146 • JASTROW— THE SIGN AND NAME [April 25, 



have entered the domain of distinctly theological speculation. If 

 the views of the school associated with the names of Winckler and 

 Jeremias, that the entire Babylonian religion is under the sway of 

 " astral " conceptions, turn out to be correct, it will also have to be 

 recognized that the underlying " Weltanschauung " is a product of the 

 schools rather than an expression of popular notions."^ I venture 

 to think that one of the weaknesses of the " astral " theory, which 

 has from other points of view so much in its favor, is this failure 

 on the part of its promoters to recognize the essentially " learned " 

 character of what according to them became the prevailing world- 

 philosoph}^ in the ancient Orient and which must for a long time at 

 least have separated it sharply from the much lower plane of 

 popular beliefs and fancies. 



Be this as it may, the development of a method of divina- 

 tion, through elaborate observations of the movements and positions 

 of sun, moon, planets and stars, it will be admitted, belongs to a 

 later stage in the unfolding of religious rites than so primitive a 

 method as the inspection of the liver of a sacrificial animal. The 

 persistence of astrology among advanced cultures as in India and 

 Persia and in western Europe^- down to the threshold of modern 

 times, whereas " liver " divination disappeared with advancing cul- 

 ture everywhere except among the Babylonians and Assyrians and 

 the Greeks, Romans and Etruscans,^-'' clinches the argument in favor 

 of divination through the liver as the earlier and more primitive 

 method. If this be admitted, it would be reasonable to find in the 



"^ See also Comont, " Lcs Religions Oricntales clans le Paganisme 

 Remain" (Paris, IQ07), p. 197. 



^ See the summary by Jeremias, " Das Alte Testament im Lichte des 

 Orients" (i ed.), P- 7, note i. 



^'* Roman divination is dependent upon Etruscan, while in the case of 

 Greek divination it is still a question whether we are to assume direct in- 

 fluence from Babylonia or likewise through the mediation of the Etruscans. 

 In either case we have only two systems of " liver " divination surviving 

 among cultured nations — the Babylonian and the Etruscan ; and further 

 investigations may definitely confirm the view which on the surface seems 

 plausible that "liver" divination among the Etruscans stands in some direct 

 connection with Babylonian divination. If this be so, then the single cause 

 to which the persistence of " liver " divination in certain quarters is to be 

 ascribed is the elaboration of the complicated and ingenious system of inter- 

 pretation which we owe to Babylonian priests. See Jastrow, II., pp. 215 

 and 320, note 3. 



