RECENT ORIENTAL DISCOVERIES ON OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 167 



intentionally given an uncompromising denial to all in it that 

 impugned the omnipotence and unity of God." p. 108. 



Dr. Pinches sums up his discussion of the question as 

 follows : — 



" In the mind of the present writer there seems to he but one 

 answer, and that is, that the two accounts are practically distinct, 

 and are the production of people having entirely different ideas 

 upon the subject, though they may have influenced each other in 

 regard to certain points." Op. cit., p. 48. 



Professor Hommel's opinion, as expressed in Ancient Hcbreiv 

 Tradition, seems to be different. He seems to think that there 

 was a monotheistic Babylonian version more ancient than the 

 polytheistic — of which the latter was a corruption. This would 

 seem in some degree to harmonise in general principle with the 

 opinion of Delitzsch, that there were amongst " the immigrant 

 N'orth Semitic tribes relisjious ideas differino- from the indi- 

 genous polytheistic mode of thought in Babylonia," but which 

 "quickly succumbed before the polytheism" of the older 

 inhabitants. Babel imd Bibel, Trans, by Johns (1903), pp. 72, 

 133. 



The Babylonian Flood Tablet. 



Its Place in Babylonian Literature. 



In Babylonian literature the story of the Flood occurs as one 

 of the episodes in the epic of the Chald?ean hero, Gilgames, and 

 is contained on the eleventh tablet of a series of twelve, which 

 recount what is known as the Legend of Gilgames. The hero 

 goes on a journey to visit Pir N"apistim (the Chaldsean Noah), 

 who for his goodness had been gifted with immortality, in order 

 that he might find out from him the secret of how to become 

 immortal In reply to his questionings, Pir N'apistim relates 

 to Gilgames the story of the Deluge. 



Its Bearing on the Hcxtateuchal Criticism. 



That story as told in the Babylonian legend bears a striking 

 resemblance in the incidents which it embraces to the Biblical 

 narrative, although differing from it in the widest possible way 

 in its theological aspect. Whilst the Babylonian narrative is 

 grossly polytheistic, the Biblical breathes the purest mono- 

 theism. Nevertheless there is a remarkable similarity between 

 the two in the incidents which they record, and the Babylonian 

 story has a curiously important bearing on the critical analysis 

 of Genesis and of the Pentateuch in general 



M 



