The Old Testament In the Light of The Historical Records and Legends Part 19

Two other possibilities remain, the one generally accepted by a.s.syriologists, the other tentatively put forward by myself some years ago. The former has a series of most interesting traditions to support it, the latter simply a slightly greater probability. The reader may adopt that which seems to him best to suit the circ.u.mstances of the case.

The identification generally accepted is, that Ur of the Chaldees is the series of mounds now called Mugheir, or, more in accordance with correct p.r.o.nunciation, Muqayyar, "the pitchy," from the noun _qir_, "pitch," that material having been largely used in the construction of the buildings whose ruins occupy the site. The identification of these ruins with those of Ur-kasdim or Ur of the Chaldees was first proposed by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1855, on the ground that the name of the city on the bricks found there, which he read Hur, resembled that of the name as given in Gen. xi. 28 and 31. As a matter of fact, the Semitic Babylonian form of the name approaches even nearer than the celebrated a.s.syriologist then thought, for it is given in the bilingual texts as _Uru_. The Akkadian form (which is most probably the more ancient of the two), on the other hand, is not so satisfactory, as it contains an additional syllable, the full form being _Uriwa_ (the vowel before the _w_ only is a little doubtful). This, with the absence of any addition corresponding to the Hebrew _Kasdim_, is the princ.i.p.al flaw in what would otherwise be a perfect philological comparison.

Ur or Uriwa, the modern Mugheir, is situated about 140 miles S.E. of Babylon, and about 560 miles S.E. of ?aran. In ancient days it was a place of considerable importance, and the site of a celebrated temple-tower called e-u-gan-dudu, probably the e-gi-nu-gala(32) of other texts, the shrine of the G.o.d Nannara, also called Sin, the Moon-G.o.d, whose worship had gained considerable renown.

"Father Nannar, lord of Ur, prince of the G.o.ds, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme;

Father Nannar, lord of e-gi-nu-gala, prince of the G.o.ds, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme:

Father Nannar, lord, bright-shining diadem, prince of the G.o.ds, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme;

Father Nannar, whose dominion is greatly perfect, prince of the G.o.ds, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme;

Father Nannar, who in a princely garment is resplendent, prince of the G.o.ds, in heaven and earth he alone is supreme," etc.

The above is the beginning of a long hymn written in the Sumerian dialect, in which an ancient Babylonian poet praises him, and in many another composition is his glory sung, and in adversity his name invoked-

"The temple of the Life of Heaven is destroyed-who, in the day of its glory, has cut off its glory?

The everlasting temple, the building of Uriwa, The everlasting temple, the building of e-ki-nu-gala.

The city Uriwa is a house of darkness in the land- e-ki-nu-gala (and) Nannara."

"Let heaven rest with earth, heaven enclosed with earth.

Father Nannar, lord of Uriwa, To the great lady, the lady of e-ki-nu-gala, give thou rest.

To heaven with earth, heaven and earth, (give thou rest).

To the heaven of Ura, at _e-gu-nu_, The G.o.d Enki, the G.o.ddess Ninki, the G.o.d Endu, the G.o.ddess Nindu, The G.o.d En-da-u-ma, the G.o.ddess Nin-da-u-ma, The G.o.d En-du-azaga, the G.o.ddess Nin-du-azaga, The G.o.d En-u-tila, the G.o.d En-me-arra, The princess of the Life of Heaven, the lady of the mountain."

"... he will restore the site of e-ki-nu-gala."(33)

Thus does the poet of ancient days, in a composition in the non-Semitic idiom of his time, lament the misfortunes which had come over the temple and city-how, whether by was by famine, or by some other mischance, we know not. It serves to show, however, not only the poetical spirit which animated the Akkadians at the time, but also the high esteem in which the temple and the deities venerated therein were held, and the power attributed to the Moon-G.o.d in the centre of his worship. The fact that Ur (Mugheir) was an important place for the worship of the Moon-G.o.d has been not seldom quoted in support of the ident.i.ty of this city with Ur of the Chaldees, because Haran, the city to which Abram migrated with his father Terah, was also a centre of the worship of Sin. This, in itself, is not at all improbable, the Jewish tradition being, that Terah was an idolater.(34) That Terah should go 560 miles simply for this reason, when he might have found a suitable settlement nearer, seems to be in the highest degree unlikely, minor shrines of the Moon-G.o.d being, in all probability, far from rare in Babylonia.(35) He simply sojourned there because, in his journeyings, it suited him to stay there. If he were a devotee of the Moon-G.o.d, he was in all probability the more pleased to take up his abode there. But he may not have worshipped that divinity at all, or if he did do so, may not have honoured him more than the Sun-G.o.d, Anu, the G.o.d of the heavens, or the G.o.ddess Itar.

Many legends concerning Abram-legends of sufficiently high antiquity-exist, but how far they are trustworthy must always be a matter of opinion. In any case, the writers had the advantage-if advantage it was-of living 2000 years nearer to Abraham's time than we have. Thus Eupolemus (as has already been pointed out on p. 146) states, that in the tenth generation, in the city of Babylonia called Camarina (which by some is called Urie, and which signifies a city of the Chaldeans), there lived, the thirteenth in descent, Abraham, a man of a n.o.ble race, and superior to all others in wisdom. They relate of him that he was the inventor of astrology and Chaldean magic, and that on account of his eminent piety he was esteemed by G.o.d. It is said, moreover, that under the direction of G.o.d he departed and lived in Phnicia, and there taught the Phnicians the motions of the sun and moon, and all other things, and was on that account held in great reverence by their king.

All this, naturally, points to Babylonia and the city of Uru or Uriwa as the original dwelling-place of Abram, Camarina being connected with the Arabic _qamar_, "the moon," which, as we have seen, was the deity worshipped there. It is noteworthy that the transcription of the Babylonian name of the city, Urie, contains traces of the Akkadian termination _-iwa_ (_Uriwa_) which is absent in the Hebrew form Ur. This is important, as it shows that at a comparatively late date (Eupolemus lived just before the Christian era), the ending in question made itself felt in the transcription of the word, and that the form in Genesis, Ur, does not quite agree, as traces of that termination (two syllables in the Akkadian form) are altogether wanting in it. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the theory that Abram lived and pa.s.sed his earlier years at the Ur which is now represented by the ruins of Mugheir, originated with the Jews during their captivity at Babylon and in the cities of Babylonia. Eupolemus, as a student of Jewish history, would naturally get his information from a Jewish source, and the Jews had, in common with most of the nations of the earth, a tendency to attribute to their own forefathers, whom they venerated so highly, the glory of being connected with any renowned city or great discovery of earlier ages. Thus it arises that Eupolemus, following his Jewish informant, makes Abraham to be the inventor of astrology and Chaldean magic; and to have dwelt at Ur. It must have been the Jewish captives exiled in Babylonia who first identified Ur with the renowned city Uru or Uriwa, quite forgetting that the form of the name could not have been Ur in Hebrew, and that there was another Ur, much more suitable as the dwelling-place of a nomad family like that of Terah and his sons, namely, the country of Akkad itself, called, in the non-Semitic idiom, Uri or Ura, a tract which included the whole of northern Babylonia.

In whatever part of Babylonia, however, the patriarch may have sojourned, of one thing there is no doubt, and that is, that if he dwelt there, the life which he saw around him, and in which he must have taken part, was that depicted by the tablets translated in the foregoing chapter. He saw the idolatry of the people, and the ceremonies and infamies which accompanied it; he saw the Babylonians as they were in his day, with all their faults, and all their virtues-their industry, their love of trade, their readiness to engage in litigation, and all the other interesting characteristics which distinguished them. He must have been acquainted with their legends of the Creation, the Flood, and all their G.o.ds and heroes, and the poetry for which the Hebrew race has always been renowned must have had its origin in the land of Nimrod, whence Abraham of old went forth free, and his descendants, a millennium and a half later, returned as captives.

How it came about (if it be really true) that Terah was an idolater, whilst his son Abram was a monotheist, will probably never be known. It is only reasonable to suppose, however, that among a people so intelligent as the Babylonians, there were at least some who, thinking over the nature of the world in which they lived and the destiny of mankind, saw that the different G.o.ds whom the people worshipped could not all be governors of the universe, but, if they existed at all, must be only manifestations of the Deity who held the supreme power. Indeed, it was, to all appearance, this doctrine which really prevailed, as is shown by the text translated on p. 58. Whether taught generally to the learned cla.s.s (the scribes) or not, is not known, but it must have been very commonly known to those who could read, otherwise it is hardly likely that such a tablet would have been drawn up and written out again at a later date (the text we possess being but a copy of a lost original). As the divinity with whom the others are identified is Merodach, it is most likely that this special doctrine of the unity of the Deity became general some time after the commencement of the Dynasty of Babylon (that to which ?ammurabi or Amraphel belonged), when the city of Babylon became the capital of the country. Abram's monotheism would, therefore, naturally fit in with the new doctrine which apparently became the general belief of the learned cla.s.s at this time.(36)

Concerning the journey of Abraham, there is naturally nothing to be said, the Bible narrative merely stating that Terah and his family migrated to Haran. The only thing worth noting is, that the distance they had to travel was sufficiently great-about 560 miles from Uriwa (Mugheir), and about 420 miles from Babylon, from the neighbourhood of which the family must have started if the Ur mentioned in Genesis be the Uri or Ura of the inscriptions, which was equivalent to the land of Akkad. The whole of this district was, in all probability, at this time, as later, under Babylonian rule, a state of things which must have contributed in some measure to the safe transit of the household to Haran, and also that of Abraham later on to Canaan, which, as we know from the inscriptions(37) and from Gen. xiv., acknowledged Babylonian overlordship.

With regard to Haran, it is very probable that this ancient city was, by turns, under the rule either of Babylonia or a.s.syria until the absorption of the former power into the great Persian Empire, when Haran likewise, in all probability, shared the same fate. Concerning the early history of the city very little is known, but it is not improbable that it was an ancient Babylonian foundation, the name being apparently the Babylonian word _?arranu_, meaning "road." The name given to this "road-city" is explained as originating in the fact, that it lay at the junction of several trade-routes-an explanation which is very probable.

The city itself was, at the time of its greatest prosperity, a considerable place, as the remains now existing show. There are the ruins of a castle, with square columns 8 feet thick, supporting a roof of 30 feet high, together with some comparatively modern ruins. The ancient walls, though in a very dilapidated state, are said to be continuous throughout. No houses remain, but there are several ruins, one of great interest, and considerable extent, which Ainsworth considered to be a temple. A rudely sculptured lion, found outside the walls, is regarded as giving evidence of a.s.syrian occupation, which, however, is otherwise known to have been an historical fact.

In Abraham's time the place had, in all probability, not attained its fullest development, and must have been a small city. The plain in which it is situated is described as very fertile, but not cultivated to its fullest extent, on account of half the land remaining fallow because not manured. This, at least, was the state of the tract 72 years ago, but it is very probable that, in the "changeless East," the same description applies at the present day. That it was of old, as now, a fertile spot, may be gathered from the fact that the a.s.syrian king Tiglath-pileser I.

speaks of having taken or killed elephants in that district-

_Erit pire bu?ali dannuti_ Ten powerful bull-elephants _ina mat ?arrani u idi nar_ in the land of Haran and on _?abur_ the banks of the ?abour _lu-aduk; irbit pire bal?uti_ I killed; four elephants alive _lu-u?abita. Makani-unu_ I took. Their skins, _inni-unu itti pire_ their teeth, with the living _bal?uti, ana ali-ia Aur elephants, I brought to my ubla._ city a.s.shur.

If there were elephants in "the land of Haran" 1100 years before Christ, it is very probable that they were to be found in the neighbourhood a thousand years earlier, but notwithstanding any disadvantage which may have been felt from the presence of these enormous beasts, it was in all probability a sufficiently safe district for one possessing flocks and herds. There is no reason to suppose that the presence of elephants around Haran in any way influenced the patriarch to leave the place, for these animals were to be found (according to an inscription supposed to have been written for the same a.s.syrian king, Tiglath-pileser I.) in Lebanon, and therefore in the country where Abraham settled after quitting Haran.

As has already been noted, this was the centre of the worship of the Moon-G.o.d Sin or Nannaru,(38) and Terah and his family, in settling in this place, doubtless saw the same ceremonies in connection with the worship of this deity as they had been accustomed to see in Babylonia, slightly modified; and this would be the case whether Terah's family came from Uriwa or not, the Moon-G.o.d being worshipped in more cities than one in Babylonia. Something of the importance of the shrine of Nannaru at Haran may be gathered from the fact, that the a.s.syrian king Esarhaddon (to all appearance) was crowned there. As the text recording this is very interesting, and reveals something of the beliefs of the a.s.syrians and the natives of Haran, I quote here the pa.s.sage referring to the ceremony, restoring the wording where defective. The writer is apparently addressing Aur-bani-apli, "the great and n.o.ble Asnapper"-

"When the father of the king my lord went to Egypt, he was crowned (?) in the _qanni_ of Haran, the temple (lit. 'Bethel') of cedar. The G.o.d Sin remained over the (sacred) standard, two crowns upon his head, (and) the G.o.d Nusku stood before him. The father of the king my lord entered, (and) he(39) placed (the crown?) upon his head, (saying) thus: 'Thou shalt go and capture the lands in the midst.' (He we)nt, he captured the land of Egypt. The rest of the lands not submitting (?) to Aur and Sin, the king, the lord of kings, shall capture (them").

[Here follow an invocation of the G.o.ds, and wishes for a long life for the king, the stability (?) of his throne, etc.]

In addition to the G.o.d Sin, the above extract refers to the deity known as Nusku, as being venerated there. That this was the case, is confirmed by several inscriptions of the time of Aur-bani-apli, who seems to have restored his temple. This fane, which the a.s.syrian king is said to have made to shine like the day, was called e-melam-anna, "the temple of the glory of heaven," and the presence of its name in a list of the temples of Babylonia and a.s.syria testifies to its importance.

The temple of Sin or Nannaru, as we learn from the inscriptions of Nabonidus, was called e-?ul?ul, "the temple of (great) joy." The fane having been destroyed by the Medes, Nabonidus received, in a dream, command to rebuild it, and it is interesting to learn that, when the work was in progress, the records which Aur-bani-apli had placed there, according to custom, when restoring it, came to light. The letter of which an extract is given above was probably written to the a.s.syrian king upon this occasion.

So renowned was the place as a centre of heathen worship, that at a comparatively late date-running far into the Christian era, namely, the fifth century A.D.-the worship of heathen deities was still in full progress there, though the G.o.d Sin had fallen, to all appearance, somewhat into the background, and Bel-shamin, "the lord of the heavens," _i.e._ the Sun-G.o.d, generally known as Shamash or Samas, and called later on by the Greek name of Helios, had taken his place. They also worshipped a G.o.ddess called Gadlat, generally identified with the Babylonian G.o.ddess Gula, and Atargatis, the feminine counterpart of Hadad, whose name is often found in Aramean inscriptions under the form of 'Atar-'ata.(40) This G.o.ddess is called Derketo(41) by Ktesias, and appears as Tar-'ata in Syriac and in the Talmud. According to Baethgen, Atargatis, or, better, Attargatis, was a double divinity, composed of Itar and 'Ata or 'Atta (Attes). In consequence of the worship of the sun, the moon, and the planet Venus ('Atar = Itar), a second centre of the worship denominated Sabean (which originated in south-west Arabia, the country of the Sabeans) was founded in Haran, where its devotees are said to have had a chapel dedicated to Abraham, whose renown had, to all appearance, brought to his memory the great honour of deification.

It was after a long sojourn at Haran that Abraham set out for his journey westwards, the patriarch being no less than seventy-five years old when he left that city. The next episode in his life was his journey, in obedience to the call which he had received, to Canaan, going first to Shechem, "unto the oak (terebinth) of Moreh," afterwards to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and thence, later, towards the south. A famine caused him to continue his travels as far as Egypt, where the incident of Sarai being taken from him, in consequence of the deceit practised by him in describing her as his sister, took place.

This portion of the patriarch's history is not one which can be very easily dealt with, the incident being told very shortly, and no Egyptian names being given-in fact, it is altogether dest.i.tute of "local colouring"

necessarily so, from the brevity of the narrative.

At Haran, the patriarch and the members of his family probably saw people to a great extent of the type to which they had been accustomed in Babylonia, but in the land of Canaan they would notice some difference, though they all spoke a Semitic language, like themselves. Indeed, it is not at all improbable that wherever the ancestor of the Hebrews went, he found the Semitic Babylonian language at least understood, for as the Babylonian king claimed dominion over all this tract as far as the Mediterranean, the language of his country was fast becoming what it certainly was a few hundred years later, namely, the _lingua franca_ of the whole tract as far as Egypt, where also, to all appearance, Abraham and his wife had no difficulty in making themselves understood.

According to Gen. x. 6, Canaan, into whose country Abraham journeyed with the object of settling, was the descendant of Cush, and the inhabitants ought therefore to have spoken a Hamitic language. Historically, however, this cannot be proved, but it is certain that if the Canaanites spoke a Hamitic language, they soon changed it for the speech which they seem to have used as far back as history can go, this speech being closely akin to Hebrew. In fact, there is very little doubt that Abraham and his descendants, forsaking their mother-tongue, the language of Babylonia, adopted the dialect of the Canaanitish language, which they afterwards spoke, and which is so well known at the present day as Hebrew. To all appearance Abraham's relatives, who remained in Mesopotamia, in "the city of Nahor," spoke a dialect of Aramaic, a language with which Abraham himself must have been acquainted, and which may have been spoken in Babylonia at that early date, as it certainly was, together with Chaldean, later on.

It is noteworthy, that the country to which Abraham migrated, and which is called by the Hebrew writers Canaan, is called by the same name in the Tel-el-Amarna letters, and the fact that the Babylonian king Burra-buria uses the same term shows that it was the usual name in that part of the world. Among the Babylonians, however, it was called _mat Amurri_, "the land of Amoria," the common expression, among the Babylonians and the a.s.syrians, for "the West." In later times the a.s.syrians designated this district _mat ?atti_, "the land of Heth," the home of the Hitt.i.tes. The inference from this naturally is, that at the time when the Babylonians became acquainted with the country, the Amorites were the most powerful nationality there, whilst the Hitt.i.tes had the dominion, and were in greater force later on, when the a.s.syrians first traded or warred there.

These two linguistic usages show, that the two great races in the country, both of them Hamitic, according to Gen. x. 15, 16, were the Amorites (who spread as far as Babylonia, and even had settlements there), and the Hitt.i.tes, whose capital was ?attu (_Pterium_, now _Boghaz-keui_) in Asia Minor, and whose rule extended south as far as Carchemish and Hamath.

In addition to the above indications from the historical inscriptions of a.s.syria, and the contract-tablets of Babylonia belonging to the first dynasty of Babylon (a number of which are translated in Chap. V.), we have also the indications furnished by the bilingual geographical lists.

As these lists are of great importance for the geography of the ancient Semitic East, with special reference to Western Asia, it may be of interest, and perhaps also serve a useful purpose, to give, in the form in which they occur on the tablets, such portions as may bear on the question of the knowledge of the Babylonians of the countries which lay around them.

The most important of these geographical doc.u.ments is that published in the _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, vol. ii. p. 50. This text begins, as would be expected from the hand of a patriotic scribe, with the towns and cities of his own land, in two columns, Akkadian, and the Semitic equivalent. This was followed, in the same way, by the provinces of his country, ending with the two princ.i.p.al, Kengi-Ura, translated by umer and Akkad. This is followed by the four Akkadian groups for the land of Subartum and Gutium, probably a part of Media.

To all appearance a new section begins here, the scribe introducing in this place the four Akkadian words or groups for "mountain." The text then proceeds as follows-

KUR MAR-TU ad A-mur-ri-e Mountain of Amoria KI (the Amorite land).

KUR TI-ID-NU-UM ad A-mur-ri-e Mountain of KI Amoria.

KUR GIR-GIR ad A-mur-ri-e Mountain of KI Amoria.

KUR SU-RU ad Su-bar-ti Mountain of KI Subarti.

KUR NUM-MA ad Elamti Mountain of Elam.

KI KUR Gu-ti-um ad Gu-ti-i Mountain of Gutu KI or Gutium.

KURZAG Gu-ti-um ad pa-at Gu-ti-i Mountain of the KI border of Gutium.

KUR i-rum ad Si-ri-i [?] Mountain of iru.

KI KUR [GI] ERI-NA ad E-ri-ni Mountain of Cedar.