The Astronomy of the Bible

s been used to support the theory that the Hebrews derived their Creation story from one which, when exiles in Babylon, they heard from their conquerors. If this theory were substantiate

rst chapter of Genesi

God created the he

their embodiments and expressions, nor the work of conflicting deities. From it we learn that the universe is not self-existent, nor even (as the pantheist thinks of it) th

brews, and an especial interest attaches to the solution arrived at by those nation

be the result of scientific experiment. They cannot form items of history, or arise from tradition.

s has been preserved to us by the Syrian w

mother of the gods." And from these proceeds an only-begotten son, Mumis, which, I conceive, is no other than the intelligible world proceeding from the two principles. From them also another progeny is derived, Lakhê

d he published them in 1875, in his book on The Chaldean Account of Genesis. None of the tablets were perfect; and of some only very small portions remain. But portions of other copies of the poem hav

tu-the Tavthê of the account of Damascius,-who

the heavens

earth bore

ocean was t

she who begot t

n one united t

outlined, marshes

the gods ha

the fates (had no

ced the gods (al

preparing for battle, "She who created everything . . . produced giant serpents." She chose one of the

finally Merodach, the son of Ea, was asked to become the champion of the gods. Merodach gladly consented, but made good terms for himself. The gods were to assist him in every possible way by entrusting all their pow

u art he who i

erse have we given th

o falter, but plucking up courage he advanced to meet her, caug

enter so that she cou

he winds tortured

strated and her m

lub, he shatte

rails; he over-mas

er and end

r corpse; he sto

y slain, Merodach considered

his mind, he for

er skin like a fish, acc

He then proceded to furnish the heavens and the earth with their respective equipments; the d

before Merodach commences his work, and all that the god effects is a reconstruction of the world. The method of this reconstruction possesses no features superior to those of the Creation myths of other barbarous nations. Our own Scandinavian ancestors had a similar one, the se

s blood they made the sea and waters; from his flesh, the land; from his bones, the mountains; and hi

way in which the world is supposed to have been built up by the gods from the fragments of the anatomy of a huge prim?val monster. Yet it is not urged

eation tablets, brought also to light a Babylonian account of the Flood, which had a large number of features in common with the narrative of Gen. vi.-ix. The actual resemblance between the two Deluge narratives has caused a resemblance to be imagined between the two Creation narratives. I

f the creation of the

ings created into groups and clas

e to the Day

the first and only cause of t

ens and the earth are represented as existin

ew version of a mythology common to many of the Semitic peoples." And the legend has been yet further developed, until writers of the standing of Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch have claimed that the Genesis

and beasts and fishes. For surely the Hebrew may be credited with knowing this much of himself, without any need for a transportation to Babylon to learn it. "In writing

en to the Babylonian mother of the universe, the dragon of the deep; and in

ind of a connection does it imply? It implies that the Babylonian based his barbarous myth upon the H

spouts." Our word "deep" is apt to give us the idea of stillness-we have the proverb, "Still waters run deep,"-whereas in some instanc

nto the sea: his chosen captains also are drown

ur Authorized Version, "deep" or "dep

the Babylonian dragon of the waters, is a mythological personification. Now the natural object must come first. It never yet has been the case that a nation has gained its knowledge of a perfectly common natural object by de-mythologizing one of the mythological

, the ruins of the palace of Sennacherib and Assurbanipal, built about that date. The poem itself, as Prof. Sayce has pointed out, indicates, by the peculiar pre-eminence given in it to Merodach, that it is of late composition. It was late in the

most primitive condition possible of astronomy. The heavenly bodies are simply the greater light, the lesser light, and the stars-the last bein

irst chapter of Genesis. But the fact remains that the one nation preserved the Tiamat myth, the other the narrative of Genesis, and each counted its own Creation story sacred. We can only rightly judg

TNO

of the Past,

of the Historical Records of Assyria a

of the Historical Records of Assyria a

of the Past,

Ibid.

of the Historical Records of Assyria a

ble, Johns' transla

of the Historical Records of Assyria a