ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 1 pelt 
existence of the Lord (Jehovah) and blest the future seed of 
Rebekah their sister (Gen. xxiv, 50 and 60). Moreover, in 
all our discoveries in Assyria we found no trace of any 
representation of revolting sacrifices, which were practised by 
other Gentile nations; but, on the contrary, on the bronze 
gate of Shalmanesar I], which I discovered at Balawat in 
1878, there can only be seen offerings of bullocks and rams, 
the same as the animals offered by Balaam and those that 
were ordered for sacrifice in the Mosaic law. 
It is probable that the wise men or Magi, mentioned 
in the second chapter of St. Matthew, who offered gifts of 
gold, and frankincense, and myrrh to our infant Saviour, 
were notable Aramean diviners of the same race as Nahor, 
Job, and Balaam, and held independent positions in the land. 
Of course the country, nationality, and position of those 
magnates have also been the element of much comment ever 
since the beginning of the Christian dispensation; but the 
majority of the critics have agreed that those Magi were 
natives of Persia, on the mistaken supposition that the word 
Magi pertained solely to a certain priestcraft of that country. 
Why and wherefore such a notion was arrived at, it is beyond 
my comprehension to understand. We know of no other 
Gentile nation, excepting those whose language wasAramean, 
who have had any connexion with Divine measures such as 
the family of Terah, the repentance of the Ninevites, and the 
prophetic calling of Balaam. The very fact of the allusion 
made by St. Matthew that the Magi had gone to Jerusalem 
from the east, and not from any known country in particular, 
seems to me to accord with other passages of Scripture which 
point to a certain locality without referrmg to any point of 
the compass. It must have meant then as having, “seen his 
star in the east,” the same as “Sephar a mount of the east” 
(Gen. x, 30), Abraham sent the sons of the concubines 
“eastward into the east country” (Gen. xxv, 6), Jacob “came 
into the land of the children of the east” (Gen. xxix, 1), 
Balaam was brought “out of the mountains .of the east” 
(Num. xxiii, 7), Job “ was the greatest of all the children of 
the east” (Job i, 3), ete. 
There is also another notable connexion between the 
prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxv, 17) and the star alluded to 
by the wise men (Matt. ii, 2) which they said they had seen 
in the east. The word east here, surely, could not have meant 
a point of the compass, as opposite to west? It must mean 
that part of Mesopotamia which was known to the Hebrews 
by repute as the east country, as we now call certain parts of 
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