Arizona republican., 1910-04-08
NARRATIVES OF THE DEUCE.

A special interest attaches to Profes- sor Hilprecht's discovery of story of the deluge that dates from between l 2100 and 2900 B. C. because it is d single account. We have in the Old Testament a double narrative, if we follow the Biblical students, who an alyZe the Pentateuch into two, three or more documents. whose conclusions have come into very general accept ance, and in the documents deciphered by George Smith, of d much later date. we have also two stories. Now, in the Hilprecht document we have not only a much older narrative than these. but we have d single story.
 Analysing the account in Genesis into what Biblical critics call the "J' and the ''E'' documents, Professor w. R. smith shows that the former direct ed Noah to take into the Ark pairs of unclean beasts and sevens of clean beasts and fowls, that after a warning of seven days rain fell for forty days and when it cased Noah sent out the dove and the raven and after fourteen days the dove did not return from her third trip and Noah found the ground dry. In the latter all animals were taken into the Ark by pairs. and the waters fell for a hundred and fifty days. They subside for two months and a half, when the tops of the noun tains are seen: in another three months the face of the earth is freed of water, but Noah does not leave the Ark till the lapse of full solar year.
 The great epic of primitive Chaldea centers around the adventure of Gill games. Rev. A. H. Sayce says, "The adventures have been woven together into poem in twelve books, the sub ject of each book corresponding with the name of the Zodiacal sign which answers to it in numerical order In the eleventh book corresponding with Aquarius. the eleventh sign of the ZO diac. the Babylonian story of the de- luge is introduced as an episode. It is itself an amalgamatiOn of at least two earlier poems on the same subject Tn this way We can explain how it is that the flood is ascribed in il to two different deities; in one passage it is Bel. in another Samas, the sun-god, who is spoken of as its author.
 Both the accounts in Genesis, if we accept the theory of two or more docu ments. treat the deluge as a punish ment for sin. MT. Sayce remarks that prior to the discovery of the Chaldean account it was believed that the Bib liCal account was the only one which attributed the deluge to a moral cause, but that is found to be an error be- cause the Babylonian account also at frfh [ fp al Enf XK-h the Babylonian account is intensely polytheistic. the Biblical narrative is as intensely monotheistic.
 The points of similarity and the points of difference between the Bib lical and the Babylonian account, as hitherto known, are interestingly dis cussed by Sayce in his Higher Criti- cism and the Monuments,' and the means by which any reader may sep arate the account in Genesis into two narratives. each complete. is given by Professor w. R. Smith in a note in his "Old Testament in the Jewish Church" The account discovered by Professor Hilprecht is rather bare of details. which is a common feature of the earliest forms of narratives, but further search in his clay library may disclose additional particulars. At any rate. a single narrative with every lit detail. and much older than the previ ously known accounts, will be com pared with the keenest interest with the "J' and F. documents of two stories in the document brought to light by George Smith.-Philadelph Record