The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-04-08
Or. HlLPRECHT IS DlSCOvERER
Tablet Is Among Fruits Of 1899 Baby
lonian Expedition Preserved at Uni
Versity Of PennsyIvania-New Proof
of the Deluge.

this being he says, the Oldest extant
reference to that event in writing, an.
tedating the Bible narrative of the de-
luge by at least 1000. The first an
nouncement of this discovery was
made by Prof. Hilprecht at the Acorn
Club, when he gave full account Of
the tablet and its translation and dis
cussed its bearing on the other known
cuneiform and other inscriptions re-
ferring to the deluge.
The following is Dr. Hilprecht's
translation of this deluge tablet which
was among the fragments unearthed
by the 1899 expedition to Nippur.
............ Thee ............,.
(The confines of Heaven and Earthl
will loosen,
"a deluge I will make and) it shall
sweep away all men together;
(But thou SEEK life before the deluge
cometh forth;
(For over all living beings) as many
as there are, / will bring overthrow
destruction, annihilation
Build great ship ..............
Total weight shall be it's structure.
It shall be a houseboat carrying what
has been saved of live. with a
strong deck cover Gt)
(The ship which thou shalt make
Qnto it bring) the beasts of the field,
the birds of Heaven,
(And the creeping things, two of
everything instead of a number.
Number. and the family And. -,
The words inclosed in brackets in
the translation are not found in the
Cuneiform text, but have been sup
plemented by Prof. Hilprecht accord
ing to the context.
The fragment bearing the inscrip-
tion is of unbaked clay, and measures
3-4 inches at its greatest width, 2 5-S
inches at it's greatest length, and is
seven-eighths of an inch thick. 1t is
dark brown in color, and was original
ly inscribed on two sides, but one side
is now broken entirely away, there be-
ing, however, few characters pre-
served on the right edge, forming the
ends of three overlapping lines from
the missing side.
Prof. Hilprecht concludes that in
its complete form the tablet must
have been about by 10 inches, and
together. 1t bears no date, but from
internal evidences, from facts furnish
ed by other yet unpublished frag-
ments, and from the position in which
it was found, Prof Hilprecht believes
that it was written some time between
2137 and 2005 B. c.
Prof. Hilprecht explained the text
as a portion of the divine command
to the Babylonian Noah, Ut-Napish-
tim, to construct a ship and to save
life from the all-destroying food In
order to understand its unique value,
however, it is important, he said, to
know something of the corresponding
passages from the known fragments of
the Cuneiform deluge story, and from
the Biblical narrative.
There are three of the Cuneiform
fragments, two yercions from Ninevah,
dating from about 60 b. c., and an
early Babylonian fragment in ]. Pier
pont Morgan's collection. A compari-
son of these and of the Biblical pas
sages with the newly discovered Nip
pur version has brought out the slgni-
cant fact that the Nippur version diff,
fers fundamentally from the two
Ninevah versions, and agrees most re-
markably with the Biblical story in
very essential details, both as to CON
tents and language.
The "Layard" deluge tablet in the
British Museum, one of those dating
from $50 B. c., agreed with the de-
tails of the Biblical narrative in only
a few particulars. 1t was a pagan
story of a deluge brought about at
council of the gods, who decided to
destroy mankind. One of the gods was
moved to save his protege-the Noah
of the story. and sent a dream of
warning on which this Noah acted
This god excused his betrayal of the
secret to the other deities by the ex-
PLANTATION that he had not told-he had
only whispered through the mat
that is, through the wall of the house
on the other side of which his protege
slept. and to whom this dream was
thus conveyed
Moreover, Prof. Hilprecht observed
in particular that this agreement af-
fects that part of the Pentateuch
Genesis 6:l3-20. I'D. which Old
Testament critics style the "priestly
code" and generally regard as hay
Ina In, DO hxrlA
800 B. C. He thinks that the deluge
story of the Old Testament must form
part of the Oldest traditions of Israel,
and that IL must have entered Canaan
at the time when Abraham left his
home on the Euphrates and moved
westward