exclamation handed down by the Evangelist is a Chaldee version of a Hebrew original, it cannot but be admitted that the meaning of the Chaldee is determined by that of the Hebrew, of which it is a translation. This unquestionably is “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In the attributed rendering of the author, the Hebrew word he has adopted, to support preconceived views, only signifies “glorify” in the sense by singing the praises (and not by the illumination) of the glorified subject.