348 PROF. H. EDODARD NAVILLE, D.C.L., LL.D., ON 



having been brought from Mesopotamia. It is supposed to 

 be also a combination of two different writers. I cannot go 

 into that question, in which philological arguments are mixed ; 

 I do not see wh} T it must be attributed to more than one author. 

 This is the most important event after the Creation, therefore the 

 writer dwells at some length upon it. The tablet contains also 

 the events at the close of Noah's life, and it ends with the death 

 of Noah. 



The following is the xth chapter, which is still open to a 

 great deal of discussion. Time does not allow me to explain why 

 one of the chief objections, the presence of Canaan among the 

 sons of Ham, agrees perfectly with what we know of the first 

 inhabitants of Canaan. 



The tablet begins with these words : " Now these are the 

 generations of the sons of Noah," and it ends thus : " These are 

 the families of the sons of Noah after their generations, in their 

 nations, and of these were the nations divided in the earth after 

 the flood." This sums up the genealogy and teaches us that the 

 division of nations took place after the Flood. The next tablet 

 shows us how this division took place. It begins with the necessary 

 introduction : " There was one time when the whole earth was of 

 one language and of one speech." But when men tried to build 

 the tower of Babel, the Lord confounded their languages, and 

 scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 



Now in this vast confusion of* nations and languages, where 

 would the chosen people be found, those who were set apart ? 

 They sprang from one of the sons of Shem ; therefore the writer 

 reverts to this son of Noah, and to part of his descent which he 

 had given more fully in the preceding tablet. Arpachsad was 

 the ancestor of the elect, and the writer enumerates all his 

 descendants as far as Abraham, and to the death of Terah, 

 Abraham's father. 



It seems to me a grievous error to attribute this tablet to 

 three different authors. There is absolutely no inconsistency. 

 Let us remember what the author has always in view, the chosen 

 ones, the elect. When he has just described the complete con- 

 fusion which reigns upon the face of all the earth, he must tell 

 us where the chosen one will be discovered, and from whence he 

 springs. It is from among the descendants of Shem, from 

 Arpachsad. His genealogy down to Terah is the necessary sequel 

 to the narrative of the dispersion at Babel, it is as strongly linked 

 to it as possible, and therefore I do not understand why critics 

 attribute the first episode to the first Jahvist and the genealogy 

 to the Priestly Code, something like 500 years later. I cannot 



