CHEDORLAOMER. 87 



carried back about four and a half centuries 

 beyond the beginning of the Pharaohs. But 

 is this enough ? The founding of a Monarchy 

 is not the beginning of a race. The people 

 amongst whom such Monarchies arose must 

 have grown and gathered during many 

 generations. Nor is it in regard to the 

 peopHng of Egypt alone that this difficulty 

 meets us in the face. The existence in the 

 days of Abraham of such an organized 

 government as that of Chedorlaomer, shows 

 that 2,000 years B.C. there flourished in Elam, 

 beyond Mesopotamia, a nation which even 

 now would be ranked among " the Great 

 Powers." And if nations so great had thus 

 arisen, altogether unnoticed in the Hebrew 

 narrative — if we are left to gather as best 



