386 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



a German translation has appeared, with valuable 

 &quot; elucidations and continued researches,&quot; by the German 

 Assyriologist, Friederich Delitzsch (Leipzig : Hinrichs, 

 1876). It appears premature to attempt to estimate the 

 value of the Chaldean legends for the biblical student. 

 The fragments are so mutilated and so difficult that the 

 translation is highly insecure. Thus in the fragment 

 which is supposed to give the Chaldean account of the 

 tower of Babel, the idea of &quot; confusion of speech &quot; is 

 introduced, as Smith himself admits, by &quot; translating the 

 word speech with a prejudice,&quot; the word not being known 

 to have this meaning elsewhere. And the reference to a 

 tower, as we learn from a note by Delitzsch in the German 

 edition, is not less questionable. Again, in the so-called 

 story of the fall, we learn from Delitzsch that &quot; scarcely 

 a line of Smith s version can claim to be correct &quot; ; and 

 though the German scholar is unwilling to surrender the 

 belief that we really have in the passage a parallel to the 

 story of the fall, he rests this belief on arguments so 

 unsatisfactory that we must conclude with Baudissin and 

 v. Gutschmid that there is as yet really no evidence of 

 a Babylonian account of man s first sin. Or again, we 

 gather from Delitzsch that the grounds on which Smith 

 identifies the name Izdubar with Nimrod are certainly 

 erroneous. If so, the parallel between what is related of 

 the two personages is far from being so exact as to justify 

 the confidence with which Smith and Delitzsch alike 

 insist on identifying them. The most important, and 

 it would seem the least doubtful, parallels to biblical 

 narratives lie in the Chaldean accounts of the creation 

 and the flood, of which it must be remembered something 

 was already known from Damascius and the fragments 

 of Berossus. What is notable in the texts given by Smith 

 is that, in spite of the fundamental difference of religious 

 conception from the Bible, in spite of the fact that the 

 Chaldean legends are essentially polytheistic and mytho 

 logical, and without ethical value, we find minute agree- 



