• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

- Bap mat!” of B ib l e B u o m l cbgc . v . BA BY L O N I A N L I FE AN D H I T R Y S O . E A W A L L I BU D B A . S G E, . ' ' ' T r'wlzit H ebrew S elzolar late S cholar and xlz b tz oner y t , E z z ’ Cltrzlct s Colle e Cam brid qf g , ge . ' A ssistant in tlze D e artm ent o Oriental A ntz u ities Britts/z il p f y , l useu m . T R I O S T R A C T S C I ET Y H E E L I G U O , ' ER R o w A N D 6 ST . P A U L S CBURCHYARD . 56, P AT ERN OST 5, 1 884. fl The thin been is which sha be and which is g that hath , it that ll that do ne is that which shall be do ne a and there is no new thing under the ”— s E l un. cc esiastes i. 9. I N T R O D U CT I O N . TH E following pages have bee n written with the view o f ff stude nt c o ering to the Bible , in a small ompass, a l e he a n tho u ht ittl of t history of B bylo , her g , religion , and s e manner , and cons quently the means whereby he may understand better some of the allusions of the prophets and Bible historians . When they wrote, they knew they were addressing a nation fully acquainted with the knowledge necessary for the understanding of their words . We inhabitants of the West are obliged to have recourse to whatever contemporaneous records we can find fo r the explanation of the history of the o ns time which is no t clearly stated in the Bible. C e quently the notices of Bible events and Bible history which are obtained from the nation which had so much s to do with the Jew are of particul ar value. The cuneiform writings possess one wonderful attri bute, and that is, they are records of events written at f the time o their occurrence. Manuscript histories can w h be tampered it , letters altered or e rased, additions e o s out o ut nd s i r ins rted, wh le part , a , tart ng with eve y A 2 I N TR DU CTI O ON . thing correct, a careless scribe will make mistakes that after generations will never be able to put right . For x m th e n e a ple, in oldest Egyptian papyri , words, and eve h whole c apters, are written in such a way as to prove that the scribe canno t have understood what he was . h writing Fortunately, alterations in t ese cuneiform m docu ents have been rendered impossible, because they have been buried under the dust and dirt of th e centuries, out of reach of the hands alike of the . “ m e destructive Arab and Tourist, and , in a easur , u naffected by the hand of slowly but surely destroying Time . The decipherment of the clay tablets is not by any means easy, especially of the unbaked, which have recently been brought to England from o ld Babylon and n ffi Sepharvaim . The writi g is complex and di cult, and in many cases the sharp edge of the writing has e b en sadly rubbed, while the wedge itself is partly or wholly filled in with dust and silica. When the tablets are dug up they are wet and brittle ; when they dry, they often fall i nto dust or cru mble away slowly. Very much that has been done in cuneiform decipher ment is quite certain, but there is much that is still uncertain . The small body of cuneiform scholars is l h working hard to c ear up these doubts, some of w ich day by day disappear. The great need is more o n find syllabaries and bilingual tablets, which we may n the words expl ai ed which at present are unknown. A T IN ROD UCTION . 3 little patience and forbearance too from those who are sceptical as to the results obtained from cuneiform decipherment are necessary ; when cuneiform has been as and studied long as Greek Latin , there will be very little in it unknown . See what it has already done for Bible history ! It has told us of the land of Abraham ; it has given us a version of the story of the flood ; it has told us of Babylon and Nineveh it has brought us face to face with Ti lath - P ileser Sennacherib, g , Sargon, and Esarhaddon the it has revealed to us the home, the language, and thought of the haughty Nebuchadnezzar it has given f us some of the belie s, superstitions, religion, learning, “ and th e f w wisdom of ello citizens of Abraham, the friend of God ; it has caused us to know intimately a branch of the great Semitic race akin to the Jewish n nation from which spra g the Christ, and it carries us back through the long dark vista of centuries and shadowy time to a period when mankind was learning v n its letters, and step by step was slowly ad a cing to civilisation . The meanings of the names of the cities and countries no w mentioned in the Bible are made clear, as are also the meanings of the names of the kings and titles of ffi N the o cers . Thus, Nebuchadnezzar is ebo protects ” n N abo o lassar N la dmark, p is ebo protects the son , ab z ra an N is N u a d is ebo gave a seed, Sargon the “ ” established king, Esarhaddon is Assur gave a brother, A 2 T T 4 IN RODUC ION . “ the - Sennacherib is moon god increases brothers, T i lath - P ileser g is the servant, the son Of the Holy ” “ u Of m Ho se, Chedorlaomer is the landmark Laga ar, ” “ i “ t Rabshakeh is chief of the princes, Tartan s he ” mighty son, and so on . It is necessary to refer here to the inscription O f Of Si ara S argon I . pp , and to state plainly that the o Of pinions Assyriologists are divided as to its antiquity. A deeply learned French scholar denies that the first character in the name is rightly read, and says that the form Of the name is not what it should be ; and with this latter statement a renowned English scholar agrees. The arguments, however, which they bring forward are no t n O co clusive, in my pinion, although future discoveries Of may prove them to be right . In favour the inscription , there are many points ; among others, the form Of the Of characters the inscription and the inscription itself, and above all the date given by N abo nidu s in his cylinder. The Assyrians and Babylonians kept a good and Of strict reckoning events past, and their general correctness goes to show that there is no reason to doubt f f he O e O . o t accuracy the statem nt Nabonidus More ver, the date is found on more than one cylinder clearly and carefully written . The king could have no Object in fal h giving a se antiquity to his kingdom, or rat er in - limiting it to the time of Naram Sin and Sargon I . Of m There were kings Babylon before this ti e , why s n s then did he choose the e two mo arch , when he might INTRODUCTION . 5 C Of have hosen others greater antiquity, if he had wished merely to say that his kingdom existed for ever ? o ne Finally, I think that the evidence we have leads to the conclusion that the inscription is Of the period Of B C new s about . 3800. If in future days inscription f the r come to light, and su ficient evidence to contra y rw r u can be brought fo ard, I for one will chee fully give p the belief in what I now think a fact . The land that is tod ay a howling wilderness was once a flourishing country ; its cities were queens, and no w their inhabitants were the richest Of the rich . But its cities are ruined, its temples desolate, their gods w broken, and the makers have passed a ay together Of with their works . European travellers tell the desola tion and misery Of the land the wretched Arab prowls around the mounds which are the ruins Of th e former C Of ities the ancient highways the country are empty, C its emporiums are losed , and want, misery, and scarcity Of d are the kings the land to ay . It is a land with no ’ share in the world s progress, a land given over to a u Of superstition , the utterly corr pt and debased form its n ancient pagan religion, with its belief in gen , ghosts, ghouls, and monsters . What was good in it has departed, with its might, its power, and its glory . The l wood devil dances there, and , as Isaiah prophesied, is the m - it ho e Of the satyr and the screech owl . God s has for aken it, and its glory has perished . saiah xxxiv I .

Load more

  187

Copy Link