The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-24
The Tablet from Nippur, on Which
Is Inscribed the Oldest Story Yet
Found of the Creation and the Deluge

Is Inscribed the Oldest Story Yet
Found Of the Creation and the Deluge
lonia by the Modes (ths invasion is, Of course.
not identical with that of the later Modes and
Persians) eghty-six kings ruled over Baby.
lonia for 33.o91 years There must of course,
be some Slight mistake in these numbers. On
the whole, the great similarity of the two ira
ditions is striking.
I'm order fully to appreciate the bearing OF
the new chronological data, 1t may be we'll to
say little more on the chronological system
of the Babylonians as 1t has been transmitted
to us by the Greeks. and as We can now par.
TALLY confirm 1t from cuneiform sources
AT the beginning of all time there were
three immense periods In the first there ex.
listed only Chaos and her husband, the Ocean;
then, after long time. the primeyal gods
Lakhmu and Lakhamu were born: and after
similar long intervals Anshar. the upper world,
and Kishar, the lower world, came into exist.
ence. This primeval period came to an end
when the younger generation OF gods van.
pushed Chaos and created Heaven and Earth
Then follows, from the creation to the deuge,
the period Of the ten primeval kings, which
lasted $4,000 years. After that the present
still lasting period begins, for which, till about
S2400s+B. c.. the Babylonians counted 32234
years From the creation to me time of BE.
rosus (ca. 800 B. CO. we would therefore have
to count about 466,500 years; but in the intro
duction to his book on Babylonia he states that
the written records OF tn. Babylonians reached
back to about 2,150,000 years before this time.
|. e., long before the creation of the earth. to
the time when chaos still reigned the universe
These legends, 1t is true, have mostly been
known to us already from late Babylonian and
Accty rio,
found in the museum are very fragmentary.
And yet an inestimable value attaches to them
for first of all they written like almost all
OF the literary texts that were found at Nippur
in Sumerian. and then they date from a time
almost two thousand years earlier than MANY
of the known legends which mostly came from
the library of King Ashurbanipal (about 6so
B. CO."
We have right to expect that the history y,
the discovery of the much more modern delug.
and creation story found by George Smith in
the ruins of Nineveh will be paralleled and az.
ceeded IN value because of the greater age OF
this series. "ee "a
In the Babylonian libraries. ON account ., ~.
necessity OF using clay tablets for preservine
ali records. the method Of numbering ths
aaDiets with series number was followed
Inns mas helped materially in identifying the
Nineveh tablets. and will help in the nressnt
instance 49, pieSent
The Bible student knows that Abraham
came came from ur, OF the Chaldees which has been
iuentiHeo with the ruins of Muehejr In
Southern Babylonia 1t must also be notsd
mat the Creation and Deluge stories are nor
Hebrew at all. but are world-traditions and
the age of Abraham -
scholars have wondered how the Hebrews
secured this account of the beginning anl :he
earnest ear ages OF mankind. and many have held
that 1t was only after the destruction of Iern
salem and the exile of the Jews and Israeitea
mat they learned these world epcs
In the light OF this latest discovery such a
theory Is no longer necessary. 1t is only fair
10 suppose that so intelligent man as Abra.
nam knew the great poems of his native land
what more natural than that he should have
Anown this tale of Creation and Flood which
we now see was current in his time? When
he left Babylonia with his family to found the
new home in Palestine he must have carried
these traditions with him. and there the poems
were remoulded and shaped to accord with
Hebrew IDEAS of the might OF God and His
creative power.
Even the names of the gods vanish before
thar CT The Hebrew God and He alone is
credited vita Creation. Yet there Is a rem.
nnnt OF thc assembly of the gods In the con.
quotations held concerning the Deluge, even
though it is the one God. who brings Il down
10 punish mankind
The change of the name of the hero a, tbo
Flood 70 Noah Is nothing remarkable, for in
these accounts preserved by the Babyloniana
the on9 OF Nineyeh calls him Pir-Napishtim
ana me one from Nippur calls him Ziugidda
they do not sound alike, nor do they look alike
In the cuneiform and Noah may be a still
older form, or variation. which may still he ~
found in an older tablet. yet to be brought ~
light. " *
We are on the eve OF some very great a,..
coHeries in this field, and no point "a q,
ssesier interest than that of the vast stretch s.
o. time which tho Babylonians believed had e
elapsed between the Creation and the Ds1nrs IS
and from the Deluge TO the high Civilization =; q
Hamrurabi. ul 81