KECENT ORIENTAL DISCOVERIES ON OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 165 



Uru- Salem the Citneiform Name of Jerusalem. 



With regard to the name - Salem," it seems now to be 

 practically aureed that it must undoubtedly be taken to mean 

 Jerusalem. The name " Shalam " for Jerusalem occurs in the 

 list of cities in Palestine which were captured in the reign of 

 Piameses II. The names may still be read on the wall of the 

 Eainesseum at Thebes ; and the name Salem " also occurs in a 

 similar list of cities captured by Eameses III. 



There is nothing, then, in the name Salem itself which 

 would suggest a late date, but, on the contrary, the name would 

 rather point to those ancient times when the cuneiform script 

 of Babylonia prevailed in Palestine. The name Jerusalem in 

 cuneiform writing is " Uru-Salem " — " Urn " meaning " city," and 

 " Salem " " peace." " Salem " would seem a natural abbreviation 

 from Uru-Salem, by the omission of the first element, city, and 

 the retention of Salem, the distinctive proper name. Indeed, 

 this whole narrative may possibly have once existed in the form 

 of a record in cuneiform writing. We know that through 

 centuries before Abraham the Babylonians were at various 

 times the over-lords of Palestine, and we know from the Tel-el~ 

 Amarna tablets that in spite of the paramount influence which 

 the Egyptians exercised in Palestine about 1400 B.C. as 

 suzerain power, the hold which the cuneiform writing had on 

 the people of Palestine was so strong and persistent that even 

 official correspondence with Egypt was carried on by the 

 writing and language of Babylonia. There is, therefore, we 

 may claim, nothing unreasonable in the suggestion of Professor 

 Hommel that possibly this fourteenth chapter of Genesis, 

 which is in such close accord with the ancient history of 

 Babylonia, and enshrines within it this peculiar name for the 

 holy city (which seems an echo of " Uru-Salem ") may have 

 existed once in the form of a cuneiform record. 



The Babylonian Creation Tablets. 



The critics give themselves a great deal of trouble in their 

 endeavours to satisfy themselves as to the exact time when the 

 Creation and Flood legends of the Babylonians became known 

 in Israel. Their sceptical theories in regard to the patriarchs 

 preclude them from adopting the simple idea that since, according 

 to the Old Testament, Abraham came from Babylonia, he would 

 naturally be acquainted with these stories, and his descendants, 

 although not living in Babylonia, would be aware of them. 



