308 THE VEX. ARCHDEACON POTTER^ M.A.. ON THE INFLUENCE 



says that " a man stealing the son of a free-inan shall be put to 

 death." In Exodus xxi, 16, we read that "anyone stealmg a 

 man shall be put to death. ' Khammurabi says that anyone 

 strikino; a father shall have his hands cut off. In Exodus xxi, 

 15, he is to be put to death. In the code of Khammurabi 

 when a wife gives her maid as second wife to her husband, 

 if this maid makes herself the equal of her mistress, because 

 she has borne children, her mistress shall not sell her for 

 money ; she shall put the slave's mark upon her, and count 

 her among the servants. So in Genesis xvi, 5, Sarai spoke to 

 Abraham, " Yahweh judge between thee and me." And Abraham 

 said, " thy maid is in thy hand, do unto her as pleaseth thee." 

 And wlien Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. 



Eegarding the garden of Eden, Professor Sayce says, " that there 

 is a connection between the Biblical story and the Babylonian 

 legend is rendered certain by the geography of the Biblical 

 Paradise. It was a garden in the land of Eden : and Edin was 

 the Sumerian name of the plain of Babylonia, in which Eridu 

 stood. Two of the rivers which watered it were the Tigris 

 and Euphrates, the two streanis which we are specially 

 told had been created and named by Ea at the beginning of 

 time." He adds, " years ago I drew attention to a Sumerian 

 hymn, in which reference is made to the garden and sacred tree 

 of Eridu, the Babylonian paradise in the plain of Eden." 

 Dr. Pinches has since discovered the last line of the hymn in 

 which these words occur, " In Eridu a vine or palm, grew 

 overshadowing." 



As regards views of a future life, Professor Sayce reminds us 

 that in Babylon there was no mummification as in Egypt, and 

 that so the horizon was fixed at this life. There is no concep- 

 tion in Babylon like that of the Egyptian fields of Alu — no 

 judgment hall where men are to be tried — the Babylonian was 

 to be judged in this world, not the next, and by the Sun God of 

 day. Professor Sayce adds, "the Hebrew sheol is too exact 

 a counterpart of the Babylonian AVorld of the Dead not to have 

 been borrowed from it " : and he concludes, it is to Babylonia 

 that we must look for the origin of those views of the future 

 world, and of the punishment of sin in this life, which have left 

 so deep an impression upon the pages of the Old Testament. 

 The old behef that misfortune implied sin, and prosperity 

 righteousness, is never entirely eradicated, and Sheol long 

 continues to be a land of shadow and unsubstantiality, where 

 good and bad share the same fate, and the things of this life are 

 forgotten." 



