This
view of nature presupposes that man places himself as a person over
and outside of nature, which he regards as simply a thing. We may
perhaps assert that were it not for this dualism of Judaism, mechanical
natural science would not exist.
The removal of colour from the myths is the same thing as the
process of Hebraising them. The Priestly Code appears to
Hebraise less than the Jehovist; it refrains on principle from
confounding different times and customs. But in fact it Hebraises
much more: it cuts and shapes the whole of the materials so that
they may serve as an introduction to the Mosaic legislation. It
is true that the Jehovist also placed these ethnic legends at the
entrance to his sacred legend, and perhaps selected them with a
view to their forming an introduction to it; for they are all
ethical and historical in their nature, and bear on the problems
of the world of man, and not the world of nature. /1/
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1 Yet it is possible the selection presented him with no difficulty,
since cosmological myths were not popular tales, but priestly
speculations, with which he was quite unacquainted.
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