Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1910-03-31
Bible Story of the DeIuge Upheld.


man toiling in the University of Pennsyl-
vania discovered the first bit of profane
history to sustain the sacred traditions in
their statement that there really was such
man as Abram, or Abraham, as his name
was afterward called.
Professor Herman V. Hilprecht offers
to the world proof of Abraham as a real
historical parsonage. A'little piece OF
hardened clay. upon which are traced the
mystic signs of language that no tongue
has uttered in common speech for more
than 1000 years, supplies the evidence
that is bound to startle the scientific and
religious world and to change the whole
character OF the "higher criticism" of the
Bible.
But Abraham is really only secondary
figure in this new development ofancient
history. The chief fact brought out is
that the people of Ur, from which Abra-
ham came-the people of the plains OF
Shinar, the seat of that twilight civiliza-
ton = had story of the Deluge almost
identical with that of the Old Testament,
which has been the center of religious
discussion for years.
II has been contended by the negative"
critics of the Bible that the Book OF Gene
sis was comparatively modern writing;
that it could not have been written until
100 years after Moses, because the story
OF the Deluge was plainly a Babylonian
folk-tale, and was introduced into Hebrew
literature during the exile.
There have been some flaws in this
theory of the critics, the principal one
being the wide divergence between the
Biblical story of the flood and that OF the
Babylonians at the time of the Jewish
captivity.
"In the Bible story, the Lord God
speaks to Noah and says: "Behold, | will
destroy them with the earth"
In the Babylonian stories OF the time
of the Jewish captivity there is compli-
Gated plot, with councils OF gods, and de-
bates and discussions, and vote to de-
stroy the earth.
Among the tablets brought out OF Nip
pur by the last expedition from the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania was one fragment
which is part of deluge story more an
cient by 100 years than any other that has
been found, and antedating by at least
200 years the time that Abraham left Ur,
to 90 to the land of Canaan. And this
fragment has been deciphered by Protes-
sor Hiprecht after months OF infinite la
Dor and pains and the exercise OF his pro-
found knowledge of AsSyriology.
1t is simple in its coincidence to the
Bible story of the Deluge, to which it tai
lies in minute details. In this, as in the
Bible story, the Lord God, the great King
of the god ofthe ancient Sumerians, says:
81 will loosen the confines of heaven. A
deluge will make and it shall sweep
away all men together" ;"
Even the errors in the translation OF
the Bible text from Hebrew to English
and German, mark the striking similarity
between the Nippur story OF the Deluge
and that of the ancient Hebrews. For
Professor Hilprecht points out that the
word which the translators of few hun
dred years rendered window" and
which appears in all later versions of the
Bible as window" really meant "roof"
in the old Hebrew. Where our Bibles
say, window shalt thou make to the ark"
it should have read by correct translation,
"A roof shalt thou make to the ark"
The tablet story Of the Deluge, writ
ten 2lOO B. c.. which Professor Hilprecht
has translated, contains this very COM
mand. The Lord of the gods says, with
strong deck Tor roof cover it."
This tablet, or rather, this. fragment
of tablet, with the story OF the Deluge,
seems destined to be the most famous
discovery in the Assyrian research. The
history of it is given to the public in the
fifth volume of the records of the Baby
lonian expedition of the University OF
Pennsylvania. The book is just OFT the
press.
Even those who take only slight in
terest in archaeology, as such, know that
the University has sent out four expedi-
tons to unearth the sites of ancient cities
on the desert OF western Asia. These
barren plains were once the scene OF one
of the richest civilization, that the world
has ever known.
Babylon and Nineveh, famous in pro-
fame history and playing large part in
the story of the Old Testament, were
situated thereon. The country was
known in the book of Genesis as the
Plain of Shinar. Shinar is dialect form
of the ancient name OF the people who
inhabited the country before the Baby
lonians and Assyrians came. They are
called by the translators OF their tablets
the SumerianS.
Before Babylon and Nineveh, the seat
of the religion and learning OF the Sumer-
ians was the city of Nippur. Into the
mounds that mark the remains OF this city
the University expedition has burrowed.
Its most important discovery was the site
of the old temple library. Covered by
more than twenty feet of the debris OF the
desert, this library was found. From it
the expedition has taken something like
1900 tablets.
These tablets are the books OF those
ancient people, who were as old and as
remote in history at the time OF Moses as
Charlemagne is to the present day.
The tablets are made OF unbaked clay,