The record-union., 1896-11-08

and development preceding the attain
ment OF this stage of civilization. These
general conclusions are corroborated by
the work of French expedition. which
has also been exploring in the valley OF
the Euphrates, about fifty or sixty miles
south of Nippur, and as far as civiliza-
tion in general is concerned, by recent
explorations in Egypt. Recent explora-
tions in the Troad in Greece, in Asia
Minor, Syria and Southern Arabia all
point in the same direction. Man was
civilized far earlier than has hitherto
been supposed. The explorations al
Nippur enable us to fix date for this
civilization in the Euphrates Valley not
later than 5000 B. c.
Our ordinary Bibles have dates al
the head of the pages According tc
these dates the world was created in
1904 B. c. Undoubtedly many intelli-
gent persons observing this date in
these Bibles, when they hear the ar
chaeologist affirming, as the result
chiefly of the work of the explorers al
Nippur, that man was civilized at least
1000 years earlier than this and that
he existed on the earth, therefore, still
some thousands of years before that
will suppose that there is an irreconcil-
able conflict between archaeology and
the Bible in this matter, just as when
biologists began affirming that the
earth was in existence thousands and
thousands Of years before 4004 B. c.
MERELY CRITICAL APPARATUS.
They supposed that there was con-
flict between geology and the Bible, and
on the same grounds every scholar
knows that the dates on the pages OF
our Bibles are not a part of the Bible,
but part of a critical apparatus devised
by the scholars of $50 years ago for
t!Ie help of the Bible readers of that
day.
Archbishop Usher is the particular
person responsible for these dates,
which were worked out in accordance
with the best critical knowledge then
available. They We're very generally
adopted, because they did represent the
best scholarship of the day, until at
last they We're printed in the Bibles
and common folks came to regard them
as part of the inspired text No Bible
scholar of to-day regards these dates
as even appropriately correct, at least
for the earlier periods, but with a wood
Gus as it is stupid, those who have
charge of the making of our Bibles still
Persist in printing with them this anti
quated chronological schemef
THE natural result is that while
since ordinary readers were eclipsed by
conflict between geology and the Bible
Us to the age of the world, and now
they will suppose that a new conflict
has arisen between science, represented
this time by archaeology. and the Bible.
WHERE THE CONFLICT EXISTS.
The conflict is in reality between the
science of the middle of the seventeenth h
century and the science of the close
Of the nineteenth century, and the real
Bible is in no way involved. No scholar
of however mean pretenSions and no
thoroughly well educated minister will
Re in any way disturbed by the dis
agreement between the dates worked
out by Usher, with the best material
at his disposal, two and a half centuries
ago, and the new dates indicated by
the discoveries at Nippur. nor fancy
that because of this disagreement the
Eibie and science are at odds. But
there are undoubtedly some persons,
and among them not a few ministers
who have mixed up archaeology, his
tory, science, Bible and their own fam
Cies in an inextricable jumble How
about them?
Possibly some of these may be puz-
2led and perplexed by these next dis
coveries, but even they will not, /
think, be seriously shocked or inclined
to call the explorers heretics. In the
first place the explorers, who merely
dug out what was there, can no more
be held responsible for the facts than
could Columbus be held responsible for
the country which he discovered
I'm the second place, it is fact, the
causes of which it would take too long
to set FORTH that persons of this man
ner of thinking, while they regard any
thing which changes the traditional
dates in the sense of bringing them for
ward as dangerous, and probably
hcretical, regard with favor and con-
slider orthodox that which pushes them
backward. The effects of these discov-
cries will not, therefore, be possible in
the form of theological disturbance. but
rone the less they will be far reaching
and important.
.They will change altogether our
chronology of civilized man and modify
considerab bly, our views of his early his
tory, in so far as the book of Genesis
undertakes to give history of the be-
ginning of mankind and the progress
Of civilization, especially in Babylonia-
that is, so far as the first few CHAPTERS
are concerned. These discoveries affect
especially Bible scholars, but. inter-
preting those chapters in any rational
I
between them and the new discoveries
We have additional material of a very
valuable character, that is all. In the
light of this new information we shall
have to abandon some of our former
nypotheses, whether we were biblical
archaeologists or secular archaeolo-
gists."
WHERE TYPHUS GERMS LURK.
How would you like to live for three
years beneath the rays of broiling sun
which send the mercury to intermediate
points between 10 and .12O degrees 2
Knowing, too, that yoC9aot only have
to deal with heat, but also with the nm
wholesome swamps, where typhus
germs lurk, and come upon the explorer
with greater danger than Affei tribes
of Arabs? 1t takes no ordinary frame
to withstand the perils of exploration
and travel in that valley between the
Tigris and Euphrates.
Where does the credit belong for un
earthing of these tablets and vases
which add chapters to the history Of
cur race? The project was started bv
The University of Pennsylvania. that
institution hoping to add to its renuta-
ton by sending out Babylonian ex-
pedition The promoters. however did
not realize what was in store. To-day
they are astonished at the remarkable
success of the undertaking.
The public has been informed to a