Excerpt from Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, Vol. 6 Of the use of extra-biblical tradition almost the only instance is the statement that the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was changed may still be seen standing. It is remarkable that although the writer can hardly have been ignorant that, according not only to current belief but to the New Testament itself, the tempter of Eve was Satan in the guise of the serpent, he shows no consciousness of this in his paraphrase for him, as for the biblical writer, the serpent' is a serpent and nothing more. And in the prologue (which reads like a metrical rendering of a lucidly and simply written homily), the Fall of the Angels is related without the slightest allusion to the baleful consequences which that event was to have on the history of mankind. The writer does indeed consider this story an indispensable introduction to the narrative of Genesis; but this is only because he holds that the reason for which God determined to create the earth was that the void left in heaven by the expulsion of the rebel host might be filled by the blessed spirits of men. Strange as this view appears to modern apprehension, it was widely held in early Christian times. As the paraphrast proceeds with his work, his handling becomes gradually more fluent, and he confines himself some what less rigorously to the vocabulary of common Speech. When he came to speak of the warlike exploits of Abraham. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.