336 THE VEX. ARCHDEACON POTTER, M.A., ON THE INFLUENCE 



there is no chaos, but an orderly evolution from a primitive 

 condition of matter. 



ii. It is incorrect to say that " from her body were made the sky 

 and heavenly bodies." Her body was said to be cut in two " like 

 a flat fish," one part being used to keep up the waters above, and of 

 the other part no account is given. Merodach is not even said to 

 have " created " any of the heavenly bodies. He is only said to have 

 " fixed the constellations," " established the year," " caused the 

 Moon-god to shine forth," etc. (Tablet V, 1-18). 



iii. It is not correct to say that " the Tablets and Genesis agree 

 in putting the deep as the first existence.''^ Genesis says that " In the 

 beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The tablets 

 contain no such conception as this, and in recording the develop- 

 ment of our globe Genesis begins it by saying " The earth was without 

 form and void " — a statement which applies to its nebulous or 

 gaseous condition. The statement that " darkness was upon the 

 face of the deep " applies to an entirely different condition. The 

 Babylonian Tablets speak of Tiamtu, but say nothing about darkness. 



iv. It is incorrect to say that " Merodach was originally a solar 

 deity." Merodach was more probably the deified Nimrod and with 

 the imperial ascendancy of Babylon became the chief of the 

 Babylonian pantheon. He had some of the attributes assigned to 

 him of Enlil, who is sometimes called "the older Bel." The fact 

 that he armed himself with the net, the hunter's weapon, to catch 

 the old goddess, Tiamat, confirms this identification with Nimrod, 

 " the mighty hunter before the Lord." There is not a single 

 sentence in the whole of the tablets which justifies his identification 

 with the Sun-god. He asserts his authority over the heavenly 

 bodies which already exist. If he is the personification of anything 

 at all it is of the *' firmament," dividing the waters above from the 

 water beneath as in Gen. i. But the attempt to explain Babylonian 

 religious conceptions by astronomical myths has by M. Jastrow and 

 others been carried to an excess not warranted by the records. 



V. I do not know where our friend got the idea (p. 301) that 

 " Another tablet describes the gods calling forth mighty monsters, 

 the cattle and wild beasts by Ea." In Tablet II, 26-30, Tiamat is 

 described as creating monstrosities such as the monster serpent," 

 " the raging dog," " the scorpion-man," " the fish-man," etc. In the 

 bilingual tablet Marduk is said to have created domestic cattle such 



