l^^i^^':mmm'm 
 
 nia
 
 .#. 
 
 VIL 
 
 J>- ~ 
 
 # ' 
 
 
 
 ;v-ritM(VFDr/^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 <: 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 
 >c 
 
 .^^ 
 
 LV 
 
 -A,OFCALIFO% 
 
 6: 
 
 ^ *^ 
 
 
 r</ 
 
 vayiiiv-^ ■^^AaVdiiiii^^" 
 
 
 CD 
 30 
 
 ^5 
 
 V. 
 
 >t 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ■^J IJJiiY'iUl ■ 
 
 %a3AINfl-3\\V 
 
 '^«!/U3i i VJ-3\' 
 
 .^ 
 
 ^\WFUNIVER% vj<lOSANG[lfj> 
 
 ^.OFCAIIFO/?^ ,^;0FCA1 
 
 ■•-^iiiDNVSOV^^ '^Ad]AiNllJV\V' 
 
 '^ 
 
 •3WV 
 
 :^ 
 
 
 
 ^•0^ 
 
 >t 
 
 
 
 
 \WtUNIVER% 
 
 ■ 5^ 
 
 UJI" .11/ 
 
 ■"^ "%Elfj> 
 
 so 
 
 > 
 
 so 
 
 -< 
 
 '■;d^ 
 
 '^ 
 
 ^OFCAUF0%, 
 
 > 
 
 
 AllFO/?^ 
 
 Ut— ' 
 
 ■ERi-//^ 
 
 '■.Eltf: 
 
 ;^ 
 
 vr,. 
 
 v^. 
 
 -< 
 
 ^ 
 
 \MtUN!\'ERy.,^/ 
 
 /- 
 
 ■^^ 
 
 CC 
 
 'r\\ 
 
 " in 
 
 Hi IV i-^vk v~
 
 
 ,.j,OFCAllF0/?^^. 
 
 ^' 
 
 ,-5Mf-WIVFRy/>;,, 
 
 
 ^6 
 
 or, 
 
 
 -n V. 
 
 .=0 C 
 
 
 
 ^\mmynr 
 
 A 
 
 > AUFO/?,' 
 
 
 S" 
 
 ■^'i'ilJONVSOV"^^ %a3AINn-9\\V '^-i/OJIlVD-JOV 
 
 ^ 
 
 .\\1L U 
 
 .1 
 
 ^-i U Jl' T JU I 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^* 
 
 % 
 
 CO 
 
 33 
 
 %a3AINa-3WV 
 
 :§^ 
 
 
 z: 3 
 
 so C 
 
 ^- - >^ 
 
 ^OF-CALIFO/?^ , 
 
 3j- i 
 
 r< 
 
 ^Aiivu 
 
 Niv 
 
 N'rr"- 
 
 ■^^ 
 
 Cr c> c 
 
 ^Ni- 
 
 ■^ 
 
 ^OhtALIrO/?/)!^ 
 
 -<C 
 
 
 
 ...01^ 
 
 \WEUNIVER% 
 ^ "re 
 
 CC. — > L 
 
 ■nVisUl-^' 
 
 
 -n «■ 
 O L 
 
 
 '[)A,'>\ 
 
 Jl 
 
 4 
 
 m 
 
 '/IllV. 
 
 
 ',^u !iwivn?r/A. 
 
 
 ^i\V 
 
 
 
 
 i> 
 
 Or 
 
 .^of 
 
 
 
 ■J? i«ss> 
 
 
 V 
 
 Nr'' 
 
 ^ . 1 r-. !-\ « rt \ 
 
 \WEUNIVf^ 
 
 t 
 
 T C 
 
 >■ : 
 
 -n V, 
 
 l«iMlf» ^/NdH/XIr
 
 %.7iLU-u:cZ^ ^cCljyr^C---
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE 
 
 THREE LECTURES ON THE 
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF ASSYRIOLOG- 
 ICAL RESEARCH FOR RELIGION 
 
 EMBODYING THE MOST IMPORTANT CRITICISMS AND 
 THE AUTHOR'S REPLIES 
 
 DR. FRIEDRICH DELITZSCH 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 CHICAGO 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1906
 
 FIRST LECTURE COrVRlGHT ig02 
 SECONn LECTURE COPYRICHT ig03. THIRD LECTURE COPYRIGHT T906 
 
 ny 
 The Open Court PunLisHiNo Co., 
 
 CHICAGO.
 
 177 
 
 
 ~2) 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. (From Report of Smithsonian Institution.) 
 
 Mounds in Mesopotamia, p. ix. — French Excavations, pp. x-xi. — 
 English Excavations, pp. xi ff. — Library of Sardanapakis, pp. 
 xiii f. — The Sun Temple of Sippar, pp. xiv-xvi. — De Sarzec's 
 Discoveries of Diorite Sculptures and Other Works of Art, p. 
 xvii. — Ruins of the Temple of Bel at Nippur, p. xviii-xix. — Ger- 
 many's Part in the Excavations, p. xxi. — Great Value in Inter- 
 pretation of Old Testament, p. xxii. — Origin of Modern Science 
 in Chaldaea, p. xxiii. 
 
 FIRST LECTURE. (Translated by Thomas J. McCormack) 
 
 Excavations and tlie Bible, p. i. — A New Epoch, p. 2. — The Back- 
 ground of the Old Testament, p. 3. — The Home of Abraham, p. 4. 
 — Cuneiform Literature, p. 5. — Illustrations of Bible Reports, p. 
 6 ff. — Hezekiah and Sennacherib, pp. 6-8. — Seals, p. 9. — Sargon I, 
 pp. 9-10. — Racial Types, pp. lo-ii. — Assyrian Troops, pp. 11-13. — 
 Assyrian Soldiers and Details of Armament, pp. 15-18. — The Royal 
 Household, pp. 18-20. — Battling with the Lion, pp. 20-22. — The 
 Harem, pp. 23-24. — A Consort of Sardanapalus, pp. 23-25. — Tech- 
 nical Knowledge and Art, pp. 25-28.— Affinity Between Babylonian 
 and Hebrew, p. 29. — Aaron's Blessing, pp. 29-30. — A Civilisation 
 Comparable with Our Own, p. 30. — Hammurabi's Laws, pp. 30-31- 
 —Commerce and Science, p. 33. — The Splendors of Babylon, pp. 
 33-34. — Clay Tablets, 35-37. — Canaan a Babylonian Domain, p. 37. 
 —The Sabbath Day, pp. 37-38.— A Tablet from El-Amarna, p. 38. 
 — The Deluge, p. 38 ff. — Xisusthros, the Babylonian Noah, p. 39 
 ff. — The Gilgamesh Epic, p. 41 ff. — Marduk and Yahveh, p. 43 ff. 
 — Tiamat and Tehom, p. 45. — Stress Laid on Humane Conduct, p. 
 47. — The Serpent and the Fall of Man, pp. 47-48. — The Under- 
 world, pp. 49-50.— Job and the New Testament on Hell and Para- 
 dise, p. so.— The Moslem Paradise, pp. 50-52.— Seraphim and 
 Guardian Angels, pp. 53-55- — Demons and Devils, pp. 55-S8.— 
 Monotheism, p. 59. — Abraham's Conversion, According to the 
 Koran, p. 60.— The Word El, pp. 60-61. — The Name Yahveh, on a 
 Clay Tablet of Hammurabi's Time, pp. 61-62.— The Sun-God of 
 
 PAC
 
 iv BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sippar, pp. 62-63. — Ezekiel's Vision Illustrated, pp. 64-65. — Baby- 
 lonian Pob'theism and Israelitic Particularism, pp. 65-66. 
 
 SECOND LECTURE. (Translated by W. H. Carruth.) 67 
 
 Isaiah's Battle Song, p. 69. — Shrinking from Yahveh, p. 70. — Babel 
 as Interpreter of the Bible, p. 71. — Kutha and Chalach, the Home 
 of the Exiled Israelites, pp. "72-^},. — The Black Obelisk of Shal- 
 maneser II, pp. 74-78. — The Re'em, or Wild Ox, pp. 79-83. — The 
 Hill of Babil, pp. 81-83. — The Lion of Babylon, p. 84. — The Dragon 
 of Babel, p. 85. — Old Testament Scriptures Translated by Assyri- 
 ology, p. 86. — The Insanity of Nebuchadnezzar, p. 87. — Book of 
 Jonah, p. 88.— Even the Modern Orient an Interpreter of the Bible, 
 pp. 89-90. — The Magic Power of Spittle, p. 90. — Smoke and Fire, 
 pp. 90-91. — Gula, the Awakener of the Dead, p. 91. — Revelation 
 and the Old Testament, p. 92 ff. — The Second Commandment Sup- 
 pressed, p. 93 ff. and also p. 102. — The Two Tablets Engraved 
 by God's Own Finger, p. 94. — Miracles of the Two Tablets in Pre- 
 historic Reports, pp. 95-96. — The So-called Mosaic Law and the 
 Code of Hammurabi, pp. 96-100. — The Covenant of Sinai, p. 100. 
 — The Institution of Sabbath, p. loi. — The First Commandment 
 and Monotheism, p. 102. — God in Names, p. 102 ff. — Babylonian 
 Polytheism, Gross but Poetical, pp. 103-104. — The Homeric Pan- 
 theon, p. 104. — Anthropomorphism of Hebrew Prophets, p. 104. — 
 Yahveh with Horns, p. 104. — The Ancient of Days, p. 105. — The 
 Ethical Level of Israel and Babylon, p. 106. — The Position of 
 Woman in Israel, p. 108. — The Goddess of Birth and Eve, p. 109 ff. 
 ■ — ^The Narrowness of Hebrew and Moslem Monotheism, pp. iio- 
 112. — The Extermination of Gentiles, p. 111-112. — God no Re- 
 specter of Persons, pp. 112-113. — Ethical Monotheism, p. 113:— 
 Outlook Upon the Future Development of Religion, p. 114. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR BABEL AND BIBLE 115 
 
 Literature on "Babel and Bible." 117 
 
 Opinions on "Babel and Bible." 120 
 
 Emperor William on "Babel and Bible," pp. 120-124. — Professor 
 Harnack on the Emperor's Attitude Toward "Babel and Bible," 
 pp. 125-130. — M. Halevy's Opinion, pp. 130-131. — Cornill on "Ba- 
 bel and Bible," pp. 132-136. — A Roman Catholic Verdict, pp. 136- 
 137- — Alfred Jeremias on Delitzsch, pp. 137-139. — Higher Criticism 
 and the Emperor, pp. 139-144. 
 
 Reply to Critics of the First Lecture 145 
 
 The Ethical Aspect, pp. 145-146. — The Primordial Chaos, p. 146. 
 — Traces of Polytheism, p. 146. — Babylonian Monotheism, p. 146- 
 147— The Name "El," pp. 148-150.— The Name "Yahveh," pp. 
 150-151.— The Name "Yahum-ilu," pp. 152-153.— Processions of 
 the Gods, p. 153.— Aaron's Blessing, pp. i53-i55._The Sabbath, 
 PP- 155-156.— The Fall, pp. 157-158.— Life After Death, pp. 158-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. V 
 
 PAGF 
 
 159. — Tiamat, pp. 159-161. — Angels, pp. 161-162. — Babylonian 
 Superstitions in Sweden, p. 162. — Canaanites, pp. 162-163. 
 
 Reply to Critics of the Second Lecture 164 
 
 Orthodoxy in S3magogue and Church, pp. 164-167. — Conclusion, 
 p. 167. 
 
 THIRD LECTURE. (Translated by Lydia G. Robinson.) 169 
 
 The Limited Ethnology of Genesis X, pp. 171-173. — The Sume- 
 rians : Their Art and Character, pp. 173-175. — Nebuchadnezzar 
 and Daniel, pp. 175-178. — Tiglath-pileser, pp. 178-180. — Character 
 of Galilseans, Babylonian, not Semitic, pp. 180 f. — "Son of Man," 
 pp. 181 f. — Musical Instruments, pp. 183-186. — Babylonian and 
 Hebrew Psalms, pp. 186 -191. — Psalm to Istar, pp. 191-195. — 
 Ten Commandments in Code of Hammurabi, pp. 197-200. — Love 
 of Neighbor, pp. 200-205. — Sin and Its Consequences, pp. 205-209. 
 —Image Worship, pp. 209-210. — Polytheism, pp. 211-214. — Babylo- 
 nian God-Conception, pp. 214-220. — Semitic God-Conception, pp. 
 221-224. — National Gods, pp. 224-2^2. — Prophecy in Babel and 
 Bible, pp. 232-235. — Superiority of Christian Ideals, pp. 235-237
 
 INTRODUCTION
 
 INTRODUCTION
 
 I< 
 
 INTRODUCTION.* 
 
 THE traveler starting overland from the port of Alexandretta, 
 in northern Syria, beholds beyond the high pass of Beilan the 
 widely extended plain of Antioch, a view surprising in novelty and 
 charm. As far as the eye can reach the plain is strewn with mounds 
 of varying height, often grass-covered, their artificial origin easily 
 discernible. These mysterious elevations, called by the Arabs Tell, 
 by the Turks Tepe, accompany the traveler to Aleppo and even 
 farther to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, and they constantly 
 increase in height, extent, and number, from Mosul down the 
 stream and through Babylonia, crossing into the Elamite plain and 
 to Susa. They are the marks of the civilisation of pre-Christian 
 millenniums. The large and small cities of the oldest empires of 
 western Asia, of the Hittite states of northern Syria, of the Assy- 
 rian, Babylonian, and Elamite empires, with their palaces and tem- 
 ples, walls and gates, terraces and towers, lie buried beneath them. 
 From these mounds of ruins of the Euphrates and Tigris region, 
 weather beaten, grave, and silent, rising from the lonely and lifeless 
 desert, French, English, and American explorers have plucked un- 
 fading laurels. They have awakened to new life, after the sleep 
 of thousands of years, the buried glory of millenniums gone, and 
 from innumerable monuments of sculpture and writing living knowl- 
 edge reaches us of Babylon, Nineveh, and of those earlier peoples 
 whose civilisation continues, in no small measure, to be preserved 
 in our own. The mounds of ruins in the fairyland of The Thousand 
 
 * This article is a lecture which Professor Delitzsch delivered eight years 
 ago and which was pubHshed by J. C. Hinrichs in 1898 under the title Ex 
 Oriente Lux. The article was written for the special purpose of instigating 
 interest in further excavations in the Orient, and has been translated into 
 English by the Smithsonian Institution and published in their annual report 
 for 1901. From the present essay which has been reproduced with the per- 
 mission of the Smithsonian Institution those passages have been omitted which 
 are of a merely temporary and local character, or practically duplicate por- 
 tions of the text of Babel and Bible.
 
 X BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 and One Nights have become for France, England, and America 
 mounds of treasure-trove, from whose darkness they bring to hght 
 treasures of human art and science that are the greatest ornament 
 and pride and the never-resting ambition of the great national 
 museums. 
 
 It was in the year 1820 that Claudius James Rich, an officer 
 of the English East India Company at Bagdad, undertook, for the 
 recovery of his health, a trip into the Kurdish Mountains, and on 
 his way back he spent a few days at Mosul, the well-known com- 
 mercial town on the right bank of the Tigris. There the large 
 mo'-rds on the other side of the river attracted his attention. They 
 resembled those which he had seen near Hilla on the Euphrates 
 and which he correctly took for the remains of ancient Babylon. 
 / s the soi thern of the two largest mounds still has the official name 
 cf Nr.nia, and is crowned with a mosque dedicated to the prophet 
 Jonah, the hypothesis suggested itself that there, opposite Mosul, 
 lay the ruins of Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria. Rich ex- 
 amined the mounds. He also heard of a large stone slab, engraved 
 with representations of human figures and animals, which had been 
 found some time before, but had been broken by the Turks because 
 of religious prejudice. He was not, however, in a position to con- 
 tinue his investigations. 
 
 Now it happened that in 1842 Emile Botta, son of the well- 
 known Italian historian, was appointed French consul at Mosul, 
 and was encouraged by the famous Orientalist, Julius von Mohl — 
 the second of the four brothers Mohl, who are a lasting honor to 
 their native city Stuttgart — to follow up the path entered by Rich 
 and to begin excavations in the mounds near Mosul. But neither 
 on the southern mound, Nebi Yunus, nor on the northern, Kuyun- 
 jik, were his endeavors rewarded with success. 
 
 In March, 1843, ^ peasant of Khorsabad, a village situated 
 four hours north of Mosul, told him that in the mound on which 
 the village was built inscribed stones and similar objects had been 
 found in great number. Botta thereupon began, on the 20th of 
 March, to dig at Khorsabad, and after but three days a room was 
 opened, and a few days later another, the inner walls covered with 
 alabaster slabs, on which were represented in bas-relief the cam- 
 paigns and hunts, the gods and priests of a king. Full of joy, 
 Botta, on the 2d of May, sent to Mohl a letter, with drawings of 
 the inscriptions and sculptures. The drawings caused a lively sen- 
 sation, and the French Government immediately made an appro-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. XI 
 
 priation for further excavations. Botta had discovered, as we now 
 know, the palace of Sargon, the conqueror of Samaria. 
 
 In May, 1844, the inhabitants of the village were removed with 
 the permission of the Sublime Porte, and thereupon the excavations 
 continued on a larger scale. New rooms were continually freed 
 from the debris, new sculptures, still exhibiting traces of color, to- 
 gether with long-lined inscriptions, were continually brought to light, 
 and the drawings of the French painter, Eugene Flandin, which 
 were later published at the cost of the State, served to raise still 
 higher the general interest in Assyrian art and civilisation, which 
 was believed irrevocably lost, and now, as if by magic, arose to 
 new life. 
 
 Botta's successor, Victor Place, found, in 1852, the walls and 
 gates of the city of Sargon, with gigantic winged bulls, and com- 
 pleted the excavation of the palace, penetrating to the cellar, where 
 the wine jars, with a reddish sediment in the bottom, were still stand- 
 ing in long rows. An Assyrian king, concerning whom until then 
 only a simple brief notice in the Old Testament (Isaiah xx. i) gave 
 information, suddenly rose before our eyes as a live, tangible per- 
 sonage, and we now know as much about his wars and victories, 
 his buildings and hunts, about the conditions of civilisation of the 
 Assyrian empire and the contemporaneous history of the neighbor- 
 ing states, as we know about any epoch of ancient Greece or Rome. 
 
 It may be readily imagined that the glorious achievements ac- 
 complished by French pluck, energy, and perseverance, which turned 
 the eyes of the whole civilised world to the Assyrian collections in 
 the Louvre, would not long leave the English idle spectators. Sir 
 Austen Henry Layard, afterwards minister of Great Britain in 
 Madrid and ambassador to Constantinople, had already visited those 
 regions in 1840, and had shown the most lively interest in the work 
 of Botta. It was not long before the English ambassador at Con- 
 stantinople, Sir Stratford Cunning, succeeded in securing for Lay- 
 ard the firman permitting excavations and the necessary funds. 
 Layard immediately began excavations on a grand scale, receiving 
 the cordial aid of the native population, for not only was Layard 
 an adept in winning the love and gratitude of the natives every- 
 where, but he had also in Hormuzd Rassam the most ideal com- 
 panion, who, fully familiar with the Arabic character, could, as 
 Layard acknowledged, seciire the good will of the most savage 
 with whom he came in contact. 
 
 On November 28, 1845, Layard commenced his labors in Xim-
 
 xii BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 rud. situated a few kilometers south of Nineveh, and the first four 
 months of 1846 brought to Hght the entire northwest palace of 
 Shalmaneser I (1300 B. C), the palace of Asurnazirpal, of the 
 Biblical Tiglathpileser and Esarhaddon, and, especially with the 
 palace of Asurnazirpal, a large number of sculptures and inscrip- 
 tions of various kinds. 
 
 Not less successful were the excavations at Nineveh, which 
 Lavard carried on after 1849 ^t the expense of the British Museum. 
 Like the Babylonians, their masters, the Assyrian kings built their 
 temples and palaces upon raised artificial terraces, from whose airy 
 heights they not only enjoyed a purer and cooler atmosphere but 
 escaped the fever, the inundations, and the mosquito swarms of 
 the river flats. King Sennacherib erected such an elevated terrace 
 of bricks, and his grandson, Asurbanipal. the Greek Sardanapalus, 
 extended it. Both of these rulers built there magnificent palaces, 
 surrounded by large parks, rivulets, and ponds, on whose isles 
 water birds nested. And all this splendor and glory, covered by the 
 mighty mound of ruins of Kuyunjik, were uncovered by the two 
 English explorers. 
 
 In the southwest corner of the mound Layard laid open the 
 palace of Sennacherib, the largest Assyrian palace thus far known, 
 with seventy-one rooms, galleries, and halls, the walls on every 
 side covered with artistic bas-relief, depicting the edifices, the cam- 
 paigns, and the domestic life of the king in a most vivid manner. 
 
 Splendid and admirable as were the discoveries in the so-called 
 southwest palace of Sennacherib, they were to be greatly surpassed 
 by the treasures which were brought to light from the so-called 
 north palace of Sardanapalus, discovered by Rassam in 1854. There, 
 too, one state chamber after another was freed from debris ; the 
 long Babylonian gallery, the smaller Arabic room, so named because 
 their wall reliefs represent the great deeds of the king and his 
 armies in Babylonia, Arabia, etc. After two and a half thousands 
 of years of darkness the light of the sun again burst in the 
 halls decorated with sculptures and in the courts artistically paved 
 with mosaics, exactly as when they were deserted in the year 607 
 B. C, when the Median hordes, intoxicated with the blood of foes 
 and the triumph of victory, raged there, burning and plundering. 
 Light fell anew into the royal harem, conjuring up before our eves 
 most vividly scenes with which an artist of the seventh pre-Christian 
 century decorated its walls with realistic truthfulness. On the floor 
 of these and the adjoining rooms lay in thick layers fragments of ^he
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. Xlll 
 
 royal library, a collection of tablet books and documents once ar- 
 rang-ed in the upper rooms, but which at the collapse fell through, 
 crushed into thousands of large and small pieces. Baked clay 
 tablets of all sizes, inscribed on both sides with fine Assyrian cunei- 
 form characters, which, after being freed from dirt and dust can be 
 as clistinctly read as if they were but yesterday impressed into the 
 soft clay, constituted this unique royal library. 
 
 As if presaging the approaching collapse of the Assyrian em- 
 pire, Sardanapalus ordered that the most important books and docu- 
 ments from all the libraries in Babylonia should be collected, copied, 
 some even in duplicate, and incorporated in his own library. Thus 
 through the library of Sardanapalus there came to us a great part 
 of the older, and indeed of the most ancient, works of Babylonian 
 literature, and, as might be expected, only the most important 
 works were considered worthy of admission into the royal library. 
 
 The library contained historical works with information as to 
 the relations, now peaceful, more often warlike, of Assyria with its 
 mother country, Babylonia ; chronological lists accurately fixing the 
 reigns of all those ancient kings, Shalmaneser, Tiglathpileser, Sar- 
 danapalus, and for a long period recording the most important event 
 of each year ; penitential psalms and hymns of praise, epics and 
 myths that reveal the religious thought as well as the poetical en- 
 dowment of the Babylonian people ; large grammatico-lexicograph- 
 ical works that for many decades to come will be an inexhaustible 
 mine for Semitic philology ; astronomical, astrological, and magical 
 tablets, the original works from which the wise men of the East — 
 the Babylonian Magi — drew their learning which they afterwards 
 spread over Greece and Rome ; in addition a multitude of letters 
 addressed to the great king of Assyria from the kings of Elam, 
 from the generals abroad in hostile lands, from the court astron- 
 omers who report to the king the happenings in the starry heavens, 
 eclipses of the sun and moon, from the Magi, who, on the basis of 
 the tiight of birds, or the entrails of sacrificial animals, advise the 
 royal majesty what to do and what to leave undone; letters from 
 the royal physicians, petitions and entreaties from captives ; besides 
 copies of the letters and proclamations of the king himself. Four 
 royal-octavo volumes, with 1,952 pages are required for the cata- 
 logue of the thousands of clay tablets and prisms or fragments 
 thus far transferred from Nineveh to the British Museum. 
 
 What a mass of knowledge and multitude of new points of 
 view for religious and profane history, for linguistics and geog-
 
 xiv BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 raphy, for archseology in all its branches, has not the study of these 
 ancient books revealed! Let us but recall that memorable autumn 
 of 1872, when George Smith, one of the officers of the Egypto- 
 Assyrian collection of the British Museum, while looking over the 
 cuneiform fragments of the mythological series, found the original 
 of the Babylonian-Biblical account of the deluge. He reported his 
 find at the meeting of the London Society for Biblical Archaeology 
 on December 3, 1872. 
 
 The discovery created the profoundest sensation in England, 
 and far beyond her borders. In press and pulpit it was celebrated 
 and commented upon. Babel, it was said, confirms the Bible. 
 "Where men are silent the stones cry out." The proprietors of the 
 Daily Telegraph, almost immediately after that lecture, hastened to 
 give George Smith a thousand guineas for further explorations in 
 Nineveh. On January 20, 1873, George Smith set out on his jour- 
 ney. In 1874 he was again sent — this time by the trustees of the 
 British Museum — to Nineveh, constantly making discoveries, and in 
 1876 undertook a third expedition to the East, which was to him 
 "a way without return." His last stay in Babylonia and Assyria — 
 full of exertions and trials, where at the time, pest and cholera 
 were raging — exhausted the strength of the indefatigable explorer. 
 Accompanied by the English consul to Aleppo, he died there on 
 August 19, 1876, covered with glory, fallen like a hero on the field 
 of honor. 
 
 The traveler setting out from Bagdad in the direction of the 
 little town of Hilla, traversing the plain which is spread out between 
 the twin rivers Euphrates and Tigris where they are nearest one 
 another, will, after passing many other mounds of ruins, arrive at 
 a large one covering two English miles, named Abu Habba. Wall 
 and castle are still clearly recognisable, but the highest point of 
 this site of ruins is on the southwest side on the bank of a former 
 arm of the Euphrates. When Rassam excavated here in 1881 he 
 struck almost at once the walls of a building. The inclosure of a 
 large quadrangular structure, 1,500 feet long on the southwest side, 
 was laid bare, and further trenches and shafts showed that the 
 edifices were grouped around a central court, and consisted of a 
 line of long narrow rooms with exceptionally thick brick walls. 
 In the interior of this structure a pair of interesting rooms was dis- 
 covered and freed from the debris. At the excavating of a shaft 
 that ran along a wall in the middle of the mound a doorwav was 
 reached which led to a large gallery 100 feet long and about 35
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. XV 
 
 feet wide. On it stood the remnants of a large sacrificial altar, 
 made of bricks and measuring 30 feet square. Behind the altar, 
 in the wall of this room, a door opened leading to a smaller room, 
 and Rassam, as a result of experience gained in the Assyrian mound 
 of Balawat, at once surmised that the temple archives had been 
 here preserved. But though at Balawat the corner-stone documents 
 of the builder of the temple were found in a stone chest, nothing sim- 
 ilar was here discovered. On the other hand, the asphalt pavement 
 attracted Rassam's attention, and he therefore sunk a shaft in the 
 floor, when, behold, scarcely had he broken through the cement 
 layer when a clay chest appeared containing a beautiful artistically 
 inscribed alabaster tablet, in six columns, decorated at the top with 
 a carefully executed bas-relief. 
 
 In this holy of holies a god with a long-flowing beard, in his 
 hand a ring and short staff, was seated upon a throne decorated 
 with cherubim (p. 63). A king followed by two priests approaches 
 the god in adoration, while two other men are raising the sun disk 
 with ropes upon the roof of the holy of holies. Certainly a valuable 
 and admirable find in itself, but much more so because this document 
 also revealed the name of the building, and of the city which was 
 thus discovered : 
 
 "image of the sun god, the great lord, who dwells in the 
 temple ebabbara in the city of sippar." 
 
 Thus reads the explanatory legend of the bas-relief. One of 
 the oldest Babylonian cities has been found — Sippar, in which 
 Noah-Xisusthros, by the command of the god Kronos, was ordered 
 to bury the documents of antediluvian times ; the sun temple, which 
 since its foundation in the fourth millennium until long after the 
 time of tlie last Chaldsean king, Nabuna'id (538 B. C), was the 
 center of worship for Babylonia and the object of concern of all 
 Babylonian kings, was rediscovered. This sun temple in the course 
 of thousands of years, through revenues and donations, came in 
 possession of untold riches in money and land. 
 
 The forty to fifty thousand inscribed tablets that since 1881 
 have been flowing from Abu Habba as from an inexhaustible source 
 into the Occidental museums, above all into the British Museum, 
 give an insight not only into the cult of the sun god and the deities 
 worshipped beside him, into the division, obligations, and prerog- 
 atives of the several priest classes, but also into the system of the
 
 XVI BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 temple revenues and their application. From the temple archives 
 of the sun god is derived a great mass of tablets, which, after the 
 fashion of commercial bookkeeping, record the temple revenues 
 in money and other commodities, the expenses in salaries, wages, 
 etc., and the investment and employment of the temple property 
 in loans, real estate, rents, etc. If to these be added the numerous 
 so-called contract tablets from Babylonia, Tell Sifr, and other places, 
 with their varied contents, purchase and sale of slaves, marriage 
 documents, acts of lawsuits, testaments, and the letters of the time 
 of Hammurabi or Amraphel (Genesis, xiv) which were recently 
 found, w-e derive a mass of the most important information on the 
 commercial and judicial life as well as the economic conditions in 
 the Babylonian state for a period of nearly two thousand years 
 from the first Babylonian dynasty (2250 B. C.) until long after 
 the time of the Achaemenian kings. -.,''; 
 
 The excavations at Sippar. Babyfon, and elsewhere carried us 
 back to the time of Hammurabi, that greatest king of the first Baby- 
 lonian dynasty, who united the north and the south into one great 
 Babylonian State, with Babylon as the capital. But the soil of Bab- 
 ylonia, inexhaustible in surprises, was soon to afford us an outlook 
 into a much higher antiquity of the Babylonian people and to carry 
 us to still more remote ages in the history of humanity. 
 
 From the same archives to which the above-mentioned votive 
 tablet belonged, which was deposited by King Nebobaladan (882 
 B. C.) in the sun temple at Sippar, came also, among other things, 
 a remarkable clay cylinder of the last Chaldsean king, Xabuna'id. 
 In it the king relates that he has decided to re-establish the sun 
 temple upon its oldest foundation ; for, in consec^uence of the re- 
 peated rebuildings in the course of many centuries, the temple was 
 obviously detached from its original foundation site, from its oldest 
 "temen" ; and that he has succeeded, after continuous and laborious 
 digging into the depths of the earth, in finding the "temen" of the 
 first builder of the temple, Naram-Sin, Son of Sargon I, a "temen" 
 which for forty-two hundred years had not been seen by the eye 
 of man. This established the year 3750 before our era as the date 
 of the reign of Naram-Sin and about 3800 as that of Sargon I, and 
 opened a vista into the past of the human race on Babylonian soil 
 which lies fifteen hundred years beyond the time of Hammurabi- 
 Amraphel, or, to speak with the Old Testament, beyond the time 
 of Abraham, a vista never anticipated and at first hardly credible. 
 And still, little as was the inclination to accept so remote a date.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE- XVll 
 
 there was as little reason to doubt it, and, in fact, the progress of 
 the excavations was soon to prove it more and more indubitable. 
 
 The French consul at Bassora, Ernest de Sarzec, who has been 
 directing the French excavations on the south Babylonian site of 
 the ruins of Tell Loh (Telloh) since 1875, had not long begun his 
 work when he found those nine diorite statues, which represented 
 partly in standing position, partly seated, the old priest-kings (pa- 
 tcsi) of the city of Lagash. named Ur-Bau and Gudea (p. 174). 
 These statues, although the heads of all are missing, are valuable 
 examples of the old Babylonian art of sculpture, and this value is 
 considerably increased by the inscriptions which, on the breast, 
 back, etc., are incised with the most consummate artistic skill and 
 neatness, exciting the admiration of our modern stonecutters. \\'hile 
 the archaism of the writing leads us back to a time long be- 
 fore Hammurabi, the language in which they are composed shows 
 that those ancient priest kings belonged neither to the Semitic nor 
 to the Indo-Germanic stratum of the Babylonian population, but to 
 the so-called Sumerian people, who spoke an agglutinative language, 
 and W'ho, though through the early centuries settled in Babylonia 
 contemporaneously with the Semites, and in lively intercourse with 
 them, must still be considered as the older native population from 
 whom the Semites received the art of writing and other achieve- 
 ments of civilisation. 
 
 Since that first great discovery of De Sarzec, the finds of 
 Telloh have steadily carried Babylonian history to earlier periods, 
 as is evinced by indisputable art, historical and paleographical 
 criteria. They carried it back to the time when the two Semitic 
 kings of Agade, Shargani-shar-ali and Xaram-Sin — and these, as is 
 recognised with ever-increasing certainty, are Nabuna'id's Sargon 
 and Naram-Sin (3800 and 3750 B. C., respectively) — exercised 
 sovereignty over Lagash, and the priest-king of this city, Lagal- 
 Ushumgal, was their vassal. Nay even from an earlier time — the 
 close of the fifth millennium — there rises before our eyes a whole 
 line of hoary Sumerian patesis of Lagash — Ur-Nina, Eannadu, 
 Enannatum, Entemena. And we know not only their names but 
 most of their heroism against domestic and foreign foes, and of 
 their efforts for the general welfare of their citv and its inhabitants. 
 
 As the origin of the cuneiform writing is more and more cleared 
 up through the inscriptions of some of these most ancient rulers — 
 above all, that of Eannadu — so one ray of light after another 
 brightens the darkness spread over the earliest history of the ereat
 
 xviii BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Babylonian cities — Agade, Babel, Kish, and Lagash, Erech, and the 
 "city of bows." Nay, on some periods, especially the times of 
 Sarg-on I and his son, Naram-Sin, a flood of light is shed. For 
 much as it may be deplored that the archives, consisting of some 
 30,000 tablets, cylinders, and large inscribed pebbles, found in 1894 
 in a cellar-shaped room at Telloh, were scattered everywhere by the 
 thievish Arabs, the documents themselves are not lost to science, 
 whether they came to the museums of Constantinople, Paris, Ber- 
 lin, Philadelphia, or elsewhere ; and they reveal to us in a surprising 
 and at the same time in detailed manner the commercial, agricultural, 
 and economic conditions, as well as the civic and religious life of 
 the times of Sargon I and Naram-Sin. Even pierced lumps of clay 
 were found with the names of Sargon or Naram-Sin stamped upon 
 them, inscribed with the names of the addressee, the place of desti- 
 nation, and evidently attached to bales of merchandise, to be for- 
 warded from Agade to Lagash. 
 
 One of the oldest sanctuaries upon earth is the temple of the 
 lord of the universe, Bel, in the middle Babylonian city of Nippur. 
 The ruins of this city, now called Nufifar, and especially the gigantic 
 remains of this temple, were the goal of the three expeditions from 
 Philadelphia, which, from 1886 up to the present time, under the 
 direction of John P. Peters, Hermann V. Hilprecht, and J. H. 
 Haynes, have excavated and constantly made discoveries of the 
 greatest import to science on that vast site of ruins. Two temple 
 archives rewarded the labors of the American explorers within a 
 few years. True, those of Sargon I lay in ruins ; enemies, probably 
 the Elamites, phmdered and destroyed them. But if only the vases 
 of the pre-Sargonic king of Erech, Lugal Zaggisi, son of a patesi 
 of the "city of bows," which were pieced together from thousands 
 of fragments, had been found they would be an ample reward on 
 account of the historical and paleographical information that they 
 furnish. The records of the Kossean kings were intact. They con- 
 tained all the votive gifts that the kings of the so-called third 
 Babylonian dynasty had presented to the god Bel. 
 
 Down to 1896 there were cleared from the ruins of Nufifar, 
 successively, 2,000, 8,000, and 21,000 clay tablets and fragments, 
 inscribed and stamped bricks, stone and clay vases. They were of 
 the pre-Sargonic period, as well as of all the later periods of Baby- 
 lonian history, from Sargon I and Naram-Sin, and even from Ur- 
 Gur and Dungi, the two ancient kings of the city of Ur, down to 
 Darius II and Artaxerxes Mnemon. They embraced syllabaries,
 
 babe;i< and bible. xix 
 
 chronological lists, letters, astronomical and religious texts, tax lists, 
 plans of real estate, contracts, besides images of divinities and to)s 
 of terra cotta, weapons and implements of stone and metal, orna- 
 ments of gold, silver, copper, and bronze, carved precious stones 
 and weights. It was estimated that the inscribed monuments found 
 up to 1896 would fill 12 volumes of two to three parts each if pub- 
 lished. What specially distinguishes the excavations of the Amer- 
 icans is the systematic clearing up of the single layers of the mighty 
 temple edifice and of its superstructure. 
 
 The colossal ruins of the tower of the temple of Bel, now 
 called Bint-el-Amir, rises 29 meters above the plain and 15 meters 
 above the mass of debris which surrounds it. The immense plat- 
 form, about 2.40 meters thick, constructed of sun-dried bricks, to- 
 gether with the three-story temple tower erected upon it, probably 
 a work of King Ur-Gur, was laid bare and the ascent to the single 
 stages in the southeast of the ruin was found. Close under this 
 platform another pavement was discovered, consisting of two layers 
 of baked bricks of about 50 centimeters square and 8 centimeters 
 thick. Most of them were stamped, some with the name of Shar- 
 gani-shar-ali, the others with that of Naram-Sin. Both kinds were 
 intermingled in both brick layers, so that the identity of Shargani- 
 shar-ali with the Sargon of Nabuna'id (3800 B.C.) was made sure. 
 Ur-Gur had, it appears, razed the buildings of his predecessors and 
 elevated the platform of his temple tower over the pavement of 
 Naram-Sin. 
 
 J. H. Haynes who since 1894 has been alone at the ruins of the 
 temple of Bel, superintending the excavations, was not content with 
 these chronologically important revelations, but sunk shafts in sev- 
 eral places under Naram-Sin's platform and searched the entire 
 earth stratum, which was about 9.25 meters deep, down to the 
 tmderground water, for remains of human civilisation. This great 
 sacrifice of time, labor, and perseverance was to be rewarded in a 
 way that could not have been anticipated. For, in one place, not 
 far below Naram-Sin's platform, was found an altar of sun-dried 
 bricks, the top of which was surrounded by a rim of asphalt and 
 covered with a layer of white ashes, 6.5 centimeters thick and the 
 remains of burnt sacrificial animals ; still farther below there was 
 unearthed a large, beautifully decorated terra-cotta vase in perfect 
 condition, an excellent example of old Babylonian ceramic art. And 
 in another part of these underground excavations the oldest archi- 
 tectural arch of a drainage canal, and still farther down, in the
 
 XX BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 deepest layers, or, what amounts to the same, back in many centuries 
 beyond the fifth millennium, everywhere interesting and valuable 
 remains of human civilisation came to light, fragments of vessels 
 of copper, bronze, and clay, a mass of earthenware, so beautifully 
 lacquered in red and black that one might consider them of Greek 
 origin, or at least influenced by Greek art, had they not been found 
 8 meters deep under Naram-Sin's pavement. 
 
 We could go on a long time in this way were we to enumerate 
 all the achievements which various explorers, supported by the 
 energetic interest of their governments and aided by the liberality 
 of their countrymen, have accomplished and are still accomplishing 
 on the ruined sites of Assyria, Babylonia, and Elam. We could 
 speak of Hormuzd Rassam's finding of Nebuchadnezzar's palace 
 in the middle mound of Babylon, called Kasr ; of two beautiful wells 
 which reached down to the water level of the Euphrates, and of 
 other traces of water balances in the extreme northern mound Babil, 
 probably the site of the hanging gardens of Semiramis. We could 
 describe the successful expeditions of Jules Oppert, William Ben- 
 nett Loftus, Sir Henry Rawlinson, and, above all. tell of the great 
 work of the Dieulafoys on the ruins of Susa. But we must forego 
 this here, and will mention in passing that only recently the French 
 Government succeeded in acquiring for 5,000 francs the right from 
 the Shah of Persia to excavate for all time in Susa and the surround- 
 ing province and to transfer half of the finds to France, while for 
 the other half it secured the first option. The French have been 
 active in Susa since November, 1897, under the direction of De 
 Morgan, while De Sarzec and Haynes continued their labors with 
 undiminished and untiring zeal. 
 
 Germany may justly be proud that one of her sons, the Han- 
 noverian Georg Friedrich Grotefeld (born in 1775 at Miinden), 
 as a young teacher at the gymnasium of Gottingen in 1802. had the 
 genius to decipher the cuneiform writing, and thus placed the key 
 in the hand of science which was to unlock not only the old Persian 
 monuments, but also the great Babylonian- Assyrian cuneiform lit- 
 erature, and in addition to that make possible the reading of the 
 Armenian and Elamite cuneiform script. Germany may also glory 
 in the fact that a scholar of German blood, Julius von Mohl, gave 
 the first impulse to the excavations in Nineveh ; she can also note 
 with satisfaction that the enthusiastic interest which is being brought 
 to the Assyriological studies, especially in America, and from which
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. XXI 
 
 grew the Philadelphia expeditions, was awakened in the German 
 universities. 
 
 No one can deny that the excavations in the mounds of Meso- 
 potamia have opened and are continually opening new and rich 
 sources of highest importance for an entire series of sciences — Old 
 Testament research, ancient history and geography, the history of 
 art and archaeology, the history of religion and comparative mythol- 
 ogy, Semitic and general philology, comparative history of juris- 
 prudence, the history of astronomy and mathematics, and many 
 other sciences. We must refrain from entering into details and can 
 only briefly refer to a few facts. 
 
 For the history of art, particularly the history of sculpture and 
 architecture, and in a measure also of painting and some of the 
 industries, such as stonecutting and pottery, a peculiar and highly 
 important link was recovered through the resurrection of Assyrio- 
 Babylonian antiquity, the more important as the history of the 
 development of the Babylonian art can be followed up to the fifth 
 pre-Christian millennium. The image of Naram-Sin found at Diar- 
 bekr, the famous vulture stele of Eannadu. the sculpture with the 
 representation of Ur-Nina and his sons, will forever remain mile- 
 stones in the history of the art of western Asia, and of human 
 artistic skill in general. And as it is an established fact that "the 
 forms of the column, and some other ornaments of Greek art which 
 are much in use, are first met in Assyrian sculptures," light from the 
 East may also be hoped for to illuminate the darkness in which 
 the origin of the oldest Greek art is in many respects still enveloped. 
 
 The light which sprang from Oriental ruined mounds has with 
 one stroke illuminated the sphere of the ancient peoples and states 
 of Western Asia, so distant in time and space, and restored it to 
 ancient history. The nebulous forms of Ninus, Semiramis, and the 
 effeminate Sardanapalus have been replaced by clear-cut individ- 
 ualities. The old great culture states — the old Babylonian, Assyr- 
 ian, and Chaldgean empires, their external political history and in- 
 ternal development in commerce and industry, law and religion, 
 manners and customs — enter into our horizon with steadily increas- 
 ing completeness and vividness. At the same time they furnish us 
 the most valuable information on the history of the neighboring 
 kingfdoms, from Elam to Canaan, on the ethnic movements which 
 during four millenniums took place in the large quadrangle of lands 
 between the Black and Caspian seas and the borders of Egypt-
 
 XXll BABEL AND BIBLE- 
 
 Arabia. And how many chronological and geographical riddles 
 have not been solved or at least brought nearer to solution ! 
 
 Assyriological research which sprang from the ruins of Baby- 
 lon and Nineveh has above all shown itself fruitful for the science 
 of the Old Testament, and for it promises to bear still more fruit. 
 For not only is the Assyrian language most akin to Hebrew, afford- 
 ing new information on questions of grammar, lexicography, and 
 phraseology, but there is scarcely a book of the Old Testament the 
 interpretation of whose subject-matter has not been aided to some 
 extent by the cuneiform monuments. The narratives and concep- 
 tions of the Book of Genesis of the creation of the world — the ser- 
 pent as the arch-enemy of the Deity and embodiment of all sin and 
 malice, the ten patriarchs, and the catastrophe of the Deluge which 
 destroyed primitive humanity, so well known and familiar to us 
 from childhood — appear in a new light through the surprising par- 
 allels which the Babylonian-Assyrian clay books furnish. The Old 
 Testament history, especially that of Israel from Chedorlaomer to 
 Belshazzar and the Achaemenian kings, interlinked with the history 
 of Babel and Ashur, continually receives new light from the latter. 
 The chronology of the kings of Judah and Israel is, through the 
 chronology of the Assyrian empire, placed on a more secure basis 
 than was possible before ; and since in the annals of the Assyrian 
 kings mention is made of the kings Ahab and Jehu, Pekah and 
 Hosea, Ahaz and Hezekiah, the possibility is afforded of comparing 
 more than one narrative of the historical and prophetical books, as 
 for instance, that of Sennacherib's campaign against Jerusalem, 
 with the records of the opposing side. Hebrew antiquity is con- 
 nected by hundreds of threads with that of western Asia, particu- 
 larly of Babylonia and Assyria. The deeper insight which we 
 now have into the belief and cult of the gods, especially into the 
 nature of the sacrifices of the Babylonians, their conception of the 
 winged angelic beings after the manner of the cherubim and sera- 
 phim, their views of life after death, their bestowing of names, the 
 peculiarities of their psalm poetry in form and matter, their manners 
 and customs, their systems of measures and weights, etc., directly 
 serve the advancement of Old Testament theology and archaeology. 
 
 The resplendence of the starry sky over the endless expanse 
 of the Euphrates's land is something wonderful ; the stars sparkle 
 with the greatest brilliancy, and the movements of the planets, the 
 changes of the moon, the various meteors, enchant the attention 
 at night. The Babylonians learned to calculate the course of the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. XXlll 
 
 stars, their observations constituted the foundations of the astro- 
 nomical studies of the learned Alexandrians. And when we even 
 to-day divide the circle into 360 degrees, the day into twelve hours 
 of sixty minutes ; when we count seven days of the week and name 
 them after the planets ; when we divide the apparent path of the sun 
 according to the signs of the zodiac, we therein directly follow 
 those old Chaldseans, whose great scientific accuracy, while it has 
 left traces in some other things, has borne imperishable fruit in the 
 science of astronomy, which originated with them. And just as 
 the first chapters of the history of astronomy can only be written 
 with the aid of cuneiform works or notices, we must see in the same 
 sources the history of mathematics, geometry, metrology. Nay, 
 in many respects our present civilisation is still under the influence 
 of the hoary Babylonian ; the week and its seven days and the names 
 of so many constellations, "as well as our old square measure, the 
 cubit, and our old weight, the pound, have their homes in Babylonia. 
 Jurisprudence has good reason for the assumption that the often 
 striking agreements between Roman and Babylonian law will clear 
 up the origins of Roman law, which, at least partly, are still obscure. 
 In the exceedingly rich Babylonian-Assyrian "contract literature" 
 an abundant as well as valuable source was disclosed for the compar- 
 ative history of jurisprudence ; many other functions of state insti- 
 tutions receive new and instructive data of a comparative and his- 
 torical nature from the results of the excavations. We have in 
 mind, for instance, the economic development of those ancient cul- 
 ture states, or of the history of war in its manifold branches. Do 
 not the bas-reliefs on the alabaster slabs and bronzes of the Assyrian 
 palaces furnish instructive information as to the progress in cloth- 
 ing and arming of the Assyrian army, the developing of the cavalry, 
 the technique of fortification, the defense and attack by means of 
 machines of assault and mines, on scouting and pontoon building? 
 Truly, a new world is opened to human knowledge and inquiry 
 through the Babylonian-Assyrian excavations.
 
 Page 
 
 90, line 
 
 91. 
 
 94. 
 121, 
 142, 
 
 154. 
 162, 
 
 165, 
 165, 
 166, 
 167, 
 
 9 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 ERRATA 
 
 For moisted read moistened. 
 Assyria. 
 
 Assoria 
 ask 
 
 conform 
 victions 
 up God 
 
 seek. 
 
 confirm. 
 
 dictions. 
 
 up to God. 
 
 7 from bottom. For than these read that these, 
 ig " " " Holly " Holy. 
 
 II " " "on the other " 
 
 II 
 3 
 
 i't^t- 
 
 49"'3. 
 
 on the other hand 
 1903. 
 
 For the least read in the least.
 
 FIRST LECTURE
 
 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 TO what end this toil and trouble in distant, inhospit- 
 able, and danger-ridden lands? Why all this ex- 
 pense in ransacking to their utmost depths the rubbish 
 heaps of forgotten centuries, where we know neither 
 treasures of gold nor of silver exist? Why this zealous 
 emulation on the part of the nations to secure the great- 
 est possible number of mounds for excavation? And 
 whence, too, that constantly increasing interest, that 
 burning enthusiasm, born of generous sacrifice, now be- 
 ing bestowed on both sides of the Atlantic on the excava- 
 tions of Babylonia and Assyria? 
 
 One answer echoes to all these questions, — one an- 
 swer, which, if not absolutely adequate, is 3'et largely the 
 reason and consummation of it all : tJie Bible. A magic 
 halo, woven in earliest youth, encircles the names of 
 Nineveh and Babylon, an irresistible fascination abides 
 for us all in the stories of Belshazzar and the Wise Men 
 of the East. The long-lasting dynasties here awakened 
 to new life, however potent for history and civilisation 
 they may have been, would not have aroused a tithe of 
 their present interest, did they not number among them 
 the names of Amraphel, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, with whom we have been familiar from childhood.
 
 2 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 And with the graven memories of youth is associated 
 the deeper longing of maturity, — the longing, so charac- 
 teristic of our age, — to possess a philosophy of the world 
 and of life that will satisfy both the heart and the head. 
 And this again leads us directl^^ to the Bible, and notably 
 to the Old Testament, with which historically our mod- 
 ern views are indissolubly connected. 
 
 The minute, exhaustive scrutiny to which untold 
 numbers of Christian scholars in Germany, England, and 
 America — the three Bible-lands, as we may justly call 
 them — are submitting the Old Testament, that little 
 library of books of most varied hue, is nothing less than 
 astounding. 
 
 Of these silent intellectual labors the world has as 
 yet taken but little notice. Yet this much is certain, 
 that when the sum-total and ultimate upshot of the new 
 knowledge shall have burst the barriers of the scholar's 
 study and entered the broad path of life, — shall have 
 entered our churches, schools, and homes, — the life of 
 humanity will be more profoundly stirred and be made 
 the recipient of more significant and enduring progress 
 than it has by all the discoveries of modern physical and 
 natural science put together. So far, at any rate, the 
 conviction has steadily and universally established itself 
 that the results of the Babylonian and Assyrian excava- 
 tions are destined to inaugurate a new epoch, not only in 
 our intellectual life, but especially in the criticism and 
 comprehension of the Old Testament, and that from now 
 till all futurity the names of Babel and Bible will remain 
 inseparably linked together. 
 
 How times have changed ! There was David and
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 3 
 
 there was Solomon, 1000 years before Christ; and IMoses, 
 1400 3'ears ; and Abraham eight centuries prior. And of 
 all these men we had the minutest information ! It was 
 so unique, so supernatural, that one credulously accepted 
 along with it stories concerning the origin of the world 
 and mankind. The verj' greatest minds stood, and some 
 of them still stand to-day, under the puissant thrall of 
 the mystery encompassing the First Book of Moses. But 
 now that the pyramids have opened their depths and the 
 Assyrian palaces their portals, the people of Israel, with 
 its literature, appears as the 3'oungest member only of a 
 venerable and hoary group of nations. 
 
 The Old Testament formed a world b}^ itself till far 
 into the last centur3^ It spoke of times to whose latest 
 limits the age of classical antiquit}' barely reached, and 
 of nations that have met cither with none or with the 
 most cursory allusion from the Greeks and the Romans. 
 The Bible was the sole source of our knowledge of the 
 histor}^ of Hither Asia prior to 550 B. C, and since its 
 vision extended over all that immense quadrangle l3'ing 
 between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf and 
 stretching from ]\Iount Ararat to Ethiopia, it naturally- 
 teemed with enigmas that might otherwise have tarried 
 till eternity for their solution. But now the walls that 
 formed the impenetrable background to the scenes of the 
 Old Testament have suddenlj^ fallen, and a keen invigo- 
 rating air and a flood of light from the Orient pervades 
 and irradiates the hoary book, — animating and illuminat- 
 ing it the more as Hebrew antiquity is linked together 
 from beginning to end with Babylonia and Assyria. 
 
 The American excavations at Nippur brought to
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 light the business records of a great wholesale house, 
 Murashu & Sons, operating in that city in the reign of 
 Artaxerxes (450 B. C). We read in these records the 
 names of many Jewish exiles that had remained in Babel, 
 as Nathaniel, Haggai, and Benjamin, and we read also 
 of a canal Kabar in connection with the city of Nippur, 
 which is the original of the canal of Kebar rendered fa- 
 mous by Ezekiel's vision and situated "in the land of 
 the Chaldaeans" (Ezekiel i. 3). This "grand canal," 
 for such the name means, may possibly exist to this very 
 day. 
 
 ^j 
 
 mm/.. 
 
 Fig. I. Ur of the Chaldees, the Home of Abraham and the 
 Forefathers of Israel. 
 
 (Ruins of el-Muqayyer, pronounced Mukayyer, English Mugheir.) 
 
 Since the Babylonian bricks usually bear a stamp 
 containing along with other marks the name of the city 
 in which the building of which it formed a part was 
 erected, it was made possible for Sir Henry Rawlinson as 
 early as the year 1849 to rediscover the much-sought-for 
 city of Ur of the Chaldees^ the home of Abraham and the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 5 
 
 ancestors of the tnl3es of Israel (Genesis xi. 31 and xv. 7) . 
 The discovery was made in the gigantic mound of ruins 
 of Mugheir on the right bank of the lower Euphrates 
 (see Fig. 1) , which is now the storm-center of warring 
 Arab tribes. The certaintj^ of the discovery has been 
 more and more established. 
 
 The data of the cuneiform literature shed light also 
 on geographical matters : formerly the site of the city of 
 
 Fig. 2. HiTTiTE Ideographic 
 Writing from Carchemish.' 
 
 Fig. 3. King Hammurabi. The King 
 Amraphel of the Bible. 
 
 Carchemish, where Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. won his 
 great battle from Pharaoh-necho (Jeremiah xlvi. 2) was 
 sought for at random on the banks of the Euphrates, but 
 in March, 1876, the English Assyriologist George Smith, 
 starting from Aleppo and following the river downward 
 from Biredjik, rode directl}' to the spot where from the 
 
 ^ Confirming the discovery of the site of Carchemish, where Nebuchednezzar 
 defeated Necho in 605 B. C.
 
 6 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 tenor of the cuneiform inscriptions the city of the Hittite 
 kings must have lain, and at once and unhesitatingly 
 identified the vast ruins of Dsherabis there situate, with 
 their walls and palace-mounds, more extensive than Nin- 
 eveh itself, M'ith the ancient city of Carchemish, — a con- 
 clusion that was immediateh^ afterward confirmed by the 
 inscriptions in the unique ideographic Hittite script that 
 were strewn over the entire site of the ruins (Fig. 2) . 
 
 And like many names of places, so also man}" of the 
 personalities named in the Bible, have received new light 
 and life. The book of the prophet Isaiah (xx. 1) men- 
 tions an Assyrian king by the name of Sargon, who 
 sent his marshal against Ashdod ; and when in 1843 the 
 French consul Hmile Botta began his excavations on the 
 mound of ruins situated not far from Mosul, and thus in- 
 augurated archaeological research on Mesopotamian soil, 
 the first Assyrian palace unearthed was the palace of this 
 same Sargon, the conqueror of Samaria. Naj', on one of 
 the superb alabaster reliefs with which the walls of the 
 palace chambers were adorned, the ver}^ person of this 
 mighty warrior conversing with his marshal appears be- 
 fore our ej^es (Fig. 4) . 
 
 The Book of Kings (2 Kings xviii. 14) narrates that 
 King Sennacherib received tribute from King Hezekiah 
 in the cit}' of Lachish in southern Palestine. Now, a re- 
 lief from Sargon's palace in Nineveh shows the great As- 
 syrian king enthroned before his tent in sight of a con- 
 quered city, and the accompanying inscription reads: 
 "Sennacherib, the king of the universe, king of Ashur, 
 seated himself upon his throne and inspected the booty of 
 Lachish."
 
 BABKL AND lUHLK. 
 
 And again, Sennacherib's BalD3donian rival Mero- 
 dacli-Baladan, who according to the Bible (2 Kings xx. 
 12) sent letters and a present to King Hczekiah, is shown 
 us in his own likeness b}- a magnificent diorite relief now 
 
 ^SiiiiMiiiiMiiii^ 
 
 i) Hi), 
 
 Fig. 4. King Sargon II. and His Marshal. 
 
 in Berlin, where before the king is the lord-mayor of the 
 city of Babylon, to whom the sovereign in his gracious- 
 ness has seen fit to grant large tracts of land. Even the
 
 Fig. 5. Assyrian King in State Costume.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLP:. 
 
 contemporary of Abraliam, Amrapliel, the great king 
 Hammurabi, is now represented by a likeness (Fig. 3). 
 Thus, all the men that made the history of the world for 
 3000 long years, rise to life again, and the most costly 
 
 Fig. 6. Seal of King Darius. 
 
 relics have been bequeathed to us by them. Here is the 
 seal of King Darius, the son of H3^staspes (Fig. 6) , where 
 the king is represented as hunting the lion under the 
 sublime protection of Ahura Mazda, and at the side is the 
 trilingual inscription : "I am Darius, the great king," — 
 
 Fig. 7. Seal of Sargon I. (Third or fourth millennium B. C.) 
 
 a genuine treasure of the British Museum. Here is the 
 state seal of one of the oldest known Babylonian rulers, 
 Shargani-shar-ali, or Sargon I,, who flourished in the 
 third, or possibly the fourth, millennium before Christ
 
 10 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 (Fig. 7) . This king, as the legend runs, knew not his 
 own father, the latter having met his death prior to the 
 birth of his son ; and since the father's brother cared not 
 
 Elamite 
 Babylonian merchant 
 
 Jew of Lachish 
 
 Israelite 
 Arab horseman 
 
 Fig. 8. Racial Types. 
 
 for the widowed mother, great affliction attended the son's 
 entrance into this world; we read: "In Azupiran, on
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 11 
 
 the banks of the Euphrates, she bore ine in conceahnent ; 
 she placed me in a box of reeds, sealed my door \vith 
 pitch, and cast me upon the river, which conve3'ed me on 
 its waves to Akki, the water-carrier. He took me up in 
 the kindness of his heart, reared me as his own child, 
 made me his gardener. Then Ishtar, the daughter of the 
 King of Heaven, showed fondness for me and made me 
 king over men." 
 
 And not onl3^ kings and generals, but also entire na- 
 tions^ have been brought to life again by these discov- 
 eries. If we compare the various t3qoes of nationality 
 engraved on the monuments of Assyrian art, and, taking 
 for example two tj^pes that we know, here scrutinise the 
 picture of a Jew of Lachish (Fig. 8) , and here the repre- 
 sentation of an Israelite of the time of Jehu, we are not 
 likely to be wrong in our conclusion that also the other 
 national t3q3es, for example the Elamite chieftain, the 
 Arab horseman, and the Bab3donian merchant, have been 
 depicted and reproduced with the same fidelit3^ and exact- 
 ness. Particularly the Ass3^rians, who sixty 3^ears ago 
 were supposed to have perished with all their histor3^ and 
 civilisation in the great river of time, have been made 
 known to us in the minutest details b3' excavations in 
 Nineveh, and many passages in the prophetic books re- 
 ceive gorgeous illustration from our discoveries. Thus, 
 Isaiah describes in the following eloquent language the 
 Assyrian troops : 
 
 "Behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: None shall be 
 weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; 
 neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of 
 their shoes be broken : Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows
 
 12 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Fig. 9. Bronze Gates of the Palace of Shalmaneser II. (At Balawat.)
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 13 
 
 bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels 
 like a whirlwind : Their roaring shall be like a lion, yez, they shall 
 
 ^iiV^to 
 
 Fig. lo. Assyrians Battering a Fortress. 
 
 Fig. II. Detail-Group on Bronze Gate. 
 Above war-chariots and below captives led before the king. 
 
 roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and 
 none shall deliver it."— (Isaiah, v. 27-29.)
 
 14 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Fig. 12. Procession of Female Captives. (Detail-group on bronze gate.) 
 
 Fig. 13. Assyrian Bowmen anu Spearmen Attacking a Hostile Fortress.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 15 
 
 We can now see these same Assyrian soldiers arising 
 from their camp in the early morn and dashing their bat- 
 tering-rams against the enemy's fortress (Fig. 10) ; and 
 
 • ■; ''[^^ _ 
 
 
 
 
 Fig. 13a. Grazing Antelopes. 
 (Idyllic scene picturing the intense realism of Assyrian art. 
 
 Fig. 14. Assyrian Slingers. 
 
 on other representations (Figs. 11 and 12) may be seen 
 the unfortunate prisoners conducted the way from which
 
 16 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 there is no home-coming. We see also (Fig. 13) the 
 Assyrian bowmen and spearmen casting their weapons 
 toward the hostile fortress, and in another case Assj^rian 
 warriors storming an elevation defended by hostile arch- 
 ers. They pull themselves upward by the branches of 
 
 r 
 
 9 M S !^sa B smii)^imiBBmSiS i 
 
 Fig. 15. Head of Winged Bull. 
 
 Showing details of Assyrian mode of dressing the beard, as worn 
 
 by the king and the ofiBcers of the army. 
 
 the trees, or clamber to the summit with the help of 
 staffs ; whilst others drag in triumph the severed heads 
 of their enemies into the valle}^ 
 
 The military system of this first great warrior-state 
 of the world is shown forth to us in a vast number of sim-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 17 
 
 Fig i6. The King's Chariot in a Parade. 
 
 Fig. 17. Officers of Ashurbanipal (Sardanapalus) Entering Court.
 
 18 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ilar representations on the bronze doors of Slialnianeser 
 II. (Fig. 9) and on the alabaster reliefs of the palaces of 
 Sargon and Sennacherib, with all details of armament 
 and ecjuipment and in all phases of development. (See, 
 for example, Fig. 14.) 
 
 Mi^^^^^_^ 
 
 Fig. i8. Pages Carrying the Royal Chariot. 
 
 Again we have the portrait of an Assyrian officer of 
 Sargon's general staff, the style of whose beard surpasses 
 in artistic cut an3'thing that has been attempted by mod- 
 ern officers. (See, for example. Fig. 15.) Here we see 
 the ofhcers of the ro3\al household making their cere- 
 monial entr3^ (Fig. 17) , or pages carrying the royal char-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 19 
 
 iot (Fig. 18) , or the ro^-al throne (Fig. 19) . IMaii}' beau- 
 tiful reliefs show us King Sardanapalus following the 
 chase, especially in his favorite sport of hunting lions, of 
 which a goodly number of magnificent specimens were 
 
 Fig. 19. Pages Carrying the Royal Throne. 
 
 constantly kept at hand in parks specially reserved for 
 this purpose. (Figs. 20-25.) 
 
 When King Saul refused to suffer young David to 
 go forth to do battle with the giant Goliath, Da\id re-
 
 20 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 miuded him that he had been the shepherd of his father's 
 flocks and that when a lion or a bear had come and taken 
 a lamb from his flock, he had gone out after the beast and 
 
 Fig. 20. King Sardanapalus on Horseback. 
 
 had smitten it and wrested from it its prey, and that if 
 after that it had risen against him he had caught the lion 
 
 Fig. 21. Sardanapalus Hunting the Lion on Horseback. 
 
 by its beard and slain it. Precisel3^ the same custom pre- 
 vailed in Assyria ; and the reliefs show King Sardana- 
 palus doing battle with the lion, not onl3^ on horseback
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 Si ^-/- -l -^.x, .^ . ^ : ■> 
 
 Fig. 22. Hunting the Lion from a Chariot. 
 
 }^'^^- 
 
 Fig. 23. Sardanapalus Bearding the Lion. 
 (The king of Ashur measures his strength with the king of the desert.) 
 
 Fig. 24. Hunting from a Boat.
 
 22 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 (Fig. 21) and from liis cliariot (Fig. 22) , but also in hand 
 to hand combat (Fig. 2'S) ,— the King of Ashur measur- 
 ing his strength with the king of the desert. 
 
 Fig 25. ' Caged Lion Set Free for the Chase. 
 
 Fig. 26. Servants Carrying Fruit, Hares, Partridges, Spitted 
 Grasshoppers, and Onions. 
 
 We catch glimpses of the preparations which were 
 made for the royal meal (Figs. 26 and 21) ; we see the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 23 
 
 servants bringing hares, partridges, spitted grasshoppers, 
 a plenitude of cakes and all manner of fruits, and carry- 
 ing fresh branches for driving away the flies. We are 
 even permitted to see on a bas-relief of the harem (Fig. 
 28) the king and queen quaffing costly wine in a leaf}- 
 bower, the king reclining on an elevated divan, the queen 
 seated opposite him on a chair, and clothed in rich gar- 
 ments. Eunuchs waft cooling breezes toward them from 
 
 Fig. 27. Slaves Carrying Fruit 
 
 their fans, while soft music from distant sources steals 
 gently upon their ears (Fig. 29) . This is the only queen 
 of whom we possess a picture. Her profile as it appeared 
 years ago in a better state of preservation has been saved 
 for posterity by a sketch made in 1867 by Lieutenant, 
 afterwards Colgnel, Billerbeck (Fig. 30) . This consort 
 of Sardanapalus was apparently a princess of Aryan blood 
 with blond hair. 
 
 Many other things of interest in Assyrian antiquity
 
 24 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Fig. 23. King Sardanapalus and His Consort. 
 
 Fig. 2g. Attendants Upon King Sardanapalus and His Consort.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 25 
 
 have also been restored to our bodily vision. The prophet 
 Isaiah (xlvi. 1) mentions the procession of the idols, and 
 in Fig. 31 we actually wit- 
 ness one, — with the god- 
 desses in front, and behind, 
 the god of the weather 
 armed with hammer and 
 bolts ; Assyrian soldiers 
 have been commanded to 
 transport the idols. 
 
 We see in Figure 32 
 how the statues of the 
 gigantic stone bulls were 
 transported, and catch in 
 this way all manner of 
 glimpses of the technical 
 knowledge of the Assy- 
 rians. But our greatest and most constant delight is 
 
 Fig. 30. Consort of Sardanapalus. 
 (From a sketch by Colonel Billerbeck.) 
 
 Fig. 31. Procession of Idols. 
 
 derived from the contemplation of their noble and simple 
 architecture, as it is exhibited for example in the portal
 
 26 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Fig. 32. Transportation of the Gigantic Stone Bulls. 
 
 |^€u5k£\u&iSuQ 
 
 raiiyvs^Ligw=Mi 
 
 Fig. 33 Portal of the Palace of Sargon. 
 (Representing the noble style and simplicity of the Assyrian architecture.)
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 21 
 
 of Sargon's palace excavated by Botta (Fig. 33) , or from 
 the magnificent representations of animals, replete with 
 the most startling realism, which these "Dutchmen of 
 antiquity" created. For example, the idyllic picture of 
 the grazing antelopes (Fig. XZa ; also Fig. 34) , or the 
 dying lioness of Nineveh, so justly renowned in art 
 (Fig. 35). 
 
 Fig. 34. Idyllic Scenes from Assyrian Art. 
 
 The excavations on Babylonian soil disclose in like 
 manner the art and culture of the mother country of As- 
 syrian civilisation far back in the fourth millennium, — a 
 period which the boldest flights of fancy would otherwise 
 have scarcely dreamt of recovering. We penetrate lastly 
 here into the period of that primitive un-Indo-Germanic 
 and likewise un-Semitic nation of Sumerians, who are
 
 28 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 the creators and originators of the great Babylonian civ- 
 ilisation, of those Sunierians for whom the number 60 
 and not 100 constituted the next higher unit after 10. 
 
 
 Fig- 35- The Dying Lioness of Nineveh. 
 
 That Sumerian Priest-King wbose magnificently pre- 
 served head (Fig. 36) the Berlin Museum now shelters, 
 
 Fig. 36. Head of a Sumerian Priest-King. 
 (A noble type from the dawn of human history.) 
 
 may unquestionably be characterised as a noble represen- 
 tative of the human race from the twilight of history.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 29 
 
 But Stratifying and instructive as all these discov- 
 eries may be, they have j^et, so to speak, the significance 
 of details and externalities only, and are easil}^ surpassed 
 in scope and importance by the revelations which it still 
 remains for us to adduce. 
 
 I am not referring now to the highly important fact 
 that the Babylonian and Assyrian methods of reckoning 
 time, which were based on accurate astronomical observa- 
 tions of solar eclipses, etc., enabled us to determine the 
 chronology of the events narrated in the Book of Kings, 
 — a circumstance that was doubly gratifying owing to the 
 discovery of Robertson Smith and Wellhausen that the 
 chronology of the Old Testament had been forcibly made 
 to conform to a s^^stem of sacred numbers, which counted 
 480 years from the end of the Exile back to the founding 
 of the temple of Solomon, and again 480 years backward 
 from that date to the Exodus of the children of Israel 
 from Egypt (1 Kings vi. 1) . 
 
 I can also adduce in this place but a single, and that 
 an inconspicuous, illustration of the far-reaching influence 
 which the cuneiform investigations have exercised on our 
 understanding of the text of t lie Old Testament^ — a result 
 due to the remarkably close affinity between the Baby- 
 lonian and Hebrew languages and to the enormous com- 
 pass of the Babylonian literature. We read in Numbers 
 vi. 24-27: "] ""^.^ 1^33 Ti"\^' ,K^" 
 
 "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord 
 make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
 thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and 
 give thee peace." 
 
 Countless times has this blessing been given and re-
 
 30 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ceived ! But it was never understood in its full depth 
 and import until Babylonian usage informed us that "to 
 lift up one's countenance or eyes upon or to another," 
 was a form of speech for "bestowing one's love upon an- 
 other, for gazing lovingly and feelingly upon another, as 
 a bridegroom upon a bride, or a father upon a son." This 
 ancient and glorious benediction, therefore, invokes on 
 man with increasing emphasis God's blessing and protec- 
 tion, God's benignant and gracious consideration, and 
 lastly God's own love, — finally to break forth into that 
 truly beautiful greeting of the Orient, "Peace be with 
 thee!" 
 
 Yet the greatest and most unexpected service that 
 Babel ever rendered the philological interpretation of the 
 Bible must yield the palm for wide-reaching significance 
 to the fact that here on the banks of the Euphrates and 
 Tigris as early as 2250 B. C. we find a highly organised 
 constihUional state. Here in these Babylonian lowlands, 
 having an area not greater than that of Italy, yet extra- 
 ordinarily rich by nature and transformed by human in- 
 dustry into a veritable hotbed of productiveness, there 
 existed in the third millennium before Christ a civilisa- 
 tion compai'able in many respects with our own. 
 
 It was Hammurabi, the Amraphel of the Bible, that 
 ultimately succeeded in expelling the Elamites, the her- 
 editary enemy of Babylon, from the country, and in weld- 
 ing North and South together into a single union, with 
 Babylon as political and religious center. His first solici- 
 tude was to establish a uniform system of law over the 
 entire country, and he accordingly promulgated a juridic 
 code that determined in the minutest manner the rights
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE 31 
 
 and privileges of his citizens. The relations of master, 
 slave, and hireling, of merchant and apprentice, of land- 
 lord and tenant, are here precisely fixed. There is a law, 
 for example, that a clerk who has delivered money to his 
 superior for goods that he has sold shall obtain a receipt 
 for the transaction. Reductions in rent are provided for 
 in case of damage by storms and wild beasts. The fish- 
 ing rights of boroughs along the canals are preciselj- de- 
 fined. And so on. Babylon is the seat of the Supreme 
 Court, to which all knotty and disputed points of law are 
 submitted. Every able-bodied man is subject to military 
 duty. But Hammurabi softened by mau}^ decisions the 
 severity of the recruiting laws ; for example, in the inter- 
 ests of stock-raising he exempted herdsmen from military 
 service, and he also conferred special privileges on an- 
 cient priestly families. 
 
 We read of money having been coined in Babylon, 
 and the distinctively cursive character of their script 
 points to a very extensive use of writing. Mau}^ letters 
 of this ancient period have been preserved. We read, for 
 example, the letter of a wife to her absent husband, ask- 
 ing his advice on some trivial matter ; the epistle of a 
 son to his father, announcing that a certain person has 
 unspeakably offended him, and that his impulse is to give 
 the miscreant a severe drubbing, but that he prefers to 
 have the advice of his father on the matter ; and another, 
 still stranger one, in which a son implores his father to 
 send him at once the money that he has so long promised 
 him, fortifying his request with the contumelious insin- 
 uation that in that event only will he feel justified in re- 
 suming his prayers for his father's salvation. Every-
 
 ?>2 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 m 
 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 (U 
 
 > 
 
 a 
 '3o 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 
 IB 
 < 
 
 pq 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 h 
 Z 
 
 W 
 
 o 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 z 
 
 < 
 
 w 
 
 
 ro
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 33 
 
 tiling, in fact, points to a tlioroiii^hl^^ organised postal 
 system tlirougliout the empire, and this conclusion is 
 corroborated by the distinctest evidence that tlicre existed 
 causewaj^s and canals in Babylonia which extended far 
 beyond its boundaries and which were kejit in perfect 
 condition. 
 
 Commerce and industr}^, stock-raising and agricul- 
 ture, flourished here in an eminent degree, while science, 
 
 Fig. 38. Palace of King Sargon at Khorsabad. 
 (Restored by Victor Place.) 
 
 geometry, mathematics, and notably astrononu-, attained 
 a height of development that has repeatedly evoked the 
 admiration of modern scientists. Certainl3^ not Paris, 
 and at most Rome, can bear comparison with Babylon in 
 the extent of influence which it exercised upon the world 
 for 2000 years. 
 
 Bitter testimony do the prophets of the Old Testa-
 
 34 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ment bear to the surpassing splendor and unconquerable 
 might of the Bab^don of Nebuchadnezzar (see Figs. 37, 
 38, 39, 40, and 41) . " Babylon," cries Jeremiah, "hath 
 been a golden cup in Yahveh's hand, that made all the 
 earth drunken" (Jer. li. 7) ; and the Revelation of St. 
 John still quivers with the detested memory of Babel the 
 Great, the gay voluptuous city, the wealth-teeming me- 
 tropolis of commerce and art, the mother of harlots and 
 
 Fig- 39- Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. 
 (Imaginative Restoration. After Ferguson.) 
 
 of all abominations of the earth. Yet so far back as the 
 beginning of the third millennium before Christ Babylon 
 had been this great focus of culture, science, and litera- 
 ture, the "brain" of Hither Asia, the power that dom- 
 inated the world. 
 
 In the winter of 1887, a band of Egyptian fellahs 
 who were excavating in the ruins of the palaces of Amen- 
 ophis IV. at El-Amarna, between Thebes and Memphis,
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 35 
 
 discovered about 300 clay tablets of many forms and 
 sizes. These tablets were found to contain tlie corre- 
 spondence of Babylonian, Ass^^rian, and Mesopotamian 
 kings with the Pharaohs Amenophis III. and IV., and, 
 most important of all, the letters of the Egyptian gover- 
 nors of the great Canaanite cities of Tjn'c, Sidon, Akko, 
 Askalon, etc., to the Eg^'ptian court; and the museum 
 at Berlin is so fortunate as to possess the only letters that 
 
 M ^v 
 
 ■^ 
 
 
 M^-^r 
 
 
 :• ( . .ff 
 
 •fmt'- 
 
 l.:i.:j:,y:-:r.:--^',>'' 
 
 Fig. 40. Chariot and Attendants of Sennacherib with Castle 
 ON a Mountain. (After Layard.) 
 
 came from Jerusalem, — letters written before the entrance 
 of the Israelites into the promised land. Like a powerful 
 searchlight, these clay tablets of El-Amarna shed a flood 
 of dazzling effulgence upon the profound obscurity which 
 shrouded the political and cultural conditions of the period 
 from 1500 to 1400 B.C.; and the mere fact that the mag- 
 nates of Canaan, nay, even of Cyprus, made use of the

 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 37 
 
 Babylonian language and script, and like the Bab3^1onians 
 wrote on clay tablets, the mere fact that the Bab34onian 
 language was the official language of diplomatic inter- 
 course from the Euphrates to the Nile, is in itself indis- 
 putable proof of the omnipotent influence which Baby- 
 lonian civilisation and literature exercised on the world 
 from the year 2200 until 1400 B. C. 
 
 When the twelve tribes of Israel invaded the land of 
 Canaan, they entered a countr3^ luhicJi beloui^cd absobitely 
 to the domain of Babylonian civilisation. It is an unim- 
 portant but characteristic feature of the prevailing state 
 of things that a Babylonish garment excited the avarice of 
 Achan when the first Canaanite city, Jericho, was stormed 
 and plundered (Joshua vii. 21). And not only the in- 
 dustry, but also the commerce and law, the customs and 
 the science of Babylon were the standards of the land. 
 Knowing this, we comprehend at once wh^^ the systems 
 of measures, weights, and coins used in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and the external form of their law^s ("if a man do 
 this or that, he shall be punished after this manner or 
 that") are Babylonian throughout. So also the sacer- 
 dotal customs and the methods of offering sacrifices were 
 profoundly influenced bj^ Bab^donian models ; and it is a 
 remarkable fact that Israelitic traditions are altogether at 
 variance in their accounts of the origin of the Sabbath, — 
 as will be rendered apparent by a comparison of Exodus 
 XX. 11 and Deuteronomy v. 15. But now the matter is 
 
 clearer. 
 
 The Babylonians also had their Sabbath day {sha- 
 battu) , and a calendar of feasts and sacrifices has been 
 unearthed according to which the 7th, 14th, 21st, and
 
 38 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 28th days of every montli were set apart as days on wliich 
 no work should be done, on which the king should not 
 change his robes, nor mount his chariot, nor offer sacri- 
 fices, nor render legal decisions, nor eat of boiled or 
 roasted meats, on which not even a physician should lay 
 hands on the sick. Now this setting apart of the sev- 
 enth day for the propitiation of the gods is really under- 
 stood from the Bab^donian point of view, and there can 
 therefore be .scarcely the shadow of a doubt that in the 
 last resort we are indebted to this ancient nation on the 
 banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris for the plenitude 
 of blessings that flows from our day of Sabbath or Sun- 
 day rest. 
 
 And more still. There is a priceless treasure in the 
 Berlin Museum, a tablet of clay, containing the Babjdo- 
 nian legend of how it came to pass that the first man for- 
 feited the boon of immortalitj^ The place where this 
 tablet was found, namely El-Amarna in Eg^^pt, and the 
 numerous dots scattered over it in red Egyptian ink, 
 showing the pains that some Egyptian scholar had taken 
 to master the intricacies of the foreign text, are ocular 
 evidence of the zeal with which the productions of Baby- 
 lonian literature were cultivated over the vast extent of 
 territory which stretched from Canaan to the land of the 
 Pharaohs. Shall we be astonished, therefore, to learn 
 that entire C3^cles of Biblical stories have been suddenly 
 brought to light from the darkness of the Babylonian 
 treasure-heaps, in much purer and more primitive form 
 than they exist in the Bible itself? 
 
 The Babylonians divided their history into two great 
 periods : that before the Flood and that after the Flood.
 
 BABHL AND BIBLE. 39 
 
 Babylonia was in the true sense of the word the land of 
 deluges. Like all alluvial lowlands bordering on great 
 streams that flow into the sea, it was exposed to floods of 
 the direst and most unique character. It is the home of 
 the cyclone or tornado, with its accompaniment of earth- 
 quake and cloudburst. Onl3' twent^'-five years ago, in 
 the year 1876, a tornado of this character gathered in the 
 Bay of Bengal, and amid the crashing of thunder and 
 with a violence so terrific as to dismast ships distant 
 nearly two hundred miles, approached the delta of the 
 Ganges, met the ebbing tide, and engulfing it in its own 
 titanic tidal-wave, hurled oceans of water over an area of 
 141 square leagues to a depth of 45 feet, drowning 215,000 
 human beings, and only losing its strength as it broke 
 against the highlands that la}- beyond. Now the credit 
 belongs to the celebrated Viennese geologist, Eduard 
 Suess, for having discovered the exact and detailed de- 
 scription of just such a tornado in the Babylonian story 
 of the Flood inscribed on this tablet (Fig. 42) from the 
 library of Sardanapalus at Nineveh and committed to 
 writing 2000 years before Christ. The sea plays the prin- 
 cipal part in this flood, and therefore the ark of the Bab}^- 
 lonian Noah, Xisuthros, is cast back upon a spur of the 
 Armenio-Medean mountains ; but in other respects it is 
 the same old story of the Flood, so familiar to us all. 
 
 Xisuthros receives from the god of the water3^ deep 
 the command to build a ship of certain dimensions, to 
 coat it thoroughly with pitch, and to put on board of it 
 his entire family together with the seeds . of all living 
 things. The ship is entered, its doors are closed, it is 
 cast adrift upon the devastating waves, and is finally
 
 40 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 stranded upon a mountain bearin,^ the name of Nizir. 
 Then follows the famous passage : ' ' On the seventh day 
 I took forth a dove and released it ; the dove flew hither 
 and thither, but finding no resting-place returned." We 
 then read that a swallow was sent forth ; it also found no 
 resting-place and returned. Finally a raven was sent 
 forth, which, noticing that the waters had subsided, did 
 
 Fig. 42. Tablet Containing Babylonian Story of the Flood. 
 
 not return. Xisuthros then abandons his ship and offers 
 sacrifices on the summit of the mountain. The sweet 
 odor M'as scented b3' the gods, etc., etc. 
 
 This entire story, precisely as it is here wTitten, 
 afterwards travelled to Canaan, but owing to the totally 
 different conformation of the land in this latter country, 
 it was forgotten that the sea had played the principal role,
 
 BAHKL AND BIBLE. 41 
 
 and we accordiiig'ly find in the Bible two distinct versions 
 of the Flood, which are not only absolntely impossible 
 from the point of view of natural science, but are also at 
 diametrical variance with each other, the one giving as 
 the duration of the Flood a period of 365 da3\s and the 
 other a period of 40+ {3x7) j or 61 da3's. We owe the 
 discovery that two fundamentally different versions of the 
 story of the Flood were welded together into one in the 
 Bible, to the orthodox Catholic bod^^ surgeon of Louis 
 XV., Jean Astruc, who, in the year 1753 first submitted, 
 as Goethe expresses it, the books of Moses " to the probe 
 and knife," and thus became the founder of Pentateuch 
 criticism, or that branch of inquiry which seeks to in- 
 crease and clarify our knowledge of the man^- diversified 
 sources of which the Five Books of IMoses are composed. 
 
 These are facts which from the point of view of sci- 
 ence are as immutable as rock, however stubbornl3^ people 
 on both sides of the Atlantic may close their e^^es to 
 them. When we remember that minds of the stamp of 
 Luther and Melancthon once contemptuousl3^ rejected the 
 Copernican s3'Stem of astronom3^, we may be certain that 
 the results of the scientific criticism of the Pentateuch 
 will tarry long for recognition. Yet it is just as certain 
 that some day they will be openly admitted. 
 
 The ten Babylonian kings who reigned l)cforc the 
 Flood have also been accepted in the Bible as the ten 
 antediluvian patriarchs, and the agreement is perfect in 
 all details. 
 
 In addition to the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, the 
 eleventh tablet of which contains the story of the F'lood,
 
 42 BABKL AND BIBLU. 
 
 we possess another beautiful Babylonian poem, the story 
 of the Creation. 
 
 In the primordial beginning of things, according to 
 this epic, down in the gloomy chaos, surged and raged 
 the primeval waters, the name of which was Tiamat. 
 When the gods declared their intention of forming an 
 orderly cosmos out of the chaos, Tiamat arose (usually 
 represented as a dragon, but also as a seven-headed ser- 
 pent) , and made ready for combat to the death. Monsters 
 of all descriptions she spawned from her mighty depths, 
 especially gigantic venom-blown serpents ; and in their 
 company she set forth bellowing and snorting to her con- 
 flict with the gods. The Celestials quaked with terror 
 when they saw their direful foe. The god Marduk alone, 
 the god of light, of dawn, and of the vernal sun, came 
 forward to do battle with her, his sole stipulation being 
 that sovereign rank among the gods should be accorded 
 him. 
 
 Then follows a splendid scene. First the god Mar- 
 duk fastened a gigantic net to the East and the South, to 
 the North and the West, lest any part of Tiamat should 
 escape. He then mounted in shining armor and radiant 
 with majesty his celestial chariot, which was drawn by 
 four spirited steeds, the admired cynosure of the eyes of 
 all the surrounding gods. Straightway he made for the 
 dragon and her dread embattled train, sending forth his 
 challenge for the contest. Then Tiamat shrieked loudly 
 and fiercely, till her deepmost foundations trembled and 
 shook. She opened her maw to its uttermost, but before 
 she could shut her lips Marduk made enter into her belly 
 the evil hurricane. He seized his lance and pierced her
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 43 
 
 heart. He cast her carcass down and placed himself upon 
 it, whilst her helpers were taken captive and placed in 
 close confinement. Thereupon IMarduk cut Tiamat in 
 twain, as cleanly as one would sever a fish, and of the 
 one half he made the roof of heaven and of the other he 
 made the earth ; and the heaven he inlaid with the moon, 
 and the sun, and the stars, and the earth he covered with 
 plants and animals, until finall}^ the first man and the 
 first woman, made of mingled clay and celestial blood, 
 came forth from the hand of their creator. 
 
 Since Marduk was the city-god of Babel, it is quite 
 intelligible that this story found widespread diffusion in 
 Canaan. Nay, the poets and prophets of the Old Testa- 
 ment went so far as to attribute directl3^ to Yahveh the 
 heroic deeds of IMarduk, and to extol him as the cham- 
 pion that broke the head of the dragons in the water 
 (Psalms Ixxiv. 13 et seq. ; Ixxxix. 10) , and under whom 
 the helpers of the dragon stooped (Job ix. 13) . 
 Passages like the following from Isaiah li. 9 : 
 "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahveh; awake, 
 as in the days of old, in the generations of ancient times. Art thou 
 not it that hath cut Rahab in pieces and pierced the dragon?" 
 
 or passages like that from Job xxvi. 12 : 
 
 "He divideth the sea with his power, and by liis understand- 
 ing he smiteth the dragon," 
 
 read like explanatory comments on the little image which 
 our expedition found representing the god Marduk, of 
 the powerful arm, the far-seeing e3^e, and the far-hearing 
 ear, the symbol of intelligence clad in majestic glory, 
 with the conquered dragon of the primeval waters at his 
 feet (Fig. 44) .
 
 
 
 
 sfc' ^ei - 1 -f -fc^ ^M, 4, f -^rsr;; 
 
 . Ke^ f^JJI Vis-* „fc-W 
 
 
 
 -r ^ X 
 
 V t .. 
 
 
 
 L C 
 
 ^'^iif'^t.'ai 
 
 6 
 
 i\^ 
 
 .?^ 
 
 Fig 44. Marduk with the Conquered 
 
 Dragon of the Primeval Waters 
 
 AT His Feet. 
 
 
 Fig. 43 Fhe •■ Black Ouelisk." ' 
 
 (Lenormant, V., p. 329.) 
 1 Erectecl by Shalmaneser II. (860-825 B.C.) to 
 
 Fig. 45. Conical Piece of Clay from a 
 Babylonian Coffin. 
 record the victories of his 31 military expeditions.
 
 BABEL AND lill'.LK. 45 
 
 The priestly author that wrote the first chapter of 
 Genesis took infinite pains to eliminate all mythological 
 features from his story of the creation of the world. But 
 since his story begins with the glooni}-, watery chaos 
 which bears precisely the same name as Tiamat, namely 
 Tehofu^ and since this chaos was first divided by the 
 light, and heaven and the earth appeared afterwards, and 
 heaven was set with the sun, the moon, and the stars, 
 and the earth w^as covered with flowers and with animals, 
 and finally the first man and woman went forth from the 
 hand of God, it will be seen that there is a very close re- 
 lationship between the Biblical and the Babylonian story 
 of the creation of the world ; and it will be obvious at the 
 same time how absolutely futile all attempts are and will 
 forever remain, to harmonise our Biblical story of the 
 creation wath the results of natural science. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that echoes of this same con- 
 flict between Marduk and Tiamat may still be heard in 
 the Revelation of St. John the Divine, in the battle be- 
 tween the archangel Michael and the beast of the deep, 
 "that old serpent called the Devil and Satan." This en- 
 tire group of stories, Avhich is also represented in the tale 
 of St. George and the dragon, brought by the crusaders 
 from the East, is distinctively Babylonian in character; 
 inasmuch as many, many hundred years before the Apoc- 
 alypse and the first chapter of Genesis were written, we 
 find this conflict between the powers of light and the 
 powers of darkness renewed at the break of every day 
 and the beginning of every spring, depicted in gorgeous 
 relief on the walls of the Assyrian palaces (Fig. 46) . 
 
 But the discovery of this relationship is of still
 
 46 BABEL AND BIBLE- 
 
 greater importance. The commandment not to do unto 
 one's neighbor what one would not like to have done unto 
 oneself is indelibly engraven on every human heart. 
 "Thou shalt not shed the blood of thy neighbor," "thou 
 shalt not draw near thy neighbor's wife," "thou shalt 
 not take unto thyself the garment of thy neighbor," — all 
 these fundamental postulates of the human instinct of 
 
 V^'g* ' "" ■* - "-» " i -» '.w V 'jm^ t - v -7.-^ ■■ ■!■«■ mm u\mm*.l'm 
 
 ^y 
 
 I- 
 
 •■;^_ ^■ 
 
 
 
 Fig. 46. Battle Between Marduk and Tiamat, the Powers of Light 
 AND the Powers of Darkness. 
 
 (Ancient Assyrian bas-relief now in the British Museum.) 
 
 self-preservation are read in the Babjdonian records in 
 precisely the same order as the}^ are given in the fifth, 
 sixth and seventh commandments of the Old Testament. 
 But man is also a social being, and for this reason the 
 commandments of humanity, charity, merc}^, and love, 
 also form an inalienable patrimon3^ of the human race. 
 Therefore when a Babylonian Magus was called to a man
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 47 
 
 who was ill and bei:^an to inquire what sin had stretched 
 him on the sick-bed, he did not rest satisfied with the re- 
 cital of the greater sins of commission like murder and 
 robbery, but he asked : " Hath this man refused to qlothe 
 one that was naked ; or hath he refused light to one that 
 was imprisoned?" The Babylonian la3'S great stress, 
 too, on the higher forms of human morality ; speaking 
 the truth and keeping one's w^ord were sacred duties with 
 them, while to say "^^es" with the lips and "no" with 
 the heart was a punishable transgression. It is not sur- 
 prising that infringements of these commandments were 
 regarded by the Babylonians precisely as they were by 
 the Hebrews, as sins^ for the Babylonians also in all their 
 doings considered themselves as dependent on the gods. 
 But it is certainly more remarkable that they also con- 
 ceived all human afflictions, jDarticularly sickness and 
 death, as 2^. piuiishment for sins. In Babel as in the Bible, 
 the notion of sin dominates everything. Under these 
 circumstances it is intelligible that Babylonian thinkers 
 also pondered deeply over the problem of how it was pos- 
 sible that a creature that had been created in the image 
 of God and was God's own handiwork could have fallen a 
 victim to sin and to death ; and the Bible has a profound 
 and beautiful story of the temptation of woman by the 
 serpent. 
 
 The serpent again? That has an unmistakably Baby- 
 lonian ring. It was doubtless the same serpent, the pri- 
 mordial foe of the gods, that sought to revenge itself on 
 the gods of light by seeking to estrange from them their 
 noblest creature? Or was it the serpent of which it is 
 once said that it ' ' destroyed the dwelling-place of life ' ' ?
 
 48 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 The question as to the origin of the Biblical story of the 
 Fall of Man is of the utmost importance from the point 
 of view of the history of religion as well as from that of 
 the theology of the New Testament, which, as is well 
 known, contrasts with the first Adam by whom sin and 
 death were brought into the world, a second Adam. 
 
 IMay I lift the veil, may I point to an old Babylonian 
 cylinder-seal (Fig. 47) , on which ma}- be seen in the 
 center a tree bearing pendent fruits, to the right a man, 
 
 distinguishable by his 
 
 horns, which are the s^mi- 
 bol of strength, to the left 
 a woman, both with their 
 hands outstretched to- 
 ward the fruit, and be- 
 „. e T o hind the woman the ser- 
 
 Fig. 47. Sacred Tree and Serpent. 
 A Babylonian conception of the Fall of Man. pCUt? Is it UOt the Very 
 
 '"'^ acme of likelihood that 
 
 there is some connection between this old Bab3donian 
 picture and the Biblical tale of the Fall of Man? 
 
 Man dies, and while his bodj^ is buried in the grave 
 his departed soul descends into ' ' the land of no return- 
 ing," into Slieol, into Hades, into the gloomy, dust- 
 impregnated locality, Avhere the shades flutter around 
 like birds and lead a joyless and sodden existence. Dust 
 covers the doors and the bolts, and everything in which 
 the heart of man took delight is mouldy and dust-laden. 
 
 With such a disconsolate outlook it is intelligible 
 that both Hebrews and Babylonians looked upon length 
 of days here below as the sovereign boon ; and on every 
 single one of the great flag-stones with which the holy
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 49 
 
 Street of Marduk in Babylon was paved, and wliicli was 
 discovered by the German expedition to that cit3', there 
 was engraved a prayer of Nebnchadnezzar which closed 
 witli the words: ''O, Lord Alarduk, grant to ns great 
 length of days ! " 
 
 Bnt strange to say, the Babylonian conception of the 
 Underworld is one degree pleasanter than that of the Old 
 Testament. On the twelfth tablet of the Gilgamesh epic, 
 the Babylonian Underworld is described in the minutest 
 details. We read there of a space situated beneath the 
 Underworld which was apparently reserved for souls of 
 unusual piety and ' ' in which they reposed on beds of 
 ease and quaffed clear water." 
 
 Many Babylonian coffins have been found in Warka, 
 Nippur, and Babel, but the Berlin Museum recently ac- 
 quired a small conical piece of clay (Fig. 45) , which has 
 evidently been taken from a cofhn of this kind, and the 
 inscription of which plaintively requests that whosoever 
 may find the coffin shall leave it undisturbed and unin- 
 jured in its original resting-place ; and the text concludes 
 with words of blessing for him who performs so kind a 
 deed : "May his name be blessed in the Upperworld, and 
 in the Underworld may his departed spirit drink of clear 
 
 water." 
 
 In Sheol, therefore, there exists a place for particu- 
 larly pious souls, where they repose on beds of ease and 
 quaff clear water. The remainder of Sheol, therefore, 
 appears to be especially adapted to the needs of the im- 
 pious and to be not only dusty but to be also without 
 water, or at most furnishing "roily water," — in any 
 event a place of thirst.
 
 50 BABKL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Ill the Book of Job (xxiv. 18) , whicli appears to be 
 extremely conversant with Babylonian modes of tbought, 
 we find comparisons drawn between the arid, waterless 
 desert which is reserved for those that have sinned, and 
 the garden with fresh, clear water which is reserved for 
 the pious. And in the New Testament, which has most 
 curiously amalgamated this sentiment with the last verse 
 of the Book of Isaiah, \ve read of a flaming hell in which 
 the rich man languishes from want of water, and of a 
 garden (for that is the meaning of Paradise) full of fresh, 
 clear water for Lazarus. 
 
 And the pictures which painters and poets, theo- 
 logians and priests, and last of all Mahomet the prophet, 
 have drawn of this Hell and this Paradise, are well 
 known. 
 
 Behold yonder poor Moslem, sick and feeble, who on 
 account of his weakness has been abandoned by the cara- 
 van ill the desert. A jug filled with M-ater is by his side. 
 With his own hands he digs his shallow grave in the des- 
 ert sands, resignedly awaiting his death. His eyes are 
 aglow with expectation, for in a few moments angels will 
 issue from the open portals of Paradise and greet him 
 with the words: '''' Selavi ''alaika^ thou hast been a god- 
 fearing man ; enter therefore for all eternity the garden 
 that Allah has prepared for his own." 
 
 The garden stretches before him like the vast ex- 
 panse of heaven and earth. Luxuriant groves casting 
 plentiful shadows and laden with sweet fruits are inter- 
 sected in all directions with babbling brooks and dotted 
 with bubbling springs ; while aerial bowers rise from the 
 banks of the streams. Paradisian glory suffuses the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 51 
 
 countenances of the beatified ones, who are filled with 
 happiness and serenity. They wear green brocaded gar- 
 ments made of the finest silk ; their arms are adorned 
 with gold and silver spangles ; they lie on couches with 
 lofty bolsters and soft pillows, and at their feet are 
 thick carpets. So they rest, 
 seated opposite one another 
 at richl}^- furnished tables 
 which offer them ever3'thing 
 their hearts desire. Brim- 
 ming goblets go the rounds, 
 and youths endowed with 
 immortality and resembling 
 scattered pearls carry silver 
 beakers and crystal vessels 
 filled with Main, the most 
 delicious and clearest water 
 from the spring Tasnim, 
 from wdiich the archangels 
 drink, redolent with cam- 
 phor and ginger. And this 
 water is mixed with the 
 rarest old wine, of which 
 one can drink as much as 
 one pleases, for it does not 
 inebriate and causes no headaches. 
 
 And then there are the maidens of Paradise ! Maidens 
 with skin as soft and delicate as the ostrich egg, with 
 voluptuous bosoms, and with ej^es like glittering pearls 
 concealed in shells of oysters, — gazelle-like eyes full of 
 chaste but enrapturing glances. Two and seventy of 
 
 Fig. 48. Assyrian Angel. 
 
 Type representing manly strength and 
 
 intelligence. (Bas-relitf of Kuyunjik. 
 
 Lenormant, IV., pp. 432-433.)
 
 52 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 these Paradisian maidens may every god-fearing man 
 choose unto himself, in addition to the wives that he pos- 
 sessed on earth, provided he cares to have them (and the 
 good man will always cherish desire for the good) . All 
 hatred and Qnvy has departed from the breasts of the de- 
 vout ones; no gossip, no slander, is heard in Paradise. 
 ^'' Selain^ Selam!^^ everywhere; and all utterances con- 
 
 Fig. 49. Angels with Eagle Heads 
 The Holy Tree in the Centre. (British Museum.) 
 
 elude with the ringing words : cl-hamdu lillalii rabbi-l- 
 'alamin, the praise is the Lord's, the master of all crea- 
 tures. 
 
 This is the culminating point in the development of 
 that simple and unpretentious Babylonian conception of 
 the crystal-clear water which god-fearing men were des- 
 tined to drink in Sheol. And these conceptions of the
 
 BABHL A XL) BIHLH. 
 
 53 
 
 torments of Hell and of the blissful ])lcasnrcs of Paradise 
 to-da3' sway the hearts of untold millions. 
 
 It is well-known, also, that the conceptions of the 
 messengers of the gods, or of the angels, with which the 
 Egyptians were utterly unacquainted, are characteristi- 
 cally Babylonian, and also that the conception of cheru- 
 
 Fig. 50. Winged Cherub, vviTH Body of Bull and Human Head 
 
 (After Layard ) 
 
 bim and seraphim and of the guardian angels that watch 
 over the ways of men had its origin in Bab3'lon. The 
 Babylonian rulers stood in need of bosts of messengers 
 to bear their behests into all cjuarters of their dominions ; 
 and so also their gods were obliged to have at their beck
 
 54 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 and call legions of messengers or angels, — messengers 
 with the intelligence of men, and therefore having the 
 form of men, but at the same time ec^uipped with wings, 
 in order to be able to carry through the winds of heaven 
 the commands of the gods to the inhabitants of earth ; in 
 addition, these angels were invested with the keenness of 
 vision and the rapidit}' of flight of the eagle ; and to those 
 
 Fig. 50a. Winged Cherub, with Body of Lion and Human Head 
 
 (After Layard.) 
 
 whose chief office it was to guard the entrance to their 
 divine masters was imparted the unconquerable strength 
 of the bull, or the awe-inspiring majesty of the lion.. 
 (Figs. 48, 49, 50, and 50^.) 
 
 The Babylonian and Assyrian angels, like those in 
 Ezekiel's vision, are very often of hybrid shape. Take, 
 for example, the cherubim of which a type is given in
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 55 
 
 Fig. 50, with their wings, their bull's bodies, and their 
 honest, serious human countenances. Then again we 
 find types like that discovered in the palace of Ashurna- 
 zirpal (Fig. 51), which bears the closest possible resem- 
 blance to our conception of angels. These noble and 
 radiant figures, which art has rendered so attractive and 
 familiar iu our e3'es, will al\va3's retain a kindly place in 
 our hearts. 
 
 Fig. 51. Angels WITH Human Heads. 
 (Noble types closely resembling the Christian conception of angels.) 
 
 But the demons and the devils^ whether the3' take 
 for us the form of the enemies of man or that of the 
 primordial foes of God, — to these we were destined to bid 
 farewell for all eternity, for the ancient Persian dualism 
 was not after our hearts. " I form the light and create 
 darkness : I make peace and create evil : // is /, Yaliveh^ 
 that do all these things ^ So justly declares the greatest
 
 56 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 prophet of the Old Testament, Isaiah (xlv. 7) . Demons 
 like that represented in Fig. 52,— though such pictures 
 are not without interest for the history of duelling,— or 
 caricatures like that represented in Fig. 53 , may be com- 
 
 Fig. 52. Duel of Lion-Headed and Eagle-Footed Demons. 
 (British Museum. After Lenormant.) 
 
 niitted forever and aye to the obscurity of the Babylonian 
 hills from which they have risen. (See also Fig. 54.) 
 
 In his excavations at Khorsabad, Victor Place dis- 
 covered the supply-depot of the palace of Sargon. One 
 of the store-rooms contained pottery of all sorts and sizes,
 
 BABEL AND lilHI.H. 
 
 57 
 
 aud another utensils and implements made of iron. Here 
 were found arranj^^ed in beautiful order al)undant su])]jlies 
 of chains, nails, plui^s, mattocks, and hoes, and thu ircm 
 had been so admirably wrought and was so well preserved 
 that it rang like a bell when struck ; and some of these 
 implements which were then twenty-five centuries old 
 could be forthwith put into 
 actual use by the Arabian 
 workmen. 
 
 This drastic intrusion of 
 Assyrian antiquity upon our 
 own days naturally fills us 
 with amazement, and 3'et it is 
 nothing more than what has 
 happened in the intellectual 
 domain. When we distinguish 
 the twelve signs of the zodiac 
 and call them Aries, Taurus, 
 Gemini, etc. (see Fig. 55) , 
 when we divide the circle into 
 360 parts, the hour into 60 
 minutes, and the minute into 
 60 seconds, and so on, — in all 
 this, Sumerian and Babylo- 
 nian civilisation still lives witli us to-da3^ 
 
 And possibly I have also been successful in ni}^ en- 
 deavor to sliow that many Babylonian features still cling, 
 througk the medium of the Bible, to our religious think- 
 ing. 
 
 The elimination from our religious thought of the 
 purely human conceptions derived from these admittedly 
 
 Fig. 53. Babylonian DtviL. 
 
 Demon of the Southwest Wind. 
 
 (Louvre. After Smith )
 
 58 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 talented peoples, and the liberation of our thought gen- 
 erally from the shackles of deep-rooted prejudices, will in 
 no wise impair true religion and the true religious spirit, 
 as these have been taught us by the prophets and poets 
 of the Old Testament, but most sublimely of all by 
 Jesus; on the contrary, both will come forth from this 
 
 
 "'11 yi-^a-^^s 
 
 .S^/1 'M IS} /^vMV^ 
 
 V' 
 
 
 ,-^„>at»«i' 
 
 
 ^rt^,^**' 
 
 a^ --""(aU*/! 
 
 < 'J 
 
 \^^\\^.^V^^ ' 
 
 [■-W^^^ 
 
 -.V J:*,- 
 
 
 u,( t,»iM,J>. kfa 'i.,.tf>i<f..l..,...^^v^ ,.,.t',j!,l^.,i„.>ffi3i 
 
 Fig. 54 A Demon Supporting a Tablet.^ 
 (Assyrian bronze tablet. After Lenormant.) 
 
 process of purification far truer and far more intensified 
 than ever they were before. 
 
 I may be allowed finally a word with regard to the 
 feature that invests the Bible with its main significance 
 
 'The two upper horizontal strips in the left-hand side of the figure represent 
 the heavens (the celestial bodies and the celestial genii). The third strip exhibits 
 a funeral scene on earth. The fourth strip represents the Underworld bathed in 
 the floods of the ocean.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 59 
 
 from the point of view of general lii.stor3', — its vionothe- 
 tsm. Here too Babel early opened a new and undreamt-of 
 prospect. 
 
 It is remarkable, but no one can definitely say what 
 our Teutonic word God on^m^Wy signified. Philologists 
 vacillate between "inspiring timidity" and "delibera- 
 tion." But the word which the Semitic Canaanite races, 
 
 Fig. 55. Sagittarius and Scorpio. 
 Signs of the Zodiac, as represented by the Babylonians. (Lenormant, V., p. 180.) 
 
 to whom the Babylonians are most nearly related and 
 from whom the Israelites afterward sprang, coined for 
 God, is not only lucid as to its meaning, but conceives 
 the notion of divinity under so profound and exalted a 
 form that this word alone suffices to .shatter the legend 
 that "the Semites were, time out of mind, amazingly 
 deficient in religious instinct; " while it also refutes the
 
 60 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 popular modern conception that tlie religion of Yahveh, 
 and therefore also our Christian belief in God, is ulti- 
 mately sprung from a species of fetishism and animism 
 such as is common among the South Sea cannibals or the 
 inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego. 
 
 There is a remarkably beautiful passage in the Ko- 
 ran, VI, 75 et seq., which so fascinated Goethe that he 
 expressed the desire to see it dramatised. Mahomet has 
 mentally put himself in the place of Abraham, and is 
 endeavoring to realise the manner in which Abraham had 
 reached the monotheistic idea. He says: "And when 
 the gloom of night had fallen, Abraham stepped forth 
 into the darkness; and behold, there was a star shining 
 above him. Then he cried out in his gladness : ' This is 
 my Lord ! ' But when the star grew dim, he said: 'I 
 love not those that grow dim.' And when the moon rose 
 radiantly in the firmament, he cried out in exceeding 
 gladness : ' This is my Lord ! ' But when it set, he said : 
 'Alas, I shall surely be one of the people that must needs 
 err.' But when the sun rose dazzlingly in the morning, 
 he said: 'This is my Lord, this is the greatest of all! ' 
 But when the sun set, then he said: 'O, my people, 
 verily I am rid of your idolatry of many gods, and I lift 
 up my countenance to him alone that created the heavens 
 and the earth.' " 
 
 That ancient Semitic word for God, so well known 
 to us from the sentence, Eli Eli lavia azabtani^ is El^ 
 and its meaning is the goal ; the goal toward which are 
 directed the eyes of all men that look Heavenward only, 
 "which every man sees, which every man beholds from 
 afar" (Job xxxvi. 25) ; the goal to which man stretches
 
 BAHKI. Ax\D BIBLE. 
 
 61 
 
 forth his hands, for which the hiiinan heart longs as its 
 release from the uncertainties and imperfections of this 
 earthly life, — this goal the ancient Semitic nomads called 
 El^ or God. And inasmuch as there can in the nature of 
 things be only one goal, we find among the old Canaanite 
 races which settled in Babylonia as early as 2500 years 
 before Christ, and to whom Hammurabi himself be- 
 longed, such beautiful proper names as "God hath 
 given," "God be with thee," "With the help of my God 
 I go my way," etc. 
 
 ■-■'II 
 
 ■ ■ ■■ '^ ' at' .Jv 
 
 .* * ■ 
 
 Fig. 56. Clay Tablets Containing the Words " Yahveh is God." 
 (Time of Hammurabi or Amraphel. British Museum.) 
 
 But more ! Through the kindness of the director of 
 the Egyptian and Assyrian department of the British 
 Museum I am able to show you here pictures of three 
 little clay tablets (Fig. 56). What, will be asked, is to 
 be seen on these tablets, fragile broken pieces of clay, 
 with scarcely legible characters scratched on their sur- 
 face? True enough, but they are valuable from the fact 
 that their date may be exactly fixed as that of the time of 
 Hammurabi, one of them having been made during the 
 reign of his father, Sin-muballit ; but still more so from
 
 62 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 the circumstance tliat they contain three names which 
 are of the very greatest significance from the point of 
 view of the history of religion. They are the words : 
 
 ^ ^ ^ »f 
 la- ah- ve- ibi 
 
 Ja- ku- jun- ilii 
 Yahveh is God. Yahveh, the Abiding One, the Perma- 
 nent One (for such is, as we have reason to believe, the 
 significance of the name) , who, unlike man, is not to- 
 morrow a thing of the past, but one that endures forever, 
 that lives and labors for all eternity above the broad, re- 
 splendent, law -bound canopy of the stars, — it was this 
 Yahveh that constituted the primordial patrimony of 
 those Canaanite tribes from which centuries afterward 
 the twelve tribes of Israel sprang. 
 
 The religion of the Canaanite tribes that emigrated 
 to Babylonia rapidly succumbed, indeed, before the poly- 
 theism that had been practised for centuries by the an- 
 cient inhabitants of that country. But this polytheism 
 by no means strikes an unsympathetic chord in us, at 
 least so far as its conception of its gods is concerned, all 
 of whom were living, omnipotent, and omnipresent be- 
 ings that hearkened unto the prayers of men, and who, 
 however much incensed they might become at the sins of 
 men, were always immediately ready again with offers of 
 mercy and reconciliation. And likewise the representa- 
 tions which these deities found in Babylonian art, as for 
 instance that of the sun-god of Sippar enthroned in his 
 Holy of Holies (Fig. 57)' are far removed from every- 
 
 ' See also Fig. 31.
 
 Fig. 57. The Sun-God of Sippar Enthroned in His Holv of Holies. 
 
 (Lenormant, V., p. 301)
 
 64 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 tiling that savors of the ng\y, the ignoble, or the gro- 
 tesque. The Prophet Ezekiel (chap, i.) in his visions of 
 his LoVd saw God enter on a living chariot formed of four 
 winged creatures with the face of a man, a lion, an ox, 
 and an eagle, and on the heads of these cherubim he saw 
 (x. 1) a crystal surface supporting a sapphire throne on 
 which God was seated in the likeness of a man, bathed in 
 the most resplendent radiance. Noting carefully these 
 
 taitmamm 
 
 ■ It 
 
 ■ji»>»i i iiii< ««j.»»«^ 
 
 Fig. 58. Babylonian Cylinder-Seal with Representation 
 Resembling the Vision of Ezekiel. 
 
 details, can we fail to observe the striking resemblance 
 which his vision presents to the representation of a god 
 which has been found on a very ancient Bab3donian cyl- 
 inder-seal (Fig. 58) ? Standing on an odd sort of vessel, 
 the prow and stern of which terminate in seated human 
 figures, may be seen two cherubim with their backs to 
 each other and with their faces, which are luinian in form,
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 65 
 
 turned to the front. Their attitude leads us to infer that 
 there are two corresponding figures at the rear. On their 
 backs reposes a surface, and on this surface stands a 
 throne on which the god sits, bearded and clothed in long 
 robes, with a tiara on his head, and in his right hand 
 what are apparently a scepter and a ring : and behind the 
 throne, standing ready to answer his beck and call, is a 
 servitor of the god, who may be likened to the man 
 ''clothed with linen" (Ezekiel ix. 3, and x. 2) that exe- 
 cuted the behests of Yahveh. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, however, and despite the 
 fact that many liberal and enlightened minds openly ad- 
 vocated the doctrine that Nergal and Nebo, that the 
 moon-god and the sun-god, the god of thunder Raniman, 
 and all the rest of the Babylonian Pantheon were one in 
 Marduk, the god of light, still polytheism, gross poly- 
 theism, remained for three tJioiisajid years the Babylonian 
 state religion, — a sad and significant warning against the 
 indolence of men and races in matters of religion, and 
 against the colossal power which may be acquired by a 
 strongly organised priesthood based upon it. 
 
 Even the religion of Yahveh, under the magic stand- 
 ard of which Moses united into a single nation the twelve 
 nomadic tribes of Israel, remained infected for centuries 
 with all manner of human infirmities, — with all the un- 
 sophisticated anthropomorphic conceptions that are char- 
 acteristic of the childhood of the human race, with Israel- 
 itic particularism, with heathen sacrificial customs, and 
 with the cult of legal externalities. Even its intrinsic 
 worth was impotent to restrain the nation from win-ship- 
 ping the Baal and the Astarte of the indigenous Canaan-
 
 66 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ite race, until those titanic minds, the prophets, discov- 
 ered in Yahveh the god of the universe, and pleaded for 
 a quickening of the inner spirit of religion with exhorta- 
 tions like that of Joel, "to rend their hearts and not their 
 garments," and until the divinely endowed singers of the 
 Psalms expressed the concepts of the prophetic leaders in 
 verses which awaken to this day a living echo in the 
 hearts of all nations and times, — until, in fine, the proph- 
 ets and the psalmists paved the way for the adhortation 
 of Jesus to pray to God in spirit and truth and to strive 
 by dint of individual moral endeavor in all spheres of life 
 after higher and higher perfection, — after that perfection 
 which is our Father's in Heaven.
 
 SECOND LECTURE
 
 IN EXPLANATION. 
 
 WHO is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? 
 This that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his 
 
 strength ? 
 "It is I (Yahveh) that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." 
 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth 
 
 in the winefat ? 
 "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man 
 
 with me : 
 Yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my fury ; 
 And their lifeblood is sprinkled npon my garments, and I have stained all my 
 
 raiment. 
 For the day of vengeance was in mine heart, and the year of my redemption was 
 
 come. 
 And I looked, and there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was none to 
 
 uphold : 
 Therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me. 
 And I trod down the peoples in anger, and made them drunk with my fury, 
 And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth. 
 
 In language, style, and sentiment, forsooth a genuine Bedouin 
 song of battle and victory ! Not at all ! This utterance of Isaiah 
 Ixiii. 1-6, and a hundred other prophetic utterances full of inex- 
 tinguishable hatred toward the races round about : toward Edom 
 and Moab, Asohu and Babel, Tyre and Egypt, mostly masterpieces 
 of Hebrew rhetoric, are to be accepted as representing the ethical 
 prophetism of Israel, and this at its high tide ! These outpourings 
 of political jealousy and of passionate hatred on the part of long 
 vanished generations, born of certain contemporary conditions and 
 perhaps comprehensible from a merely human standpoint, must 
 serve us children of the twentieth century after Christ, must serve
 
 70 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 even Occidental and Christian races, as a religious guide for refine- 
 ment and edification! Instead of losing ourselves "in grateful 
 admiration " in the contemplation of God's manifestation in our 
 own people, from primitive Germanic times down to the present 
 day, we continue, from ignorance, indifference or blindness, to 
 concede to those early Israelitic oracles the character of a "revela- 
 tion," which cannot be justified either in the light of science or in 
 that of religion or of ethics. 
 
 The more deeply I dive into the spirit of the prophetic writ- 
 ings of the Old Testament, the more I shrink from Yahveh, who 
 slaughters the nations with the insatiable sword of his wrath, who 
 has but one favorite child, and surrenders all other nations to night 
 and shame and destruction, who said even to Abraham (Genesis 
 xii. 2): "I will bless them who bless thee, and those who curse 
 thee, them will I curse "■ — and I seek refuge with him who taught 
 in life and in death : "Bless them that curse you," and I hide, full 
 of trust and joy and earnest longing for moral perfection, in the 
 God to whom Jesus taught us to pray, the God who is a loving and 
 just father to all men on earth. 
 
 . Charlottenburg, May i, 1903.
 
 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 WHY this opposition to "Babel and Bible" when 
 logic itself compels this sequence of the words? 
 And how can anyone expect to be able to suppress these 
 serious questions, which involve the entire Bible with the 
 catchword " Primitive Revelation," when this is shown 
 to be false by a single forgotten verse of the Old Testa- 
 ment? And does in fact "the ethical monotheism of Is- 
 rael" in its function as " a real revelation of the living 
 God," constitute the unassailable bulwark in the conflict 
 of opinions which Babel has aroused in these later da3'S? 
 
 It is a pity that so many people permit their delight 
 in the great advantage which Babel is constantl}^ offering 
 us as " interpreter and illustrator" of the Bible to be 
 spoiled by a narrow regard for dogmatic questions to such 
 a degree that they even entirely ignore that advantage. 
 And yet, how grateful all readers of and commentators 
 on the Bible must needs be for the new knowledge which 
 has been revealed, and is constantly being revealed, to us 
 by the laborious excavations among the ruins of Babylon 
 and Assyria! 
 
 On principle I too avoid continually speaking of 
 "confirmations" of the Bible. For indeed the Old Tes- 
 tament as a source of ancient history would be in a bad
 
 12 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 case if it required everj^wliere confirmation by cuneiform 
 inscriptions. But when the Biblical Books of Kings (2 
 
 •^:'«^-:i^" 
 
 Fig. 59. The Ruins at Tell Ibrahim, Site of the City of Kutha. 
 
 Kings xvii. 30) states that the inhabitants of the city of 
 Kutha who settled in Samaria worshipped the god Nergal, 
 
 Fig. 60. Nergal, the Patron God of Kutha. 
 
 and we now know, not alone that this Babylonian city of 
 Kutha (Fig. 59) lies buried under the ruins at Tell Ibra-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 73 
 
 liini, twenty-one miles northeast of Babylon, but also that 
 a cuneiform inscription expressly informs us that the 
 patron god of Kutha was called Nerval (Fig. 60) , — this 
 is really valuable information. 
 
 While there seemed to be no prospect of ever dis- 
 covering the town and district of Chalach, to which a 
 portion of the Israelites taken captive by Sargon were 
 
 
 Fig.6i. Black Obelisk 
 OF Shalmaneser II. 
 
 Fig. 62. A.ssYRiAN Letter. 
 
 Written from Chalach, the Babylonian home of 
 
 the e.xiled Israelites. 
 
 transplanted (2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11), we now pos- 
 sess, from the library of Asurbanipal at Nineveh, a letter 
 written from Chalach (Fig. 62) , in which a certain Uiir- 
 duk-nadin-achi, laying emphasis upon his steadily mani- 
 fested loyalty, petitions the king to help him regain his 
 estate, which had been given him by the king's father, 
 and which had supported him for fourteen years until at
 
 'ijt^ V ? '^w m^ y? -^ti ^ ^ 
 
 <ry^?-*M<?T» 
 
 ^m^^ T16^ er^T? E^T^TI Wt^E^<fs^^<*, 
 
 ! 
 
 ^ 
 
 >i^ «^^<^i ^ K5^^^ 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 
 P^^-^ 
 
 .;^ 7 ^ 
 
 -:4-^W^fa¥^^ ^o^T<>^T? T? 
 
 Fig- 63.
 
 p>W^]^ JHT jm^^^xi^ ^f^ XT ^('FfyrrA^ 
 
 Fig. 64.
 
 fff m 1^^ ' ^ ^^^-^r '' ^ ^ Y<^ __je:g^n,^y^^" 
 
 Fiq 65.
 
 
 ^<H<T^Tfi<^TFH>< W- HJ,1^^<« ^ -<i^ ^ , 
 
 flit 
 
 • ^ - *^'",i h i*»^" V "I'll 'Ml 
 
 Fig. 66.
 
 78 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 last the governor of the land of Alashalzi had taken it 
 from him. 
 
 As to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom of 
 Israel, who are presented to oui eyes so vividly by the 
 famous black obelisk of Shalmaneser II. (Fig. 61) in its 
 second row of relief figures (Figs. 63-66) — they are the 
 ambassadors of King Jehu (840 B.C.) with gifts of vari- 
 ous sorts, — we now know all three 
 of the localities where the ten tribes 
 found their grave: Chalach, some- 
 what farther east than the moun- 
 tainous source of the upper Zab, 
 called Arrapachitis ; the province 
 of Goshen along the Chabor prob- 
 ably not far from Nisibis ; and 
 thirdly, the villages of Media. 
 
 Until recent times the con- 
 quest and plundering of Egyptian 
 Thebes mentioned by the prophet 
 Nahum (iii. 8 ff.) has been a 
 puzzle, so that no one knew to 
 what the words of the prophet re- 
 Fig. 67. Assurbanipal's Ten- ferrcd '. 
 
 Sided Clay Prism. u a i. i-i /at* t-\ t, i.i. 
 
 Art thou (Nineveh) better 
 than No-amon (i. e., Thebes), that is situate in the 
 waters of the Nile, with waters round about her. . .? 
 Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; her 
 young children were dashed in pieces at the top of all 
 the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and 
 all her great men were bound in chains." 
 
 But then there was discovered at Nineveh the mag-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 79 
 
 iiificent ten-sided clay prism of Asurbaiiipal (Fig. 67) , 
 which reports in its second column that it was Asurbani- 
 pal who, pursuing the Egyptian king Urdamane from 
 Memphis, reached Thebes, conquered it and carried away 
 silver, gold, and precious stones, the entire treasure of 
 the palace, the inhabitants, male and female, a great and 
 immeasurable booty, from Thebes to Nineveh the city 
 of his dominion. 
 
 And how much the language of the Old Testament 
 
 Fig. 68. Antelope Leukoryx. 
 
 is indebted to the cuneiform literature ! The Old Testa- 
 ment mentions repeatedly an animal called re'em, a fierce, 
 untamable animal armed with fearful horns (Psalms xxii. 
 22) and most nearly related to the ox (Deuteronomy 
 xxxiii. 17; Psalms xxix. 6; comp. Isaiah xxxiv. 7), to 
 use which in field labor on tlie plain like a common ox 
 seems to the poet of the Book of Job (xxxix. 9 ff.) a ter- 
 rible, an inconceivable thought: ''Will the wild ox be 
 content to serve thee, or will he abide by thy crib? Canst
 
 80 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 thou bind the wild ox with his guiding-band in thy fur- 
 row? Or will he harrow^ the valleys after thee? " 
 
 Despite the fact that the buffalo now roams in herds 
 the forests beyond the Jordan, it was nevertheless diffused 
 over Asia Minor from Arachosia only a short time before 
 the beginning of our era ; hence it had become customarj- 
 as a result of comparison with Arabian usage, which 
 styles the antelopes "cattle of the desert" and applies 
 the name rVm to ant Hope leiikoryx (Fig. 68) , to under- 
 
 Fig. 69. The Re'em, or Wild Bull. 
 (After a bas-relief in the palace of Sennacherib.) 
 
 Stand under the Hebrew re'em this species of antelope. 
 But as this antelope, despite its long, sharp horns, is a 
 slender-limbed and soft-eyed creature, it was beyond com- 
 prehension how it should occur to a poet to imagine it 
 hitched to a plow and then to shudder at the thought. 
 
 The cuneiform inscriptions have informed us what 
 the rhmi is: it is the powerful, fierce-eyed, wnld ox with 
 stout curved horns, an animal of the wood and the moun- 
 tain, which scales the highest summits, an animal of tre-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 81 
 
 mendous physical strength, the chase for which, like that 
 for the lion, was especially popular with the Assyrian 
 kings on account of its liazardousness. The presence of 
 
 Fig. 70. Hunting the Re'em. 
 
 this animal, which is most closely related to the bos urus 
 of Cassar (Bell. Gall. VI. 28) and to the wisent (bison) 
 
 
 Fig. 71. The Hill of Babil. 
 
 of Middle-High-German literature, is scientifically estab- 
 lished for the region of Mt. Lebanon : the cuneiform in- 
 scriptions mention the re'em countless times, and the 
 alabaster reliefs of the Assyrian royal palace present it 
 very clearly to our eyes. (Fig. 69.)
 
 
 ^^fe. til! 
 
 4. 
 
 
 m ,iy V:.|i 
 
 frt' 
 
 V \ 
 
 V 
 
 vv\ V 
 
 
 ■IM ■ i 
 
 
 
 llp'r 
 
 ■if ^ ^ 2 
 
 1, I 
 
 l^PiKi 
 
 2; 
 
 o 
 
 >< 
 
 < 
 CQ 
 
 b 
 
 O 
 
 7. 
 
 3 
 
 p^ 
 
 u 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 z 
 
 < 
 a: 
 a 
 a, 
 D 
 W 
 u 
 
 B 
 H 
 
 d. 
 o 
 
 t/J 
 t<: 
 z 
 
 < 
 
 Q 
 M 
 
 Id 
 Q 
 
 OS 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 M 
 
 H
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 83 
 
 King Nebuchadnezzar reports that he adorned the 
 city gate of Babylon which is dedicated to the goddess 
 Istar with burned bricks upon which were represented 
 remus and gigantic serpents standing upright. The re- 
 discovery of this Istar Gate and its excavation to a depth 
 of fourteen meters, where the underflow begins, consti- 
 tutes one of the most valuable achievements of recent 
 years in our exploration of the ruins of Babylon. 
 
 Hail to thee, thou hill of Babil (Fig. 71) , and to all 
 thy fellows on the palm-bordered banks of the Euphrates ! 
 
 Fig. 73. The Wild Bull (Re'em) on the Istar Gate. 
 Brick mosaic in enameled colors. 
 
 (Fig. 12.^ How the heartbeats quicken when, after 
 weeks of picking and shoveling under the glowing sun- 
 beams of the East, suddenly the structure that has been 
 sought is revealed, when upon a giant block of stone cov- 
 ered with characters the name "Istar Gate" is read, and 
 gradually the great double gate of Babylon, flanked 
 northward on each side by three mighty towers, rises in 
 a splendid state of preservation from the bowels of the
 
 84 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 earth! And wherever you may look, on the .surfaces of 
 the towers as well as upon the inner walls of the gate- 
 way, droves of remus carved in relief, the uppermost row 
 in brilliant contemporary enamel, standing forth in fasci- 
 nating splendor of colors against the deep blue back- 
 ground. (Fig. 73.) 
 
 "Vigorously strides the wild ox with long paces, 
 with proudly curved neck, with horns pointed threaten- 
 ingly forward, ears laid back, and inflated nostrils ; his 
 
 Fig. 74. The Lion of Babylon. 
 Brick mosaic in enameled colors. 
 
 muscles are tense and swelling, his tail raised and yet 
 falling stiffly downwards, — all as in Nature, but ideal- 
 ised.'" Where the smooth hide is white, horns and hoofs 
 shine like gold; where the hide is yellow, these are of 
 malachite green, while in both kinds the long hair is col- 
 ored dark blue. But a truly imposing eflect is produced 
 by a white ox in relief, in which the long hair, as well as 
 the horns and hoofs, is tinted a delicate green. Thus 
 
 ^ From a treatise on these relief figures by Walter Andrse.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 85 
 
 the re'em of the Istar Gate through which led the tri- 
 umphal highway of Marduk proves to be a worthy com- 
 pauiou for the widely known "lion of Babylon" which 
 adorned the triumphal highway itself. (Fig. 74.) 
 
 And Biblical science is enriched by still another ani- 
 mal of the strangest sort, a fabulous animal, familiar to 
 us from the days of our j^outhful religious instruction, 
 and which could not fail to make a fascinating impression 
 upon all who passed through the Istar Gate toward the 
 
 Fig. 75. The Dragon of Babel. 
 Enameled brick mosaic. 
 
 palace of Nebuchadnezzar,— I refer to the Dragon of Ba- 
 bel. (Fig. 75.) "With neck stretched far forward and 
 looks darting poison the monster marches along,"— it is 
 a serpent, as is shown by the elongated head with its 
 forked tongue, the long, scale-covered trunk and the 
 wriggling tail, but at the same time it has the fore-legs 
 of the panther while its hind-legs are armed with mon- 
 strous talons ; in addition to all this it has on its head 
 long, straight horns and a scorpion's sting in the end of
 
 86 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 its tail. Thanks are due to all whose faithful labor con- 
 tributes to secure such choice and exceedingly important 
 archaeological treasures ! 
 
 Quite apart from many such individual interpreta- 
 tions and illustrations, Assyriology is restoring confi- 
 dence in the authenticity of the text of the Old Testa- 
 ment, which has for some time been so violently assailed. 
 For, finding itself constantly face to face with more and 
 more difficult texts full of rare words and phrases, it real- 
 ises that there are also in the Old Testament scriptures 
 great numbers of rare and even unique words and phrases ; 
 it takes delight in these, attempts to interpret them from 
 their context, and in not a few cases finds its efforts re- 
 warded by the presence of these very same words and 
 phrases in Assyrian. In this manner it recognises what 
 a fatal error it is on the part of modern exegesis to make 
 conjectural interpretations of such rare words and diffi- 
 cult phrases, to "emend" them, and only too frequently 
 to replace them with meaningless substitutes. In truth 
 every friend of the Old Testament Scriptures should as- 
 sist with all his might in bringing to light the thousands 
 of clay tablets and all other sorts of written monuments 
 that lie buried in Babylon, and which our expedition will 
 bring to light as soon as the first objects set before it are 
 accomplished, thereby making possible for the textual 
 interpretation of the Old Testament more rapid and more 
 important progress than it has experienced within the 
 two thousand years preceding. 
 
 Indeed, entire narratives of the Old Testament re- 
 ceive their interpretation from Babylon. In our early 
 youth we inherit the burden of the foolish notion of a
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 87 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar who was turned into a beast; for the 
 Book of Daniel tells us (iv. 26-34) how the King of 
 Babylon walked upon the roof of his palace, and after 
 feasting his eyes once more on the splendor of the city 
 he had built, received from heaven the prophecy that he 
 should live, an exile from among men, with the beasts of 
 the field and after the fashion of the beasts. Thereupon, 
 according to account, Nebuchadnezzar ate grass in the 
 wilderness like unto an ox, wet by the dew of heaven, 
 while his hair grew like unto the feathers of the eagle and 
 his finger-nails like unto birds' claws. 
 
 Yet no educator of 3H)utli should ever have ventured 
 to teach such things, and especiall^^ not after the appear- 
 ance of Hberhard Schrader's treatise on The Insanity of 
 Nebuchadnezzar^ without at the same time pointing out 
 the fact that the purer and more primitive form of this 
 story has long been known in a Chaldaean legend trans- 
 mitted to us in Abydenus. This tells us that Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, after reaching the zenith of his power, went out 
 upon the roof of his palace, inspired b3^ a god, he ex- 
 claimed: "I here, Nabuchodrosor, announce to you the 
 coming of the calamity which neither Bel nor Queen 
 Beltis can persuade the Fates to avert. Perses (that is, 
 Cyrus) will come . . . and bring servitude upon 3'ou. O 
 would that he, before my fellow'-citizens perish, might be 
 driven through the desert, where neither cities nor the 
 track of men can be found, but where wild beasts graze 
 and birds fly about, while he wanders about solitary in 
 caves and gorges. But may a better lot . . . l)cfall me." 
 
 Who could fail to perceive in this that the Hebrew 
 writer has made a free version of the Babylonian legend,
 
 88 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 especially since lie lets us see plainly in verse 16 that the 
 very wording of the original was quite familiar to him ! 
 What Nebuchadnezzar wishes for the enemy of the Chal- 
 dasans, this the author of the pamphlets full of errors and 
 carelessness which are combined to make the Book of 
 Daniel, has Nebuchadnezzar suffer himself, in order to 
 exemplify as drastically as possible to his countrymen, 
 who were being persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes, the 
 truth that God the Lord is able to humble deeply even 
 the mightiest king who rebels against Yaliveh. 
 
 When shall we finally learn to distinguish the form 
 from the content even within the covers of the Old Tes- 
 tament ? 
 
 The author of the Book of Jonah preaches to us two 
 lofty doctrines : that no one can escape from God, and 
 that no mortal dare presume to dictate terms to God's 
 mercy and patience, or even to set limits for them. But 
 the form in which these truths are clothed is human, is 
 fancifully Oriental, and if we should continue to believe 
 to-day that Jonah while in the whale's belly prayed a 
 conglomeration of passages from the Psalms, part of which 
 were not composed until several centuries after the de- 
 struction of Nineveh, or that the King of Nineveh did 
 such deep penance that he gave commands even to oxen 
 and sheep to put on sackcloth, we should be sinning 
 against the reason bestowed upon us by God. 
 
 But all these are details which sink into insignifi- 
 cance under an intenser light. 
 
 It was an exceedingly happy thought which struck 
 the representatives of the various German ecclesiastical 
 bodies who went to Jerusalem as guests of the German
 
 BABKL AND BIBLE. 89 
 
 Emperor to take part in the dedication of the Church of 
 Our Saviour, that of founding in Jerusalem a "German 
 Evangelical Institute for the Archaeology of the Holy 
 Land." O would that our young theologians might go 
 thither, and not merely in the cities, but better still out 
 in the desert, familiarise themselves with the manners 
 and customs of the Bedouins, which are still so com- 
 pletely the same as in the times of Ancient Israel, and 
 plunge deeply into the Oriental mode of thought and ex- 
 pression : might listen to the story-tellers in the tents of 
 the desert or hear the descriptions and accounts of the 
 sons of the desert themselves, full of fanc}^ that bubbles 
 up vigorously and unhampered and only too often ex- 
 ceeds unconsciously the bounds of fact ! 
 
 And if even the modern Orient, wherever we go and 
 listen and look, furnishes such an abundance of sugges- 
 tions for the interpretation of the Bible, how much more 
 will this be the case with the study of the ancient litera- 
 ture of the Babylonians and Assyrians Mhicli is in part 
 contemporary with the Old Testament ! Everywhere 
 there are more or less important agreements between the 
 two literatures which are most closely related in language 
 and style, in mode of thought and expression. 
 
 I will cite here the sacredness of the number seven 
 as well as that of the number three, for which we have 
 evidence in both literatures : "Land, land, land, hear the 
 word of the Lord," exclaims Jeremiah (xxii. 29) ; "Hail, 
 hail, hail to the king, my lord," more than one Assyrian 
 scribe begins his letter. And as the seraphim before the 
 throne of God call one to another: "Holy, holy, holy is 
 Yahveh Zebaoth" (Isaiah vi. 3), so we read at the be-
 
 90 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ginning of the Assyrian temple liturgy a threefold asur^ 
 that is, "salutary," or "holy." 
 
 ' ' God created man out of the dust of the earth and 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man be- 
 came a living soul," — thus runs the so-called Yahvistic 
 account of creation (Genesis ii. 7) . The very same con- 
 ceptions are found among the Babylonians : man is formed 
 of earth (mud, clay) , as for instance Eabani is created 
 out of a pinched off and moistpd piece of clay (compare 
 Job xxxiii. 6 : "I too am made of a pinch of cla^'-") , and 
 for that reason he returns again thither (so Genesis iii. 
 19) ; but he becomes a living being through the breath 
 of God. In the opening of a letter to the Assyrian king 
 the writers characterise themselves as "dead dogs" (cf. 
 2 Samuel ix. 8) , whom the king, their master, had caused 
 to live by "putting the breath of life into their nostrils." 
 
 According to Babylonian notions the spittle of human 
 beings possesses in a marked degree magic power. Spittle 
 and spells are closely related conceptions, and spittle has 
 death-dealing as well as life-giving power. "O Mar- 
 duk," — thus runs a prayer to the patron deity of Babel, 
 — " O Marduk ! thine is the spittle of life ! " Who is not 
 reminded by this of New Testament narratives such as 
 that of Jesus taking the deaf and dumb man aside, put- 
 ting his fingers in his ears, spitting and touching the 
 man's tongue with the spittle, saying, "Hephata," "Be 
 opened!" (Mark vii. ZZ ff., and compare viii. 23, John 
 ix. 6 ff.) 
 
 Yahveh conducts his people on the march through 
 the desert by means of a pillar of cloud by day and a pil- 
 lar of fire by night (comp. also Isaiah iv. 5) ; but Ksar-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 91 
 
 y 
 liaddou, King of Assj^ria, before setting out upon a cam- 
 paign, also receives the prophetic message; "I, Istar of 
 Arbela, will cause to rise upon thy right hand smoke and 
 upon thy left fire." 
 
 "Set thine house in order," says the prophet Isaiah 
 to King Hezekiah when he is sick unto death, "for thou 
 art sick and wilt not live" (Isaiah xxxviii. l) , while the 
 Assyrian general Kudurru, to whom the king has sent 
 his own personal physician, thanks the king with the 
 words: "I Avas dead, but the king, my lord, has made 
 me to live." The soul of a man sick unto death is con- 
 ceived as already straying in the underworld, has already 
 gone down into the pit (Psalms xxx. 4) . For this reason 
 the goddess Gula, the patron genius of pli3\sicians, has 
 the title "Awakener of the dead" : an Oriental physician 
 who did not raise people from the dead would be no phy- 
 sician at all. 
 
 How great the similarity between all things in Babel 
 and Bible ! Here as well as there the fondness for ren- 
 dering speech and thought vivid by sj-mbolical actions (I 
 cite here merely the scapegoat which is chased a\va3^ into 
 the desert) ; here as well as there the same world of con- 
 stant wonders and signs, of perpetual revelations of the 
 divinity, particular! 3^ through dreams, the same naive 
 conceptions of the divinity ! As in Babel the gods eat and 
 drink and even retire to rest, so Yahveh goes walking in 
 Paradise in the cool of the evening, or takes delight in 
 the smell of Noah's sacrifice. And just as in the Old 
 Testament Yahveh speaks to IMoses and Aaron and to all 
 the prophets, so also in Babel the gods speak to men.
 
 92 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 either directly or tlirougli the mouth of their priests and 
 divinely inspired prophets and prophetesses. 
 
 Revelation ! For a long time all scientifically trained 
 theologians, whether Evangelical or Catholic, have for 
 centuries been firmly convinced that it was a grievous 
 error to have regarded the invaluable remains of ancient 
 Hebrew scriptures collected into the Old Testament as 
 constituting collectively a religious canon, as being from 
 beginning to end a revealed book of religion. For among 
 them are writings such as the Book of Job, which ques- 
 tions the very existence of a just God, and in language 
 that sometimes borders on blasphemy, and other very 
 profane compositions, such, for example, as wedding 
 songs (the so-called Song of Solomon) . In the pretty 
 love-song, Ps. 45, we read, v. 11 ff. : " Hear, O daughter, 
 and consider and incline thine ear : forget also thine own 
 people and thy father's house ; and if the king shall de- 
 sire thy beauty — for he is thy lord — fall down before 
 him." 
 
 It is very easy to imagine what the results must be 
 when books and passages like these were forced to submit 
 to a theological, and even a Messianic, interpretation (cf. 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews i. 8 f.) , — the result could not 
 fail to be such as it was in that mediseval Catholic monk 
 who, when he read in his Psalter the Latin viaria^ ''the 
 seas," crossed himself as in the presence of "Maria," 
 meaning Mary, the mother of Christ. But for the re- 
 mainder of the Old Testament literature also the doctrine 
 of verbal inspiration has been surrendered even by the 
 Catholic Church. The Old Testament itself has com- 
 pelled this result, with its mass of contradictory duplicate
 
 BAI5I{L AND lilBLE. 93 
 
 accounts, and with the absoUitely inextricable confusion 
 which has been brought a1)out in the Pentateuch by per- 
 petual revision and combination. 
 
 And to be perfectly serious and frank, — we have not 
 deserved such an immediate and personal revelation from 
 the divinity anyway. For mankind has unto this day 
 treated with absolute flippancy the most primitive and 
 genuine revelation of the holy God, the ten command- 
 ments on the tables of the law from Sinai. Dr. ]\Iartin 
 Luther said : 
 
 "Das JVort sic sollcn /ass en s/ah/i.'" 
 (Inviolate the Word let stand !) 
 
 and 3^et in the Smaller Catechism, from which our chil- 
 dren are instructed, the entire second commandment has 
 been suppressed, the same upon which God laid such 
 especial emphasis (Exodus xx. 22 f.) : "Thou slialt not 
 make unto thyself any image or any likeness," etc., and 
 have put in its place the last commandment, or rather 
 prohibition of covetousness (wicked desire) , after having 
 torn it in two, which might easily have been recognised 
 as unpermissible b\' comparing Exodus xx. 17 and Deu- 
 teronomy V. 18. 
 
 The tommand to honor father and mother is not the 
 fourth but the fifth, and so on. And in the Catholic 
 Catechism, which has the same method of numbering the 
 commandments, the first commandment is, indeed, fuller : 
 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me; thou shall 
 not make unto thyself any graven image, to worship it," 
 but immediately after we read: "Nevertheless, we make 
 images of Christ, of the mother of God and of all the
 
 94 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 saints, because we do not worship them, but only rev- 
 erence them." This entirely ignores the fact that God 
 the Lord expressly says : ' ' Thou slialt not make unto 
 thyself any graven image to worship and to reverence.' 
 (Consider also Deuteronomy iv. 16.) 
 
 But if we regard the matter for a while from the 
 standpoint of the letter of the Thora, this reproach falls 
 still more heavily upon Moses himself, a shrill and unani- 
 mous reproach from all the people of the earth who a:sk see 
 after God if haply the^^ may find him. Just think of 
 it: The Almighty God, "the All-container, the All-sus- 
 tainer," the inscrutable, unapproachable, proclaims from 
 the midst of fire and cloud and to the accompaniment of 
 thunder and lightning his most holy will, Yahveh, "the 
 rock whose work is perfect," with his own hands carves 
 two tablets of stone and engraves upon them with his 
 own fingers, those fingers that keep the world in equilib- 
 rium, the Ten Commandments, — and then Moses in 
 anger hurls away the eternal tables of the eternal God 
 and breaks them into a thousand pieces ! And this God 
 a second time writes other tables, which present his last 
 autograph revelation to mankind, the most unique and 
 tangible revelation of God, — and Moses does not consider 
 it worth while to report literall}^ to his people, -and thus 
 to mankind, what God had engraved upon those tables. 
 
 We scholars regard it as a serious reproach to one of 
 our number if, in dealing with an inscription by any one 
 soever, though but a shepherd who may have perpetuated 
 his name upon some rock on the Sinaitic peninsula, he 
 reports it inaccurately or incorrectly in even a single 
 
 iR. v., "serve."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 95 
 
 character; whereas Moses, when he impresses the ten 
 commandments upon his people once more before cross- 
 ing the Jordan, not onlj' changes individual words, trans- 
 poses words and sentences, but even substitutes for one 
 long passage another which, however, he also cm])hasises 
 expressly as being the very literal word of God. And 
 accordingly we do not know to this da^^ whether God 
 commanded that the Sabbath day be kept holy in memory 
 of his own rest after finishing the six da3's' labor of crea- 
 tion (Exodus XX. 11 ; comp. xxxi. 17) , or in commem- 
 oration of the incessant forced labor of his people during 
 their stay in Egypt (Deuteronomy v. 14 ff.). 
 
 The same carelessness has to be regretted in other 
 points that concern God's most sacred bequest to men. 
 To this day we are hunting for the peak in the mountain- 
 chain of the Sinaitic peninsula which corresponds with 
 all that is told, and while we are most minutely informed 
 regarding vastly less important things, such, for in- 
 stance, as the rings and the rods of the box which con- 
 tained the two tables, we learn absolutely nothing about 
 the outward character of the tables themselves, except 
 that they were written upon both sides. 
 
 When the Philistines capture the ark of the covenant 
 and place it in the temple of Dagon at Ash dad, they find 
 on the second morning following the image of the god 
 Dagon lying in fragments before the ark of Yahveh (1 
 Samuel v. f .) . And then when it is brought to the little 
 Jewish border-town of Beth Shemesh and the inhabitants 
 look at it, seventy of them pay for their presumption by 
 death, — according to another account fifty thousand ( ! ) 
 (1 Sam. vi. 19) . Even one who touches the ark from
 
 96 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 inadvertence is slain by the wrath of Yahveh (2 Sam. 
 6-7 f.). 
 
 But as soon as we touch the soil of the historical 
 period, history is silent. We are told in detail that the 
 Chaldaeans carried away the treasures of the temple at 
 Jerusalem and the gold, silver, and copper furnishings of 
 the temple, the fire pans and basins and shovels (2 Kings 
 xxiv. 13 ; XXV. 13 ff.) , but no one is concerned about the 
 ark with the two God-given tables ; the temple goes down 
 in flame, but not a single word is said of the fate of the 
 two miracle-working tables of the Almighty God, the 
 most sacred treasure of the Old Covenant. 
 
 We do not propose to ask the cause of all this, but 
 only to record the fact that Moses is exonerated by the 
 critical study of the Pentateuch from the reproach which 
 belongs to him according to the strict letter of the Thora. 
 For, as is confirmed by many and among them Dillmann 
 {Cojjtmenlary to the Books of Exodus and Leviticus^ p. 
 201) , this authority so highly valued even on the Catholic 
 side, "We have the ten commandments in two different 
 revisions neither of w^iich is based upon the tables them- 
 selves, but upon other versions." 
 
 And similarly all the other so-called Mosaic laws 
 are transmitted to us in two comparatively late revisions, 
 separated from each other by centuries, whence all the 
 differences are easily enough accounted for. And we 
 know this also, that the so-called Mosaic laws represent 
 regulations and customs part of which had been recog- 
 nised in Israel from primitive times, and part of which 
 had not received legal recognition until after the settle- 
 ment of the people in Canaan, and were then attributed
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 97 
 
 bodily to Moses, and later, for the sake of greater sacred- 
 ness and inviolability, to Yahvcli himself. The same 
 process we see in connection with the laws of other races 
 — I will mention here the law-book of ]\Ianu — and it is 
 precisely the case with the law-making Babylon. 
 
 In my first lectnre on this snbject I pointed ont the 
 fact that we find in Babylon as early as 2250 B. C. a 
 State with a highly developed S3^stem of law, and I spoke 
 of a great Code of Hammurabi which established civil 
 law in all its branches. While at that time we could 
 only infer the existence of this Code from scattered but 
 perfectly reliable details, — the original of this great Law- 
 Book of Hammurabi has now been found, and therewith 
 a treasure of the very first rank has been conferred upon 
 science and especially upon the science of law and the 
 history of civilisation. It M-as in the ruins of the acrop- 
 olis of Susa, about the turn of the year 1901-1902, that 
 the French archaeologist de Morgan and the Dominican 
 monk Scheil had the good fortune to find a monument of 
 King Hammurabi in the shape of a diorite block 2.25 
 meters high. It had apparently been carried away from 
 Babylon along with other plunder b}^ the Elamitcs. On 
 it had been engraved in the most careful manner 282 
 paragraphs of law (Fig. 76) . As the King himself says, 
 they are ''laws of justice which Hammurabi, the mighty 
 and just King, has established for the use and benefit of 
 the weak and oppressed, of widows and orphans." ''Let 
 the wronged person," thus we read, "who has a case at 
 law, read this my monumental record and hear m^^ pre- 
 cious words ; my monument .shall explain his case to him 
 and he may look forward to its settlement ! \\^ith a heart
 
 98 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 full of gratitude let him then say : ' Hammurabi is a lord 
 who is like a real father to his people.' " But although 
 
 Fig. 76. A Portion of the Inscription of the Laws of Hammurabi. 
 
 the King says that he, the sun of Babylon, which sheds 
 the light over North and South in his land, has written
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 99 
 
 down these laws, nevertheless lie in his turn received 
 them from the highest judge of heaven and earth, the 
 
 Fig. 77. Hammurabi Before Shamash, the God of Law. 
 
 Sun god, the lord of all that is called "right," and there- 
 fore the mighty tablet of the law bears at its head the
 
 100 BABEL AND BIBLE- 
 
 beautiful bas-relief (Fig. 11) , wliicli represents Hammu- 
 rabi in the act of receiving the laws from Shamasb, the 
 supreme law-giver. 
 
 Thus and not otherwise was it with the giving of the 
 Law on Sinai, the so-called making of the Covenant be- 
 tween Yahveh and Israel. For the purely human origin 
 and character of the Israelitic laws are surely evident 
 enough ! Or is any one so bold as to maintain that the 
 thrice holy God, who with his own finger engraved upon 
 the stone tablet Id tirzach "thou shalt not kill," in the 
 same breath sanctioned blood-vengeance, which rests like 
 a curse upon Oriental peoples to this day, while Hammu- 
 rabi had almost obliterated the traces of it? Or is it pos- 
 sible that any one still clings to the notion that circum- 
 cision, which had for ages before been customary among 
 the Egyptians and the Bedouin Arabs, was the mark of 
 an especial covenant between God and Israel? 
 
 We understand very well, according to Oriental 
 thought and speech, that the numerous regulations for 
 every possible petty event in daily life, as for instance, 
 the case of a fierce ox that kills a man or another ox 
 (Exodus xxi. 28 f., 35 f.) , that the prohibitions of foods, 
 the minute medicinal prescriptions for skin diseases, the 
 detailed directions regarding the priest's wardrobe, are 
 represented as derived from Yahveh. But this is alto- 
 gether outward form ; the God who prefers the offerings 
 of " a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart (Ps. 
 li. 17) , and who took no pleasure in the worship by burnt 
 offerings after the fashion of the "heathen" peoples, cer- 
 tainly did not ordain this worship by burnt offerings with 
 its minute details, nor devise the recipes for ointment
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 101 
 
 and burnt incense "after the art of the perfumer," as the 
 expression runs (Exodus xxx. 25, 35). 
 
 It will be the business of future investig:ators to de- 
 termine to just what extent the Israelitic laws both civil 
 and levitical are specifically Israelitic, or general Semitic, 
 or how far they were influenced by the Babylonian code 
 which is so much older and which had certainly extended 
 beyond the borders of Babylon. I think, for instance, of 
 the law of retribution, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a 
 tooth, of the feast of the new moon, the so-called "shew 
 bread," the high priest's breast plate, and man}- other 
 things. For the present wc must l)e thankful that the 
 institution of the Sabbath day, the origin of which was 
 unclear even to the Hebrews themselves, is now recog- 
 nised as having its roots in the Babylonian SabattUy 
 "the day par excellence." 
 
 On the other hand, no one has maintained that the 
 Ten Commandments were borrowed even in part from 
 Babylon, but on the contrary it has been pointed out 
 very emphatically that prohibitions like the Fifth, Sixth, 
 and Seventh spring from the instinct of self-preservation 
 which is common to all men. In fact, the most of the 
 Ten Commandments are just as sacred to the Bab}^)- 
 nians as to the Hebrews: disrespect for parents, faLse 
 witness, and every sort of covetousness are also punished 
 severely in Babylonian law, generally with death. Thus, 
 for instance, we read in the very third paragrai^h of Ham- 
 murabi's code : " If in a law suit an3^ one on the witness- 
 stand utters falsehoods and cannot support his testimony, 
 he shall himself be punished with death if the life of an- 
 other is involved."
 
 102 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 The Second Commandment is specifically Israelitic, 
 tlie prohibition of every sort of image-worship, which in 
 its direct application seems to have a distinctly anti- 
 Babylonian point. 
 
 Bnt in connection with the eminently Israelitic First 
 Commandment, "I am Yahveh, thy God; thou shalt 
 have no other gods beside me," may I be permitted to 
 treat more fully one point which deeply and permanently 
 concerns all who are interested in Babel and Bible, — the 
 monotheism of the Old Testament. From the standpoint 
 of Old Testament theolog}^ I can understand how, after 
 it has unanimously and rightly given up the verbal in- 
 spiration of the ancient Hebrew scriptures and thus rec- 
 ognised, perhaps unintentionally but quite logically, the 
 wholly unauthoritative character of the Old Testament 
 writings as such for our belief, our knowledge and our 
 investigations, — I say I can understand how theology 
 now claims as divine the spirit that pervades them and 
 preaches with so much the greater unanimity the "ethi- 
 cal monotheism of Israel," the "spirit of prophecy" as 
 "a real revelation of the living God." 
 
 Great consternation seems to have been produced by 
 the names mentioned in my first lecture, which we find 
 in surprisingly great numbers among the North-Semitic 
 nomads who immigrated into Babj^lon about 2500 B.C.: 
 "El (i. e., God) hath given," "God sits in control," 
 " If God were not my God," " God, consider me," " God 
 is God," " Jahu (i. e., Yahveh) is God." I really do 
 not understand this uneasiness. For since the Old Testa- 
 ment itself represents Abrani as preaching in the name 
 of Yahveh (Gen. xii. 8) , and since Yahveh had already
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 103 
 
 been tlie God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those old 
 names such as Jahu-ilu, i. e., Joel, oui^ht really to be 
 welcomed with jo3^ And these names should prove very 
 opportune, particularly for those theologiaus who regard 
 themselves as affirmative and who hold that "all divine 
 inspiration has undergone a gradual historical develop- 
 ment," thereby turning- the orthodox notion of inspira- 
 tion upside down, as it seems to me. 
 
 However, the great niajorit3' of theologians feel and 
 fear rightly that these names, which are more than a 
 thousand 3^ears older than the corresponding names in 
 the Old Testament, which attest the worship of a single 
 god named Jahu, "the permanent" (whether a tribal 
 god or what not) , and which moreover might indicate the 
 initial point of an historical development of the belief in 
 Yahveh as existing in ver}^ much wider circles than 
 merely among the descendants of Abram, will thereb}- 
 throw serious doubt upon its claim to be a special revela- 
 tion. And therefore they are laboring and tormenting 
 themselves in the effort to explain awaj^ these names, 
 hesitating at no means. But though the waves spew and 
 foam, like a lighthouse in the dark night stand fast the 
 names of the descendants of North Semitic Bedouins from 
 2300 B. C, "God is God," "Jahu is God." 
 
 It seems to me that exaggerations should be avoided 
 in either direction. I have never ceased to emphasise 
 the gross polytheism of the Babylonians, and am far 
 from feeling obliged to disguise it. But I regard it as 
 just as much out of place to make the Sumerian-Babylo- 
 nian pantheon and its representation in poetry, particu- 
 larly in popular poetry, the butt of shallow wit and sar-
 
 104 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 castic exaggerations, as we should properly condemn 
 such ridicule if directed at the gods of Homer. Nor 
 should the worship of divinities in images of wood or 
 stone be in any wise glossed over. Only it should not 
 be forgotten that even the Biblical account of creation 
 
 has man created "in the 
 likeness of God," in dia- 
 metrical contradiction of 
 the constantly emphasised 
 "spirituality" of God, — 
 as has rightly been pointed 
 out by students of theology. 
 And in view of this fact we 
 can understand after all how 
 the Babylonians reversed 
 this method and conceived 
 and represented their gods 
 in the image of man. 
 
 The prophets of the Old 
 Testament do exactly the 
 same thing, at least in spirit. 
 In perfect agreement with 
 the Bab3donians and Assy- 
 rians the prophet Habakkuk 
 (chap, iii.) sees Yahveh ap- 
 proach with horses and char- 
 iot, bow and arrows and lance, and even with "horns at 
 his side,"' with horns, the S3anbol of authority and 
 strength and victory (cp. Numbers xxiii. 22) , the cus- 
 tomary adornment of the headdress of both higher and 
 
 'R. v., " i^ays coming forth from his hand " 
 
 Fig. 78. Horns the Emblem of 
 Strength.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 105 
 
 lower divinities among the Assyrio-Babylonians (Fig. 
 78). And the representations of God the Father in 
 Christian art: in Michael Angelo, Raphael, and all our 
 illustrated Bibles,— the representation of the first da3^ of 
 
 Fig. 79. The Ancient of Days. (After Schnorr von Karolsfeld.) 
 
 creation (Fig. 79) is taken from Julius von Schnorr's 
 illustrated Bible j^are all derived from a vision of the 
 Prophet Daniel (vii. 9) M'ho sees God as the " i\ncient of 
 Days, his garments white as snow and the hair of his 
 head like unto pure wool."
 
 106 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 But the Babylonians can endure with the same equa- 
 nimity as the Catholic Church the wearisome ridicule of 
 the Old Testament prophets cast upon the Babylonian 
 idols who have eyes but see not, ears but hear not, a nose 
 but smell not, and feet but cannot go. For just as intel- 
 ligent Catholics see in the images merely the representa- 
 tions of Christ, Mary, and the saints, so did the intelli- 
 gent Babylonians : no h3"mn or praj'er was addressed to 
 the image as such, — they are alwa3^s appealing to the 
 divinity that dwells beyond the bounds of earth. 
 
 In passing judgment upon the "ethical monothe- 
 ism ' ' of Israel also a certain moderation would seem to 
 be desirable. In the first place, we must except from 
 consideration in this connection much of the pre-exilic 
 period, during which Judali as well as Israel, kings as 
 well as people, were dominated by an ineradicable yet 
 quite natural predilection for the indigenous Canaanitish 
 polytheism. 
 
 Furthermore, it seems to me a particularly unwise 
 proceeding on the part of certain hotspurs to portray the 
 ethical level of Israel, even that of the pre-exilic period, 
 as elevated far above that of the Bab3donians. It is un- 
 deniable that the warfare of the Assyrio-Babylonians was 
 cruel and sometimes barbarous. But so was the conquest 
 of Canaan by the Hebrew tribes accompanied by a tor- 
 rent of innocent blood ; the capture of ' ' the great and 
 goodly alien cities, of the houses full of all good things, 
 of the cisterns, the vineyards, the olive-groves" (Deuter- 
 onomj^ vi. 10 f.) was preceded by the "devoting" (Deu- 
 terononi}^ vii. 2, R. V., margin) of hundreds of villages 
 on both sides of the Jordan, that is, by the merciless
 
 BABKL AND BIBLE. 107 
 
 massacre of all the inhabitants, even of the women and 
 the very smallest of children. And as for right and jns- 
 tice in state and people, the persistent denunciations by 
 the prophets of both Israel and Judah of the oppression 
 of the poor, of widows and of orphans, taken in conjunc- 
 tion with stories such as that of Naboth's vineyard (1 
 Kings xxi) , reveal a profound corruption of b(.)th kings 
 and people, while the almost two thousand years' exist- 
 ence of the nation of Hammurabi would seem to justif}- 
 the application to it of the saying: "Righteousness ex- 
 alteth a nation." 
 
 We actually possess a monumental tablet which 
 warns the Bab34onian king himself most insistently- 
 against every species of injustice! "If the king takes 
 the money of the ]3eople of Babylon to appropriate it to 
 his own treasury, and then hears the suit of the Bab3-lo- 
 nians and permits himself to be inclined to partisanship, 
 then Marduk, the Lord of heaven and earth, will set his 
 enemy against him and give his possessions and his 
 treasure to his enemj^" 
 
 In the matter of love of one's neighbor, of compas- 
 sion upon one's neighbor, as has alrcad}- been remarked, 
 there is no deep gulf to be discovered between Bab\'lon 
 and the Old Testament. 
 
 In passing let me call attention here to one other 
 point. Old Testament theologians make ver}- merry 
 over the Babylonian account of the Flood with its poly- 
 theism, and yet it contains one element which appeals to 
 us much more humanely than that of the Bible. "The 
 Deluge," thus Xisuthros tells us, "was over. I looked 
 forth over the wide ocean, lamenting aloud because all
 
 108 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 humankind had perished." Eduard Siiss, the celebrated 
 Austrian geologist, confessed long since that in touches 
 like this ' ' the simple narrative of Xisuthros bears the 
 stamp of convincing truth." We find no report of any 
 compassion on the part of Noah. 
 
 The Babylonian Noah and his wife are transformed 
 into gods ; this too would have been impossible in Israel. 
 Of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to the Feast of Weeks we 
 read, Deuteronomy xvi. 11 (comp. also xii. 18) : "And 
 thou shalt rejoice before Yahveh, thy God, thou and thy 
 son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maid- 
 servant," — but where is the wife? It is generally recog- 
 nised that the position of women in Israel was a very 
 subordinate one from earliest childhood. We find in the 
 Old Testament scarcely a single girl's name which ex- 
 presses in the cordial manner customary in the case of 
 boy's names, joyful gratitude to Yahveh for the birth of 
 the child. All the tender pet-names of girls, such as 
 "Beloved," "Fragrant One," "Dew-born," "Bee," 
 "Gazelle," "Ewe" (Rachel), "Myrtle" and "Palm," 
 "Coral" and "Crown" cannot in my opinion deceive us 
 on this point. The woman is the property of her parents 
 and afterwards of her husband ; she is a valuable ' ' hand ' ' 
 upon which in marriage a great share of the heaviest do- 
 mestic burdens are laid. And above all, as in Islam, she 
 is disqualified for performing religious rites. 
 
 All this was different and better in Bab^don : for in- 
 stance, we read in the time of Hammurabi of women who 
 have their chairs carried into the temple ; we find the 
 names of women as witnesses in legal documents, and 
 other similar things. Right here in this matter of the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 109 
 
 position of women we may perceive clearly how pro- 
 foundly the Babylonian civilisation was influenced by the 
 non-Semitic civilisation of the Sumerians. 
 
 And how variously pitched is that iiistruuient, the 
 human temperament! While Koldewey and others with 
 him are astonished anew that the excavations in Babylo- 
 nia bring to light absolutely no obscene figures, a Catho- 
 lic Old Testament scholar knows of "numberless statu- 
 ettes found in Bab^don which have no other purpose but 
 
 f 
 
 V^-U^' 
 
 Fig. 80. Babylonian Clay Figures Representing the Goddess of Birth. 
 
 to give expression to the lowest and most vulgar sensual- 
 ity." Thou poor goddess of childbirth, poor goddess Is- 
 tar! However, although thou be moulded only of clay, 
 yet needst thou not blush to appear in this company 
 (Fig. 80) ; for I am certain thou wilt give no offence, 
 just as certain as that we are none of us offended but on 
 the contrary love to give ourselves up to the contempla- 
 tion of the glorious and familiar marble statue of Kve 
 with her children (Fig. 81) .
 
 110 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE- 
 
 And altliougli an Evangelical specialist in the Old 
 Testament, finding occasion in a passage of a Babylonian 
 poem, wliicli lias not yet received its definitive interpre- 
 tation, exclaims with, similar ethical indignation, that we 
 "must needs search through the most vulgar corners of 
 Further Asia in order to find its analogues," I cannot, 
 indeed, boast of equal knowledge of local details, but I 
 
 would like to remind him of 
 the reasons why our school 
 authorities so urgently de- 
 manded extracts from the Old 
 Testament, and to warn him 
 against throwing stones, lest 
 all too speedily his own glass- 
 house come crashing about his 
 ears. 
 
 However, these skirmishes, 
 provoked by my opponents, 
 into the realm of the moral 
 level of the two nations in- 
 volved, seem to me of infinitely 
 less importance than a final ob- 
 servation in connection with 
 the proclamation of the ' ' eth- 
 ical monotheism ' ' of Israel or of the ' ' spirit of prophet- 
 ism" as "a genuine revelation of the living God," 
 which in my opinion has not yet received fitting atten- 
 tion. 
 
 Five times a da^^ and even more frequently the ortho- 
 dox Moslem prays the Paternoster of Islam, the first Sura 
 of the Koran, which closes with the words : " Lead us, O 
 
 Fig. 8i. Eve and Her Children. 
 (A marble statue by Adolf Briitt.)
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. Ill 
 
 Allah, the right way, the waj^ of those whom thou hast 
 favored, who are not smitten by thy wrath [like the Jews] 
 and who are not in error [like the Christians]." The 
 Moslem alone is the one favored by Allah, he alone is the 
 one chosen by God to adore and worship the true God. 
 All other men and races are kafiriin^ heretics, whom God 
 has not predestined to eternal salvation. Just such and 
 not otherwise, deeply rooted in the nature of the Semite, 
 does the Yahvism of Israel show itself to be, in the pre- 
 exilic as well as in the post-exilic period. Yah veil is the 
 only true (or highest) God, but at the same time he is 
 the God of Israel solely and exclusivel}^, Israel is his 
 chosen people and his inheritance ; all other nations are 
 Gojhn or heathen, given over b3'' Yah veil himself to god- 
 lessness and idolatr3^ This is a doctrine absolutely ir- 
 reconcilable with our nobler conception of God, but which, 
 nevertheless, is uttered in uncloaked language in the 
 nineteenth verse of the fourth chapter of Deuteronoiii3', a 
 passage which at the same time destro^^s with a single 
 phrase the illusion of a "primitive revelation": "Lest 
 thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven and when thou seest 
 the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of 
 heaven, thou worship them and reverence them, whicli 
 Yahveh, thy God, hath divided unto all the peoples under 
 the whole heaven; but you Yahveh hath taken and 
 brought forth out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of 
 inheritance." According to this, the worship of the 
 heavenly bodies and of idols was willed and decreed by 
 Yahveh himself upon the peoples under the whole heaven. 
 So much the more dreadful is the shock when in Deute- 
 ronomy vii. 2, Yahveh gives the command to exterminate
 
 112 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 mercilessly on account of tlieir impiety tlie seven great 
 and powerful peoples whom Israel may expect to find 
 already in possession of Canaan, or wlien we read, verse 
 16 : "And thou shalt consume all the peoples which Yah- 
 veh thy God shall deliver unto thee ; thine e3^e shall not 
 pity them." 
 
 It goes hard to regard as inspired by the holy and 
 just God this monotheism of the exclusively national 
 type. It is not manifested in the nature of the case in 
 such passages as the account of the creation, but in gene- 
 ral it runs throughout the Old Testament undeniably 
 from Sinai on: "I am Yahveh, thy God," to Deutero- 
 Isaiah : "Comfort 3^e, comfort ye my people," and to 
 Zechariah's prophecy (xx. 8, 23) : "Thus saith Yahveh 
 Zebaoth : In those da3^s it shall come to pass that ten 
 men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the na- 
 tions {Gojiju) ^ shall even take hold of the skirt of him 
 that is a Jew, saying: 'We will go with you, for we 
 have heard that God is with you.' " It is this monotheism 
 that left all the other nations of the earth "without hope" 
 and "without God in the world," as for instance the 
 Apostle Paul assumes (Ephesians ii. 11 f.) . And 3^et 
 we have all been so li3^pnotised from youth up by this 
 dogma of the "exclusive inheritance of Israel" (Ephe- 
 sians ii. 12) , that we regard the history of the ancient 
 world from an entirely wrong point of view and are even 
 satisfied to claim for ourselves at this da3^ the role of a 
 "spiritual Israel," forgetting the mighty historical revo- 
 lution which was accomplished in the New Testament 
 times under the influence of John the Baptist and the 
 preaching of Jesus, that dramatic conflict between Juda-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 113 
 
 ism, Jewish Cliristianity, and Gentile Christianity, Mhich 
 made it possible for Peter to exclaim (Acts x. 34 f.) : 
 ''Of a truth I iDcrceive that God is no respecter of per- 
 sons, but that in every nation, he that feareth him and is 
 acceptable to him," thus tearing down the partition be- 
 tween the Oriental-Israelitic and the Christian- philosophic 
 conception of the universe. 
 
 For my own part, I live firm in the belief that the 
 early Hebrew scriptures, even if they lose their standing 
 as "revealed" or as permeated by a "revealed" spirit, 
 will nevertheless always maintain their great importance, 
 especially as a unique monument of a great religio-histo- 
 rical process which continues even into our own times. 
 The lofty passages in the prophets and the psalms, filled 
 with a living confidence in God and with longing for re- 
 pose in God, will alwa^^s find a living echo in our hearts, 
 despite the particularistic limitation of its literal text and 
 its literal meaning, which are largely obliterated an^-way 
 in our translation of the Bible. Indeed, words like those 
 of the prophet IMicali (vi. 6-8) : "Wherewith shall I 
 come before Yahveh, and bow myself before the high 
 God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with 
 calves of a year old? Will Yahveh be pleased with thou- 
 sands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Or shall 
 I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my 
 body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O 
 man, what is good ; and what doth Yahveh require of 
 thee, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk 
 humbly with thy God! " — words like these, insisting on 
 an ethical manifestation of religion in the life (and which 
 are also found in Babylonian writings) , come, as it were,
 
 114 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 from tlie very soul of all sincerely religious people to- 
 day. 
 
 But on the other hand, let us not blindly cling to 
 antiquated and scientificall3' discredited dogmas from the 
 vain fear that our faith in God and our true religious life 
 might suffer harm ! Let us remember that all things 
 earthly are in living motion and that standing still means 
 death. Let us look back upon the might}^, throbbing 
 force with which the German Reformation filled the great 
 nations of the earth in every field of human endeavor and 
 human progress ! But even the Reformation is only one 
 stage on the road to the goal of truth set for us by God 
 and in God. Let us press forward toward it, humbly but 
 with all the resources of free scientific investigation, joy- 
 fully professing our adherence to that standard perceived 
 with eagle eye from the high watch-tower and courage- 
 ously proclaimed to all the world : " The further develop- 
 ment of religion."
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR BABEL 
 
 AND BIBLE
 
 ' » y 
 
 LITERATURE ON BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 J. Barth, Babel und israeiiiischfs Keligionswescn. A Lecture. Ber- 
 lin, igo2 ; 36 pp. 
 
 Prof. Dr. Karl Budde, Das AUe Testament und die Ausgrahitngen. 
 Giesen, 1903. (A Lecture, delivered May 29, 1902, at the 
 Theological Conference at Giessen); 39 pp., of which, how- 
 ever, only pp. I- 10 are pertinent. 
 
 Dr. Johannes Doller, Imperial and Royal Court Chaplain and 
 Director of Studies at the Frintaneum, Vienna, Bibel und 
 Babel oder Babel und Bibel ? Eine Entgegnung auf Prof. E. 
 Delitzsch's ^'Babel und Bibel." Padernborn, 1903. 
 
 Prof. Dr. Hommel, Die altorientalischen Denkmdler und das Alte 
 Testaniefit. Eine Erwiderung auf Prof. Er. De lit zs ell's ^' Babel 
 und Bibel.'" Berlin, 1902; 38 pp. 
 
 Dr. Alfred J kremias, pastor of the Lutheran Church at Leipzig, 
 I?n Kampfe urn Babel und Bibel. Ein Wort zur Verstandigung 
 und Abwehr. Leipzig, 1903; 35 pp. 
 
 Prof. D. R. Kittel, Die babylonischcn Ausgrabunge?i und die biblische 
 Urgeschiehte. Leipzig, 1902; 36 pp. See also under Sec- 
 tion II., p. 91. 
 
 W. Knieschke, pastor at Sieversdorf, Bibel und Babel, El und Bel. 
 Eine Replik auf Eriedrich Delitzschs's Babel und Bibel. West- 
 end-Berlin, igo2 ; 64 pp. 
 
 Dr. Eduard Konig, Prof, of theology. Bibel und Babel. Eine 
 kulturgesehichtliche Skizze. Sixth, enlarged edition, with ref- 
 erence to the most recent literature on the subject of Babel 
 and Bible. Berlin, 1902; 60 pp.
 
 118 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Prof. D. Sam. Oettlt, Der Kampf urn Bibel und Babel. Ein reli- 
 giofisgeschichtlicher Vortrag. Second edition. Leipzig, 1902; 
 
 32 pp. 
 
 Rabb. Dr. Ludw. A. Rosenthal, Babel und Bibel oder Babel gegen 
 Bibel? Ein Wort zur Kldriing. Berlin, 1902; 31 pp. 
 
 Prof. Bruno Baentsch, Jena, "Babel und Bibel. Eine Prufung 
 des unter diesem Titel erschienenen Vortrages von Friedrich 
 Delitzsch, besonders auf die darin enthaltenen religions- 
 geschichtlichen Ausfiihrungen," in the Protestantische Mo?iats- 
 hefte, edited by D. Julius Websky. Vol. VI., No. 8 (August 
 15, 1902). Berlin, 1902. Cf. also two articles, signed B. B., 
 "Noch einmal Babel und Bibel," in the Thiiringer Rund- 
 schau, March 2nd and gth, 1902. 
 
 Prof. Dr. C. H. Cornili., Breslau, Deutsche Litteraturzeitung, 
 1902, No. 27 (July 5). 
 
 Heinrich Danneil (Schonebeck a. E.), "Babel und Bibel," 
 Magdeburgische Zeitung, No. 25, 1902, Beiblatt. 
 
 Privatdocent Dr. W. Engelkemper, Miinster, "Babel und Bibel," 
 Wissenschaftliclie Beilage zur Germania, 1902, Nos. 31 (July 
 31) and 32 (August 7). Berlin, 1902. 
 
 Prof. D. Gunkel, "Babylonische und biblische Urgeschichte. " 
 Christliche Welt, XVII., 1903, No. 6 (Feb. 5), cols. 121- 
 
 134- 
 
 Prof. Dr. Peter Jensen, "Babel und Bibel," Die christliche Welt, 
 XVI., 1902, No. 21 (May 22), cols. 487-494. 
 
 Franz Kaulen, Bonn, "Babel und Bibel," Literarisclier Hand- 
 weiscr zuncichst fiir alle Katholiken deutscher Zunge. XL., 
 Nos. 766 and 767, 1901-1902. 
 
 P. Keil, London, "Babel und Bibel." Pastor bonus. Zeitschrift 
 fiir kirchliche Wissenschaft und Praxis, edited by Domkapitular 
 Dr. P. Einig. XV., parts i, 2, 3 (Oct. i, Nov. i, Dec. i, 
 1902). 
 
 Prof. D. R. Kittel, Leipzig, "Jahve in Babel und Bibel," Theo- 
 logisches Literaturhlalt, XXIII., No. 17 (April 25, 1902). 
 Also, "Noch einmal Jahve in Babel und Bibel," ibid.. No. 
 18 (May 2, 1902), and "Der Monotheismus in Babel und
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 119 
 
 Bibel," Allgcmeinc evangeliscJi-lutJierische Kirchenzeitung, 1902, 
 No. 17 (April 25, 1902). 
 
 Rabbi Dr. S. Meyer, Regensburg, "Die Hypothesenglaubigen," 
 Deutsche israclitische Zcitung, XIX., No. 8 (20th February, 
 1902); and "Nochmals Babel und Bibel," ibid., No. 10 
 (6th March). 
 
 "Babel und Bibel," Neue preussische (^Kreuz-') Zeitung, 1902, No. 
 
 211 (7th May). Signed 1 [Lie. theol. Prof. Riedel, 
 
 Greifswald]. 
 
 Wolff, "Babel und Bibel," Evangelische Kirchenzeitimg, 1902, No. 
 28 (cols. 657-662).
 
 OPINIONS ON "BABBL AND BIBLE." 
 
 EMPEROR WILLIAM ON "BABEL AND BIBLE." 
 
 (A Letter from His Majesty Emperor William II to Admiral Hollman, President 
 
 of the Oriental Society ) 
 
 February 15, 1903. 
 My Dear Hollman: 
 
 My telegram to you will unquestionably have removed the 
 doubts which you still entertained regarding the concluding pas- 
 sage of the lecture, which was clearly understood by the audience 
 and therefore could not be altered. I am glad, nevertheless, that 
 the subject-matter of the second lecture has again been taken up, 
 and I gladly seize the opportunity after a perusal of a copy of the 
 proofs to state again clearly my position with regard to it. 
 
 During an evening's entertainment with us Professor Delitzsch 
 had the opportunity to fully confer and debate with Her Majesty, 
 the Empress, and Dr. Dryandcr, while I listened and remained 
 passive. Unfortunately he abandoned the standpoints of the strict 
 historian and Assyriologist, going into religious and theological 
 conclusions which were quite nebulous or bold. 
 
 When he came to speak of the New Testament, it became 
 clear at once that he developed such quite divergent views regard- 
 ing the person of our Saviour that I had to express the diametri- 
 cally opposite view. He does not recognise the divinity of Christ 
 as a deduction therefrom and asserts that the Old Testament con- 
 tains no revelation about him as the Messiah. 
 
 Here the Assyriologist and the historical investigator ceases 
 and the theologian begins, with all his light and shadow sides. In 
 this province I can only urgently advise him to proceed cautiously, 
 step by step, and at any rate to ventilate his theses only in the 
 theological books and in the circle of his colleagues. Spare us,
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 121 
 
 the laymen, and, above all, the Oriental Society, from hearing of 
 them. 
 
 We carry on excavations and publish the results in behalf of 
 science and history, but not to confcprm or attack religious hypoth- 
 eses. 
 
 Professor Delitzsch, the theologian, has run away with Profes- 
 sor Delitzsch, the historian; his history is exploited merely for the 
 benefit of his theology. 
 
 I regret that Professor Delitzsch did not adhere to his original 
 program which he developed last year; viz., to determine, on the 
 basis of the discoveries of our society and by means of critically 
 verified translations of the inscriptions, the extent to which these 
 materials shed light on the history of the people of Israel or eluci- 
 date the historical events, customs and habits, traditions, politics 
 and laws of the Israelites. In other words, he should have shown 
 the mutual relationship in which the undeniably powerful and 
 highly developed civilisation of the Babylonians stood to that of 
 the Israelites, and the extent to which the former might have in- 
 fluenced the latter or have impressed upon it its own stamp. He 
 could thus have saved, so to speak, from a purely human point of 
 view, the honor and good name of the Babylonian people which 
 has certainly been depicted in the Old Testament in a revolting 
 and grossly one-sided manner. This was indeed his original inten- 
 tion, — at least as I conceive it, — and certainly his is a most fruit- 
 ful and interesting field, the investigation, elucidation, and expla- 
 nation of which necessarily interests us laymen in the highest 
 degree and would have placed us under the highest obligation to 
 him. At precisely here is the place where he should have stopped 
 but beyond which unfortunately his ardent zeal led him. As was 
 not otherwise to be expected, the excavations brought information 
 to light which has a bearing also on the religion of the Old Testa- 
 ment. He should have mentioned this fact and should have em- 
 phasised and explained whatever coincidences occurred ; but all 
 purely religious conclusions it was his duty to have left for his hear- 
 ers themselves to draw. Thus the interest and the favor of the lay 
 public would have been gained in the fullest measure for his lec- 
 ture. 
 
 He approached the question of revelation in a polemical tone, 
 more or less denying it or reducing it to a matter of purely human 
 development. That was a grave error, for thereby he touched on 
 the innermost, holiest possession of many of his hearers.
 
 122 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 And whether he did so justifiably or unjustifiably, — and that is 
 for our present purpose quite indifferent, since we are concerned 
 here not with scientific conventions of theologians but with lay 
 people of all ages and professions, — he still either demolished or 
 endangered the dearest conceptions, or it may be, the illusions of 
 many of his hearers, — conceptions with which these people had in- 
 terwoven their oldest and dearest associations. And unqestionably 
 he shattered or at least undermined for these people their faith. It 
 is a deed that only the greatest genius should venture to attempt 
 and for which the mere study of Assyriology did not justify him. 
 
 Goethe also once discussed this question, calling emphatic at- 
 tention to the fact that one must be on one's guard in speaking to 
 the general public not to destroy even such insignificant structures 
 as mere "pagodas of terminology." The fundamental principle, 
 that it is very important to distinguish precisely between what is 
 and what is not adapted to the place, the public, etc., appears to 
 have escaped the excellent Professor in his zeal. As a professional 
 theologian it is permissible for him to publish in technical reviews 
 and for his colleagues theses, hypotheses, and theories, nay, even 
 convictions which it would not be proper for him to utter in a pub- 
 lic lecture or book. 
 
 I should now like to advert again to my personal attitude 
 toward the doctrine of revelation and to state it in terms similar to 
 those I have formerly employed toward you, my dear Hollman, 
 and toward other gentlemen. 
 
 I distinguish between two different kinds of revelation, — one 
 progressive, and, as it were, historical; the other purel}' religious, 
 as preparing the way for the future Messiah. 
 
 Regarding the former, it must be said for me, it does not ad- 
 mit of a doubt, not even the slightest, that God reveals himself 
 continuously in the race of man created by him. He breathed into 
 man the breath of his life and follows with fatherly love and inter- 
 est the development of the human race. In order to lead it for- 
 ward and develop it, he reveals himself in this or that great sage, 
 whether priest or king, whether among the heathen, the Jews, or 
 the Christians. Hammurabi was one. So was Moses, Abraham, 
 Homer, Charlemagne, Luther, Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and 
 Emperor William the Great, These he sought out and endowed 
 with his grace to accomplish splendid, imperishable results for 
 their people, in their intellectual and physical provinces, according
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 123 
 
 to liiii will. How often my grandfather pointed out that he was 
 only an instrument in the Lord's hands. 
 
 The achievements of the great intellects of tlie world were do- 
 nated by God to the nations in order that they might through their 
 aid make further progress, and might feel their way farther and 
 farther through the labyrinths which yet remained uninvestigated. 
 Unquestionably God did "reveal" himself differently to the differ- 
 ent races according to their position and rank in the scale of civil- 
 isation, and he does the same to-day. For just as we may be over- 
 whelmed by the grandeur, magnificence, and might of nature when 
 we look upon it and wonder while so doing at the grandeur of God 
 who is revealed in it, so assuredly are we justified, when we con- 
 template the grand and splendid deeds that a man or a nation has 
 accomplished, in wondering with gratitude at the splendor of the 
 revelation made by God in them. He works directly upon us and 
 among us. 
 
 The second form of revelation, the more religious, is that which 
 leads to the manifestation of our Lord. It was introduced with 
 Abraham, slow but forward looking and omniscient, for humanity 
 was lost without it. Now begins the most astonishing activity of 
 God's revelation. Abraham's race and the peoples developing from 
 it regard faith in one God as their holiest possession, and, it fol- 
 lows, hold fast to it with ironlike consistency. It is their duty to 
 foster and cherish it. Split up during their Egyptian captivity, 
 the divided elements were again welded together by Moses, ever 
 trying to hold fast to their monotheism. It was the direct inter- 
 vention of God that caused the rejuvenation of this people, thus 
 proved through centuries, till the Messiah, heralded by prophets 
 and psalmists, finally appeared, the greatest revelation of God in 
 the world, for he appeared in the son himself. Christ is God, God 
 in human form. He redeemed lis and inspires, entices us to follow 
 him. We feel his fire burning in us. His sympathy strengthens 
 us. His discontent destroys us. But also his intercession saves 
 us. Conscious of victory, building solely upon his world, we go 
 through labor, ridicule, sorrow, misery, and death, for we have in 
 him God's revealed word, and he never lies. 
 
 That is my view of these matters. 
 
 For us of the Evangelical Denomination the Word has, through 
 Luther, been made our all, and as a good theologian Delitzsch 
 should not have forgotten that our great Luther taught us to sing 
 and believe •
 
 124 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 " Inviolate the Word let stand." 
 
 It is to me self-evident that the Old Testament contains many 
 sections which are of a purely human and historical nature, and are 
 not God's revealed word. These are merely historical descriptions 
 of incidents of all kinds which happen in the political, religious, 
 moral, and intellectual life of this people. 
 
 The legislative act on Sinai, for example, can be only regarded 
 as symbolically inspired by God. When Moses had to reburnish 
 well known paragraphs of the law, perhaps derived from the code 
 of Hammurabi, in order to incorporate and bind them into the 
 loose, weak fabric of his people, here the historian can perhaps 
 construe from the sense or wording a connection with the laws of 
 Hammurabi, the friend of Abraham. That is perhaps logically 
 correct. But that will never disguise the fact that God incited 
 Moses thereto and in so far revealed himself to the people of Israel. 
 
 Accordingly it is my opinion, that henceforward in his lectures 
 before our society it will be better for our good Professor to let 
 matters of religion alone. On the other hand, he may depict un- 
 disturbed the relation which the religion, customs, etc. of the Baby- 
 lonians bear to those of the Old Testament. 
 
 For me the following conclusions result from the foregoing 
 discussions. 
 
 1. I believe in the one and only God. 
 
 2. We human beings need a form in order to teach his exist- 
 ence, especially for our children. 
 
 3. This has hitherto been the Old Testament. The present 
 version of this will be possibly and substantially modified under the 
 influence of research through inscriptions and excavations. That 
 does not matter. Neither does it matter that much of the nimbus 
 of the chosen people will thereby disappear. The kernel of the 
 contents of the Old Testament will remain always the same, — God 
 and his works. 
 
 Religion has never been the result of science, but the pouring 
 out of the heart and being of man from intercourse with God. 
 With cordial thanks and greetings. 
 
 Your Faithful Friend, 
 
 WiLHELM, I. R. 
 
 P. S. — You may make the utmost use of these lines. Let all 
 who are interested read.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 125 
 
 PROFESSOR HARNACK ON THE EMPERORS ATTITUDE TOWARD 
 
 "BABEL AND BIBLE." 
 
 The Emperor has spoken, in order to express his position 
 v/iihout ambiguity in an historico-theological dispute. This is 
 something new, but in view of all the circumstances the Emperor's 
 decision is quite easily explained. The opinion was likely to be- 
 come widespread, had indeed become widespread, that the Em- 
 peror occupied the same theological standpoint as Dr. Delitzsch. 
 Not wishing to permit this misunderstanding to continue, the Em- 
 peror wrote as the public has read. 
 
 From the point of view of scholars there was, indeed, no real 
 controversy. It has long been known that a portion of the myths 
 and legends of the Old Testament, together with important ele- 
 ments of ancient Israelitish civilisation, had their origin in Baby- 
 lon. It was equally beyond question that this fact is fatal to the 
 current notion of the inspiration of the Old Testament. For the 
 refutation of this belief there was no need of reference to Babylon : 
 a hundred other observed facts had contributed to destroy it. 
 
 But the knowledge of these facts had not become common 
 property. However, the theologians cannot be held to blame for 
 this. They had done their duty toward spreading the information 
 in books and pamphlets and lectures. Our German literature points 
 with pride to a work of such eminence as Wellhausen's History of 
 Israel; it appeals to all educated people and is classic in form and 
 content. And beside it stand a half dozen other excellent works, 
 each of which gives full and accessible information regarding Old 
 Testament literature and history. But Church and School have 
 been in league to suppress this knowledge by excluding it from 
 their domain. And indeed they are not alone to blame. Indolence 
 and fear have done their share. 
 
 To Delitzsch's lectures is due the credit for the fact that we 
 now hear preached from the house-tops what before was but like a 
 voice in the wilderness. "Credit," indeed, is scarcely the word ; 
 it is due to the force of circumstances. But we do not need to 
 weigh the individual credit for the result ; we hail with gratitude 
 the fact that Delitzsch has given wide currency to a more correct 
 view of the Old Testament. 
 
 But has he in fact done this? Unquestionably he has removed 
 a great error : the belief that the materials of the Old Testament
 
 126 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 are all original. But how little does the material amount to in the 
 history of religion and of the spirit! If to-day some one should go 
 before the public and announce to it: "Gentlemen, I come to re- 
 relieve you from a great error ; you have hitherto believed that 
 Goethe's I'aust was an original work, while in fact it is only a recent 
 secondary product ; for the entire material of it is found in a popu- 
 lar legend of the sixteenth century," — what would be the reply to 
 him? He would be laughed to scorn, and Delitzsch would join in 
 the laugh. 
 
 Without doubt he is very far from trying to determine the 
 value of the Old Testament religion on the ground of its depend- 
 ence upon Babylon, but in my opinion he has not done enough to 
 prevent the establishment of a false conception of the matter in his 
 hearers and readers. This public is very far from conceding to the 
 prophets and the psalmists what it concedes without hesitation to 
 a Goethe. Furthermore, for the very reason that there has pre- 
 vailed hitherto a notion of the supernatural character of the Old 
 Testament, the pendulum of opinion, following a familiar psycho- 
 logical law, now swings to the opposite extreme. To-day it is the 
 talk of the streets that "the Old Testament no longer amounts to 
 much." 
 
 At this point the Emperor enters the arena with his letter. 
 But meantime the chasm had become deeper. As the result of an 
 interview the monarch had become convinced that Professor De- 
 litzsch did not hold the orthodox belief regarding the divinity of 
 Christ, and that the examination of the Old Testament among other 
 reasons prevented his holding this belief. In the face of this nega- 
 tive conviction the Emperor wished to leave no doubt regarding 
 his own positive conviction. 
 
 We must thank him for the way in which he did this. It is 
 true, the reproof which Delitzsch has received cannot fail to be 
 painful to him, and he must feel deeply his being excluded from 
 the domain of theology upon which the Emperor himself now en- 
 ters. But that was surely not the intention : the Emperor means 
 to say, and he is right in so saying, that Delitzsch's authority as an 
 Assyriologist does not also extend to his theological doctrines. Be- 
 yond this he concedes absolute freedom to the convictions of the 
 scholar. 
 
 Absolute freedom, — this sentiment shines forth from the Em- 
 peror's utterances with pleasing and inspiring effect. He has no 
 thought of issuing a peremptory decree ; the whole letter is per-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 127 
 
 meated with the spirit of freedom. He knows very well that com- 
 mands are out of place in connection with these delicate and sacred 
 matters, and he knows that theology cannot pass by these ques- 
 tions, but that they must be treated most seriously, with liberty 
 and courage. He leaves them to theological science. , 
 
 But still more pleasing is the effect of the positiveness, the 
 frankness and warmth with which the Emperor himself takes his 
 stand in these matters. What he has written is from the depth of 
 his heart ; he utters it just as he thinks and feels it, and he has 
 written it down like one who is trying to take account of his own 
 mind, with all the minute marks of individual feeling and individ- 
 ual experience. He feels his soul bound to Christ, and he is not 
 willing to speak of religion without praising him and confessing his 
 allegiance to him. 
 
 The Emperor's utterance professes to be a personal confession 
 of faith, and as such it deserves respect. But it would certainly 
 not be in accordance with the spirit of the imperial author if we 
 were to give no other response than silence. In the Evangelical 
 Church the ultimate and supreme questions are always open to dis- 
 cussion, and each generation must work out the answers anew. 
 Our spiritual life also depends upon crises and finds its very vitality 
 in them. How should we be silent when the profoundest and most 
 solemn questions challenge us in this form? 
 
 All Evangelical Christians will frankly and joyfully agree with 
 the final sentence of the Emperor's letter: "Religion was never 
 the result of science, but an overflow of the heart and being of man 
 from his intercourse with God." Theology subscribes to this prop- 
 osition ; it knows right well that it docs not work creativel}-, but 
 merely tries to follow reverently in thought something that already 
 is. 
 
 Not less will be the general accord with the Emperor's convic- 
 tion that religion must have forms, so that we may explain our- 
 selves and give mutual instruction, but that these forms cannot be 
 imperishable. I think that even Professor Delitzsch has attained 
 the capital feature of his purposes in the concession that the cus- 
 tomary forms of the current school traditions regarding the Old 
 Testament are in urgent need of change. 
 
 But questions and disputes will arise chiefly in connection with 
 two convictions expressed by his majesty : the theory of a twofold 
 revelation, and the divinit}' of Christ. And the two are closely con- 
 nected.
 
 128 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 The difference between faith and science in connection with 
 religion becomes clear immediately on the mention of the word 
 "revelation." Science in the strictest sense cannot admit the no- 
 tion at all, finding it too transcendental. On the other hand, faith 
 cannot permit itself to be deprived of revelation. But in the course 
 of development there has been an approach between the two sides. 
 Aside from the reverent contemplation of the universe the Evan- 
 gelical faith has ceased to recognise revelation through any medi- 
 ums but persons. The whole lower series of alleged revelations 
 has been put aside. There are no revelations by means of things. 
 The Emperor's letter also took this ground : the revelations of God 
 in his humanity are persons, especially great persons. Now in so 
 far as great personages have their mystery even for science in their 
 individuality and power, in so far harmony is established between 
 faith and science. But the recognition by me and others of these 
 personages as revelations of God is an act of subjective experience 
 which no science can either create or prevent. 
 
 But upon this common ground the Emperor's letter distin- 
 guishes two sorts of revelation : a general one, and a peculiarly re- 
 ligious one. There is a great element of strength in this distinc- 
 tion, for it brings out vigorously the fact that there is no more seri- 
 ous concern for man than his relation to God, and that everything 
 is dependent on this relationship. But on the other hand, the 
 thinking mind cannot possibly repose in the assumption of two 
 revelations running, as it were, parallel with each other, and the 
 imperial letter has given utterance to this observation by putting 
 Abraham into both categories. Accordingly there cannot be two 
 revelations, — for religion, moral force, and knowledge stand in most 
 intimate union, — but one revelation, the bearers of which were, and 
 still are, very different in nature and greatness, calling and function. 
 If Jesus Christ loses nothing of his individuality and uniqueness 
 when he is placed in the series with Moses, Isaiah, and the psalm- 
 ists, neither does he suffer by the comparison when we see him in 
 the line with Socrates and Plato and the others who are mentiond 
 in the Emperor's letter. The religious conception of history must 
 in the last analysis be one and the same : it must be mankind led 
 forth by God out of the state of primitive nature, out of error and 
 sin, and saved and brought into the estate of the children of God. 
 Here, however, we make reservation of the fact that the divine his- 
 tory finds its specific line in ancient times in Israel. 
 
 The Christian Church must reject every estimate of Christ
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 129 
 
 which ignores the difference between him and other masters. He 
 himself, his disciples and the history of the world have spoken so 
 distinctly on this point that there should be no room for doubt, and 
 he still speaks to us in his word as distinctly as to his disciples of 
 old. But it may and must be questioned whether the inflexible 
 formula "divinity of Christ" is the correct one. He himself never 
 used it, but chose other designations, and it is at least very doubt- 
 ful whether any of his disciples ever uttered it. And the early 
 Church, too, did not speak directly of the divinity of Christ, but 
 always of his divinity and humanity. "God-man," therefore, is the 
 only correct formula even in the intent of the ancient dogma. In 
 this phrase we have almost restored the mystery which according 
 to the will of Christ himself was to remain in this matter. He 
 made no secret of the fact that he was tlie Lord and Saviour, and 
 his disciples were expected to observe and experience the fact in 
 his words and deeds. But how his relation to the Father arose, 
 he withheld from us and kept to himself. In my historical opinion, 
 therefore, and according to my feeling in the matter, even the for- 
 mula "man and God" (God-man-hood) is not beyond criticism, 
 inasmuch as it has already begun to intrude upon a mystery into 
 which we are not permitted to look. 
 
 But the formula may be allowed to stand, because at bottom it 
 does not pretend to explain anything, but only protects the extra- 
 ordinary from profanation, just as does the expression "Son of 
 God." The Pauline expression "God was in Christ" seems to me 
 to be the last word that we are permitted to speak in this matter, 
 now that we have liberated ourselves slowly and painfully from the 
 erroneous notion of ancient philosophers that we can penetrate the 
 mysteries of God and Nature, humanity and history. 
 
 "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" "In this shall 
 every one recognise that ye are my disciples, that ye love one an- 
 another," — it is more important to meditate upon these words and 
 try to live up to them than to put the incomprehensible and the 
 venerable into formulas. The time is coming and even now is near 
 when Evangelical Christians will join hands sincerely in the con- 
 fession of Jesus Christ as their master and in the determination to 
 follow his words, and our Catholic brethren will then be obliged to 
 join with us to the same end. The burden of a long history of mis- 
 understandings, of formulas that bristle like swords, of tears and 
 blood, weighs upon us, but in it there is also preserved to us a pre- 
 cious inheritance. The two seem to be united inextricably, but
 
 130 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 nevertheless they are gradually separating, although the "Let there 
 be light" has not yet been spoken across this chaos. Frankness 
 and courage, honesty with ourselves, freedom and love, — these are 
 the levers which will lift the burden. And the Emperor's letter 
 also is intended to aid in this lofty undertaking. 
 
 M. HALEVY'S OPINION. 
 
 M. Joseph Hal6vy, the French coryphaeus of Oriental research, 
 born December 15, 1827, says about Babel and Bible: "Sincerity 
 nevertheless compels me to point out certain inept, inaccurate, and 
 redundant statements which disfigure this otherwise beautiful lec- 
 ture. The meaning of Numbers vi. 26 (page 29, Babel and Bib le^ 
 is perfectly clear in itself and parallel to the passage in Job xxii. 
 26. The Babylonian form of expression adds absolutely nothing 
 new. There is not a vestige of a proof that the Ur of Kasdim, the 
 home of Abraham, is identical with the city of Ur of Babylonia 
 (page 4); the appellation Kasdim designates in the Pentateuch 
 'territory which is exclusively Aramean' ; Babylonia is called there 
 'the land of Sincar.' To make a princess of Aryan blood and blond 
 complexion out of the wife of Sardanapalus, of whom we have only 
 an old and hastily executed sketch ; to call the converted Jew Jean 
 Astruc 'zealously orthodox' (page 41); to attribute to the Koran 
 the beautiful legends of the Talmud, and to pass over almost in 
 silence the magnificent results of the French excavations in Assyria 
 and Babylonia, is carrying cleverness to an unjustified extreme. 
 The picture (page 48) of the First Sin, borrowed from M6nant, 
 and the comparison of the destruction of Rahab, a name for Egypt 
 (Psalms Ixxiv. 13, Ixxxix. ir; Job xxvi. 12), with the splitting in 
 twain of the body of the chaotic goddess Tiamat by Marduk, who 
 made of it the earth and the heavens, will not stand before exami- 
 nation. In the first picture, the man and the woman who are seated 
 opposite each other on the two sides of the tree are extending 
 toward each other their hands and are not gathering the fruit that 
 hangs upon the lower branches of the tree near their feet. And 
 furthermore, the undulating line behind the woman is not beyond 
 all doubt a serpent. The same disposition to rest content with 
 superficial appearances shows itself in the interpretation which is 
 put upon Figure 58, page 64, which has no points of resemblance 
 with the chariot of Ezekiel. 
 
 "Must it be repeated for the tenth time that the institution of
 
 BABEIv AND BIBLE. 131 
 
 Sunday rest is nowhere mentioned in cuneiform literature? The 
 abstinences prescribed for the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth (an 
 awkward date omitted by the lecturer), twenty-first, and twenty- 
 eighth days of the secon-d Elud, which is an exceptional month, 
 have nothing whatever to do with the Jewish Sabbath? 
 
 "Absolutely fantastical also is the attribution of the head of a 
 patesi or priest-king preserved in the Berlin Museum to the imagi- 
 nary and undiscoverable race of Sumerians who, although the origi- 
 nators of the great Babylonian civilisation, are said to have been 
 unable to count beyond 60 ! This error is an old one; the number 
 6 could never have formed a primitive multiple ; the first series 
 obtained by actual counting, which is based on the fingers of the 
 hand, finds its natural termination at the number 3 ; Delitzsch has 
 confounded instinctive counting with the artificial or scientific mode 
 ofi cotnputation by 6o's, which has its advantages. We must deplore 
 indeed the sad lot of these great allophylian creators of the most 
 ancient civilisation who have left as a witness of their vanished 
 glory only a single head of stone, fac-similies of which can be found 
 by the hundreds in real flesh and blood in the ghettos of Podolia 
 and Morocco. 
 
 "But the acme is reached in the following. Delitzsch affirmed 
 in his Paradise that the name Yahveh came from the Sumerian Y 
 and the consonants /ivh. He now declares, — and this is the culmi- 
 nation of his lecture, — that he has found on three Babylonian tab- 
 lets names belonging to Canaanitcs established in Babylon, and com- 
 posed of the element Yahveh (page 61). Now, the spelling of the 
 second form, _>'rt:-//-7////-// (v^-ritten <?«), signifies in good Babylonian 
 'Yaum [with mimmation for iaii-=^iam-mu, Okeanos, god of 'the sea] 
 is god.' The first form, written ia-ah-pi-il, exhibits a general Se- 
 mitic name Yahpeel (El covers, protects, "''Sv"- analogous to ^^!V~-)• 
 The possible reading Yahveh-ill would be equivalent to the Aramean 
 "^Sp-, 'God exists,' and would not necessarily signify 'Yahveh is 
 god.' In no case could a name like Yahveh-el be Canaanite-Phoe- 
 nician ; for these people express the verb to be by "pD, and not by 
 
 "With so alluring a subject and before an audience chosen 
 from among the highest intellects of the nation, it would have been 
 more prudent to limit oneself to established facts, and not to offer 
 ephemeral conjectures which can serve no other purpose than to 
 dazzle superficial and inquisitive minds."
 
 132 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 CORNILL ON "BABEL AND BIBLE." 
 
 ^^ Babel and Bible offers nothing essentially new to Old Testa- 
 ment scholars. There is doubtless not a single professor of Old 
 Testament research in any German university that has not already 
 told all these things to his students in his lectures on Genesis. And 
 Delitzsch does not gainsay this. He maintains only that the world 
 at large has as yet heard very little of the silent labors of the As- 
 syriologists and that it is now time for this knowledge to burst the 
 barriers of the scholars' study and enter the broad path of life. 
 
 "If this is to be interpreted as an aspersion upon us scholars, 
 it may be answered that we have never treated this knowledge as 
 an esoteric doctrine, and that any one who desired any information 
 about it had ample opportunity to obtain such, and further that 
 there are matters and problems in science concerning which exces- 
 sive discretion is the lesser evil. Now, in the exercise of this nec- 
 essary discretion Delitzsch has been extremely chary. The im- 
 pression that the lecture is apt to make on unprofessional readers 
 is that the Bible and its religion is to a certain extent a mere off- 
 shoot of Babylonian heathendom which we have 'in purer and 
 more original form ' in Babel ; and this impression is intensified by 
 the fact that Delitzsch by his own statements actually expects from 
 the results of the Assyrio-Babylonian excavations the advent of a 
 new epoch in the interpretation as well as in the understanding of 
 the Old Testament. I shall consider Delitzsch's statements under 
 this point of view. 
 
 "The Babylonians also had their sliabatiu, he says, and 'there 
 can therefore be scarcely the shadow of a doubt that in the last re- 
 sort we are indebted to this ancient nation on the banks of the 
 Euphrates and the Tigris for the plenitude of blessings that flows 
 from our day of Sabbath or Sunday rest.' What now was this 
 Babylonian shabattul Not the seventh day of each week, for the 
 Babjdonians regarded the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty- 
 first, and twenty-eighth calendar days of every month as days in 
 which no work could be done; and for what reason? For fear of 
 the wrath of the gods. These were the days that the Romans 
 called dies atri, and are we now to believe that these dies atri of the 
 Babylonians, which were inseparably linked with the dates of the 
 calendar, are our Biblical Sabbath? Never! The Sabbath as the 
 'day of the Lord,' the view that on one day in every week we
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 133 
 
 should cast aside all the trials and tribulations of our earthly life 
 and live for God alone and be happy in communion with Him, is 
 exclusively the property of the Bible, and for the 'plenitude of 
 blessings' contained in it the world is indebted, not to Babel, but 
 to Bible. 
 
 "We have long known that the Biblical story of the Creation 
 (Genesis i.) reposed on a Babylonian foundation; but the only 
 genuinely religious and imperishable fact of this history, the al- 
 mighty God, creator of heaven and earth, who speaks and it comes 
 to pass, who commands and it is so, the holy personal God, who 
 created man in his own image and entrusted him with the duties 
 attendant upon morality and a religious life, was given to the 
 world, not by Babel, but by Bible. 
 
 "And how is it with the story of Paradise and the Fall of Man 
 (Genesis ii. and iii.)? Delitzsch reproduces on page 48 the well- 
 known ancient Babylonian clay cylinder which is said to contain a 
 pictorial representation of this story. Assyriologists of the stand- 
 ing of Oppert, M6nant, Hal^vy, and Tiele vigorously contest this 
 interpretation, even explaining the figures on the cylinder as two 
 men, and are absolutely unable to recognise a serpent in the undu- 
 latory line in this picture. No Babylonian text corresponding to 
 Genesis iii. has yet been discovered, and if the reader of page 38 
 of Delitzsch's book imagines that the clay tablet there mentioned 
 containing 'the Babylonian legend of how it came to pass that the 
 first man forfeited the boon of immortality' is the Biblical story of 
 Genesis iii., 'in much purer and more primitive form,' I have only 
 to say that he is sorely mistaken. But even granting that such is 
 the case and that it has been proved that the Babylonians had a 
 story according to which the first woman, tempted by the serpent, 
 ate of the forbidden fruit and thereby brought sin and death into 
 the world, it will be distinctly seen from the picture that, leaving 
 everything else out of account, the Babylonian pair are clothed, and 
 that therefore what is perhaps the profoundest and most significant 
 feature of the story of Genesis iii. belongs to Bible, and not to 
 Babel. 
 
 "The conception of angels is without doubt 'characteristically 
 Babylonian.' But whether they are also such in the Biblical sense 
 as so grandly expressed in Psalms xci, verses 11 and 12, and in the 
 utterance of Jesus, Matthew xviii. 10, is another question. In the 
 Biblical representations Babylonian angels and eunuchs surround 
 only the throne of the great king. And before Delitzsch wrote
 
 134 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 (page 55) his remarks concerning the demons and the devils which 
 he says were possible only for the ancient Persian dualism, and 
 were so destined to be committed forever and aye to the obscurity 
 of the Babylonian hills from which they rose, he should have re- 
 called to mind the important role which these concepts played in 
 the religious life of Jesus, so that we might be justified in saying 
 that there are 'still many Babylonian traits clinging even to the re- 
 ligious thoughts' of Jesus. But these concepts in the Bible are no 
 Parsee importation ; for the Bible can think of Satan and his an- 
 gels under no other form than that of creatures of God who had 
 fallen through their own sins and who stand thus on the most essen- 
 tial point in the sharpest imaginable contrast with the afore-men- 
 tioned Persian dualism. And does Delitzsch mean to say, when 
 he affirms that the 5th, 6th, and 7th commandments occur 'in pre- 
 cisely the same order' in the Babylonian records, that Moses, or 
 whoever else composed the Decalogue, sought advice from Babel, 
 in the face of the fact that the order of the treasures which man 
 seeks to protect, namely, hfe, family, and property, could not pos- 
 sibly be more natural and obvious, and that the humane Baby- 
 lonian commandments have also their parallel in the Egyptian 
 Book of the Dead? 
 
 "And how do matters stand with the Biblical problems con- 
 cerning which we are led to believe that Babel only can explain 
 Bible? Delitzsch sees in the Bible Amraphel of Genesis xiv. the 
 great Babylonian king Hammurabi, the founder of the old Baby- 
 lonian kingdom. I shall not gainsay that this identification is pos- 
 sible ; and since Amraphel was 'the contemporary of Abraham' we 
 shall certainly be glad to reckon the period of Abraham by that of 
 Hammurabi. But if we consult the Assyriologists we shall find 
 that in fixing the chronological place of the fifty-five years of the 
 reign of this king they vary between 2394-2339 B. C. and 1923- 
 1868 B. C, with all the intermediate possibilities. From the point 
 of view of method, therefore, is it not better to follow the plan of 
 the Assyriologist Hommel, who, convinced of the correctness of 
 the equation Amraphel = Hammurabi, as of the historical authen- 
 ticity of the events narrated in Genesis xiv., starts, contrariwise, 
 from the Bible and moulds the Babylonian chronology until it ac- 
 cords with the Biblical? 
 
 "Delitzsch's statements (page 61) concerning the three clay 
 tablets containing the name of Yahveh are quite new. I cannot 
 revive here, much less resolve, the question of the original mono-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 135 
 
 theism of the Semites, or at least of 'the old Canaanite races which 
 settled in Babylonia 2500 years before Christ, and to whom Ham- 
 murabi himself belonged'; l)ut I have to confess that I cherish the 
 gravest doubts concerning the correctness of the meaning of these 
 tablets, or at any rate of the interpretation of the names Ya-ah-vc- 
 ilu and Ya-liu-um-ilu. Of names containing the proper names of a 
 god, and asserting additionally that this god is God, there are no 
 instances whatever among the thousands of Semitic proper names 
 which we know. Even the well-known Biblical yV^^"/ does not mean 
 'Yahveh is God.' But even granting that these old 'Canaanites' 
 did possess the theophorous name Yahu, is this any proof that the}' 
 also possessed the Biblical concept of Yahveh? How does it hap- 
 pen that of these 'monotheistic' kings one is called Sinmu-ballit 
 which means 'Sin gives life,' and another is Samsu-iluna, which 
 means 'the sun is our god.' 
 
 "There are also other evidences \\\ Babel and Bible that De- 
 litzsch's statements must be accepted with reserve. We read on 
 page 50: 'In the Book of Job (xxiv. 18), which appears to be ex- 
 tremely conversant with Babylonian modes of thought, we find 
 comparisons drawn (xxiv. 18 et seq. ) between the arid, waterless 
 desert which is reserved for those that have sinned, and the garden 
 with fresh, clear water which is reserved for the pious.' I believe 
 that I also am tolerably well acquainted with the Book of Job, and 
 I was consequently not a little astonished at reading these words, 
 for as a matter of fact there is absolutely nothing of the kind in Job 
 xxiv. 18, and if Delitzsch possibly introduced this meaning into 
 the passage conjecturally, it was entirely inadmissible on his part 
 to deal with it as with something that had been absolutely estab- 
 lished. 
 
 "Again, the passage on pages 51-52 concerning Mahomet's 
 Paradise, — namely: 'Two and seventy of these Paradisian maidens 
 may every god-fearing man choose unto himself, in addition to the 
 wives that he possessed on earth, provided he cares to have them 
 (and the good man will always cherish desire for the good),' — is 
 not to be found at all in the Koran, but has been taken from E. W. 
 Lane's Customs and Matiners, part I., page 59, of the German trans- 
 lation. 
 
 "We are delighted and proud that Germany also is at last 
 taking an independent part in the excavations in the valley of the 
 Euphrates. But in entering upon this undertaking it is only ful- 
 filling a national obligation of honor toward the educated world,
 
 136 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 and no one could entertain greater sympathy with these labors or 
 wish them greater success than we theological investigators of the 
 Old Testament, for we know the light which will be shed from that 
 source upon the object of our studies. But we are far from be- 
 lieving that a new interpretation of the Old Testament will ever be 
 brought to pass by these investigations, nay we are firmly con- 
 vinced that in the struggle between Babel and Bible the Bible will 
 ultimately come out victorious. Gunkel spoke for us all when he 
 said : 
 
 " 'How incomparably superior the Hebrew legend is to the 
 Babylonian ! Should we not really be delighted at having found 
 in this Babylonian parallel a criterion for estimating the real sub- 
 limity of the conception of God in Israel, — a conception of so much 
 intrinsic power that it can purge and recast in such a manner ma- 
 terial so repellent and outlandish? And this also we may say, that 
 the Babylonian legend strongly impresses us by its barbaric charac- 
 ter, whereas the Hebrew legend is far nearer and more human to 
 us. Even granting that we have been accustomed from childhood 
 to the Hebrew legends, we yet learn from this example that in our 
 whole world of ideas we owe far more to these Hebrews than to the 
 Babylonians." 
 
 The same theologian wrote to the editors of The Open Court 
 after the appearance of Professor Delitzsch's First Lecture as fol- 
 lows : "You are to be commended for having made the American 
 public acquamted with Delitzsch's Bahel and Bible, for the little 
 book contains an extraordinary amount of stimulating and instruc- 
 tive matter, and it has been cleverly constructed, so as to appeal 
 at once to the great reading public. Yet while there is no direct 
 polemical attack made in it against the Bible, you will nevertheless 
 understand that we theologians have witnessed the appearance of 
 this essay and the great sensation which it has made with solici- 
 tude, nay even with distress ; for the impression which it is inevi- 
 tably destined to make on the unprepared reader is one that we 
 could never wish to see." 
 
 A ROMAN CATHOLIC VERDICT. 
 
 The Catholic N'eius of New York, a journal "recommended by 
 the Catholic hierarchy and the clergy as a model family paper," 
 takes the following view of the situation: "The school of which 
 Professor Delitzsch is a distinguished member is by no means pre- 
 occupied about establishing the veracity of the Bible. The gene-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 137 
 
 ral purport of this lecture is to indicate that the Bible has borrowed 
 almost all its religious and moral elements from the pagan Assyrians 
 and Babylonians, and that it is merely a human compilation. The 
 success whicli has attended the propagation of this view is to be seen 
 in the total disintegration of all Protestant belief. It is the climax 
 of irony that the sects which broke away from the Catholic Church 
 with the cry, 'A free Bible; the Bible is the sole rule of faith,' 
 are to-day giving up all supernatural belief because they have lost 
 faith in the inspiration of the Bible, consequent upon the attacks 
 of the higher criticism. Meanwhile the Catholic Church stands un- 
 disturbed on her old platform. The Catholic repeats the profession 
 of St. Augustine: 'I would not accept the Bible except on the au- 
 thority of the Church.' He is confident that in the long run, when 
 all facts have been garnered and after hasty theories shall have 
 been tried and found wanting, the light thrown by science on all 
 the complications of the Biblical question will serve to corroborate 
 the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church, whose more than 
 human prudence is nowhere more conspicuous than in her few 
 guarded but comprehensive declarations concerning the fact and 
 the nature of inspiration. Students who may not have time to 
 study larger volumes dealing with Assyriology will find this little 
 book a handy one to consult for the inteirpretation given to many 
 archaeological discoveries by the representatives of the higher criti- 
 
 cism." 
 
 ALFRED JEREMIAS ON DELITZSCH.' 
 
 Alfred Jeremias, in an interesting pamphlet bearing the title 
 /;// Kampfe ton Babel und Bibcl, thoroughly reviews the situation 
 and calls attention from another point of view to this very topic. 
 Confuting the expressions of fear that Assyriological science is 
 shaking the foundations of the sanctuary of Holy Scriptures, he 
 remarks that it is strange the situation has been so completely re- 
 versed with years. In the first periods of Assyriological research, 
 the inscriptions on the excavated monuments were stridently ad- 
 duced as evidence in corroboration of the traditional views of the 
 Bible. It was triumphantly proclaimed that now (Luke xix. 40) 
 the very bricks of Babylon cried out in confirmation of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and the world should hold its peace. Exact copies of 
 the writings of Moses and the children of Israel during their so- 
 
 1 Written by Thomas J. McCormack. Extracted from The Open Court, Vol. XVII., No. 3, pp. 
 130-132.
 
 138 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 journ in the desert were supposedly recovered from Nabataean in- 
 scriptions; the historical existence of Abraham was confirmed by a 
 brick; and the wall was actually discovered on which Belshazzar 
 saw written the fateful words, Mene mene tekel upharsin! 
 
 But in Herr Jeremias's opinion the use of Assyriology as a 
 weapon of destructive criticism for the overthrow of the traditional 
 Bible is just as wicked as the preceding specimens of its applica- 
 tion are stupid. One very advanced critic, cited by Jeremias, goes 
 so far even as to wish for the time when the bricks of Babylon shall 
 compel a more truthful view of the Old Testament, shall shatter in 
 shards the doctrine of inspiration, and pave the way for a deeper, 
 more spiritual, and more "pious" conception. Verily, Babel has 
 "laid her mailed fist on the Old Testament." 
 
 But we need have no fear. Orthodoxy and piety may yet lie 
 down in harmonious union with Assyriology ; and Herr Jeremias, 
 who takes both the strictly religious and the strictly scientific view, 
 well expresses the terms of the compromise as follows: "In so far 
 as the Old Testament as a document of God's edvication of the hu- 
 man race may lay claim to being a fides divina, it stands in no need 
 of corroboration by any auxiliary science. Here Babel can never 
 promote the comprehension of the Old Testament, nor put it to 
 hazard in any way, be the philological and scientific imbroglio what 
 it may. Any ten of the marked passages of Luther's Bible are suf- 
 ficient to demonstrate^ how superior the spirit of the Old Testa- 
 ment is to that of Babylon. But the Old Testament has also its 
 human side, — a side so stupendousl}' interesting that no literature 
 of antiquity can be mentioned with it in the same breath. Much 
 of this remained obscure so long as the historical and cultural 
 framework in which the life of Israel was enacted was veiled. But 
 now the world around about Canaan is flooded with light; we can 
 contemplate the people of the Old Testament in their relationship 
 with the political and cultural conditions out of which it evolved 
 and which have exerted a determining influence upon its destinies. 
 In this domain cuneiform research can perform important services 
 for the comprehension of the Bible. But the imperishable jewel 
 which Israel possesses will shine only more brilliantly under this 
 illumination, and likewise the fides huuiana upon which this unique 
 book of literature rests its claims will stand triumphantly the ordeal 
 of fire to which it has been subjected." 
 
 IThe most significant passages of the Bible are printed in Luther's translation in bold-faced 
 type.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 139 
 
 There has been little criticism of Delitzsch's book from the 
 side of the Assyriologists proper. There are many points on which 
 all Assyriological inquirers do not agree, but upon the whole it is 
 the universal verdict of the Assyriologists that Delitzsch's lecture 
 "gives, so far as the monuments are concerned, those facts that 
 may be regarded as indubitably established results of cuneiform in- 
 quiry." And the advantage in the bout will doubtless also remain 
 with Delitzsch. For in purely technical and Assyriological matters 
 it is with him, as opposed to most of his theological critics, a case 
 of Krupp guns against "halberds and blunderbusses." 
 
 HIGHER CRITICISM AND THE EMPEROR. 
 
 BY DR. PAUL CARUS. 
 Manager of The Open Court Publishing Co. 
 
 Emperor William criticises Delitzsch for "abandoning the 
 standpoint of the strict historian" and "straying into religious and 
 historical conclusions and hypotheses which are quite nebulous and 
 bold." He says that "Delitzsch the theologian has run away with 
 Delitzsch the historian." 
 
 The Emperor means to say that in his historical research work 
 Delitzsch is carried away by his liberal theological views ; but the 
 case is probably just the reverse. Professor Delitzsch, the son of 
 an equally famous Hebrew scholar and a pious Christian, was from 
 the start an orthodox theologian, and his theology was modified 
 under the influence of his historical investigations. The Emperor, 
 who still clings to the old conception, concedes that " the Old Tes- 
 tament contains many sections which are of a purely human and his- 
 torical nature," and goes even so far as to add that they "are not 
 God's revealed word." He declares "that the legislative act on 
 Sinai, for example, can only be symbolically regarded as inspired 
 of God." Apparently the Emperor makes a difference between the 
 Jewish and the Christian Scriptures, and in this sense he says : 
 "Neither does it matter that much of the nimbus of the chosen 
 people will thereby disappear." 
 
 The Emperor's letter is an important document in the evolu- 
 tion of religion. He is a pronounced upholder of militant and 
 pious Protestantism, and his views may be regarded as typical for 
 large classes of all Protestant denominations. 
 
 The struggle over Babel and Bible opens to the Christian laity 
 a period of discussion concerning the nature of the Old Testament 
 which is bound to lead to an investigation of the New Testament.
 
 140 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 The battle concerning the Old Testament is as good as ended. 
 Whether or not Delitzsch is right in his sundry contentions as to 
 the names "El" and "Yahveh," the identification of the Ruins of 
 Mugheir with the home of Abraham, and his interpretation of Baby- 
 lonian seal-cylinders, is quite indifferent. The essential point lies 
 deeper and there is no need to conceal it. No one who has investi- 
 gated the subject will any longer deny that the Old Testament is 
 the product of an historical evolution. Of course, it is Jewish, not 
 Babylonian ; nevertheless, the Babylonian civilisation forms the 
 background, and many things which were formerly believed to 
 have been dictated by the Holy Ghost are now seen to be the nat- 
 ural outcome of historical conditions. But on that account the 
 nimbus of the chosen people will no more disappear than the glory 
 of Homer, and Phidias, and Pericles, and Socrates can be dimmed 
 because we can trace their greatness to conditions and understand 
 how they naturally grew and rose into being. 
 
 The old narrow view cannot be abandoned at once, and many 
 intermediate steps are being taken which attempt compromises. So 
 we read for instance in the interesting pamphlet of Alfred Jeremias 
 that we must grant the prevalence of a monotheism among the pa- 
 gan nations long before the rise of Israel as a nation. Hammurabi, 
 for instance, a contemporary of Abraham who lived more than half 
 a millennium before Moses, introduces his code of laws with the 
 invocation, "Thus speaketh ILU SIRU, i. e., God the Supreme." 
 "But," adds Professor Jeremias, "there is this difference between 
 the pagan monotheism which can be traced among all the nations, 
 and Hebrew monotheism, that 'God himself filled the latter with 
 his own revelation." In other w'ords, when Plato speaks of God, 
 we have to deal with a purely human speculation, but when David 
 danced before the ark of the Lord we are expected to believe that 
 then God was personally present. 
 
 The truth is, we are familiar with the Hebrew view, for our 
 own belief has developed out of it. We are not so familiar with 
 pagan views. Therefore when Zarathustra speaks of Ahura Mazda, 
 the Lord Omniscient, we admire his wisdom, but fail to find any 
 connection with our own belief. The term sounds strange to our 
 ears because it remains unassociated with our prayers and has no 
 relation to the traditions that have become sacred to us. It ap- 
 pears as the natural product of human thought, while the Hebrew 
 names Jehovah, Zebaoth, Elohim, even when the context betrays 
 a pagan or even polytheistic conception, are filled with a sanctity
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 141 
 
 and a religious awe tliat is to us the evidence of a supernatural 
 revelation. 
 
 How true this is ap2:)ears from the fact that the original and 
 correct form Yahveh, which is not used in our churches, does not 
 possess the same sacred ring to our ears as the corrupted form Je- 
 hovah. The name Yahveh is written in our brains, not in our 
 hearts. Yahveh is the name of a deity with which we have become 
 acquainted through the study of Hebrew literature, and we would 
 deem it all but a sacrilege, a kind of paganism, to pray to Yahveh 
 or to sing hymns to him. The word Jehovah, an unmeaning and 
 positively nonsensical combination of the consonants of the word 
 "Jahveh," with the vowels of another, "Adonai," was invented in 
 the days of Luther. It was unknown before the year 1519; but 
 having slipped into our prayers, we still sing the triumphal strain, 
 ''Jehovah is King." 
 
 When we become acquainted with the monotheism of Ham- 
 murabi, we put him down as a philosopher, but the God of Moses 
 is the same God to whom Christians bend the knee. That makes 
 a difference. The associations with our own religious life, our 
 forms of worship, our prayers, are important for obvious psycho- 
 logical reasons. 
 
 Through Delitzsch, the Emperor became familiar with the re- 
 ligion of ancient Babylon, and he took a liking to the Assyrians. 
 The Assyrian guards were so much like the Prussian grenadiers; 
 their kings were generals enjoying the display of armies; they be- 
 lieved in the religion of the mailed fist and bestowed much atten- 
 tion upon military attire, even as to the minute details of hair- 
 dressing. While the Emperor's court barber patented the fashion 
 of an upturned mustache under the name Es ist crreicJit, which 
 means "surpassing all," Delitzsch speaks of the official style of 
 the Assyrian beard as Noch nicht erreicht, i. e., "still unsurpassed." 
 Whether Delitzsch intended the joke or was serious in making this 
 comparison we have no means to tell. Certainly the similarities 
 were so many and so striking that the Emperor felt the thrill of 
 kinship and showed himself willing to transfer the nimbus from 
 the chosen people to the rulers of ancient Babylon. 
 
 Truly, the Emperor is right when he says that "God reveals 
 himself continuously in the race of men." It is a good old doc- 
 trine, and orthodox too, that "God spoke not to Moses alone," and 
 St. John the Evangelist says that "that was the true light which 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
 
 142 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 But it is natural that Christians raised in the traditional dog- 
 matism should shrink from the idea that the New Testament (as 
 well as the Old) should be conceded to be the product of historical 
 conditions. "Here," they argue, "Christ speaks himself," and (to 
 use the Emperor's own words) "Christ is God, God in human form 
 . . . .We have in Him God's revealed word, and He never lies." 
 
 Certainly, God never lies. But do we have in the New Testa- 
 ment Christ's own words? We have reports about Jesus, and these 
 reports are as human as are the Scriptures of the Old Testament. 
 Christianity would be in a sad plight if the New Testament had in- 
 deed to be regarded as inspired verbatim by God. We cannot en- 
 ter here into details but would suggest only that the mere contra- 
 (y X^ictions in the Gospels alone force us to look upon them as human 
 compositions. 
 
 The difficulties of regarding the Bible as literally the word of 
 God are almost greater in the New Testament than in the Old. 
 Any one who has studied the Scriptures knows that the problem is 
 grave and cannot be easily disposed of. 
 
 The great question back of all these discussions is simply this • 
 "Shall we, or shall we not, grant Science the right io modify Re- 
 ligion?" And the question need not be answered. Men of science 
 know that whether or not we grant science the right to modify reli- 
 gion, science is shedding her light upon religious problems, and 
 she is constantly and continuously modifying religion. Science 
 (represented in physics, astronomy, physiology, psychology, his- 
 tory, text-criticism, etc., etc.) has enlarged our view of the world 
 and deepened our conception of God. The scientific spirit of the 
 age has begotten a new theology, a truly scientific treatment of the 
 problems of God^ inspiration, and revelation, which we call theon- 
 omy, for it ranges as high above the antiquated theology as astron- 
 omy is superior to astrology.^ 
 
 After all, Christians are not pledged to dogmas, but to the 
 truth. Orthodoxy means the right doctrine, and the right doctrine 
 is that which can stand the test of critique. Orthodoxy so called 
 is a misnomer and ought to be called dogmatism. The truth can 
 be found only by searching, and the methods of an exact search 
 are called science. 
 
 Science is not human ; science is divine, and the development 
 
 ICf. the writer's articles "Theology as a Science " in The Monist, Vol. XII., No. 4, and Vol 
 XIII., No. I.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 143 
 
 of science is the coming of the spirit of God, — of the true God, of 
 the God of Truth, who is "the light that lighteth every man." 
 
 The dogmas of Christianity are formulations of the Truth as 
 interpreted by our forefathers. Let no Athanasius with his limited 
 knowledge bind the conscience of a Delitzsch. Had Delitzsch lived 
 in the days of the Alexandrian church-father, he would most likely 
 have acquiesced in the Nicene formulation of the Christian creed; 
 but new issues have arisen and some of the traditional beliefs have 
 become untenable. Dogmas may be venerable on account of their 
 antiquity, but they cannot stand against Truth. Truth alone is 
 holy, and the Truth of Science will finally win the day. 
 
 The struggle for Babel and Bible is important not on its own 
 account but because it forces upon us in a new form the issue of 
 Science versus Faith, and compels us to revise our conception of the 
 nature of divine revelation. It is a mere skirmish which will soon 
 be followed by the more important struggle over the Gospels. The 
 issues at stake are graver there, and thus we anticipate that the 
 latter will be a more bitter and obdurate battle. The main histor- 
 ical questions of Christianity lie in the New Testament, and though 
 Assyriology contributes its goodly share toward the solution of the 
 religious problem, it is after all a side issue only, which must be 
 complemented by work along other lines of research. 
 
 Delitzsch sums up his position in these words : " Do not let 
 us blindly cling to dogmas which science has shown to be super- 
 annuated, merely for fear of abandoning them. Faith in God and 
 the true religion may thereby be injured." 
 
 Whatever the final result of the present discussion shall be, 
 we may rest assured that the modification of our religious faith will 
 not be for the worse. Christianity has again and again adapted it- 
 self to a more scientific conception of the world. How strong was 
 the opposition of the so-called orthodox to the Copernican system, 
 how fierce were their attacks on the doctrine of evolution ! But 
 that is now a matter of the past, and religion has certainly been 
 broadened as well as deepened by a broader and deeper insight 
 into the constitution of nature. 
 
 The task of the theology of to-day is a reconstruction of our 
 conception of Christianity upon a strictly scientific basis. In the 
 background of the several historical questions there is looming up 
 the struggle for a scientific world-conception, and rightly considered, 
 the philosophical problem is the main issue which over-shadows all 
 others.
 
 144 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 It is not difficult to foresee the final result of the whole move- 
 ment. It will not lead to a destruction of religion, but to its puri- 
 fication and reconstruction upon a more solid foundation. There- 
 fore let us have faith in the Truth. 
 
 Says Esdras : "As for the truth, it endureth, and is always 
 strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore. 
 
 "With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards ; but 
 she doeth the things that are just, and refraineth from all unjust 
 and wicked things ; and all men do well like of her works. 
 
 "Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is 
 the strength, kingdom, power, and majest}' of all ages. Blessed 
 be the God of Truth." (i Esdras iv. 38-40.)
 
 REPLY TO CRITICS OF THE FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 THE ETHICAL ASPECT. 
 
 In his Dcr Kainpf Jitn Babel niid Bihel, p. 20 ff. , Professor 
 Samuel Oettli says: "The materials transmitted to us in the Old 
 Testament have been plunged into an atmosphere of ethical 7nono- 
 theism and purified by this bath from all ethically or religiously 
 confused and confusing elements. We no longer find the deluge 
 here as the product of the blind wrath of a god, but as the ethically 
 warranted punishment sent by a just god upon a degenerate race." 
 
 This is an error. Even the report of Berosus shows us that to 
 f'.he Babylonians also the world flood was a sin-flood.^ Consider 
 liis words: "The others cried aloud when a voice commanded 
 them to fear God, as Xisuthros had been translated to the gods 
 because "he had been godfearing." While we may assure ourselves 
 from this alone that the Babylonian Noah escaped from the judg- 
 ment of the deluge because of his piety and the remainder of man- 
 kind were destroyed because of their ever-increasing sinfulness, 
 the inference is confirmed by the words in the cuneiform inscrip- 
 tion, spoken by Ea after the deluge to Bel who had caused it : 
 "Lay up his sin against the sinner," etc. 
 
 Professor Edward Konig, in his essay Bibel loid Babel, p. 32, 
 says: "The spirit of the two traditions (Babylonian and Hebrew) 
 is totally different. This is shown by a single feature : The Baby- 
 lonian hero rescues his inanimate as well as his living property, 
 while in both the Bible accounts we have the higher point of view 
 represented by the rescue of the living creatures only." What 
 blind zeal ! Even in the fragment of Berosus we read that Xisu- 
 thros was commanded to "take in winged and fourfooted animals," 
 and the original cuneiform account says expressly: "I brought up 
 into the ship the cattle of the field and the wild beasts of the field.' 
 
 1 An untranslatable German pun and popular etymology (Sintflut = " universal flood ": Siind- 
 flut = " sin-flood ").
 
 146 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Accordingly, the "higher point of view" must be conceded to the 
 Babylonian account by Konig himself. 
 
 THE PRIMORDIAL CHAOS. 
 With reference to mythological features in the Biblical account 
 of the creation something further may be said. Oettli remarks with 
 much truth, p. 12, on the presumption of the existence of a chaos: 
 ''The notion of a primitive matter which was not derived from 
 God's creative activity but which had rather to be overcome by it, 
 cannot have grown up on soil of the Religion of Israel, which is 
 strictly monotheistic in its thought, at least on the prophetic 
 heights, and consequently excludes the dualistic conflict of two 
 hostile primitive principles." I call attention here to the remark 
 of Wellhausen also: "If we take Chaos for granted, everything 
 else is developed out of this ; everything else is reflection, syste- 
 matic construction, which we can figure out with little difficulty." 
 
 TRACES OF POLYTHEISM. 
 
 In the Elohistic account of the creation also there are traces 
 of polytheistic elements. When we read (Genesis i. 26): "Let us 
 make men in our^ own image, after our semblance," Oettli says 
 with justice : " Moreover, that plural of self-appeal preceding the 
 creation of man is not so easily to be reconciled with the later strict 
 monotheism, nor the 'image of God' in which man is created, 
 with the spirituality of Yahveh which is afterwards so strongly em- 
 phasised, when once, rejecting all exegetic arts, we give to words 
 their simple and obvious meaning. And this, notwithstanding the 
 fact that the Biblical author, in accordance with his religious posi- 
 tion, has given a higher value to these originally foreign elements." 
 
 In fact. Genesis i. 26 and Isaiah xlvi. 5 are in irreconcilable 
 opposition. The polytheistic coloring of Genesis i. 27 with its im- 
 plied distinction of gods and goddesses would appear peculiarly 
 drastic if the three members of the sentence are thought of as quite 
 closely connected : "And God created man in his own image, in 
 the image of God created He him, male and female created He 
 them " But we cannot regard this as sure. 
 
 BABYLONIAN MONOTHEISM. 
 It may be recalled that I said in my first lecture: "Despite 
 the fact that free and enlightened minds publicly taught that Nergal 
 
 IThe assumption that we have here a case of pluralis majestaticus is not, indeed, precluded 
 by general Hebrew usage, but it is far-fetched ; compare lii 2, the saying of Yahveh : " Lo, man 
 has become as one of us."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 147 
 
 and Nebo, moon-god and sun-god, the thunder-god Ramman and 
 all the other gods were one in Marduk, the god of light, polytheism 
 remained for three thousand years the state religion of Babylon." 
 
 Jensen has felt warranted in accompanying this remark with 
 the following observations, which have been carried further by 
 Konig and others with much gratification, as was to be expected : 
 "This would indeed be one of the most significant discoveries ever 
 made in the realm of the history of religion, and therefore we must 
 regret exceedingly that Delitzsch does not cite his source. I be- 
 lieve that I may declare with all positiveness that nothing of the 
 sort can be derived from the texts that are accessible to me. There- 
 fore we beg urgently that he publish soon the text of the passage 
 which deprives Israel of the greatest glory that has hitherto illu- 
 mined that race,- — that of being the only one that worked its way 
 out into pure monotheism." 
 
 Very good, if indeed Jensen stands by his expression, Israel is 
 now actually deprived of this its greatest glory, and this by the 
 Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablet 8i, 11-3, iii, known since 1895 
 and published in 'Cae. Journal of t lie Transactions of tlie Victoria Insti- 
 tute by Theo. G. Pinches, — a tablet which is indeed preserved only 
 as a fragment, but the remaining portion of which shows us that 
 upon it all the divinities of the Babylonian pantheon (or at least 
 the chief ones) are indicated as being one with and one in the god 
 Marduk. I quote only a few lines •?■ 
 
 "The god Marduk is written and called Ninib as the possessor 
 of power, Nergal or perhaps Zamama as lord of combat or of battle, 
 Bel as possessor of dominion, Nebo as lord of business (?), Sin as 
 illuminator of the night, Samas as lord of all that is right, as lord 
 of rain." 
 
 Accordingly, Marduk is Ninib as well as Nergal, moon-god as 
 well as sun-god, etc., in other words, the names Ninib and Nergal, 
 Sin and Samas are only various designations of the one god Mar- 
 duk; they are all one with him and in him. Is this not "indoger- 
 manic monotheism, the doctrine of the unity which develops only 
 out of variety"? 
 
 lilNin-ib Marduk sa alii 
 
 ''Nergal Marduk sa kablu 
 
 il Za-ma-ma Marduk sa tahazi 
 
 il Be'l Marduk sa be'lutu u mitluktu 
 
 ilNabu Marduk sa nikasi 
 
 il Sin Marduk munanimir mCisi 
 
 il Samas Marduk sa kenSti 
 
 iiAddu Marduk sa zunnu
 
 148 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 THE NAME "EL." 
 
 On il, "^^ God. — All Semitic prepositions were originally sub- 
 stantives. For the preposition "7N., which is originally //, "toward, 
 to, at," the fundamental significance which from the start seems 
 most probable, "aim, direction," is still preserved in Hebrew, al- 
 though this was until recently overlooked. It is found in the 
 phrase, "This or that is ^7^ "'X^," that is, "at the disposal of thy 
 hand," "it is in thy control." 
 
 The opinion that ''h' in this phrase means "power" may have 
 the support of tradition, like thousands of other errors in the He- 
 brew lexicography, but it has never been demonstrated, and there- 
 fore it is not true, as Konig declares (p. 38), that "<?/ is surely equiv- 
 alent to 'power' or 'strength.'" The only meanmg that can be 
 demonstrated is "aim, direction," which carries with it as a matter 
 of course the concrete significance "that toward which one directs 
 himself, end, goal." 
 
 The Sumerians conceived of their gods as dwelling up above 
 where the eye of man is directed, in and over the sky; we ourselves 
 use "heaven" figuratively for "God" (comp. Daniel iv. 23); and 
 furthermore, a Babylonian psalm calls the sun-god digil irsitim 
 raposiif/i, the "goal of the wide world," that is, the end toward 
 which the eyes of all the earth-dwellers are directed, and, finally, 
 the poet of the Book of Job (xxxvi. 25), in harmony with an abun- 
 dance of other passages in Semitic literatures, glorifies God as the 
 one "on whom all eyes hang, toward whom man looks from afar." 
 And just so the earliest Semites called the "divine" being whom 
 they conceived of as dwelling in the heavens above and ruling 
 heaven and earth //, el, "that toward which the" eye is directed,' 
 (cp. the analogous application of '>'S to God and things divine in 
 Hosea xi. 7). In my opinion the first and original meaning of the 
 word is "goal of the eye," as is the case with the sun and the sky. 
 
 Inasmuch as // is thus demonstrated to have the meaning 
 "aim, goal," and as the designation of the deity by this word is 
 perfectly in accord with the Semitic habit of thought, and it is 
 therefore not permissible to assume another primitive noun il, my 
 interpretation of el, the name of God, is established in every point. 
 
 It is just as useless and impermissible to seek after a verb cor- 
 responding to such a primitive noun as // (see Konig, p. 38), as to 
 seek after a verbal stem to match others of these most ancient bi- 
 consonantal nouns, such asy'/w, " day, " or w///, "man."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 149 
 
 Besides, the etymology of the word //, el is not the most im- 
 portant consideration. The chief thing is rather the fact that those 
 North-Semitic tribes which we find estabhshed about 2500 B. C. 
 both north and south of Babylon, and whose greatest monarch in 
 later times (about 2250) was King Hammurabi, conceived of and 
 worshipped God as a unitary, spiritual being. Let it be observed 
 that this applies to the North-Semitic tribes which had in part im- 
 migrated to Babylonia and afterwards established themselves 
 there, not to Sumerian-Semitic Babylonians. 
 
 A number of journals have represented it as my opinion that 
 "even the Jewish conception of God was derived from the Baby- 
 lonian cosmology"; and Oettli (p. 4) says that in my view even 
 "the name and the worship of Yahveh himself, united with a more 
 or less definitely developed monotheism, was a primitive posses- 
 sion of Babylon." But these are misrepresentations. 
 
 As to those names of persons which occur so frequently in the 
 time of the first Babylonian dynasty, Konig is utterly mistaken in 
 declaring (p. 40, 42) that among notorious polytheists the names 
 must needs be translated and interpreted as "« god hath given"; 
 and so is Oettli (p. 23) when he asks: "Who can prove that those 
 names are not to be taken polytheistically, 'a god hath given,' ^a 
 god be with me' "? To say nothing of other reasons, this interpre- 
 tation breaks down in the case of such names as Ilii-ainranni, "God 
 consider me!" Ilu-turam, "God, turn thee hither again!" and 
 others. Or, on the other hand, are we to cease to render Bdb-ilu 
 "Gate of God," and say "Gate of a god"? No! For the time of 
 Hammurabi we hold fast to those beautiful names which signify so 
 much for the history of religion : Ilu-ittia, "God be with me," IIii- 
 amtaha)-, "I called upon God," Ilu-abi, Ilu-7nilki, "God is my fa- 
 ther," or "my counsel," larhi-ihi, "Great is God," lamlik-ilu, 
 "God sits in power," Ihsi-ina-ili, "Through God came he into be- 
 ing," Avcl-ilu, "Servant of God," Muf{jan)-/7t/, "Man of God" 
 (=Methuscha'el), Ihhna-le'i, "God is mighty,'^ I/nma-abi, "God 
 is my father," Iliima-ihi, "God is God," Summa-ilu- Id-ilia, "If God 
 were not my God," and so on. 
 
 The names must of course be judged collectively. In the case 
 of certain of them (as in certain Assyrian names, like Na'id-ilu) we 
 might certainly see in "God" merely an appellative, as perhaps in 
 the phrase from the laws of Hammurabi : jnahar-ili, to assert an}'- 
 thing "before God"; or in the phrase that occurs hundreds of 
 times in the Babylonian contracts of that period, "to swear by God
 
 150 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 (^ilu) and the king" (cp. i Samuel xii. 3, 5 : "by Yahveh and the 
 king"), but taking them all together it seems to me that they make 
 it impossible to think that ilu means a "city or family god," or the 
 "special tutelary deity." 
 
 Precisely in "the endeavor of a people without philosophical 
 development to be as concrete and specific as possible in its notions 
 and expressions," we should inevitably expect to find in each case 
 the name of the particular divinity intended, or on the other hand 
 if the tutelary divinity of the family or of the infant was meant we 
 should expect to find "my God," or "his God." An unprejudiced 
 and unsophisticated consideration of all these and other names of 
 the Hammurabi period leads rather to the renewed assumption that 
 they are rooted in a religious conception different from the poly- 
 theistic views that were native in Babylon. What was the nature 
 and value of that monotheism the contemporary sources do not 
 enable us to determine, but only to infer them from the later de- 
 velopment of "Yahvism." 
 
 THE NAME "YAHVEH." 
 
 We must insist with all positiveness that in the two names 
 Ya-a'-ve-ilu and Yave-ilu the reading Ya've is the only one that 
 can be regarded as within the realm of possibility. 
 
 The assault upon my reading — which in the light of our pres- 
 ent knowledge is irrefutable — has revealed a lamentable state of 
 ignorance in the critics : this ignorance may account for the mis- 
 cellaneous insinuations which have been indulged in, as when Pro- 
 fessor Kittel ventures to speak of my reading as a "partisan ma- 
 neuver." 
 
 In order to at least correct this ignorance, I beg to make the 
 following brief and condensed exposition of the matter for the ben- 
 efit of my theological critics and of certain of the Assyriologists 
 who have volunteered to advise them. The sign vu has the follow- 
 ing syllabic values : pi; tal; tu; tarn, and besides in Babylonian in 
 particular: ""^j^^; m" /vd; a; {vu), or as would be perhaps bet- 
 ter; ve; vd; d; (vu). But any one who has become measurably 
 familiar with the style of writing of the Hammurabi period knows 
 that, even if the reading Ya-'iz-md be granted, this ?//d cannot pos- 
 sibly be interpreted as the emphasising particle ma. Accordingly 
 Kdnig (p. 48 f. ) and Kittel and others are mistaken; on the con- 
 trary, 7//a is without exception written with its customary sign.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 151 
 
 Thus the interpretation of the names in question as "Ya, Ya'u is 
 God" is absolutely precluded. Let him who denies this cite one 
 single instance in which the emphatic particle ma is written with 
 the character vii. And in the case of Ya-u-uni ilu, I may remark 
 incidentally, the /// may be only mimation and not an abbreviated 
 ma. 
 
 Neither is the reading proposed by Bezold, Ya-\i-bi-ilu, pos- 
 sible, for in the time of Hammurabi the sign In does perhaps rep- 
 resent also the syllable //, but the reverse, sign vu for bi, is never 
 the case. And on mature reflection the reading Ya\ay-pi-ilu can- 
 not be considered. It is true that the sign vu is found lor pi in the 
 time of Hammurabi, as frequently in the contracts published by 
 Meissner in his Beitrage zwn altbabylonischeit Privatrecht, and also 
 in the Code of Hammurabi, but the regular sign for //occurs much 
 more frequently. For instance, in the 79 letters from this very 
 period, published by King,// is represented exclusively by its regu- 
 lar sign. 
 
 Besides this, a "canaanitish" verb form ia^pi, iapi could be 
 derived only from a stem ncn, which does not exist. Instead of 
 Ya(^')ve ilu we might then at most read Ya-{'a/w-)vd/u-i/u, with 
 radical v, but by this very emendation we should expose ourselves 
 to the dreaded recognition of a god mn"'. Accordingly my reading 
 Ya-a'-ve-ilu, Ya ve-ilu remains the most obvious as well as the only 
 one deserving serious consideration. 
 
 I venture on the interpretation of the name Ya{'')vc-ilu with 
 less confidence than on the reading of it. The interpretation pro- 
 posed by Konig (p. 50), "May God protect" (why not, "May<z 
 god protect"?), from Arabic haina, "to protect," as well as that 
 of Barth (p. 19), "God gives life" (Ya-ah-ve-ilu), is highly improb- 
 able. As names from a foreign language they would needs appear 
 as Yahve-ilu, not Yd've-ilu or even Ydve-ilu, and only in the last ex- 
 tremity would one be justified in the assumption that these foreign 
 personal names had gradually been Babylonised in pronunciation, 
 at the same time becoming wholly unintelligible. No, if we are to 
 concede that there is a verb-form contained in ya've, ydve, then it is 
 certainly the most obvious thing to think of the verb nin, the older 
 form of n*n which is assumed in Exodus iii. 14, and to interpret it 
 with Zimmern as "God exists." My interpretation, "Ja've is 
 God," would accordingly remain by far the most probable in and 
 of itself.
 
 152 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 THE NAME " YAHUM-ILU." 
 
 The name Va I't-um-ilu is and remains a foreign name. It 
 belongs among the North-Semitic tribes, more precisely Canaan- 
 itic. Among these tribes there is no other god Ya-il but the god 
 1i1^, Yahii, that god who is contained in the name Ya-u-ha-zi and 
 others. 
 
 Now this name of the divinity Yahti which is found at the be- 
 ginning and especially at the end of Hebrew names of persons, is 
 the shorter form of Yahve, "the Existing," and consequently pre- 
 supposes the fuller form Yahve. Now even to the Jews of the exilic 
 and post-exilic periods the name Yahveh was by no means a notnen 
 ineffabile, as is shown by the many names of this later time : Ya-se'- 
 va-a-va = Isaiah (iri^i'^7)> Pi-U-ya-a-va, and others. So much the less 
 could it have been such to that primitive period in which the name 
 of God, Yahveh, was very far from possessing the sanctity which it 
 was to attain later in Israel. 
 
 The name Yahum-ilu, therefore, presupposes a fuller equiva- 
 lent name Ya've-ilu. Now when such a name is really twice docu- 
 mented, in Ya'-ve-ilu, Ya-ve ilu, should it not be recognised as such 
 without reserve, and the more so as the refusal to recognise it will 
 after all not obliterate the fact of the existence of the North-Semitic 
 ("Canaanitic") name of the divinity Yahu, which is perfectly iden- 
 tical with Yahveh, nor the existence of a name Yahti-ilu, "Yahu is 
 God," similar to the Hebrew ^>?''' (Joel), a thousand years before 
 the prophet Elijah's utterance upon Carmel, "Yahveh is God'' 
 (i Kings xviii. 39)? 
 
 It needs no demonstration to convince competent judges that 
 Earth's interpretation (p. ig) of Ya-hu-utn-ilu as abbreviated from 
 Ya-ah-we-ilu must be rejected. 
 
 Jensen too regards it as "certainly in the highest degree prob- 
 able that both composita contain the name of God Yaveh-Yahu,'' 
 adding very correctly : *' Now since the Ya'tva in the name cannot 
 be of Assyrio-Babylonian origin, it is surely of foreign origin, and 
 hence, in all probability, the whole name is 'Canaanitic,' and its 
 wearers, or wearer, also 'Canaanites.' " But when he goes on to 
 say: "But because a Miiller or a Schultze is met with in Paris, we 
 are not warranted in assuming that the Germans are the prevalent 
 race in Paris; and just as little does an Ya''iua-il{u), appearing in 
 Babylon 2000 years ago, need to prove anything more than that 
 the bearers of this name occasionally came to Babylon," — when he
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 153 
 
 reasons thus I confidently leave it to the unprejudiced reader to 
 decide whether, in view of all the names like Yarhi-ilu, Yamlik-ilu, 
 and so on (not to mention Hammurabi, Ammi-zaduga, and other 
 Canaanitish names), the delicate parallel of Miiller and Schulze is 
 even remotely justified. Furthermore, even Jensen is compelled, 
 as we see, to admit that the evidence is good for the existence of 
 the divine name Yahve ( Yahvii) before 2000 B. C. Moreover, Zim- 
 mern makes this concession: "Even supposing that we have in 
 ya-ti-um the name of a divinity, which is not improbable, and even 
 the name Yahu, Yahvc, tvhich is possible.''' That is enough for the 
 present; the admission of the reading Ya-(^a^^ve and of my inter- 
 pretation will probably follow. 
 
 And accordingly, if Ya-i(-um holds its own as equivalent to 
 inij, "liT, then the names of that same period: Ilu-idinnam, "God 
 hath given," Sa-ili, "Belonging to God," Ilu-atntahar, "I called 
 upon God," Ilu-ttiram, "God, turn to me," etc., may with double 
 right be regarded as equivalent in their content to the correspond- 
 ing Hebrew names. 
 
 PROCESSIONS OF THE GODS. 
 
 Jensen would not countenance my proposition that processions 
 of Gods are mentioned in Isaiah. We read (xlv. 20): "They 
 have no knowledge that carry their graven image of wood, and pray 
 unto a God that cannot help," and again (xlvi. i): "Bel has sunk 
 down, Nebo is bowed down, their idols are fallen to the lot of the 
 beasts and to the cattle, the things (i. e., fabrications) that ye car- 
 ried about are made a load, a burden to the weary beasts." There 
 can be but fev/ commentators here who do not think in connection 
 with these passages of the Babylonian processions of the gods, in 
 which Bel and Nebo were carried in ceremonious progress through 
 the streets of Babel. 
 
 AARON'S BLESSING. 1 
 
 What I have said as to the significance of the phrase in the 
 Aaronite blessing, "Yahveh lift up his countenance to thee," i. e., 
 "turn his favor, his love, towards thee," holds good in spite of my 
 critics. When spoken of men, "to lift the countenance to any one 
 or to anything" means nothing more than "to look up at" (so it is 
 used in 2 Ki. ix. 32). It is used in Job xxii. 26 (cf. xi. 15), as well 
 as in 2 Sam. ii. 22, with reference to a man who, free from guilt 
 
 1 Num. vi. 24 fi.
 
 154 BABEIv AND BIBLE. 
 
 and fault, can look up God and to his fellow-men. This meaning, 
 of course, is not appropriate if the words are spoken of God. Then 
 it must mean precisely the same thing as the Assyrian, "to raise 
 the eyes to anyone," that is to say, to find pleasure in one, to direct 
 one's love towards him ; therefore not quite the same as to take 
 heed of one (as in Siegfried-Stade'sZTr/^'raVj-r/zri' Woricrbuch, p. 441). 
 If it were so, "the Lord lift up his countenance to thee" would be 
 equivalent to "the Lord keep thee." When Jensen (^op. cit., col. 
 491) insists that the Assyrian expression is literally, not to lift up 
 "the face," but to lift up "the eyes," he might with equal justice 
 deny that Assyrian bit Amman means the same thing as the He- 
 brew b^ne Ammon. In fact, whereas the prevailing Hebrew usage 
 is "if it be right in thine eyes, " the Assyrian says in every case, 
 "if it be right in thy countenance" {ina panika; cf. summa \ind\ 
 tan sarri mahir^; "eyes" and " countenance" interchange in such 
 phrases as this. 
 
 In Hebrew we find "to lift up the eyes to one" used as equiv- 
 alent to "to conceive an affection for one," only with reference to 
 human, sensual love (Gen. xxxix. 7). The value of the Assyrian 
 phrase, "to lift up the eyes to any one," in its bearing on the 
 Aaronite blessing, rests in the fact that it is used with preference 
 (though not exclusively, as Jensen thinks) of the gods who direct 
 their love towards a favored person or some sacred spot. In reply 
 to Jensen who claims (p. 490) that the choice of my example of 
 the usefulness of Assyrian linguistic analogies is "a failure," I 
 comfort myself with the thought that the recognition of our in- 
 debtedness as to a deepening of the meaning of the Aaronite bless- 
 ing to cuneiform literature, was many years ago publicly endorsed 
 by no lesser one than Franz Delitzsch. 
 
 J. Barth attacks on trivial grounds my statement that Canaan 
 at the time of the Israelite Incursion, was a "domain completely 
 pervaded by Babylonian culture." This fact, however, obtains 
 ever wider recognition. Alfred Jeremias in the ^'Zeitgeist'^ of the 
 Berliner Tageblatt, February 16, 1903, says: "Further, at the time 
 of the immigration of the 'children of Israel,' Canaan was sub- 
 ject to the especial influence of Babylonian civilisation. About 
 1450 the Canaanites, like all the peoples of the Nearer East, wrote 
 in the Babylonian cuneiform character, and in the Babylonian lan- 
 guage. This fact, proved by the literature of the time, forces us 
 to assume that the influence of Babylonian thought had been ex- 
 erted for centuries previously. Of late Canaan itself seems to wish
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 155 
 
 to bear witness. The excavation of an ancient Canaanite castle by 
 Professor Sellin has brought to light an altar witli Babylonian 
 genii and trees of life, and Babylonian seals." 
 
 It may be briefly recalled here that the religion of the Cana- 
 anites with their god Tammuz, and their Asherahs, bears unmistak- 
 able marks of Babylonian influence, and that before the immigration 
 of the children of Israel a place in the neighborhood of Jerusalem 
 was called Bit-Ninib (house of Ninib), after the Babylonian god 
 Ninib. There may have been actually in Jerusalem itself a hit 
 Ninth, a temple of the god Ninib. See KeilinscJiriftliche Bihliothek, 
 v., No. 183, 15, and cf. Zimmern, in the third edition of Schra- 
 der's Die Keiliuschriftcn und das Alte Testament, second half, p. 411. 
 Cf. also Lecture II., p. 184. 
 
 THE SABBATH. 
 
 The vocabulary (II. R. 32, No. i) mentions, among divers 
 kinds of days, a um nuh lihbi (1. 16, a, h), a day for the quieting of 
 the heart (viz., of the gods), with its synonym sa-pat-tum, which 
 word, in view of the frequent use of the sign pat for bat (e. g., sii- 
 i>at, var. hat, "dwelling"; Tig. vi. 94), might be interpreted to 
 mean sabatium, and on the authority of the syllabary (82, g-i8, 
 4159, col. I, 24) where UD (Sumer. li) is rendered by sa-bat-tum, 
 it must be so. 
 
 The statement in the syllabary not only confirms the view that 
 the word sahattum means a day, but it may also explain the sabat- 
 tum to be the day par excellence, perhaps because it is the day of 
 the gods. 
 
 Jensen in Z. A. iv., i88g, pp. 274 et seq. says that sabattu 
 means "appeasement (of the gods), expiation, penitential prayer," 
 and the verb sabdtu "to conciliate" or "to be conciliated" (Jensen 
 in Christliche Welt, col. 492). But, neither from 83, 1-8, 1330, col. 
 I, 25, where ZUR is rendered sa-bat-tim (following immediately 
 upon nuhhu), nor from IV. 8, where TE is rendered by sa-hat-tivi 
 [why not, as elsewhere, in the nominative?], may Jensen's propo- 
 sition be inferred with any degree of certainty. The verb sabdtu 
 is hitherto only attested as a synonym of gamdru (V. R. 28, 14, e,f'). 
 Therefore, the only meaning that may be justifiably assumed for 
 sabattu at present is "cessation (of work), keeping holiday." It 
 seems to me that the compiler of the syllabary 83, 1-8, 1330, de- 
 rived his statement ZUR and TE = sabbatim from the equations 
 UD. ZUR Sind UD. T£-^:=:um nulilii or pussuln'=um sabattim.
 
 156 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Accordingly, the Babylonian sabattu is t]ie day of the quieting 
 of the heart of the gods and the rest day for human work (the latter 
 is naturally the condition of the former). 
 
 If in the well-known calendar of festivals (IV. R. ^2/33) the 
 seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of a month 
 are expressly characterised as days whereon every kind of labor 
 should rest, should we not see in these days no other than the sa- 
 datiu-dd.y'? 
 
 The mooted words in the calendar of festivals run, according 
 to our present knowledge, thus: "The shepherd of the great na- 
 tions shall not eat roasted or smoked (?) meat (variant : anything 
 touched by fire), not change his garment, not put on white raiment, 
 not offer sacrifice." [It is doubtful whether these prohibitions are 
 of universal application, binding also the flocks of the shepherd. 
 Then the particular prohibitions follow] ; "the King shall not 
 mount his chariot, as ruler not pronounce judgment; the Magus 
 shall not give oracles in a secret place [i. e., removed from pro- 
 fane approach], the physician shall not lay his hand on the sick, 
 [the day being] unauspiscious for any affair whatever" (.? ana kal 
 silniti; j//7Z^/« here, it seems used like 12V, in Dan. vi. 18; "afffair, 
 cause"). 
 
 Accordingly we must acquiesce in the fact that the Hebrew 
 Sabbath, ultimately is rooted in a Babylonian institution. More 
 than this was not claimed. 
 
 We need not quarrel with Konig who emphasises that the 
 Israelite Sabbath received its specific consecration on account of 
 its "humanitarian tendency towards servants, and animals." 
 
 The setting apart of the seventh day as the day in which we 
 are to refrain from labors of any kind finds its explanation, as I 
 showed years ago, in the fact that the number seven was in this as 
 in other instances to the Babylonians an 'evil' number, and this 
 is the reason why the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty- 
 eighth days in the above-mentioned calendar are called UD. HUL. 
 GAL., i. e., evil days. 
 
 Alfred Jeremias (1. c, p. 25) aptly recalls the Talmudic story, 
 according to which Moses arranged with Pharaoh a day of rest for 
 his people, and when asked which he thought the most appropriate 
 for the purpose, answered : "The seventh, dedicated to the Planet 
 Saturn, labors done on this day will anyhow not prosper, in any 
 case."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 157 
 
 THE FALL. 
 
 Any one who reads without bias my comments on the cylinder 
 seal (Fig. 47) representing a Babylonian conception of the Fall, 
 will grant that in comparing it to the Biblical story of the Fall, 
 that I merely proposed to emphasise the circumstance that the 
 serpent as the corrupter of the woman was a significant feature in 
 either version. The dress of the two Babylonian figures, naturally 
 prevented me also from regarding the tree as the tree "of knowl- 
 edge of good and evil." 
 
 It seems to me that possibly there may loom back of the Bib- 
 lical story in Gen. chapters ii.-iii. another older form which knew of 
 one tree only in the middle of the garden, the Tree of Life. The 
 words in ii. g, "and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," 
 seem to be superadded, and the narrator, quite engrossed with the 
 newly introduced tree of knowledge, and forgetful of the tree of 
 life inadvertently makes God allow man to eat of the tree of life 
 which is in contradiction with iii. 22. 
 
 As to the tree, but that alone, I agree with the late C. P. Tiele 
 who sees in the mooted Babylonian picture, "a god with his male 
 or female worshippers partaking of the fruit of the tree of life," "a 
 symbol of the hope of immortality," and also with Hommel, who 
 says (p. 23): "It is most important that the original tree was ob- 
 viously conceived to be a conifer, a pine or cedar with its life and 
 procreation promoting fruits. There is, accordingly, an unmistak- 
 able allusion to the holy cedar of Eridu, the typical tree of Para- 
 dise in the Chaldaean and Babylonian legends." 
 
 Jensen (col. 488) argues as follows: "If the picture has any 
 reference to the story of the Fall, it is likely to represent a scene 
 in which a god forbids the first-created woman to partake of the 
 fruit of the tree of life." 
 
 That one of the figures is distinguished by horns, the usual 
 symbol of strength and victory (see Amos vi. 13) in Babylonia as 
 well as in Israel, is in my opinion a very ingenious touch on the 
 part of the artist, in order to give an unmistakable indication as to 
 the sexes of the two clothed human figures. Those who see in the 
 serpent behind the woman a ' ' meandering line "or " an ornamental 
 division," may do so if they please, but they will find few that will 
 concur. 
 
 I do not stand alone with my opinion. Hommel, for instance, 
 says (p. 23): "The woman and the writhing serpent behind her
 
 158 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 express themselves clearly enough"; and Jensen (col. 488): "a 
 serpent stands or crawls behind the woman." 
 
 As to the nature of this serpent, nothing definite can be said 
 so long as we depend upon this pictorial representation alone. We 
 might regard it as one of the forms of Tiamat, who, like Leviathan 
 in Job iii. 8, and the old serpent in the Apocalypse, would be as- 
 sumed to be still in existence. But this is very uncertain. 
 
 Yi.axx'^X.'s Akkadische und siwierische Keilschrifttexte, p. iig, con- 
 tain a bilingual text (D. T. 67) which may deserve a passing notice 
 in this connection: It mentions a fallen hand-maid, the "mother 
 of sin," who being severely punished, bursts into bitter tears — "in- 
 tercourse I learned, kissing I learned" — and we find her later on 
 lying in the dust stricken by the fatal glance of the deity. 
 
 LIFE AFTER DEATH. 
 
 In the code of Hammurabi (xxvii. 34 et seq. ), the sinner is 
 cursed in the words: "May God utterly exterminate him from 
 among the living upon earth, and debar his departed soul from the 
 fresh water in Hades." 
 
 The last passage confirms the great antiquity of the Babylonian 
 conception concerning the life of the pious after death. 
 
 The Book of Job which shows a close acquaintance with Baby- 
 lonian views, describes the contrast in the underworld between a 
 hot, waterless desert destined for the wicked, and a garden with 
 fresh clear water for the pious. The passage is rendered in a phil- 
 ologically unobjectionable translation in my book Das Buck Job, 
 Leipzig, 1902: "Cursed be their portion on earth. Not does he 
 turn to vineyards. Desolation and also heat will despoil them. 
 Their prayer for snow-water will not be granted. Mercy forgets 
 him, vermin devours him ; no longer is he remembered." 
 
 Thus in its right interpretation this passage forms a welcome 
 bridge to the New Testament conception of a hot, waterless, and 
 torture-inflicting Hell, and the garden which to the Oriental mind 
 cannot be conceived of as lacking water, abundant, running, living 
 water. 
 
 The concluding verse of the prophetic book of Isaiah (ch. Ixvi. 
 24): "and they shall go forth and look with joy upon the dead 
 bodies of those that have revolted from me : how their worm dieth 
 not, neither is their fire quenched : and they are an abomination to 
 all flesh," means that those whose bodies are buried in the earth 
 will forever be gnawed by worms, and those whose bodies are
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 159 
 
 burnt with fire shall forever suffer the death of fire. In two respects 
 the passage is important : first, it shows that cremation is thought 
 of as standing entirely on the same level with burial, and that, ac- 
 cordingly, not the slightest objection can be made to cremation on 
 account of the Bible; secondly, it follows tliat the words, "where 
 their worm dieth not," in Mark's account of the description of hell- 
 fire as given by Jesus ^ should not have been admitted ; they are 
 out of place. 
 
 TIAMAT. 
 
 Jensen (/. c, p. 489) observes with reference to Tiamat : "Be- 
 rossus calls this being 'a woman,' she is the mother of the gods,' 
 has a husband and a lover, and nowhere throughout Assyrian or 
 Babylonian literature is there found even the slightest hint that 
 this creature is regarded otherwise than as a woman." 
 
 Nothing can be farther off the mark than this assertion, which 
 contradicts not merely me, but also a fact recognised by all Assyri- 
 ologists. Or is it not true that a human woman gives birth to 
 human beings, while a lioness brings forth young lions? Therefore, 
 a creature which gives birth to sirmahhe, i. e., gigantic serpents 
 (Jttalad, see Creation-epic, III., 24 and passini), must itself be a 
 great, powerful serpent, a SpaKwv /Acyas or some serpent-like mon- 
 ster. As a matter of fact, Tiamat is represented in Babylonian art 
 as a great serpent. (See, e. g., Cheyne's English translation of 
 the Book of the Prophet Isaiah in Haupt's edition of the Bible, p. 
 206.) 
 
 I see by no means in the scene reproduced in my First Lec- 
 ture (Fig. 46, p. 46) an exact portrayal of Marduk's fight with the 
 Dragon, as described to us in the creation-epic ; on the contrary, I 
 speak expressly and cautiously of a battle between "the power of 
 light and the power of darkness" in general. 
 
 The representation of this battle, especially of the monster 
 Tiamat, naturally left a wide scope to the imagination of the artist. 
 A dragon could be represented in various ways, such as we see in 
 Figure 44, page 44. The beast which lies at the feet of the god 
 Marduk has since been palpably proved by the German excavations 
 to be, as explained by me, the dragon Tiamat. The relief of the 
 sirruss?( found on the Gate of Ishtar at Babylon unmistakably 
 agrees with the figure familiar to us from our illustration. 
 
 Oettli, following Gunkel (Sc/ioJ>/u/io- utid Chaos, pp. 29-114), 
 
 1 Mk. ix. 44, 46, 48.
 
 160 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 practically agrees with my conclusion when he says: "There are 
 enough references in the prophetical and poetical books of the Old 
 Testament to make it obvious that the old [Babylonian] creation- 
 myth survived in the popular conceptions of Israel, and that in a 
 highly-colored form." And again: "There are indeed enough 
 cases where the original mythical meaning of the monsters Tehom, 
 Leviat/i(hi, Tannin, Raltab, is unmistakable."^ Isaiah proceeds (li. 
 lo): "Art thou not it that dried up the sea, the water of the great 
 Tehom, that made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to 
 pass over?" Here the prophet actually couples "those mythical 
 reminiscences " with the deliverance from Egypt, as another tri- 
 umph of Yahveh over the waters of Tehom. And when we con- 
 sider how in other passages (e. g., Ps. cvi. 9-1 1, Ixxviii. 13) Yah- 
 veh's achievement of the passage of the children of Israel through 
 the Red Sea is described and celebrated, we cannot apply to any 
 but primaeval times the words in Ps. Ixxiv. 13 sq.: "Thou brakest 
 the heads of the dragons in the waters, thou didst dash to pieces 
 the heads of the sea-monsters" (^Leviaihdti). Leviathan, according 
 to Job iii. 8 also, is a personification of the dark chaotic primaeval 
 waters, the sworn enemy of light. 
 
 Even Konig reluctantly grants (p. 27) that the Book of Job^ 
 "alludes, in all probability, to the conquest of the primaeval ocean ; " 
 Jensen accordingly seems to stand quite alone when he says (/. c, 
 p. 490): 
 
 "Wherever the Old Testament mentions a struggle of Yahveh against serpents 
 and crocodile-like creatures, there is no occasion to assume with Delitzsch and 
 with a goodly number of other Assyriologists [add : also with Gunkel and most 
 Old Testament theologians] a reference to the Babylonian myth of the struggle 
 with Tiamat." 
 
 Oettli is right when he declares (p. 17): 
 
 ' ' To submit the researches of Natural Science to the Biblical version of the 
 creation is a wholly erroneous proceeding, which is the more unintelligible as the 
 details of the second account of Genesis and many other passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment are quite incompatible with the first. Let us, therefore, unreservedly give to 
 Science that which belongs to Science." 
 
 Oettli proceeds : 
 
 " But let us also give to God that which is God's ; the world is a creation of 
 God's omnipotence, which supports it as its law of life, — this the first page of Gen- 
 esis tells us." 
 
 1 Oettli cites Job ix. 13 and Isaiah li. 9, vvliere. moreover, "pierced" initjht be better than 
 dislionored." 
 
 2 " God turns not his anger, the helpers of rtfArfi brake in pieces under liim " (is. 13). and 
 in his power he smote the sea and in his wisdom he dashed rShSb to pieces " (xxvi. 12).
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 161 
 
 In this I can no longer concur. Our faith claims, and many 
 passages in the Old Testament assert, that God is the Almighty 
 Creator of heaven and earth, but this truth is certainly not stated on 
 the first page of Genesis, where we read : "In the beginning God 
 created the heaven and the earth, — and the earth was waste and 
 desolate," etc. ; for this passage leaves unanswered the question, 
 "Whence did chaos originate?" Besides, even among the Baby- 
 lonians the creation of the heavens and of the earth is ascribed to 
 the gods, and the life of all animate creatures is regarded as rest- 
 ing in their hands. 
 
 * 
 
 * * 
 
 I will call attention to a passage in II. R. 51, 44^, where a 
 canal is named after "the Serpent-god who bursts (or destroys) 
 the house of life," apparently referring to some as yet unknown 
 Babylonian myth. This, however, would upset Jensen's view, that 
 we may perhaps see in the two figures, two gods dwelling by the 
 tree of life, and in the serpent, its guardian. 
 
 Zimmern^ regards the serpent-god as ultimately identical with 
 the chaos-monster. 
 
 ANGELS. 
 
 Cornill (/. c, p. 1682), also, comes to the conclusion that "the 
 conception of angels is genuinely Babylonian." When I spoke of 
 guardian angels who attend on men (Ps. xci. 11 et seq., Matt, 
 xviii. 10), I had in mind such passages as Apia's well-known letter 
 of consolation to the queen-mother (K. 523). The Babylonian 
 officer writes: "Mother of the king, my lady, be comforted (?) ! 
 Bel's and Nebo's angel of mercy attends on the king of the lands, 
 my lord." Further the writing addressed to Esarhaddon (K. 948): 
 "May the great gods send a guardian of salvation and life to stand 
 by the king, my lord;" and also the words of Nabopolassar, the 
 founder of the Chaldaean kingdom: "To lordship over land and 
 people Marduk called me. He sent a Cherub of mercy (a tutelary 
 god) to attend on me, and everything I undertook he sped" (see 
 Mitteihmgen dcr deutschen Oricnt-Gcscllschaft, No. 10, p. 14 et seq.). 
 
 In "the Old Serpent which is the Devil and Satan" is pre- 
 served the ancient Babylonian conception of Tiamat, the primaeval 
 enemy of the gods, while Satan, who appears several times in the 
 later and latest books of the Old Testament, and is always the 
 enemy of man, not of God,'^ owes his origin to Babylonian demon- 
 
 1 Die KeiUnsckri/ten und das Alte Testament, 3rd ed., second half, p. 504 et seq. 
 2See Job, ch. i. et seq., i Chron. xxi. i, Zech. iii. i et seq.
 
 162 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ology in which we become acquainted with an //// limiiu or 'evil 
 god' and a galbi or 'devil.' 
 
 BABYLONIAN SUPERSTITIONS IN SWEDEN. 
 
 How much Assyria intrudes into our own time can be seen 
 from G. Hellmann's most interesting communion on the Chaldaean 
 origin of modern superstitions about the understorms (in the Mc- 
 teorologische Zeitsclvift, June, 1896, pp. 236-238), where it is proved 
 that an ancient Babylonian belief survives even at the present day 
 in the popular Swedish book, Sibyllae Prophetia, in which a chapter 
 entitled "Tordons marketecken " treats of the prognostics of the 
 weather and fertility as indicated by tlie thunder in the several 
 months. 
 
 CANAANITES. 
 
 The term used by me in its usual linguistic sense (see, e. g., 
 Kautzsch, Hehrdische Gravnnatik, 27th ed., p. 2), has been replaced 
 in later editions by "North Semites," simply because the name was 
 frequently misunderstood. That the kings of the first Babylonian 
 dynasty, Sumu-ahi and his successors, do not belong to that Semitic 
 stock of Babylonian Semites who had become fused with the Sume- 
 rians, but rather to later immigrants, is proved by the ancient Baby- 
 lonian scholars, for they deemed the names of the two kings Havi- 
 murabi (also Aimnurabi') and Atnmisadtiga (or A?7imizaduga) to be 
 foreign and stand in need of explanation, rendering the former by 
 Kimta-rapastum, "wide-spread family" (cf. C^'t'^I, Rehoboam), and 
 the latter by Kimtum-kcttiim, "upright family" (VR. 44, 21, 22, a, 
 b'). The replacement of the y (in C^'', people, family) by h in the 
 name Hatnmurabi shows that these Semites, unlike the older stock 
 that had been settled for centuries in Babylonia, still pronounced 
 the i? as an r. Further, their pronunciation of sh as an s,^ no less 
 than the preformative of the third person of the perfect tense with ia 
 (not /'''), proves that these Semitic tribes were quite distinct, which 
 fact, first stated by Hommel and Winckler, is and remains true, in 
 spite of Jensen's opposition (/. r. , p. 491). Linguistic and his- 
 5^ torical considerations make it more than probable thatJ^these im- 
 migrant Semites belonged to the Northern Semites and are most 
 closely afifiliated with the linguistically so-called "Canaanites" (i. 
 e., the Phoenicians, Moabites, Hebrews, etc.). The knowledge of 
 
 'iSanisu in Sa-am-su-iii'tna (cf. also Samu-abi) as contrasted with the older Babylonian 
 Shamshu. 
 
 2 In the personal names of that age Yamlik-ilu, Varbi-ilu, Yalc-hani-ilu, etc
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 163 
 
 this we owe to the acumen of Hugo Winckler (see his Geschichie 
 Israels'), who thereby made a particularly important addition to his 
 many other merits. The na of ihifia (in Samsu iliina), which is 
 alleged to mean "our God," is not sufficient to prove tribal rela- 
 tionship with Arabia, since, in view of the names Am?ni-zadi(ga, 
 Ammi-ditana, it is at least equally probable that ibina represents an 
 adjective. 1 However, z^r^/?^^, "righteous," may indicate a "Cana- 
 anite" dialect, both lexically^ and phonetically;^ and the same may 
 be said, too, of such personal names as Ya-sji-ub-ilu belonging to 
 the same age.* Will Jensen be able ever to produce an unobjec- 
 tionable explanation from the Babylonian language of such names 
 as Yasiib-ilu? 
 
 INote the personal name /-/»-«« in Meissner's 5^?V>-(V^f zutn allbabytonischen Privatrecht, 
 
 No. 4 ; cf. yb^ 1 
 
 iZadilg must be the Hebrew pi^^i; f°r 'he verbal stem, compare saduk, "he is righteous," 
 in the Amarna tablets. 
 
 SThe vowel H is obscured to o, ft ; e. g., in anflki, signifying the pronoun '' I " in the Amarna 
 tablets, etc. 
 
 4Cf. Phcen. Ba-'a-al-ia-sit-bu, VR, 2, Sfr.
 
 REPLY TO CRITICS OF THE SECOND LEC- 
 TURE. 
 
 That a discussion of these momentous theological or religio- 
 historical questions, if they are but treated in the right spirit, 
 could be considered an injury or even an insult to Judaism, least of 
 all to the modern Jewish faith, is in my opinion absolutely ex- 
 cluded. Dispassionate, strictly objective inquiry into the origin 
 of the Sabbath, of the position of woman in Israel as well as in 
 Babylonia, and of kindred questions, can only sharpen our judg- 
 ment and promote the truth. In the same way we shall gradually 
 witness in Jewish circles a unanimity regarding the worth of Old 
 Testament monotheism, which at present is not yet attained. In 
 contradiction to the universalism of the belief in God which several 
 Jewish writers of open letters assume to prevail in the Old Testa- 
 ment (and they imagine they prove their case by quotations of Scrip- 
 tural passages), the opinion of other Israelites, authorities both for 
 their general knowledge and Biblical scholarship, has been voiced, 
 the purport of which appears in the following private letter of Jan- 
 uary 14, 1903: 
 
 "Irrefutable is your assertion that Jewish monotheism is egotistic, particular- 
 stic, and exclusive ; equally irrefutable, however, in my opinion, is the fact that 
 this rigorously particularistic monotheism alone could preserve Judaism for thou- 
 sands of years in the midst of all kinds of persecution and hostility. From the 
 Jewish standpoint, the national theism is brilliantly justified; to give it up means 
 to give up Judaism ; and though much can be said in favor of such a surrender, 
 there are many points that militate against it." 
 
 The divine character of the Torah, of course, will have to be 
 excluded from scientific discussion, at least so long as a complete 
 neglect of the results of Pentateuch-criticism on the Jewish side 
 can be regarded as "exact science," and so long as reviews of 
 Babel and Bible based on such a neglect are looked upon as "scien- 
 tific criticism."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLK. 165 
 
 A deep pain seizes me, who myself am sprung from a strictly 
 orthodox Lutheran house, when I consider the abyss of obscurant- 
 ism, confusion, halfheartedness, contradiction, let alone worse fea- 
 tures, of the evangelical orthodoxy displayed towards the questions 
 raised hy Babel and Bible. From all quarters and corners the cry is 
 raised that I have said "nothing essentially new": but, if that be 
 so, why this extraordinary excitement? 
 
 On the one hand, a deep lamentation and bitter accusation of 
 Assyriology comes from Aix-la-Chapelle, because the Old Testa- 
 ment traditions, e. g., Nebuchadnezzar's madness, are arbitrarily 
 assumed to be borrowed from Babylonian myths; on the other 
 hand, an "orthodox pastor" exclaims in the columns of a journal 
 of central Germany that I am fighting windmills, because the story 
 of Balaam's ass, of the sun standing still, of the fall of the walls of 
 Jericho, of the fish which swallows Jonah, of Nebuchadnezzar's 
 madness, are not contained in the historical books of the Bible. 
 "They are accounts," he says, "whose historical trustworthiness 
 may be contested even according to orthodox views." 
 
 Accordingly even evangelical orthodoxy set aside "revela- 
 tions" which are no longer deemed in accord with the spirit of the 
 age: will not the orthodoxy once for all condescend to an open 
 confession, and explain unequivocally which books and narratives 
 of "Hol/y Scripture" tliey think proper to surrender? 
 
 Professor Ernst Sellin of Vienna, one of the first and most 
 meritorious among the positive Old Testament investigators, gladly 
 cicknowledges in his glosses on Babel atid Bible (^Neue Freie Presse, 
 January 25, 1903) "the innumerable helps, elucidations, and cor- 
 rections which in grammatical and lexicographical questions as 
 well as in the field of the history of civilisation and general history 
 Old Testament investigation owes to the decipherment of the Baby- 
 lonian inscriptions. Yet, on the other,'' he is of opinion that if I 
 dispose of the fact of a divine revelation in the Bible on account 
 of the Songs of Songs and the amalgamation of tradition out of 
 heterogeneous sources, I appear on the scene a hundred years too 
 late. This is, to say the least, a gross exaggeration. When my 
 dear father, Franz Delitzsch, towards the end of his life, found 
 himself compelled by the weight of the facts of the Old Testament 
 text criticism to make some, and indeed the smallest possible, con- 
 cessions for the book of Genesis, he was persecuted, even on his 
 deathbed (1890), by the denunciation of whole synods. And the 
 great commotion excited by my Second Lecture serves to show
 
 166 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 convincingly enough that the circles which govern Church and 
 school cherish a different conviction from that of my highly- 
 esteemed critic. 
 
 The several clergymen who have not wasted their time at the 
 university adhere to freer views, but Church and School — especially 
 the public schools — have remained unaffected, and this inconsist- 
 ency is no longer endurable, as stated in my First Lecture and also 
 freely granted by Harnack. 
 
 And this inconsistency produces an increasingly widening gulf. 
 When, e. g., a theologian of no less authority writes (26th January, 
 /90"? +9^)- "You criticise a conception of Revelation that sensible 
 Protestants no longer share ; it is that of the antiquated Lutheran 
 Dogmatists. . . . All divine revelation is, of course, affected by the 
 human medium, and must therefore have historically developed; " 
 he describes exactly the standpoint that I myself advocate, only I 
 regard the conceptions of ' 'divine revelation " as held by the Church 
 and as a historical, i. e., human, development to be irreconcilable 
 contradictions. Either we take the one or the other. Ttrtium non 
 datur. 
 
 I hold the view that in the Old Testament we have to deal 
 with a development effected or permitted by God like any other 
 product of this world, but, for the rest, of a purely human and his- 
 torical character, in which God has not intervened through a "spe- 
 cial, supernatural revelation." 
 
 The Old Testament monotheism plainly shows itself to be 
 such a process marked by an advance from the imperfect to the 
 perfect, from the false to the true, here and there indeed by occa- 
 sional retrogression. The modification of the original conception 
 of revelation, deeply rooted in ancient Orientalism, by a surrender 
 of the verbal inspiration, made by both, evangelical and Catholic 
 theology, and even by the Church, irretrievably divests the Old 
 Testament of its character as the "Word of God," ushering in, as 
 it seems to me, the end of the theological and the beginning of the 
 religio-historical treatment of the Old Testament. 
 
 The present resurrection of the Babylonio-Assyrian literature 
 has certainly not been accomplished without God's will. It has 
 suddenly taken its place by the side of the ancient Hebrew litera- 
 ture, the only one of Hither-Asia heretofore known to us, and com- 
 pels to revise our conception of revelation bound up with the Old 
 Testament. Would that we might more and more become con- 
 vinced that only by a dispassionate reinvestigation of the docu-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 167 
 
 ments we can reach our aim, and that in this controversy, neither 
 now nor when its solution has been approached, our piety and the 
 communion of our hearts with God can suffer the least. *^ 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I shall endeavor to reply only to scientific criticisms, but I fear 
 that, if I adhere to this maxim, I shall have little opportunity, if 
 matters continue as heretofore, to concern myself with Evangelical 
 Orthodoxy. Their method of warfare, especially that of the Evan- 
 gelical Orthodox Press, fills me with profound disgust. In the 
 Evangelische Kzrchenzeitung, founded by the venerable Hengsten- 
 burg. Pastor P. Wolff, of Friedensdorf, Seelow, one of its regular 
 contributors, writes (No. 4, January 25, 1903) as follows: 
 
 "Judging from the proofs given by Delitzsch, we must expect him in his next 
 Lecture to point out, how much lower the views of Christianity regarding marriage 
 are than those of the Babylonians by a reference to the elopment of the Sa,\on 
 Crown-Princess. No Babylonian princess ever ran away with the tutor of her 
 children." 
 
 And again : 
 
 "Delitzsch intends to deliver another lecture on Babylon and the New Testa- 
 ment ; perhaps he will also treat the subject ' Babel and Berlin ' : and therein will 
 discover many points of contact. A small contribution I could offer myself. By 
 the latest discoveries it has been proved that even the Prussian decorations are de- 
 rived from Babylon. On a monolith preserved in the British Museum, King Samsi- 
 Ramman IV., is represented wearing upon his breast, on a ribbon round the neck, 
 a cross, which appears to be exactly like a modern cross such as is used for orders 
 What a new light is shed by this last discovery upon our comprehension of the 
 real meaning of orders 1 Even in Babylon the order of the Red Eagle of the 
 fourth class was already bestowed ! Since our orders are unquestionably derived 
 from Babel, it is evident that our modern civilisation is steeped through and 
 through with Babylonian ideas " 
 
 What a slough of mental and moral depravity in a German 
 clergyman these words bespeak ! And samples like this could be 
 multiplied tenfold ! 
 
 In contrast to this, I, as an Evangelical Christian, greet with 
 gratitude Rev. Dr. Friedrich Jeremias of Dresden, whose discus- 
 sion of my lecture (^Drcsdner Journal, February 4, 1903), though 
 according to his standpoint he naturally rejects my position, is 
 truly noble both in diction and substance. 
 
 A third lecture on "Babel and Bible" will be delivered as 
 as soon as the views on these two lectures shall have become clear 
 and settled.
 
 THIRD AND LAST LECTURE
 
 Ill 
 
 THIRD AND LAST LECTURE. 
 
 I. 
 
 ONCE again let me point out how the restoration of 
 Babylonian and Assyrian antiquity is broadening 
 our spiritual insight, how, together with the achievements 
 of Old Testament research, it is radically changing our 
 judgment in regard to the essential value of ancient He- 
 brew literature, and how it seems destined to shed light 
 upon the most vital religious questions. 
 
 The horizon of the tribal genealogy of Genesis x (the 
 so-called Volkertafet) only extended as far as the Persian 
 Gulf, and its geography and ethnology corresponded to 
 the limited knowledge of about the seventh century before 
 Christ, yet no one would hold it responsible for its many 
 errors and omissions. In the second verse Japheth's oldest 
 son is given as Gomer (mentioned also in Ezekiel xxxviiij 
 6), and the third as Madai. While the Indo-Germanic 
 Medes (Madai) first come within the horizon even of the 
 Assyrians in the time of Sargon (722-705 B. C.) , this is 
 not the case with Gimir (Gomer) until Asarhaddon's time 
 (681-668 B. C.)' The Sapardaeans were the inhabitants 
 of the land Saparda-u which is named in the inscriptions 
 of King Darius together with Cappadocia and Ionia and 
 
 ' See my paper IVo lag das Paradies? p. 245 f. Leipsic, 1881.
 
 172 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 was probably also in Asia Minor ; and tbese people appear 
 on the clay tablets (Sm. 2005, K. 4668 and others) to- 
 gether with the Girmirraeans, Medes, and Mannasans as 
 enemies of Asarhaddon. Thus a little light falls on the 
 land Sepharad mentioned by the prophet bbadiah (i. 20) 
 to which the people of Jerusalem were taken as captives 
 probably by Ionian merchants or pirates. 
 
 To rightly appreciate the actual facts, we must take 
 
 Fig. 82. Silver Vase of 
 
 Entemena. 
 Original in the Louvre. 
 
 Fig. 83. Bronze Ox Head. 
 Original in the Royal Museum at Berlin. 
 
 into account that it was a Hebrew author who gave Shem 
 the rank of first born of the father of post-diluvian human- 
 ity. But we may not always persist in slavish dependence 
 upon such a shortsighted representation of the history of 
 civilisation which is constantly fettered by Semitic preju- 
 dices ; but rather must we be thankful for the enormous 
 expansion of our knowledge that has been brought about
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 173 
 
 by excavations in Babylonia and Assyria, in tbe realm of 
 the earliest liistory of mankind. The Old Testament 
 writers had no presentiment of those people, for instance, 
 who preceded the later Indo-Germanic Medes (the descen- 
 dants of Japheth) or the Semites in Mesopotamia. The 
 genealogy in Genesis takes no note of the non-Semitic 
 Elamites whose dominion extended for a time over Baby- 
 lon as far as Canaan in the third millennium before Christ, 
 and the inexhaustible plenitude of whose power set limits 
 even to the victorious Assyrian columns. 
 
 Even the Sumerian nation disappeared completely 
 from the remembrance of the writers of the Old Testament 
 as well as of Greek authors, although by a curious chance 
 Abraham's home, Ur of the Chaldees, bears a Sumerian 
 name, and the temple (hechal) on Zion as well as David's 
 throne (kisse) are called by foreign names borrowed from 
 the Sumerian language. Ur (Hebrew, Ur-KasJidim^) 
 is the Sumero-Babylonian Uru^ originally Urum^ i. e., 
 ''city," so called as a "place of refuge." The Hebrew 
 words for "temple,"^ and "throne"^ are borrowed like the 
 corresponding Babylonian- Assyrian words ekallu and 
 knssii^ from the Sumerian &-gaI, i. e., "large house," and 
 guzd . 
 
 Ever clearer and more tangible appears before our 
 eyes this small but highly talented nation whose people 
 shared the religious beliefs of the Semitic Babylonians 
 and more or less influenced the Canaanite tribes ; this 
 nation of pioneers in everything which makes for the re- 
 fining, ennobling and beautifying of life. Their workings 
 in silver of the third or even the fourth millennium before
 
 174 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Christ, like the magnificent silver vase of the royal priest 
 Entemena, arouse our admiration ; or bronzes like those 
 splendidly molded oxen heads with eyes of lapis lazuli. 
 Their diorite sculptures, like that of the architect with 
 his construction plans upon his knees, are not so very 
 
 Fig. 84. Sitting Statue of Gudea. 
 
 inferior to the ideal that must have been present in the 
 mind of the Sumerian artist. 
 
 When we observe these heads of Sumerian men and 
 women in whose finely cut features the ennobling influ- 
 ence of hard work is clearly evident, and realise that the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 175 
 
 culture of these people not only founded that of the Semitic 
 Babylonians, but is still operative in our own in matters 
 of no inconsiderable importance, then we feel justified in 
 the hope that the form of which instruction in the earliest 
 history of mankind has availed itself, will in the future 
 be made to conform to the advance of science, even if the 
 old form, Shem, Ham and Japheth must be abandoned. 
 
 Fig. 85. Restoration of the Sumerian Architect.' 
 
 Only two kings of the few rulers of the kingdom of 
 Chaldasa which Nabopolassar had founded, held any in- 
 terest for the people of Judaea : Nebuchadnezzar who led 
 the Jewish nation into captivity, but by the vastness of 
 his dominion compelled veneration and awe even from his 
 enemies, and the last minor king Nabuna'id in whose 
 
 * The restitution 01 nature of the statue of "The Architect" is due to Leon 
 Heuzey and may be found in plate XI of Heuzey's Origincs orientates de I art ; 
 rectieil de m^moi7-e s archt'ologigues et de monumejits figures, irepartie, Paris, 1891. 
 Heuzey observes in regard to this photograph of his model, "Thus we can account 
 for the arrangement of the shoudda or Indian woolen shawl which I have used in 
 restoring the fringed shawls of the statues of Gudea. "
 
 176 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 reign Babylon fell into the hands of Persian Cyrus, the 
 redeemer of Judah's captivity. And as their recollection 
 became less vivid, Nabuna'id was replaced in the minds 
 
 Fig. 86. Heads of Sumerian Men. 
 Originals in Paris and Berlin. 
 
 of the people by his son Belshazzar, the leader of the 
 Chaldaean army in the war against Persia, who in turn
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 177 
 
 was wrongfully called the son of Chaldasa's greatest king, 
 Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 Thanks to excavations, however, we are now correctly 
 
 Fig. 87. Heads of Sumerian Women. 
 Originals in Paris and Berlin. 
 
 informed about all these matters without casting any 
 special reflections upon the Book of Daniel, a production
 
 178 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 of the second century before Christ. Much rather are we 
 grateful to the author that whatever liberties he has other- 
 wise taken with the history and interpretation of the words 
 niene mene tekel fi-pharstn^ he has nevertheless given us 
 the key to their correct explanation. For, as the French 
 archaeologist Clermont-Ganneau has recognised, the con- 
 trast so impressively depicted in the fifth chapter of the 
 Book of Daniel between the great father Nebuchadnezzar 
 and his exceedingly inferior son under whom the Persians 
 had seized the kingdom, betrays in connection with the 
 once possible meaning of the words, ''There has been 
 numbered a minc^ a sekel and a half mme^^'' that this fa- 
 miliar saying had its origin in Jewish circles where the 
 insignificant son of a great man used to be figuratively 
 designated as ''^sekel^ son of a mine'''' and vice versa. To 
 this epithet then the M-ord play bet\veen parsin^ "half- 
 mine^'''' and "Persian" was easily adapted. This spirited, 
 somewhat sarcastic bon 7itot comprehensively sums up the 
 entire Chaldaean history in the words, a mine^ i, e., a great 
 king ; a sekel ^ i.e., aworthless prince : andhalf 7nine^ i. e. , 
 the division of the realm between the Aledes and the 
 Persians.' 
 
 We need no longer discuss the identity of the Assyr- 
 ian king, Pul, who reigned in the days of Menahem of 
 Israel (2 Kings, xv. 19) with the Assyrian king Tiglath- 
 pileser, the contemporary of Pekah (verse 29) . The 
 
 ' Of the large number of treatises written on the words my^e mne tkel A-fhar- 
 si'n, the following are worthy of especial mention: Clermont-Ganneau in the 
 Journal asialique, Serie VIII, i {1886), p. 36 ff, ; Th, Noldeke, "Mene tekel 
 upharsin" in the Zcitsclirift fiir Assyriologie (ZA) i, 1866, p. 414-418. Georg 
 Hoffmann, "Mene, mene tekel upharsin," ibid., II, 1887, pp. 45-48; but above all 
 others Paul Haupt in Johns Hofkiyis Unive7'sity Circular, No. 58, p. 104. Cf. 
 also ibid. No. 98, May, 1892, John Dyneley Prince, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, 
 Upharsin."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 179 
 
 question at issue lias long been settled, and was forever 
 done away with by the discovery of two more cuneiform 
 chronologies. I refer to the list of Babylonian kings in 
 which Poros is written Pu hi (Hebrew Put) ; and the 
 Babylonian chronicle, which, although copied from a Baby- 
 lonian original for a Babylonian, inserts instead of Pulu 
 the Assyrian name of this king Tukulti-apil-eshara . In- 
 cidentall}^ we notice the play of chance, that just as in the 
 Hebrew record (1 Chron. v. 6, 26; 2 Chron. xxviii. 20) 
 the name of this Assyrian king is wrongly written Tig- 
 lathpil;?eser, so in the Babylonian Chronicle (I. 23) it is 
 incorrectly written Tukul-ti-apil-z>z<7-eshar-ra. This error 
 is accounted for by the ina Bdbili which immediately 
 follows. 
 
 A bas relief in the palace of Nimrud represents him as 
 
 standing vividly before us on his war-chariot, the renowned 
 Pul or Tiglathpileser III, whose protection Menahem 
 
 purchased for one thousand talents of silver, but who after- 
 wards threw in the face of Assyria, the whole of Galilee 
 with its neighboring territory and led aM^ay the inhabitants 
 captive. Thus was furnished occasion for that amalgama- 
 tion of Galilasans and Samaritans which sprang into ex- 
 istence in the eighth and seventh centuries before Christ, 
 by transplanting on that soil foreign nationalities at whose 
 head were • citizens from the Babylonian towns, Babel, 
 Kutha, and Erech. According to 2 Kings xvii, 24, the 
 king of Assyria (Sargon is meant) placed people from 
 Babylon, Kutha, ^ Ava, Hamath and Sepharvaim in the 
 cities of Samaria; so also Ezra iv. 9 records where the 
 inhabitants of Erech and Babylon are likewise named 
 
 ^ "PIE 2 For Kutha see pp. 72 and 73.
 
 180 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 among those nationalities transplanted by Asnappar 
 (Asurbanipal) to Samaria and other lands across the 
 Euphrates, together with the Susianians, i. e. Elamites. 
 The underlying current of this mixed race was Baby- 
 lonian and remained so to such a degree that the Talmud 
 in countless passages calls the Samaritans Kuthaeans 
 directly after the Babylonian city Kutha, and that the 
 Galilasan dialect with its peculiarly Babylonian slurring 
 
 Fig. 88. The Assyrian King Pul (Tiglathpileser hi). 
 
 of gutturals betrayed the Galilaean even in Jesus' time 
 (Matt. xxvi. 72i). To illustrate this, compare the familiar 
 passage of the Talmud {Erubi7i 53 b.) : ''When the 
 Galilaean said, 'Who has an amar'V they answered him, 
 'Thou foolish Galilaean, meanest thou an ass (hainory to 
 ride, wine (hamary to drink, or wool C aviary for clothing, 
 or a lamb Cimmary to slay?' " Gutturals were for the 
 most part similarly reduced to a spiritus lenis in the Bab- 
 ylonian language. The Israelites regarded the Babylo- 
 
 n?:N 2-)"7:n 3-)^n (-i^jn; •>T_:r n::^) 5-|^i<
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 181 
 
 nians as sb little Semitic that the author of the ethnolog- 
 ical lists in Genesis did not include them at all in his 
 enumeration of the "Sons of Shem." The establishment 
 of the Babylonian character (which from this very fact, 
 therefore, was not purely Semitic) of the mixed race of 
 the Samaritans and Galilseans might prove worthy of 
 consideration, it seems to me, in the New Testament in- 
 vestigations of the future. 
 
 Many of the sayings, ideas, and actions of the Gali- 
 laean Jesus unconsciously compel Babylonian comparisons , 
 as, for instance, there might prove to be an intrinsic con- 
 nection between the Babylonianism "Son of Man," by 
 which term Ezekiel was usually addressed by Yahveh; 
 and the use of exactly the same expression in the mouth 
 of Jesus. It no longer requires explanation that in Aramaic 
 usage as well as in the Babylonian, "son of man" is a 
 circumlocution for "man" (children of men=men) and 
 that Dan. vii. 13 (where with reference to the coming 
 Messiah it is said one like the "son of man" came with 
 the clouds) is to be understood as "there came a being in 
 human form." As regards Yahveh 's constant mode of 
 addressing the prophet Ezekiel as son of man (benadani),'^ 
 which is found elsewhere only in Dan. vii. 17, it seems 
 to me we must accept it as a Babylonianism like others 
 in the book of Ezekiel. Smend in Der Prophet EzechieV' 
 considers that the prophet is thus addressed as one "who 
 in relation to the majesty of God feels himself simply as 
 an accidentally chosen individual of his wretched race (Ps. 
 viii. 5 ; Job xxv. 6) and not as a particular personality 
 (cf. Amos vii. 8 ; viii. 2 ; Jer. i, 11) " ; and on that account 
 
 ^ ZnX *5 ^ Second ed., p. 17 Leipsic: 1880.
 
 182 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Luther translates it "child of man" to be more exact. But 
 why were none of the other prophets addressed by Yahveh 
 as "son of man" or "child of man"? If the Ezekiel mode 
 of address is only a Babylonianism, then the epithet "son 
 of man" might prove to be simply a substitute for the 
 personal name. For the Babylonian mar avilini^ "son 
 of man," or "child of man" is only a circumlocution for 
 the simple <^z^2/?^/;2, "man," and is interchangeable with 
 it, for instance, in the Code of Hammurabi ; but with the 
 Babylonian "son of man" (and consequently also with 
 the simple "man") there is always connected the idea of 
 a certain dignity. For in contrast to a slave whose name 
 never received the added "son of such and such," and in 
 contrast to a person of obscure parentage who was called 
 "son of nobody" (mar Id mamait)^ the idea of the free 
 man, the nobleman, was closely connected with the term 
 "son of man." For this very reason the Babylonian "son 
 of man" made a very suitable substitute for a personal 
 name, just as old Babylonian letters bear in place of the 
 individual name of the addressee, the words "Speak to 
 the man whom Marduk will endow with life" (ajia avilim. 
 sJia Marduk Jtballatsku).^ 
 
 It surely seems as if it would be an easy matter to 
 prove a close connection bet^veen this Babylonianism as 
 used in the accounts of the prophets and the same ex- 
 pression spoken by Jesus. On the other hand it may be 
 well to add just here that a far more important Biblical 
 usage is now at last conclusively cleared up, and indeed 
 in a way that no Old Testament exegetist ever dreamed 
 of. The old Babylonian law documents, like the Code of 
 
 ' See VATh 793. Bu.88, 5-12, 207. Bu. 91, 59, 354.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 183 
 
 Hammurabi, bring to light certain short formulas by 
 means of which definite expressed wishes receive irrevo- 
 cable legal authority. If the father or mother says to a 
 child "You are not my child," (ul marl atta)^ then by 
 that statement he is repudiated and cast out from house 
 and home. And as a child was legally adopted in Babylonia 
 by pronouncing the words "You are my son," so the 
 psalmist in that familiar seventh verse of the second psalm 
 explains the Messiah allegorically as Yahveh's adopted 
 son and heir of the nations until the end of the world by 
 Yahveh's own inviolable decree, "Thou art my son: this 
 day have I begotten thee." 
 
 It is interesting in this connection to compare the 
 Code of Hammurabi, Sec. 170 : "When a man's wife bears 
 him children and his slave bears him children, and during 
 his lifetime he says to the children which the slave bore 
 him 'my children' (mdriia) they are included with the 
 children of the wife. After the father's death the property 
 will be divided equally among the wife's children and 
 those of the slave, but the son of the wife will have the 
 first choice of the portions." It is similarly stated in 
 Sec. 171. We read further in Sec. 192 : "If a child says 
 to his foster father or mother, 'You are not my father, — 
 You are not my mother,' his tongue shall be cut out.'" 
 
 Indeed, the reawakening of the Assyrio-Babylonian 
 antiquity proves to be especially significant for the Old 
 Testament psalter, that hymn book of post-exilic Israel. 
 Of course I do not refer here to the minor consideration 
 
 1 For these short juridical formulas see Kohler-Peiser, Hamrnurabis Gesetz 
 (Vol. I, Leipsic, 1904, p. 123, note i) — where reference is made (and with reason) 
 to Hosea i. 9, "Ye are not my people," and Psalms Ixxxix. 27, "Also I will make 
 him my firstborn."
 
 184 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 that the many musical instruments mentioned in the Old 
 Testament and particularly in the psalms, such as harp, 
 
 Fig. 89. Musicians. 
 Relief from Sendschirli in Northern Syria. 
 
 Fig. 90. Assyrian Procession of Musicians. 
 From the time of Asurbanipal. 
 
 zither, C3mibals, and timbrels, are now found to be repre- 
 sented on Assyrian monuments, although, because of the
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 185 
 
 near relationship of the Israelites with the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians, the Assyrian reliefs may well bespeak our 
 interest above all others. By others, I mean those repre- 
 
 Fig. gi. Assyrian Harp and Zither 
 Players. 
 
 Fig. 92. Assyrian Quartet. 
 
 Fig. 93. Assyrian Harp and Flute Players. 
 
 sentations which furnish valuable illustrations to the 
 Hebrew or Syrian musical instruments as, for instance, 
 the relief brought to light by German excavations in Send- 
 schirli under the leadership of Felix von Luschans and
 
 186 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 which is now preserved in the Museum of Constantinople. 
 Indeed, when we observe more closely this long triumphal 
 procession of singing and playing musicians, men, women 
 and children, and perhaps single out the first lute players 
 and place by their side analogous pictures of harp and 
 zither players, reliefs of the ninth and seventh centuries 
 before Christ; perhaps add, too, this quartet which repre- 
 sents both cymbals and timbrels, connoisseurs would then 
 be sufficiently informed in regard to the construction and 
 
 Fig. 94. Ancient Babylonian Harp of Eleven Strings. 
 
 manner of playing on those old stringed instruments. It 
 is interesting to be able to place by the side of the ten- 
 stringed harp so often mentioned in the Old Testament 
 psalms an eleven-stringed harp represented in a primi- 
 tive Babylonian relief. 
 
 But of far greater importance is the fact that in the 
 Assyrio-Bab34onian poetry a perfectly consistent parallel 
 has arisen to the Hebrew psalms themselves, especially 
 as far as concerns the external form of their 13'rics.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 187 
 
 "O Lord, Thou who judgment pronouncest on earth and in heaven, 
 Against whose decrees there is none who prevaileth. 
 Thou who fire and water controllest, and guidest each breath-en- 
 dowed creature. 
 Who of the gods can come near Thee in power majestic ? 
 In heaven — who is exalted? Thou alone art exalted! 
 On earth — who is exalted? Thou alone art exalted! 
 When Thy word goeth forth in the heavens, the heavenly hosts^ 
 bow before Thee ; 
 When Thy word goeth forth upon earth, the spirits of earth* 
 kiss the ground. 
 When upward mounteth Thy word like a hurricane, food and 
 drink are in plenty abounding. 
 Resoundeth Thy word in terrestrial places, green groweth the 
 grass in the meadows. 
 Thy word maketh fat the flocks and herds, and increaseth all 
 breath-endowed creatures, 
 Thy word bringeth truth and justice to pass, so that truth by 
 mankind may be spoken, 
 Thy word's like the heavens afar or the earth deeply hidden — 
 none can it fathom, 
 
 * 
 
 Thy word — who can learn it? Or who can struggle against it?" 
 
 This miglit be a psalm of the Old Testament after 
 the manner perhaps of the 148th, yet the words are taken 
 from a Babylonian hymn addressed to the local deit}^ of 
 Ur, the moon-god, and show plainly how similar was the 
 poetical form of religious songs of the two lands ; the 
 verses are usually formed of two parallel portions and two 
 or more of the individual verses unite to form a stanza. 
 
 The Babylonian psalms, certain ones of which the 
 Babylonians themselves divided off metrically by strokes, 
 unite with the Creation Epic to add a new and rich element 
 
 ' ^S^S^< J- 6- 1 "the strong ones" of heaven. 
 
 2 Ayiunnaki, i. e., "the strong ones" of the earth.
 
 188 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 to the question which has for centuries been a mooted 
 subject; namely, whether or not, and to what degree and 
 extent a definite rhythm depending on rise and cadence 
 might be accepted as existing within the divisions of a 
 separate line.' Some of the Babylonian psalms^ in which 
 smaller or larger groups of lines begin with the same syl- 
 lable, furnish parallels to the so-called acrostic psalms of 
 the Old Testament, in which every line or group of lines 
 begins with a definite letter arranged in alphabetical order. 
 It will continue to redound to the glory of the later 
 Old Testament knowledge that by an untiring application 
 to progressive work it has struggled through to the now 
 almost universally accepted truth that much the greater 
 number of the Old Testament psalms belong to the latest 
 period of Hebrew literature ; that especially the seventy 
 odd psalms labeled "of David" are later addenda most in- 
 consistent in language and theme ; that on the whole not 
 a single psalm of the Old Testament can be proved to be 
 of David's authorship — or can even be assigned to him 
 with any degree of probability. And it only remains to 
 wish that the knowledge may extend to broader circles, 
 since that labeling of the psalms ''of David" is especially 
 adapted to thoroughly veil the development of the Jewish 
 religion. Meanwhile, however easy it would be because 
 of these facts, to admit an influence of the Babylonian 
 
 ' See Ed. Sievers, Metrische Studien, I. Studien zur hebrdischen Aletrik, 
 Proceedings of the philological-historical department of the Kgl. Sachs. Ges. d. 
 Wiss. Bd. XXI, No. I and II, Leipsic, 1901. See also H. Zimmern, "Ein vor- 
 laufiges Wort iiber hB.hyXomsche'^eirik.," \xxihe Zeitschrift fiir Assy?-iolog2e, VIII, 
 1893, pp. 121-124; aXso ibid. X, pp. 1-24; and compare my article "Dasbabylonische 
 Weltschopfungsepos" in the Proceedings of the philological-historical department 
 of the Kgl. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss., XIII, 1896, pp. 60-68. 
 
 ^ E. g., K. 9290 + K. 9297-^K. 3452 — K. 8463. Sp. II, 265 a.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 189 
 
 lyrics upon the Hebrew, yet I will limit myself entirely 
 to pointing out the parallels. And I do this the more 
 willingly since the near relationship of the Hebrew and 
 Semitic Babylonian, as well as the similarity of their 
 latiguage, modes of thought and points of view, are clearly 
 enough explained when the two systems of poetry fre- 
 quently prove to be alike in language and style, rhythm, 
 thought and figures. 
 
 Whoever knows his Psalms, will recall the extrava- 
 gant wretchedness of body and soul into which the poet 
 has fallen by sin and retribution, by persecution and 
 threats : he cries from out of the depths, he sinks in deep 
 mire, he goes about wailing as one that mourneth for his 
 mother, his strength is dried up like a potsherd, his bones 
 and his soul are distressed, he is like a pelican of the 
 wilderness, and laments like a dove, his heartbeats wildly, 
 his soul already dwells in Sheol and is encompassed by 
 the sorrows of death. ''I am weary with my groaning: 
 all the night make I my bed to swim : I water my couch 
 with my tears" (Ps. vi. 6) . All these and many similar 
 thoughts and pictures we read also almost literally in the 
 Babylonian psalms. "Lamenting he sits amid grievous 
 complaints, in anguish of spirit." Like a dove he mourns 
 bitterly both day and night, to his merciful God he cries 
 like a wild beast, his form is bent like a reed, his heart 
 takes its flight, he is already the prey of death, the tomb 
 stands open, vermin are lying in wait for him. Yes, 
 certain Old Testament psalms like Psalm Ixxxviii, that 
 melancholy cry of distress from the heart of one who was 
 abandoned as if he were dead, deserted by his fellows and 
 confined within himself from his youth up, bear a strong
 
 190 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 resemblance to the Babylonian songs of lamentation in 
 their entire line of thought. For instance I have in mind 
 the Babylonian dirge/ in which a pious man who was 
 sorely afflicted describes his wretched condition in the 
 following parting words : 
 
 "My dwelling has become a prison, 
 In the bonds of m}' flesh my members are stricken, 
 
 In fetters of my own my feet are entangled . . . 
 My persecutor tracks me all the day, 
 
 Nor in the night time hath my pursuer let me draw a breath. 
 Torn asunder, my bones have become disjointed, 
 
 Loosened are my limbs and stretched upon the ground . . . 
 No god came to help, none gave me gently his hand. 
 
 No goddess had pity upon me, nor helpfully walked by my side. 
 Wide open stood my coffin; they made ready for my burial. 
 
 While yet I was alive, funeral songs for me were sung, 
 And vermin they called to destroy me. 
 
 My adversary hath heard it, his face beams with radiance, 
 Delightedly was my undoing noised abroad, and his heart rejoiced. " 
 
 Instructive, too, are the manifold references on both 
 sides to personal enemies and malicious foes. The Old 
 Testament psalms contain many such prayers of devout 
 and righteous Israelites against those who hate them to 
 the death, against those enemies who laugh aha! aha! 
 with grinning mouth when misfortune or destruction 
 comes upon them. That realistic psalm from the bed 
 of sickness (xli) closes with these words, "But thou O 
 Lord, be merciful unto me and raise me up that I may 
 requite them," referring to those enemies who had already 
 desired the singer's death. These malicious enemies are 
 to be "brought to confusion together and clothed with 
 
 ' IV R 60, together with VR 47.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLK. 191 
 
 shame and dishonor" (xxxv. 26) and the singer longs for 
 the time when he may "see his desire upon his enemies" 
 (liv. 7; lix. 10). 
 
 In like manner a prayer to Nebo begins, "I declare 
 thy renown O Nebo, above all great gods, [in spite of the 
 crowd] of my adversaries ni}' life was taken," and closes, 
 "In spite of the crowd of m3^ adversaries thou, O Nebo, 
 wilt not forsake me ; in spite of the crowd of them that 
 hate me thou wilt not forsake my life.'" 
 
 We read similar passages in a penitential psalm ad- 
 dressed to the goddess Istar which has been published by 
 L. W. King in his work TJie Seven Tablets of Creation.'^ 
 
 As a further instance of Babylonian poetr}^ this psalm 
 is quoted entire from Professor King's translation {ibid. 
 Vol. I, pp. ll-h-lZl) : 
 
 "I pray unto thee, lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses! 
 
 O Ishtar, queen of all peoples, directress of mankind! 
 
 O Irnini, thou art raised on high, mistress of the Spirits of 
 
 heaven ; 
 Thou art mighty, thou hast sovereign power, exalted is thy name! 
 Thou art the light of heaven and earth, O valiant daughter of 
 
 the Moon-god. 
 Ruler of weapons, arbitress of the battle! 
 Framer of all decrees, wearer of the crown of dominion! 
 O lady, majestic is thy rank, over all the gods is it exalted! 
 Thou art the cause of lamentation, thou sowest hostilit}- among 
 
 brethren who are at peace; 
 Thou art the bestower of strength! 
 Thou art strong, O lady of victory, tliou canst violently attain 
 
 my desire! 
 
 1 K, 1285, published Dy James A. Craig, in the first volume of his Assyrian 
 and Babylonian Religious Texts, Leipsic, 1895, p. 5 £f. 
 
 2 London, 1902, Vol II, Plate LXXV— LXXXIV.
 
 192 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 O Gutira, who art girt with battle, who art clothed with terror, 
 Thou wieldest the sceptre and the decision, the control of earth 
 
 and heaven! 
 Holy chambers, shrines, divine dwellings, and temples worship 
 
 thee ! 
 Where is thy name not (heard)? Where is thy decree not 
 
 (obeyed) ? 
 Where are thine images not made ? Where are thy temples not 
 
 founded ? 
 Where art thou not great ? Where art thou not exalted ? 
 Anu, Bel, and Ea have raised thee on high, among the gods 
 
 have they made great thy dominion, 
 They have exalted thee among all the Spirits of heaven, they 
 
 have made thy rank pre-eminent. 
 At the thought of thy name the heaven and the earth quake, 
 The gods tremble, and the Spirits of the earth falter. 
 Mankind payeth homage unto thy mighty name, 
 For thou art great, and thou art exalted. 
 All mankind, the whole human race, boweth down before thy 
 
 power. 
 Thou judgest the cause of men with justice and righteousness; 
 Thou lookest with mercy on the violent man, and thou settest 
 
 right the unruly every morning. 
 How long wilt thou tarry^ O lady of heaven and earth, shep- 
 herdess of those that dwell in human habitations ? 
 How long wilt thou tarry, O lady of the holy E-anna, the pure 
 
 Storehouse? 
 How long wilt thou tarry, O lady, whose feet are unwearied, 
 
 whose knees have not lost their vigor ? 
 How long wilt thou tarry, O lady of all fights and of the battle ? 
 O thou glorious one, that ragest among the Spirits of heaven, 
 
 that subduest angry gods, 
 That hast power over all princes, that controllest the sceptre erf 
 
 kings, 
 That openest the bonds of all handmaids.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 193 
 
 That art raised on high, that art firmly established, — O valiant 
 
 Ishtar, great is thy might ! 
 Bright torch of heaven and earth, light of all dwellings, 
 Terrible in the fight, one who cannot be opposed, strong in the 
 
 battle ! 
 O whirlwind, that roarest against the foe and cuttest off the 
 
 mighty ! 
 O furious Ishtar, summoner of armies ! 
 O goddess of men, O goddess of women, thou whose counsel 
 
 none may learn ! 
 Where thou lookest in pity, the dead man lives again, the sick 
 
 is healed ; 
 The afflicted is saved from his affliction, when he beholdeth 
 
 thy face ! 
 I, thy servant, sorrowful, sighing, and in distress cry unto thee. 
 Look upon me, O my lady, and accept my supplication, 
 Truly pity me, and hearken unto my prayer ! 
 Cry unto me "It is enough ! " and let thy spirit be appeased ! 
 How long shall my body lament, which is full of restlessness and 
 
 confusion ? 
 How long shall my heart be afflicted, which is full of sorrow and 
 
 sighing ? 
 How long shall my omens be grievous in restlessness and 
 
 confusion ? 
 How long shall my house be troubled, which mourneth bitterly ? 
 How long shall my spirit (be troubled), which aboundeth in 
 
 sorrow and sighing ? 
 O [ . . . ] Irnini, fierce lioness, may thy heart have rest ! 
 Is anger mercy ? Then let thy spirit be appeased ! 
 May thine eyes rest with favor upon me ; 
 With thy glorious regard truly in mercy look upon me ! 
 Put an end to the evil bewitchments of my body ; let me behold 
 
 thy clear light ! 
 How long, O my lady, shall mine enemies persecute me? 
 How long shall they devise evil in rebellion and wickedness,
 
 194 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 And in my pursuits and my pleasures shall they rage against me? 
 How long, O my lady, shall the ravenous demon pursue me? 
 They have caused me continuous affliction, but I have praised 
 
 thee. 
 The weak have become strong, but I am weak ; 
 I am sated like a flood which the evil wind maketh to rage. 
 My heart hath taken wing, and hath flown away like a bird of 
 
 the heavens ; 
 I moan like a dove, night and day. 
 I am made desolate, and I weep bitterly ; 
 With grief and woe my spirit is distressed. 
 What have I done, O my god and my goddess? 
 Is it because I feared not my god or my goddess that trouble 
 
 hath befallen. me? 
 Sickness, disease, ruin, and destruction are come upon me; 
 Troubles, turning away of the countenance, and fulness of anger 
 
 are my lot, 
 And the indignation and the wrath of all gods and men. 
 I have beheld, O my lady, days of affliction, months of sorrow, 
 
 years of misfortune; 
 I have beheld, O my lady, slaughter, turmoil, and rebellion. 
 Death and misery have made an end of me ! 
 My need is grievous, grievous is my humiliation ; 
 Over my house, my gate, and my fields is affliction poured forth 
 As for my god, his face is turned elsewhere ; 
 My strength is brought to nought, my power is broken ! 
 But unto thee, O my lady, do I give heed, I have kept thee in 
 
 my mind ; 
 Unto thee therefore do I pray, dissolve my ban ! 
 Dissolve my sin, my iniquity, my transgression, and my offence ! 
 Forgive my transgression, accept my supplication ! 
 Secure my deliverance, and let me be loved and carefully tended ! 
 Guide my footsteps in the light, that among men I may gloriously 
 
 seek my way !
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 195 
 
 Say the word, that at thy command my angry god may have 
 
 mercy, 
 And that my goddess, who is wroth, may turn again ! 
 The darkness hath settled down, so let my brazier be bright] 
 Thou art the ruler, let then my torch flame forth ! 
 May my scattered strength be collected ; 
 May the fold be wide, and may my pen be bolted fast ! 
 Receive the abasement of my countenance, give ear unto my 
 
 prayer. 
 Truly pity me, and [accept my supplication] ! 
 How long, O my lady, wilt thou be angry and thy face be turned 
 
 away ? 
 How long, O my lady, wilt thou rage and thy spirit be full of 
 
 wrath ? 
 Incline thy neck which (is turned) a vay from my affairs, and 
 
 set prosperity before thy face ; 
 As by the solving waters of the river may thine anger be 
 
 dissolved ! 
 My mighty foes may I trample like the ground ; 
 And those who are wroth with me mayest thou force into sub- 
 mission and crush beneath my feet ! 
 Let my prayer and my supplication come unto thee. 
 And let thy great mercy be upon me. 
 
 That those who behold me in the street may magnify thy name, 
 And that I may glorify thy godhead and thy might before 
 
 mankind ! 
 Ishtar is exalted ! Ishtar is queen ! 
 My lady is exalted ! My lady is queen ! 
 Irnini, the valiant daughter of the Moon-god, hath not a rival !" 
 
 But the significance of the Babylonian psalms is still 
 further enhanced by the fact that they offer us a particu- 
 larly clear insight into the moral and religious ideas of 
 the Assyrians and Babylonians. Of course it is clear 
 without further question that the accounts of wars and
 
 196 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 triumphs of the Assyrian kings are of as little value as 
 sources for critique of the Assyrio-Babylonian religion, 
 as, say, the annals of the Thirty Years War would be to 
 familiarise any one with the Evangelical or Catholic re- 
 ligion and ethics. Whoever aspires with earnest zeal to 
 discover the ideas the Babylonians held in regard to man's 
 moral duties, to divinity and its attributes, to man's re- 
 lation to God and vice versa ^ cannot help becoming ab- 
 sorbed in the epigrammatic wisdom of the Babylonians 
 and in the religious content of their literary monuments. 
 
 Since this has been undertaken hitherto by but very 
 few people, I would like now to sketch in rough outlines 
 a picture of the Babylonian ethics and religion. And this 
 has the rather become a duty, since we have been com- 
 pletely misled with reference to Babylon by traditional 
 historical treatment ; but henceforth we will be in a 
 position to examine critically and to pronounce judgment 
 on the religious views of the Old Testament, and also in 
 large part on our own, from this newly acquired Babylonian 
 standpoint. 
 
 What I emphasised some time ago' has since been 
 splendidly confirmed beyond all expectation by the Code 
 of Hammurabi, viz., that the first and original commands 
 of man's impulse to self-restraint, and of human society, 
 namely not to shed a neighbor's blood, not to approach 
 his neighbor's wife, not to take unto himself his neighbor's 
 garment, were at least no more sacred and inviolable in 
 Israel than in a typical constitutional state such as 
 Babylon had been since the third millennium before Christ, 
 
 ' Supra, p. 46.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 197 
 
 and whose legislation arouses the admiration even of the 
 modern world. 
 
 This is equally true of most of the specific command- 
 ments. Of the one with reference to honor due to parents, 
 Hammurabi's law takes account only in so far as punish- 
 able violations are concerned; as, for example, in Sec. 
 195, "If a child strikes his father, his hand shall be cut 
 off" ; as for the rest, the documents of religious purport, 
 psalms and prayers as well as the epigrammatic poetry 
 of the Babylonians must serve as sources for the demands 
 which Babylonian morals and piety made upon individuals. 
 There is a text of this kind (IV. R. 51) where while 
 seeking the cause of divine retribution which had befallen 
 a man, among others the questions were asked : "Has he 
 set the son against his father ? Has he set the father 
 against his son?" (Here follows the estrangement of 
 mother and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, 
 brother and brother, friend and friend.) "Has he not set 
 free the captive? ....Perhaps it is a trespass against 
 God, perhaps a crime against Istar; perhaps he has 
 offended God, or scorned Istar, or held father and mother 
 in contempt, disparaged his elder brother, or spoken 
 untruthfully .... Has he broken into his neighbor's house? 
 Has he approached his neighbor's wife? Has he shed a 
 neighbor's blood ? Has he taken his neighbor's garment ?" 
 
 With reference to the commandment against adul- 
 tery, compare Sec. 129a of the Hammurabi Code : "When 
 a wife is discovered sleeping with another man, both shall 
 be bound and thrown into the water." Transgression of 
 the command, "Thou shalt not steal" is with a few ex-
 
 198 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 captions made punishable by death/ The Code treats of 
 murder in only two places. In the first section we read : 
 "When a man brings another under suspicion and accuses 
 him of murder, but does not prove it, then he who has 
 brought suspicion upon the other shall be put to death" ; 
 and in Sec. 153 provocation for murder is mentioned, 
 "When a wife causes her husband's death on account of 
 some other man, she shall be hanged," ina gashishi 
 ishakkanu. 
 
 The commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false 
 witness against thy neighbor' ' is paralleled in Hammurabi 
 Sec. 3, "Whoever bears false witness in a case at law, 
 and can not support his testimony, that man shall himself 
 be put to death, if the case is a trial for life." How 
 strictly the unlawful appropriation of other people's prop- 
 erty was censured also in Babylon, may be seen in Sec. 
 7, "Whosoever buys without witnesses or contract, or 
 consents to keep either silver or gold, a man servant, or 
 a maid servant, or an ox or a sheep, or an ass, or any 
 other thing from bondman or free, that man is a thief and 
 shall be put to death." This commandment which says, 
 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, wife, serv- 
 ants, etc.," implies nothing more than "Thou shalt not 
 attempt to acquire for thyself, shalt not appropriate thy 
 neighbor's house, etc." 
 
 Quite analogous to this we read in Sec. 25 of the 
 Code of Hammurabi, "When some one who has come to 
 extinguish a fire covets something that belongs to the 
 master of the house, and helps himself to the property of 
 the master of the house, he shall be thrown in the same 
 
 ' See Sections 6, 7, 9, 10, ig, 25.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 199 
 
 fire." This Hebraic-Babylonian "coveting," as we can 
 see, implies the simultaneous action — Jesus with his "But 
 I say unto you' ' was the first to brand the sinful inclination 
 or the evil desire as sin. And since to this day law and 
 religion are inseparable in the Orient it must be recognised 
 as a special merit of the Code of Hammurabi that it has 
 avoided any confusion of law and religion within the Code 
 itself. For this same reason all transgressions of the 
 commandments are considered as sins against God which 
 incur the wrath and vengeance of God over and above the 
 earthly legal punishment. But we read that all the other 
 duties over which the jurisdiction of authorities does not 
 extend were impressed as rigidly upon the Babylonians 
 as upon the Israelites, and their neglect threatened with 
 divine punishment. 
 
 Truthfulness stands first in this line. Hammurabi's 
 government knew how to protect its subjects effectively 
 against false weight, false measure and false testimony. 
 But the moral consciousness of the Babylonians as of the 
 Israelites demanded truthfulness in a much broader and 
 deeper sense, and, since this is true, it can onlj^ be a 
 matter of regret that the Hebrew commandment instead 
 of being limited to false witness w^as not worded so as to 
 contain the more universal application "Thou shalt not 
 lie." If we could have been so inocculated with the 
 consciousness of the wrong involved in a lie in any form, 
 from our earliest youth, as the Persians, according to 
 Herodotus (I, 36) , brought up their children from five to 
 twenty years of age exclusively to the three things, riding, 
 archery and truthfulness, it would have brought incalcu- 
 lable blessing to the world. But falsehood existed even
 
 200 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 among the Babylonians. Not to keep the word one had 
 given, to refuse the promised protection, to say "yea" 
 with the mouth and '-'nay" with the heart — generally 
 speaking any lie was expressly and repeatedly branded 
 as a sin contrary both to man's law and to God's ; while 
 on the other hand sincerity was regarded as a noble virtue. 
 As far, however, as the virtue of love for one's 
 neighbor, and mercy towards one's fellows is concerned, 
 none will contest with the people of Israel the sublimity 
 of their moral law, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," in spite 
 of its undeniable limitation to the people of their own 
 nation (Lev. xix. 18) . But as gladly as we render to 
 Judaism whatever credit is due, let us give just as freely 
 and honestly to other nations what is theirs, and unto 
 God what is God's. We must not permit the virtue of 
 neighborly love to be considered a monopoly of the He- 
 brew people or such rash words to be spread abroad in the 
 world as these, that "The fundamental principles of all 
 true morality ' I desired mercy and not sacrifice ' (Hosea 
 vi. 6, cf. Isaiah i. ii ff, Mic. vi. 8 etc.) 'Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbor as thyself have no analogy whatever in 
 Babylon.'" If it seems at the outset quite unthinkable 
 that the Babylonians who like the Hebrews, acknowledge 
 themselves to be entirely dependent on the divine mercy, 
 should have known in their time no love nor mercy toward 
 their fellows, this assertion is directty contrary to the 
 testimony of the monuments. I have previously pointed 
 out^ how the question was asked when seeking the cause 
 of divine wrath : "Has he not set free a captive, and loosed 
 
 ' E. Sellin, "Ein Schlusswort zu Babel u?7d Bibcl" in the Evangelische 
 Kirchen-Zeitung filr Oesterreich, July ifjoj, No. 14, 15, p. 210. 
 ^ Sufra p. 47.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 201 
 
 the bound, and has he refused light to one who was im- 
 prisoned ? " That was one instance. The British Museum 
 contains clay tablets (unfortunately still incomplete) with 
 Babylonian proverbs which give us glimpses into the 
 depths of the moral and religious thought of the better 
 class of Babylonians similar to those which the Code of 
 Hammurabi has given of the "immeasurable culture" of 
 this nation. There we read maxims like these which in 
 spite of the fact that they have been taught by the expe- 
 rience of thousands of years, continue to be disregarded 
 by mankind to their great injury : 
 
 "Open not wide thy mouth, and guard thy lips, 
 Art thou aroused, speak not at once. 
 If thou speak rashly, later thou'lt rue it. 
 Rather in silence soothe thy spirit." 
 
 Just there' we read the admonition of the Babylonian 
 sages, which is comparable to a jewel whose radiance re- 
 mains undisturbed by place and time : to show love to 
 one's neighbor, not to despise him nor oppress him harshly 
 which would necessarily call down the wrath of God, but 
 much rather to give food and drink to him who asks, which 
 is well pleasing in God's sight, to be helpful and to do 
 good at all times. While we are deep in perusal of tablets 
 like these, we rejoice inwardly that the allmer'ciful God, 
 who is Love, has not given his heavenly virtues exclu- 
 sively to one people, but that his mercy reaches as far as 
 the clouds extend, and therefore his reflection is found in 
 the heart of man everywhere. 
 
 These admonitions did not exist in word only, but 
 
 ' See the tabl^ K. 7897 which is now completed, and is translated and published 
 by K. D. Macmi' an in the Peitrage zur Assyriologie, V. 1905.
 
 202 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 we read also of instances of their practice extending even 
 to slaves. The Book of Kings closes with the account of 
 a Babylonian king's act of grace towards his political 
 enemy — the liberation from prison of the King of Judah 
 by Nebuchadnezzar's son Evilmerodach. And whoever 
 makes a careful study of the Code of Hammurabi will be 
 obliged to admit that in spite of the fact that the life, 
 property and reputation of each individual was carefully 
 protected, and the conscientious performance of duty was 
 required of every one of whatever calling or position, and 
 every neglect of duty was visited with the strictest pun- 
 ishment, with the purpose of intimidation; nevertheless 
 gentleness, love and mercy came also to their rights: 
 loving care for the invalid (Sec. 148) , for the widows 
 (Sec. 171-172a) and orphans (Sec. 177), clemency toward 
 the unfortunate debtor (Sec. 48) , forbearance with the 
 unruly son (Sec. 169) . In fact why waste further words 
 when it was shown at the beginning of the lecture that 
 the Samaritans are really Babylonians as far as character 
 is concerned and that the Jews pass for Kuthaeans, i. e., 
 Babylonians ! Jesus himself has erected a monument to 
 universal neighborly love, an ideal of the Babylonians, 
 great-hearted in this point, too, in his divinely spiritual 
 parable of the Good Samaritan, which towers perceptibly 
 over the whole terrestrial globe ! Yes, indeed, not only 
 do Babel and Bible clasp hands in brotherly fashion 
 M'henever in the wide world Samaritan service is rendered, 
 but the Babjdonian has been set up by Jesus as a pattern 
 for all mankind : " Go and do likewise ! " 
 
 Why Jesus chose the Samaritan to be the pattern of 
 the universal love which should encompass all men and
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 203 
 
 nations without distinction, can now be fully comprehen- 
 ded for the first time. The Code of Hammurabi has justly 
 occasioned surprise, among other reasons because "a 
 distinction between native and foreigner practically does 
 not appear at all," whence we may confidently expect to 
 find that the repeated command of Israel to treat well the 
 stranger within the gates will be missing in the Code. 
 " It seems," observes Kohler, {Hamiimrabis Gesetz^ p. 
 139) "that in this respect a complete leveling has entered 
 into Babylon, quite in accordance with historical precedent, 
 while foreign tribes were transplanted more and more into 
 Babylon, and a general commingling and amalgamation 
 of the nations of the earth and their civilisations was 
 brought about." To this, also, corresponds the highly 
 developed commerce, international relations and the char- 
 acter of the civilisation inherent in Babylonian culture. 
 We know that even Hammurabi like the later Babylonian 
 kings regarded himself as lord of the earth, and like the 
 German emperors of the Middle Ages, aspired to include 
 all tribes under his dominion and by so doing to wipe out 
 all distinction between native and foreigner. 
 
 Right here lies the difference between the juridical 
 condition of Babylon and Israel ; for in Israel the stranger 
 remained a stranger and was kept aloof from the Israelitish 
 national life ; only the ger^"^ the foreign guest who enjoyed 
 the protection of Israel, was included in the circle, and 
 even he was not on an entire equality with the Israelites 
 in legal privileges. This accounts for the standing in- 
 junction to treat him well, an injunction which would 
 have been out of place in Babylon where no discrimination
 
 204 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 was made between stranger and native-born. But what 
 a contrast ! Here in Israel a few refugees, probably 
 deserters, exiles, fugitives, fearing either murderous 
 revenge or punishment ; there, a multitude of strangers ! 
 This developed Babylon into the commercial metropolis 
 of the world. 
 
 To these and other commands and prohibitions were 
 added in Babylonia as in Israel manifold priestly regula- 
 tions with reference to the offering of pra3^er, sacrifices 
 and voluntary gifts, above all, however, the commandment 
 not to "take the name of the Lord in vain," that is, not 
 to misuse it. Especially was it so absolutely sacrosanct 
 in the eyes of the Babylonians to swear by the name of 
 God, that in the Code of Hammurabi as far as has yet 
 come to our notice, as well as in trial reports, the possi- 
 bility of perjury is not even considered.' On the other 
 hand the Babylonian was not supposed to eat without 
 mentioning God's name, always mindful of the duty of 
 gratitude toward his maker. And if we take all the many 
 passages in which the fear of God is made the most im- 
 portant duty of man, and not to fear God appears as the 
 root of all evil, we can confidently assert that to the Bab- 
 ylonian as to the Hebrew, the fear of God was considered 
 the beginning of wisdom. The saying "Fear God and 
 honor the king ' ' we read in the same terse style on a tablet 
 in the library of Sardanapal. IIu tapalah sarru tana* ad. 
 This reverence for the king which saw in the head of the 
 
 ' For the refusal to taken an oath see the Code of Hammurabi, Sec. 20, 103, 
 131, 206, 227, 249. Also all statements made "before God" as for instance esti- 
 mates of losses (Sec. 9, 23, 120, 126, 240, 266, 281) are regarded as absolutely in- 
 violable, truthful and incontestable. We learn the same facts from the law suits, 
 the oath of the defendant determines the verdict. See for instance Bu. 91, 5-9; 
 2181 {Cuneiform Texts, II 46).
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. . 205 
 
 State tlie representation of deity upon earth, this deference 
 to the laws of the state given by the highest ' lawgiver of 
 heaven and earth, and above all the fear of God, — these 
 were the pillars upon which rested the duration of the Bab- 
 ylonian government for 200 years in spite of surrounding 
 enemies. How seriously the kings themselves regarded 
 sin we learn from the inscription which the last Chaldsean 
 king caused to be placed on the tower of the Temple of 
 the Moon, the closing prayer of which was to the effect 
 that Belshazzar, the king's eldest son, might be shielded 
 from all sin. 
 
 Every man who faces the facts with an unprejudiced 
 mind will admit that the meaning of the idea of "sin," 
 or, in other words, the sum of all that man is in duty 
 bound before God and man to do or to avoid, is entirely 
 the same in Babel as in the Old Testament. And the 
 same agreement may be noted with reference to the cori- 
 sequences of sin. 
 
 No sin is hidden from the divine eye, none remains 
 unpunished. The consequence of sin is the wrath of God 
 which acts upon the sinner like a spell and works itself 
 out in punishment of sickness and misery, poverty and 
 persecution, destruction and death.' The idea common 
 to both Old and New Testaments that sickness and want 
 are the wages of sin is exactly the Babylonian view, and 
 I might add, it is fortunate that this is the case. For it 
 justifies us to a greater degree in investigating the problem 
 as to whether or not the relation of cause and effect be- 
 tween sickness and sin may still be accepted in the light 
 of later knowledge. 
 
 ' Ps. xxxviii. 3ff. ; Ixxxviii. 8 ff. ; xc. 7 ff. et fassim.
 
 206 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Witli penitent confession and tearful prayers tlie de- 
 vout Bab^donian seeks to appease God's wrath and to 
 propitiate the heart of God, while he clings firmly to his 
 confidence in God's fatherly compassion. All the Old 
 Testament prayers from the depths of wretchedness and 
 sin, as Ps. vi. i, "O Yahveh, rebuke me not in thine an- 
 ger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure ;" the cry, 
 " O Ivord, how long ? " all the expressions of longing for 
 freedom from the bondage of sin, and at the same time 
 for an end to illness, miser^^ and persecution, as well as 
 for the blessing of length of days in order to walk hence- 
 forth in righteousness in God's sight ; all these professions 
 of firm confidence in divine grace we read in the Babylo- 
 nian prayers and psalms in varying styles of touching 
 petition. 
 
 "O that the heart of the Lord would turn his wrath far from me ! 
 
 Lord ! my sins are many, great are my transgressions, 
 
 my God, m}^ Goddess, whether known or unknown to me, 
 Many are my sins and great are my transgressions. . . . 
 
 1 sought around about, but no one took my hand, 
 
 1 wept, but there was none came near to comfort. 
 I cry aloud, but no one gives me ear. 
 
 Sorrowful, and overwhelmed, I can not look up. 
 Unto my compassionate God make I 'mid sighs my petition, 
 
 The feet of my Goddess I kiss and embrace(?) them. 
 O Lord, cause not thy servant to fall 
 
 Who lies in the pool of the mire^ — help him up ! 
 The sins that I have committed, turn into mercies, 
 
 The misdeeds I have done, let the wind bear away. 
 
 My many wickednesses tear in pieces like a garment ! 
 
 ^ This is Dr. Delitzsch's rendering, "Im Wasser des Schlammes liegend," 
 but Dr. Jastrow in The History of Religions interprets the same line as "over- 
 flowing with tears, " explaining in a footnote that the literal meaning is "rushing 
 water." (Tr.)
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 207 
 
 Yea, pardon all my misdemeanors, and I'll obey thy sovereign 
 power. 
 Incline towards me thy heart, like the heart of a mother, 
 Like a mother's or father's heart, incline Thou to me." 
 
 It goes without saying tliat in the Babylonian peni- 
 tential psalms and prayers for tlie forgiveness, washing 
 away, putting aside or saving from sin, the meaning of 
 the prayer was first of all that the spell be broken and 
 disappear, and that sickness, misfortune, misery and death, 
 be driven from the body and from the house of the suppli- 
 cant. Had it been otherwise the Babylonians would not 
 have been human. But he grossly deceives himself and 
 others who would maintain that Israel had a deeper, yea 
 ''infinitely deeper, " conception of the nature of sin. If 
 perchance it is held that the Babylonians experienced a 
 deep conviction of sin simply on account of its outward 
 consequences, this would gainsay the oft reiterated lamen- 
 tations of the devout Babylonian which mention always 
 the sufferings of the sin-sick soul as well as material hard- 
 ships. Whence it appears that the Babylonian religion 
 developed an especially tender and devout view as to man's 
 faith concerning his relation to God, and the disruption 
 of that relation by sin. 
 
 Every human being, the king no less than every 
 other mortal, is the "child of his God." His God to 
 whom he owes his life, has at the same time entered his 
 being as his good spirit, guiding and protecting him. No 
 more terrible blow can befall a human being — more terrible 
 even than sickness and pain — than when because of his 
 misdeeds his God (or in the case of the daughters of men, 
 Goddess) departs from him and takes up an abode else-
 
 208 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 where. Such a literal abandonment by God and the re- 
 sultant spiritual pangs are looked upon by the Babylonians 
 as sin's most dreadful curse. 
 
 The sinner is dependent solely upon the grace of 
 God, not only because in spite of rigorous self-examination 
 he is often totally unaware of the sin he must confess, but 
 because God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and some- 
 times man thinks objectionable what is pleasing in God's 
 sight, andm'cezjersa. As appears in IV R 10, 34b, "No one 
 knows whether he is doing well (uda77iinik) or ill (ukal- 
 ltiy\ But the Babylonian lives in the firm assurance of 
 
 faith, that 
 
 "Fear of God — begets grace, 
 
 Sacrifice — strengthens life, 
 
 And prayer — redeefns from sin. "^ 
 
 Yes, the divinities are gracious and merciful, and 
 gladly turn again to the repentant sinner. And this is 
 especially true of Marduk whose favorite attribute is to 
 awaken the dead, to revive anew the victims of death, and 
 who is entirely devoted to deeds of mercy. The physician 
 of both man's body and soul, he is one of the brightest 
 and noblest figures of the Babylonian pantheon. But all 
 the other great gods are also looked upon as moral powers. 
 The god Shamash, the sun-god, is called the "King of 
 Justice." He is the righteous and incorruptible judge 
 whose eye penetrates into the most hidden depths, and as 
 it is said of Yahveh (Ps. Ixxxv. J'3) : "Righteousness 
 shall go before him and shall set us in the way of his 
 steps, "^ or (Ps. xcvii. 2) "Righteousness and judgment 
 
 1 Cf. IV R 6o*. 
 
 2 K. 7897. Z. 20 22. 
 
 3 The emandation from vaya^^m (Ps. Ixxxv. 13) to z'ayas/iar (parallel 
 Tsedek) is required by the context.' '
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 209 
 
 are the habitation of his throne," so at all times the di- 
 vinities ' ' Judgment ' ' and ' ' Righteousness ' ' stand before 
 the Babylonian sun-god (comp. Ps. Ixxxix. 15) . And 
 what a noble and lofty idea must have been connected 
 with Marduk's son Nebo that he should have been desig- 
 nated and worshipped as the " Light of Truth." 
 
 It is very clear from the above that the Babylonian 
 gods, too, were livi7ig powers. In regard to this point we 
 must learn all over again from the beginning. The Old 
 Testament's mocking description of the Assyrio-Babylo- 
 nian gods as idols of wood and stone, manufactured b}^ 
 human hands, (e. g. Dent. iv. 28; Is. xliv. 9 ff. andxlvi. 
 1-2) , harps on an external of Babylonian worship. As 
 our excavations have proved, the Holy of Holies (adytiuii) 
 of the Babylonian temple was so tiny a room that some- 
 times it was entirely filled by the pedestal of the god's 
 statue and hardly permitted one priest any freedom of 
 motion. The image as such, accordingly, could not be 
 intended as an object of worship on the part of the people, 
 but it must rather have designated symbolicall}^ the place 
 where the deity had especially chosen to dwell among men, 
 particularly with his OM-n people, and in order that he 
 might surely be found at all times. Just as Yahveh, the 
 God of Israel, when the center of power was established 
 in Jerusalem and Solomon had built his temple upon 
 Zion, chose Jerusalem for his earthly abiding place (1 
 Kings viii. 44, 48; xi. 13 et passim) and the temple on 
 Zion for the house where his power dwelt; so Marduk 
 selected the city of Babylon as the seat of his splendor, 
 and the temple Esagila for the house that was dear to him. 
 Man feels most near the divine when in the earthly house
 
 210 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 of deity. Therefore as the Hebrew singer longeth, yea 
 even fainteth, for the courts of Yahveh, so one devout 
 Babylonian petitions in his evening prayer that he may 
 be transported to Esagila, the sanctuary of Marduk. 
 
 The removal of the image of a Babylonion god by the 
 hands of an enemj^, or the entire destruction of a shrine, 
 was accordingly an infallible sign that the deity was angry 
 and had withdrawn into the heavens. When the divine 
 wrath subsided the god came back to his dwelling place 
 here below, just as Yahveh returned to his city, and to 
 his land and people after the exile was over. It was nat- 
 ural for a simple people to feel a certain veneration for the 
 serious and dignified images of the gods when they were 
 carried forth in solemn procession, and even for the 
 smaller statuettes which may have been sold to believers 
 by the temple authorities. But this image worship was 
 by no means the kernel of the Babylonian religion as even 
 the prophets of Judaea knew of a mysterious mountain of 
 God in the north upon which the Bab3donian gods dwelt 
 (Is.xiv. 13 ; Cf. Ez. xxviii. 14, 16) and clearly recognised 
 the difference between the gods themselves, and their 
 * ' modes of representation ' ' on earth. In an article entitled 
 " The Towers of Zion " in a Catholic periodical (Zzuann, 
 zigstcs Jahrlmndert ^ March 14, 1903) we read: 
 
 "It is superfluous in these da3's to prove the justifi- 
 cation of the use of images. Only let this fact be borne 
 in mind. Corresponding to the spiritualised sensuous 
 nature of man, the use of images as modes of representa- 
 tion of transcendental tiiiths is entirely in accordance 
 with reason, and the esteem or comparative worship in 
 which they are held, is psych ologicall3' well founded."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 211 
 
 In the same way the Babylonian image worship may be 
 justified.' 
 
 It could not well be otherwise than that the powers 
 and manifestations of the living deity should seem as living- 
 deities, since each was individually personified. And so 
 the Assyrio-Babylonian gods differ in no particular as far 
 as their attributes are concerned from Yahveli, the God of 
 Israel. They, too, do whatsoever they please in heaven 
 and earth, in the seas and all deep places (Ps. cxxxv. 6) . 
 As the mountains melt like wax before Yahveh, so the 
 word of the gods levels mountains to the ground. Marduk 
 commands and it is done, and as in Nahum i. 4 we read 
 of Yahveh 's word of wrath and power, 
 
 "He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry 
 And drieth up all the rivers; 
 Bashan languisheth and Carmel, 
 
 And the flower of Lebanon languisheth;" 
 
 so also as a surprising coincidence we find in a psalm to 
 
 Marduk, 
 
 "Thy word is an exalted net, o'er heaven and earth extended ; 
 It Cometh over the sea and the sea recedeth backwards, 
 It cometh over the meadow and the meadow lamenteth, 
 It cometh over the flood of Euphrates' waters, 
 
 And thy word, O Marduk, troubleth the bed of the river(?).'^ 
 
 The Babylonian gods, too, let their word pass through 
 heaven and earth now in a breath of wind, now in the blast 
 of a storm, and *' speak" to men, especially to their cho- 
 sen prophets and seers. 
 
 The gods see all and know all ; their glance penetrates 
 into the deepest secrets; they observe the paths of nations 
 
 ' Cf. sup7'a p. io6.
 
 212 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 just as they examine the heart and try the reins of each 
 individual; they are present with every person. There- 
 fore the Babylonian lived in the firm belief that his god 
 heard his fervent supplication and received him into his 
 favor. ''Prayer-answering, petition-granting," were 
 favorite epithets of the Assyrio-Babylonian deities. Every 
 day and many times every day the Bab^donian raised his 
 hands to the gods, full of confidence that they were at all 
 times able and ready to grant their gracious aid, and I do 
 not know that the power of prayer can be expressed in 
 more beautiful words than we read on the Assyrian clay 
 tablet to which frequent reference has previously been 
 made (K. 7897) : 
 
 "Prayer, supplication and worship 
 Thou should'st offer at early morn, and thy strength will increase, 
 And they will lead thee with God until the end." 
 
 To repeat, man is entirely dependent upon divine 
 mercy from his entrance into life until its close, whence 
 it becomes him to walk in humility. Joyfully welcomed 
 by his parents as the gift of divine grace, every child, 
 whether boy or girl, travels the path of life under the 
 protection of God. As it is said in Job (xiv. 6) ,' ''Look 
 away from him, and all is over with him," so we read the 
 reverse in the cuneiform tablets, "If thou, O goddess 
 lookst graciously upon him, he will surely live ;" (K. 101, 
 Obv.) or, "Wherever thou lookst, there the dead live 
 again, the sick recovers; what is wrong becomes right 
 when thy countenance is seen." (26187 Z 40 ff.) And 
 the best benediction which the parting Babylonian priest 
 
 ' The Authorized Version differs from Professor Delitzsch's interpretation of 
 this passage. It reads, "Turn from him, that he may rest." Tr.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 213 
 
 could and did leave with the sick or suffering, sounds very 
 like the expression from Psalms (xxxi, 5) with which 
 Jesus closed his eyes upon the cross, " Commit thyself 
 into the gracious hands of thy God." 
 
 As we have seen, the ethical and the religious feeling 
 of the Babylonian nation did not suffer in spite of the pol}''- 
 theistic character of its faith and cult. Instead, we find 
 in all main points a far reaching unity between them and 
 the Israelites. Indeed, even with reference to the regard 
 felt for the sacrificial system, that " heathenish" feature 
 which clung also to the religion of Yahveh, we meet with 
 a remarkable parallel. It is justly considered as an in- 
 stance of enlightenment of certain isolated Israelitish 
 singers and prophets, when Hosea (vi. 6) causes Yahveh 
 to say: " For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the 
 knowledge of God more than burnt offerings," or when 
 the singer of the fiftieth psalm in the second century be- 
 fore Christ, one who developed religion in the fullest sense 
 of the word, represents God as denouncing in vigorous 
 language the official ritual of sacrifices, and pronounces 
 thanksgiving and vows to be the offering most pleasing 
 in God's sight. The most significant portion of the 
 chapter consists of verses 7 to 15 :' 
 
 "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will 
 testify against thee : I am God, even thy God. 
 
 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, 
 to have been continually before me. 
 
 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy 
 folds. 
 
 ' Cf. Is. i. II ff.; the passage cited on p. 113, Mi. vi. 6-8; and on page 100. 
 Ps. li, 17; also xl. 6.
 
 214 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a 
 thousand hills. 
 
 I know all the fowls of the mountains : and the wild beasts of 
 the field are mine. 
 
 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, 
 and the fulness thereof. 
 
 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats ? 
 
 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the 
 most High : 
 
 And call upon me in the day of trouble : I will deliver thee, and 
 thou shalt glorify me." 
 
 But even to these deep and refined thoughts we find 
 analogies in Babylonia (K. 7897 Z 12-15) : 
 
 "Offer prayers to God each day; 
 Words of purity are the worthiest burnt offering. 
 Towards thy God shouldst thou act with sincerity, 
 For that is the worthiest part of divinity." 
 
 It is not altogether easj^ to enter deeply into the Bab- 
 ylonian God-conception which was original with the Su- 
 nierians and was later adopted by the immigrant Semites 
 as an integral part of Sumerian culture and was trans- 
 mitted unchanged to a greater or less degree. And yet 
 with the help of the cuneiform monuments we may conjure 
 up the following picture. 
 
 Far down in the most southern portion of the Baby- 
 lonian lowlands where the two rivers sought to reach the 
 sea through thick jungles of tall rushes, the Sumerian 
 nation rose in the gray dawn of time in a brave but hard 
 struggle with floods, blistering sunbeams, and many 
 another foe to the dwellings of men. They supported
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 215 
 
 themselves b}^ agriculture and the raising of cattle, and 
 because the welfare of the individual depended on the reg- 
 ular and harmonious working together of manj^, the}' 
 became the first pioneers of human culture and civilisation. 
 
 But although the world was small in which man built, 
 sowed and tended his flocks in the sweat of his face, still 
 it was full of mysteries and overwhelming impressions 
 vibrating under the manifest sway of invisible, unsearch- 
 able, super-human, that is, godlike powers. Between the 
 boundless, unfathomed, never resting ocean and the flow- 
 ing torrents pi the twin rivers now bringing blessing and 
 now destruction, there la}^ like an island a piece of land 
 drenched with water, which rewarded marv^elouslj'' the 
 industry of the people with the costliest gifts of grain and 
 palms and every variet}^ of fruit in inexhaustible profusion. 
 And above earth and sea stretched the wide unexplored 
 expanse of heaven with its m3'riad wonders ! 
 
 With exultant hearts men saw the sun's fiery ball 
 come forth in ever changeless majesty from heaven's gate ; 
 but in. the evening when uncanny night sank down upon 
 their dwellings and they observed the bright and countless 
 host of stars and constellations upon the dark background 
 of the sky, their eyes remained fixed with amazement 
 upon each moving creature of light full of wonderful 
 splendor, especially that glorious but mildly beaming star 
 which accompanies the ball of the sun at its going and 
 coming like a true and inseparable sister — Istar, the 
 goddess who at evening time invites man to rest in the 
 arms of love, and in the morning wakens him to the re- 
 newed struggles of life. They greeted the moon with ever 
 new thankfulness as a fatherly friend and protector when
 
 216 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 at definitely appointed times he turned toward mankind 
 now his sickle, and now his full and brillant diadem, 
 while the borders of his light garments fluttered over 
 meadows and streams of water. 
 
 All this they observed, — and besides, the manifold 
 destructive powers, the pestilence which creeps up in the 
 dark and suddenly lays its victims low, and the sand 
 storms which come rushing along from the desert with 
 horrible and pitiless force, and even darken the face of 
 heaven ; all these filled mankind with dread of the divine. 
 They sought and discovered godlike powers, effects and 
 revelations everywhere. From the heights of the heavens 
 down to the earth and beneath it as well, in fire, in stream, 
 in waving fields of grain, in each human being they saw 
 a divine force operating, and thought that in each a god 
 dwelt. 
 
 *^ A lies wies den eingeweihtefi Blicken, 
 A lies eines Go ties Spur." 
 [Everything but proved the hallowed presence, 
 Everything, the presence of some god.] 
 
 And as the abilit3' to make tiles out of earth, and to 
 put tiles and bricks together into houses, walls and towers, 
 or the art of forcing pure gold into the service of men for 
 all sorts of decorative purposes seemed godlike to them as 
 gifts of the gods, so too in justice and righteousness they 
 perceived creatures of divine origin. Not as if they wor- 
 shipped the bricks as a kind of fetish (not even of the sun 
 did they do that) but much rather did they see in the whole 
 universe of nature and spirit, phenomena and effects of a 
 God outside and far above the w'orld whose empire ex- 
 tended be3^ond earthly things.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 217 
 
 Fig. 95. Babylonian Kudurru Showing Emblems of the Gods.
 
 218 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 The Babylonians personified separate divine manifes- 
 tations as did all ancient peoples not even entirely except- 
 ing the Hebrews, for I recall for instance the angel of the 
 pestilence (2 Sam. xxiv, 15 ff.). Moreover, the imagi- 
 nation of the Hebrews exacted the strict requirement that 
 Yahveh as an invisible God could not and should not be 
 represented pictorially, but this again was abundantly 
 offset in that Yahveh himself appeared even in bodily and 
 visible form upon earth having intercourse with men as 
 the "angel of Yahveh" — a personification of God to which 
 there is no analogy either in Babylonia or Assyria. The 
 Babylonians conferred upon their gods different degrees 
 of rank according to their spheres of influence, their effi- 
 cacy, or their mutual relationship, representing the now 
 generative and now productive, now primary and now 
 secondary phenomena as masculine or feminine, and under 
 the figure of parents and children. Since the oldest forms 
 of written characters for the word *' month" have taught 
 us that it is not made from "da^^" and the number 30, 
 but is a comparative form of "day" by which "month" 
 is designated, so to speak, as a single day raised to a higher 
 power, I begin to realise why the Babylonians considered 
 the moon-god as the father of the sun-god. And while 
 they thus ingeniousl}'- personified single manifestations of 
 deity, and saw the good, beneficent powers maintaining 
 victories on every side over the evil and destructive agen- 
 cies, they created a pantheon of gods, goddesses, and lesser 
 divinities (angels and demons) full of imagination and 
 poetrj^, and at the same time provided a favorable soil for 
 mythological images and tales such as those which have 
 been familiar to us since the days of Greece.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 219 
 
 The Babjdonians, too, were acquainted with a chariot 
 of the sun-god to which strong and never wearied mules 
 were daily harnessed, and they had mythical creatures 
 like fauns and satyrs. While at the first glance emblems 
 of the gods like those represented on the kudurru here 
 reproduced, or, to select two in particular, one which re- 
 presents the god Marduk, and one which symbolises Ea 
 the god of the Maters within and under the earth, might 
 appear more like the denizens of hell ; to him who searches 
 farther and sees for instance the fish, the symbol of the 
 water, united with the goat, this goat-fish becomes the 
 symbolisation of the merrily gushing and blithely bubbling 
 
 Fig. 96. Emblem of Marduk. 
 
 Fig. 97. Emblem of Ea. 
 
 spring — in other words, becomes simply poetry. And as 
 the Babylonians were taught bj^ constant observ^ation of 
 the sky to recognise the eternal laws of the gods in the 
 courses of the stars and their constellations, so they 
 thought to discover indications of the divine presence 
 in every earthlj^ thing, in great things and in small 
 — and even in the very smallest, as the flight of birds. 
 Hence the Babylonians prove to be seekers after God, 
 yes, the most inquiring spirits among them even gave 
 themselves up entirely to the search after God. 
 
 Countless traces point to the fact that like the philos- 
 ophers of Greece and Rome, the deeper thinkers of Bab-
 
 220 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ylonia divined the ideal unity of the godhead behind the 
 multiplicity of their individual gods.' Yet I may not 
 carry out the proofs of this to completion, at least not 
 with the purpose of comparing the Babylonian God-con- 
 ception with Semitic monotheism. In this particular, 
 Babel and Bible will always remain contrasts, although 
 here again even in this contrast they prove to possess one 
 parallel, the parallel of human imperfection, from which 
 
 Fig. 98. A Scene in the Desert. 
 
 even the Semitic, even the Israelitish God-conception is 
 not free. 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 Stern, motionless and dead, the monotonous desert 
 stretched out as far as the eye can reach, and unspeakably 
 monotonous was the life of the nomadic tribes. No seed 
 time, nor harvest, and therefore, too, no appreciative joy 
 
 > Ct. Alfred Jeremias, Monotheistische Strdmungen innerhalb der baby- 
 lonischen Religion, Leipsic, 1904.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 221 
 
 in the precious gifts of the earth ; in consequence, too, of 
 the unsettled wandering no investigating research in the 
 miracles of the starry heavens. An entire lifetime was 
 but a struggle for pasture ground and watering places, 
 and victory was only possible because of the close unity 
 of the race and the strict discipline of their warriors under 
 the incontestable judgment of one man in command. A 
 Semitic-Babylonian proverb says, "Man is the shadow of 
 God, the slave is the shadow of the man, but the king 
 is like God.'" Because of this saying Naram-Sin, the 
 son of Sargon I, calls himself "the god of Agade" and is 
 represented with the horn-bedecked head-covering. For 
 the same reason probably, names of the deity are often 
 found afi&xed to the names of the Semitic kings, as for 
 instance, Shargani-shar-ali, Naram-Sin, Bur-Sin, Ur- 
 Ninib, Bur-Sin, Ishme-Dagan of Isin, Nur-Adad, Rim- 
 Sin ; and Dungi of Ur sometimes follows this Semitic 
 custom. We observe, too, that in the Code of Ham- 
 murabi the property of a god or of the palace is 
 equally respected (Sec. VI, 8) and in the letter of the 
 gushing Adam-shum-usur to the Assyrian king, we find 
 the words: "The king's father, my Lord, was the image 
 (salam) of the god Bel ; the king, my Lord, is also Bel's 
 image." Of no less interest is the confession of a devout 
 Babylonian (IV R 60=-= V R 47, II, 29-32) "I taught my 
 country to keep the name of God and to honor Istar's 
 name I instructed my people ; the sublimity of the king 
 I made equal to God and I had my people learn the fear 
 of the palace." It may be worth while to call attention 
 
 * In the Assyrian letter 8o, 7-19, 22, Z. 30 ff. In distinction from the word 
 avelu meaning "slave" we have here, it seems to me, the really free man charac- 
 terised by the plural avele.
 
 222 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 to the interesting parallel that in the Amarna letters the 
 king is called shdr baldti^ "the breath of life" just as in 
 Lam. IV, 20 Yahveh's anointed is called "the breath of 
 our nostrils.'" 
 
 Whether and in how far the nature and life of the 
 desert contributed to the Semitic God-conception is doubt- 
 ful. At any rate, the Semitic nomads saw in El or God to 
 whom they raised eyes , hands and heart as to their ' ' goal , ' '* 
 one single and united being that made heaven and earth 
 and alone exercises judgment over all above and below ; 
 that does not walk and act as man do, but remains un- 
 changeable from generation to generation, — a truly ex- 
 alted, serious and sublime God-conception which, however, 
 after the manner of men immediately became confused. 
 As the Sumerians split up the godhead into the single 
 manifestations of divine power and wisdom, and in so doing 
 forgot the fountain-head of the One, so the Semites divided 
 the one God of heaven and earth into different racial and 
 national gods. They drew him down to the narrow limits 
 of their paltry separate existence, full of jealousy and love 
 of fighting, and made the God of the universe their own 
 personal special god under a name of their own particular 
 dialect, and made themselves the people and property of 
 this personal god. 
 
 From this particularistic God-conception even the 
 
 1 i:*£N nil 
 
 ^ In spite of all expressions of my critics to the contrary, it is certain that the 
 fundamental meaning of the Semitic word for God," 'i7, V/, "aim" or "goal," is 
 direction. Not only because the former use of the word '<?/ in Hebrew proves it, 
 but even the Assyrian-Babylonian scholars testify to the fact as unmistakably as 
 possible. See supra, p. 60-61, and 148 ff. The traditional view to which the 
 people have held so tenaciously and according to which V/ is thought to designate 
 God as ■ 'the strong one,' is without any trace of a linguistic support, and is at once 
 wrecked upon the short i oi the original particle ^il.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 223 
 
 great prophets of Judah and Israel did not succeed in free- 
 ing themselves completely and permanently. As the 
 Arabian is impervious to the truth that his Allah, the one 
 omnipotent creator of heaven and earth of whom Moham- 
 med taught him, is none other than Yahveh, the one om- 
 nipotent creator of heaven and earth whose worship Moses 
 kept alive in his people, so the Israelites since the time of 
 their earliest forefathers worshipped the one God under 
 the name of Yahveh,' the Moabites under the name of 
 Kammosh% and the Ammonites under the name of Melech 
 (Milcom)^ i. e., the judge, but each without exception 
 recognised the national gods of the others as actually and 
 positively existing. It is generally known that the Old 
 Testament itself teaches this. 
 
 We are all familiar with the beautiful passage in the- 
 book of Ruth where Ruth's sister-in-law at Naomi's wish 
 returned "unto her people and unto her gods" (Ruth i. 
 15), while Ruth says to her mother-in-law "Thy people 
 
 ' My earlier claim (see page 150) that the Semitic nation which had penetrated 
 into Babylon seventy-five centuries before Christ and from which Hammurabi 
 sprang knew and worshipped the God /rt'rv, /a'/2 (i. e. , Yahveh, Yahu) has bril- 
 liantly triumphed over all criticism and doubt. Cf. Giesebrecht, Friede fiir Babel 
 und Bihel, p. 3 ff.; 41-47; also Kamphausen who says in the Historische Zeit- 
 schrift,^6, 488: "With praiseworthy discretion Zimmern points out (K A T 465- 
 468) that the name Yahu or Yahveh appears in Babylonian language only as the 
 name of a foreign God." Since it is well known that I myself have never made 
 a different claim, another interpretation of these words would have been nearer 
 the fact. 
 
 ^ The Assyrian rendering of the name of the national god of the Moabites by 
 Kamynilsu shows that the Hebrew KMVS" is more correctly vocalised Kamosh 
 than Kemosli; root form Kammdsh. 
 
 3 The designation of the highest god as Malach, "judge, king," is known to 
 have been spread in Canaan far beyond the Ammonite boundary, whence the cunei- 
 form List of the Gods (K. 2100 Col. IV, 12) says that "God" was called nialalium 
 in the western country. Observe here the same rendering of the vowel ii {^Sa^ol) 
 by the cuneiform a, as this Babylonian Idva proves to be in so many of the names 
 of the exile. It is an acknowledged fact that the Babylonian system of punctuation 
 made no distinction between a and a.
 
 224 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 shall be my people, and thy God, my God" (verse 16). 
 So speaks the simple faith of the people, and so too the 
 historians and prophets who repeatedly mention Moab as 
 the nation of Kammosh (Num. xxi. 29; Jer. xlviii, 46) 
 as Israel is Yahveh's people. And since we have not the 
 slightest foundation for the suspicion that Kammosh was 
 not worshipped as the one creator of heaven and earth as 
 much as Yahveh or the *'most high God" of Melchizedek 
 (Gen. xiv. 18 ff.) or that the moral and religious life of 
 the Moabites was below the level of Israel, so it is evident 
 that the characterisation of the national gods of the Moab- 
 ites and Ammonites as an "abomination" (1 Kings xi, 7) 
 was purely the outcome of political jealousy. 
 
 How indispensably a particular god as the head and 
 representative of national unity seemed to the Semitic 
 races, we have a glowing example in the Assyrians. When 
 in the second half of the third millennium before Christ, 
 the Semitic Babylonians who had pressed forward into the 
 land which later was to be Assyria developed an indepen- 
 dent national existence, they yielded themselves at once, 
 without disparagement of the Babylonian pantheon which 
 they brought with them, to their especial primitive na- 
 tional god Asur (Ashir^ Ashur). He, the "saving" and 
 "holy" god, self -begotten, without even a consort, and 
 not united with nature or any forces of nature but standing 
 high above all, was thought of and worshipped as the first 
 cause of all things, and as the father, lord and king of all 
 the gods. As Yahveh is called "the God of gods" and 
 "Lord of lords" (Ps. cxxxvi, 2-3) so was Asur exactly 
 the same ; and if in Israel the cry was heard ' ' Who is like 
 Yahveh among the gods ? " so on the Tigris it resounded :
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 225 
 
 *' Who is like Asur among the gods ? " But the princes 
 over the Assyrians were "priests of Asur" chosen by 
 Asur since time immemorial to serve him as priests. 
 
 Asur never ceased to be the only and most high na- 
 tional God of the Assyrians although it is probable that the 
 ancient Babylonian pantheon influenced Asur's position 
 among the other gods in many particulars. Although the 
 ancient kings of Assyria preferred the titles ''Bel's viceroy, 
 Priest of Asur," thus rigidly distinguishing Asur from 
 the Babylonian Bel, the lord of earth and of humanity, 
 yet it was natural that Bel, the chief of the Babylonian 
 gods, and Asur, of the Assyrian should gradually fuse into 
 one idea. Indeed we find E-kur^ the name of the temple of 
 the Babylonian god Bel, the tutelary deity of Nippur, 
 transferred to Asur's temple iS^^rar^^ and consequently Bel's 
 son Ninib called the son of Hsara. Since Asur from the 
 beginning dispensed with any consort (otherwise how 
 easy it would have been to give him one by the name of 
 Ashirtu ! ) and finally was assigned a goddess only to suit 
 the "system," it is easy to realise that Bel's consort Bclit 
 ildni •^2iS permitted to be Asur's wife at the same time. 
 With the interchangeableness of Asur and Bel it is in- 
 teresting to compare the analogous case of Marduk and 
 Bel, as it is strikingly brought out in the Marduk-litany,' 
 "Thy city Nippur cast not aside; " and also in another 
 passage,' where Bel the second god of the highest trinity 
 is missing because he has just been identified with Alar- 
 duk.^ 
 
 > IV R i8 No. 2 + BE 13 420. See Weissbach's Miscellen No. XIII. 
 2 Z 63-64 and 25-30. 
 
 ' The treatise of Morris Jastrow, "The God Ashur" in the Journal of the 
 American Oriental Society [Y^W • 1903, 282-311) suffers from the fundamental
 
 226 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 The chosen people ! The egotistic appropriation of 
 the Most High on the part of the single Semitic tribes 
 necessarily led to the further acceptation that every nation 
 was "chosen" by the God concerned to serve him exclu.- 
 sively, — an acceptation well adapted to fill the particular 
 tribe with especial pride. It is a well-known fact with 
 what self-satisfaction the Moslem looks down upon all the 
 nations of the earth who were not predestined like himself 
 by Allah to know and worship the true God. In the same 
 way in the case of Asur's people we meet with the same 
 idea of "election," although without the slightest admix- 
 ture of contempt towards the other nations and their gods. 
 Ashur is the city, the land of Asur; the Assyrians his 
 people, and especially the priest-kings of Assyria consid- 
 ered themselves called of Asur from the beginning to fear 
 him, and their race chosen to be Asur's priests and min- 
 isters forever. In the same way Israel is the chosen 
 people of Yahveh, not of God in our present comprehensive 
 sense any more than the Assyrians as the people of the 
 Lord God Asur could advance the claim of passing for the 
 chosen people of "God." 
 
 The national god made a contract with his people 
 which in Israel was even strengthened by a special exter- 
 nal symbol, the circumcision (Gen. xvii. 10-14) . He 
 hated those who hated his people, and blessed those who 
 blessed his people. Therefore Israel's enemies were eo 
 ipso^ enemies of Yahveh (Ps. Ixxxiii) . "I (Yahveh) will 
 be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto 
 thine adversaries" (Ex. xxiii. 22^ . And just as Yahveh 
 
 error that it confuses the adjective forms under consideration in the name Asur, viz., 
 ashir, ashur irora ashdru, "to be saving, prosperous" (whence too the Hebrew 
 asher is derived) with the participle dshir from ashdru, "to have charge."
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 2.2.1 
 
 went to battle before Israel's hosts or ZcbaotJi,, against her 
 enemies, so Asur starts out with the armies of his people 
 to battle and to victory. Therefore we often see on the 
 Assyrian reliefs, the symbol of the god Asur in front of 
 or above the royal commander, in the whirl of battle or in 
 the triumphant return. This symbol represents a half 
 figure of a bearded man in the center of a circle, the sym- 
 bol of eternity, the whole borne upon wide spreading wings 
 similarly to the way Yahveh is represented as flying upon 
 the wings of the wind (Ps. xviii. 10). And as Yahveh 
 is poetically represented as armed with shield, buckler 
 and spear (Ps. xxxv. l-Z) or as it is said of him in the 
 
 ^r^v . 
 
 
 'K . ^ 
 
 Fig. 99. Symbols ok Asur. 
 
 seventh Psalm (verses 12-13) : "If he turn not, he will 
 whet his sword ; he hath bent his bow, and made it readv. 
 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death," 
 (Cf. Ps. xxi. 12), so Asur too appears armed with the 
 bow. If a battle is to be fought, he is seen drawing the 
 death-dealing arrow from the string ; if victor}- is won he 
 lowers his bow. The Assyrian standards also show the 
 archer Asur standing upon an ox (Cf. Ps. xviii. 10) or 
 hovering above oxen as he draws the arrow against his 
 enemies and the foes of his people. 
 
 Although Yahveh himself was not symbolised b}' any 
 image, but was thought to dwell in the sanctuarj^ of the
 
 i 
 
 
 E 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 X! 
 
 M 
 
 .ti 
 
 u-i 
 
 00 
 
 
 00 
 
 u 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 < 
 
 a 
 
 d, 
 
 *"■ 
 
 b: 
 
 "rt 
 
 N 
 
 a 
 
 < 
 
 z 
 
 [Sj 
 
 q: 
 
 'u 
 
 D 
 
 O 
 
 in 
 
 
 <: 
 
 
 fe. 
 
 d 
 
 o 
 
 U 
 
 z 
 
 ^ 
 
 K 
 
 
 P 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 U 
 
 c 
 
 b: 
 
 rt 
 
 J 
 < 
 
 S 
 
 I 
 
 0. 
 
 < 
 
 S 
 
 
 P 
 
 ^' 
 
 S 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 w 
 
 JZ 
 
 £ 
 
 a. 
 
 H 
 
 a! 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 60 
 
 
 O 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 JZ 
 
 
 D- 
 
 si 
 
 rt 
 
 £ 
 
 6 
 
 
 o 
 
 b 
 
 ^
 
 230 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 ark of the covenant, yet his invisible throne (in remarkable 
 contradiction to the absolute prohibition of the decalogue 
 against any likeness) was thought to be hovering over 
 cherubim ("he sitteth between the cherubim," Ps. xcix. 
 1) . The representation of these higher angelic figures 
 the Hebrews must have adopted as they found them from 
 other people with whom they came in contact. And the 
 most probable theory is that they were representations 
 
 Fig. 102. Assyrian Standards. 
 
 similar to the winged oxen deities of Assyria. The As- 
 syrian standards which show Asur standing on or hovering 
 over oxen, favor this acceptation. 
 
 How deeply rooted the belief was among the Semites 
 that every nation and every land had its special divinity 
 who wished and was permitted to be worshipped according 
 to the custom of his own country, the Old Testament like-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 231 
 
 wise teaches in two memorable narratives. We read in 
 the Second Book of Kings (xvii. 25-28) that as long as 
 the people who were transplanted into Samaria from Babel, 
 Kutha, Hamath, etc., ''feared not the Lord" and "know 
 not the manner of the God of the land," Yahveh sent 
 lions among them until at the command of the Assyrian 
 king one of the priests of Israel was brought back to Bethel 
 and "taught them how they should fear the Lord." Sargon 
 did the same thing according to the Sargon cylinder (74) 
 with the captive tribes of many tongues who were located 
 in his capital city ; he had them taught by especially 
 qualified Assyrians the "fear of God and the king."' 
 And in the fifth chapter of the Second Book of Kings we 
 are told that Naaman, captain of the Syrian hosts, when 
 he had been healed of his leprosy and turned to Yahveh, 
 took with him "two mules' burden of earth" in order to 
 worship Yahveh on Yahveh' s own soil. Corresponding 
 to this conviction, all the Semitic tribes immigrating into 
 Babylonia accepted at once the intrinsically Sumerian 
 religion of the land ; Terach at an early day became " idol- 
 ater" in Babylon, and even Yah veh-f earing parents in 
 exile called their child after the name of a Babylonian 
 deity; as, for instance Mordecai, Esther's foster father, 
 was consecrated by his father to the god Marduk. 
 
 In this way and in no other we can understand what 
 would otherwise be incomprehensible ; namely, why after 
 they had penetrated into Canaan, the Israelites both high 
 and lowly took up almost from physical necessity the cult 
 of their new Canaanite home, the worship of Baal and 
 
 ' TUch-e AshsMr ni{ldM{e) i-tii kaldma ana shfihuzi sibitte-i paldh Hi u sham 
 akle shaire umaHrshunilte.
 
 232 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Ashera on the ancient sacred high places. And the pre- 
 exilic prophets in spite of the titanic fight which they 
 maintained for Yahveh against the Canaanite idolatry of 
 their companions could not succeed in attaining any last- 
 ing results. It was truly a dramatic struggle which these 
 inspired, austere, fearless men waged untiringly against 
 kings and nation, urging their people to purity of life 
 with the ardor of a holy passion, with rapturous eloquence 
 and with every available means, by promises and threats, 
 in order to keep Israel even on the ground of the captured 
 land of Canaan, to the God of her fathers and forefathers, 
 and to preserve the nation pure and unpolluted as a polit- 
 ical and religious unity. 
 
 Parallels between Babel and Bible may also be found 
 in religious ecstasy, or prophecy, — that condition in which 
 personalities, highly endowed with spiritual gifts and 
 ardently zealous for great political, ethical or religious 
 ideals, feel themselves seized and impelled by God him- 
 self, and in such a frame of mind publish abroad visions, 
 maxims, and speeches usually of a lofty, poetical tenor 
 and winning eloquence. As there were many holy men in 
 Israel and Judah who were conscious of the spirit of God 
 working in them, and were therefore convinced that Yah- 
 veh himself spoke in them and through them (Amos iii. 
 8 ; vii. 14-15) , so too in Babylonia and Assyria there w^ere 
 seers and prophets and prophetesses like Huldah (2 Kings 
 xxii. 14) who were in particularly close communion with 
 deity and made known the divine will to king and people. 
 
 In Assyria and Israel the prophets were sought to 
 inquire of heaven whether or not the armies should start 
 out to war (1 Kings xxii; 2 Kings iii). In both cases
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 233 
 
 we hear at the beginning the encouraging "Fear not, I 
 afn with thee" ; we read the declaration that God would 
 go with them to battle and would destroy the eneni}^ of 
 his people with fire, and we gladly hear the words of the 
 prophet ending "that ye may know I am Yahveh" (1 
 Kings XX. 13, 28) or Nebo, or Istar, as the case ma}^ be. 
 Interesting cuneiform parallels may be found in many 
 single passages in the Old Testament prophecies as well 
 as the Psalms, as a result of the same modes of thought 
 and speech in both Semitic nations. One of these seems 
 especially worthy of note in this connection. In Zeph. 
 iii. 13, we read of the absolutel^^ happy condition of Israel 
 in the last days, "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniq- 
 uity, nor speak lies ; neither shall a deceitful tongue be 
 found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down and 
 none shall make them afraid. ' ' This coupling of the practice 
 of righteousness and truthfulness with quiet and peace- 
 ful pasturage is certainly peculiar, but it is to be found in 
 just the same way in the cuneiform literature as the 
 promise of an ideal and blessed existence. For instance, 
 we read in destiny tablets, " If the sun and moon are seen 
 together on the fourteenth day, the speech of the land 
 will be truthful, truthful words will be in the mouths of 
 the people, the cattle of Akkad will lay them down in 
 security (fpargqnish) upon the fields." 
 
 But all the painstaking endeavors of the prophets 
 were for the most part of no avail, and the catastrophes 
 of the nation which seemed to the prophets to be the judg- 
 ments of Yahveh broke upon them. The ten tribes of the 
 northern kingdom became the spoil of the Ass3'rian do- 
 minions and fell to pieces in further exile, and even the
 
 234 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 inhabitants of tlie southern kingdom were uprooted from 
 the Canaanite soil and transplanted in foreign lands. Still 
 the holy zeal of the prophets of Yahveh continued to burn, 
 they comforted their people with the promise that Yahveh 
 would turn aside their captivity, would bring his people 
 back and lead them to a glorious future if from this time 
 forth they would cling undisturbed to the law of Moses 
 and would serve no other god than Yahveh. 
 
 And the hope of the prophets did not remain unful- 
 filled. In 539 B. C. when without a stroke of the sword 
 Cyrus entered the gates of Babylon which had been opened 
 to him by treachery from within, and the people strewed 
 his path with palm branches, he issued the command that 
 to all cities whose gods had been carried away to Babylon, 
 the gods should be returned and their former religion re- 
 established, and to the exiled Judaeans he gave permission 
 to return in order that they might erect again at Jerusalem 
 their ancient and venerable places of worship. 
 
 It is true that only a relatively small number of 
 Judaeans made use of the privilege granted them by the 
 Persian monarch, but within those who did return to 
 Palestine the joj^ful certainty came to be more and more 
 confirmed that Yahveh had forgiven his people all their 
 sins (Ps, Ixxxv. 1-3) and himself had brought them back 
 home to their own country, thus before all the nations of 
 the earth acknowledging Israel to be his people. 
 
 We all know the continuation of the history of Israel. 
 The temple rebuilt upon Zion under the most discouraging 
 circumstances, under Antiochus IV fell a prey to the most 
 extreme devastation. The conquests of the Maccabaean 
 heroes over the Syrian army raised once more the jubila-
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 235 
 
 tions of devout Judaeaiis to the utmost: "Blessed is the 
 people whose God is the Lord ; and the people whom he 
 Hath chosen for his own inheritance" (Ps. xxxiii. 12). 
 The proclamation of the glory of Yahveh was made known 
 to all nations that his grace was great over Israel, that 
 Israel was his, " his people and the sheep of his pasture " 
 (Ps. c. 3) , lieaven and earth shall glorify Yahveh as the 
 one who has exalted Israel as the ' ' people near unto him ' ' 
 (Ps. cxlviii) . New songs continuall3' celebrated the king- 
 dom of Yahveh and his anointed among all the nations 
 of the earth. 
 
 But the successes of the Maccabees brought about 
 new defeats and renewed search for a habitation : the rule 
 of Yahveh, or the kingdom of God and his Messiah with 
 all the extravagant earthly expectations connected with 
 it, would come, but although postponed to a promised fu- 
 ture, continued to disappear into the far and ever farther 
 distance. 
 
 * * 
 
 A sower went forth to sow his seed,' and with gentle 
 forbearing, and loving hand, and with words so homely 
 and withal powerful put aside the barriers which a partic- 
 ularistic national religion had erected between God and 
 the world, and planted in the hearts of men a new concep- 
 tion of God and his relation to humanity — Jesus of Naza- 
 reth in Galilee who fulfilled the law and the prophets in 
 that he interpreted both in an entirely new spirit, developed 
 and perfected them. He made an end of all external le- 
 gality and hypocrisy, elevated the laws of eating by the 
 
 * With these same words J. Wellhausen begins the 24th Chapter entitled "The 
 Gospel," of his Israelitische U7id Jildische Geschichte, 5th ed. Berlin, 1904, p. 381.
 
 236 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 eternally valid word that not that which goeth into the 
 mouth but that which cometh out of the mouth defileth 
 the man ; he met the misuse of the Sabbath with the bold 
 remark that the Sabbath was made for man and not man 
 for the Sabbath ; he laid the emphasis of human iniquity 
 upon the heart and its desires ; he did away with the con- 
 finement of worship to one particular place like Jerusalem, 
 and for the pagan sacrifices and priestly ceremonial, sub- 
 stituted the secret prayer in the privacy of one's closet ; 
 he destroyed all hopes in a kingdom of God which would 
 come in outward appearance, but taught rather that it was 
 already dawning among men ; by the removal of all al- 
 leged prerogatives he opened to all men and to all nations 
 alike the free and immediate access to their Heavenly 
 Father; liberated the love of one's neighbor from the 
 limitations which still clung to it and above all spiritualised 
 the personal and human representation of God by the ever 
 abiding words : "God is spirit, and those who worship 
 him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John iv. 
 24) ; "God is love, and who abideth in love abideth in 
 God and God in him." Truly a new religion which, 
 when all the manifold human superfluities that are foreign 
 to the personality and life of Jesus are removed, is still 
 destined to save the world. 
 
 " If such and such a star appear on such and such a 
 day, then will a mighty king arise in the West land" — 
 this and similar words we read repeatedly on Babylonian 
 destiny tablets, and it is clear that such astrological lore 
 is reflected in that story which is surrounded by an ever 
 new fascination, — the story of the Wise Men of the East 
 who had seen the star of the newborn king in the sky and
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. Ill 
 
 came to worship the babe (Matt, ii) . We rejoice in this 
 story, for what Goethe' says is true: " By no means do 
 we know what we owe in general to Luther and the Ref- 
 ormation. We have been made free from the fetters of 
 spiritual narrowness, and as a result of the continual 
 growth of culture we have become qualified to return to 
 the fountain head and comprehend Christianity in its 
 purity. Once more we have the courage to stand with 
 firm feet upon God's earth and to have a realisation of 
 our God-given human nature. Let spiritual culture con- 
 tinue to advance, let the natural sciences grow in ever 
 greater extent and depth, and the human spirit expand 
 as it will, it will never advance beyond the sublimity and 
 moral elevation of Christianity as it glistens and gleams 
 in the Gospels." 
 
 As certainly as this is the truth, when we search the 
 ancient Babylonian world and see the leading spirits of 
 Babylon endeavoring with earnest zeal, even with fear 
 and trembling to seek God and the truth, we can joyously 
 welcome the fact that the Evangelist granted to the Bab- 
 ylonian Wise Men to be the first to offer their homage at 
 the cradle of the Christian faith. 
 
 ' Biedermann, Goethes Gesprache. Leipsic, 1890. Vol VIII, 149. Con- 
 versations with Eckermann. March ii, 1832.
 
 INDEX
 
 2^1 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Aaron's blessing, 29, 153. 
 
 Abomination, 224. 
 
 Abraham, 4, 60, 134. 
 
 Abu Habba, xiv. 
 
 Abydenus, 87. 
 
 Achan, yj- 
 
 Adam, First and second, 48. 
 
 Adam-shum-usur, 221. 
 
 Akko, 35. 
 
 Alexandretta, Syria, ix. 
 
 Amenophis III, 35. 
 
 Amenophis IV, 34, 35. 
 
 American excavations, xix ; at Nip- 
 pur, 3. 
 
 Amraphel. See Hammurabi. 
 
 Ancient history illuminated, xxi. 
 
 Andrse, Walter, 84. 
 
 Angel, Assyrian. 51; of the pesti- 
 lence, 218; of Yahveh, 218. 
 
 Angels, S3 ff. 161. 
 
 Antelopes, So"; Grazing, 15, 27. 
 
 Antioch, ix. 
 
 Antiochus IV, (Epiphanes), 88, 234. 
 
 Archaeology, German Evangelical In- 
 stitute of, 89. 
 
 Ark of the Covenant, 95. 
 
 Arrapachitis, 78. 
 
 Art, Babylonian, xxi. 
 
 Asarhaddon, 171. 
 
 Ashdod, 6. 
 
 Ashera, 232. 
 
 Ashur, 226. 
 
 Askalon, 35. 
 
 Assyria, Military system of, 13-18. 
 
 Assyrian angel, 51 ; beard, 141 ; 
 meals, 23 ; sculptures, xxi ; stand- 
 
 ards, 227; throne, 19; troops, li- 
 
 13- 
 
 Astronomy, xxiii. 
 
 Astruc. Jean, 41, 130.. 
 
 Asur, 224 ff . ; armed, 227; and Bel, 
 225 ; Emblem of, 227 ; Esara, tem- 
 ple of, 225. 
 
 Asurbanipal, xii, 55, 180; Library of, 
 JT)'^ Ten-sided prism of, 79. 
 
 Asurnazirpal, Palace of, xii. 
 
 Attributes of gods, 211. 
 
 Baal, 231. 
 
 Babel, 179, 231; Coffins found at, 49; 
 confirms the Bible, xiv ; Dragon of, 
 85; Marduk, god of, 43. 
 
 Babel and Bible, Alfred Jeremias on. 
 137; Catholic Nezcs on 136 f; con- 
 trasts, 220; Cornill on, 132; Har- 
 nack on, 125 ff. ; Joseph Halevy 
 on. 130 f . ; linked together, 2; Op- 
 position to, 71 ; Parallels between, 
 91. 232. 
 
 Babylon, Influence of, 33, 37; Istar 
 Gate of, 83 ; Lion of, 85 ; Marduk, 
 god of, 209 ; Ruins of, 82 ; Splendor 
 
 of, 32, 34- 
 
 Babylonia, Commercial and judicial 
 life of, xvi ; Hebrew antiquity con- 
 nected with, xxii. 
 
 Babylonian art, xxi ; ethics and re- 
 ligion. 196, 213 ; language. 37; pray- 
 ers, 206 ff. 
 
 Babylonians seekers after God, 219. 
 
 Baentsch, Bruno, 118. 
 
 Barth, J., 117, 154.
 
 242 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Beard, Assyrian, i6, i8, 141. 
 
 Bedouin desert, 89. 
 
 Beilan, ix. 
 
 Bel, 153; and Asur, 225; Consort of, 
 225 ; E-kur temple of, 225 ; identi- 
 fied with Marduk, 225 ; Temple of, 
 Bint-el-Amir, xix; Temple of, at 
 Nippur, xviii. 
 
 Belshazzar, 176. 
 
 Benediction, 29 f. ; Babylonian, 212. 
 
 Berlin Museum. 49. 
 
 Berosus, 145. 159. 
 
 Beth Shemesh, 95. 
 
 Bezold, 151. 
 
 Bible, cause of interest in Babel, i ; 
 Confirmations of, 71 ; Traces of 
 polytheism in, 146; Study of, 2. 
 
 Bibliography, 117 f. 
 
 Biedermann. 237 n. 
 
 Billerbeck, Colonel, 23. 
 
 Bint-el-Amir, Temple of Bel, xix. 
 
 Bison, 81. 
 
 Blessing, Aaron's, 29, 153. 
 
 Botta. Emile. x f., 6, 27. 
 
 Breath of life. 90. 222. 
 
 British Museum, xii, xiii, xv, 61, 201. 
 
 Budde, Dr. Karl, 117. 
 
 Bull, Head of winged. 16. 
 
 Bulls, Transportaion of, 25. 
 
 Burnt offerings, 100, 113. 213. 
 
 Canaan, Conquest of, 106. 
 
 Canaanites, 162. 
 
 Canal of Keber, 4. 
 
 Cappadocia, 171. 
 
 Carcliemish, (Dsherabis), 5, 6. 
 
 Carus, Paul, 139. 
 
 Catholic Nczi's on "Babel and Bible," 
 
 136 f. 
 Chabor. 78. 
 Chalach. /t,. 78. 
 Cherubim. 230. 
 Child, Adopted. 183. 
 Childbirth. Istar. goddess of, 109. 
 Children of wife and slave, 183. 
 Chosen people. 226. 
 Christianity. 237. 
 Circle of 360 degrees, xxiii. 
 Circumcision, 226. 
 
 Coins, 31, 37. 
 
 Constantinople, Museum of, 186. 
 
 Cornill. Dr. C. H., 118, 161; on "Ba- 
 bel and Bible," 132. 
 
 Craig, James A., 191. 
 
 Creation, xxii, 90; Babylonian poem 
 of, 42 f., 159, 187; Biblical account 
 of, 45, 104, 133. 
 
 Cunning, Sir Stratford, xi. 
 
 Cyrus, 87, 176, 234. 
 
 Dagon, 95. 
 
 Daily Telegrafli, xiv. 
 
 Danneil, Heinrich, 118. 
 
 Darius, 171 ; hunting lion, 9. 
 
 David, 19; Psalms of. 188. 
 
 Days of the week, xxiii. 
 
 Deity, Manifestations of, personified, 
 
 211, 218. 
 Delitzsch. Franz, 154, 165. 
 Deluge, xxii. 
 Demons, 55 f.. 58, 134. 
 De Morgan, xx. 97. 
 De Sarzec, Ernest, xvii, xx. 
 Desert, 89, 220. 
 
 Devil, The Old Serpent, 45, 161. 
 Devils, 55 f. 134. 
 Dieulafoys, xx. 
 Dillmann, 96. 
 Dirge, Babylonian, 190. 
 Divine presence in all things, 216. 219. 
 Duller. Johannes. 117. 
 Dragon of Babel, 85. 
 Drjander, 120. 
 Dsherabis, Sec Carchemish. 
 
 Ea, Emblem of. 219. 
 Eannadu, xvii ; Vulture stele of xxi. 
 East India Company, x. 
 Eclipses, Solar, 29. 
 E-kur. Temple of Bel. 225. 
 El. The name, 60 ff., 148 fif., 222. 
 El-Amarna, 34. 35, 38, 222. 
 Elamites. 29. 97, 173, 180. 
 Emblems of the gods. 217. 219. 
 Emperor William and higher criti- 
 cism. 139; on revelation, 122. 
 Enannatum, xvii. 
 Engelkemper, Dr. W.. 118.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 243 
 
 Eiitemena, xvii, 174. 
 
 Erech, 179. 
 
 Esagila, Temple of Marduk, 209. 
 
 Esara, Temple of Azur, 225. 
 
 Esarhaddon, 161 ; Palace of, xii. 
 
 Ethical monotheism, 106, no. 
 
 Ethics and religion, Babylonian, 196, 
 
 213- 
 
 Ethnic movements traced by excava- 
 tion, xxi. 
 
 Eve, Statue of. 109. 
 
 Evilmerodach, 202. 
 
 Excavations of Babylonia and As- 
 syria, I, 71, 173; French, 130. 
 
 Exile, Ten tribes of, 233. 
 
 Ezekiel, Vision of, 64, 130. 
 
 Faith and science, 128, 143. 
 
 Fall of man, 48, 130, 133, 157. 
 
 Flandin, Eugene, xi. 
 
 Flood, Babylonian story of the, 41, 
 39 f., 107; Biblical story of the, 41; 
 of 1876, 39. 
 
 Foreigners, 203. 
 
 French achievements, xi ; at Susa, 
 XX ; excavations, xvii ; excavations 
 in Assyria and Babylonia. 130; gov- 
 ernment. Appropriation of, xi. 
 
 Galilaean dialect, 180. 
 
 Galilseans and Samaritans, Babylo- 
 nian character of, 181. 
 
 Ganneau, Clermont, 178. 
 
 Genealogy, Tribal, 171, 173. 
 
 Genesis, Book of, xxii. 
 
 George, St., and the dragon, 45. 
 
 German Evangelical Institute of Ar- 
 chaeology, 89. 
 
 Germany, xx. 
 
 Giesebrecht, 223 n. 
 
 Gilgamesh epic, 41, 49. 
 
 Goat-fish, 219. 
 
 God, "Ancient of Days," 105; Child 
 of, 207; Conception of, 91, 136, 142; 
 Fear of, 204; Grace of, 208; Most 
 high, 224 ; Names formed with, 103 ; 
 the Father, 105; The word, 59, 62; 
 Yahveh the only true, in. 
 
 Gods, Attributes of 211; Emblems of 
 
 the, 217, 219; living powers, 209. 
 211 ; National, 222, 224, 226, 230 ff. ; 
 Polytheisticconceptionof,62 ; speak 
 to men, 91, 211; Unity in multi- 
 plicity of, 220. 
 
 God - conception, Babylonian, 214; 
 Particularistic, 23'2 ; Semitic, 2.22 ; 
 Sumerian, 214. 
 
 Goethe, 60, 122, 237. 
 
 Goliath, 19. 
 
 Gomer, 171. 
 
 Good Samaritan, 202. 
 
 Goshen, 78. 
 
 Grotefeld, Georg Friedrich, xx. 
 
 Gudea. xvii; Statue of, 175. 
 
 Gula, 91. 
 
 Gunkel, D., n8, 136. 159 
 
 Halevy, Joseph, on "Babel and Bible," 
 130 f. 
 
 Hamath, 231. 
 
 Hammurabi (Amraphel), xvi, 61,97- 
 99, 122, 134; Code of, 29,31,97, loi, 
 124, 196, 182, 183, 197, 201, 202, 203. 
 204, 221 ; contemporary of Abra- 
 ham, 9. 
 
 Harnack, 166; on "Babel and Bible," 
 125 ff. 
 
 Haupt, Paul, 158, 178. 
 
 Haynes, J. H., xviii, xix, xx. 
 
 Hebrew antiquity connected with 
 Babylonia, xxii; scripture. 113. 
 
 Hell, so. 
 
 Hellmann, G., 162. 
 
 Herodotus, 199. 
 
 Heuzey. Leon. 175. 
 
 Hezekiah, 6, 7. 
 
 Hilla, xiv. 
 
 Hilprecht, Hermann V.. xviii. 
 
 Hoffmann, Georg, 178. 
 
 Hollman, 120. 
 
 Hommel, Prof. Dr., n7. 157, 162. 
 
 Huldah, 232. 
 
 Idols, in, 209; Procession of, 25. 
 
 Image worship, 106. 211. 
 
 Images, modes of representation. 210. 
 
 Innnortality, 38. 
 
 Ionia, 171.
 
 244 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Iron implements, 57. 
 
 Islam, Paternoster of, no. 
 
 Israel, Twelve tribes of, 37, 62, 65. 
 
 Istar, Gate of Babylon, 83, 85, 159; 
 
 goddess of childbirth, 109; Psalm 
 
 to, 191. 
 
 Japheth, 171. 
 
 Jastrow, Morris, 206 n., 225 n. 
 
 Jehovah, The name, 141. 
 
 Jehu, 78. 
 
 Jensen, Dr. Peter, 118, 147, 152, 153, 
 
 154. 155. 157. 160, 162, 163. 
 Jeremias, Dr. Alfred, 117, 154, 156, 
 
 220 n. ; on "Babel and Bible," 137. 
 Jeremias, Friedrich, 167. 
 Jericho, Zl- 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, 235. 
 Jonah, X, 88. 
 
 Judgments of Yahveh, 233. 
 Jurisprudence, xxiii. 
 
 Kabar. See Keber. 
 
 Kammosh, 223. 
 
 Kamphausen, 223 n. 
 
 Kaulen, Franz, 118. 
 
 Keber, Canal of, 4. 
 
 Keil, P., 118. 
 
 Khorsabad. x ; Palace at. ZZ' 56. 
 
 King, L. W., 191. 
 
 Kittel, Prof. D. R., 117, 118. 150. 
 
 Knieschke. W., 117. 
 
 Kohler, 183, 203. 
 
 Koldewey, 109. 
 
 Konig, Dr. Eduard. 117, 145, 148, 149, 
 
 150, 151, 156, 160. 
 Koran, 60, no, 130. 
 Kronos, xv. 
 
 Kudurru, Assyrian general, 91. 
 Kutha, 72, 179. 231. 
 Kuyunjik, x, xii. 
 
 Lachish, 6. 
 
 Lagash, xvii. 
 
 Lamentation, Psalms of, 190. 
 
 Language. Babylonian, 2,T- 
 
 Law, of retribution, loi ; Tablets of 
 
 the, 94. 
 Laws, Israelitic, 96, loi. 
 
 Layard, Sir Austen Henry, xi. 
 Lazarus and the rich man, 50. 
 Leviathan, 158, 160. 
 Library of Sardanapalus, xiii. 
 Life, Breath of, 90. 
 Lion of Babylon, 85. 
 Lioness, Dying, 27. 
 Loftus, William Bennett, xx. 
 London Society for Biblical Archae- 
 ology, xiv. 
 Love of neighbor. 107. 200 f., 236. 
 Love, Universal, 202. 
 Lugal, Zaggisi, xviii. 
 Luschans, Felix von, 185. 
 Luther, 123, 182, 237. 
 
 Maccabees, 234. 
 
 Madai, 171. 
 
 Magi, Babylonian xiii. 
 
 Magic power, 90. 
 
 Mahomet, 50, 60, 223. 
 
 Man, Creation of, 90; Fall of, 48, 
 130, 157- 
 
 Manifestations of deity personified, 
 211, 218. 
 
 Manu, Law-book of. 97. 
 
 Marduk, 208; All gods united in, 65; 
 and Tiamat, 42 f., 45 ; and Yahveh, 
 43 ; Bel identified with, 225 ; Em- 
 blem of, 219; Esagila, temple of, 
 209; god of Babel, 43, 209; -litany, 
 
 22'i. 
 
 Alarduk-nadin-achi, y^)- 
 
 Mashalzi, 78. 
 
 McCormack, Thomas J., 137. 
 
 Meals, Assyrian, 23. 
 
 Measures, 37. 
 
 Medes, xii, 171. 
 
 Media, Villages of, 78. 
 
 Melchizedek. 224. 
 
 Melech. 223. 
 
 Menahem, 178 f. 
 
 Mene menc tekel u-pharstn, 178 
 
 Merodach-Baladan, 7. 
 
 Meyer, Dr. S., 119. 
 
 Michael, St., and the beast, 45. 
 
 Milcom, 223. 
 
 Military system of Assyria. 13-18. 
 
 Mohammed. See Mahomet.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 245 
 
 Mohl, Julius von, x, xx. 
 Monotheism, 59; Babylonian, 146; 
 
 Ethical, 106, no, 145; National, 
 
 112; Semitic, 220. 
 Moon-god father of sun-god, 218. 
 Mordecai, 231. 
 Mosaic laws, 96, loi. 
 Moses, 65, 94. 
 Mosul, X, 6. 
 Mugheir, 5. 
 Musical instruments, 184. 
 
 Naaman, 231. 
 
 Nabopolassar, 161, 175. 
 
 Nabuna'id, xv, 175; Clay cylinder of, 
 xvi. 
 
 Names formed with "God," 61, 103; 
 of girls and boys, 108. 
 
 Naram-Sin,22i ; Image of,xxi; Plat- 
 form of xix ; son of Sargon I, xvi, 
 xvii, xviii. 
 
 Nebi Yunus, x. 
 
 Nebo, 153; Prayer to, 191. 
 
 Nebobaladan, xvi. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 5, 83, 165, 175 ; In- 
 sanity of, 87: Palace of, xx. 
 
 Neighbor, Love of, 107, 200 f., 236. 
 
 Nergal, T2. 
 
 Nimrud, xii ; Palaces of, 36. 
 
 Nineveh, 78, 88; Excavations at, xii; 
 Library of Asurbanipal at, TJi- 
 
 Ninib, 155, 225. 
 
 Nippur, 49, 225 ; American excava- 
 tions at, 3; Temple of Bel at, xviii. 
 
 Nisibis, 78. 
 
 Nizir, 40. 
 
 Noah, 91, 108; Babylonian (Xisuth- 
 ros), XV, 39 f., 108. 
 
 Noldeke, Th., 178. 
 
 Nunia, x. 
 
 Obelisk, Black, of Shalmaneser II, 
 
 44. 77>, 78. 
 Obscene details, 109. 
 Oettli, Samuel, ri8, 145, 146, 149, 159, 
 
 160. 
 Old Testament, Chronology of the, 
 
 29; interpretation, xxii ; source of 
 
 history, 71 ; Text of, 86. 
 
 Open Court, 136, 137. 
 Oppert, Jules, xx. 
 Ox, Wild, 79, 84. 
 Oxen, Winged, 230. 
 
 Paradise, 50-53, 91. 
 
 Pasturage, Peaceful, 233. 
 
 Patriarchs, Ten antediluvian, 41. 
 
 Pekah, 178. 
 
 Pentateuch criticism, 41, 93, 96. 
 
 Perfection, 66. 70. 
 
 Perjury, 204. 
 
 Peters, John, P., xviii. 
 
 Pharaoh-necho, 5. 
 
 Philadelphia, E.xpcditions from, xviii, 
 xxi. 
 
 Pillar of cloud and fire, 90. 
 
 Pinches, 147. 
 
 Place, Victor, xi, 2)2f 56- 
 
 Polytheism, 62, 65, 103, 106; Traces 
 of, in Bible, 146. 
 
 Pottery, 56. 
 
 Prayer, 212; Babylonian, 206 ff. 
 
 Priest-kings of Lagash, xvii. 
 
 Priestly regulations, 204. 
 
 Prince, John Dj'neley, 178. 
 
 Procession of Idols, 25, 153. 
 
 Prophecy. 232. 
 
 Prophets, 66, 232, 234; Denunciation 
 by, 107; Pre-Exilic, 22,2. 
 
 Psalms, 186 ff. ; Acrostic, 188; of 
 David, 188; of lamentation. 190; 
 Penitential, 207 ; Rhythm of Baby- 
 lonian, 188; to Istar, 191. 
 
 Pul, 178 f. 
 
 Punishment for sin, 47. 
 
 Rassam, Hormuzd. xi f.. .\iv, xx. 
 
 Rawlinson, Sir Henry, xx, 4. 
 
 Re'em, 79. 
 
 Reformation, 114, 237. 
 
 Religion, and science, 142; Develop- 
 ment of. 114; and efliics. Babylo- 
 nian. 196. 213; Ethical manifesta- 
 tions of, 1 13. 
 
 Religious life. 114; tliought. Puri- 
 fication of, 57 f. 
 
 Renin. So. 
 
 Retriliution. Law of, loi.
 
 246 
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 Return to Palestine, 234. 
 Revelation, 70, 121 ; Primitive, 71. 
 Rhythm of Babylonian psalms, 188. 
 Rich, Claudius James, x. 
 Riedel, Prof., 119. 
 Rosenthal, Dr. Ludwig A.. 118. 
 Ruth and Naomi, 223. 
 
 Sabbath, y] U 95- loi, 131, 132, 155 f., 
 236; Origin of. loi. 
 
 Sacrifices, 37, 204, 213. 
 
 Samaria, 72, 179, 231. 
 
 Samaritan, Good, 202. 
 
 Samaritans and Galiljeans, Babylo- 
 nian character of, 181. 
 
 Sapardaeans, 171. 
 
 Sardanapalus, Consort of, 25. 130; 
 hunting lions, 19-22; Library of. 
 xiii, 39; North palace of, xii. 
 
 Sargon I (of Akkad), xvi, xvii, 
 xviii. 
 
 Sargon II (Assyrian king, conqueror 
 of Samaria), 6. 7, 171, 179: cyl- 
 inder, 231 ; Palace of, xi, 26 f, 
 .33. 56. 
 
 Saul, 19. 
 
 Scheil, 97. 
 
 Schrader, Eberhard, 87. 
 
 Science, and faith. 128; and religion, 
 142; versus faith, 143. 
 
 Sculptures, Assyrian, xxi. 
 
 Seekers after God, Babylonians, 219. 
 
 Sellin, Ernst, 155. 165, 200. 
 
 Semiraniis, Hanging gardens of, xx. 
 
 Sendschirli, 185. 
 
 Sennacherib, 6; Southwest palace of, 
 xii. 
 
 Sepharad. 172, 
 
 Serpent, 158, 159; and woman. 47; 
 called the Devil, 45 ; Old. which is 
 the Devil, 161. 
 
 Seven, 89, 156. 
 
 Shalmaneser II, Black obelisk of, 44. 
 73, 78; Bronze gates of. 12, 18; 
 Palace of, xii. 
 
 Shamash. 208; the god of law, 99. 
 
 Shem. 172. 
 
 Sidon. 35. 
 
 Sin. 47, 205fif. ; Consequences of, 205; 
 Punishment for. 47. 
 
 Sinaitic peninsula, 95. 
 
 Sin-muballit, father of Hammurabi, 
 . 6r. 
 
 Sippar, Sun-god of, 62 f. ; Temple 
 Ebabbara of the sun at xv. 
 
 Sixty, 28, 131. 
 
 Smend, 181. 
 
 Smith, George, xiv, 5. 
 
 Smith, Robertson, 29. 
 
 Solar eclipses, 29. 
 
 Solomon's temple, 209. 
 
 Son of man, 181. 
 
 Sower went forth. 225 
 
 Spittle, 90. 
 
 Standards, Assyrian, 227. 
 
 Sublime Porte, xi. 
 
 Suess, Eduard. 39. 108. 
 
 Sumerian architect, 174 f. ; God-con- 
 ception, 214; priest-king, 28, 131. 
 
 Sumerians, 27, 28, 109, 173. 
 
 Sun-god, Moon-god father of, 218; 
 of Sippar, 62 f. 
 
 Susa, XX. 
 
 Symbolism, 91. 
 
 Tablets. Clay, zi'^ of the law, 94. 
 
 Talmud, 130. 
 
 Tasnim, the spring, 51. 
 
 Tehom, 160. 
 
 Tell Ibrahim, "j},. 
 
 Tclloh, xvii. 
 
 Temple Ebabbara of the sun at Sip- 
 par, XV. 
 
 Ten antediluvian patriarchs, 41 ; com- 
 mandments. 46. 94. 96. loi f., 197 
 ff. ; tribes of exile, 233. 
 
 Terach, 231. 
 
 Thebes, Conquest of, 78. 
 
 Thousand and One Nights, x. 
 
 Three, 89. 
 
 Throne, Assyrian, 19. 
 
 Tiamat, 158, 159; and Marduk, 42 f., 
 
 45- 
 Tiele. C. P., 157. 
 Tiglathpileser, 178; Palace of, xii. 
 Time. IMethods of reckoning, 29.
 
 BABEL AND BIBLE. 
 
 247 
 
 Torah, 94, 96. 
 Truth, Speaking the, 47. 
 Truthfulness, 199, 233. 
 Tyre, 35. 
 
 Underworld, Babylonian, 49. 
 Unity in multiplicity of gods, 220. 
 Ur of Kasdim, 130; of the Chaldees, 
 
 4, 173- 
 
 Ur-Bau, xvii. 
 
 Ur-Gur, King, xix. 
 
 Ur-Nina, xvii ; and his sons. Sculp- 
 ture of, xxi. 
 
 Verbal inspiration, 92. 
 
 Warka, 49. 
 
 Weights, },•]. 
 
 Weissbach, 225 n. 
 
 Wellhausen, J., 29, 235 n. 
 
 William II, Emperor, 89; Letter of, 
 
 120 ff. ; on revelation. 122. 
 Winckler, Hugo, 162, 163. 
 
 Winged oxen, 230. 
 
 Wise Men of the East, xiii, i, 236. 
 
 Wolfif, P., 119, 167. 
 
 Woman and serpent, 47 ; Position of, 
 
 laS. 
 Writing, 31. 
 
 Xisuthros, Babylonian Noah, xv, 39 
 f., 107. 
 
 Yahveh, 91, 223; and Marduk, 43; 
 Angel of, 218; armed, 227; god of 
 the universe, 66; god of wrath, 70; 
 Judgments of, 233 ; Name of, 62, 
 134, 141, 150 ff., 2.2}, n. ; on wings 
 of the wind, 227; the only true 
 God, 1 1 : with horns, 104. 
 
 "Yea" and "Nay," 47, 200. 
 
 7ab, 78. 
 
 Zimmern, 151, 153, 161, 188, 223 n. 
 
 Zodiac, Signs of, xxiii, 57, 59.
 
 JUST PUBLISHED 
 
 ON LIFE AFTER DEATH 
 
 BY 
 
 GUSTAV THEODOR FECHNER 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 DR. HUGO WERNEKKE 
 Head Master of the Realgymnasium at Weimar. 
 
 Pages, 133. Cloth, gilt top. i2mo. Price, 75 cents net Postage 8 cents. 
 
 Gustav Theodor Fechner was a professor of physics, but he took great interest in 
 >sychology and by combining the two sciences became one of the founders of the science 
 >f "psychophysics," based upon the obvious interrelation between sensation and nerve- 
 ictivity. While he did much creditable work in the line of exact psychology, he devoted 
 limself with preference to those problems of the soul which touch upon its religious and 
 noral life and its fate after death. His little book On Life After Death is his most im- 
 »ortant publication in this line. 
 
 Fechner believes in the immortality of the soul, but his treatment is of especial 
 nterest because he uses a distinctive scientific method in dealing with the subject, 
 rhough the thoughtful reader may often find the ideas expressed at variance with his 
 >reconceived notions of the after life, he cannot fail to be impressed wjth the importance 
 ind suggestiveness of Professor Fechner's thought. 
 
 *'/ -:i7'.<^ to congratulate yoti and the translator upon the beautijtil translation of Fech- 
 er. It did not seem possible that such a translation, breathing as it did the entire spirit 
 f the original, could have been made by a German. I have seldom seen a more successful 
 it of translating."— DAVID EUGENE SMITH, Ph. D., LL. D., Professor of Math- 
 matlcs, Teachers' College, Neiv York City. 
 
 "The essay of -which this little book is a tratislation ii'as first published in Gertnan 
 >i iSjj. Its author held that *the spirits of the dead continue to exist as individuals in 
 ke living,^ and has worked out this idea i?i quaint suggestions and meditations zvhich 
 vill interest many and perhaps Tvill add somewhat of illumination to their eager gaze into 
 ke world beyond death. It is devout, hopeful and confident of a kind of a personal 
 mmortahtyr—THE CONGREGATIONALIST AND CHRISTIAN WORLD. 
 
 "A volume that zvill greatly interest if not influence lovers of philosop^cal writings." 
 THE BURLINGTON HA WK ETE. - / '' 9 
 
 f'Xo 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 1322 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO.
 
 w r ^< ^d I 1 ' 
 
 '•4 IJ ^|l I JVf I 
 
 ' JUJ; \IM1I Jl»' 
 
 r M«fll a ^ - 
 
 ■' ''CElfr, 
 
 c^ 
 
 , r 1 ;-: r, . n- 
 
 . r n '^ f) 1 r. '. 
 
 ' r.r 1 1 rri r . 
 
 ^ 
 
 'nvrvn luV 
 
 r 
 
 Vx 
 
 iijAiNi]-3't\'> 
 
 >^ 
 
 'J-JU>^ 
 
 FC.AIIFOfiV 
 
 
 
 r>^ 
 
 vc 
 
 ::= ■< 
 
 s5 - 
 
 ^ 6 
 
 "tel 
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 
 
 •^C^O YRL -s C 8 2(103 
 NOV.. 
 
 13WV 
 
 -< 
 
 /> 
 
 -< 
 
 / 
 
 >i. 
 
 
 p% 
 
 \^c 
 
 l«jr''Vr. 
 
 ■^4._ 
 
 „..1JU> 
 
 ^'9/ 
 
 >* 
 
 ^ji I <j a^' 
 
 >- 
 
 >> 
 
 1.1'. m n - 
 
 
 <f?]3j;.V 
 
 :i'ji- 
 
 "^AaaAiNn-awv 
 
 %omji^> 
 
 t 1 Ti r\ k r\ \ 
 
 '■") 
 
 '^^ 
 
 Quanyj-jv-- 
 
 U, 
 
 ,\ 
 
 '/ 
 
 — < 
 
 -33 
 ■13
 
 ^YSOV^ ■^/5a3A!Nil]W^- 
 
 tSARY(9^ S>MIIBRARV^^ 
 
 nv3 jo"^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 "^^^AavHan-^N"^ '^-^o - '^'"--'^ ^^ 
 
 ti 
 
 — - cc 
 
 ^^ii: 
 
 i 3 1158 01080 5967 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 '^^ 
 
 
 T^ 
 
 
 — fi 
 
 NVSOV"^ 
 
 vvlOSAVCFlfj-, 
 o 
 
 <: 
 I— > 
 
 
 %a3AINilJV\V 
 
 -< 
 
 , ^ ■ mn 
 
 ^RYQ< 
 
 >i. 
 
 UCSOl 
 
 """in I' 
 
 AA 000 615 530 3 
 
 \^. 
 
 v<. 
 
 > 1- £:i 
 
 ^c?Aavaan-iV^^ ^^AavaeiHV^' 
 
 
 ) = s ^ 
 
 iiUDNVSOl^ 
 
 i\- 
 
 
 IRARY-G^ \>Nl-lIBt?AR>'Q^ , 
 
 nvjjo-v %ojnv3-jo 
 
 V 
 
 -X. 
 
 :3 
 — 1 
 
 3> 
 
 -O 
 
 ^ 
 
 Sa 
 
 
 'JjiiawiOV'"" "^ajMNii jftv 
 
 1^1 I© 
 
 . IM 
 
 
 ^>^ 
 
 MIFO% ^OFCAllFOKfv 
 
 \\U 
 
 
 ^1 o<r ^ o 
 
 %liWSO^^^" '^//^«3AIN11 ]V\V 
 
 -< 
 
 % 
 
 
 ^IVER% 
 
 ,5 
 
 vKlOSANCFlf;. 
 
 %a3AiNn-3WV^ 
 
 
 ^^^VLIPRARYQ- 
 
 ^XMIIBRARYC*/ 
 
 '^<!/03nV3JO'^ 
 
 "^(l/OJilVOJO-^ 
 
 ^i'ilJDN'VSO^^ '%^\\\ 
 
 'jtvrpr,'/-. 
 
 As 
 
 ^ uL 
 
 
 ^^OFDM!F0% 
 
 ■^ A .»'■ >^ >^ 
 
 > 
 
 I -.in ii\V 
 
 ■•^ 
 
 
 ^-;,OFCMIF0% 
 y^-).mv)jgn.:\\\ 
 
 
 ^vlOS-Vl 
 
 Si 
 
 rjmvv.cmN^ 
 
 
 .-^
 
 iJII'ix^' 
 
 
 University of California 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 r 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 
 
 M 
 
 ^~<^'0 YRL -s 8 
 
 Ml 
 
 2103 
 
 ^^-""O 
 
 n 
 
 OP 
 
 -< 
 
 iANCElfj> 
 
 
 < 
 
 rr 
 
 PC 
 
 so 
 
 to 
 
 nvjjo-^' 
 
 ■% 
 
 C5 
 
 «r^ 
 
 Uirr' 'r 
 
 -< 
 
 "Si 
 
 n 
 
 ..n.V3HV 
 
 DO 
 
 3> 
 
 -< 
 
 <^- 
 
 •CAilFO% 
 
 >- 
 
 ■■DC. 
 
 m\ 
 
 ifs. 
 
 IBRARYQr 
 
 '^jnv3jo>' 
 
 ^-aAVCAIIFn/?^ 
 
 S
 
 RV^^ *>^lliBRARYQ< ^^\\t UNIVER5-//, 
 
 F0%^ ^OFCALIFOMj^ 
 
 
 ?r 
 
 
 y^Pjiir^iv t 111 >iV 
 
 "^^/W^ 
 
 <rii3o.svsoi^"^ '^/5a3AiNn ]\\v 
 
 58 01080 5967 
 
 ,\W[UNIVERy/^ 
 
 ^vj^insvWFifj. 
 
 U 
 
 ~r C5 
 
 /""V— * • 
 
 
 %13DNVS01^ %a3AlN[]3\\V 
 
 so 
 
 — /» 
 
 ;vjjo 
 
 /7 
 
 -^^ 
 
 
 ^ ^lOSANCFlfj-^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 '%a3AiNn]WV^ 
 
 ^UIBRARYC/r^ 
 
 ^.f/OJIIVOJO' 
 
 UCSOUTHERtJRrGlO'. 
 
 IIIHIIII 
 
 AA 000 615 530 3 
 
 C3 
 
 1(1 
 
 u- 
 
 
 
 ^lOSANCFlfj-^ 
 
 v/jaaAiNn3i\v 
 
 ^^OFCAIIFO/?^/ 
 
 
 *T7y* J 
 
 •ji , — ^^ t ^ 
 
 ^OFCAIIFO% 
 
 ^(?Aaviiaii# ^^Ayvaaii^' 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^>MIIBRARY^/: 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 .^\\Fl)NIVER^/A 
 
 ^v^lOSA-VCFirj> 
 
 <ril30NYS01^ 
 
 l± 
 
 CO 
 
 "^Aa^AiNa-^vw^ 
 
 ^~ 
 
 .xMUBRARYOr^ 
 
 ^a/OJIlVOJO"^ '^<!/0: 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 C^5 
 
 #IS 
 
 OFCAIIFO% 
 
 C-> =:; 
 
 ^ 
 
 >t?Ativaan-i^ 
 
 , \\\F UNIVERS/A 
 >- 
 
 <. 
 
 oc 
 
 £9 
 
 <ril30NVSO^^ 
 
 ^■lOSANCFlfj> 
 
 CO 
 
 so 
 
 '^a3AINn-3UV 
 
 ;;OF-CAIIFO/?^ 
 
 '^6'Aavaan# 
 
 .^OF. 
 
 
 ^^/5a3AiNa-3\\v 
 
 a 
 
 -s^l-UBRARY<9/ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^HIBRARYQ< 
 
 \\\EUNiVER% 
 
 '^<!/0JllV3JO^^ '^(i/OJIlVJJOV" ^IJONYSOV^ 
 
 3> 
 
 tnv ',vir;irr 
 
 ^i 
 
 DO 
 
 >• 
 
 37 
 
 ^OFCMIFO/?^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^,OFCAIIFO% 
 
 '4r 
 
 
 ^yn 
 
 ?7 ^ '"'''' ?^ 
 
 A\UUNIVER% 
 
 
 it 
 
 o 
 
 •r: -< 
 
 c; ....
 
 ;::^:!liiPii» 
 
 Unn