The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-02-20

of Ezra and Nehemiah Professor Hill
precht considers it certain that a con-
siderable number of the Jewish exiles
carried away by acknowledgements were
settled in and around Nippur, and.
judging from the many inscribed He
brew vases excayated in the upper
strata of the ruins, continued to live
there as long as the city existed. Per-
haps the most important result of the
examination of the tablets which are
now being dealt with is TO confirm the
historical accuracy of the statements
of Ezra and Nehemiah. 1t is known
that certain names in all peoples are
only used in the same form at certain
limited periods. Now the names and the
forms of the names used in these tablets
are those employed by the authors of
the two Biblical books mentioned. For
the first time there has been brought
to light number of documents con-
temporary with these authors. 1.-The
River Kebar in the land of the Chal-
deans" by the waters of which Ezekiel,
while a captive among his people at
Tel-abib, saw the visions of the Cheru-
H.,
which has hitherto been unidentified in
|cuneiform literature, has at length come
to light as identical with the Kabari a
large navigable canal not far from Nip
pur, and not, as it had previously been
suggested, river many miles distant
from it. In the Book of Genesis (ch.
X, ", 1O the reader is informed of
Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the
Lord that the beginning of his king
dom was Babel (Babylom and Erech,
and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of
Shinaar." The next verse states, "out
of that land went forth Asshur, and
builded Nineveh."
The writer of Genesis is thus dealing
with what he considers the four Oldest
cities in the world, for Nimrod is the
grandson of Noah. So far Calneh had
not been identified. There is. indeed
a tradition in the Talmud which states
it to be Nippur, but little Importance
has been attached to it, Professor
Hilprecht informs me that the recent
discoveries have confirmed the truth
Of this tradition. The impression is
thus justified that the American eXpe-
dition has had the good fortune to find
the ruins of city regarded SO long ago
as the time of the writer of the Book
of Genesis as one of the Oldest in the
world
LEGAL DOCUMENTS.
The translations of the legal doeu-
ments of Murashu & SonS%e very in
teresting In regard to these docu-
ments perhaps the most conspicuous
feature is the publicity that was given
IL III - ertx, %ha,,
validity Here, for example, is guar
antee for twenty years that an emer-
aid is SO we'll set that it will not fall
out. 'Bel-ahiddina and Bel-shunu,
sons of Bel, and Hatin, son of Bazuza,
spoke unto Bel-nadinshumu, son of
Morashu, as follows: As concerns the
gold ring set with an emerald, we guar
antee that for twenty years the emer-
aid will not fall out Of the ring. If 1t
should fall out before the expiry of
twenty years Bel-ahiddina (and the
two others) shall pay to Belnadinshu-
mu an indemnity of ten mana of sill
ver'' Then follow the names of sew
en- witnesses and of an official who is
described as the scribe of the Con-
cordance Of Proper Names" The doc
ument is concluded with the Thumb
hallmark of Bel-ahiddina, Bershunu
and Hath, instead of their seal" This
must serve as specimen. In the
Forthcoming book many legal docu-
ments Of especial interest to the stu
dent of law will be given. Among
these will be the following: A Baby
lonian subject becomes surety for the
release of his nephew from prison on
condition that he will not leave Nippur
without permission. Another takes us
back into the period Of the Patria Po-
testas. The paterfamilias complains
that the servants of another have rob-
bed him. The document witnesses
that, the property having been re-
stored, neither he nor those under him
will institute legal proceedings for the
theft. There are leases of various
kinds and contracts for the sale of SUM-
dried bricks and other merchandise for
the loan of seed corn and oxen for
blowing, and a variety of other docu-
ments of ordinary business life, which
that he is in the presence of actual
facts, that human life and human oper-
ations were very much like, and yet in
other respects widely different from
what they are now: above all, that
the inhabitants of this recently I'M
earthed city had great capacity for bus
mess. and had made greater progress
in the development Of what are often
considered as modern commercial
usages than has yet been believed
Constantinople Letter in Boston Trans
cript