Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-06
NEW STORY OF THE pELuGE.

The announcement Of Pere Scheil, the
French Assyriologist who has given so
much time to study of the collections in
the museum at Constantinople, that he
had discovered a Babylonian account of
the deluge much older than Moses, was
so interesting to the biblican student
that we asked the discoverer for an ac-
count of it. He kindly consented, and has
account, the first thus far published in
America, will be of no little interest.
Every biblican scholar knows that the
Hebrew account of the deluge found in
Genesis has been paralleled by two
Babylonian accounts, one that Of Bero-
sus Babylonian historian, whose mar
native has been handed down to us by
early Greek Christian writer's, and the
other that found on Assyrian tablets by
George Smith. Both resemble, and yet
both differ from the Genesis story. Bib
lical critics have differed as to the age
Of the biblical story, the most conserva-
tive holding that, being written by
Moses, it is older than his time and was
incorporated by him into the book OF
Genesis, while the new school OF critics
were, until the discovery Of the Tel-el-
Amarna tablets, inclined to believe that
the story was borrowed from Nineyah
of Babylon at the time Of the captivity,
or not long before it, at which time the
book Of Genesis was written.
The discovery by George Smith of
full poetical account of the deluge, on
tablets in King Assurbanipals library
at Ninevah, was of immense interest;
but it did not assure us of the age OF
the deluge story among the inhabitants
of the EuphrateS Valley; for it was on
tablets written in AsSurbanipaPS reign,
that is scarce six hundred years before
Christ. To be sure, these were said to be
copied from tablets in Babylonian lib
raries, but we do not know how old
these original tablets were Besides, the
deluge story was on the eleventh tablet
in a long poem, compiled in twelve
books, one for each month, in a quite
SifciaI way, and might belong to
Comparatively late period of religious
and literary syncretism. The original
Babylonian tablets, from which the AS
syrian copies were made, were much de-
sired.
Now Pere Scheil has made the dis
covery. To be sure, the record on the
tablet does not amount to much, it is
such a fragmentary bit; but it is large
enough to make sure that the tablet con-
tanned the story OF the deluge, and,
most fortunately, the most important
part of all Is preserved, the colophon,
with the date. 1t is dated in the reign
we know that he reigned about 2140 B.
G. That is, we have here g. precious bit
Of clay on which was written q poetical
story of the deluge, seven centuries be-
fore Moses and about the time Of Isaac
or Jacob That is enough to make the
discovery memorable. We learn posi-
lively that the story Of the deluge was
familiar to the common people of Baby
lonia, and therefore Of all the east from
Syria to Persia.
Professor Sayce has lately stated,
misapprehending Pere Scheirs oral an
nouncement, that the new text verbally
agrees with that discovered by George
Smith, showing the care and accuracy
with which the document was pre-
served from generation to generation,
with "no change even in the form of a
single word" This is not the fact. This
is an entirely different reduction, and
Pere Scheil suggests that different cities
would have their different political edi-
tions of the story. This fragment be-
longs to the story current at Sippara,
where the fragment was found, and we
may suppose that the account given by
Berosus tells us that Xisuthrus (Noah),
before the flood, buried in Sippara the
records Of the worlds antediluvian his
tory The cuneiform account discovered
by George Smith seems to have origin
ated in the city of Surippak; at any rate,
the Noah of that story came from the
Surippak. There are in that account no
such passages as we have in this new
fragment, which shows that we have to
do with another version, we do not know
how old, for 1t is itself a copy from a
partly effaced original
This text is in poetry. It proves that
the poetic construction was fixed more
than two thousand years before Christ.
Each line is divided into two hemstitch-
es, as in Hebrew poetry.
The fragment is large enough to show
that it is poem full of polytheistic and
mythical details, of which the Genesis
version has been thoroughly purged,
giving US a tale purely monotheistic, alb
solutely ethical, and fit to give religious
instruction to an unscientific people in
the infancy of civilzation.-New York
Independent.