Oriental Stu D I Es

O R I E N T A L S T U D I E S BY LEWI S DAYTON BURDICK Auth or f Ma ic and H an r étc o g usb d y , . O ' FO R D , N . Y . TH E I RVI N G C O MPANY 1905 C OP Y RI G H T 1 , 905 , B Y LEWI S DAY T O N B U RDI C K P R E S S op T a n HER AL D C OMP ANY or B m c murr ox For a e m th ha all en m as r g s , y s ve be dee ed t u e ; E t a Par t t r t gyp i n , si, c ou n less o he s oo , t —We B elieved successive cree ds tha died . love a n f h h th r l r A e a e e e o d o new . pl si g ls ood , w ’ Me h n S Zimme ma The lz a z a l o n n Mirz a ' o . r n C f , . I n reverent han ds we hold Ea h m a e fr he Pa nd fa n tr c ess g om t st , a i would y Through myriad fragments dimly t o descry h r th A T e living glo ies of e g e of Gold . l a n to a rw a e tla ti Mon t/z Wi li m Cra r n L t n in Th A n c ly . C ONTENTS C H AP TE R I A NTI QU I TY OF OU R ET H I C AL I DEALS I I S O ME V ARI A NT S OF TH E TALE OF TH E K I NG S 45 I I I NOT ES ON FAI TH s AND FO L K- LO RE OF TH E MOO N EP I C S B E FO RE TH E I LI AD A NT I Q U I T Y O F O U R E T H I C A L I D E A L S ANTIQ U ITY OF OU R ETH ICAL I DEALS sel TH E assertion has been Often made , and do c as m denied , that the ethi al code known the Mosaic Law forms the groundwork of the civil and moral laws of all enlightened nations . It will not be denied that this is in a sense true , yet it is quite certain that the enunciation of this statement has Often led to conclusions unwar f ranted by a survey o historical facts . According to Biblical history and cyo/n on tra dition , it was in the third month afte the depar ture of the Israelites from Egypt that Jahveh , descending upon Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning , fire , and smoke , covenanted with Moses and established these laws , While the Hebrews with fear and trembling stood around the base of the mountain which they were for o bidden t touch . 4 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS An d Moses turned , and went down from the m mount , and the two tables Of the testi ony were in his hand ; the tables were written on both their Sides ; on the on e Side and on the other they were written . o And the tables were the work fGod , and the of writing was the writing God , graven upon the tables . Preliminary to further discussion of the sub f j ect o this article , it may be stated briefly that the world has no knowledge at the present time either of the Exodus or its leader outside of the of records and traditions the Hebrews . When Moses lived is on e of the unsolved problems of m history . We have grown fa iliar in recent years with the annals , literature , and social life of times and people of which the world once knew but little ; we have revised our knowledge of ancient nations by a comparative study of the traditions and records of their contem p oraries ; we know their greatness and their weakness ; we have followed the march of their commerce and their conquests ; we have searched ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 5 their temples and rifled their. tombs : but what light has been thrown upon the story famil iar from childhood— that Of the cruel bond age and the perils of the Exodus ' No Egyptian o c has monument , tomb , r ins ription yet revealed aught of its marvelous hero . I t is not known or when the departure from Egypt took place , in no of whose reign it occurred , and trace the Hebrews in Egypt has yet been found in Egyptian story . 1 was Until February , 89 6 , there no evi of dence , other than that found in the traditions the Hebrews , that the Egyptians had any knowl f edge o such a people . But in that year Pro fessor Petrie discovered at Thebes a black Sye of Meren tah nite tablet in the funeral temple p , n c the so and suc essor of Rameses the Great . This stele commemorated a victo ry of that monarch over the allied forces against him in the fifth year of his reign ; and the Israelites are named — — among the nations eight in all , with whom he contended . This battle was fought in Syria , in the vicinity of Galilee . The message Of the 6 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS . tablet in substance is that the Israelites were de of feated and lost their supplies . The reign c m Merenp tah was quite om only accepted , before a this stele was found , s the period of the dep arture of the Hebrews from Egypt ; but this record shows that in the fifth year of his reign this people were a full - fl edged nation fighting with the allies in Palestine ; SO that instead ofthrowing light upon the hegira from Egypt , it has made the f m . study o the question even ore complicated If , however , we assume as a hypothesis that the ca reer of Moses as a leader began early in the reign of this Pharaoh , it would date about the begin ning of the thirteenth century before the Christian era . I t was long held to be true that the sacred Story of the origin of these divine laws was writ in m ten the lifeti e of Moses , and by his own in sp ired hand . Modern critical scholarship has ca or f rried the authorship , editorship , o the books of c m the Pentateu h forward so e eight centuries , to a period subs equent to the Babylonian cap tivit y ; when , by the hand of some later author ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 7 or editor , they are believed to have received their final shaping as they are known to us . Whether the earlier or Some later leader of the Israelites m i ’ formulated the , it s not the writer s purpose to discuss ; but to show that the ethical precepts of so— re later times , as well as all called divinely m vealed oral laws , have not been peculiar to any period or nation , but that their growth and de velopmen t have been coextensive with the evolu tion of nations , and that they may be traced in all the civilizations ofthe past . It is now known that a high degree of civiliza tion existed in Mesopotamia and along the Nile some thousands of years before the alleged time of Moses , and even before the rise of the Hebrew nation . An examination of the religious cere monies and teachings of the Egyptians reveals the fact that they had formulated their moral pre cep ts in language closely akin to that of the Hebrew decalogue . The most valuable of all the works of the re s mote pa t , for the light which it throws upon their religious conceptions and ideals , is that which was 8 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS called the Per- em -b ru by the people of ancient c Egypt , and whi h is better known to us as the Book of the Dead . It was the book of the going m forth fro the darkness into light , and it is a or series of books chapters containing prayers , x c m e or is s , and litanies for the guidance of the Spirit or ghost of the departed in its long journey through the nether world . It was written at dif feren t periods , and some parts of it are known - to be very ancient . The Sixty fourth chapter states that it was found in the reign Of King Men kaura c D . , whi h is placed by r Petrie at — m of C . 3 845 3 784 B . So e these chapters m were to be me orized by the living , and whispered in the ears of the dead , or to be written and pl aced in his burial case or tomb . This would enable the deceased to repulse the attacks of the demons and monsters which peopled the regions through which the spirit must pass on its N way to the tribunal of the gods . O two copies h of the Book of the Dead , as it as come down to are a us , like . The longest is known as the Turin d on e Papyrus , an it contains hundred and sixty ANTIQUITY’ OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 9 s five chapters .

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