Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-04-05
The Tablet from Nippur, on Which
Is Inscribed the Oldest Story Yet
Found of the Creation and the Deluge


Found of the Creation and the Deluge
were written; and indeed one Of the tablets
that was written under the bath king, the
eleventh king of Isin, counts 32,175 years,
while another list reckons from the demge to
the 139th king, the last king Of lsin. 1924
years
This Is by the way, a new confederation,
at least to 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 Modes (this invasion is, of course,
not identical with that of the later Modes and
Persians) eighty-six kings ruled over Baby
lonia for 33O91 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.
in order fully to appreciate the bearing OF
the new chronological data, it 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 it 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 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
Quished Chaos and created Heaven and Earth
Then follows, from the creation to the deluge,
the period of the ten primeval kings, which
lasted $4,000 years After that the present
still lasting period begins, for which till about
24O0 b. c., the Babylonians counted 1924
years. From the creation to the time of Be.
rosus (ca. 800 B. c. we would therefore, have
to count about 466,50O years; but In the intro.
duction to his book on Babylonia he states that
the written records of the BabyIonians reached
back to about 2,150000 years before this time
!. G., long before the creation Of the earth to
the time when Chaos still reigned the universe
These legends, It is true, have mostly been
known to us already from late Babylonian and
Assyrlan texts, and besides, the texts which |
found In the museum, are very fragmentary
And yet an inestmable value attaches to them
Tor hrst OF all they are written like almost all
of the literary texts that were found at Ninnur
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 go
We have right to expect that the history =,
the discovery of the much more modern daiugo
and creation story found by George Smith in
the ruins of Nineveh will be paralleled and ex
ceeeded in value, because of the greater age of
this series. -
In the Babylonian libraries on account y, tho
necessity OF using clay tablets for preserving
all records, the method of numbering the
tablets with a series number was followed
rms has helped materially in identifying the
Uneven tablets, and will help in the present
instance Fie'eNs
The Bible student knows that Abraham
came from Ur of the Chadees, which has been
ldentlhed with the ruins of Mugheir. in
Southern Babylonia 1t must also he no+aa
mat the Creation and Deluge stories are NOT
Hebrew at all, but are world-traditions. ana
that the Hebrew history does not begin untU
the age of Abraham.
Scholars have wondered how the Hebrews
N..Nt
earliest ages of mankind and many have held
mat II was only after the destruction of Jer+a-
salem and the exile of the Jews and IsraeIitea
mat they learned these world epics.
In the light Of this latest discovery sucb
tneory Is no longer necessary. It is only fair
10 suppose that so intelligent a man as Abra.
nam knew the great poems of his native land
what more natural than that he should hava
known TINS tale OF Creation and Flood which
We now see current in his timeP WIZ
he left Babylonia with his family to found tba
new home in Palestine he must have carrioS
these traditions with him, and there the noams
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 "a
credited with Creation. Yet there ia rem.
nant of the assembly of the gods in the CON.
situations held concerning the Deluge aver
though 1t is the one God who brings il down
to punish mankind
The change Of the name OF the hero NJ +bo
Flood to Noah is nothing remarkable for ~
these accounts preserved by the Babyianisns
the one Of Nneveh calls him Pir.NaDisstin1
and the one from Nippur calls him Ziueidda
Ihey DO not sound alike, nor do they look aIiIa
in the cunelform, and Noah may be eli
Older form. or variation. which may sim he
found in an older tablet yet to be brought 10
Light. "enI "
We are on the evc OF some very pre,, -
'oVerles 10 TINS HELD and no polnt ie 80
greater interest than that Of the vast s,r..Su
of time which the Babyonians believed 49,
elapsed between the Creation and tbe n.t,.
ana from the Deluge to the high olvilzstol, =;
Hammurabi. 0oA OK