300 THE VEN. ABCHDEACON POTTER_, ON THE INPLUEINCE 



of scientific results to what we call revelation. No doubt all 

 things are shaken in the process ; but the result is the making it 

 quite clear what are those permanent Divine and important 

 things which cannot be shaken, and remain. 



There can be no more fascinating study than that of the 

 influences which preceded and surrounded the beginning and 

 development of the Jewish religion. This religion is the 

 foundation on which Christianity is built. So that if we desire 

 to understand the real meaning of the latter, we must understand 

 the former. 



To gain a true conception of a religion, it is desirable to 

 ascertain the conditions under which it took its rise. Unless 

 we were to assume that the historical and scientific setting in 

 which religious conceptions are enshrined was directly and 

 infallibly revealed to men by God, we may suppose that the ' 

 conditions under which religious thinkers and prophets were 

 born, and the ideas current, at their time and before, in their 

 country and surrounding countries, would influence their 

 thoughts and writings. And as we find out the amount of 

 that influence, we learn to distinguish between the Divinely 

 revealed and the historically developed elements. 



With regard to Old Testament teachings, everyone now 

 knows that they correspond in a very marked way with 

 Babylonian conceptions, ever since Mr. George Smith (following 

 Layard and Eawlinson) unveiled the library of Asur-banipal in 

 1874. This learned Assyrian king compiled his library in 

 about 670 B.C. But in one of the tablets found at Mneveh 

 occur these words : " according to the copies of the tablets of 

 Assyria and Accad I have written on tablets." The Assyrian 

 tablets were therefore copies of older Assyrian and Babylonian 

 ones; and Babylonian duplicates have since been found at 

 Borsippa and Sippara. " These Babylonian copies are of great 

 importance, as they cannot have been taken from the Assyrian 

 tablets, which were probably buried at the fall of Nineveh, but 

 are from older copies in their own libraries."* Moreover, the 

 creation tablets found at Nineveh give honour to Merodach, 

 not to Asshur, and consequently are Babylonian, not Assyrian 

 in origin. Also a story of the flood has recently been found, 

 which experts date at before 2000 B.C. And the fight between 

 Merodach and Tiamat was found sculptured upon two limestone 

 slabs in the temple of Ninib at Nimrud. This temple was 

 built between 884 B.C. and 860 B.C., and across the sculpture 



Vide Boscawen. 



