52 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES^ ESQ., LL.D., M.R.A.S.^ ON 



a great deliverance in the world. Istar, as Professor Sayce has 

 shown, is no other than Eve. 



There is another point about Merodach. Dr. Pinches has told 

 us on a previous occasion, and now, that Merodach is the same as 

 Nimrod. In Professor Boscawen's lecture on " Discoveries made in 

 Elam " he gives the actual name Namarandu as almost identical 

 with Nimrod. 



Mr. BoscAWEN. — The name means "Lord," and "Namarandu" 

 " Lord of the City." 



Mr. KousE. — So it may in the Bible. 



Mr. BosCAWEN. — Certainly, that is what I say. 



Professor Orchard. — I think we are all of opinion, on reflection, 

 that this curious epic poem was founded on something in the 

 nature of sober fact and history, and we shall, I think, be of opinion 

 that the writer must have had before him the early chapters of 

 Genesis. The imaginative point which has just been referred to 

 (I may say painted on canvas and illustrated by nature), was 

 doubtless founded on some very simple and unvarnished statement 

 of facts. Those facts we find in the early chapters of Genesis. 

 Who wrote those early chapters *? We may think, I suppose, that 

 Adam himself, or his immediate descendants, were those who first 

 wrote them. 



With regard to Nimrod, I think he had mistaken the prognosti- 

 cation of the promised Messiah who was promised to our first 

 parents in the Garden of Eden. I have long been of opinion, and 

 every day confirms me, that the more discoveries that are made, the 

 more we shall find that the book of Genesis is, beyond all question, 

 of Divine origin. It is very well able to take care of itself, I think. 



The Rev. F. A. Walker, D.D. — Mr. Chairman, I shall not 

 detain you long at this hour. I only ask leave to put to the 

 learned lecturer one question, viz., in what nation, he thinks, the 

 lament over Tamus, to which he alluded, originated. We know it 

 is a wide-spread classical tale in the poems of old. Its local 

 habitation was doubtless Assyria; but I would ask Dr. Pinches 

 whether he thinks the Assyrians were the first inventors of the 

 legend, or the Babylonians % It also finds an honoured place in 

 Ovid's poem and the " Idyls of Theocritus." 



The Rev. John Tuckwell, M.R.A.S. — I should like to add a 

 few words to what has been said on this most interesting and 



