OF BABYLONIAN CONCEPTIONS ON JEWISH THOUGHT. 315 



have been first formed, out of the dust, and placed in Eden, and 

 then afterwards out of the ground God is said to have made every 

 beast of the field, and fowl of the air, and the woman out of 

 man's rib (instead of as in P. both apparently together). In J. 

 (chapter vii, 1-5) clean beasts go into the ark by sevens. 



In this account man was said to have been created before the 

 plants or herbs existed. The vegetable and animal world are 

 represented as coming into existence to satisfy the needs of man. 

 Whereas in the P. account (in chapter i) the order is the plants 

 first, then animals, then man. This is more scientific, and 

 doubtless later, if the completion of P. was exilic. Could it have 

 been that . during the exile Babylonian and Hebrew traditions 

 were compared ; and the former inserted by the later compiler 

 side by side with the older Hebrew one. Both apparently 

 sprang from a common original. But were developed in parallel 

 lines, and then apparently were written in, side by side, without 

 any attempt to harmonize, which certainly speaks highly for the 

 honesty of the compiler. 



In a bilingual text — one version being Sumerian, the date of 

 which Professor Hommel puts back to the fourth millenium B.C. 

 — published by Dr. Pinches in 1891, the order of creation agrees 

 with the J. account in Genesis ii — creation of man in it pre- 

 ceding that of the plants and animals. It seems possible that 

 the J. account may have been derived from this early Babylonian 

 tradition, and that the later tradition current at the time of the 

 exile may have originated P. 



As regards the Babylonian stories of the flood preserved in 

 Asur-banipal's library, they seem to agree in some particulars 

 with the P. account in Genesis — in others with the J. account. 

 With the former as to the building of the vessel in stories, and 

 using pitch to make it watertight, as to the resting of it upon a 

 mountain, as to a kind of promise that mankind should not so 

 again be destroyed. With the latter as regards the seven days' 

 warning before the coming of the deluge, as to sending forth 

 birds to find if dry land had appeared, as to the offering of a 

 sacrifice with a sweet savour. The story of the garden of Eden 

 in Genesis is a J. story. So is the story of the tree of life, with 

 its resemblance to the Adapa story. 



But the question arises, do we not lose our faith in revelation 

 when we admit the derivation of Scriptural stories from Baby- 

 lonian myths, or traditions. Assuredly not, if w^e realize what 

 revelation really means. It means the conveyance to the mind 

 and soul of man of spiritual and moral truths, conceived and 

 expressed in terms of man's limited and imperfect knowledge 

 of scientific and historical events. 



