THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS. TABLET FBOU TUB TEMPLE OF THE SUN-GOD AT SIPPAKA, B.C. 900. (Photographed from the original.) THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS. Ube primitive ibebrew IRecorfcs in tbe Xigbt ot /fco&ern IResearcb. W. ST. CHAD BOSCAWEN, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Member of the Society of Biblical Archeology. SECOND EDITION. EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, LONDON GEEAT NEW STKEET, FLEET STREET, B.C. , GLASOOW, MELBOURNE, STPXET. & NEW YORK. 1895. EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, Her Jlqjesty's Printers, DOWNS PARK BOAD, HACKJIBY, S.E. PREFACE. THE object of this work is best explained by its title ; some statement, however, of its aims and plan may not be deemed unnecessary. The East has ever been the land of surprises, and year after year the explorer and the decipherer are bringing to light treasures which for centuries have been buried beneath the dust of ages. The discoveries in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia have restored to us the inscribed records and monuments of great civilisa- tions which preceded or existed concurrently with the Hebrew people and held contemporary inter- course with them. The history of the Hebrew people as recorded in the Old Testament has been found to be a part, and an important part, of the wider study of Oriental history. Events regarded for- merly as merely incidents in the life of the Is- raelites are now seen to be but portions of greater and more widely extended popular movements, affecting the whole political area of the Oriental world. The migration of Abram, apparently a movement of a small tribal family from Ur of the 209433O7 G PREFACE. Clialdees, is now shown to be part of a vast heav- ing of the nations, extending from the banks of the Tigris to the lowlands of Egypt. The siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib is no longer merely an event in Hebrew history, but an important item in the wider scheme of the establishment of Assyrian supremacy in Syria, during the long conflict between the rival powers of Egypt and Assyria. The recovery of the historical records of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia has given to the historical and prophetical books of the Old Testa- ment an increased importance, and at the same time an increased responsibility, the test of histori- cal accuracy. It will be my aim in subsequent volumes of this series to show how the Hebrew record has vindi- cated its position in this respect. It is not only the question of historical accuracy that has to be established in the face of monumental evidence. The discovery and decipherment of the buried literature of Assyria and Babylonia have produced material which can be used also in the more diffi- cult and delicate field of Biblical tradition, especi- ally as to the faithfulness of these traditions, upon which the most fundamental doctrines of the Chris- tian religion are based. The discovery of Babylonian versions of the Creation, the Fall, and the Deluge. and the story of the beginnings of civilisation, .PREFACE. 7 instituted a series of comparisons between monu- mental records, of admitted antiquity, and the He- brew writings, a process the importance of which was beyond question. The spirit of scepticism had not spared the tradi- tions of- the Old Testament, but sought to relegate them to the same land of myth and fable to which it had consigned the primitive traditions of Greece and Rome. Just at this crucial moment in the con- flict, the grave mounds of Chaldea gave up their priceless stores of buried books with rich fragments of early traditions, marked with the indelible stamp of antiquity. In this field of comparison with which this volume is concerned, a criticism of a very searching kind, impossible before, was rendered most applicable. The Babylonian legends of the primitive traditions, unlike the Indian, Egyptian, and others which had been used by sceptics, were written in a language, the sister if not the parent, of the Hebrew tongue. The test became then not one merely of mytho- logical or poetic similarities, but extended into the closest philological comparison. In this work I have placed before my readers the Babylonian and Assyrian versions of those traditions which are found in the early chapters of Genesis, and such comparisons are instituted as seemed to me to be within the range of fair criticism ; and I have S PREFACE. endeavoured to conduct this inquiry in as un- biassed a manner as possible. The Hebrew records, therefore, in this study are treated in exactly the same manner as the inscriptions from Babylonia, simply as the ancient literature of the Hebrew people. In what manner the comparison has tended to establish the authenticity and faithful- ness of the Hebrew records, I leave my readers to form an opinion. I have also purposely avoided any expression of opinion as to the date of the committal to writing of the Hebrew traditions. In this I have been guided by two reasons. In the first place this seemed to me to belong to a branch of Biblical criticism which I do not feel myself called upon, even were I to admit, which I do not, my com- petency, to express a definite opinion. No one is more convinced than I of the immense service ren- dered by the Higher Criticism to the right under- standing of the construction of Hebrew literature, and without the critical analysis of the early chapters of Genesis, by Driver, Cheyne, Delitzsch, and others, the comparisons such as I have made would have been almost impossible. My second reason was based upon a conviction that the evi- dence at present accessible has not been established with sufficient clearness to enable us to express any dogmatic opinion. Fresh discoveries are ever PREFACE. 9 being brought to light which necessitate often the complete revision of theories apparently perfectly tenable. The discovery, for example, of the Tel el-Amarna Tablets is one which should make all scholars hesitate to regard any theory as permanent. Here an en- tirely new and powerful factor in Biblical criticism was suddenly brought to light, and demanded care- ful study from all. These tablets show that prior to the time of Moses, in the fifteenth century before Christ, there were studied in Egypt and in Canaan documents of a religious character from Babylonia. If scribes from Babylonia taught the cuneiform writing to the people of Canaan and to the learned in Jerusalem itself two centuries before Moses, may not the traditions which had been known to Abram five hundred years before in the land of Chaldea have been taught to priests in Canaanite cities ? These tablets have shown us, as have the explora- tions of the Palestine Exploration Fund at Lacish (Tel Hesy), that there was a great and powerful civilisation and a literature among the Canaanites and the Amorites before the Israelites entered the land, and that they were not mere barbarians. To what extent this culture, almost entirely of Baby- lonian origin, affected the Hebrew people we do not know as yet ; further research may have much in store for us. One fact however remains, which 10 PREFACE. demands caution. There is now introduced into Biblical criticism a new, powerful, and hitherto un- known element, which may at any moment compel us to change entirely the theory which the present evidence seems to support. My object has been to place before my readers those monuments and in- scriptions which seem to bear upon the early tradi- tions of the Hebrew people, in order that they may have before them documentary evidence which has hitherto only been accessible to specialists. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE HEBREW AND ASSYRIAN LANGUAGES. Page Cuneiform writing Phoenician culture The home of the Semites Early inscriptions Sargon I., B.C. 3800 Legend of Sargon Early trade and commerce Hebrew and Assyrian languages Primitive family names Linguistic affinities A curious piece of monumental evidence Animal names Royal names Relationship of Assyrian to Hebrew A royal prayer India House inscription Nebuchadnezzar's prayer Hebrews in Chaldea . . . 17-36 CHAPTER II. THE CREATION LEGENDS. Discovery of the tablets Assyrian libraries Arrangement of the tablets An Epic poem Comparative table Birth of the gods The Divine Word The Deep The Hosts of Heaven Babylonian Trinity The Fifth Tablet Celestial Orbs A curious and striking parallel Chaldean year Babylonian Calendar and the Zodiac Signs of the Zodiac Seasons of the year Festivals of the Sun-godBabylonian Passover Feast Moon worship Religions of Nomad and Agriculturist Dew and the rain Hymns to the Moon-god of Ur Hymns to the Sun-god Reversal of the Hebrew order The Gates of the Sun Sinai and the Moon-god Sin Feast of the New Moon Divisions of the month The Sabbath day Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? The Sun to rule by day Creation of Man He shall have dominion Creation of Woman Origin of the tablets Compilation Tel el-Amarna Tablets Older Creation 12 CONTENTS. Page Legends The Creation Legend of Eridu Bel-Merodach as the Creator Foundations of Assur Gods and their sacred animals A remarkable parallel Legend of Kutha Creation of evil Chaldean Theologians ...... 37- 84 CHAPTER III. THE SERPENT AND THE FALL. War in Heaven The enemy of the gods The Serpent and magic Temptation and the Fall The Kerubim in Eden 85-90 CHAPTER IV. THE BEGINNING OP CIVILISATION. Cain and Abel The land of Nod Primitive Cities Cannes the Fish-god The harp and the organ Metal working The Fire Stick Early bronze casting Workers in iron in Palestine Stories of the Shepherd and Gardener Language and race Foundation ceremonies The position of women Peaceful character Sacred statues General features . . . 91-108 CHAPTER V. THE DELUGE. The story's place in the Epic Preservation of the Chaldean Noah Names of the Sage A bilingual tablet COMPARATIVE TABLES (Chaldean and Hebrew) Building of the Ark Warn- ing of the Deluge Trying the Ark Storing the Ark Com- mencement of the Deluge Entering the Ark The great Deluge Destruction of every living thing Resting on the Mountain Sending forth the dove The swallow and the raven The Sacrifice and the rainbow Appeasing of Bel No more Deluge The everlasting Covenant Tradition of Berosos Comparison with Biblical narrative Deluge a punishment for sin The Trinity of destruction The ship of Ea and the Ark Provision- ing the Ark The Month of the Curse of Rain Hymns of the Storm -gods Resting-place of the Ark The mountain not Ararat Sending forth of the birds The Bow of the Cove- nant Translation of Samas-Napisti Noah, Samas-Napisti, and Xisuthrus . . 109-144 CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTEK VI. THE GRATE AND THE FUTURE STATE. Page " The Book of the Dead " Magicians and Sorcerers Man and Nature The Soul and Death Ghosts and vampires The chief ones of the earth Mountain of the congregation Sheol The City of Death Ruler of the Great City The Bride of the Pit The Land of No-Return Naked and Bare The Waters of Life Weeping for Tammuz Ah, my brother ! Ah, sister ! Shadow of death The worm enters A place of puaishment ? Immortality Primitive ideas of Heaven Pas- toral Heaven The Heaven of Anu Guardians of Heaven The food of life The Robe of brightness The Hebrew and Christian Heaven Conclusion ....... 145-177 REFERENCES TO SCRIPTURE TEXTS. GENESIS. EXODUS. Ch. Ver. Page Ch. Ver. Page Ch. Ver. Page 23. 1, 2 . . . 59 1. 1-5 . . 41, 42 2. 5 . . . 134. 29. 6 . . . . 28 4 . . . . 86 18. - . . . . 26 45. 7 . . . . 175 6-13 . . . 41 49. 16 ... . 166 14-19 . 41,48,49 LEVITICUS. 55. 23 ... . 159 24,25 . . 70,71 16. - . . . . 56 24-31 . . . 41 19. 26 ... . 88 PROVERBS. 2. 1 . . . . 46 23. 24, 25 . . . 57 8. 22-31 . . . 81 2, 3 . . . 68 25. 3-8 . . . 69 7 . . . . 150 21,22 ... . 72 NUMBERS. ISAIAH. 3. i . . . 87 1 7 88 13. 13 ... . 153 13 Qfi i, | . 21 ... 1 33 15 . 21 . * oo . . . 86 . . . 92 16. 30 ... 22. 22 ... . 167 156w. 14. - ... 31,46 9 . 153, 154. 167 22 . . . .175 28. i . . . . 88 13 ... . 140 4. 3,4 9 . 14 . . . . 58 . . . 26 . . . 93 DEUTERONOMY. 16. 9-16 ... 69 15 ... 18. 4 . . . 34. 14 ... . 154 . 59 . 151 16 . 20 . . . . 92 . . . 96 JUDGES. 38. 17 ... . 159 21 . . . . % 14. 14 ... . 158 22 . . . 97,99 JEREMIAH. 5. 24 . . . . 170 2 SAMUEL. 14. 12 ... . 133 6. u . . . .134 24. 15 ... . 133 17. 1 142w. 15 . 14-16 . . . 134 . . . 131 1 KINGS. 22. 18 ... 27. 13 ... . 164 . 133 18 . . . . 131 7. 21 . . . . 175 6-9. - 109, 114, 129 18. - . . . 137. EZEKIEL. 7. 3 . . . .131 2 KINGS. 3. 9 . . . 142n. 4 . 7 . . . . 131 . . . 131 18. 30 ... . 157 8. 14 . . . . 163 16 . . . .131 21. 6 ... . 88 MICAH. 8. 2 . . . . 131 25. 27 ... . 56 5. 6 . . . . 109 4 . . 139 6-12 . . . 140 JOB. NAHUM. 8-12 . . .131 3. 5 . . . . 166 3. 4 . . . . 168 13 . . . .141 11. 8 . . . . 167 20 . . . . 131 12. 22 . . . . 166 ZECHARIAH. 9. 13 . . 134., 142 17. H ... . 167 1. 11 ... . 164 13, 14 . . .142 21. 26 ... . 167 10. 10 . . . . 94 33. is ... . 166 MATTHEW. 11 . . . . 18 38. 19 ... . 166 12. 10 ... . 68 11. 31 . ... 64 32 ... . 53 22. 11 . . 175 14. l . . . . 93 39. 9, 10 . . . 28 21. 17 . . . 156re. MARK. 23. - . . . . 21 PSALMS. 1. 32 . . . . 68 27. 28 . , . . 59 16. 11 ... . 176 28. 18 . . . 142w. 18. 10 ... 137. REVELATION 43. - . ... 20 22. 21 ... . 28 12. 7 . ... . 85 ILLUSTEATIONS. CHAPTER I. Page MANEH WEIGHT ......... 20 MACE HEAD OF SARGON I. (B.C. 3800), full size . . .22 TABLET OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL I. (B.C. 1800) . . . . 32 INDIA HOUSE INSCRIPTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR II. (B.C. 606) . 34 CHAPTER II. FIRST CREATION TABLET, COPIED ABOUT B.C. 660 . . .42 BOUNDARY STONE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR I. (B.C. 1120) . . 52 TABLET FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN-GOD AT SIPPAHA (B.C. 900) ....... Frontispiece TABLETS FROM TEL EL-AMAHNA (B.C. 1450) . . . .74 EAGLE-HEADED FIGURE . 82 CHAPTER III MERODACH AND THE DRAGON ...... 86 ASSYRIAN TABLET OF THE CHEATION SEBIES . . . .88 SEAL OF THB TEMPTATION ....... 90 16 2LLUSTBATIONS. CHAPTER IV. Page *Rui\s OF THE PALACE OF GUDEA AT TELLO . . . .94 *HAEPEB AND CHOIE (B.C. 3000) . . . . . .96 BRONZE FIGURES (B.C. 2800) AND *FIRE-GOD (B.C. 722) . . 98 *STATUE OF GUDEA (B.C. 2800) 106 CHAPTER V DELUGE TABLET (PORTION OF THE ELEVENTH TABLET) . .110 No. 2 116 JACKAL-HEADED GOD . . . . . . . .134 SEAL REPRESENTING CHALDEAN NOAH . . . . .142 CHAPTER VI. WINGED HUMAN-HHADED LION . .158 [All the Illustrations, with the exception of those marked *, have been reproduced from photographs taken by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode from tfie originals.'} THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS. CHAPTER I. THE HEBEEW AXD ASSYRIAN LANGUAGES. comparisons which we may institute in this work, and the illustrations which we shall derive from the monuments of Assyria .and Babylonia, will be of far more importance if we bear in mind the fact of the close rela- tionship which exists between the language of the monu- ments and that of the Holy Scriptures. The languages of the Assyrian inscriptions and of the records from Babylonia are branches of the great group of the Semitic tongues, and therefore older sisters of the Hebrew and Arabic. Coming to us, as they do, with a far greater antiquity and with a more varied vocabulary, derived from vast stores of secular as well as sacred lite- rature, they cannot help but be valuable store-houses for the student of tke Hebrew writings, when he has recog- nised the close affinity which exists both in vocabulary and in grammatical construction. The ancient Semitic dialects of the Tigro-Euphrates valley were two in number ; the northern, that of the people of Assyria, a colony from the southern mother-land iJ 18 CUNEIFORM WRITING. of Babylonia (Gen. 10. 11) ; the other, that of the Semitic population of Babylonia. There are slight dialect variations between them, but they do not amount to as much as exists between the dialects of a northern and western English county. The Assyrian may be said to be the more Semitic of the two, being brought less in contact with foreign elements, and especially with the ancient Akkadians, or Turanian inhabitants of Southern Babylonia, who had exercised great influence on the older tongue of the Baby- lonian Semites. The Semitic dialect of Babylonia, although probably not the parent tongue of this linguistic family, is represented by numerous inscribed records of every class, which carry us back to the remote antiquity of thirty-nine centuries before the Christian era (B.C. 3800) ; and even these records afford evidence of a far more remote an- tiquity. The whole system of the cumbrous cuneiform writing, its elaborate syllabary, the use of polyphones, and the numerous ideograms, all tend to show clearly that this writing was not the invention of the Semites. The method of the Semitic mind, as exhibited in the inven- tion of the Phoenician alphabet from the more complex hieratic script of Egypt, and in their treatment of the cuneiform writing, is always clearly shown to be towards simplification ; and to credit them with the invention of the cuneiform writing, with its hundreds of ideograms and compound signs, is a direct contradiction of this faculty. There is, however, another powerful element in the Semitic character which has been, and still is, a most im- portant factor in their national life ; it is that of adaptability. Inventors they have never shown themselves to be : but wherever we find them, from their first appearance in PHCENICIAN CULTURE. 19 Chaldea some five or six thousand years ago even until the present day, we find them exhibiting this wonderful characteristic of adaptability to the manners, customs, and language of those about them. In religipn, in art, indeed there is, strictly speaking, no Semitic art, in all the essential features of settled civilisation, as distinguished from the simple wants of nomad life, we find them indebted to those with whom they came in contact. In Babylonia they adopted the polytheistic pantheon of the Akkadians along with their own simple monotheism ; but simplified it, arranging its confused elements, and producing the small but comprehensive pantheon of Assyria. In Phoenicia is found the same borrowing in art as in religion ; from the teachings of the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Hittite, and, later still, the Greek, all contributing to form that powerful but bizarre school of Phoenician art, which exercised so great an influence on the world's artistic development. As in art, so in religion : the theogony of Phoenicia is a product of all the religious schools of Western Asia, Egypt, and the Isles of the Sea combined. It has been necessary to digress thus far from the purely linguistic portion of the subject in order to understand the reasons which led the Semites of Babylonia to adopt this cumbrous writing, so different in form and mechanism from that of the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Arameans. The home of the Semites must be placed in the desert pastures of Central Arabia, whence they had been attracted to the fertile plains of Shinar, or Sumir, the garden of South Babylonia, where a highly-developed civilisation already existed. The great walled cities, with temples, palaces, and lofty seven-staged observatory towers, were indeed 20 THE HOME OF THE SEMITES. strange to them ; so strange, that we find they had no word for city, the word used in the inscriptions being alii, a word cognate with the Hebrew ohel, "a tent." To the true nomad the tent was his house and his city, the largest elaboration of this being the ohel m'oed, " the tent of assembly," the Tabernacle of the Wanderings. Two causes mainly contributed to their entry into Babylonia famine and trade. Centuries before Israel cried " There is corn in Egypt ! " (Gen. 42) these weary wanderers had turned their steps towards the richly- watered plains of Babylonia. The second element which induced this settlement in the land was that of trade, and this was indeed the more powerful. The earliest Semitic words to be found in the inscriptions are those relating to trade, simu, "price," the Arabic sam, represented by an ideogram borrowed from the Akkadian, composed of "corn and measure," indica- ting the former use of a corn tariff. In the same manner the mana " weight " (the Hebrew mane/i) was introduced into the commercial and religious texts by them as early as B.C. 4000. A still more interesting change, however, is to be noticed in the employment of a new word for town, namely, makhazu, which is the Talmudic makhaza, "a market town." In addition to these two striking in- dications, it is important to notice that the earliest bilin- gual lesson books used for instruction in the schools of Babylonia, and subsequently in the schools of Assyria, were those which contained simple commercial phrases; the Akkadian in one column, the Semitic in the other. It may be interesting to give here an extract from one of these early examples of an Ollendorf. This tablet is one of a class known as Ana itti sit, " to be with him," literally, " Hand-books." MANEH WEIOHT. (Pluitograplied from tlic original.} EARLY INSCRIPTIONS. 21 In the following extract is given the Semitic version only, but it should be borne in mind that this is side by side with the Akkadian : Makiru, "the tariff." Makiru rabtt, "the great tariff." Makiru zikhru, " the small tariff." Makiru en$u, " the short tariff." Makiru tnalu, " the full tariff." Makiru dannu, "the strong tariff." Makiru kinu, "the fixed tariff." Makiru tabu, "the good tariff." Makiru basu, " the existing tariff." The slightest acquaintance with Hebrew will enable the student to recognise here the close relationship with the language of the Scriptures. Makiru is the Hebrew mekir, and the other words are all to be found in an ordinary Hebrew lexicon. An extract from a deed of this same class may be quoted on account of the important light which it throws on some of the earliest records of Hebrew life : ASsu zibat kaspi su bit ekil gan ardu amat ana man- zazani usziz " Concerning the loan of his silver (money), a house, field, garden, man-servant and maid-servant for security he places." Here is all the wealth of a typical Hebrew home, "the house, the land, the male and female servants." With such carefully-drawn deeds as this in use before he left his Chaldean home, is it any wonder that the transaction of the purchase of the cave of Machpelah is carried out with such commercial accuracy (Gen. 23). The Semites had borrowed the writing and the chief elements of civilisation from their Akkadian neighbours as early as B.C. 3800, as is proved by an important inscrip- tion on a mace head of Sargon I., now in the British Museum. The inscription upon this small but priceless 22 THE LEGEND OF SARGON. record reads : Sargani Sar alu Agadhe ana (Hit) Santas in Sippara Amuru " Sargon, king of the city of Ak- kad; to the Sun-god (Samas) in the city of Sippara, I approached (looked)." The age of Sargon is certainly one of the most remark- able periods in the history of Babylonia. Its very im- portance is shown by the fact that there has grown up a series of legends connected with the hero and his times, which show how highly he was regarded by the writers of later times. Sargon of Akkad was to Babylonia the great ethnic hero of the Semites, and many of the legends connected with him present remarkable parallels to those of both Hebrew and classical writers. One of the most remarkable of these is the story of his birth, which in its surroundings presents many features closely resembling the story of Moses. The story of the birth and childhood of Sargon is preserved in a tablet in the British Museum. Here we are told, " My little mother (umminitutu) my father did not know, my father's brother ruled in the mountains. In the city of Atsu pirani which is on the banks of the Euphrates, she conceived and brought me forth my little mother bore me in a secret place, she placed me in a basket of reeds, with bitumen she closed its mouth. She gave me to the river, which did not cover over me, but carried me to Akki the irrigator." The tablet then describes how this irrigator brought the hero up as a gardener, and that the goddess Istar prospered him in his work, and eventually he became king of the land. He then conquers the land, uniting all the country under one rule, with the new capital of Akkad as its centre. In other documents of this king we have his conquests described, and although there is a certain amount of as- '/V " ' V v ' '. ' ^f| ""-" m^ MACE HEAD OF SAROON I., B.C. 3800 (full size). (Photographed from the original.) EARLY TRADE AND COMMERCE. 23 trological and astronomical matter, there is certainly a historical basis to the account. The most important of these campaigns is the expedition of Sargon to the land of Amurri, and to the land in the midst of the Sea of the Rising-Sun, where he remained three years, and set up his statue. Now this can have no other meaning than the conquest of Syria and the advance of the Baby- lonian armies to Cyprus. Confirmation of this is given by the discovery of seals of Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon, in Cyprus, and more strongly by the action of Sargon II. (B.C. 722), who, on his conquest of Cyprus, made a special object of setting up his statue near to Larnaka, with an inscription recording his conquests upon it. This statue is now in the Royal Museum at Berlin. A special interest is attached to this expedition, as it was the first contact between the West and Chaldea, and was not without in- fluence which remained until later ages. The second expedition of this period was even of greater importance, namely, that to the land of Magan, the Sinaitic Peninsula. From the earliest times there seems to have been an intercourse by sea between Chaldea and the Sinaitic Peninsula, chiefly maintained for the purpose of obtaining hard stones, such as diorite and porphyry for the making of the statues of the kings, and for timber of a more durable kind than the palm-wood of Babylonia. This trade brought both Southern Arabia and Egypt by the Coptos route in contact with Chaldea, and the commer- cial activity of the period seems to have been very great. Two other products of the Sinaitic Peninsula especially attracted the attention of the Babylonian rulers, these were copper and the turquoise. Towards the latter end of the reign of Sargon, the Chaldean rulers determined 24 'THE DATE OF SARGON I. to obtain possession of the rich mineral regions of the Peninsula of Sinai, and an expedition was organised under Sargon, and continued by his son N^aram-Sin, which re- sulted in the conquest of the region and the acquisition of the mines. This was a most important event, for the Chaldeans seem to have held the mines for at least half a century, when they were expelled by Senefru, the builder of the Pyramid of Medum, and founder of the fourth Egyptian dynasty, about B.C. 3700. In addition to the extensive military-commercial power of Chaldea at this period, it seems also to have been an age when the affairs of the nation were organised. It is to this period that the first compilation of astronomical works was assigned, and Sargon certainly had a library with scribes in his royal city of Agadhe. So that it was a period in Chaldean history which presents some considerable resemblance to the position of Moses in Hebrew literature. We can fix the date of this ancient ruler with re- markable accuracy by means of inscriptions preserved in the British Museum. In the cylinder of Nabonidus, a king who was noted for his great antiquarian zeal in his search for ancient records, we read as follows: "I sought for its old foundation stone, and eighteen cubits deep (30 feet) I dug into the ground, and the foundation stone of Naram-Sin the son of Sargon, which for 3,200 years no king who had preceded me had seen, the Sun-god, the great lord of the House of Light, the temple of the abode of the pleasure of his heart, let me see, even me." Had this far-reaching date appeared in the inscription of any other king than Nabonidus, who was so accurate in all his other statements, it might have been doubted, but this can hardly be so now. The resto- HEBREW AND ASSYRIAN LANGUAGES, 25 ration of this temple took place in or about the king's sixth year, B.C. 550-49, which would make the date of Naram-Sin, B.C. 3750; and as Sargon is credited with a reign of 45 years, his date, therefore, is about 3,800 years before our era. That the Semites had already borrowed the cuneiform writing, and established a literary class, may be concluded from the fact that in the collection of M. de Clercq, in Paris, is the seal of Ibni-Sarru (the king has made), " the tablet writer " of Sargon. Having once acquired the art of writing this active* minded race made rapid progress, and by the time of Khammurabi (B.C. 2235), a monarch contemporary with Abram, they had an extensive literature, partly original and partly consisting of translations or adaptations of the older Akkadian folk lore. Having established the early date and nature of the contact between the onee nomad Semite, and the settled, plodding and inventive Akkadian, it may be well to con- sider a comparison between the language of the Old Tes- tament and that of the Semitic inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia. The comparisons made will do more than show a philological relationship between Assyrian and Hebrew ; they will, aided by the rich stores of lexicographical mat- ter in the long-buried libraries, enable the student to explain words of which it was hitherto difficult to ascer- tain the derivation. DOMESTIC LIFE. In family life there is the word abu, " father," a word common to all branches of the Semitic family, as is also itmmu, " mother." Ablu, "son," preserved in the Hebrew Abel, and derived from the verb abalu, " to flow " the C 26 PRIMITIVE FAMILY NAMES. son proceeding from the father. Bintu and binatu, " daughter," are both cognate with Arabic bint and the Hebrew banoth, " daughters." Akhu, " brother," the Hebrew akh, and explained in the tablets by the synonyms of " side," and " to protect " the brother being the one who stood by the side of another, and whose duty it was to guard him, which throws singular light upon the passage. " Am I my brother's keeper ? " (Gen. 4. 9.) Cognate to another word, also of great importance, namely, khatanu, " father-in-law," is the Hebrew khatan, as in Exod. 18, &c. This word is derived from khatanu, "to protect," because, according to the old Semitic law of matriarchy, the man married into his wife's family, as did Moses and Jacob, and the wife's father became his protector. So also the word sibu, "the grandfather" (Heb. sebah), which means "the grey-haired one"; the town council, the povXy of the Greeks, called sibttti, " the grey-haired ones." Lastly, the word for the family itself, kimtu derived from kamu, " to bind " the family being the small circle of individuals united by the tie of relationship. This word is preserved in the word kimtnah of Job, the family of the Pleiades. The close relationship between the tongues may also be seen by the comparison of the following series of the commoner words of every-day life : Assyrian. Hebrew. Meaning. Resu Res Head %akkadu Inu Appu Pu JKodkod Ain 4f Pi Head Eye Face or Nose Mouth Saptu Usnu Safa Ozen Lip Ear Panu Paneh Face LINGUISTIC AFFINITIES. 27 Assyrian cont. Hebrew con*. Meaning cont. Lisanu Idu Lason Yad Tongue Hand Jatu Hand Birka Blrkaim Knees Zumbi Zanab Tail Libbu Leb Heart Pagaru Peger Corpse In the same degree will be noticed a near relationship between the words relating to the elements of nature : Assyrian. Hebrew. Meaning. Samu 1 !amamu \ Samaim Heaven Irtsitu Erez Earth Naru Nahr Kiver Agammu Tiamtu Agam Tehom Marsh Sea Me SamaS Maim Semes Water Sun Kakabu Kokab Star Yumu Uru Nuru Lilatu Birku Abnu Yom Or Ner Lailah Barak Eben Day Light Light Night Lightning Stone From the above short vocabularies it is apparent how close is the agreement between the language of the in- scriptions and that of the Old Testament. ANIMAL LIFE. The words selected from the inscriptions, dating from so remote an antiquity, have a value beyond that of philo- logical study. This is especially the case in regard to words relating to animal life, as from these the student is able 28 <* CURIOUS PIECE OF MONUMENTAL EriDENCE. to picture the home and surroundings of the people, and to note the introduction of foreign words, which is the result of contact with other nations. In the zoological vocabulary of the Semites of Babylonia many words com- mon to the whole group of the Semitic family may be found ; but here and there words occur which, by their variation, become of importance. Among the animals known to the Semites before their disruption, we find the domestic " ox," alpu, the Hebrew el iff as distinct from remu, the " wild ox," the mistranslated unicorn (reem) of the Authorised Version (Job 39. 9, 10; Pss. 22. 21 & 29. 6, &c.). This animal is the wild ox so frequently represented on the monuments of the middle Assyrian Empire. With regard to the existence of the wild ox, the Bos primogenus, in Western Asia, there is a curious piece of monumental evidence which seems to have escaped the notice of scholars. The bull hunts in Assyria are frequently represented in the sculptures of the early Assyrian kings, and in those of Assur-nazir-pal (B.C. 885), but we find 110 trace of them after that date. Had the animal become extinct in the days of Sargon II. (B.C. 722) and his successors ? The word zinu, " sheep," the Hebrew zon, is generally used in a collective plural form zeni, " sheep," equivalent to " the flock." The goat, especially the he-goat, was called atudu, Hebrew attud. In the old Akkadian, which exhibits a wonderful power of word- building in its nomenclature, the goat is called by the name si-ak-ka, the " horn-raising " animal. The camel was also known, and called by the name of gamalu, the Hebrew gamal ; which is interesting if taken with the root gamaht, *' to benefit," the camel being " the benefactor " of the true noinad tribe. The ass also was known by the name of ANIMAL NAMES. 29 imiru, in Hebrew khamor. The " horse " by the name of susu, Hebrew sus ; but it is difficult to say if the word may not be of foreign origin, as it is explained in the inscriptions by the name of the "animal of the east," or the " mountains." This would seem to connect it with the districts to the east of the Tigris, the regions of the Elamite kingdom, with its capital of Susan, and later still the seat of the Persian rule, whence we get the second Hebrew name of Parash, connected with Fars, or Persia. The last animal to be noticed as of the domesticated class is the dog, kalbu, the Hebrew keleb, which would seem among the Semites, as among the Aryans, to have been one of the first companions of man. The list of wild animals known to the Babylonian Se- mites is an interesting one, and throws great light on Biblical zoology. In this portion of the subject I am much indebted to the studies of the Rev. W. Houghton on the " Mammalia of the Assyrian Sculptures" (Trans. Bibl. Arch. Soc.,vol. v.), and from his work is taken the following list of names : Assyrian. Hebrew. Meaning. Udumu Adam Ape Dassu Dishon Antelope Dabu Dob Bear Guzalu Azal (Arab.) Gazelle Zabi Zebi Gazelle Zaparu Zaphir Wild Goat Annabu Arnebeth Hare Akhu Oakh Jackal or Hyena Nimru Ndiner Leopard Nesu N'aas (Arab.) Lion Parie Pere Wild Ass Zibu Zeeb Wolf 30 RELATIONSHIP OF ASSYRIAN AND HEBREW. Sufficient evidence has been given of the remarkable agreement in vocabulary between the Assyrian and Hebrew to show that Assyrian may be regarded as the elder sister of the Hebrew tongue. O In grammar, as in vocabulary, Assyrian presents a most striking agreement with Hebrew and the cognate Semitic dialects. Assyrian may be said to be nearest in relation to Hebrew and Phrenician, the two leading north Semitic tongues, with some close affinities with the Ethiopic. It differs most from the Aramaic and the later dialects, but, strangely enough, exhibits some most striking affinities in its grammar to the Arabic. The Assyrian grammar pre- sents all the fulness of the Arabic in the employment of secondary and tertiary verbal conjugations, and the conse- quent elaborate power of word-building, as well as the preservation of the mimation similar to Arabic nunnation in both verbal and nominal endings all attest this similarity. The employment of the same ground forms of verbal conju- gations as in Hebrew, the similarity of construction and expression, all render Assyrian easy of acquirement by those who have mastered the elements of Hebrew study, and therefore entitle it to recognition at the hands of Biblical students and teachers. SEMITIC LITERATURE. In addition to the value of Assyrian as a cognate lan- guage with that of the Bible, it presents a still more important critical aid, in the form of its valuable lexi- cography. The scribes of the Babylonian temples and Ihe Royal Library at Nineveh resemble, in many respects, the Sanscrit grammarians of India. They studied their language and its literature from the points of philologists ROYAL NAMES. 31 and critics. They compiled dictionaries and commentaries, and it is from these that so much valuable information is gained. One example of this class furnishes most interesting synonyms and explanations. The word sarru, king the Hebrew sar, prince is derived from the verb sararu, " to be bright, brilliant, shining," and so in a list of synonyms may be obtained the following equivalents for this word : Malku "I -rr , , T Maliku } Hebrew m elek, pnnce. Lulimu = A borrowed word, the equivalent of the word ailu, " the bell wether " or " leader," the alim of Isa. 14. Parakku = " The veiled one," the equivalent of the Hebrew paroketh, the " veil of the Tem- ple " ; the king being the centre of the harem or exclusive portion of the palace. Ebilu = " The ruler," a form of Hebrew baal. Ri'hu = " Prince," the Hebrew reu'. Enu = "Lord," borrowed from the Akkadian en, " Lord." In the same list there are several other interesting words, such as Milkatum =. Sarratum, the equivalence between the Hebrew Milcah and Sarah. The study of such valuable lists as these, of which the above quoted is only one among many, will enable the student to clear up many obscure passages in the Bible, and to ascertain with greater accuracy the true meanings of words of rare occurrence. The advantages of the comparison between the Assyrian monuments and inscriptions are not, however, confined solely 32 A ROYAL PRAYER. to the ground of philology. The two literatures, both the product of the Semitic mind, have much in common, and, as we shall see, the same lofty ideas of the Divinity, the same conception of sin ; and thus the Biblical student will find on the shelves of the Assyrian libraries nrnch that will aid him in his studies, especially in the field of com- parative religion. As an example of the value of these Assyrian texts for comparison with Hebrew literature, may be cited the following beautiful prayer of Assur-nazir-pal I., the son of Samsi-Kimman, whose reign may be placed about B.C. 1800, five centuries before the time of Moses. The text and translation of this hymn has been published by Mr. R. E. Briinnow, in the Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie (vol. v., 69) : To the lady of Nineveh, the exalted one of the gods, The daughter of the Moon, the sister of the Sun, Who reigns orer all realms ! To her who determines decrees, the goddess of the whole earth ; To the lady of Heaven and Earth, who receives prayers ; To her who hearkens unto pleading and takes hold of petitions ! To the merciful goddess who loves justice ! * Istar, everything that is disturbed distresses her ! Oh, for the afflictions which I behold, I weep before thee ! To my words full of sighing direct thy ears ! To my afflicted cry let thy mind be open ! Look upon me, Oh lady, that through thy turning towards me the heart of thy servant may become strong.f I am Assur-nazir-pal, thy afflicted servant, Humble, adoring thy divinity, watchful, thy favourite ! "Who approved the freewill offering, who without intermission offers thy sacrifices ; "Who delights in thy festivals, who restores thy shrines ; * Cp. Ps. 4. 1 ; 27. 7 ; 28. 2. f Cp. Ps. 80. 3, 7, 9. TABLET OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL I., B.C. 1800. (Photographed from the original.) A ROYAL PRAYER. 33 Who makes plentiful the wine, the joy of thy heart, which thou lovest ! * The son of Samsi-Rimman who adored the great gods. I was begotten in the midst of the mountains of which none knoweth ; I was unlearned, and to thy ladyship never did I pray ! The people of Assyria also, and did not draw near to thy divinity ! But thou, Oh Istar, mighty princess of the gods, In the lifting up of thine eyes didst thou teach me,f and didst desire my rule ! Thou didst take me from the mountains and didst call me to the threshold of men ! Thou didst preserve for me the sceptre of righteousness J until the growing old of all mankind. And thou, Oh Istar, didst make great my name ! Thou hast granted unto the faithful salvation and mercy. Out of thy mouth went forth the decree, to make anew the gods. The temples which were falling in I repaired, The fallen gods I built up, and restored to their places ; (Some lines too mutilated.) In what have I sinned against thee ? "Why hast thou allotted me diseases, boils, and pestilence ? Is this thy just decree ? As one who did honour to thy divinity (am I afflicted). If I have not committed sin and evil why am I thus (smitten) ? In my foundations I am unloosened I am broken in pieces, || and rest I find not On the throne of my kingdom. I fasted, and To the feast I had prepared I drew not near ! The wine of the libation turned to gall. * Cp. "Wine which cheereth God and man" (Judg. 9. 13). t Cp. Ps. 4. 6, " In the lifting up of thy countenance." t Cp. "The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre" (Ps. 45. 6). Cp. Ps. 3. 8, " Salvation belongeth unto the Lord " ; also Ps. 119. 155. || Cp. Isa. 30. 14 ; Ps. 2. 9. D 34 INDIA HOUSE INSCRIPTION. From rejoicing I am withheld, and from the beauties and pleasures of life I am cut off. My eyes are sealed up, I cannot see : I do not lift them up from the surface of the earth ! How long, Oh lady ! shall the disease without ceasing destroy my members ? I, Assur-bani-pal, thy adorer, Who lays hold of the sceptre of thy divinity, who prays to thy ladyship, Look Upon me with compassion, and let me pray to thy nobility I In whatsoever thou art angry, grant me forgiveness, and let thy mind be purged : Let mercy in thy heart be strong upon ifte ! Let affliction come forth, and sin be restrained ; Oh, Lady ! from thy mouth let my tranquillity come forth. The Priest-King, thy beloved, who never changes-, Grant him mercy, and remove his affliction ! Oh, pray for him to thy beloved, the father of the gods ! By a comparison of the above poem with the references given in the footnotes, it will be observed there are many phrases of striking similarity to the Hebrew Psalms. One other extract of a much later date may be added for the sake of comparison. The prayer of Nebuchad- nezzar II. (B.C. 006), written during the time that Israel was in captivity, affords a striking example of the religious literature of the period, and is wonderfully rich in its pure Semitic thought and religious aspirations. The following extract, taken from the long inscription of Nebuchadnezzar now in the India House Museum, forms the concluding lines of the last column, and is the king's prayer to Merodach : To Merodach my lord I prayed and lifted up my hand. Oh Mero- dach, firstborn of the gods, mighty prince, who didst create me, and hast entrusted to me the sovereignty over hosts of men ; as my own INDIA HOUSE INSCRIPTION OF NEBUCHADXEZZAB II., B.C. 606. (Photographed from the original.) NEBUCHADNEZZAR 'S PEAYER. 35 precious life I do love the nobility of the divinity. In all the habitable earth I have seen no city fairer than thy city of Babylon. As I have Joved the reverence of thy great divinity, and have sought (ever) after thy divinity, accept the lifting up of my hands, for I the king am thy adorer, who pleases thy heart. Appointed a priest-king (to be) the restorer of all thy cities. 'By thy command, oh Merodach, merciful one, may this temple -which I have made endure for ever. A second prayer, which is even more beautiful, is found on a clay cylinder : To Merodach my lord I prayed, I began to him my petition. The words of my heart sought for him ; and I said, Oh prince, that art from everlasting, lord of all that exists, for the king whom thou lovest, whom thou callest by name, as it seemath good unto thee thou guidest his name aright, thou watchest over him in the path of righteousness ! I, the prince who obeys thee, am the work of thy hands ; thou hast created me, and hast entrusted to me the sovereign- ty over hosts of men ; according to thy goodness, lord, thou hast made me to pass over them all. Let me love thy supreme lordship, let the fear of thy divinity exist in my heart, and give what seemeth good unto thee, for thou upholdest my life. Then he, the firstborn of the gods, Merodach the prince, heard my prayer and accepted my petition. These extracts may prove sufficient to show how high was the religious development of Babylonia during the period when the elite of the Hebrew nation were mingling with the wise men of Chaldea; and it is from these valu- able contemporary documents that we are able to estimate the forces which tended, in no slight degree, to bring about the most marvellous national renaissance which the world has ever known. In conclusion, it should be remembered that the two most important periods in the life of the Hebrew nation are both associated with Chaldea. From Ur of the Chal- dees the national ancestor came to the Land of Promise 36 HEBREWS IN CHALDEA. after a long contact with the earlier civilisation ; and it was during. the golden age of the empire, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, there was kindled that wonderful national patriotism in the Hebrew heart which centuries of banishment and persecution failed to crush, It is therefore, most important that at the commencement of this study the affinities of the language and thought of the nations of the Tigro-Euphrates valley and Judea should be borne in mind. It is this close relationship between the Hebrew people and the inhabitants of Assyria and Chaldea which renders the comparisons between the ancient literatures of these empires and the Scriptures of such great value. We have shewn in this chapter that, racially and linguistically, the Hebrews and the ancient Semitic people of the Tigro- Euphrates valley were closely allied. Their language reveals the fact that at one time they had occupied a common home, and that, the cradle-land of the Semitic race. It is therefore not difficult to suppose that during this long period of intercourse traditions of the beginnings of all things were formulated, and were the common pro- perty of the Hebrews and Babylonians. How many points in common there were between these traditions and the Hebrew version we shall see in the subsequent chapters. ( 37 ) CHAPTER II. THE CREATION LEGENDS. TTNTIL the discovery and decipherment of the Assyrian *-^ inscriptions, there was very little material with which to compare the Hebrew account of the Creation of the World. Its simplicity was so marked, that it was far re- moved from the confused polytheistic traditions of Babylonia and Phoenicia, as recorded by the Greco-Chaldean priest Berosos and the Phoenician priest Sanchoniathon. The former of these authors certainly resided at Babylon in the third century before our era, at a period when the temple of Belus was still in existence, and when no doubt some portion of the library remained, but the traditions which he has recorded are evidently derived from more than one source, and are therefore much confused. With regard to the Phoenician traditions, they are of still less use for comparative purposes, being certainly of late origin, and, like all products of the Phoenician mind, exhibiting the influence of foreign religious teaching. We know of this cosmogony only through the works of Philo of Byblus, a writer in the early Christian era, and whose literary work is of small value. His style is complicated and confused, his matter of little worth ; he mixes together in the most absurd manner the mythologies of Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece, in his pretended Phoenician cosmogony. His etymological explanations of the various names shows that 38 DISCOVERY OF THE TABLETS. he had no knowledge of the languages from which they were derived. STOUT OF THEIR DISCOVERY. In the year 1874, a most important and startling discovery was made by the patient labours of Mr. George Smith. He had already two years previously given to students that important document the " Chaldean Account of the Deluge," which may be called the Magna Charta of As- syriology, and which at once showed Biblical students the valuable aid they might expect from the clay tablets of the buried libraries of Nineveh and Babylon. He supplemented his first discovery by the publication of the Babylonian Legends of the Creation, which were at once seen to present a close resemblance to the Mosaic account. The first translations published by him were naturally merely tentative, but during the period that has elapsed since their first publication Assyriology has made great progress, and our knowledge of the Assyrian language and literature has become wider and more accurate. This important series of documents, alas, still too frag- mentary, have been studied by almost all the leading Assy- riologists, in England by Professor Sayce, Mr. Pinches and myself, on the Continent by such able scholars as Drs. Oppert, Schrader, and Delitzsch ; the result has been, that hidden meanings and niceties of expression have been brought out, and an almost general concensus of agree- ment established. The tablets come from the royal library of Assur- banipal at Nineveh ; they are copies written about the year B.C. 660, by order of the king, and placed in the temple library which he established there " for the instruction ASSYRIAN LIBRARIES, 3 of his people." This temple-library was manifestly a copy in every respect of the great library in the temple of Nebo the god of learning in Borsippa, and most of its documents were copies of older works deposited there. It was called by the same name and dedicated to the same god, as is shown by the following endorsement upon one of the tablet books, which reads, " According to the copies of the tablets of Assyria and Akkad, on tablets I have written and explained, and in the inner chamber of E-Zida, the temple of Nebo, my Lord, which is in Nineveh, I have placed ; for the pleasure of Nebo. The King of the hosts of Heaven and Earth look with joy upon this chamber, and support by day the head of Assurbanipal, the worshipper of thy divinity ; and grant this prayer." The statement that these tablets were copies of older documents in the libraries of Babylonia, naturally made scholars anxious for the time when the spade of the explorer should rescue from the ruins of the older empire earlier editions of these important texts. The desire has been fortunately met, and we have now both duplicates and additional fragments from the libraries of both Borsippa and Sippara (Sepharvaim), as well as portions of a still older legend from the ancient priest-city of Kutha. These Babylonian copies are of great importance, as they cannot have been taken from the Assyrian tablets, which were probably buried at the time of the fall of Nineveh, but are from older copies in their own libraries. They are most valuable also because of certain variants they afford, which explain obscure passages. There appear to have been seven tablets in the series corresponding to the number of the days of Genesis but the Babylonian arrangement seems to be rather that of a 40 THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE TABLETS. series of acts of creation, and the days and tablets do not correspond exactly. The arrangement of the tablets is according to the usual system of Assyrian and Babylonian libraries, namely, that of classifying them by number and by the first words of the first tablet of the series. We find a curious resem- blance to this in the Hebrew system by which the books of the Pentateuch are arranged. The first words of the First Tablet are Enu-va Elis, " When on High," or " In the time when on High," and so we find the Fourth and Fifth Tablets endorsed, " Tablet IV. or V., Enu-va Elis." This system agrees exactly with that of the Hebrew scribes, who called the first three books of Moses by their opening words : Genesis, JTfcJJJO} " Bereshith," " In the Beginning" ; Exodus, ni/b# "Shemoth " ; and Leviticus, &OD*1 " Way- yikra" Indeed, ns the Canon was not drawn up until after the Babylonian Captivity, we may with reason suppose this convenient system of classification to have been bor- rowed from the Babylonian scribes. We now possess portions of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Tablets of the series, and can form a very fair idea of the character of the work of which we may conclude the separate tablets formed chapters. As is natural with a work emanating from a polytheistic and philosophical religious school, such as that of the Baby- lonian priesthood, the Chaldean account is much longer and more poetic in character than the Hebrew record. In- deed, the suggestion of Professor Sayce that it was treated in the form of a species of epic poem, similar to the Legends of Gilgames,* seems a very tenable one. * This name, formerly read as Gizdhubar, is now read Gilgames, but there is little doubt tha this Chaldean hero was the Nimrod of the Jewish and Arab legends. AN EPIC POEM. 41 It is impossible to group the tablets in parallel corre- spondence to the Hebrew days of Creation, but they may be roughly arranged in the following order : Tablet I. The Pre-creative State and the First Day (Gen. 1. 1-5). Tablets II., III., IV. The Creation of Light and the war between light and darkness. The victory of the former and the separation of Heaven and Earth, the banishment of the Dragon of Chaos to the depths of the under world. The Earth planted. This group corresponds in general to the work of the Second and Third Days (Gen. 1. 6-13). Tablet V. Creation and ordering of the Heavenly bodies. Corresponds nearest of all to the Fourth Day (Gen. 1. 14-19). Tablet VI. Lost. Tablet VII. Creation of Cattle and Creeping things, and probably Man also. Corresponds to the Sixth Day (Gen. 1. 24-31). There are, however, some portions in the Assyrian tablets which appear to be displaced, and which we shall see, by being separately compared, render the resemblance to the Hebrew more close than appear at first sight. In treating of the use which may be made of these tablets for comparative purposes, it will be better to deal first with those which relate strictly to the work of Creation, reserving until later any comments upon those of a more mythological character. An examination of these documents, especially a com- parison of the Assyrian and Babylonian versions, appears E 42 TABLE. a ^^ o: T3 S ""^ CM ' c -2 O rt IB ** X eS ** & 1 S TS ^- *rt * " ^ _fl"^^ ^ = I 3 ^ 2 -e 3 o a> tjo B rB C C ? B 03 I b/j ^ ^ 1 O 2 aS CD il J 1 .5 <<-i B a3 I J * r Ifi "S s ID S w p * B Ifl n > (-5 . ^J > *s |l| s i i *- g -5 I s ^ ^ c8 'S'ft a=2^ 5 *" c IH p o 2 * & rl "5 tR EH is 4 ^ - fcfiS _= rt * fc 1 * 1 B idl ID JH ^, T3 o P C|_4 . j| "S cS S" 1 W P x^'E 1 1 ^ J OD i a> as dc 0) E " w t5 *" *> ** S -5 9 5 T3 "S -^ B O W -S - 1 TS ^ 2 a> B & P J rrt . ~~- 111^^^ 11 JC3 cd * * ^ C cS HI * w l >.*--s S * | "o si ji | B ~ i 83 B "*^ S> o CO c &s B ~ aj rB i ID ^ 3 *L O ^ "8-S ,; s 1 .S * ^1 "S 8 c c6 **"* si -^ a< B a> a> ^* c ^ , -a I 1 .! 00 . ^ .e-s the wide earth a L S ** "^ CO 8* eg l.s^ S| if S O E U) ^ as not recorded, made even the gi id Lakhamu cam f .- ^ ^ .-B c8 ^02 O I 11* 14 1 00 a> d d c ! '3 If 6 a) o JS J3 heir wate he cornfi f ^ - * JS 'o name w B * 6*1 s^ g g ^ S d: ^ 2 ? * i P n B ii.iS^j " -r. O5 O 2 2 FIRST CREATION TABLET, COPIED ABOUT B.C. 660. (Photographed from the original.) BIRTH OF THE GODS. 43 to indicate that the series was compiled from the works of two schools of religious teaching, the Tablets II., III., and IV. being largely influenced by the ancient school of Eridu. The great importance of this inscription fragmentary as it is will be at once recognised by Biblical students. It agrees in many points with the Hebrew records. In the general account of the chaotic state of nature with the Elohistic account, while in its more detailed features it approaches nearer to that of the Jehovistic writer. When, however, we proceed to examine and compare these stories of the world's birth, some remarkable differences will also be noticed. The first Tablet may be said to form the opening verses of the Assyrian "Genesis," and was no doubt the basis of the account of Babylonian cosmological theories given by Damascios, a writer of the sixth century, he probably having obtained them from older, but now lost, works. " The Baby- lonians," he states, " like the rest of the barbarians, pass over in silence the one principle of the universe, and constitute two TavthS and Apason, making Apason the husband of Tavthe, and denominating her ' the mother of the gods.' From these proceed an only-begotten son, Mumis, which I conceive is no other than the intelligible world proceeding from the two principles. From them another progeny is derived, Dakhe and Dakhos; and, again, a third, Kissare and Assaros, from whom three others proceed, Anos, Illinos, and Aos; and of Aos and Davke is born a son, called Belos, who they say is the fabricator of the world." In the curious account of Babylonian cosmogony preserved by Berosos is found so little resemblance to the Hebrew that it hardly enters the field of comparison. So also in THE DIVINE WORD. the tablet found at Kutha, the inscription to which we must assign to an old school of scribes. The following Table will show how closely Damascios has followed the tablet : APSU, M. (Apason). TlAMAT, F. (Tavth$). MUMMU LAKHMA and LAKHAMA (Mumis). (Dakhe and Dakhos). AN-SAB and KI-SAR (Assaros and Kissar&). I 1 \ \ ANU ELIL EA and DAVKINA (Anos). (Ittinos). (Aos and DavkS). \ BEL-MAHDUK (Belos). We see that both the Hebrew and the Assyrian accounts agree in representing the state of nature prior to the work of Creation as a chaotic mass, without order or arrangement. THE DIVINE WORD. There is one curious point in regard to this pre-Creation period which brings the tablets into closer agreement with the Mosaic record than at first appears. "At the time when the Heavens above were un-named, below on the wide earth a name was not recorded." Here the use of the two verbal forms, nabu, " to proclaim," and zakaru, " to record," seems to point to the same idea of the Divine word being the power of Creation as in the Hebrew, " God said let there be light and there was light." This creative power of the Divine command is curiously illustrated by a THE DEEP. 45 tablet, containing a hymn to the Moon-god, in the British Museum (W. A. I., iv. 9) : As for thee, thy word is declared and spreads on high as the wind : the stall and the fold are quickened. As for thee, thy will is established, and verdure is created. As for thee, thy will in the stall and cote is made known, and the seed of life is increased. It will be seen that the creation of verdure, and the increase of flock and herd, is attributed to the declaration of the Divine command (amat). So that Heaven and Earth, being un-named, were not in existence. Tiamat. This being corresponds exactly to the Tehom of Genesis, the watery waste which covered the surface, and is also to be identified with Tavthe, the wife of Apason, in the cosmogony of Damascios. In the tablet she is called Muallidat, "the bearing mother " of all the Heavens and Earth ; and in the older legend from Kutha she is called Musenik, "the nutrice of them all." She is represented on the monuments as having the body of a woman, terminating in the coiled tails of two serpents, similar to the figures on the sculp- tures from Pergamos. In this form she represents the great nature-serpent of darkness, who coils round the earth like an egg, and holds the earth in its toils, until slain by Merodach, the Lord of Light. As the personification of chaos and darkness, Tiamat becomes the Spirit of Evil, against whom Merodach, the god of goodness, the " protector of good men," wages eternal war. Lafihmu and Lakhamu. It is difficult in the present state of our knowledge to clearly identify these characters. As in one of the mythological tablets we find them identified 46 THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN. with Arm and Anatum, the Lord and Lady of Heaven, they may, perhaps, correspond to the firmament which divided the realms of nature. An-Sar and Ki-Sar. These are two compound words, composed of An-Sar, " Heaven host," and Ki-Sar, " Earth host," they being the host of Heaven and Earth, the spirit forms which were afterwards known as the Annunaki and the Igigi, and who may be identified with the creations described in the passage, " Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them" (Gen. 2. 1). This expression, " Zabaoth ha Samaim " of the Bible, becomes equivalent to the Assyrian expression Kissat sarnie, " the Host of Heaven." The great serpent of Chaos and Night having been slain, and the imprisoned earth released and divided from the heavens, the three great gods come forth to assume the government in their respective kingdoms. 1. Anu bears the titles of " Father of all the gods," The Progenitor who changes not the decrees coming forth from his mouth, The Mighty Chief, The Supreme, The Magnificent Lord of the Heaven, The Heaven. 2. Ellu or Bel. This deity, known as the Older Bel, to distinguish him from Bel Merodach, is the lord O ' of the world ; The lord who guards the country ; Establisher of riches, wealth, and possessions ; Lord of the mountain of the north (east), and described in Isaiah 14. Among his numerous titles one is of especial interest. In the hymns he is entitled Ilu Sadu-rabu, or Ilu Saku-rabu, " The most high god," which Dr. Delitzsch has with great accuracy compared with the Biblical El Shaddai. THE BABYLONIAN TEINITY. 47 3. Ea, the Aos of Damascios. This is the most im- portant god in the Babylonian pantheon, and although here only the third member of the great nature Trinity, is most frequently met with in the religious literature. The worship of Ea, the god of the Ocean, was undoubtedly the oldest cult in Babylonia, having as its centre the ancient City of Eridu or Eridugga, on the Persian Gulf. The " Holy City," as its name signifies, was the centre of a school of theologians who composed the most important works in the religious literature of Chaldea. These hymns, which M. Lenormant has so well described as the Eig-Veda of Chaldea, are of the most high character, and relate to the re- ligion of Ea, " the all-wise god," and his son, the Sun-god Merodach, under his title of Silik-mulu- dugga, " the proctector of good men." Here Merodach appears as the Mediator between God and Man, and as the healer of Sickness and Sin. The epithets applied to Ea are numerous: "Lord of the Sea," " Lord of the Ocean," " Lord of the House of Knowledge," "Lord of the Far-seeing Eye," "He who knows all things." The position occupied by Ea in the classical religious texts approaches very near to that of Jehovah in the Biblical narrative. He is the Creator of Man, the Protector of Shamas-Napisti, the Chaldean Noah, in the great danger of the Deluge. Thus may be seen that Heaven, Earth, and the mys- terious region of the under-world are now occupied by the divine rulers. '48 THE FIFTH TABLET. THE FIFTH TABLET. The Fifth Tablet is the largest of the strictly Crea- tion Tablets, and is also the most important, as it presents striking agreements with the Biblical account, at the same time there are certain remarkable variations, which are of considerable interest in comparing the two accounts. The tablet contains portions of about twenty-two lines of writing, but the reverse is not inscribed except with the endorsement: "Tablet V. (of the series), Enu-va Elis." The tablet, like the first of the series, comes from the royal library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, but a Babylonian duplicate is also in the collection, coming from the temple- library at Sippara. The translation of the document (see opposite page), together with the corresponding Biblical record, will show its great importance. It presents a striking resemblance to the Hebrew ac- count of the work of the Fourth Day (Gen. 1. 14-19), and is clear from the passage in line 8 that a Divine Creator is referred to, to whom the production of the heavenly bodies is due, and whose satisfaction is expressed in the words ubassim, " he made pleasant," which is a curious and striking parallel to the Hebrew refrain, " And God saw that it was good." As the two other members, Bel or Ellu and Ea, are here mentioned by name, it is evident that the Creator is the great " Heaven Father," Anu. It is he who esta- blishes the position of the Stars and causes the Moon and the Sun to shine. It should be noticed that there is a difference in the order -of Creation in the tablet, and in the Hebrew record CELESTIAL ORBS. 49 TRANSLATION. Assyrian Tablet. Hebrew Narrative. He made pleasant the positions of 1. And God (Elohim) said, 1 the great gods. 2. The constellations* he arranged them. the double stars f he fixed. 3. He ordained the year, he appointed the Zodiac signs over it 4. The twelve months of constellations by threes he fixed 5. From the day when the year com- menced to its close. 6. He established the position of the crossing stars and for the sea- sons their bounds 7. Not to make fault or error of any kind. 8. The abode of Bel and Ea along with himself he fixed. , 9. He opened great gates on either side 10. He bolts he made strong on the right hand and left 1 1. In the mass he made an ascent (stair- case). 12. He Illuminator he cause to shine to rule the night. 13. He appointed him to establish the night until the coming forth of the day 14. (saying) Each month without fail by thy disk keep thou watch. 15. At the beginning of the month at the rising of the night. || 1 6. Horns shine forth to announce the night. 17. On the seventh day to a disk it fills up. 18. Open thou and cause the rays of thy face to shine 19. At that time the Sun on the horizon of heaven at thy coming 20. thou shalt divide the form 21. towards the path of the Sun thou drawest near 23. then the shining of the Sun shall change 24. seeking his path 25. set thou as by law decreed. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be, for signs and for seasons, and for days and years : and let them be for lights in the firmament of hea- ven to give light upon the earth : and it was so. And (rod made the two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon earth, and to rule over the day and over the night : And God saw that it was good. Kakkabi, "Groups of stars." t Lu Masi, a particular set of seven double stars, called by Oppert the stars of the week. t Mizrata umazzir: the mizrata were the Hazzaroth of Job 38. 22, by which the year was regulated, Nibiri, from ebiru, " to cross " ; literally, the " ferry boats." || Lillate, "Twilight"; Hebrew, Lilith. F 50 A CURIOUS AND STRIKING PARALLEL. of the Fourth Day, which is of so marked a character as to call for comment. ORDER OF CREATION. If we tabulate the events as recorded according to their respective order, we see that the one is the direct opposite of the other. Assyrian Tablet. 1. The Stars, 2. The Zodiac signs. 3. The Four Seasons. 4. The Equinoxes and Solstices. Hebrew Narrative. 1. Sun. Day. 2. The Moon. Night. 3. Stars. 5. The Night. 6. The Month. 7. The Day, and Sun. It will be seen that with the Assyrians, or rather, Baby- lonians, the stars come first in the order of the time mea- surers. It is their constellations that mark out the path of time, and divide the year into seasons. In the Babylonian account it is evident that we have the work of a nation of astronomers proceeding under a regular established law of precedence in laying out the scheme of the heavenly bodies. Taking the events in order, it will be seen how perfect their study of the heavenly bodies was, and how exactly the law of all time was regulated. The heavenly lights, according to the Biblical account, were created for signs and for seasons and for days and years, " and not to make fault or error of any kind," as the tablet states. This same astronomical regu- lation is explained by a tablet of the great royal observatory THE CHALDEAN YEAB. 51 at Xineveh (W. A. I., iii. 53), which reads: "Twelve months for each year, 360 (60 x 6) days in number, are recorded. The rising and appearance of the moon one watches ; the balancing of the stars and the moon, and their opposition to each other. For the year its months, for the month its days, the tale is complete. The twelve months in full, from beginning to end, to the measure of days fixed." This remarkable extract from a tablet written probably two thou- sand years before the Christian era, certainly shows the accurate nature of Babylonian astronomy. " He ordained the years, and appointed the signs of the Zodiac over it." It requires but a very slight study of the Babylonian calendar to see that the months were named and arranged according to the signs of the Zodiac. This is best shown by the Table on the following page. The division of the path of the sun through the heavens into the twelve divisions of the signs of the Zodiac must have been known in Babylonia at a very early period. It will be observed the names of the months, which corre- spond to the Zodiac signs, are those of the old Akkadian and not of the Semitic Calendar, which latter seem rather to be based upon the agricultural system, and in this respect corresponds to the old Hebrew Calendar. It is evident that when the signs were first arranged, the opening constellation was that of the " propitious," or " directing bull " * when the sun, as the " strong bull of Heaven," commenced to plough his straight furrow through the sky. By the law of the precession of the equinoxes, we know that as far back as B.C. 2500 the sun's vernal equinox fell in * See Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 397. 52 BABYLONTAN CALENDAR. M , bj II t, D P O B .1 3 to = * "^ II fe^ E - CO i .Sjo ^ y. < ^ c i i a B c 3 on _c h 1 B 'o o to B _ V. o . ll 1 C o be o ,0 ^ -S O Ji J 5 &3 X cS CO H o PQ "S In <-. o _B c -^ w *$ o E-T3 Jl 5 ce to 5 1 s e -' o "3 ^.S"o p- i33 5 1 B i 1 , , , 1 i , , o , B o a to H " . 2 91 | _c '5 PH C TL &> o i 5 e5 1 1 05 P "? "S rB O s s S3 B 1 C shipi, " to glide ";* while in another mythological tablet we find this Serpent mentioned as the ally of Zir Khussu, the " Hissing Serpents," who fight against the gods. In the Hebrew account of the Fall, the Serpent is spoken of as " more subtil than any beast of the field " D^H!tf (arum) (Gen. 3. 1). The inscriptions throw most highly important light upon this subject. The Serpent is, I have said, called the foe or enemy of the gods, aibu, the Hebrew * See the important notes upon the use of this word by Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis, vol. i., p. 162. 88 THE SERPENT AND MAGIC. ^K (oyeb). In the tablets this word is equated with the Akkadian word Erim, and which means "to enchant," and the Lu-Erim was " the magician." The word Erim bears so remarkable a resemblance to the Hebrew arum, that it seems to be quite legitimate to regard it as borrowed. If this is the case, it throws much light on the role of the Serpent as a tempter. The Hebrew name of the Serpent, ^{"13, Nakhash, is cognate with that of Nakhson, "divine" (Num. 1. 7), and both are cognate with the root fcj^njj which has an undoubted magical signification, occurring in such phrases as, " observed times and enchant- ments " (2 Kings 21. 6), " neither shall ye use enchant- ments" (Lev. 19. 26), "to seek for enchantments " (Num. 28. 1). How appropriate this epithet was to the Ser- pent is shown by the Babylonian inscription : Against the gods, my fathers, thy enmity thou hast directed. Thou enslaver of my companions, Stand up, I and thou will fight together. When Tiamat heard this She uttered her former spells, she repeated her words ; Tiamat also cried vehemently with a high voice, She recited an incantation, she cast her spell. Here, then, we have the direct association of the subtilty of the Serpent, and the witch or magician a very remarkable comment on the curious phrase in the Bible (Gen. 3. 13), " the serpent beguiled me and I did eat." But this associa- tion was not only with magic, but also with death. The Serpent, who was the enemy of gods and men, was the offspring of the land of death, and is called binut arali or binut bit mutt, " the creation of the house of death." The connection between death and the Serpent is common in most religions, but the association of the beguiler, enchanter, ASSYRIAN TABLET OF THE CREATION- SERIES. (Photographed from the original.) TEMPTATION AND FALL. 89 and death, is further borne out by the inscriptions, where the Lu-Erim, or magician, is called " the man in whose mouth is death," and the bite of the serpent is called " a touch of the mouth of death." The important point is, have we any trace of the story of the Fall in the Babylonian inscrip- tion ? and, if so, is it in any way associated with death ? The first indication is afforded by the seal figured in Mr. George Smith's Chaldean Genesis (p. 88), in which a scene in many ways resembling the Fall is represented. A man and woman are seated on either side of a tree, from whose branches hang rich bunches of fruit, and behind the woman a serpent is rearing up. The garden of the gods is represented upon several seals, notably one in the Hague Museum, and some in the Cesnola collection. In the Mythological Tablet, which is the third of the Creation series, is described the various wicked acts of the Serpent Tiamat : The great gods, all of them determiners of fate, They entered, and, death-like, the god Sar filled. In sin one with the other in compact joins. The command was established in the garden of the god. The Asnan (fruit) they eat, they broke in two, Its stalk they destroyed : The sweet juice which injures the body. Great is their sin. Themselves they exalted. To Merodach, their redeemer, he appointed their fate. It is almost impossible not to see in this fragment the pith of the story of the Fall, while the last line at once brings Merodach before us as the one who would defeat the Tempter and restore the fallen. The expression used is mutir gimili su-nu, " restorer of their benefit " words all clearly Semitic. L 90 THE KEEUBIM IN EDEN. KERUBIM. In the ninth tablet of the Gilgames Legends this garden of the gods is described as " one with trees bearing crystal fruits and emerald leaves, and whose branches hang down with beautiful shade." Moreover, it is guarded by KERUBIM in the shape of scorpion men and women, who are thus described by the writer : To the Mountains whose names is double, To the Twin Mountains, in his course he came, Which each day guard the Sun, rising Over them was the threshold of heaven, Below them the tomb sank down. Scorpion men who guard its gate ; Burning with terribleness is their reverence beholding them death. The greatness of their aspect sweeps the slopes of the hills ; At the rising of the Sun and the setting of the Sun, they guard the Sun. In this remarkable extract the most startling description of the Kerubim is given. One other point remains to be noticed, and this is the crushing of the Tempter, which is described in the Baby- lonian Tablet in the following words : Tiamat, whom he had bound, then turned backward. So Bel trampled on the belly of Tiamat : With his club unslung he smote her brain, He broke it, and caused her blood to flow ; The North wind bore it away to secret places. Here, then, is the victory of the seed of the woman. It is curious to notice the Babylonian Arali or House of Death, the abode of the Serpent, was placed in the north-east. It may therefore be concluded that there are in the Baby- lonian records distinct traces of " the Story of the Serpent and the Fall in the Garden." SEAL OF THE TEMPTATION. (Photographed from the original.) CHAPTER IV. THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION. Hebrew Scriptures, as well as most Oriental tra- ditions, agree in placing the " beginning of civilisation " in that semi-mythic period before the Deluge. It was the age of the heroes ; it was the age in which each caste of society sought to place its founder. The fourth chapter of Genesis has been aptly called by some writers the Hebrew Legend of Civilisation, for it is there the record is given of the first steps of the primitive forefathers on the path- way of civilisation. The chapter is a very remarkable one ; as will be observed in the first place, it stands to a certain extent alone, being less connected with the nar- rative than others ; and, in the second place, it is entirely, with the exception of the last two verses, the work of the Jehoyist writer. This is an important point to con- sider when examined in its relation to monumental evidence. The structure of the Jehovist's narrative is very remarkable; it is he alone who records the Fall, and the beginning of Civilisation. According to him, any individual action on the part of man, such as the eating of the forbidden fruit, is an exaltation of himself in rivalry to God, and consequently a sin. So, also, his progress on the path of civilisation is assigned to the line of the cursed one, Cain the murderer is driven from the face of Jehovah. How curiously this is indicated even in the very first steps. The Fall is followed by the sense of nakedness and shame and the making of coats of fig-leaves, followed 92 CAIN AND ABEL. by the " making of coats of skins," which brings enmity between man and the brute creation (Gen. 3. 21). In this fourth chapter there is, however, a very remark- able outline of the dawn of civilisation, and one which I venture to think has not received so much attention as it merits. There is a method and arrangement in the events, which indicates a careful study of the laws of racial develop- ment. From the first parents banished from Paradise are born two children sons, Cain and Abel. These two become respectively the heads of the two earliest divisions of the human race the agriculturist and the pastoral nomad. The two divisions established, there is an unceasing rivalry between them, as I have already pointed out when dealing with the Creation Legends. It exists to-day in the rivalry between the Bedawin and Fellahin as it did in the days of Mohammed, who said, "The Divine glory is among the shepherds, vanity and impudence among the agriculturists." This rivalry leads to a continual warfare. Indeed, among the agricultural Babylonians the wprd enemy was synony- mous for a " nomad of the desert." This rivalry is shown in the struggle between the two brothers for the favour of the God of the land ; and, according to the scheme of the Jehovist, " the tiller of the soil " is rejected and the " feeder of sheep" is accepted. The rivalry then leads to blood- shed, and the shepherd is slain by his agricultural brother. In the struggle for existence, the nomad goes down before the settler ; the shepherd succumbs to the agriculturist. The first step of man on the path of civilisation is marked by hatred and bloodshed. The murderer is banished with the curse of Jehovah upon him. He leaves the land of Eden " the field " or " plain " and departs eastward to the land of Nod (Gen. 4. 16). This land, which has so long been THE LAND OF NOD. 93 unknown, is now identified by the aid of the monuments as the district to the east of the Tigris, one of the rivers of Eden, the land of the barbarians. It was inhabited by mixed races of hardy, warlike, plundering mountaineers the Guti of the inscriptions, the Goim of the Hebrews (Gen. 14. 1). In the rocky ranges of the districts of Kurdistan and Luristan had grown up kingdoms and tribal princedoms ever hostile to the Babylonians and the dwellers in Meso- potamia. The old kingdoms of Ansan, Elam, and later on Persia, were situated in this region. It was from this district that Cyrus marched to deliver the death blow to this " first of empires." In the inscriptions, mixed tribes of this district are called by the name of Zab manda, or " host of the manda." This word manda comes from the root Nadu, " to wander," and agrees with the expression of Cain, "I have become a fugitive and a wanderer " (Gen. 4. 14). Zabmanda became synonymous with "barbarian wanderer," and the land of Nod the "land of the barba- rians," or " wanderers." It is probable that here is an echo of the origin of one element of Babylonian civilisation that of the Akkadian " mountaineers " from the east of the Tigris. The First City. We now come to the next step in this remarkable chapter. Cain has a son, Enoch (Khanoch) ; " he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of the son, Enoch." Here we have a step in perfect accord with the laws of racial development. The agriculturist becomes a village dweller, from whom is born the town or city dweller. Before considering this stage in the development of primi- tive man, it will be well to advance one stage further "and unto Enoch was born Irad." 94 PRIMITIVE CITIES. At this stage of study a little difficulty presents itself, as the two names admit of no clear etymological explana- tion by Hebrew ; Enoch being explained as " dedicated," and Irad by " wild ass," neither of which statements are satisfactory in affording any solution. If, however, we turn to Babylonian inscriptions, there is material that will assist us. It is universally admitted that Hebrew or Biblical names, which I prefer to call them, as they are not all Hebrew, have a meaning generally in some degree associated with the life or circumstances of the person or place indicated. In Gen. 10. 10 one of the earliest of the cities of Nimrod, the city of Erech, is mentioned. This city was the first capital of the ancient Chaldean empire, and its name was Uru-Ki, " the city of the land " ; but the Akkadian pronunciation of the ideograms of this name was Unug, or UnuJt t which, allowing for the strong gutteral pronunciation of the first character of either y or n> would make out a very slight corruption between it and Xhanoch, or Enoch. It becomes, then, most clear that Khanoch, the name of the first city of Hebrew tradition, bears a close resemblance to fTnuk, the first capital of Chaldea. With regard to Irad, I should venture to suggest that this al&o is a Babylonian name, but slightly corrupted. In the south of Babylonia, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, was the great sacred city of Chaldea, a city which perhaps rivalled Uruk or Erech in antiquity. This town was called by the Akkadians Eri-dugga, " the holy city," which passed into Semitic Babylonian in the form Eridu, and is a very near approach to the Hebrew Irad. The suggestion receives very strong support from the Chaldean traditions as recorded by Berosos, which certainly make Eridu one EUINS OF THE PALACE OF GUDEA AT TELLO (see page 96). OANNES THE FISH-GOD. 95 of the cities where primitive civilisation in Babylonia first began. According to this Greco-Chaldean writer, we read : " In the first year there appeared in that part of the Erythean Sea (Persian Gulf) which borders on Babylonia a creature endowed with reason, by name Cannes, whose whole body was that of a fish ; under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below similar to those of a man subjoined to a fish's tail. His voice, too, and language were articulate and human, and a representation of him is pre- served even to this day." " This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no food at that season; he gave them an insight into letters and sciences and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct houses, to found temples, to com- pile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical science. He made them to distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften their manners and humanise their lives." * This mystical creature, Cannes, is certainly to be identified with Ea, " the god of the sea," the fish-god, and the god of wisdom of Chaldea, the seat of whose worship was in Eridu. I am, therefore, inclined to think that we have in both these names, Enoch and Irad, not so much personal names as those of cities. Beginnings of Music. The next stage is interesting, but a little difficult to explain. Lamech has two wives, Adah and Zillah. The former has two sons, " Jabal, the father of all such as dwell in tents and have cattle " * "Eusebios Chron.," Cory's translation. 96 " THE HARP AND THE ORGAN." (Gen. 4. 20), and Jubal was "the father of all such as hand the harp and organ," or \_pipe~\ (4. 21). In the first it would seem as if it was a retrograde movement, but it is probably another tradition woven into the history. The second, however, is much more interesting, as it presents a record of the introduction of the arts of pleasure in the form of music. It appears at first strange that the arts of pleasure should be invented before those of utility, such as metal working, but this is not unusual ; nearly all negro tribes, for example, have a system of music and musical instruments of some kind of which they are presumably fond, and this is the case in many tribes where the working of metals is unknown. The instruments described are the harp (kinnor), and the organ or pipe, ugab, upon which the Babylonian monuments fortunately throw very considerable light. Among the ruins at Tello, the ancient Sirpurra, "the city of the bright light," in South Chaldea, M. de Sarzec discovered a very interesting monument, a sort of memorial of victory. The age of this monument is unknown, but it may with considerable certainty be placed as early as B.C. 3000. It represents a harper and a number of musi- cians playing pipes and cymbals. In this sculpture we have a most striking illustration of the beginnings of music as recorded in this chapter (Gen. 4. 21). Unfortunately, the name of the harp in the inscriptions is unknown, but the flute player is often mentioned. The flute was called Gi-bu, " the long reed/' and flutes were used in the services of the temples. Metal Working. The invention of the arts of utility is attributed to the hero Tubal-Cain. In our A.V. we HAHPEB AND CHOIH, B.C. 3000. METAL WOEKING. 97 read, " an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron " (Gen. 4. 22), but which may be more clearly read " a forger of every instrument in copper and iron."* The work- ing of the metals naturally implies the use of fire, and of the knowledge of the art of kindling fire. We therefore find in most ancient religous systems that the working of the metals is associated with the fire god. The explorations of M. de Sarzec at Tello on the Shat- el Hie, in Southern Babylonia, brought to light the ruins of a very ancient city. This city Sirpurra, " the bright light or flame," as its name indicates, was dedicated to the god Ningirsu. Most of the inscriptions are those of a monarch named Gudea (Prophet), whose reign was about B.C. 2800j but there are many monuments of a far greater antiquity, reaching back to about B.C. 4000. The most archaic of these have inscriptions in a curious linear cha- racter, almost pictorial, which preceded the elaboration of the cuneiform writing. All the monuments contain dedi- cations to " Ningirsu, the warrior of Ellila " ("the lord of the ghost land "). This god was the fire god of Babylonia, and his worship was closely associated with the working of the metals. The inscriptions and monuments from Tello enable us to ascertain the nature and character of this god. The name Ningirsu means simply " the piercer of the flesh," or mass ; one form of his worship was of a character prevalent in all Oriental religious, but which cannot be discussed here. The city is sacred to the fire-god, and from the inscrip- tions we learn that its temple was called " the house of the fire-brand," or " fire wood." In many of the inscriptions * See Variorum Bible. M 98 THE FIEE STICK. from Tello the god Ningirsu is associated with " the lord of the wood of life." Taking all these points together, there is no difficulty in identifying, as I did many years ago, Ningirsu with " the fire god," and the " god of the fire stick." He was, in fact, the Prometheus of Chaldea, and therefore Sirpurra, becomes the Pyropolis, or Fire City, of Chaldea. I would here make a suggestion it is but a suggestion that Ningirsu was the upper or revolv- ing fire stick ; the piercer of the flesh, or robber ; the Arani of the Vedas, who draws the hidden fire from the Gis-zida, or " wood of life," the lower stick in which the fire was hidden. A fire drill complete was found by Prof. Flinders Petrie at Kahun, in the Fayoum, in Egypt. The figures in the illustration afford ample proof of this. The attitude of the god holding in his hand the cone is exactly that assumed by a person using the fire stick. Beside this, is a figure of the fire god found at Khorsabad, the palace of Sargon II. (B.C. 722). The association of the fire god with the City of Grudea is thus of great importance from an archrelogical point of view. To explain this, I will quote a hymn to the fire god from a tablet in the British Museum : The fire god, the prince who is mighty in the land ; The warrior, the son of the deep, who is high in the land. Oh, Fire God ! by thy pure fire In the house of darkness thou makest light. Thou determinest the destiny of all that is called by name Of bronze and lead ; thou art the mingler. Of silver and gold thou art the purifier ; Thou art he that turnest away the breast of the evil man at night. This hymn, it will be seen, associates the fire god with the working of metals, and it is therefore not surprising to BRONZE FIGURES, B.C. 2800. (Photographed from the original.) FIRE-GOD, B.C. 722. EARLY BEONZE CASTING. 99 find some fine specimens of metal work in the excavations at Tello. These examples show the skill which the Baby- lonians had attained to at so early an age. The knowledge of bronze casting must have been acquired very early, as we find it referred to in the hymns, where the man purified of sin is said to shine like " bronze poured out of the crucible." The work of the age of Grudea shows considerable advance on primitive work, for it is chased, and has been inlayed with gold in the decorations of the dress, as shown by two statues of Ningirsu in the British Museum. Some little figures were found which belong to an age very much more remote, and were discovered in the lowest strata of the ruins with monuments of so archaic a character as to necessitate them being placed at a period as far back as at least B.C. 4000. With these discoveries I shall deal later on. This early metal working is most interesting, as it throws so much light upon the Hebrew record of early civilisation contained in Gen. 4, where the working of bronze and iron is attributed to Tubal Cain (ib. 4. 22). Iron is not mentioned in these inscriptions. There is, however, a very valuable passage relating to the metals in an inscription upon a large statue; the king, speaking of his statue, says, " Neither in silver or in copper or in tin or in bronze let anyone undertake the execution." The separate mention of tin and copper followed by bronze indicates a knowledge of making an amalgam of these metals. Gold is only mentioned as gold dust. Much uncertainty exists with regard to the original working of iron, as, owing to its rapid oxidisation, deposits of iron tools become soon destroyed. Dr. Flinders Petrie* * "Ten Years' Digging," p. 152. 103 WORKERS IN IRON IN PALESTINE. places it as late as B.C. 800. Iron may have been known as a curiosity, just as one example of bronze occurs two thou- sand years before it came into actual use ; but it had no effect on the arts. A discovery made by Mr. "VV. Blies in the excavations at Tel Hesy, the site of the ancient Amorite fortress of Lacish, in Southern Palestine, carries it back later. He discovered the remains of a large smelting furnace, with a considerable deposit of slag at the bottom. The slag has been analysed by Dr. Adams, Professor of Chemistry at Beyrout, and pronounced to be iron and silicon, with no trace of copper. This furnace was on a layer, which, from other objects around, cannot be assigned to a later date than B.C. 1400. Upon the scarcity of iron, not necessarily indicating a want of knowledge of this metal and the modes of obtaining it, I may quote the words of Prof. Remsen, of Baltimore, who says, " The suggestion has been made that it is less difficult to extract iron from its ores than to make bronze; possibly iron was used as early as bronze, but owing to the fact that iron easily rusts, imple- ments of this metal have disappeared, while those of bronze remain." It is, therefore, within all the bounds of possibility that the Hebrew writer is correct in assigning an early age to iron working. Thus, then, it will be seen that not only in every step, but in almost every detail of those individual steps, the growth of culture in Babylonia corresponds with the out- line given in this remarkable chapter in Genesis. Cain and Abel A curious echo of the Legend of Civilisation is found in one of the tablet books of the Epic of Chaldea, the Story of Gilgames, or Nimrod, and it presents a strange resemblance to the Hebrew story 8 TOBIES OF THE SHEPHERD AND GARDENER. 101 in the arrangement of the episodes. In the sixth tablet of the series, Istar, the goddess, has fallen in love with Gilgarnes, or Nimrod, the king of the city of Unug (Enoch), or Erech. The tablet begins with a proposal of marriage from the goddess, For the favour of Gilgames Istar, the princess, lifted her eyes. Look, Gilgames, and be thou my bridegroom ; Be thou my husband, and I will be thy wife, etc. After a long address, the hero taunts her with the harm she has done her former lovers. " Never," he says, " may I be thy bridegroom for ever, never may any god make thee happy. Gro, I will tell thee the story of thy enslavements." Among the lovers are two whose stories afford a curious resemblance to those of Cain and Abel, and are probably old-folk legends of the myth of civilisation. " Thou didst love the shepherd Tabulu, who continually poured out for thee the smoke of sacrifices. Every day he was slaughtering victims for thee; thou didst drive him forth, and into a jackal didst change him. His own sheep cote drove him away, and his own dogs tore his flesh." In this story, so closely resembling the myth of Actseon, we have the shepherd sacrificing to the mother goddess. In the next story : " Moreover, thou didst love Isullanu, the gardener of thy father (Ann), who was for ever raising for thee costly trees. Every day he made bright thy plate. Thou didst take from him his sight, and didst mock him." The names are interesting, Tabulu being a derivation from the same root as Abel, while Isullanu is explained by " he who makes living things green." Having thus established the existence in Babylonia of legends of civilisation closely similar, it may not be out 102 LANGUAGE AND RACE. of place to examine some of the features of this primitive culture. Akkadian Civilisation. The discoveries of recent years have given an immense retrospective enlargement to our knowledge of Oriental history, and especially that of Chaldea. Inscriptions have been deciphered so archaic in character as to seem almost mere scratchings, and revealed languages most primitive in construction, but still the products of centuries of thought and labour. Artistic remains have been discovered in the ruins of Chaldean cities dating back thirty and forty centuries before the Christian Era, which show that there, as in Egypt, the beginnings of art are lost in the remote past. To begin with the linguistic affinities. The language of the cuneiform inscriptions on the statues and bricks from these cities is an agglutinative one, allied to the language of the early Elamite population and the proto-Median dialect of the people of Ansan, its modern affinities being found in the Ugro Finnic and Tartar dialect ; while, as Drs. Terrien de Lacouperie and Ball have shown, there is a distinct linguistic relationship between these primitive tongues and the language of Early China that introduced by the Bak tribes, the so-called Hundred Families. Linguistically their position is not difficult to define as belonging to 'the Tura- nian family and the Tartar branch of that group, with a close affinity to the languages of Central Asia a district through which they passed at an early period. Racial Types. We will now examine such racial types as the monuments afford, and endeavour to see to what extent they agree with the evidence of language. SOCIAL LIFE. 103 The type of the first face in the illustration would be at once assigned to the Turanian branch, and resembles exactly the features of the Elamites of the monuments and the Tartars of Central Asia. Above all we have the turban, a most characteristic feature. The second head is more difficult to class, owing to its being shaved. It is manifestly that of a gallii or priest, and should, I think, be classed also as belonging to the same family; it is certainly not Semitic. In the older monuments, such as the Stele of the Vultures, we get as far as the archaic work will admit an identification, a Turanian and very Chinese or Mongol type, with even faint traces of the pig tail. There is, therefore, an undoubted agreement between the ethnographical and linguistic evidence in classing this primitive population of Chaldea as belonging to the Tartar and Mongol branch of the great Turanian family. Social Life. The social details of the life of the com- munity as described in the inscriptions indicate a primi- tive organisation to which the monuments have not before afforded us access. The Babylonian and Assyrian religious texts had made us familiar with the fact that the creed of Turanian primitive Chaldea was a religio-magic similar to that of the Shamans of Tartary, but no historical or contemporary evidence of the actual existence of such a creed was forthcoming. The inscriptions of Tello show, however, that this weird religion still held its position in the days of Gudea; although the spirits had become gods, and the temple replaced the tent of the medicine man. When Gudea ascended the throne he says, "Then the city he made pure; he cleansed it, when he laid the foundation of the temple and deposited the 104 FOUNDATION CEREMONIES. record. The callers of demons, the seers of spirits, the charmers, the wives of muttering (witches), from the city he drove out ; who ever went not willingly by the soldiers was expelled." This shows us clearly the primitive age we have to deal with. The solemn act of the king must be interfered with by no muttered charm or magician's spell ; no evil eye must be cast upon the work. The king then describes the great period of peace which he had chosen for the work of building the temple. No malevo- lent influences existed, no death had taken place, " no female mourner had caused her lamentation to be heard," the plaintiff to place of the oath had not gone, " no robber to the house of a man had entered." It was a time of peace, " a fortunate day at the commencement of the year." A calendar which I published some years ago showed how this superstition as to lucky and unlucky days affected every detail of primitive Babylonian life, and no doubt Gudea had examined every sign and omen before undertaking his pious work. We have now the record of a most curious custom, a species of public holiday. " Penalties I have remitted, gifts I have given." For seven days service was not exacted. The female slave has been made the equal of her mistress, the male slave the equal of his master. The chief to his vassal has been made the equal. This curious week of communal life is of great interest, as it must be the survival of a very primitive age indeed. It is, however, manifestly the same as the festival of the Sakoea mentioned by Berosos, "when for five days the masters should obey their ser- vants." It is to be noted here that the female slave is mentioned along with her mistress, and before the male slave and his master. THE POSITION OF WOMEN. 105 Position of Women. One of the most interesting and characteristic features of this civilisation was the high position of women. The mother here is always repre- sented by a sign which means " the goddess of the house." Any sin against the mother, any repudiation of the mother, was punished by banishment from the community. These facts are evidently indicative of a people who had at one time had the law of matriarcal descent. In the hymns we find in the Sumirian ver- sion " female and male " the order ; while in the Semitic texts it is "male and female." Another example of this equality of women of a most interesting character is afforded by this passage. Speaking of the offerings to his statue the king says, " The house were there is no son the daughter with new (?) offerings has entered ; before the face of the statue she has placed them." This freedom once accorded to women in the primitive times was never withdrawn entirely, and thus in the later Babylonian times we find women exercising almost equal rights with the men. This high position of woman in the community is another very distinct mark of the Turanian character of this early people, and has been noticed as still surviving among the tribes of Central Asia by Professor Vambery.* Peaceful Character. The whole characteristic of this early community is one of peace and plodding self im- provements, with 110 aggressive elements. Only one war is recorded, and that is against the national foe, the land of Ansan, afterwards the Elamite kingdom. From * It may be this high estimate of women that led to the mention of Adah, Zillah, and Naamah in the Hebrew beginning of civilisation. N 106 SACRED STATUES. the earliest times, earlier even than the days of Gudea, the Elamite was the born foe of the people of Chaldea, and between them there was a never-ceasing border feud. How truly an hereditary antipathy this was may be seen when the old Nature war becomes the national epic. Khumbaba, the old storm-god, the everlasting enemy of the solar hero, is transformed into Khumbaba the Elamite. The one war of Gudea is described as " By arms the city of Ansan in the land of Elam he has conquered ; its spoils to the god Ningirsu he has consecrated." Sacred Statues. The statues of Gudea had a curious religious position. They were placed in the temple as everlasting representations of the king always to be before the god and remembered by him. Certain offerings were instituted " of food, beer, oil and meal," and under a severe penalty these were not to be revoked. On one of the statues we read, " Gudea unto the statue has given a command, to the statue of my king speak thou." The figure was really an embodiment of the king in the temple for ever; it was, like the Egyptian Ka statue, inhabited by the spirit of the king, and fed by the Ka offerings made to it. The statue was a most sacred object, to be protected by all the laws of ancestor worship, for thus the king speaks regarding it: "Who ever shall transgress my judgments, revoke my gifts, or in the recitation of my prayers shall suppress my name and insert his own " then shall he be cursed with a bitter curse : Like an ox shall he be slain in the midst of his prosperity ! Like a wild bull shall he be felled in the fullness of his strength ! As for his throne, may those even whom he has bound captive overthrow it in the dust. STATUE OF GUDEA, B.C. 2800. GENERAL FEATURES. 107 His name in the temple of his god may they erase from the tablets. May his god upon the ruin of his country not look ! May he ravage it with the rains from heaven ! May he ravage it with waters of the earth ! May he become a man without a name ! May his princely race be reduced to slavery. May this man as every man who acted evilly to his chief from under the vault of heaven, in no city find a resting place. Such was the great excommunication pronounced against any who injured the royal statue. It is interesting to find this curse already formulated as early as 2800 B.C., for in it is the same as the curse which appears on all the Kudurri or boundary stones until quite later for in Chaldee cursed indeed was he who removed his neigh- bour's land-mark. I have now described the principal features of the art and civilisation of the age of Gudea; its high stan- dard is beyond doubt, and far distant as it is, nearly forty -eight centuries ago, its progress indicates long centuries of previous development. Generations of toil- ing, plodding human beings, each adding its quota to build up this stage of the great learning and wisdom of Chaldea. The civilisation of Ancient Chaldea presents many very remarkable characteristics. Its chief feature, however, is its evident self-development. The ancient Akkadeans were a contented home-dwelling people, with little desire to exhibit an aggressive policy either in trade or war, and consequently we find the basis of many of the laws of social life laid down by them. Among these simple laws we notice those of the family especially, which, even in the days of the powerful Semitic dynasties, were 108 CHALDEAN CIVILISATION. never eradicated. One of the most beautiful features of these early laws is the high position accorded to women. The control of the family by the mother, who is called the goddess of the house, the power of women to hold property, to make their own wills, and to act as parties to, or witnesses of contracts, were never lost. So also the laws of master and servant, the relations of landlord and tenant were set forth on a simple primitive basis which was a lasting one, and which formed the rule upon which many surrounding lands based their laws. In fact, we can see in this remarkable civilisation, the result of plodding and practical experience, many of the simple laws which constitute to this day the ground- work of Sociology. ( 109 ) CHAPTEE V. THE DELUGE. THERE are preserved among Oriental traditions of the great Deluge, three which stand out as pre-eminently ancient : The Hebrew records in Genesis (chaps. 6 9) ; the versions of the Chaldean tradition, preserved in the writ- ings of the Greco-Chaldean historian Berosos ; and to these we may now add the more ancient version of the original Chaldean inscription from which Berosos at least derived his account. The story of the discovery of the Chaldean in- scriptions which took place about twenty years ago, by the late Mr. George Smith is well known, but it requires recapitulation, in order that at the outset of the study the position that this legend holds in the mass of Chaldean literature may be clearly understood. The very direct references in the Scriptures (Gen. 10. 8-10; Mic. 5. 6) to Nimrod as the great hero of Chaldea, as well as the numerous legends of Hebrew, Arab, and Greek writers, always led the decipherers to hope that some day there would be revealed, from beneath the dust of centuries, the legends which the Chaldeans themselves had of this Eponym of their nation. In 1872 Mr. Smith found a num- ber of a series of tablets which related to a hero, who was " a mighty-one on Earth," bearing the title of " the Warrior, perfect in strength," who distinguished himself in war and in the hunting field. 110 THE STORY'S PLACE IN THE EPIC. It was evident from the descriptions of this hero's great deeds that he was the same person as that powerful giant god so often represented in the Assyrian sculptures at Khorsabad and on the engraved Cylinder Seals. Other fragments of these tablets having been obtained from the East, it was found that the series of tablets when complete consisted of twelve tablet-books, each one corresponding to one of the twelve deeds or labours of this Chaldean Hercules. The hero of this cycle of poems is called Gilgames, a name which is of non- Semitic probably Akkadian origin, and means the " mass of fire " ; and the series of tablet-books are known by the name of Zikar Gilgames, " the story of Gilgames." The epithets applied to him are nearly all solar, as in a hymn addressed to the solar hero he is called " Gil- games, the King perfect in Strength, the Judge of the Spirits, the Exalted Prince, the Chief of Mankind, the Watchman of the Four Quarters, the Glory of the Earth, the Lord of the Underworld." All these epithets are applied to the Sun god in other hymns, so that, guided by these facts, and by the character of the legends preserved, Sir Henry Eawlinson was able to point out the solar character of the Epic of Chaldea. We find that the Eleventh Tablet, which, according to this arrangement, should correspond to the " month of the curse of rain," and to the sign of Aquarius, has woven into its columns the story of the Deluge.* It is therefore clear that the tale of the preservation of the Chaldean Sage whose name in the tablet is Samas -Napisti, " the Sun of Life," or "the Living Sun," the Xisuthrus of Berosos, the * There are indications of several legends older than the Epic being woven iu when it *as given literary form. o fi PRESERVATION OF CHALDEAN NOAH. Ill Noah of the Hebrew record is here boldly interpolated into the Epic as an episode, to keep it in harmony with the Zodiacal arrangement. This is shown by the fact that at line 8, in column i., it is ruled off from the rest of the story. We have been able to recover by the decipher- ment of this series of legends the originals of many of the traditions of Nimrod, and also a far older legend embodied in the Epic, the story of the Deluge. The preceding tablet, the tenth, specifies that the hero, sick and afflicted, covered with leprosy and deprived of his hair, wherein, like the Hebrew Samson, lay his strength, is journeying to learn the secret of immortality. This secret " the hidden thing of the gods " as it is here called can only be revealed by the ancient Sage Samas- Napisti, who has been translated by the gods to dwell as one of themselves in immortality on an island near the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. To this remote island he is guided by the Chaldean Charon, a mythic personage named Nis-Ea, "the man of Ea," that is, the servant of the Water god of whom I have already spoken in the chapter on the Creation Tablets who pilots him across the river and waters of Death to this land where the translated sage lives. Having reached the place, the hero speaks to the Chaldean Noah, and lays before him the object of his visit. " Gil- games to him, even Samas-Napisti the remote, spake : I am burdened with a decree. The cure thou repeatest not to me, even thou the rest of thy heart from making tribula- tion .... to thee I am come up. What hast thou laid hold of, (that) in the assembly of the gods thou art placed?" The translated sage then proceeds " to relate the story of his preservation " ; the next 173 lines are occupied with an account of the Deluge and the translation of Samas- 112 NAMES OF THE SAGE. Napisti. There are many indications that this story is much older than the complete Epic of Gilgames ; and even in the tablets the commencement of the story is carefully lined off from the rest of the inscription. Before passing to the comparative analysis of this inscrip- tion, it may be well to refer to one or two facts bearing on this historical character which the Chaldeans have at- tached to the Deluge. One of the strongest pieces of evidence is to be found in the Tablet of Eoyal Names (W. A. I., vol. v., pi. 47), where the important gloss ap- pears : " These are kings ruling after the Deluge (Abubi), who according to their relative order wrote not." In like manner the story of the preservation of Sargon, of Agadhe or Akkad, in an ark of bulrushes on the Euphrates, and his elevation to the throne, may be a transference of the Deluge tradition to this hero of the Semites, whose remote antiquity (3750 B.C.) might cause him to become tinged with a mythic glamour. The Deluge formed the rubicon between the mythic period and the heroic and polyarchal age, separating the reigns of local kings from the far distant age of the ten antediluvian Patriarchs. The genealogy of the hero of the Deluge is given in the tablet (col. i. 20) : " Oh, Man of the City of Surippak, Son of Ubarratuti." This latter is the Obartes or Ortiartes of Berosos, who was king of Larancha, according to the Greek text, but which M. Lenorrnant has shown was a corruption of Surippak ("La Langue Primitive," p. 342). The name Xisuthrus, which Berosos gives to the Chaldean Noah, may be a corruption of the epithets Adra Khasis, " reverent and holy," applied to the hero in col. i. 45, and in col. iv. 22 ; but it is hardly possible the more likely A BILINGUAL TABLET. H3 solution being that it is a Hellenicised form of Zi-Susru, " the Spirit of the Founder," and perhaps such an etymology may explain the translation of Xisuthrus, recorded by Berosos : " They remaining within (the ark), finding their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, calling continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and hear him admonish them to pay due regard to reli- gion." The City of Surippak, of which Samas-Napisti or Xisuthrus was king, is called " the Ship City " (W. A. I., ii. 46, 1), and the Lord of the city was the god Ea the god of rivers, seas, and ships who takes so prominent a part in this legend in protecting the sage. He is here called " the Lord of Ships Ea, the Lord of Surippak " (W. A. I., ii. 60, 21). The name of the father of Samas- Napisti, Ubarra-Tutu, is explained in the syllabaries and bilingual tablets as Ubarra= Kidinu " Servant " (W. A. I., ii. pi. 3, No. 254) ; and the god Tutu is given in the bi- lingual list of Royal Names as the synonym of Marduk or Merodach (W. A. I., v. 42, 18). In a bilingual tablet (K. 2107), the god Tutu is called Muallad Hi Muddis Hi " the generator and restorer of the gods " in which character he may be identified with Merodach as the god of the dawn and twilight. In this relationship Samas-Napisti, " the Living Sun," would be the child of the " Servant of the Dawns," as this name means rising each day at his message, and setting each day by his decree. 114 TRANSLATION OF TABLET. l|iii|iyi ^ ? S.tS'S "-S 2^2^.. g I " E fc | I W 3 H bo & I .g - ^ CO TQ O (5 a S2 33 X x^ .S -2~ -g g a ^,S.2 tf*1 a^ " ^ g^s ga ^ P -g b>* S O & S - a r^lsigl {"Si s.ajf ^ H H "y ** - ~ *- o a 3 a*3 *S i I ^Illllllf^ " ^ S . S _5 o 2 ^*-< * o> w^ o ^* 3 .ScOWoo O""^ g Q 1! t JB j>l> ^^ " _1 ^M BUILDING OF THE ARK. H5 2 W ent- em. the l ~ l c b.S -2 " "" -a 3 rep e t ace in ade - S - i M * * S3 ^ rf .Js-3 g"! 2=2^ H-gS SgjI'S TC * ^-S SL =2 bn as "3 ^ S o t3 o -g co.S g 1 ^ ^ ^3 ^ s <- K> O od O M| 4 S " -^ a 2 ^ -S.sl I "^ I i ^ &^ ^ &S ^ rt ja w2^ "" o {-, .-a 6 *s * 1" ftS O) ^ -a -3 qj ID l fe J WARNING OF THE DELUGE. ' nd t cubi pwa ; and halt thou of ; with lo stories shal O) s a I ed a o ge-s 3 E -s J 2 2 QQ **- p^ S'S J3 gh at th who has ished, er me po l oi n lo u o If they lau Every one Shall be p Gods is I will judge my jud and below Close not the Ship Until the season, wh word (saying) " Enter the Ship and DELUGE TAULET, No. 2. A number of pieces making oblong tablet. (Photographed from the original.) TRYING THE ARK. 117 -S3 <*' g a o 1 o*-*^ ) ^S^^ < ^H p * 3 **" 8 "^ 'S -S ' 5 o S > 55* J " w *fe^.a> .Si? | a 3 ?^ t o n 3+^t*ia>' tJ e' a 'H 'S B ^ tJ 'S j< * ' * a o g 5 4 1 ; |lfli|li o c "J '? H 2 c *2 P c^ ^ o3 ** * ^ *5 rC 1=J rC-C S " 13 ' " .5 -.S'c o J-l ^ S ts 9 T3S*I ^g>*3*^; '&'& o r. * S *** _C QC w U ^^ TO S ^c3 +2 Q *^ o '^S r .n *" rt ( O I^H ^ o u S 'S W * ea ."S 1 c ^H P ^f-t^ ST^' 3 o> -C 09 ^ > '3^2^2 g^^S 3 S SJ^ ,f-] *7^ IT-I B O H 03 QT3 fe *-* -iJ ^ a ^ tei 1 if W j I O " I i "- 1 cfl 1 a li Fi * J -Sal c oj,a *S S *3 ^^ .* TS 4) J2 -"^ '&) CO S cd ? >>^ ^ ,2 Is .50 3 J IP Chaldean Deluge Tablet COT e The cattle of the field and the an the field as many as I would pres I will send to thee (then) make firm The Reverent and Holy One op mouth and spake to Ea, his Lord No one has made such a Ship on the ground (to hold all 1 [The form of] the Ship let me see Proving the Ark. And on the ground I will make t which thou commandest COLUMN II. On the fifth day two sides were rais In its enclosure (hull) fourteen ribs Also fourteen they numbered above I placed its roof and enclosed it Sixthly I made it firm, seventhly I its passages Pitching the Ark. Eighthly its interior I examined Openings to the Waters I stopped .5 CO it" 5 C b- OO O5 -i -- *~ -- ^ 00 1-,-f * * * * f * STORING THE ARK. COMMENCEMENT OF THE DELUGE. 119 ^ ^i " *^ ^rT^(^> ^fete*"'*'*^^ H ' * ^ S M M^ 5 "^ 1 1 ||| ||l^l|||| | "] aj'S " >? a lilril = t> 1 ^ 33 S ^ e |c2g'ST3'or5'^ ^ll^-il aSisJ r I c ?s -^ - P * -5 43 '& 1 I*'! 5* > 9 o *c c S ^ i4*343HaP", "^2 J * &C24? **< <~ s ^5 -^ 73 St , n is.i's^i^gia . ll'il*! 1 *^ ^'C o CSK o I3.S.S cats g' : ^'^ > OJ . S3 S l!??ril ^ - -o > g ,, ^i^l t-< ce o fl * *G O cS cS ^5 O 4 - s" e 2 2 ** '5 +^ 3> ^ rS r ^ LJ ' ~" *& a ^ *2 ^ ^^^ O "** W T-< r^, O - -r -^3 CM a ^ ** ^ if 2" | S, e ,. -0 M WJ 3 * i ^ s *^ ^ ff 2 * 00 C OS 1 1 83 ^ O (U &5 a .8 2 ^ pH Q g n3 ^ -5 1 -.2 J | u ^S 6C cs * - pj -gl B <3 2-^s >> ^ *l ^^ -s s^^ Chaldean Del ^q s 5)1-1 11 l !-- |-. K j "2 & . .a"d ^3 03 ij *j fj p^ aj gj. I', |S| i ?i i-|i it* Il-jl4ll H 3 i CW S ao a O i i 1 N-Stltal g &^ s-S 2 >^5 a ^ c^^ *.*.! . - ^> fe * ** Oi r ~ < ^ . M "^ . \ t ii^L * I e 8^ -*^O^ r ^-4J^ r ^'^SJ^fl fe tJD fe 5 "t^ ^ ^H 5 \ O *^ .J3 ^.r.. T " 4 Jl^J 7 !^^ l-l 2 _ - ^''3" k3 'OtHCtj-i^irt^^a^io jj cS3op * ^ p 1 J ^ .9 1 -w Ms a j - 1 * "> -5 i i >' 5 i " ill 1 I "A SS 8 J _j > c -S _c -a -5 a IS o jg x^.S *1 i 4 .. w'o'S Z* !a "* , ||l| *4h?3f 1 !V"i- J ll 'S *** Iff 1. JPtlll^! 'S 1*1 o l S-*i > ^ fes*S8 . C-^iS^tHaiaaJSm 1 o 1 c 03 I 1 22!;i|i.:is 1 ifP!s=?j3 W < oj r* 3 .,_,c! *> 3S 3 tfija ^ -g _, x ' * (cis.s-e^ 8 "8 a < >> - .t! pq o g ^ -i "^5 03 03 .> |^5 ^^5 o, ^"S 5 fs Js -a C 1 ^ T-| 5^ o -* ^^ - 2 - S3 tg ^-SSpbO . *SH 11 11 2 M-E^'- 3 ILl&Ij *?S-i g ^ J^ J - S J /star as the Divine Mother. in cried Istar like a Mother d the great Goddess does utter her speech things to clay are turned i the evil which I proclaimed in the iresence of the Gods I announced in the presence of the Gods, ) that evil I announced to evil are devoted all my eople r-! t-] ttl ^ 1^ fa CQ ^ (3 ^^ P^ O M C H t. - / H H H W C^ -- *" "3 OB* c .-xSJ::H-d r j=: cc ^ m ^ 0) C *^ _ri .s c -is 0) m * O S> '-3 ?: s :G -2'T3 r '- a "'ia;t_ ? 8^ z . R 60 fl S'+sc^ 4 ^-M "^ r ^ r ^ M jj . fn c T3 , 1 ( j -5 O -r-3 ^$ P 1J cS'S fl "'5'5 cs o a g r p ,g 1! | g aj ^"-d" ^*ff . _rt 5 u b w ^ *5 Chaldean Deluge *-sli s f J3 s |J |^j|!jj!|| 8 : | i = g ^ 1 f fi l^lllll ** H " CO t>^ 4) 1! lJl^lt-5 ^ ^ s ? * Ooo'S N .- ls ' ^ * a * J S 3 s bs .S^Tjccl^-^"^ rg ^'a'o^ * is | J o *" qj d O CO CO CO CO 124 BENDING FORTH THE DOVE. 1 o o o I ' S g s 1 nq 1 Hebrew Nan i i S ? 'd ^ 1 * -s^S-sl 5 a > g 5

>T3 cS c2 S P g-e >b ^fe *" _g tg^ 5 -'" ss S a $ o 1 USS-g 3t for the sole of her foot, * J o-ac-"i55>-es o3 '5St!aJ jiiJi3 S o- c^r p g^J3g r J3,gc-"^ts Ijjl3utiii H=p.Cfiiiij itfiijiHiii'i abated from off the earth, he stayed yet other seven ; and sent forth the dove ; ihe returned not again to 2 B N 5 ^ ^^ S 1 a S s o.'tf'gS ?. g ^ *i ^ m 2 2 d j 3.fl f 3as^3 > i3S3sa.a'33 i 3Scss* ce ^ 'S g M a Q J ^j 1 - ^ ^ 'o H g I -r - S 2 "S s _C *8 > ^ ^y 1-4 S -g >> tp P 1 eS a, 8 ig *" -^ 3 5^ S ^ 2 SD r cj ^ tj ^ ^^ *^* ^^ BQ -^ *r j^ ** S 2 rj ^1 fj 00 p w ^H O HH > a ' g< - ^ _2 to i s -M o ,2 j ; H 03 fi C3 i a W r: . - 13 C 1 W a '"S g ^ tc S j ^ * H' -d s j . on S3 +3 ^5 tf -^ E ja < k *"^ ^ fe "!5 S 'o3 o> L i c . cS S _n a W " - .5 i, *3 " . -, d , ^ "c .1 i | '3 efl e t2 " 1 ^ _- p "5 O c cS ""o 'i W *^ & s ** * a - S ^ .5 g HI I0C bed Chaldean Deluge Tablet con. Council of the Gods. 1 . Let none come forth alive. Let no man escape the deep Adar opened his mouth and spake, he says to the Warrior Bel Whosoever except Ea can make a design Even Ea knows and all things he teaches Ea opened his mouth and spake, he says to the Warrior Bel The Deluge a Punishment for Sin. 14 Oh ! thou Counsellor of the Gods, Why, why didst thou reflect and didst make a Deluge ~ ~ "j. J. 1= c '7: 1 -C transgressor bear his transgression May the Just Prince not be cut off, may the faithful not perish A*o more Deluge. Instead of making a deluge, may Lions in- crease and Men be decreased Instead of making a deluge, may Jackals increase and Men be decreased Instead of making a deluge, may Famine happen and Men be wasted .Eoo 05 O --I IN T CO -- 00 CS N THE EVERLASTING- COVENANT. 129 o a g aJ t co S H W * o> P S o> I y Pesti of the G e a dre g he he Counsel hip up placed S ge, ase n thi se ng On hin his the me and d hid d king a d Me ec t dd nt d hi flect on midst of and raise rise up h t a th re he nd to e f maki and reveal t Reveren t him an Bel had up into t my Ha d me my si e n ook caus b 1 |^l i g* sa 2 - 'S o 1 - 1 ^ ^ fe c ^ MH ? &r C is Q 130 TRADITION OF SESOSOS. This important inscription bears a close relationship to the tradition preserved by the Greco-Chaldean historian Berosos, which has been handed down to us in the writ- ings of Josephus (Cont. Apion. i. 19). The discovery of this valuable record is most important, because it not only confirms the Greek version, but also establishes a closer harmony between the Hebrew and classical tradition, upon which the Hebrew historian Josephus relied. The tradition of Berosos is as follows : " In this year the god Bel revealed to Xisuthrus, in a dream, that in the fifteenth year, in the month Daesius, there would be a great storm of rain, and men would be destroyed by the flood of waters. He bade him bury all written records, the ancient, mediaeval, and modern, in Sippara, the city of the Sun, and build a ship and embark in it with his kindred and nearest friends. He was also to take food and drink into the ship, and carry into it all creatures, winged and four- footed. Xisuthrus did as he was bidden, and built a boat fifteen stadia long and two stadia in breadth, and placed in it his wife and child, relations, and friends. Then the inundation came. When the rain ceased Xisu- thrus sent out some birds, but they returned back to the ship, as they could find nothing to eat and no place of rest. After a few days he sent out other birds. These also returned with mud on their feet. Then Xisuthrus sent yet others, and they never returned. Xisuthrus knew that the earth had appeared. He took out a part of the roof of his boat, and perceived that it had settled down on a mountain. Then he went out with his wife and daughter and the architect of the boat. He worshipped the earth and built an altar, offered sacrifice to the gods, and then disappeared, together with those whom he had brought out of the boat. COMPARISON WITH BIBLICAL NAEEATH^E. 131 When his companions whom he had left in the boat had gone out, and were in search of Xisuthrus, his voice called to them out of the air, saying that the gods had carried him away in regard for his piety that he, with his daughter and architect, were dwelling among the gods." It is at once evident that there are many and striking resemblances between the Babylonian, the Greco-Babylo- nian, and the Hebrew records of this great cataclysm. Both the tradition and the tablet agree in attributing the Deluge to the god Bel. With regard to the Hebrew accounts it is clear that that of the Jehovistic writer presents a closer resemblance to the Assyrian version. This is espe- cially to be noticed in the frequent use of the period of seven days (Gen. 7. 4.), in the downpour of rain (7. 12 ; 8.2), the closing of the door of the ark (ib. 7. 16), the birds sent forth thrice (ib. 8. 8-12), the sacrifice after the ceasing of the flood and the pleasure of God at its sweet savour (ib. 8. 20) ; all constitute a close agreement, whereas the Elohistic version, with the exception of general features, there is hardly any other detailed agreement, with the exception of the passages relating to the building of the ark (ib. 6. 1416). There are many points of resemblance which amount to most striking coincidences, as the use of the expression Zir napisti buladh, "preserve the seed of life" (i. 21), which reminds us at once of the Hebrew, " to preserve seed " (ib. 7. 3) ; and also all three accounts agree in the inclusion of " relatives " among the rescued (ib. 6. 1 8 ; 7. 7) ; in the inscription (col. ii. 29) Kala Kimti ya u nisati ya, " all my family and relatives." It has been asserted by several writers that the most important difference between the Babylonian and Hebrew records consists in the polytheistic elements in the former. 132 THE DELUGE A PUNISHMENT FOB SIN. This, in the main, is perfectly correct j but when we care- fully examine the documents, I maintain that the polytheistic element is not so real as it appears at first sight. Although the decision to destroy life by a deluge is arrived at by a council of the gods (col. i. 13), and in this the leading part seems to have been that of the god Bel (col. iv. 4), yet the position of the god Ea in the story has so re- markable a resemblance to that of Jehovah in the Hebrew, as to lead us to institute a much closer comparison than at first seemed possible.* It is Ea who announces the coming of the deluge (col. i. 17), directs the building of the ark (col. i. 24-27), an- nounces the period of entry and closing of the door (col. i. 39, 40 ; ii. 34), intercedes for man with the offended Bel (col. iv. 12-20), and finally the Chaldean sage is translated, like Enoch, to dwell in the specially sacred region of Ea, at the mouth of the rivers (col. iv. 29). Thus it will be seen how closely the position of Ea resembles -that of Jehovah. He was the lord of the city of Surippak, " the ark city," and Samas-Napisti always addresses him as " Ea, my lord." So that, although there is a polytheistic ele- ment, there is at the same time a curious unity in the relationship of Ea to the cataclysm. In the same manner there seems to be a direct inference that the Deluge was a punishment for sin decreed by the gods. In the first portion we read, " Every one who has turned from me shall be punished, for the protection of the gods is over me ;" and this is more emphatically brought out in the subsequent phrase (col. iv. 13, 14). This phrase is so remarkable that it needs a further comment atta malik Hani kitradu ki, ki, la tamtalikma abbub taskitn " And * Schrader, Cuneiform Insc. and the Old Test., p. 49. THE TBINITY OF DESTRUCTION. 133 thou warrior, counsellor of the gods, why ? why ? didst thou not consider, and didst make a deluge ? " Bel khite emid khita su, bel gillati emid gillat su " Let the doer of sin bear his sin ; let the blasphemer bear his blasphemy." We then have the plea of Ea, that in place of the Deluge there would be substituted the destroying forces of nature: Instead of making a deluge may lions increase and men be decreased ; Instead of making a deluge may jackals increase and meii be decreased ; Instead of making a deluge may famine (KhusaJchu) be estab lished (and men decrease) ; Instead of making a deluge may pestilence (dibbara) be estab- lished and men decrease. In this passage the dreaded trinity of destruction plague, pestilence, and famine is vividly described in similar language to that used in the Scriptures; for ex- ample, " I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence " (Jer. 14. 12 ; 27. 13) ; and again, in the choice of the visitants to diminish the people of Israel after the numbering by David (2 Sam. 24. 15). Both the lion (nesu) and the jackal (akhu) were the emblems of the dread god of death. The jackal, as in the case of the emblem of Anubis in Egypt, was chosen on account of his association with the grave- yard. By the Akkadians it was called LIK BARRA, "the Evil dog"; by the Semites Akhu, "the Evil One"; the Okhim, "doleful creatures" (Isa. 13. 21), of the Bible. Upon a boundary stone of the twelfth century B.C. the jackal is represented as the emblem of Nergal, the god of death ; and in the palace of Khorsabad a small statue, 134 THE SHIP OF EA AND THE ASK. a " teraphim figure," of the god of death, with a jackal's head, was found.* The death-dealing character of the Deluge is well con- veyed in the words put into the mouth of the great goddess Istar: "Then cried Istar like a bearing mother (alidat), uttered the great goddess her speech. All things this day to clay are turned like the spawn of fishes (abli nuni) they fill the sea" (col. iii. 9, 10, 15), and " All mankind to clay had turned, like reeds the corpses floated." So that the utter destruction of all is clearly indicated. The Ark. The ark of the Assyrian account differs very much from that of the Hebrew accounts, being clearly a ship, while the Hebrew !"QJ;1> tebah, is a box or large receptacle, with no resemblance to a ship. The directions given for the construction of the ark are most minute, and it is very unfortunate that the portions relating to the size are lost. In its details the Elohistic version (Gen. 6. 14)f approaches nearer the Chaldean and also the tradition of Berosos, who assigns to the ark the immense size of fifteen stadia in length and two in breadth, while the Hebrew dimensions are three hundred cubits in length, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height (ib. 6. 15).J The description of the ark in the inscription seems to be based upon that * See Boseawen, Dust of Ages, p. 126. t In the detailed descriptions with which the Elohistic writer supplements his descriptions, it is important to notice the resemblance they bear to the Babylonian text. The use of bitumen (6. 14), the attempt to specify the proportions of the ark (6. 15), the rainbow (9. 13). The numbers employed are also curiously Babylonian. The age of Noah, 600 years, is the Babylonian ner, while 40 is the sacred number of the god Ea, and 7 was sacred alike to Babylonians and Hebrews. Upon these numbers see Schrader, Cuneiform Insc. and the Old Test., p. 49. J It will be remembered that the word tebah is used for the bulrush ark of Moses (Exod. 2. 5), and upon this ground Schrader (p. 53) is inclined to connect the word with the Egyptian teb, a box. This seems to me hardly proved. It may be, perhaps, a survival of the basket of rushes, in which Sargon, of Akkad, the great hero king of the Semites, was placed (W. A. I., iii., 4. 7). JACKAL-HKAHKD GOD. (Photographed from the original.) PROVISIONING THE ARK. 135 of the sacred ship of Ea, which is described in one of the hymns of Eridu : THE SHIP OF EA. Its helm is of cedar wood ; Its serpent-like oar has a handle of gold ; Its mast is capped with the turquoise stone ; Seven times seven lions of the desert hold its deck ;* The god Adar fills its cabin within ; Its planks are the cedar of the forest ; Its covering is the palm of Dilmun ;f Carry away its heart is the channel ; Making glad its heart is the sun rise ; Its house, its stair, is a mountain that gives rest to the heart ; The Ship of Ea is the (ship) of Fate ; J Ningal the princess is the goddess whose word is life ; Merodach is the god who utters the holy name. Provisioning the Ark. In this passage considerably more detail is given in the tablet than in the Hebrew account ; but, again, there is a distinct variation between the Jehovist and the Elohist. The former inserts the division of clean and unclean animals. As in the Creation Tablets, a clear distinction is made between the domestic and wild animals. The line reads, bul ?eri umam zeri .... kali sunu useli, "Cattle of the field, wild animals of the field .... all of them I caused to go up" (col. ii. 29). In the account of Berosos the express command is made to take pro- visions ; and in the tablet we read, " Wine and oil, drinks I placed within it like the waters of a river, even as for a feast-day" (col. ii. 17-19). * Compare the lions on the throne of Solomon in Talmudic and Arab legends. t The islands of Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf. J This might well be a name of the ark. In a hymn to Merodach (W. A. I., iv., 29. 1) we read Ivat baladhtt kuvu, " The breath (that gives) life is thine " ; and Sipat baladhu kuvu, " The word (that gives) life is thine." 136 " THE MONTH OF THE CURSE OF RAIN." The Deluge. The description which the tablet gives of the great storm is grand in the extreme. In the first place a definite season is fixed for its commencement " the season (adan) which the Sun-god had fixed" (col. ii. 30). That season (adanna su} drew near : " Went forth the cry in the night, I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily " (samut kibdti). This season was evidently that which has already been described in the chapter on the Creation Tablets as extending from the 1st Kisleu (Nov.-Dec.) to the 30th day of Sebat (Jan.-Feb.), when the sun is in the (kisarfi) course of Ea, the season of storms (urpati). The period embraced the terrible month Iti-asa Segi, " the month of the curse of rain" the Sabatu, or "month of destruction," of the Semitic calendar. This was the eleventh month of the year, and came under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. It was evidently the dread winter season called Kharpu, the Hebrew tTin, which is explained by the groups meaning " crops are (in) future," that is, the sowing season. These definite statements serve to show that the Babylonian legend was based upon a definite climatological theory. These three months of the winter season were respectively called Id Abba-E, " the month of the going forth of the sea " the Tebitu, or " month of the inundation," of the Semitic calendar; the month of Sebat, which we have already explained ; and the month called Id-gan-gana, the " month of clouds " the Kislevu, or " strong month " of the Semites. The Deluge, then, took place at the culmination of the stormy season. Of the character of this period of the year there is ancient evidence. Sennacherib says : " The advance I ordered in the month Tebit, a terrible storm arose, and heaven and earth it flooded ; rains upon rain, and snow the HYMNS OF THE STORM GODS. 137 channels filled." In the same manner in the annals of Esarhaddon we read, " Snow storming in the month Sebat came ; the mighty darkness I feared not." It is, then, to this period of the year that the great storm is assigned. The description of the storm is exactly that of one of the terrible winter storms of the Mesopotamian valley,* all the destroying powers of nature being let loose. Then arose the water of dawn at daylight ; It arose up like a black cloud (urpatam zalamtum) from the horizon of heaven ;f The Thunder-god (Rimmon) in the midst of it thundered ; Nebo and the Wind-god mareh in front ; The throne bearers (Guzallf) traverse mountain and plain ; The Pestilence-god (Dibbara) || brings with him affliction ; The War-god (Ninip) in front casts down. The Angels of Earth (Annunaki) bear flaming brands ; ^f In their wild course they burn up the earth ; The deluge of the Eain-god reaches to heaven ; ** All that is visible to darkness ft is turned. This is one of the most finished pieces of Assyrian writing, and probably represents the highest form of the tradition. * See Dust of Ages, p. 177. t We may compare this rising of the storm with that of the rain in answer to the prayer of Elijah (1 Kings 18). The rapid rise of storms in the East is well known. J Sar. " the Wind-god," the Hebrew IKK'. The Guzalli, or throne-bearers, are manifestly the storm-clouds, and the passage calls to mind the Hebrew words, " He did fly upon the wings of the wind" (Ps. 18. 10). The Guzalli are also the mysterious composite figures who support the seats of the gods, like the cherubim, as represented on the Sun-god tablet from Sippara in the British Museum. || Dibbara, the Hebrew ~Q"1' Deber, " the pestilence." We may compare these lines with those of the prophet Habbakuk, " Before him went the pesti- lence, and the fever burned before his feet" (Hab. 3. 6). If Dibrati, a doubtful word ; " flaming brands," perhaps "the lightning," ** The full height of the Deluge is called in the inscription Pul abubi, " the heap of the Deluge." ft The word efute, of which the root is ""K?^. means "a thick, impenetrable darkness," such as that in Egypt. The word is used in the Istar Tablet for the darkness of Sheol, or the "House of Death." Nuru ul imiru ina e(ufe aiba, "Light they see not, in thick darkness they sit." E 138 RESTING PLACE OF THE ARK. There are, however, traces of an older tradition preserved in a few fragments ; as, for example, The tempest from the midst of space (absu) The fatal decree (Mamit) from the midst of Heaven proceeds. It sweeps the earth as the verdure is swept ; To the four winds its terror spreads like fire. To the men of the habited earth it causes affliction to their body. In the city and the country it causes destruction to small and great; Strong one and menial bewail it. In the heavens and earth like a water-spout it pours down rain. To the holy place of their god they hasten and cry aloud. This fragment appears, as already stated, to contain some traces of an older tradition, and no doubt from time to time other portions of the same nature will be recovered. Many of these, no doubt, referred to local floods, but they show the class of literature that preceded the composition of the epic. Another fragment, which seems to be of the same class, is as follows (W. A. I., 27. 5) : Like a cup of wine (karpat karani) poured out [it is] upon them. Country unto country looks afraid ; The female servant to her chamber flees upward ; The head of the house by the entrance of the house it ushers forth; The son of the house from the house of his father it drives forth ; The doves (sumatf) in thir cotes it takes ; The bird on its wing it caused to mount upward ; The swallow (sinuntu) in its nest (kini) it caused to fly ; The ox it struck down, the young ass it smote ; Great dragons, evil spirits, were their huntsmen. Note. It is particularly interesting here in this fragment to see the dove and the swallow associated with the day of evil, as it certainly prepares us for their appearance in the older legend. Resting Place of the Ark. Here again there is a marked difference. The Jehovistic writer leaves the resting place THE MOUNTAIN NOT AEAEAT. 139 unnamed, while the Elohistic (Gen. 8. 4) specifies it as the mountain of Ararat (ED^X.) the region of Armenia and the tablet specifies distinctly the mountain of Nizir, a district whose situation can be easily established by the historical inscriptions. Upon this subject much light has been thrown during recent years by the inscriptions, and especially by Professor Sayce in his able treatise on the cuneiform inscription from Van in Armenia.* According to the Hebrew record the Ark rested on Mount Ararat. This is the land of Uradhu of the inscriptions, and embraces all the plain and basin of the Araxes, to the north- east of Assyria, a district which corresponds very closely with the Nizir of the inscriptions. The position of this latter district is fixed by the inscrip- tions of Assur-nazir-pal (B.C. 885), who says that he marched from Kalzu near Arbela to the towns of Baisti and Babiti in the land of Nizir. This fixes the district in the table land of Pamir, a little south of Mount Rowandiz. There is a very widespread and ancient tradition that it was on Jebel Gudi Mount Gudi that the Ark rested. This Gudi is manifestly the Gute or Kute of the inscriptions the land of the Goim (D^iil) of the Hebrews the district to the north-east of Babylonia, where dwelt the zabmanda or nomad barbarians who from time to time swept over Western Asia, a region regarded of old time as the womb of nations, and therefore a fit site for the Mountain of the Nations. Upon a valuable astronomical tablet it is stated that the region to the east of Babylonia that is, north- east is that of Suedin and Guti ; that is, the mountain range of Pamir and the plain watered by the Zab and * Jour. S.A.S., vol. xiv., New Series, pt. 3. 140 SENDING FORTH THE BIBDS. the Tornadus. This is evidently the district referred to by the writer of Isa. 14. 13, who describes the king of Babylon as boasting he " will ascend into heaven, and exalt his throne above the stars of the gods," and " will sit on the mountain of the assembly of the gods in the extremities of the north." It was therefore in this region that the Baby- lonians placed the resting-place of the Ark. This position agrees exactly with that ascribed to the resting-place of the Ark according to Berosos, who says, " On the Gordyaean Mountains, where it is settled, remains of the boat of Xisu- thrus were in existence for a long time after." It was in memory of the resting-place that the Babylonians built tem- ples called Kharsag Kalama, " Mountain of the Nations," and Kharsag Kurra, " Mountain of the East." The district of Uradhu, Ararat, or Armenia, lay imme- diately adjoining this on the north, and may, no doubt, at the time of the Elohistic writer have embraced the tradi- tional resting-place. The divergence between the Baby- lonian tablet, the Hebrew account, and the tradition of Berosos is not so great as at first appears, and it must be borne in mind that the Elohistic writer is by no means explicit in his expression " a mountain of Ararat." "Sending forth the Birds." This incident is common to all three accounts, but while the Greco-Chaldean version simply mentions birds, the tablet and the Hebrew version specify the birds, and the order of their despatch. In the tablet the order is dove, swallow, raven. In the Hebrew account the swallow is not mentioned, the dove is sent forth twice, and the raven is sent forth first instead of last (Gen. 8. 6-12), and no such explicit reason for his non-return is afforded as in the tablet (col. iii. 42-44) : " The raven went, THE BOW OF THE COVENANT. 141 and it left ; the raven went, the carrion of the waters it saw. It did eat, it floated, and was carried away; it returned not." In the Hebrew account also the dove is sent forth a fourth time, not to return (Gen. 8. 13). In this respect, as indicated by Schrader, the tablet exhibits a much more systematic sequence of thought than that of the Hebrew writer.* Omens in Babylonia were frequently derived from the flight of birds.f The choice of the swallow is easily to be explained, as in Akkadian it was called simkhu, " the destiny bird," omens, no doubt, being derived from the direction of its beautiful gyrations of flight. The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving. Here again is found a remarkable detailed agreement with the Hebrew : " And Noah built an altar unto Jehovah, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings upon the altar, and Jehovah smelled the sweet savour." As in other passages, the tablet presents considerably more detail : " I sacrificed a sacrifice, I built an altar on the peak of a mountain. Adgur jars by sevens I placed ; below them I spread reeds, pine wood, and spices ; the gods smelled the odour, the gods smelled the sweet savour.J The gods like flies over the master of the sacrifice gathered." The Kainhow. This particular token of the covenant occurs only in the Elohistic account, and the words are very remarkable : " My bow I have set in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the * See his important remark in Cuneiform Insc. and the Old Test., pp. 50-53. t See Mr. Pinches' paper on the Surdu bird (falcon or hawk) in Proc. Soc. Sib. Arch., vol. vi., p, 212. t The passage reads as follows: Hani izinu irisa, Ilani izinu irisa (abtt. " The gods smelled the savour, the gods smelled the sweet savour." 142 TRANSLATION OF SAMAS-NAPISTI. earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud" (Gen. 9. 13, 14). There is no trace of this in the Greek tradition of Berosos. In the tablet, however, a most in- teresting passage is given which relates to this divine bow : Ultu ulanum-ma Istar ina Kasadi-su issi namzabi * rabati sa Anum ipusu ki zukhi-su, " From afar Istar in her approach lifted up the great arches which Anu had made for his glory." There can be no doubt as to the meaning of this passage, and the bow of the Deluge is again distinctly mentioned in a hymn (W. A. I., ii., 19. 7, 8), where gis-bam matu is explained by Kistu abubi, " the bow of the Deluge," the Hebrew HD (Gen. 9. 13). Translation of Sainas-Napisti. The covenant having been completed and ratified by the sign of the rainbow, the reward of the faithful one is forthcoming. The tablet reads, " Hitherto Samas-Napisti has been a mortal man. Even now Samas-N'apisti and his wife are made like unto gods and borne away. Then shall dwell Samas-Napisti * In the Assyrian syllabary there are two signs which very closely re- semble each other, namely, ^^*T and ^**Tf- The former is the one used here, and we find it explained in the syllabaries by saku, " high " ; elamu, "Elam," or "Highland"; by Samfi, "heaven," and by nakaru &a Semiri, "boring (12P) of the diamond" (" 1> P^') (Jer. 17. 1; Ezek. 3. 9), and then also by the words nam?abu. This last word is evidently the well-known Hebrew word ('~I2X) ma?ebah, "a stone pillar," especially one set up as by Jacob at Bethel (Gen. 28. 18) , as the mark of a covenant between himself and God. In this respect the rainbow may have been regarded as a species of divine pillars or mazebahs, set up by the lord of heaven, and in this we may see the idea of the sign of the covenant. This seems to be borne out by the next line of the inscription, which would be unintelligible were it not for the asso- ciation with the " stones of covenant," Hani anntiti lu aban ukni irtiya ai amsi: "Those gods by the stone on my breast may I never forget." This stone was probably one of the small conical miniature mazebahs worn on the neck as a talisman, and by which oaths were sworn, and which ranked in equal importance with the signet seal. The second sign is explained by ifastu (H" p) and midpanu, "the bow," and is evidently in the archaic form a rude picture of the bow and arrow. SEAL REPRESKNTING CHALDEAN- NOAH. (Photographed from the original.) NOAH SAM AS-NAPISTI AND XISUTHBUS. 143 in a remote place at the mouth of the rivers." Of this translation no trace is found in the Hebrew narrative. According to the Biblical account Noah died at the age of 950 years. While the translation of the Chaldean sage seems to find a parallel in the pious Enoch, who was translated at the age of 365 years. It is important to notice that Berosos preserves the tradition in the words, " When his companions whom he had left in the boat had gone out, and were in search of Xisuthrus, his voice called to them out of the air, saying that the gods had carried him away in regard for his piety." As became one so directly associated with Ea, the god of the sea, his home was placed at the mouth of the rivers, a region considered especially sacred. The Names Samas-Napisti, Xisuthrus, and Noah. One point which would at the outset strike the reader is the great difference in the names of the heroes of the three traditions of the Epic, but a Little consideration will reveal that there is a reason for each and a certain relationship between all three. The name used in the Epic, Samas- napisti, the " Living Sun," is one used in contrast to that of the hero Gilgames, or Nimrod. He is the sick, dying winter sun, shorn of his locks and afflicted with leprosy, who goes each year to inquire the secret of healing and immortality from the " Living Sun." It is the contrast between these two which forms the raison d'etre of the story being woven into the Epic. The epithets applied to the translated sage are very important. He is spoken of as A dra-Khassis, "Keverent" and " Wise," a name which Mr. George Smith thought formed the basis of the Xisuthrus (Khasis-adrd) of Berosos ; 144 NOAH SAM AS-NAPISTI AND XISUTHRUS. but this is no longer admitted. The name Xisuthrus is manifestly a corruption of Zi Susru, " spirit of the founder," afterwards at a late harmonising period adopted as one of the titles of Anu, the god of Heaven. The most important epithet, however, is one frequently applied to the sage Samas-napisti rukuti. Samas-napisti, the far- distant, remote or ancient one. The importance of this name is in the relationship which seems to exist between it and that of Noah. The name Noah is generally con- nected with the root nukh, fi^, and rendered " Rest," a meaning that seems to have no direct relationship to the life of the patriarch. If, however, the name, as Goldziher and others have suggested, is connected with the Ethiopic nukh, " long-lived, ancient," it forms a curious parallel to the Babylonian epithet rukuti. In Arabic and Ethiopic tradition the life of Noah was a bye-word. " A life like that of Nukh " being almost synonymous with immortality. We have now completed our study of this remarkable and priceless document. Of its direct relationship to the Hebrew account there can be little doubt, but it is suf- ficiently distinct to mark it as a separate version. With regard to any contact between the two traditions the same remarks apply to the Deluge Tablets as already applied to the Creation Tablets ; both formed part of Babylonian litera- ture as early as B.C. 2000, and must have been accessible. It is premature in the light of recent discovery, even if it were possible, to pronounce any distinct opinion as to the contacts between the Hebrew and Chaldean. It may be concluded that there was an almost universal tradition among the ancient people of Western Asia of this great cataclysm, and that the various traditions have many and striking points of agreement, with local and religious differences. ( 145 ) CHAPTER VI. THE GRAVE AND THE FUTURE STATE. the study of the religious life and literature of an ancient people, no section is more important than that of eschatology, or the beliefs which they held regard- ing the future state. Fascinating as the subject is, it at the same time often presents very great difficulty. This is not so much owing to the paucity as to a superfluity of material and to a confusion of theories, the products of different schools of priestly teaching in the various ages. In Egypt, that wonderful magnum opus of eschatological teaching, the so-called "Book of the Dead," or rather the book of the "Coming forth by Day,"* and the Pyramid Texts, show that not only was the theory of a future state deeply studied, but that it had assumed literary and to a certain extent, classical form at a very remote period. Complex and mystical, full of passages and symbols whose esoteric meanings were known only to the priests, the " Book of the Dead " may be said to have for all time constituted the whole teaching of the Egyptian priests as to a life after death. Stereotyped as it became to a certain extent in very early ages, it was nevertheless a work which contained many * The title of this work was per em hru "Coming forth by Day," and it must be of great antiquity, as copies of it have been discovered as early as in the Xllth Dynasty, B.C. 2500, and many chapters are attributed to the almost mythical ages of the 1st Dynasty (see Budge, tfile,pp. 9-10). S 116 BOOK OF THE DEAD. and varied component elements and not a few traces of the beliefs of the aboriginal Negro population whom the dynastic white Egyptians had replaced in the Nile valley. The prominent place assigned to mystic animals the apes (Cynocephalus), hippopotamus, the crocodile, the transmigration of the soul through various animal forms, the use of magical knowledge and " words of power," all show that as the new comers from the Holy Land of Punt, i.e. S.E. Arabia, had inherited from them the wor- ship of sacred animals in the various nomes, so the same influence had largely asserted itself in the eschatology of the " Book of the Dead." The recent discoveries of Professor Petrie at Koptos have shown that while animal worship was not unknown to the Egyptian colonists who had entered the Nile valley at some remote period, their sacred animals were not those of the "Book of the Dead." Among them were the lion, the elephant, the gazelle, the bull, and the ostrich, such as have no place in the " Book of the Dead." If we encounter a certain complexity in the Egyptian " Ritual of the Dead," when we come to study the theories of the future state taught in Babylonia, we encounter a far more confused mass of ideas. Such a confusion is naturally to be expected in a com- munity composed of so many mixed nationalities, who possessed so many different centres of religious teaching, complicated in later ages by borrowings from foreign sources. It is, however, to the complexity of Babylonian eschatological literature that we are compensated by the large mass of literature to which we have access, and the rich and varied illustrations of Biblical passages which may be gathered from them. BOOK OF THE DEAD. 147 In examining the theories of such ancient schools of teaching as those of Eridu, Nipur, and Kutha, it is im- possible to form any general conception of the Chaldeans regarding the "Future life." It will therefore be de- sirable to examine each in turn before arriving at any definite conclusions. TEACHING OF ERIDU. The most ancient and the most sacred city of Chaldea was the city of " Eri-dugga" the holy city, the Eridu of the Semites. It was to the religion of Babylonia what Jerusalem was to the Jews, or Amritza to the Brahmins. Situated in ancient times on the shores of the Persian Gulf, it was the seat of the worship of the Ocean -god Ea and his equally holy son, " Silik mulu-dugga," or Mero- dach, " the protector of good men." In this city there had developed a wonderful creed of Religio-Magic, the product of the party minds of the Akkadians, to whom we are indebted for the earliest religious literature. The system revealed in the literature of Eridu, of which fortunately a great many tablets have been preserved, is that of a species of Shamanism. It can hardly in its earliest stages be dignified with the name of a religion, its main features being those of the animism of the Australian and American medicine-man. In this cultus will be observed a simple belief in a soul in every thing. Every object in Nature owed its exis- tence or being to an indwelling life or soul, similar to that which primitive man had satisfied himself was the source of his own vitality. The growing tree, the running river, the dark storm-cloud, or the sky- traversing sun, the wandering moon, the clustering stars, the blazing flame, 148 MAGICIANS AND SORCERERS. each and all owed its being to an indwelling spirit. There was no moral element ; all was due to the determination of chance. It was a religion of man's defence in his war with the powers of Nature and against his foes. Such a belief could have no priesthood who, by heart-stirring prayers, or fervent litanies, could appeal to man's better nature or love of the gods. It was only those who knew the mystic spells, the charms, the incantations which could exorcise, or ward off, or compel service from those terrible "spirits," who could aid man. There was therefore no such thing as a priesthood, only a caste of "medicine men," exorcists, and "witches," who professed to control or direct these spiritual powers. To enter fully into the study of so complicated a system is beyond the scope of this chapter; but as an example of the confused nature of the literature of this creed, the following paragraphs may be quoted : * " The evil god, the evil demon, the demon of the field (plain), the demon of the mountain, the demon of the sea, the demon of the tomb, the evil spirit, the dazzling fiend, the evil wind, the assaulting wind which strips off the clothing of the body like an evil demon, Conjure, Spirit of Heaven ; conjure, Spirit of Earth ! " The sickness of the entrails, a sick heart, faintness of the heart, disease, disease of bile, headache, violent vomiting, a broken blood vessel, disease of the kidneys, painful disease which cannot be removed, a dream of ill omen, Conjure, Spirit of Heaven; conjure, Spirit of Earth! " Him who is the possessor of the likeness of another, the evil face, the evil eye, the evil tongue, the evil lips, the evil breath, Conjure, Spirit of Heaven ; conjure, O Spirit of Earth ! " The above extract, from one of the earliest discovered Tablets, clearly shows the nature of the inscriptions and the form of belief they represent. * See Sayce. Hibbert Lectures, p. 332. MAN AND NATURE. 149 Man is constantly in fear of the powers of Nature, the evil demons that produce disease and sickness, and of his fellow men ; the baneful influence of each demon requires the protection of the exorcist. Even in this fragment there is not, although it can be traced, the most primitive form ; already an advance has been made. The fruit-giving Earth and the rain-giving Sky are regarded as good and mighty spirits who can control the opposing powers. Gradually the controlling spirits of Heaven and Earth come to be regarded as the creators of Heaven and Earth, and the lesser spirits as the inhabitants of these realms. Thus may be seen the first conception of gods in this primitive belief. That it was the case is shown by the word for god. The Akkadian word for god was dimer or dimera, with its dialectic variant dinger or dingira, derived from the root dim, " to create," or, " make " a synonym of the Semitic banu, episu, basu, " to form," " to make," " to be." In such a primitive creed as this it is evident that there could be no elaborate conception of the future life, as there was probably no idea of it. The spirit of life, the indwelling zi, was partially absent in sleep, longer so in a trance, but came back on waking, or by the incantations of the Shaman; but in death it abandoned the body altogether, and could not be charmed back by the magician. The bilingual tablets and syllabaries afford us many ex- planations of the important word zi, round which all this magic turns. It is explained by the word napistti, " life, soul," the Hebrew nephesh, which conveys an idea with which we are familiar in Hebrew literature, as in the 150 THE SOUL AND DEATH. words, " And the LORD formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. 2. 7). So also it may be explained by kasit, " double," a word which recalls the Greek conception of the eidolon and the Egyptian ka, or "double," the "genius" as distinct from the ba or soul.* Another meaning attached to the word at a later period was that of nisu, " spirit," or, as M. Lenormant has shown, " ghost," nisu meaning " feeble." This word is a synonym of tarpu, " weak," from rapu, the Hebrew Rephaim, the "shades of the dead."f In the same way, the word for death and corpse, bad, like the Semitic mutu moth, as Dr. Wright has shown, J means " to stretch oneself out," " extending " an idea common alike to sleep and death. So also pagru (Heb. peger), " corpse," has a similar meaning. In this creed there was no idea of a future state or of immortality; it had no place. The body from which the soul had departed might be brought, back to life, but that only on this earth ; and this act could only be performed by the great magician, " Silik-mulu-dugga," or Merodach, who knew the charm which gave life. In a hymn to this deity which I have already quoted, a passage occurs which by many is regarded as implying a belief in immortality : The incantation -which gives life is thine, The breath (ivaf) that gives life is thine. The holy writing of the mouth of the deep is thine. Here, however, the office of the god is plainly that of the great magician, who by spell and incantation restores * See Maspero, on the Ka, in the Trans. Soc. Sib. Arch., vol. viii., p. 142. t See Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 143. t See Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. iii., p. 107. GHOSTS AND VAMPIRES. 151 the dead to life, but in no way raises them to a place of immortality. In the much later literature, such as the Cylinder of Cyrus, Merodach is spoken of as the " god who in his ministry raises the dead to life," but it must be borne in mind that such a belief, after many centuries of develop- ment, is produced by contact with other creeds. THE GHOST THEORY. Besides the theory of animism, that is, the belief in countless spirits inhabiting all things in Nature, there is another theory which has often tended to produce the first steps in religious development. This is known as the " Ghost theory." In dreams, the primitive Akkadian, no doubt, imagined he saw the shadowy forms of his departed friends, which led him to regard them as not utterly vanished, but still existing as shades in some dark, far- distant, subterranean place. Thus may be regarded the development of the idea of a ghost- world, presided over by a ghost-king and his consort. This ghost - god was called Afttllil, or Enlil, "the lord of the ghost- world," and his wife, Nin HI, "lady of the ghost- world." The word ///, "a ghost," also meant " a dust cloud," to which the shadowy forms of ghosts were compared; it is also ex- plained by zakiku, "transparent," "crystal": compare the Hebrew JVMT (zekukith) " crystal." The Akkadian //, however, passed into Semitic Babylonian in the form of lilum, " ghost," with a feminine litatum, " the female ghost," " the night demon," " the vampire." This form was not unknown to the Hebrews, for Isaiah foretells the haunting of Idumea by the Lilith (Isa. 34. 14), while 152 GHOSTS AND VAMPIKES. the Rabbis said that Adam had as his first wife a beautiful female named Lilith, who lived on the blood of children whom she slew at night. The sacred city of the ghost-god was the city of Nipur, in Central South Babylonia, the site being marked by the mounds of Nuffar, recently explored by the American expedition from the University of Pennsylvania. This city was dedicated to the ghost-god, whose name occurs on all the bricks and inscriptions found there. There is an inscription of Sargon I., the king of Akkad, which belongs to the remote period of B.C. 3800, as follows : " To Mullil, the great lord, Sargani (Sargon), the king of the city, the mighty king, king of Akkad, the builder of the temple, the house of Mullil, in Nipur. Whosover this tablet shall remove, Mullil and the Sun-god and the Goddess (Istar) his foundation shall tear up, and his seed obliterate." From the same site come inscriptions of the King Naram-Sin (Beloved of the Moon), reading " Naram Sin, the builder of the House of Mullil," and of Alusarsid, an hitherto unknown king of this dynasty. The latter reads " To Mullil Alusarsid, king of (the city of) Kis, gave." These inscriptions show plainly that the worship of the " ghost-god " was fully established as early as B.C. 3800. Another inscription from this city supplies further in- formation with regard to this peculiar worship. It is inscribed upon a block of lapis lazuli, by order of the Kassite king, Kadasman -Tergu, who reigned about B.C. 1380. The opening lines only are of importance : " To Mullil of Nipur, father of the gods, king of the great An unas, king of the World; his king, Kadasman -Turgu, king of Babylon (gave)." THE CHIEF ONES OF THE EARTH. 153 With the mention of the Anunas the first knowledge of any Chaldean idea of the future state is acquired. The word Anuna signifies the " master," or " great one," and corresponds to " the chief ones of the earth " (aliiri) of Isa, 14. 9. The Anunas, who dwelt in the realm of Mullil, were called the Anunage, or " Masters of the Under-world." They sat on golden thrones beside the stream of the " waters of life," in a land of darkness and decay. Although seated on golden thrones In the dark under- world, there does not seem to be any indication of a belief in their future resurrection to life, A great change however came over the eschatology of Babylonia, at what period i& impossible to say, when the creed of Eridu, with its " ocean-god," and that of Nipur, with the worship of the " ghost-god,' r were blended together, and a third element was added, viz., that of the "Mountain of the World," where the gods met as on Olympus, and in the subterranean recesses of which was the land of Arallu, "the house of Death." This com- bination must have taken place very early, for in the inscriptions of Urbahu and Gudea, B.C. 2800, the "Lady of the Mountain of the World" is frequently mentioned. In the statue of the king Urbahu the inscription reads, "For the goddess Nin-garsag (Lady of the Mountains), mother of the gods." It is probably to this form of the myth which the Prophet Isaiah refers in the words : " I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and sit upon the mountain of the congre- gation in the uttermost parts of the North" (Isa. 13. 13). The " Mountain of the World " and the mountain on which the Ark rested, Mount Nizir, were evidently closely related, T 154 MOUNTAIN OF THE CONGREGATION. and were both the outcome of the early traditions of the old Akkadian mountain population who had come to settle in the plains of Shinar. The nature of this mountain is well shown in the follow- 'ng hymn : mighty mountain of Mullil Im Kharsag (the sky mountain), whose head rivals the heavens, the pure deep is laid at its foundations. Among the mountains it couches as a strong bull, Its peaks glisten like the Sun-god; Like the star of heaven that proclaims the day, it is full of glittering rays. The mighty Mother Ninlil (the lady of the ghost world), the reverence of E Sara (the house of the host of heaven), the glory of E Kura (the temple of the host of earth), the adornment of E Giguna (the temple of darkness), the heart of the temple Ki-gusura (the temple of the land of light).* The conception of this Chaldean Olympus is clearly seen in these lines. On the summit was the place of the Assembly of the gods, with the "temples of place of light," and "the house of the host of Heaven." In the interior was the abode of the Anunas, " the host of earth," and their meeting place, " the temple of Darkness." This mythological topography exactly fits the description of Sheol given by the prophet Isaiah in his denunciation of Babylon (Isa. 14. 9, 15 ff.). It is impossible to read these verses in the light of cuneiform decipherment and not conclude that the writer was intimately acquainted with the main features of the Babylonian myths of the " World Mountain," the meeting place of the gods, and in whose interior was the ghost-kingdom of Mullil. * See Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 862. SHEOL. 155 The grave (Sheol) from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up the dead (rephaim) for thee, even all the chief ones (cdim) ; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou become weak as we ? Art thou become like unto us ? In this quotation, the grave where the "feeble ones," the ancestral ghosts, the nisi or spirits, the anunas or " masters," sit on their thrones and hail each new-comer with the cry, " Art thou become weak as we ? " is almost the exact phraseology of the Babylonian Tablets. Notice here the contrast between the dark region of the grave, Sheol, and the bright summit of the Mountain of Assembly. "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides (uttermost parts) of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." As yet the conception conveys only the idea of a vast, dark palace of the god of the ghost- world, in which the great dead sit on thrones in silent conclave. However, the conception is still growing and gaining shape. The important inscription quoted indicates this development. A mythological text, of whatever nature, always gains a vast amount in value when its date can be assigned. Among the Tablets found at Tel el-Amarna* is one, unfortunately mutilated, describing the grave-land, the under-world. This inscription, and the ideas it conveys, cannot, on historical grounds, be later than B.C. 1400, or about a century before the age of Moses. * Tel el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum, pi. 17, text No. 82. 156 " THE CITY. OF DEATH." The opening portion of this Tablet, much mutilated, may be read as follows : When the gods had appointed a banquet To their sister Eris-kigal They sent a messenger. But she being the wife of the god Nergal, the lord of the under-world, is forbidden to come to the banquet in the "highest heavens" {sarnie zirute). The gods are angry that one of their number should refuse to be present at the feast, and send to fetch her. The ambassador chosen is the god Namtar, " the pestilence god," who is the messenger * between the under-world and heaven. He is here called the " Messenger of Eris-kigal " ; and it was he who acted like the Greek Hermes, who led souls from the under-world to heaven. In the above myth there is evidently an early form of the Greek legend of Persephone, and which, if the inscription were complete, would furnish much more interesting matter. It is, however, even in its mutilated form, a document of much importance. EEVERSE. The god Assaku in the second, the god Isum In the third, the god Mitbariga in the fourth, The god Sabta in the fifth, the god Rabitza in the sixth, Dirid In the seventh, Hutu in the eighth, Binna in the ninth, Zidana in the tenth, Mikid in the eleventh, Birapari In the twelfth, Umma in the thirteenth, Liba in the fourteenth. In the gateway was standing the god Khuduma, who in the couch cuts off. Namtar to his host a command made, the gates. * The Sukanu, or messengers of the gods, correspond to the melek, or "angel " of the Hebrew Scriptures, as in the narratives of Hagar (Gen. 21. 17) or Balaam (Num. 22. 22), Namtar corresponded to the " Angel of Death." RULER OF THE GREAT CITY. 157 In the midst of the palace he seized Eris-kigal By her hair and dragged her from the throne To the ground, her head to cut off. " Do not slay me, my brother ! a word may I speak to thee " Heard Nergal, and lifted his hand he wept " Thou truly art my husband, I truly thy wife. Then take to thyself Sovereignty in the wide earth, and establish, good For power is at thy hand. Then thou shalt be lord And lady. 1 ' Nergal gave ear to her words. He took her and kissed her, her tears, he covered : " Whatsoever thou askest of me in future for all time it is done." We have here a more definite form given to the under- world. It is that of a great city, a vast underground, dark city of the dead, encircled by seven walls, with seven sets of double gates, each guarded by a pair of gods. This was the city of the dead, called Urugal, or " the Great City," to which all the dead flocked. It. is represented as having its palace and its rulers. The king of the city of the dead was Nergal, or, in its older form, Ner, " the strong one," because, as Death, he conquered all. The name Nergal, which is known as that of the god of the colonists from Kutha, placed in Samaria (2 Kings 18. 30) is probably Ner-gal, " the great ruler "; or it may be, as I think, a cor- ruption of " Ner-uru-gal" the " ruler of the Great City." The worship of Nergal centred in the city of Kutha, about twenty miles east of Babylon, now marked by the mounds of Tel-Ibrahim. This city was known by the name of Gudua to the Akkadians, of which the Semitic Kutha is a corrup- tion, the name meaning " the resting place." It was also called Tigabba, or the " city of the bowing down of the head," a fit name for the sacred city of the god of Death, and was the chief necropolis of Chaldea. 158 THE BRIDE OF THE PIT. Among the Semites of Babylonia, and at a later time among the Assyrians, the god of Death became the god of War ; and it is as such that Nergal is best known to us. In the Obelisk inscription of Shalmanesar II. (B.C. 860) he is called "Nergal the Valiant, the King of Battles." This phase of the Battle god as the god of Death was largely developed under Assyrian influence. Nergal, as the god of Death, was symbolised by the winged lion, and as such was identified with the god Irkalla, " the Great Eater " a name which reminds us of the riddle of Samson : " Out of the eater came forth meat ; out of the strong came forth sweet- ness "(Judg. 14. 14). This name evidently refers to the all-devouring character of the god of Death. Another interesting expression of this all-ruling power of death is symbolised by a phrase often found in the hymns of the Early Chaldean Age, " Mankind, the cattle of the god Ner." Just as the king was the shepherd of the nations upon earth, so all mankind had to return home, in the evening of life, to the fold of the god of Death. In the further development of the eschatology of the Babylonians, the god Nergal loses prominence before his wife, " Eris-kigal," who becomes the queen of the under- world. " Eris-kigal," written in characters Ninkigal, and formerly rendered " The Lady of the Great Land." The Tel el-Amarna Tablet above quoted, however, lias given us the correct reading of the name, and at the same time has thrown great light upon the mythology connected with it. The name " Eris-kigal " is to be further rendered as " Eris-birutu, kigal being explained in the Assyrian syllabaries by Birutu, " pit," the Hebrew "I'D* " pit, dungeon," a word having an undoubted eschatological meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures, as in WINGED HUMAN-HEADED LION. (Photographed from the original.) THE LAND OF NO-RETURN. 159 "the pit of destruction" (Ps. 55. 23), "pit of corrup- tion" (Isa. 38. 17), and many other examples. Eris- kigal was the wife of Nergal, but at the same time retained her position as the " sister of the great gods " in heaven, occupying exactly the position of the Greek Persephone. As Queen of Hades she was the rival of the Celestial Venus, and the rivalry is well shown in the beau- tiful poem known to scholars as the " Tablet of the Descent of Istar into the Under-world," from which the following extracts are taken : THE DESCENT OF ISTAR. To the land whence none return, the region of darkness, Istar, daughter of the Moon-God, firmly set her mind, Even the daughter of the Moon-God fixed her mind (to go) To the house of darkness, the seat of the great Devourer, To the house whose entrance has no exit, By the road whose going has no return, To the house from whose entrance light is shut out, The place where much dust is their bread, their food mud ; Light they see not, in darkness they dwell, Clad also like birds with a robe of feathers : Over the door and bolt dust is scattered. Istar on arriving at the gate of the land of No-Return, To the porter of the gate a word she utters : " Oh, porter of the waters, open thy gate ! Open thy gate that I may enter ! If thou openest not thy gate that I may enter, I will smite the doors, the bolt I will break ; I will smite the threshold, tear away the portals, I will raise the dead, the devourers (akili) of the living, Over the living the dead shall exceed in number." The porter opens his mouth and speaks ; He says to Istar the princess, " Stay, lady, thou must not break it down ! 160 THE LAND OF NO-RETURN. Let me go and declare thy name to Eris-Kigal, the Lady of Hades." The keeper descended, and declared her name to Eris-Kigal : " Oh goddess, the waters thy sister Istar is (come to seek), Trying the mighty bars (to break open the doors)." When Allat heard this she opened her mouth and said, " Like a cut-off reed has she descended, Like the petal (lip) of a drooping reed she prays for the waters of life : What brings her heart to me, what brings her mind to me ? ******* Like food would I eat, like sweet drink would I drink ; Let me weep for the heroes who have left their wives ; Let me weep for the handmaids whom from the bosom of their husbands thou hast taken ; For the young child let me weep, whom thou hast taken before his day : Go, keeper, open for her the gate ; Strip her according to the law of old time," The first gate he made her enter, and shut it ; he threw down the mighty crown of her head. " Why, keeper, dost thou throw down the mighty crown of my head." " Enter, lady, such are the orders of the Lady of the Land." The second gate he made her eater, and he shut ; he threw away the earrings of her ears. " Wherefore, O keeper, hast thou thrown away the earrings of my ears ? " " Enter, lady, for such are the orders of the Lady of the Land." The third gate he made her to enter, and he closed ; he threw away the precious stones of her neck. "Wherefore, keeper, hast thou thrown away the precious stones of my neck ? " "Enter, lady, these are the orders of the Lady of the Land." The fourth gate he made her enter, and closed ; he threw away the ornaments of her breast. NAKED AND BAKE. 101 " Wherefore, keeper, hast thou thrown away the ornaments of my breast ? " " Enter, lady, such are the orders of the Lady of the Land." The fifth gate he made her to enter, and closed ; he threw away the jewelled girdle of her waist. " Wherefore, keeper, hast thou taken away the jewelled girdle of my waist ? " " Enter, lady, such are the orders of the Lady of the Land." The sixth gate he made her enter, and closed ; he threw away the circlets of her hands and feet. " Wherefore, keeper, hast thou thrown away the circlets of my hands and feet ? " " Enter, lady, such are the orders of the Lady of the Land." The seventh gate he made her enter, and closed ; he threw away the robe of her body. " Wherefore, keeper, hast thou thrown away the robe of my body ? " " Enter, lady, such are the orders of the Lady of the Land." So soon as Istar had descended into the " Land of No-Keturn," Eris-Kigal beheld her, and was enraged toward her Istar took no thought, she cried to her with oaths, Eris-Kigal opened her mouth and said, To Namtar, her messenger, the word she utters : " Go, Namtar, (take Istar from) me and Lead her out ; sixty times afflict her : The disease of the eyes into her eyes ; The disease of the side into her side ; The disease of the feet into her feet ; The disease of heart into her heart ; The disease of the head afflict her head ; Into her, even the whole of her, strike disease." There are some passages of difficulty, and as they have no great bearing on the subject of the chapter they are omitted. From these lines it appears that during the absence of the goddess there was no love on earth, and no increase of flock or herd, and so the gods decided to restore the lost one. The task is assigned to the all-wise god Ea. U 162 THE WATERS OF LIFE. Ea in the wisdom of his heart formed a creature, He created Azu-su-namir the androgne. " Go, Azu-su-namir, towards the gate of Hades set thy face ; Let the seven gates of Hades be opened before thee ; Let the Lady of the Land see thee and rejoice at thy presence, "When her heart is at rest and her liver appeased. Conjure her also by the names of the great gods'; Turn thy head; to the resting-place of the cold wind set thy mind, The home of the pure one, in the resting-place of the cold wind ; Let them prepare the waters in the midst, let her drink." "When the lady of the land heard this She tore her girdle, she bit her thumb : " Thou hast asked of me a request none should ask. Go, Azu-su-namir, let me injure thee with a great injury : May the garbage of the sewers of the city be thy food ! May the vessels of the daughters of the city be thy drink ; May the darkness of the dungeon be thy habitation ; May the threshold be thy seat ; May drought and famine strike thy offspring." The Lady of the Land opened her mouth and said, To Namtar, her messenger, a word she addresses : " Go, Namtar, strike the firmly-built palace, Shatter the thresholds which hide the stones of light ; Bid the Anunas come forth and seat them on the throne of gold ; Over Istar pour the waters of life and bring her before me." The goddess is now released, and as she returns through each of the seven gates her articles of adornment are restored to her. Then follows some lines of special interest to the Biblical student, describing the release of the lover of the goddess, Tammuz or Adonis, to rescue whom she had gone into the dread land. " If she has not given thee that for which the ransom is paid, turn back to her again For Tammuz, the bridegroom of thy youth : Pour over him the pure waters, anoint him with holy oil ; WEEPING FOE TAMMUZ. 163 Clothe him with a purple robe, a ring of lapis lazuli let him put on his hand. Let Samkhat (the goddess of pleasure) rest the mind. The goddess Tillili take her jewels, The onyx stones which are unbroken. The goddess Tillili had heard of the carrying below of her brother ; She broke her jewels, Even the onyx stones which were full of light, Crying, ' Oh, my brother, the only one, do not leave me.' In the day that Tammuz bound me with a ring of crystal and a circlet of turquoise. Let the waiting-men and waiting-women surround the funeral pyre and smell the sweet savour." There is, perhaps, no text in the whole range of Assyrio- logical literature which contains so much matter of interest alike for the student of Classical Mythology and of the Bible as this inscription. THE WEEPING FOR TAMMUZ. The legend of the descent of Istar is in reality a species of miracle play, which was part of the liturgy of the great festival of the mourning for the dead Tammuz, so universal throughout the East. Although not of Semitic origin, the worship of the youth- ful Sun-god Tammuz seems to have been adopted readily by Phoenicians, Syrians, Hebrews, and the people of Asia Minor, as well as the Greeks. The text throws much light upon this cultus. In the Scripture the most definite reference to it is found in the Book of Ezekiel (8. 14) : " Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house, which was towards the North, and, behold, there sat women weeping for 164 AH, MY BROTHER! AH, SISTER! Tammuz." Upon this passage we have much illustrative matter. The Son of Life (Dumzi), or Tammuz, the youth- ful summer sun, was slain by the " boar's tusk," that is, by the cold blast of the north winds of winter, and, therefore, it is towards the North that the Hebrew women were weeping. So also in the Tablet the rescuer of Istar and Tammuz is directed to " turn thy heads to the resting place of the cold wind ; set thy mind toward the resting place of the cold wind." The North wa.s regarded as an evil death-dealing quarter, for thence came the wind Iltanu or Istanu, from Satanu, " hostile evil." The mountain of the north and north-east, the mountain of the World, in whose interior was the land of Aralli, the house of dearth, situated in the evil North. A most pointed reference to this mourning is found in the prophecy of Jeremiah, regarding the death of Jehoiakiin the son of Josiah, where he quotes in derision of the wicked king the funeral dirge of Tammuz : " They shall not lament for him, Ah, my brother ! or, Ah, sister ! They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, lord, or, Ah, his glory " (Jer. 22. 18), where we have almost the words of the Tablet, " Oh, my brother, the only one." It is probably to a similar mourning that the prophet Zechariah refers (12. 11) "in the mourning for Hadad-Rimmon." In Phoenicia the festivals of Tammuz were observed with great ceremonial in the glen of Apacha (weeping). This beautiful glen, about eight miles north of Beyrout, is the source of the Adonis river the modern " Nahr Ibrahim." The rains of the spring and the melting snows of Lebanon combined to redden the waters of the stream with the red marl of the mountains, in which the priests of Gebal, with poetic fancy, saw the blood of the slain Sun-god, and in the SHADOW OF DEATH. 165 month of Tammuz (June July) there was held here the festival of the god. At a later period, when Babylonian and Assyrian influence on the priesthood of Phoenicia was replaced by that of Egypt, the god Tammuz became identified with Osiris, and Istar with Isis, and the ceremonial became more compli- cated. In Tammuz, in this legend, as in Osiris in the Egyptian " Book of the Dead," we see the type of the deceased, and thus learn more of the theory of future life held by the ancient Babylonians. In each legend the hero is the sun, dying and rising again to life in its original sphere of existence. THE LAND OF DARKNESS AND DEATH. The description given in the tablet is most vivid. It is that of a great city (uru gal) with its walls and gates and with the outer wall circled by " the waters " of the river of death. This city of the dead was called by the Baby- lonians by the name of Sualu the exact equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol.* The lexigraphical tablet in which this important word is found throws considerable light on the meaning. In the list of words from which the name is taken, the majority are derivatives of the root Kabaru, the Hebrew "Q^ Kabur, " to bury," and Kekir, " a grave," and Sualu is an equivalent of Alu Kabru, "city of the grave." We have seen already that another name was Kigal or birutu, "the pit," so that both the usual Hebrew renderings of Sheol the grave and the pit are also to be found in the inscriptions. Another name of the * See Delitzsch, Hebrew and Assyrian, p. 26. 166 SHADOW OF DEATH. region of death was that of Bit 31uti, " the house of death," or Aralli ; while in the Tablet under consideration it is also called mat la tairat, "the Land of No-Return," which is especially the land of darkness. In the inscription this is most clearly stated, and in almost the very words of Scrip- ture ; " the Land of No-Return, the region of darkness ; " " the house of darkness ; " " the house at whose entrance they shut out the light ; " " light they see not, in darkness they dwell." With these compare such passages as " He shall go to the generation of his fathers :* they shall never see light" (Ps. 49. 16). In the Book of Job, which is so full of valuable passages regarding the future state, there are many references to this land of darkness : " Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own " (3. 5) ; " He bringeth out to light the shadow of death " (12.22). Mark also the contrast in the words " He hath redeemed my soul from going into the pit, and my life shall behold the light" (Job 33. 18). So also "Declare, if thou knowest at all, where is the way of the dwelling of light ; and, as for darkness, where is the place thereof " (Job 38. 19). These passages show that to the Hebrew, as to the Babylonian, darkness was associated with the Laud of No-Return, and the house of death. THE SHADOW OF DEATH. There is a phrase in the Scriptures very frequently associated with Sheol, which is also found in the Baby- lonian religious inscriptions. This is the " Shadow of Death," Zalmoth, fOp^, which has its exact equivalent in the Hebrew Zalmat. In one of the last of the books of * A curious resemblance to the Anunas or Masters of the Babylonian ' ghost land." THE WORM ENTERS. 167 the Chaldean Epic of Gilgames the book of darkness as we may call it we have a very important passage : " O, darkness (Zalmat) ! O, darkness, Mother of many waters ; O, dark- ness, her mighty power as a garment covers thee." In the same inscription, unfortunately very fragmentary, also oc- curs a passage of great value. The hero Gilgames, afraid of death, asks what manner of place the grave is, and re- ceives as his reply, " It is the place thou comest to when thou growest old and the worm enters, and thou hast put on corruption." With which we may compare the words in Job, " If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father : to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister " (17. 14) ; and again also, " they lie alike in the dust, and the worm covereth them " (21. 26). It is evident that in this later teaching, as to the grave - land, it was believed to be below the earth, and reached as it were by a yawning pit. A fragmentary tablet in the British Museum reads : " To the Land of No-Return I turn myself, I spread like a bird my hands ; I descend, I descend to the house of darkness, the dwelling of the great de- vourer." The same conception is also common to the Hebrew writings, as in the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in Num. 16. 30, or as implied in the words of Isaiah (14. 9) : " Sheol from beneath is moved for thee." Indeed, the idea of a yawning bottomless pit, which some consider to be implied by the word Sheol, seems to be borne out by the passage in Job, "What is deeper than Sheol ? " (11. 8). I now pass to a much more important and, at the same time, more difficult phase of the subject, namely, the con- sideration of the question, Was the Hades of the Baby- lonians regarded as a place of punishment? This is a 168 A PLACE OF PUNISHMENT. very difficult question to answer ; sources of evidence being as yet far from complete. From the tablet of the descent of Istar it would certainly seem to be so. The goddess, who, as already stated, represents the de- ceased, is stripped naked and bare, and instead of her orna- ments is clothed with disease. In the same manner the creature Aza-su-namir undergoes vicatory punishment for her. "Let me injure thee with a great injury; may the garbage of the sewers of the city be thy food ; may the dark- ness of the dungeon be thy habitation," certainly seem to imply punishment. In the same manner the words of Istar herself seem to indicate that she knew the circle of the under-world to which she would be assigned. " Let me weep for the heroes who have left their wives ; let me weep for the handmaids who from the bosoms of their husbands have turned ; let me weep for the little child whom thou hast taken ere his days are come." It was to the cycle described in the Talmudic writers of faithless wives, husbands, and adulterers, and those who had procured abortion that the goddess, who had ruined " families through her witchcrafts" (Nah. 3. 4), was to be assigned.* There seems to have been also a species of judgment, as the frequent reference to the rules and "ancient laws" imply. There was, however, no approach to the elaborate tribunal of the forty-two assessors of the Egyptian " Book of the Dead." In the Egyptian ritual the deceased was judged by Osiris and his forty-two assessors, his heart being placed on one * See the interesting details regarding this cycle in the recently discovered Apocalypse of St. Peter. IMMORTALITY. 1G9 side of the scale held by Horus and Anubis,* while the scribe Thoth registered the result of the weighing. Upon this, judgment was given in the Hall of "the Two Truths," and the fate of the deceased was decided. In the 124th chapter of the Book of the Dead,f called the chapter of the going to the Hall of the Two Truths, and of the separating of a person from his sins, when he had been made to see the faces of the gods, the whole ceremonial is set forth. The worst form of punishment was that of annihilation and destruction by the hippopotamus-shaped Devourer. After passing through the various trials and troubles the soul, according to Egyptian teaching, entered the abode of beatified spirits, and remained in bliss until it rejoined the body in the tomb. As the Egyptian creed did not imply a resurrection to immortal life in heaven, so there does not seem any real trace of such a belief in the teaching of Babylonia. Merodach, as I have already said, could raise the dead to life; but it was only a restoration to life here, not to eternal life in heaven with God. Immortality could only be obtained by drinking of the " waters of life " which rose in the mystic fountain in the centre of the palace of the under-world, and were guarded by the Anunas. Istar only obtained her release when Namtar " had poured out for her the waters of life." With the gradual predominance of Semitic thought there arose another belief in the attainment of immortality. This was by leading the perfect life which led to translation or deification. Just as "Enoch was a just man and walked * Jackal-headed god. See illustration, p. 184. t In this chapter occurs the famous "Negative confession," which by some is regarded as the source of the Decalogue. X 170 PRBHTITE IDEAS OF HEAVEN. with God, and God took him" (Gen. 5. 24), so Elijah, in whom was a perfect manifestation of the prophetic life, ascended to heaven, so Samas-Napisti, the Chaldean Noah, V who only had been the servant of the gods," was translated or deified, or absorbed into the gods. This same idea is well expressed by the words in the Deluge Tablet : " Formerly Sainas-Napisti was as mankind (ami- lutum-ma). From now Samas-Napisti and his wife, to be like gods, are borne away, and there to dwell Samas- Napisti at the mouth of the river in a remote place they took us. And in a remote place at the mouth of the rivers they caused us to dwell." THE CONCEPTION OF HEAVEN. It is one of the most fascinating and, at the same time, one of the most difficult subjects in the study of the mythological literature of an ancient people to ascer- tain the conception which they formed of the future state of the blessed. It may be generally assumed that the conception of heaven which an ancient people form, is usually an idealised, beatified form of the happiest life on earth. The North- American Indian has his " happy hunting grounds " ; the Norseman his " Valhalla," with its perpetual wassail and banquet with golden cups of mead ; and the Mohammedan his " paradise " of harem delights ; while the peaceful ancient Egyptian had his " happy fields." It is also to be noticed that as a nation rises in the scale of civilisation so the conception of heaven becomes grander and brighter. The heaven of a wandering people, living in tents and rich in flocks and herds, differs from that of a city-dwelling people whose greatness centres in PASTORAL HEAVEN. \^\ a court or king, and where the law that might is right holds sway. The one is the eternal fields, the other sees before him the court or camp, the place of mighty warriors. In Babylonian and Assyrian literature we have these several stages of development represented by texts of various ages. The earliest conception of heaven is a simple one, set forth in one of the hymns of the primitive Chaldean age. The text is one of the litanies of the religio-magical creed, and relates to the healing of a sick man : " On the butter which is brought from a pure stall, The milk which is brought from a pure sheepcote, The pure butter of the pure stall, lay a spell. May the' man, the son of his god, recover ; May the man be bright and pure as the butter, May he be white as this milk." Here is the heaven of the shepherd, with the blessed flocks and herds. References to a place of happiness and a heaven are very scarce, indeed almost wanting in the older Akkadian pre- Semitic literature of Babylonia. It is true they had the " sky-god Ana," and the " Spirit of heaven" is invoked in the magical litanies, but it is cer- tainly rather the natural all-covering sky than the abode of the risen blessed. With the advent of the Semites the conception is changed and extended. Anna under the form of Anu be- comes no longer the god of the visible vault of heaven, but the king of the invisible world above the all-covering sky, the serene and happy regions above the clouds, where the gods held court. It is the land of the " silver sky," the heaven of Anu, the seventh heaven, to which the gods ascended when the terrible Deluge took place, and 172 HEAVEN OF ANU. where the court of the Sky-god has replaced the summit of the World Mountain. THE HEAVEN OF ANU. Just as we were fortunate in having recovered an in- scription (of which we could ascertain the approximate date) describing the under-world, so from the same source we have obtained one which contains a description of heaven. Among the tablets from Tel el-Amarna in Egypt which formed part of the library of the heretic Pharaoh, Amenophis IV. (Khu-en Aten), who reigned about B.C. 1430, is one containing the legend of a certain Adapa, the fisherman of the god Ea, who was permitted to enter heaven to obtain pardon from the god Anu for having broken the wings of the south wind. The tablet is unfortunately broken both at the beginning and end. Adapa, man of the god Ea, was fishing in the midst of the sea, in the house of the fishes, to catch fish for his master Ea. The sea was smooth, but the south wind blew and caused the sea to sweep over Adapa and to sink him in the sea. In his rage he threatens to break the wings of the south wind. The text now becomes more complete : - As he spoke thus with his mouth, the wings of the south wind were broken. For seven days the south wind blew no more across the land. Then Anu spake thus to his messenger the god Ilabrat. " Why has the south wind not blown across the land these seven days ? " His messenger, the god Ilabrat, answered him, " My lord, Adapa, the son of the god Ea, hath broken the wings of the south wind." When Anu heard these words he cried out " Help ! '' THE GUAEDIANS OF HEAVEN. 173 The next few lines are too mutilated for consecutive translation. They describe how Ann orders Adapa to be brought before him, and how Ea arrays his son in a shroud and warns him as to his conduct when going be- fore the god of heaven. " When thou risest up to heaven and readiest the gate of Ann, the god Tammuz and the god Giz-zida (Tree of Life) will stand at the gate of Anu ; they will see thee, and call out ' Help, help, Lord ! For whom dost thou mourn, O Adapa? For whom hast thou put on a shroud?' 'Two gods have died in our land' (shalt thou answer), 'therefore do I this.' 'Who are the two gods that have died in thy land ? ' Then shall the god Tammuz and the god Giz-zida look upon each other and raise their voices in lamentation. Then shall they speak a word of favour before Anu, and cause thee to behold the beautiful face of Anu." " When thou comest in to the presence of Anu they will offer thee food of death. Eat it not. Water of death they will offer thee. Drink it not. A garment they will offer thee. Put it on. Oil they will offer thee. Anoint thyself with it. Despise not the words I have given thee ; ponder upon the words I have spoken to thee." Then the messenger of Anu arrived, " Adapa has broken the wings of the south wind." " Bring him before me" (said Anu). Here there is again a break in the tablet, and when we can resume, it reads : " When he had risen up to the gate of heaven, and had reached the gate of Anu, the god Tammuz and the god Giz-zida stood at the gate of Anu. When they saw Adapa they called out ' Help, Lord ! For whom dost thou mourn, Adapa ? For whom hast thou put on a shroud ? ' ' Two gods have 174 THE FOOD OF LIFE. died in our land, therefore do I put on a shroud.' l Who are the two gods that have died in the land ? ' The god Tammuz and the god Griz-zida looked at each other and raised their voices in lamentation. "When Adapa now drew near to the presence of Anu, Anu saw him, and said, 'O Adapa, why hast thou broken the wings of the south wind ? ' And Adapa answered Anu, ' My lord, in the midst of the sea I was catching fish for the house of my lord, while still and smooth lay the waters around me. Then rose the south wind and dipped me into the waters.' " Then follow some more fragmentary lines in which Adapa relates how, in the anger of his heart, he broke the Avings of the south wind. Then the god Tammuz and the god Giz-zida spoke a favourable word to the god Anu, and he answered, " Why did Anu permit a sinful man to behold the innermost parts of heaven and earth. He made him great and gave him renown ; but what shall we grant him ? Let food of life be offered him, so that he may eat."* " Then food of life was offered him and he ate not. Water of life was offered him and he drank not. A gar- ment was offered to him and he clothed himself. Oil was offered to him and he anointed himself. Then Anu looked upon him and raised his voice in lamentation, O Adapa, wherefore eatest thou not ? Wherefore drinkest thou not? The gift of life cannot be thine. I remem- bered the words of Ea, my lord which he spake to me : Eat not, drink not, but put on the garment and anoiut thyself ; and Anu let him return to his own land." Con- * I am indebted to the rendering of this list to the Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, London, by Prof. Sayce, for the reading of many obscure passages. THE KOBE OF BRIGHTNESS. 175 fused as this text is, due in some measure, I think, to its being a student's copy, it contains some matter of interest. The entrance to heaven can only be through death, and therefore Adapa disguises himself as one dead by wear- ing a shroud, and immortality is only gained by eating the "food of (eternal) life, and drinking the waters of (eternal) life," which are the food and waters of death to mortals. Of special interest is the mention of the robe with which the inhabitants of heaven are clothed. In another text in the British Museum this is called the " robe of brightness," reminding us of the " wedding gar- ment" in the parable (Matt. 22. 11). The anointing with oil also forms a curious parallel to the " oil of gladness " (Ps. 45. 7). The position of Tammuz and Griz-zida reminds us, as Professor Sayce has pointed out, of the pillars Jachin and Boaz at the gates of the Temple (1 Kings 7. 21). It is also curious to find the god of the Tree of Life forming the guardians of the gate of heaven, for after the Fall, man was shut out from eating of the tree, " lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever" (Gen. 3. 22). There are other inscriptions which show that the Assyrians had a clear idea of a place of happiness to which those who had " eaten the food of life or drank the waters of life " would go to dwell. In a hymn of the late age of Assurbanipal (B.C. 668) there is a passage which indicates this belief : " As a man may he live and be at peace. Over kings and princes may he exercise wide-spread dominion. May he come to grey hairs. For the men who utter these prayers may the laud of the silver sky, oil unceasing, and wine of 17G THE HEBSEW AND CHRISTIAN HEAVEN. blessedness be their food, and a perpetual noon-day their light. Health to thy body and prosperity is my prayer to the gods who dwell in the land of Assyria." We cannot compare these passages with any in the Old Testament, for it is remarkable to note how lacking these books are in any description of the future abode of the blessed; indeed, only one text can be quoted with any certainty. " Thou wilt shew me the path of life, in thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Ps. 16. 11). It was not until the advent of Christianity, with its wider hopes, with its grand doctrine of the resurrection and the Kingdom of Heaven, that the true conception of the life of heaven was realized. A true conception of the nature of sin, and of the alien- ation thereby from God, enlarged and spiritualised the crude material conceptions of Judaism, and out of them came the beautiful conceptions of the Kingdom of Heaven which adorn the New Testament. Symbols already familiar to us appear in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, such as the " Marriage Feast," the " River of Life," the " Throne of God," and other con- ceptions, but all have a new and truer meaning in the teaching of Christ. There can be little doubt that during the period of the later Babylonian Empire, from B.C. 606-538, and during the Persian rule, the teaching of the Babylonian priests underwent many changes and attained to a higher and purer form. It was during these and subsequent ages that much of the eschatology which we find in Jewish and apocalyptic writers grew up, and that the Kingdom of Heaven began to assume a definite shape in the reli- THE HEBREW AND CHRISTIAN HEAVEN. 177 gious teachings of the age, but no definite conclusion can as yet be arrived at owing to the dearth at present of religious texts of this period. That throughout long ages the Babylonians had been developing a definite scheme of belief as to the future life is perfectly evident from the testimony of the Monuments. Eyre & Spottiswoode, Her Majesty's Printers, Downs Park Road, N.E. Y HEE MAJESTY'S PEINTEES' THE STUDENT'S HANDBOOK TO THE PSALMS. LEX MOSAICA; OR, THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY. SPECIAL EDITIONS OF THE HOLY BIBLE. SPECIAL EDITIONS OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. &C. &C. EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, LONDON GREAT NEW STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C. EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, AND NEW. YORK. e3ttertttn*ttt ^Publication* grtle fftce : EAST HABDING STREET, LONDON, E.G. CONTENTS. FA6E THE STUDENT'S HANDBOOK TO THE PSALMS . . . . . 3 LExMosAiCA; OH, THE OLD TESTAMENT, AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM 4 THE QUEEN'S PBINTBRS' gible gitttb*ttt' gibratrui VOL. I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE BIBLE .... 6 VOL. II. THE LAW IN THE PHOPHBTS ..... 7 VOL. III. THE PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM . . 8 THE QUEEN'S PRINTERS' ^fpecial (SMiion* of iije gtble: THE VARIORUM KEFERENCE BIBLE (Large Type). . . 9 THE VARIORUM KEFERENCE APOCRYPHA (Large Type) . . 10 THE VARIORUM EEFERENCB TEACHER'S BIBLE (Large Type). 12 THE VARIORUM KEFERENCE TEACHER'S BIBLE (Nonpareil 8vo.) 12 THE QUEEN'S PRINTERS' TEACHER'S BIBLE (New Edition, 1894) . 14 AIDS TO BIBLE STUDENTS (New Edition, 1894) . , . 15, 16 THE MARKED LECTERN BIBLE (t red and black) . . . 21 THE FAMILY BIBLE WITH COMMENTARY . . . . . 22 THE QUEEN'S PRINTERS' Special .r>., .Late Fellow of Christ College, Cambridge. Size, small 4to., cloth, bevelled boards, gilt top, price 12 - rilHIS Handbook aims at treating the poetry and theology of the Psalms in such a manner as shall benefit not only the student of the Hebrew, but also the English reader who takes an intelligent interest in the con- troversies of the day, and finds in the Psalms the daily food of devotion. The work will be of use to students for theological degrees, and to all who adopt the purpose of St. Paul : " / will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also." 1 Cor. 14. 15. SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The Times. "Very useful to students and devout readers." Literary World. " Dr. Sharpe has taken infinite pains to place his subject as clearly as possible before the English reader." Record." Dr. Sharpe is to be warmly thanked for his book. It is good to find a scholar referring to the 'old paths' and confessing that '.continued study ever demonstrates more fully' their superiority." The Christian World. "It is full of useful information." Sunday School Chronicle. " The book is one which Sunday School Teachers will find exceptionally useful." The Irish Times. "This handbook to the Psalms will be invaluable to every earnest Christian student. Dr. Sharpe lays the Christian communities under an obligation everywhere." The Scotsman. "The book will be highly prized by thoe who 'stand in the old paths' and which those who are seeking to advance will find worthy of their considerations." Western Morning News." A scholarly and valuable book, which should be found in all theological libraries." RETAIL OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. EYRE $ SPOTTISWOODE. gpectctl publications. LEX MOSAICA; OR, THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM. EDITED BY THE Rev. RICHARD YALPY FRENCH, D.C.L., LL.D., F.S.A., WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE LATE RIGHT REVEREND LORD ARTHUR C. HERVEY, D.D, Bishop of Bath and Wells. bg Various Writers on tbe Xaw of jflfcoses anD tbe Ibfgber Criticism. LIST OF 1 COISrrRIBTJTORS : -Bev. A. H. SATCE, D.D., LL.D. Bev. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A. Bev. GEORGE C. M. DOUGLAS, D.D. Bev. B. B. GIRDLESTONE. M.A. Bev. BICHARD VALPT FRENCH, D.C.L., LL.D., P.8.A. Bev. J. J. LIAS, M.A. Bev. J. SHARPE, D.D. Bev. ALEXANDER STEWART, LL.D., F.A.S. Bev. STANLEY LEATHES, D.D. Bev. BOBEKT SINKER, D.D. Bev. F. E. SPEXCER, M.A. Bev. BOBKRT WATTS, D.D., LL.D. Bev. F. WATSON, D.D. WITH A SUMMABY BY THE Rev. HENRY "WAGE, D.D., Principal of King's College, London. Royal 8vo., Half-bound Vellum Cloth, Red Burnished Edges, IS/- RETAIL, OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. EYEE $ SPOTTISWOODE, ial 'g'ubltcaftons. LEX M O S A I C A continued. Some pinions of tbe press, The Times. "A volume of conservative but scholarly Biblical criticism." Church Times." Here stands the deliverance of fourteen able men speaking at their best." Record." We fully believe that this book will be of great use in this time of unrest." Churchman. '"Lex Mosaica' is a valuable handbook of this momentous con- troversy." The Tablet." An important contribution to the literature of the subject." Expository Times." The most serious effort that has yet been made to stem the advancing tide of Old Testament criticism." Church Family Newspaper." The volume is one of great interest, which must command the earnest attention both of Biblical Students and critics." Christian." An armoury of facts and arguments against one of the most formid- able adversaries of a firm and settled faith in the inspired "Word of God." Sunday School Chronicle." We very gladly welcome this book. It presents a mass of clear and precise information of priceless value to the Bible students." The Methodist Times." The writers of ' Lex Mosaica ' deserve the grateful thanks of all who believe in the Old Testament as a rovelation of God, given through men who were guided in all their work by the operation of the Divine Spirit." Christian News. ""We commend this stately volume to our readers." Oxford Journal. " The list of contributors to this work is a sufficient guarantee of the thoroughness of the historical investigations contained in it." Cambridge Chronicle." ' Lex Mosaica ' is one of the most elaborate expositions of the historical part of the Bible that has ever been produced." Irish Times. "The volume of the year." Scotsman. "An honest, and earnest, and altogether worthy contribution to the literature of a great and important subject." Glasgow Herald. " It is impossible not to admire the splendid controversial skill which the writers display, and the vigour with which they deal their blows." Liverpool Mercury. "It is impossible to speak too highly of the learning, research, and dialectical power which mark this volume." , Bristol Times." The book is at once a brave challenge and a dignified rebuke." Yorkshire Post." Another and weighty contribution to the vexed subject of Old Testament criticism." Western Morning News." B/eaders will be surprised at the force which the argument acquires when viewed in the light of the vast array of facts marshalled in these pages." Western Mail. "It is doubtless the most important contribution to Biblical literature that ha-> appeared for many years in this country." GREAT NEW 8TEEET, LONDON, E.G. 6 gpecial ^Publications. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY. Cloth Boards, Red Edges. Demy 8vo. Price 3s. 6d. Volumes I.-III. Others in preparation. FOURTH EDITION, REVISED. Volume I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE BIBLE: STUDIES IN OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM. R, B, GIRDLESTONE, M.A., Hon. Canon of Christ Church; late Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. SOME OPINIONS. Guardian. " Written in a reverent spirit." Theological Monthly. " Any one who takes up the book will be led, we think, to peruse and ponder till he arrives at a sound conclusion on what is, and must remain, one of the most important matters within human ken." Church Review." An invaluable work." Bock. " Canon Girdlestone as an expert gives us the results of his own personal research. We are taken into the very workshop and shown the methods and processes by which the final results have been attained. Churchman. " It is worthy to become a text-book in a theological assembly." Christian." Will assist many to gain a firm foothold with regard to the verity of Holy Writ." Literary Churchman. "This is a book of exceeding breadth of learning, and quite exceptional value. We desire to give an unusually emphatic recommendation to this valuable treatise." Literary Opinion." The style throughout is clear, elevated, and forcible." Globe. " A mine of strength to the holders of the ancient faith." Quiver." We can heartily commend it." Baptist. " Canon Girdlestone's arguments will command general respect." National Church. " This is precisely the kind of work wanted in these critical times." Evening News. " A perfect armoury of argument and scholarship." Yorkshire Post. " Shows results as interesting as they are valuable." Church Bells. " The various topics involved are put in a very interesting way." British Weekly." It has a calm and dignified style beauty itself, with a splendid courtesy to opponents, and altogether it is a pleasant book to read." RETAIL OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. EYEE % SPOTTISWOODE, "^itbltcafions. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY continued. Volume II. THE LAW IN THE PROPHETS. BY THE REV. STANLEY LEATHES, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London ; Prebendary of St. Paul's ; Author of " The Structure of the Old Testament"; The Religion of the Christ " (Hampton Lecture) ; " Christ and the Bible," &c., &c EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE. The late Dr. LIDDOX wrote : " How I wish you could see your " way to writing a book on, say, ' The Law and the Prophets,' " putting the Law back into the chronological and authoritative " place from which the new criticism would depose it, and so " incidentally reasserting in the main, and with the necessary " reservations, the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch." This book is partly the result of that suggestion. SO:ME OPINIONS. Church Quarterly Review. " A careful work." Guardian." Deserves wide circulation It was an excellent idea thus to collect these allusions." Church Times. " Most valuable." Spectator." Proves the antiquity of the Mosaic Law, by the references that are made to it in the books of the Prophets, books that are conceded on all hands to have at least a considerable relative antiquity. The contention of the extremists, that the whole legal ritual is post-exilian, certainly lays itself open to hostile criticism. The appeal of the Prophets to the Hebrew people seems founded on the fact that there was a covenant which the people had broken." Church Review. " If Dr. Stanley Leathes had never done any other good thing than he has done in writing this most valuable lx>ok, he would be fairly entitled to rank as one of the most successful defenders of lloly Scriptures of our day." Baptist Magazine. " Dr. Leathes has set an example which all who are opposed to the method and result of modern Biblical criticism would do well to follow. He brings the question to a sound and religious test." RETAIL OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. GREAT NEW STEEET, LONDON, E.G. Special ^ubltcafton?. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S Volume III. PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM. BY THE REV. J, J. LIAS, M,A,, Rector of East Bergholt ; formerly Hulsean Lecturer, and Preacher at the Chapel Soyal, Whitehall. rE object of this volume is to place before the reader the principles on which the criticism of the Bible has been carried on, as well as the results which are supposed to have been obtained, and to inquire how far those results may be believed to have been successful. The Author, feeling that the present-day life is far too busy to admit of the perusal of large works filled with a mass of detail, and that the great want in many departments of science and more especially in theo- logical science is manuals which shall deal with first principles, has endeavoured to collect the main outlines of the subject, and present it in convenient form, and also to make the facts and arguments set forth intelli- gible to those whose acquaintance with the learned languages is slender. SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The Church Times. "We have seldom seen in so small a compass so admirable, and withal temperate, exposition of the ingenious puzzles which German criticism has been weaving under the guise of truth. We gratefully recognize the value and importance of this volume ; and a reverent investigation carried on, on the lines here suggested, cannot fail to be profitable to the Biblical student." The Record. "The book is one that we can very cordially recommend." Church Quarterly Review. "Mr. Lias is entitled to the gratitude of churchmen." Expository Times. " Exceedingly useful as a storehouse of facts." Spectator." Perhaps the most important chapter is that of ' The Evidence of the Psalms.' Mr. Lias knows that the controversy turns largely on the date of these." RETAIL OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. EYRE $ SPOTTISWOODE, THE NEW BIBLE FOR PREACHERS, TEACHERS, & STUDENTS. Large Type VARIORUM Reference Bible, (Size, 9f x 6J x H inches. 1308 pages.) WITH APOCRYPHA. (Size, 9| x 6J x 1J inches. 276 pages.) For the TEACHER'S EDITION (1980 pages) see page 12. The Year 1893 will be remembered by Bible Readers for the Publication of NEW Editions of the various TEACHER'S BIBLES, but most particularly for the Completion of the New Edition of the Variorum Reference Bible. The VARIORUM Edition of the Authorised Version has a great and independent value, whether for daily use or as a standard work of Reference. It meets the wants of every grade of student, from the intelligent reader to the learned reviser. In its style and appearance the VARIORUM REFERENCE BIBLE has been stu- diously assimilated to the ordinary 8vo. Reference Bible to make its utility no less universal. This Edition is distinguished from all other Reference Bibles by the addition, on the same page ns the Text, in Foot-notes, of a complete digest of the chief of the various Renderings and Readings of the original text from the very best Authorities. The sources from which the Annotations are taken comprise, in the OLD TESTAMENT. APOCRYPHA. NEW TESTAMENT. QO rvvminpntnt/wa 78 Commentators, u vlZ til, o , Vml 20 Versions, 23 Ancient Manuscripts, the Revised Version, n crit ical Editions of the Text, AND ""> AND R.V. Marginal Readings. 15 Manuscripts. Revised Version & Margin. The VARIORUM Notes, together with the "New aifca ic Btblr Students " (see pages 15-17), give to the ordinary reader of Scripture an amount of information nitherto confined to great scholars and owners of a very costly Library, and com- prise the quintessence of Biblical Scholarship in the most convenient form. The Commentary here is strictly textual (with Brief Explanatory Notes) : and the names of the Editors Professors CHEYNE, DRIVER, SANDAY, the late Uev. P. L. CLARKE, and the Rev. C. J. BALL are sufficient guarantees for its accuracy and completeness. The numerous Commendations of the completed Work include: The Rev. Dr. Wace, Principal of King's College, London : " It is a work of incalculable usefulness, for which the warmest gratitude is due alike to the editors and yourselves." The Rev. Canon W. J. Knox Little : " It is a beautiful and valuable work. I think it the most satisfactory copy I have ever had. I like it more, the more I make use of it." RETAIL OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. I 10 Special IJfubltcaftons THE VARIORUM APOCRYPHA: EDITED WITH VARIOUS RENDERINGS AND READINGS FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES, BT THE REV. C. J. BALL, M.A., Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn. Large Type. (Bourgeois 8vo.) Superfine Paper. 276 Pages. Cloth, bevelled boards, red edges . . . . 66 Leather, gilt edges 7, 6 Leather, round corners, red under gold edges, gold roll inside cover . . . . 86 Morocco, boards or limp, gilt edges, gold roll inside cover 13/6 Morocco, limp, round corners, red under gold edges, gold roll inside cover . . 16/- Levant Yapp, round corners, gilt edges, lined Calf panels . . , . . . . . 24 /- SOME OPINIONS. Guardian : Mr. Ball has worked through a large number of authorities forty-nine; he has not however confined himself to quoting their opinions, but has added throughout many suggestions of his own, both critical and explanatory. "The information which he has given is judiciously selected, and the advance marked by his work, on previous works upon the Apocrypha, is exceedingly great." Record : " The study of the Apocrypha is gaining ground, and it is a great convenience to have the interpretations of the commentators in so handy a form. Lovers of ancient Jewish literature must heartily thank the editor for placing in their hands so convenient and trustworthy a summary of recent criticism." Globe : "The editor has done his work carefully and with knowledge. He contributes an informing preface, and his annotations are to the point." Church Review: "This volume, which completes the 'Variorum Bible' is a fitting crown to a task which has done more to explain the littera scripta of the Holy Scriptures than any other publication of its kind. " Mr. Ball's scholarship and researches have brought much light to bear on many obscure passages. "The number of commentators, versions, and MSS. consulted by the editor is a guarantee of the thoroughness with which he has discharged his task ; his name guarantees the ability with which he has done it." EYRE Sf SPOTTISWOODE, 11 VARIORUM APOCRYPHA continued. Expository Times : "Possessors of the 'Variorum Bible' will understand what the Variorum Apocrypha means. There was great need for such an edition of the Apocrypha. The work has been done with patience and good judgment." Public Opinion: "Furnishes the general reader with the quintessence of modern and ancient learning bearing on the text." Literary World: " Mr. Ball gives us a ' Variorum ' edition, embodying not only different readings, but in some cases his own happy emendation of corrupt passages. He gives the poetical parts in metrical form. His edition will be prized by the student, and will stimulate the appetite of the English reader." Ecclesiastical Chronicle : " To have all the best renderings focussed, as it were, for ready use, is a privilege every student of the book should appreciate." Eock : " It is most convenient for the requirements of the student. It should find a place in every clergyman's library." Church Quarterly Review; "One of the greatest difficulties in dealing with the Apocrypha consists in the endeavours to restore the lost original text of books which, for the most part, once existed in the Hebrew tongue. In his preface Mr. Ball points out numerous instances where confusions of similar Hebrew letters have made sheer nonsense of the Greek text. " The book is a welcome addition to the well-known Variorum Inference Bible." Saturday Review: "The books of the Apocrypha, containing as they do much splendid literature, should have the long standing neglect they have suffered removed, by such an edition." Queen : "A valuable work." Church Times: "Most complete, containing everything having an important bearing on the text." Professor E. NESTLE, the distinguished Septuagint Scholar, writes: "Eine Erganzung zur Variorum Bible, die nicht genug empfohlen werden kann." Theologische Literaturzeitung, Leipzig, 20 Januar, ISfri. "How splendidly has Ball restored the corrupt text of Judith xvi. 2 (3) by inserting a single letter, 6 riSels. Many more examples might be quoted from Ball's Variorum Apocrypha." From Professor E. Nestle's Paper on The Cambridge Septuagint (Transactions of The Ninth International Congress of Orientalists). GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 12 Special "ghtbltcafions. THE BIBLE READER'S VADE MECUM. THE VARIORUM TEACHER'S BIBLE. With APOCRYPHA. (276 pages.) See p. 10. NEW LARGE TYPE EDITION. Bourgeois &vo. (Size, 9$ x 6J x 2 inches). 1980 pages. THIS novel and comprehensive Edition of the Authorised Version -the climax towards which the Queen's Printers have consistently developed their Series of Teacher's Bibles during nearly 20 years (1875-1894) combines I. The VARIORUM Qefevence $Ule. (See pp. 9, 10.) II. The " Al DS tu tlje ^tufrimt of tlje S graphy," &c. PROFESSOR N. STORY MASKELYNE. M.A., F.R.S.. Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Oxford ; Hon. Fellow of Wadhatn College, Oxford. W. ST. CHAD BOSCAWEN, F.R.H.S. SIK J. STAINER, M.A., Mus. Doc., Professor of Music in the University of Oxford. F. W. MADDEN, M.R.A.S., Author of "History of Jewish Coinage," dtc. RETAIL OF AT.T. BOOKSELLERS. GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 18 Special 'g'ubltcaftons. fljticeif s VARIORUM and orfEACHER'S BIBLES. OFINIOISTS OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY (Da. BENSON) : The Archbishop said, at a Diocesan Conference : " I should like to call the atten- tion of the Convocation to the New Edition of the ' Variorum Reference Bible,' published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. I will just read an account of what it contains. The whole book has been revised. It was laid, I may say, before the Lambeth Conference the promise of it and now it is finished. The old edition forms the basis of the new edition; it is printed in larger type; and every passage which has been disputed by great scholars as to its correct translation or rendering, is marked by a figure before and after the sentence or word, these figures referring to the foot-notes, which give the alternative renderings or readings, together with the authorities for the same, abbreviated to save space. The collection of these notes from 69 commentators for the Old Testament, and 73 for the New, has occupied many years close study and preparation. The New Edition is much amplified as com- pared with the old one, and you may like to know that the opinion of Dr. Westcott is that it is much the best edition of the kind that has appeared." THE LATE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK (DR. THOMSON) : "The names of the authors guarantee its excellence. A miniature library of illustrative matter. If such a book is carefully and generally used, there must be a great improvement in Bible knowledge in this generation. The critical matter at the foot of the columns is remarkably complete. The last feature gives it special value." THE LATE ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH: " I have carefully examined the ' Variorum Teacher's Bible ' published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. The varied and valuable amount of information it contains is most remarkable. There are few subjects connected with the Bible left un- elucidated. The Student of the Bible will find the Variorum Edition a treasury replete with instruction." THE BISHOP OF DURHAM (DR. WESTCOTT) : "Admirably done. I constantly use it." THE BISHOP OF LIMERICK: "The Variorum (Teacher's) Bible, with its References, Concordance, Various Read- ings and Renderings, and supplemented by its Aids to Students, serves as a Biblical Encyclopaedia, useful by its compactness and the value of its contents, to Biblical Students of all grades." THE BISHOP OF EXETER (DR. BICKERSTETH) : "I am much gratified with it ... eminently fitted for teachers, and all who desire in a clear and compendious form very full information respecting the sacred Scriptures. "A most valuable work, and will greatly enrich the library of Biblical Students. THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF: "An immense amount of information, a great help to Teachers, and to Bible readers generally. " The names guarantee the value of the information. I trust it will be largely circulated." THE BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S (DR. W. BASIL JONES) : "I have delayed . . . until I could find more time to look into the volume; it contains so large an amount and variety of matter in a very small space. But its contents appear to me of the highest value and admirable in arrangement. I would refer especially to the various Readings and Renderings in the foot-notes." ETRE Sf SPOTTISWOODE, gpecial 'g'ubltcaficms. 19 THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL: "A very valuable work, well suited for those for whom it is designed, and for all earnest students." THE BISHOP OF LIVERPOOL: " I admire it very much, and think it a most valuable edition of the Holy Scriptures. I shall be glad to recommend your work." THE BISHOP OF WAKEFIELD (DR. WALSHAM How) : "I have carefully examined the (Variorum) Teacher's Bible published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, and I consider it a most valuable work. Believing that the Bible is its own best interpreter, I am sure that the aids to an intelligent under- standing of the text itself, together with the assistance given to students who desire to have an accurate conception of the purest form of that text, will prove of inestimable service to all Bible readers." THE BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR: "I consider the Variorum Teacher's Bible highly useful both to Teachers and Students. The various readings in the foot-notes largely increase its usefulness, placing before the professional Student an amount of information and research, which to many would otherwise be inaccessible." THE BISHOP OF CORK: "The eminent names of those who have contributed Articles to the Teacher's Aids are a guarantee for the accuracy of the information, which will be found most valuable to those who wish to understand or teach, or first to understand and then to teach, and help to provide that skilled and accurate teaching, which is not only the true antidote to prevalent unbelief, but the great preventive of it." THE BISHOP OF KILLALOE (DR. FITZGERALD) : "I find it to be a most perfect compendium of information on almost every Biblical matter that could be comprised within such a compass, and it seems marvellous how much has been introduced and how varied the topics. It will, I am sure, prove a most important aid to Clergymen, Sunday School Teachers, and many others, and I hope to avail myself of it yet in that direction." THE BISHOP OF TUAM: . " I admire greatly the most valuable contents." THE BISHOP OF KILMORE (DR. DARLEY) : " I have looked through it carefully ... a most valuable edition of the sacred Scriptures. The Variorum foot-notes represent much critical research, very carefully arranged ; the Aids to Bible Students contain a mass of interesting information in a convenient form ; useful alike to Teachers and Students." THE BISHOP OF OSSORT: " I feel pleasure in bearing my testimony. "An invaluable aid both to Clergymen and Teachers, and a marvel of cheapness. The more I have examined it, the more thoroughly have I been satisfied and pleased." THE RIGHT REV. BISHOP BARRY: "For the study of the Text is invaluable." THE DEAN OF SALISBURY: " I am fully sensible of the great boon you have put within the reach of Bible students and it will be my endeavour to promote the knowledge of this valuable edition." THE DEAN OF ELY: " I hope to make use of it, with its various adjuncts of Notes, Readings," 4c., 4c. THE DEAN OF LINCOLN : " The work will be extremely useful." THE DEAN OF ROCHESTER (late Master ofBalliol College, Oxford) : "A great achievement of toil and thought." GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 20 Special publications. THE (LATE) DEAN OP ST. PAUL'S (DR. CHURCH) : "A wonderful digest of learning. The names of the various scholars are, of course, warrant of care and accuracy, and certainly nothing so complete and com- prehensive, in such a compass, has ever before been attempted." THE DEAN OF PETERBOROUGH: "Your Bible strikes me as admirable in every respect. The Various Renderings considerably enhance the value of the work. It will give me very great pleasure to do all in my power to promote the circulation. I know of no one volume to be compared to it for the amount of information it conveys." THE DEAN OP NORWICH ( DR. W. LEPROT, D.D.) : "There is no work of the kind comparable to this work. It is invaluable." THE VERT RET. DR. VAUGHAN, Dean of Llandaff, and (late) Master of the Temple . "I use the Variorum Teacher's Bible with pleasure and profit." THE DEAN OF LICHFIELD: "I am both surprised and delighted at the fulness and accuracy of information to be found in it. " I will gladly mention it with the approbation which it so well deserves." THE VERT REV. DR. BUTLER, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge . "A great achievement." THB VEW. ARCHDEACON FARRAR: " It lies always on my desk. I place a high value upon it." THE LATE VEN. ARCHDEACON HESSET: "Students of the sacred volume will owe a deep debt to the projectors and producers." THE REV. CANON BODY: " Very well done." THE REV. CANON KNOX LITTLE : "Most useful and helpful." THE REV. DR. WACE, of King's College : "A work of incalculable usefulness." THE LATE REV. DR. EDERSHEIM : " It is certainly the best, most complete and useful which has hitherto appeared." THE REV. DR. SAMUEL G. GREEN : "As a companion to the Revised Version it is invaluable." DR. SALMOND, of Free College Aberdeen : " I trust it may secure a very wide circulation. The former edition has come to be a familiar book among our students." THE REV. HUGH PRICE HUGHES : "Incomparable and invaluable." DR. GREENWOOD, Victoria University (Owen's College), Manchester. "Its merits and remarkable features are already known to me." THE REV. JOSEPH PARKER, D.D.: " I have examined your Bible with great care. It is quite as valuable for preachers and hearers as for Teachers and scholars. " It is almost a library in itself, containing everything that is immediately needed for the elucidation of the sacred text." THE BISHOP OF ONTARIO: " My opinion of it is nothing so good has hitherto appeared. It is admirably adapted for its purpose of assisting Teachers, and cannot fail to be appreciated by all who are really anxious to find the best instruction in the sacred volume." THE REV. J. H. VINCENT, of Chautauqua . " The book is indeed a marvel, a library of learning, a book of books, concerning the ' Book of Books,' and deserves a wide circulation in Europe and America." EYRE Sf SPOTTISWOODE, Special publications. 21 SPECIAL EDITION (Lessons Marked in Red), Persian Levant, handsomely tooled, bevelled boards, red under gold edges, 1 16s. net. The Royal 4to. Bible and Apocrypha, with Marginal Maries, printed in red, indicating the Sunday, Holy-day, and Daily Lessons. The Lessons proper for Sundays are marked thus, in red. L_ 1st Sunday in Advent. Morn. j The Lessons proper for Holy-days are marked thus, in red. i^ St. Michael, 1st Lesson. Morn. The Daily Lessons are marked thus, in red. [_ January 9. Even. A Calendar to correspond, shows (also at a glance) the pages on which the Lessons occur, thus rendering mistake impossible. ^ RED.f ' THIS SYSTEM OF MARKING LEAVES THE TEXT UlfTOUCHEU. rrr I OW after the death of Moses the . servant of the LORD it came to pass, TVT 1.1 that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, 2 Moses my servant is dead ; now there- p e a fore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Leba- non even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going asm for SSiBimtnsttr ibbcg ; tbli fiolltgr, xforb ; anb 1800 CburrJKS anb Bound in Calf, Morocco, or Levant, prices 3 and upwards. OREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 22 pcciat publications. 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