Legends of Babylon and Egypt in relation to Hebrew tradition Part 9

(1) 2 Kings xvi. 7 ff.

(2) 2 Kings xvi. 10 ff.

Hezekiah's resistance checked the action of a.s.syrian influence on Judah for a time. But it was intensified under his son Mana.s.seh, when Judah again became tributary to a.s.syria, and in the house of the Lord altars were built to all the host of heaven.(1) Towards the close of his long reign Mana.s.seh himself was summoned by Ashur-bani-pal to Babylon.(2) So when in the year 586 B.C. the Jewish exiles came to Babylon they could not have found in its mythology an entirely new and unfamiliar subject. They must have recognized several of its stories as akin to those they had a.s.similated and now regarded as their own. And this would naturally have inclined them to further study and comparison.

(1) 2 Kings xxi. 5.

(2) Cf. 2 Chron. x.x.xiii. 11 ff.

The answer I have outlined to this problem is the one that appears to me most probable, but I do not suggest that it is the only possible one that can be given. What I do suggest is that the Hebrews must have gained some acquaintance with the legends of Babylon in pre-exilic times. And it depends on our reading of the evidence into which of the three main periods the beginning of the process may be traced.

So much, then, for the influence of Babylon. We have seen that no similar problem arises with regard to the legends of Egypt. At first sight this may seem strange, for Egypt lay nearer than Babylon to Palestine, and political and commercial intercourse was at least as close. We have already noted how Egypt influenced Semitic art, and how she offered an ideal, on the material side of her existence, which was readily adopted by her smaller neighbours. Moreover, the Joseph traditions in Genesis give a remarkably accurate picture of ancient Egyptian life; and even the Egyptian proper names embedded in that narrative may be paralleled with native Egyptian names than that to which the traditions refer. Why then is it that the actual myths and legends of Egypt concerning the origin of the world and its civilization should have failed to impress the Hebrew mind, which, on the other hand, was so responsive to those of Babylon?

One obvious answer would be, that it was Nebuchadnezzar II, and not Necho, who carried the Jews captive. And we may readily admit that the Captivity must have tended to perpetuate and intensify the effects of any Babylonian influence that may have previously been felt. But I think there is a wider and in that sense a better answer than that.

I do not propose to embark at this late hour on what ethnologists know as the "Hamitic" problem. But it is a fact that many striking parallels to Egyptian religious belief and practice have been traced among races of the Sudan and East Africa. These are perhaps in part to be explained as the result of contact and cultural inheritance. But at the same time they are evidence of an African, but non-Negroid, substratum in the religion of ancient Egypt. In spite of his proto-Semitic strain, the ancient Egyptian himself never became a Semite. The Nile Valley, at any rate until the Moslem conquest, was stronger than its invaders; it received and moulded them to its own ideal. This quality was shared in some degree by the Euphrates Valley. But Babylonia was not endowed with Egypt's isolation; she was always open on the south and west to the Arabian nomad, who at a far earlier period sealed her Semitic type.

To such racial division and affinity I think we may confidently trace the influence exerted by Egypt and Babylon respectively upon Hebrew tradition.

APPENDIX I

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF THE SUMERIAN, SEMITIC-BABYLONIAN, h.e.l.lENISTIC, AND HEBREW VERSIONS OF CREATION, ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, AND THE DELUGE

N.B.-Parallels with the new Sumerian Version are in upper-case.

Sumerian Version. Seven Tablets Gilgamesh Epic, XI Berossus('Damscius) Earlier Heb. (J) Later Heb. (P) (No heaven or earth No heaven or earth Darkness and water Creation of earth Earth without form First Creation from Primaeval water- (Primaeval water- and heaven and void; darkness primaeval water G.o.ds: Aps-Tiamat, G.o.ds: {'Apason- No plant or herb on face of tehom, without conflict; Mummu Tauthe}, {Moumis} Ground watered by the primaeval water cf. Later Sum. Ver. Generation of: Generation of: mist (or flood) Divine spirit moving Lakhmu-Lakhamu {Lakhos-Lakhe} (cf. Sumerian (hovering, brooding) Anshar-Kishar {'a.s.soros-Kissare} irrigation myth of upon face of waters Creation)

The great G.o.ds: Birth of great G.o.ds: Birth of great G.o.ds: ANU, ENLIL, ENKI, ANU, Nudimmud (=EA) {'Anos, 'Illinos, and Ninkharsagga, Aps and Tiamat 'Aos, 'Aois-Lauke, creating deities revolt Belos) Conquest of Tiamat Conquest of {'Omorka}, Creation of light by Marduk as Sun- or {Thamte}, by G.o.d {Belos} Creation of covering Creation of heaven and Creation of firmament, for heaven from earth from two halves or heaven, to divide half of Tiamat's of body of Thamte waters; followed by body, to keep her emergence of land waters in place Creation of vegetation Creation of luminaries Creation of luminaries Creation of luminaries (Creation of (probable order) Creation of animals vegetation)

REASON FOR MAN'S REASON FOR MAN'S CREATION: wors.h.i.+p of CREATION: wors.h.i.+p of G.o.ds G.o.ds Creation of MAN Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN in Creator's blood and Creator's blood and dust and Creator's image of Creator, to from bone from earth breath of life have dominion Creation of ANIMALS (Creation of animals) Creation of ANIMALS Creation of vegetation Hymn on Seventh Tablet able to bear the air ANIMALS, and woman Rest on Seventh Day

Creation of KINGDOM 10 Antediluvian KINGS The line of Cain Antediluvian 5 ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES: Antediluvian city: 3 ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES: The Nephilim (cf. patriarchs (cf.

Eridu, Bad.., LARAK, SHURUPPAK Babylon, SIPPAR, Sumerian Dynastic Sumerian Dynastic SIPPAR, SHURUPPAK LARANKHA List) List)

G.o.ds decree MANKIND'S G.o.ds decree flood, Destruction of MAN Destruction of all destruction by flood, G.o.ddess ISHTAR decreed, because of flesh decreed, because NINTU protesting protesting his wickedness of its corruption

ZIUSUDU, hero of UT-NAPISHTIM, hero {Xisouthros} Noah, hero of Deluge Noah, hero of Deluge Deluge, KING and of Deluge (=Khasisatra), hero priest of Deluge, KING

Ziusudu's PIETY Noah's FAVOUR Noah's RIGHTEOUSNESS

WARNING of Ziusudu by WARNING of Ut-nap- WARNING of Xisuthros WARNING of Noah, and Enki in DREAM ishtim by Ea in DREAM by Kronos in DREAM instructions for ark

Ziusudu's vessel a s.h.i.+P: 120x120x120 Size of s.h.i.+P: 5x2 Instructions to enter Size of ARK: 300x50x30 HUGE s.h.i.+P cubits; 7 stories; 9 stadia ark cubits; 3 stories divisions

All kinds of animals All kinds of animals 7(x2) clean, 2 unclean 2 of all animals

Flood and STORM for 7 FLOOD from heavy rain FLOOD FLOOD from rain for 40 FLOOD; founts. of deep days and STORM for 6 days days and rain, 150 days

s.h.i.+p on Mt. Nisir Ark on Ararat

Abatement of waters Abatement of waters Abatement of waters Abatement of waters tested by birds tested by birds tested by birds through drying wind

SACRIFICE to Sun-G.o.d SACRIFICE with sweet SACRIFICE to G.o.ds, SACRIFICE with sweet Landing from ark (after in s.h.i.+p savour on mountain after landing and savour after landing year (+10 days)) paying adoration to EARTH

Anu and Enlil appeased Ea's protest to ENLIL APOTHEOSIS of X., Divine promise to Noah Divine covenant not (by "Heaven and Earth") IMMORTALITY of Ut-nap- wife, daughter, and not again to curse again to destroy EARTH IMMORTALITY of Ziusudu ishtim and his wife pilot the GROUND by flood; bow as sign APPENDIX II

THE ANTEDILUVIAN KINGS OF BEROSSUS AND THE SUMERIAN DYNASTIC LIST It may be of a.s.sistance to the reader to repeat in tabular form the equivalents to the mythical kings of Berossus which are briefly discussed in Lecture I. In the following table the two new equations, obtained from the earliest section of the Sumerian Dynastic List, are in upper-case.(1) The established equations to other names are in normal case, while those for which we should possibly seek other equivalents are enclosed within brackets.(2) Aruru has not been included as a possible equivalent for {'Aloros}.(3)

1. {'Aloros} 2. {'Alaparos (? 'Adaparos)}, Alaporus, Alapaurus (Adapa) 3. {'Amelon, 'Amillaros}, Almelon (Amelu) 4. {'Ammenon} ENMENUNNA 5. {Megalaros, Megalanos}, Amegalarus 6. {Daonos, Daos} ETANA 7. {Euedorakhos, Euedoreskhos}, Edoranchus Enmeduranki 8. {'Amemphinos}, Amemphsinus (Amel-Sin) 9. {'Otiartes (? 'Opartes)} (Ubar-Tutu) 10. {Xisouthros, Sisouthros, Sisithros} Khasisatra, Atrakhasis(4) (1) For the royal names of Berossus, see Euseb. chron. lib.

pri., ed. Schoene, cols. 7 f., 31 ff. The latinized variants correspond to forms in the Armenian translation of Eusebius.

(2) For the princ.i.p.al discussions of equivalents, see Hommel, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., Vol. XV (1893), pp. 243 ff., and Die altorientalischen Denkmaler und das Alte Testament (1902), pp. 23 ff.; Zimmern, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3rd ed. (1902), pp. 531 ff.; and cf. Lenormant, Les origines de l'histoire, I (1880), pp.

214 ff. See also Driver, Genesis, 10th ed. (1916), p. 80 f.; Skinner, Genesis, p. 137 f.; Ball, Genesis, p. 50; and Gordon, Early Traditions of Genesis, pp. 46 ff.

(3) There is a suggested equation of Lal-ur-alimma with {'Aloros}.

(4) The hundred and twenty "sars", or 432,000 years a.s.signed by Berossus for the duration of the Antediluvian dynasty, are distributed as follows among the ten kings; the numbers are given below first in "sars", followed by their equivalents in years within brackets: 1. Ten "sars"

(36,000); 2. Three (10,800); 3. Thirteen (46,800); 4. Twelve (43,200); 5. Eighteen (64,800); 6. Ten (36,000); 7. Eighteen (64,800); 8. Ten (36,000); 9. Eight (28,800); 10. Eighteen (64,800).

For comparison with Berossus it may be useful to abstract from the Sumerian Dynastic List the royal names occurring in the earliest extant dynasties. They are given below with variant forms from duplicate copies of the list, and against each is added the number of years its owner is recorded to have ruled. The figures giving the total duration of each dynasty, either in the summaries or under the separate reigns, are sometimes not completely preserved; in such cases an x is added to the total of the figures still legible. Except in those cases referred to in the foot-notes, all the names are written in the Sumerian lists without the determinative for "G.o.d".