especially the creation of man, is a self-offering of the Deity: the infinite and unlimited giving itself up out of love to the finite and the limited. Hence, if we put aside the veil of the genealogical view, and see nothing in the sonship but the separate momenta of the divine selfconsciousness, we have the simplest expression of the idea, which, when differently applied, is represented as the sacrifice of the only son, or even as the slaying of the Father by the divine son.'" 1

1 Vide infra, p. 157.

VOL. I.

K

LETTER X.

(In Continuation.)

BEFORE We turn to the cuneiform accounts of Creation and the Deluge, it will be advisable to speak of the general claims of these records to antiquity, and hence to our special consideration. Nearly all the inscriptions to which I shall refer were excavated at Nineveh; and, for the most part, at Konyunjik, amid the ruined palaces of Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal, or Sardanapalus. Sir A. Layard, assisted by the vice-consul, Mr. Rassam, had been the first to discover these buried palaces at Konyunjik. After Sir Henry Rawlinson had detected the likeness between the cuneiform legends and those of Genesis, the trustees of the British Museum sent out the late G. Smith, who had greatly distinguished himself by his skill in deciphering the inscriptions already brought home. Smith made several valuable additions to the previous discoveries. Amongst them, parts of tablets containing descriptions of the Deluge, of Creation, and of the Tower of Babel; all nearly resembling the account of these events in Genesis. The inscriptions are upon small tablets of baked clay, varying from an inch to a foot square. They were inscribed by order of the two kings above named, who took the greatest pains to collect the legends from Babylon. So highly were these records prized that, they were kept in the palaces; and, in one instance, under the charge of the king's own brother.

The date of Sennacherib is 704 B.C., that of his grandson Sardanapalus, 670 B.C. This, of course, does not give to these legends an antiquity to compare with that of Genesis;

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and were they Assyrian compositions, we should at once say they were merely repeated from the Hebrew. But upon this head we have definite knowledge. "The Assyrians themselves state that the documents were copied from ancient Babylonian copies, and in some cases state that the old copies were partly illegible in their day."1 Occasionally we meet with actual proof of the antiquity of a text. Mr. Sayce tells us of a certain Assyrian copy, the Babylonian original of which has been discovered, "about one thousand years older than the Assyrian one. Similarly a fragment of a Babylonian transcript of the Deluge tablet has recently been brought from Babylonia, and serves not only to fill up some of the breaks in our Assyrian copies, but also to verify the text of the latter."

The only legends we need examine are those which have their counterparts in our Bible. That of the Flood is inscribed on two of a series of twelve tablets devoted to what are called the Izdubar legends. Izdubar is believed to be the Nimrod of the Bible. He was a great warrior and a mighty hunter; Erech was his city, as it was also one of the cities of Nimrod. Whether Izdubar was a solar hero we need not pause to inquire. He certainly resembles Herakles-doubtless a mythical personification of the sun-in many respects. He slays a lion, a bull, and a tyrant who may stand for Geryon. He carries away gems that grew on trees, like the apples of the Hesperides; and he sickens of a deadly fever, which matches the end of Hercules. The legends relating to Izdubar are, I believe, the most ancient in our possession. They are Semitic translations from the Akkadian language; which language must have been extinct before the tablets were inscribed. It is, moreover, certain that all these legends had an oral existence long before they were committed to writing. The following extracts (the whole is too long to cite) are taken from the eleventh tablet, which is the most perfect of the series. Column I., verses 13, 14 1 Prof. Sayce, ubi supra.

"To make a deluge the great gods have brought their heart even he, their father Anu, their king, the warrior Bel. 20, 21. Man of Surippak, son of Ubara-tutu, build a house, make a ship to preserve the sleep of plants (and) living beings. 38 to 43. Close the ship . . . at the season which I will make known to you, into it enter, and the door of the ship turn. . . Into the midst of thy grain, thy furniture, thy goods, thy wealth, thy woman-slaves, thy handmaids, the sons of the host, (the beasts) of the field, the wild animals of the field as many as I would protect." Column II., 2 to 5. "On the fifth day... it rose. In its circuit fourteen in all (were) its girders; fourteen in all it contained... above it I placed its roof, it . . . I enclosed it. 10 to 12. Three sari of bitumen I poured over the outside; three sari of bitumen I poured over the inside. 34. He spake, saying: In the night I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily." Then comes a description of what happened. 47 to 50. The spirits of earth carried destruction; in their terror they shake the earth; of Rimmon his flood reached to heaven. The darkened (earth to a waste) was turned." Column III., verses 1 to 6. "The surface of the earth like ... they covered, (it destroyed all) living beings from the face of the earth; the raging (deluge) over the people reached to heaven. Brother saw not his brother; men did not know one another. In heaven the gods feared the whirlwind and sought a refuge; they ascended to the heaven of Anu. 19 to 23. Six days and nights passed; the wind, the whirlwind, the storm overwhelmed. On the seventh day at its approach the rain was stayed; the raging whirlwind which had smitten like an earthquake was quieted. The sea began to dry, and the wind and deluge ended. 33, 34. The mountain of Nizir stopped the ship, and to pass over it it was not able. The first day, the second day, the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship. 38 to 46. I sent forth a dove, and it left. The dove went; it returned, and a resting-place it did not find, and it came back. I sent forth a swallow, and it left. The

swallow went; it returned, and a resting-place it did not find, and it came back. I sent forth a raven, and it left. The raven went forth, and the carrion on the water it saw, and it did eat; it swam, and turned away, it did not come back. I sent (the animals) forth to the four winds; I sacrificed a sacrifice; I built an altar on the peak of the mountain." It is impossible to doubt that this Chaldean story is the original of which we have the Hebrew copy in the Bible.

The CREATION tablets are unfortunately much injured; but they are not considered to be so ancient as the Izdubar series. They give descriptions of chaos and the generation of the gods, the gathering together of the waters, the creation of the heavenly bodies, and finally that of land animals. On a fragment of the first is written: "At that time above the heaven was unnamed; below the earth by name was unrecorded; the boundless deep also was their generator. The chaos of the sea was she who bore the whole of them. Their waters were collected together in one place," &c. "In the creation tablet," says Mr. Sayce, "the first existence is called Mummu Tiamatu, a name meaning the Chaos of the Deep.' . . . It is evident that, according to the notion of the Babylonians, the sea was the origin of all things, and this also agrees with the statement of Genesis i. 2, where the chaotic waters are called těhôm, 'the deep,' the same word as the Tiamat of the creative text," &c.1

12.

The fifth tablet gives the creation of the heavenly bodies, and is the equivalent of the fourth day of Genesis. "1. Anu made suitable mansions of the (seven) great gods. 2. The stars he placed in them, the lumasi he fixed. 4. For each of the twelve months three stars he fixed. The moon-god he caused to beautify the thick night. 19. At that time the sun (will be) on the horizon of heaven at thy (rising). 22. (Then) will the darkness return; the sun will change."

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