The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-08-14

historical record? How does It COM
pare with these other and older YER
slons of the origin OF the woridY
Within the last few years the ruins
Of six great ChaldeaR or BabylonlRn
cities have been eXcavated, with the
result that the history OF man has been
traced back about eight thousand years.
These cities are Ninevah, Babylon, Sip
nora, Tello, Ur and Nippur The exca-
vatlons have proved that even at that
remote period, eight thousand years
ago, the world around Chaldea was In
very advanced state of civilization.
These explorations have brought TO
light seven distinct accounts of the Gre
alton. They have each been carefully
studied by the most eminent scholars
in both this country and abroad, ana
the coneensus OF the opinion OF these
learned men Is that they all eorroporale
the main features of the origin OF the
world as given in the Bible.
Helps the Old Testament.
Being written at different periods,
there are naturally many minor diner
ences in the various accounts, but each
corroborates the others in the main
facts, and all substantiate the account
given in the Bible,
Taking as an example the tablets de-
scribed above and comparing their m
scriptlons with the Mosaic account, the
similarity in salient points Will be seen
at once. The claim has often been
made that the Bible was copied by
Moses from various ancient tnscrtp-
tons. This claim is based on the TACT
that these records and inscriptions
were written In the cuneiform Ian
guage and that he understood II, There
is no doubt that he did understand THIS
language, as at that early period the
cuneiform language was the court IAN
guage Of the world, just as French has
been the court language OF continental
Europe for several centuries, Moses
was educated as an Egyptian prince,
and necessarily must have been IN
structed in the cuneif0rm, as all the
correspondence between various king
doms was in that language. There IS,
therefore, no doubt that Tie was wen
versed in Chaldean literature, but the
theory that he copied the hTst chapters
of the Bible from older records Is as
proved by the varlously dlnerent IN
scrlptlons on the tablets above referred
to-
Another question of great Importance
at this time, when so many remarkable
discoveries are being made, Is the seem
ing conflicting accounts between the
Bible and the Inscriptions on various
tablets that are being uneartheu.
These tablets show that Babylonia was
in n highly civilized state two thousand
wears before the world was created ac-
cording to the chronological table OF
Archbishop Usher In the King James
version OF the Bible Eminent scholars.
however, say that this Interpretation OF
the Bible Is not correct, They claim
that It does not state how long, as
measured by years, the world was IN
process OF creation, and that the SIX
days" were periods of indefinite length.
covering, II may have been, millions OF
wears. Nor does the Bible say now long
as0 the creation Of man took place, LOT
the reason that the tenth and eleventh
chapters of Genesis do not claim to give
all the generations.
Therefore, 1t can be safely said that,
wonderful as these recent discoveries
are, they do not shake the historical
foundation of the book Of Genesis. In
fact. these discoveries would seem to
confirm, rather than contradict the
statements OF the Bible. They, how
ever, furnish additional information
that 1t does not give, In this connection
it is interesting to state that Dr. Hill
precht, of the University OF PennsylVa-
mia, stated recently that no discovery
had yet been made that shook his faith
in any historical statement of the Bible.
Dr.. Hilprecht is the most eminent
cuneform scholar in the world to-day
and is now engaged in translatlng the
wonderful tablets recently found at
Elppur.