148 PROF. HULL, LL.D., F.R.S., ON HOLY SCKIPTUKE ILLUSTEATED AND 



vent his Danga escaping from tlie Nile ship, and appears as 

 proud of his bringing him safe and sound to the King as other 

 Egyptian functionaries were of the safe conduct of a mighty 

 obelisk from its quarry to a Temple. 



Turning now to Babylonian excavations, the Americans, French 

 and Germans have been more successful lately in obtaining literary 

 records than ever before, the American explorations in and around 

 Niffer, having found many thousands of tablets, and these have been 

 BO scientifically excavated, the strata in which they were found 

 registered, and each tablet catalogued and so well arranged, and 

 presenting such a continuous series of many centuries, that it may 

 at length be said that the history of cuneiform paleography can 

 now be written. 



In reference to Babylonia and the remark of Mr. Rassam upon 

 the metals found there, it may be mentioned that a tablet of anti- 

 mony was brought home by a French explorer, and I believe 

 some pure carbonate of magnesia has also been found among 

 Assyrian relics. 



Rev. R. C. W. Raban, M.A. — There is one point in Professor 

 Hull's most interesting paper to which I should like to direct 

 attention, i.e., the question whether Abraham's intended sacrifice 

 of Isaac took place on Mount Moriah. I cannot, unfortunately, 

 speak as the Professor and others can, from topographical 

 knowledge of the Holy Land; but I have studied the matter 

 carefully, and there appear to me to be two difficulties in the 

 way of Professor Hull's acceptance of the site afterwards chosen 

 for Solomon's Temple. One difficulty is that mentioned by Dean 

 Stanley, that Moriah does not rise prominently from "the moun- 

 tains round about Jerusalem," so as to agree with Genesis xxii., 4, 

 " On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place 

 afar off," compared with verse 2, " One of the mountains which I 

 will tell thee of."* The other difficulty is that the oldest inter- 

 preters have not identified them. The Ixx. render both Moreh 

 and Moriah (Gen. xii., xxii.) by "upland," and 2 Chron. iii., 1, 

 they render Moriah by Ammoriah. The Samaritan gives for 

 Moriah (Gen. xxii.) terra visionis, which is confirmed by Aquila 

 and Symmachus. The Targum of Onkelos on Gen. xxii. renders 

 the land Moriah " the land of worship." 



* Dean Stanley's view has been questioned by some.— Ed. 



