This corresponds with the fourth day in the Mosaic narrative. The lights were to be for signs, for seasons, for days, and for years; the sun was to rule the day, the moon to rule the night. God made the stars also. It will be observed, too, that though this is the fourth day, it is the fifth stage in the work of creation; for the first stage is given in the first two verses of Genesis, and was long antecedent to the proper work of the first day. It would seem as if the events of each stage, or each day, in the Mosaic account had been embodied in a separate Assyrian tablet; for the first tablet, like the first two verses of Genesis, is introductory, stating simply the fact of creation at some period not named. Smith adopts this view, and says: "There is fair reason to suppose that there was a close agreement in subjects and order between the text of the Chaldean legend and Genesis, while there does not appear to be any thing like the same agreement between these inscriptions and the accounts transmitted to us through Berosus.' The tablets are many centuries older than Berosus, who flourished in B.C. 300; they therefore contain a purer because a more ancient tradition. The last lines of the fifth tablet are intensely interesting, as containing probably the oldest monumental evidence of the institution of the Sabbath, and that, too, almost in the very words of Genesis. It is here affirmed, moreover, that the institution of the Sabbath was coeval with the creation. We find the same fact mentioned on other cuneiform inscriptions. In 1869 Smith discovered, among the Nineveh tablets, a religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days, or "Sabbaths," are marked out as days on which no work should be undertaken. It seems to be the same calendar a portion of which, translated by the Rev. A. H. Sayce, is published in "Records of the Past." He says of it that 2 "It not only proves the existence of a Chaldean ritual and rubric, but the chief interest attaching to it is due to the fact that it bears evidence to the existence of a seventh-day Sabbath, on which certain works were forbidden 1 "Chaldean Account of Creation," p. 73. 244 Assyrian Discoveries," p. 12. 3 Vol. vii., p. 157. The original text is given in the "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iv. to be done among the Babylonians and Assyrians. It will be observed that several of the regulations laid down are closely analogous to the sabbatical injunctions of the Levitical law and the practice of the rabbinical Jews. What I render 'Sabbath' is expressed by the Akkadian words, which literally signify 'dies nefastus,' and a bilingual syllabary makes them equivalent to the Assyrian yum salumi, or 'day of completion' (of labors). The word Sabbath itself was not unknown to the Assyrians, and occurs under the form Sabattu. . . . The calendar is written in Assyrian. The occurrence, however, of numerous Akkadian expressions and technical terms shows that it was of Akkadian and therefore non-Semitic origin, though borrowed by the Semites along with the rest of the old Turanian theology and science. The original text must accordingly have been inscribed at some period anterior to the seventeenth century B.C., when the Akkadian language seems to have become extinct." I give here a translation of the rubric of the seventh day, which shows not only the existence of the Sabbath in those primeval times, but the mode in which it was kept: "The seventh day. A feast of Merodach and Zir-Panitu-a festival. A Sabbath. The Prince of many nations The flesh of birds and cooked fruit eats not. The garments of his body he changes not. White robes he puts not on. In royal fashion he legislates not. A place of garrison the Medicine for his sickness of body he applies not. To make a sacred spot it is suitable. In the night in the presence of Merodach and Istar The king his offering makes. Sacrifices he offers. Raising his hand the high place of the god he worships." The instructions given for the fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days, and each succeeding seventh day, are in substance and almost in language identical. Smith found, in one of the trenches of Kouyunjik, another fragment of a tablet which he recognized as a part of one of the creation series, and the seventh in number. It is unfortunately much broken, but the general meaning is clear. The following is an extract from his translation : "When the gods in their assembly had created living creatures things of the field," etc. they caused to be cattle of the field, beasts of the field, and creeping The tablet thus corresponds to the sixth day, and the seventh stage, of the Mosaic account : And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth," etc.' Fragments of tablets have been discovered which are supposed to have contained an account of the creation of man, but so broken and mutilated that it is impossible as yet to give their meaning with any degree of certainty. It seems probable that one part of the inscription is a charge by the deity to the first woman on her duties, and another part may apply to both the newly-created pair; for we have the phrases: “Every day the God thou shalt approach-sacrifice, prayer of the mouth to thy God in reverence thou shalt carry. Whatever shall be suitable for divinity, supplication, humility, and bowing of the face thou shalt give to him, and thou shalt bring tribute, and in the fear of God thou shalt be holy." It will be observed that, so far as this fragment extends, it seems to inculcate monotheism, and to enjoin the worship of one true God on the newly-created being. SATAN AND THE FALLEN ANGELS. Another point of some importance we now proceed to consider. The silence of Scripture has been often observed. Nothing has been revealed in it which would merely tend to gratify a morbid curiosity; all its truths and historic statements have a great and good practical purpose. But, strange to say, on some of those points on which Scripture is silent the Assyrian records appear, partially at least, to fill up the blanks. Thus, in various parts of Scripture, allusions are made to fallen angels, of whom Satan was chief; but of the time, nature, and cause of their revolt and fall the Bible is silent. The fact of the fall is mentioned, and it seems to lie at the root of that most profound of all theological problems, the origin of evil; yet no solution, no explanation, is given. In that sublime passage in the book of Job,' where the Lord describes the creation of the material universe, he says, "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." This implies that at the 1 Smith, "Chaldean Account of Genesis," p. 76. 338:7. period referred to, whenever it was, there was perfect harmony and loyalty among all God's hosts. There were no rebels then in the universe. But a change took place to which Jude refers when he speaks of "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," and are consequently reserved of God in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."' We know, too, that the temptation of Satan, a fallen angel, was the cause of Adam's sin. Now, this wondrous revolution, which the Bible mentions but does not explain, is given with many details in one of the Assyrian tablets. The tablet represents the whole hosts of heaven as assembled, apparently at the time of the creation, and engaged in celebrating the praises of their Creator. Suddenly, from some unexplained cause, there was a shout of derision, followed by a revolt on the part of a number. The hymns of praise ceased, and God in his wrath drove the rebel angels from his presence, The words are beautiful and striking: never to return. "The Divine Being spoke three times, the commencement of a psalm. The God of holy songs, Lord of religion and worship, Seated a thousand singers and musicians; and established a choral band Who to his hymn were to respond in multitudes. With a loud cry of contempt they broke up his holy song, Spoiling, confusing, confounding his hymn of praise. The God of the bright crown with a wish to summon his adherents Sounded a trumpet-blast which would wake the dead, Which to those rebel angels prohibited return, He stopped the service and sent them to the gods who were his enemies. In their room he created mankind. The first who received life dwelt along with him. May he give him strength never to neglect his word, Following the serpent's voice whom his hands had made." Several things are here specially deserving of note as illustrating Scripture: 1. The casting of the angels out of heaven for rebellion may be compared with that mystic passage in the book of Revelation which represents Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and his angels, till Satan "was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him ;' and also the statement of Peter that Satan was cast into hell," 1 1 Jude 6; cf. Rev. 12:7-11; 2 Pet. 2: 4. 3 Rev. 12: 7, 9. and that singular declaration of our Lord, "I beheld Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven." There is an obscure passage also in which pride would seem to be represented as the cause of Satan's sin and fall, "lest being lifted up by pride he fall into the condemnation (xpíμa) of the devil." * 2. The assertion that man was created in the room of the fallen angels may be connected with Satan's continuous enmity to man, from his creation downwards. Especially in the story of Job, Satan's malice and envy are permitted to have free scope, both in accusation and in practical operation. Then, in the bitter and persevering temptation of our Lord, man's great Representative and Deliverer. 3. The tablet mentions "the serpent's voice" as the agent in temptation. This is very striking in two ways -in connection with the actual temptation of Eve by the Serpent's false words, and the fact that Satan is called emphatically "the crooked serpent," " and "that old serpent, the Devil, and Satan."'' 3 CHALDEAN LEGEND OF THE FALL OF MAN. 66 Another of the series of Assyrian tablets contains an account of the fall of man into sin. It is unfortunately a mere fragment, so that the full narrative cannot be discovered; and the language is in places more than usually obscure, yet enough remains to show a few leading truths. Man is spoken of as pure and holy 'when created: He made man, the breath of life was in him. The doing of evil shall not come out of him, established in the company of the gods he rejoiceth their heart.”’' But a change came: "The dragon Tiamat tempted him. The god Hea heard and was angry, because his man had corrupted his purity." Then a curse is pronounced: "May he be conquered, and at once cut off." This recalls the words in Genesis: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." These words follow: "Wisdom and knowledge hostilely may they injure him," and they seem to be singularly at one with the Mosaic statement that the substance of Satan's 1 Luke 10: 18. 3 Job 26:13; Isaiah 27: 1. 21 Tim. 3: 6. • Rev. 12:9. Smith, "Chaldean Account of Genesis," pp. 81-83. |