The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-02-05
NEW STORY OF THE DELUGE.
Newly Discover ed Tablets Dating
Seven Centuries Before Moses


Newly DiscoveIe Tablets Dating
! Seven Centuries Before Moses.
| tFrom the New York independently
! The announcement by Pere SCheil.
! the French Assyriolosist. who has Civ
/ en- so much time to the study Of the
| collections in the Museum at COnstan-
| tinople, that he had discovered Baby
| lonian account of the Deluge much old
er than Moses, was so interesting to the
! Biblical student that we asked the dis
| coVerer for an account of it, He kind
| ly consented. and his account, the first
/ thus far published in America. and.
| We think, in Europe, will be OF no little
| interest
Every Biblical scholar knows that
| the Hebrew account of the Deluge
found in Genesis has been paralleled by
two Babylonian accounts, one that of
BerOsus. a Babylonian historian. whose
narrative has been handed down to us
by early Greek Christian writers. and
the other that found on Assyrian tab
let's by George Smith. Both resemble
and yet both differ from, the Genesis
story. Biblical critics have differed as
to the age of the Biblical story. the
more conservative holding that. being
written by Moses, it is older than his
lliIlS anu NdS w nlIu INTO
the Book of Genesis, while the newer
school of critics were, until the discov-
cry of the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. in
clined to believe that the story was
borrowed from Nineveh or Babylon at
the time of the captivity, or not long
before il. at which time the Book of
Genesis was written.
The discovery by George Smith of a
full poetical account of the Deluge. ON
fab Lots in AcSlrrho ninaI-S
at Nineveh, was of immense interest:
but il did not assure US of the age of
the Deluge story among the inhabitants
of the Euphrates Valley; for il was on
tablets written in AsSurbanipals reign
that is, scarce 600 years before Chr s.
To be sure, these were said to be copied
from tablets in Babylonian libraries.
but we did not know how old these
original tablets were. Besides, the Dcf-
uge story was on the eleventh tablet
in long poem, compiled in twelve
books, one for each month. in a quite
artificial way, and might belong to a
comparatively late period of religious
and literary syncretism. The original
Babylonian tablets. from which the As
syrian copies We're made, were much
desired. 10
Now Pere Scheil has made the dis
covery. To be sure. the record on the
tablet does not amount TO much. il is
such a fragmentary bit; but it is large
enough to make sure that the tablet
contained the story of the Deluge. and.
most fortunately, the most important
part of all is preserved. the colOphon,
with the date. II is dated in the reign
of Ammi- Zaduga, King of Babylon.
and We know that he reigned about
2140 B. G.. That is. we have here pre-
cious bit of clay on which was written
poetical story of the Deluge. seven
centuries before Moses and about the
time of Isaac or Jacob. That is enough
to make the discovery memorable We
learn positively that the story of the
Deluge was familiar to the common
people of Babylonia. and therefore of
all the East from Syria to Persia
Professor Sayce has lately stated,
Pere Scheil's oral an
nouncement. that the new text verbal
ly agrees with that discovered by
George Smith, showing the care and
accuracy with which the document was
preserved from generation to genera
ton. with mo change even in the form
of single word This is not the fact.
This Is an entirely different reduction.
and Pere Schiel suggests that different
cities would have their different poeti-
cal editions of the story. This frag-
ment belongs to the story current at
Sippara, where the fragment was |
found. and we may suppose that the |
account given by Berosus was also |
from the Sippara edition, for Berosus |
tells us that Xisuthrus (Noah). before |
the food, buried in Sippara the.records |
of the worlds antediluyian history. |
The euneiform account discovered by |
George Smith seems to have originated |
in the city of Surippak; at any rate. \
the Noah of that story came from the !