世界小史 第46期:旧约全书

 You may have already guessed who these strange and powerless herdsmen were.

也许你已经猜到了，这个奇怪的、弱小的游牧民族是谁。

They were the Jews.

他们就是犹太人。

And the songs of their deeds, which were the deeds of their god, are the Old Testament¹ of the Bible.

这些歌，他们用这些歌来歌唱他们的事迹，这些事迹是他们的神的事迹，这就是《圣经》中的《旧约全书》。

One day – but there's no hurry – you may come to read the Bible.

有一天——但你也不必着急——你可以读读《圣经》。

Nowhere else will you find so many stories about ancient times so vividly² told.

你就会发现古代的事情几乎哪儿也没有在《圣经》里讲得这么多、这么生动。

And if you read them carefully, you may find that you now understand many of them better.

如果你仔细阅读，你会发现你现在能更好地理解它们。

There's the story of Abraham, for example.

比如亚伯拉罕的故事。

Do you remember where he came from?

你还记得他来自哪儿吗？

The answer is in the Book of Genesis, in chapter 11.

答案在《圣经》的《创世纪》的第11章中。

He came from Ur in the Chaldees.

他来自迦勒底的乌尔城。

Ur–that mound³ of rubble⁴ near the Persian Gulf⁵, where they dug up all those ancient things like harps⁶ and game-boards and weapons and jewelry⁷.

乌尔城——这是波斯湾附近的废墟，人们在那儿挖掘出很古老的文物，如竖琴和棋盘，武器和首饰。

But Abraham didn't live there in the earliest times.

但是亚伯拉罕不是生活在很古老的时代。

He was probably alive at the time of Hammurabi, the great lawgiver, which was–as you remember! – around 1,700 BC.

他大概生活在伟大的立法者汉谟拉比的那个时代，这就是——就像你记得的那样——大约在公元前1700年。

And many of Hammurabi's strict and just laws turn up again in the Bible.

汉谟拉比的某些许多和公正的法典，人们也在《圣经》中重新找到了。

1 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

2 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

3 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 harps   

abbr.harpsichord 拨弦古钢琴n.竖琴( harp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She continually harps on lack of money. 她总唠叨说缺钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He could turn on the harps of the blessed. 他能召来天使的竖琴为他奏乐。 来自辞典例句

7 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。