Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-02
The ChaIdean Legend of the Crea"
 ton.

At Center church last evening there was large audience, comprising many men or note, gathered to hear Rev. Dr. Bacon on The Chaldean Legend of the Creation as Con- pared with the First Chapter of the Bible" /" The speaker, in passing to the main thoughts, l spoke of the great antiquity of the first five | books of the Old Testament and especially of l Genesis, of its story of the life of Abraham | and it's account of the creation and the flood. l The single aim was to produce upon the mind certain impressions and connections in regard to God and in regard to sin-the dis cord between God and men. In this portion of the book there is no trace of Egyptian tradition or influence The Nile is not named among the rivers of Eden. The ark when the waters of the great deluge began to sub- side rested not on Mt. Atlas nor Mt. Lebanon, but on the mountains of Armenia. The tower which was to reach to heaven was not in the land of the Pharaohs, but on the plain of Shinar. Long ago I was convinced and oft expressed the conviction that in the pre- Abrahanie portion of Genesis we have the religion of Abraham, the great emigrant from Chaldea westward. To them then these stories were revelations of God, and just what they are to us if we make the right use of them With powerfully impressive re- marks relative to the nations long ago per- ! is he'd, the speaker passed to speak Eot relics | in the British Museum from the rubbish ! which resulted from the destruction of the | royal library at Nineveh, among them some pieces of highly ancient book, of which this | identical copy was made in the reign Of As- sarbanipal long before Nebuchadnezzar reigned at Babylon, and therefore long be- l fore the Chaldeans could have learned any thing from captive Jews who sat | down at the rivers Of Baoylon. | It is by no means to be assumed that the | book itself is not older than the particular l CODY which was made for the Kings library, | by as many years as the poems of Chaucer are older than the latest edition of them. Assyrianologists find that long before the date assigned to the migration of Abraham, the people who inhabited the region whence he came used the same letters which were used by the Assyrians in the days of Senna- cherib, or of his grandson, Assarbanipal. Admitting this we may even concede that the first chapter of Genesis in our Bible Is only l the Hebrew form of tradition with which ! Abraham was familiar before he turned his | back on the land of the Chaldeans. Nay, let us go further and concede that the story in- scribed on those tablets, of which some frag- ments have been recovered from the ruin of the great library at Nineveh, is substantially the same with Chaldean or Accadian legend with which Abraham was familiar from his childhood, and which may have existed in a or1 hnfo Christ came The speaker then proceeded to specify the broken tablets, some of which told plain story, others being imperfect
 The speaker traced how these tablets cor responded closely with the Mosaic account of the creation.
 ''The story of these tablets begins with chaos or boundless deep, out of which all things came. It seems to have described a continuous process l-though find no indication that the pro- cess was divided into periods or days. We may assume, or rather we may concede, that the unrecovered tablets told something about the coming of light into the chaotic deep, something about the gathering of vapor into clouds, which are to an untaught observer the waters above the Armament, and some thing about the emergence of dry land from the deep and the appearance of vegetable life clothing the mountains and valleys with their verdure. All this may be conceded in ! view of the fact that what was unquestiona- bly, the fifth ta blet of the legend tells about the creation of the stars, the moon and the sun. as the corresponding portion of the | Hebrew story describes the creation of the
 kl Lf<-. k1,a1 l reason we may concede that the sixth tablet fof which one hardly =intelIigible fragment has been found) described the creation of 1 animal life in the waters and on the land, 8 l work completed in the creation of human l pair As to what may have been in seventh tablet or eighth l we have no clew to guide inquiry. Such then, if our concessions to the conjec- lures of ardent explorers have not been too large, was the Chaldean legend. As we turn to compare it with the Hebrew record, the first thing that strikes us is the contrast | between the two stories. The Chaldean tra- dition begins not with creative mind and will, but with an evolution out of chaos, the theory of Atheism, ancient or modern. I give you the translation:
 ! 'At that time above the heaven WAS unnamed Be | low, the earth by name was unrecorded The bound deep also was their generator Fhe chaos 0f the waters collected together in one place and the | howery reed not gathered, the marsh plant was not known At that time the Gods had not been pro duced, any one of them; by name they had not been
 called; destiny had not been fixed; then were ma 6 also the great Gods: the Gods Lakhsun and Lakhama were produced the first.
 ssAnd then the broken lines seem to say The Gods
 sar and Kisar were made next; the days were long
 long Ctime passed) (and): The Gods Ann (Bel and | Hea were born of the Gods sar and Kisar.'
 ! "How unlike is this to the simple grandeur | of n O God created the heavens and the earth. ,
 The sublime thought of God is the first thought and the main thought of the entire chapter,-call it story, poem or what you ems and the earth.'' CThe speaker quoted further the Bible words descriptive of the creation)
 s'Observe the contrast. On the one side in the beginning a boundless deep out of which the gods are evoked. On the other side, fin the beginning, God, the Creator,- his Spirit moving over the boundless vold,- his power commanding the light to shine out of darkness,-his love beholding the light that it is good.n The parallel comes to light again on the fifth tablet" The speaker gave the substance of the translation of it, retaining as far as possible it's poetic style It begins thus
 many gods of the Chaldean mythology fitted up the m S .hs be he He arranged
 
 the years according to the bounds that he defined
 referring probably to the signs of the Zodiac From the day when the is sent forth unto the close he established the mansion of the god Nibou that they might know these laws. That they might not err or defect at all the mansion of Bel and Hea he estab- lished along with himself He opened also the great gates in the sides of the world,- bolts he, [ strengthened the left hand and on the right. In ! its center also he made staircase. The moon god | (which in the heathen mythology was masculine,l unlike the moon goddess of the Greeks and Romans.
 caused beautify the thick night. He appointed him also to balance the night thHt the day may be l known,-sayng, Every month without break, observe thy circle. At the beginning of the month when the is it's height, with the horns thou surmountes
 that the heavens may be known. On the 7th day thy circle begins to fill, but in darkness will remain l the half the right At what time the sun will be on the horizon of heaven thy rising, thy form de- termine and make a circle. From hence return and ! approach the path of the Then will the dark ness return-the sun will change.
 "A few disconnected words are all that re- main of the fragment. We may assume that the last portion of the tablet described in the same poetic way the appointment of the sun to his place and circuit in the heavens"
 The speaker further strikingly contrasted thet wo accounts, and spoke of the grandeur of the Mosaic picture and further most in terestingly considered the subject in it's rela-