Atlanta Georgian., 1914-04-05
The Tablet from Nippur, on Which
Is Inscribed the Oldest Story Yet
Found of the Creation and the peluge

Is inscribed the oldest story let
Found of the Creation and the peluge
we're written; and indeed one Of the tablets
that was written under the 134th king the
eleventh king Of lsin, counts 32,l10 years,
while another list reckons from the deluge to
the 139th king, the last king of Isin. 32.234
years.
This is BY the way. a new corroboration.
at least tC some extent, of the Greek tradition
which as we saw goes back to the priest Be
rosus For we are told by Greek writer's that
from the deluge to the first invasion OF Baby
lonia By the Medes (this invasion is, OF course.
not identical with that of the later Medes and
Persians) eighty-six kings ruled over Baby
lonia for 33091 years. There must, of course.
be some slight mistake in these numbers On
the whole. the great similarity Of the two ira
ditons is striking.
In order fully to appreciate the bearing OF
the new chronological data it may be we'll to
say a little more on the chronological system
of the Babylonians as it has been transmitted
to US by the Greeks, and as VIC can now par
TALLY confirm it from cuneiform sources.
AT the beginning of all time there we're
three immense periods In the first there ex-
listed only Chaos and her husband. the Ocean;
then. after a long time, the primeval 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
uuished Chaos and created Heaven and Earth.
Then follows, from the creation to the deluge,
the period Of the ten primeya kings, which
lasted $4,000 years After that the present
still lasting period begins, for which till about
2400 b. c., the Babylonians counted 1924
years. From the creation to the time of Be.
rosus Tea. 300 b. c. we would, therefore have
to count about 466,500 years. out in the intro.
ductiOn to his book on Babylonia he states that
the written records of the Babylonians reached
back to about 2,l50,000 years before this time
l. e.. long before the creation of the EARTH to
the time when Chaos still regned the universe
These legends, 1t Is true. have mostly been
known to US already from late Babylonian and
Assyrian texts and besides. the texts. which
found in the museum, very fragmentary.
And yet an nestimable value attaches to them
for first Of all they are written like almost all
Of the literary texts that we're 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 $40
b. ca"
We have a right to expect that the history of
the discovery Of the much more modern deluge
and creation story found by George Smith in
the ruins OF Nineveh will be paralleled and ex-
eeeded in value because of the greater age of
this series.
In the Babylonian Libraries. on account of the
necessity Of using clay tablets for preserving
tablets with a series number was followed.
This has helped materially in identifying the
hineveh tablets and win help in the present
instance
The Bible student knows that Abraham
came from Ur OF the Chaldees which has been
identified with the ruins of Mugheir IN
Southern Babylonia. 1t must also be noted
mat the Creation and Deluge stories are not
Hebrew at all, but are world-traditions, and
that the Hebrew history does not begin until
the age of Abraham
Scholars have wondered how the Hebrews
secured this account of the beginning and ;kE
earliest ages of mankind, and many have hslE
that IT was only after the destruction of Jerz.
salem and the exile of the Jews and Israelites
that they learned these world epics
In the light Of this latest discovery such a
theory is no longer necessary II is only fair
to suppose that so intelligent a man as Abra-
ham knew the great poems Of his native land
What more natural than that he should have
known this tale Of Creation and Flood which
We now see was current in his time? When
he left Babyonia with his family to found the
new home In Palestine he must have carried
these traditions with him, and there the poems
we're 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
that of the Hebrew God. and He alone ia
reditcd with Creation Yet there is rem
nant Of the assembly OF the gods in the con-
'ultauous held concerning the Deluge, even
though it is the one God. who brings It down
to punish mankind
The change of the name of the hero OF the
Flood 10 Noah is nothing remarkable, for in
these accounts preserved by the Babylonians
the one of Nneyeh calls him Pir-Napishtim
and the one from Nippur calls him Ziugidda.
They do not sound alike. nor do they look alike
in the Cuneform. and Noah may be a still
older form. or variation, which may still be
found in an older tablet yet to be brought TO
light
We are on The eve Of some very great as.
coyeros in this ded ana no point is of
greater interest chan that OF the vast stretch
ol time which the }abylonans believed rad
ELAPSED between the Creation and the Deluge.
and from the Deluse to the nigh civilization OF
na.Murabi