[1] What alone is essential is, that the narrative as it
stands, on an ordinary critical, linguistic, and grammatical
interpretation, should not contain anything which is untrue. Suppose,
for example, the word "tanninim" to be _incapable_ of bearing any other
meaning linguistically than "cetacean," then the narrative might be
objected to; but if it will bear a meaning which is consistent with
fact, then it is no matter that the writer at the time had an erroneous,
or (what is more likely) no defined, idea in his own mind of the
meaning. And so with "winged fowl"--the objection fails entirely, unless
it can be shown, not only that the writer might have thought "bats" to
be included, _but_ that linguistically the word _cannot have_ any other
meaning than one which would include bats.[2]
[Footnote 1: As is constantly the case in prophetic writings. Revelation
tells of the remote past sometimes as well as the future, and in neither
case could the inspired writer fully understand the meaning that was
wrapped up in his sentences.]
[Footnote 2: As a matter of fact, in the one case, if the writer's
knowledge were of any importance, it is almost certain that he did _not_
mean _cetacean_ or _sirenian_. In the other case it is impossible to say
whether he thought "bats" were included or not. It is not in the nature
of things that the writer could ever have seen or even heard of a
manatee or a dugong; nor is it likely that he had been a sea-farer, or
could have seen any Mediterranean cetacean.
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