ABRAHAM mm and HIS AGE mm WB|H m$8m m mm m$KL„ VRGL mmm ■':":■■ mm tip? tiS'?fll *£!»«£ //. a TOMKINS 5TZ3 iFtttm tlie IGtbrarg of Prnfrfiaor $?n;amtn Bmkittr%e HarftHi !fequ£ailf?& bg Ijtm to % ffitbrarg of JJnnrrton Sbrnlngtral g>mtnarg ! " . JV >-.* ■ ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Zhe Bible Student's Xibrar? 1.— FOURTH EDITION. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE BIBLE : Studies in Old Testament Criticism. By Canon Girdlestone, m.a. 3.— SECOND EDITION. THE LAW IN THE PROPHETS. By the Rev. Stanley Leathes, D.D. 3. PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM. By the Rev. J. J. Lias, M.A., Cha?icellor of Llandaff Cathedral. 4z.— 511 pages. SANCTUARY AND SACRIFICE : A Reply to Well- hausen. By the Rev. W. L. Baxter, M.A., D.D. 5. HEZEKIAH AND HIS AGE. By the Rev. R. Sinker, D.D. Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge. 6. ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. By the Rev. H. G. Tom kins. For particulars 0/ the above see advertisement at the end of the Volume. Other Voltimes in preparation. . " v A Royal Hittite tyre & Jport/swoocfe. Lith . London. ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE, HENRY GEORGE v TOMKINS, Late Vicar of Branscombe, sometime Rector of St. Paul's, Exeter; Member of the Committees of the Palestine and the Egypt Exploration Funds. Member of The Royal Archaeological Institute, the Society of Biblical Archeology, &c. Author of "Studies on the Times of Abraham," " The Life of Joseph in the Light of Egyptian Lore," &c. EYEE AND SPOTTISWOODE, LONDON — GREAT NEW STBEET, ELEET STREET, E.C. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Melbourne, Sydney, and New York. PBEFACE. THIS book, in its original form, has been long out of print, and in preparing it afresh in a revised and augmented form, and with a slightly modified title, the great and increasing harvests of nineteen years have had to be taken into account. This could not be without the voice of mourning for those whom we have lost from the scenes of their labours. In England we miss our venerable and courteous Orientalist chief at the British Museum, Dr. Birch, and the veterans Sir Henry Rawlinson, Fox Talbot, D. H. Haigh, our ardent and clear-sighted George Smith (now resting beside Burckhardt at Aleppo), and William Houghton, Bertin, and Terrien de la Couperie; and in Egyptology, C. W. Goodwin, Canon Cook (the learned pioneer in Biblical lore); Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Bonomi, Reginald S. Poole, also the generous enthusiastic Miss Amelia B. Edwards, and Sir Erasmus Wilson ; and I cannot forget our devoted first secretary of the Society of Biblical Archeology, W. R. Cooper. In the field of Palestine we lament Dean Stanley, Sir G. Grove, E. H. Palmer (so untimely lost), Dr. Malan, Tyrwhitt Drake, and Holland, who after all his travels drew VI PREFACE. his last breath on a green mountain-side in Switzer- land. And how do we honour the names of Mariette, Brugsch, Chabas, Dumichen, Ancessi, the monumental renown of Lepsius, and the many-gifted devotion of F. Lenormant. Time would fail to tell the enduring results of such lives. How vast and manifold has the work become ! By many skilled and patient hands the survey of Palestine, with its whole apparatus of scientific re- cords, now over-passing the Jordan and the time- honoured goals of Dan and Beersheba, is still being carried on in an almost exhaustless field. The successive winters' tasks of our Egypt Ex- ploration Fund, and its various offsets, give us magnificent acquisitions of knowledge and surprises inexpressible from Der el-Bahri, Zoan, Pithom, Goshen, Takhpankhes, Bubastis, Koptos, the Fay inn, and the dwellings of " the New Race " ; and no less convictions of vast ignorance spring from the works of American, French, and German explorers in Chaldsea, Northern Syria, Africa, Asia Minor, and Arabia. The foresights and guesses of twenty years since were mere glim- merings of our rising day. Time would fail to tell of these things aright. But the Congresses of Orien- talists at many centres afford meeting-places of a great brotherhood with great hopes. Let us take some slight account of the accessory Bible knowledge of a student here in England in this sixtieth year of Queen Victoria. First, we have, PREFACE. Vll bound up with our Bibles, auxiliary information, on all sides, put forth by the Queen's Printers, and others who have followed in their steps. With a geographical groundwork ever increasing in fulness and accuracy, our history knows more than in past years where to find itself at home. Our maps shine with growing points of light, and now we have hand- books of true science fit for the scholar who would have " at his beddes hed," like Chaucer's " clerke of Oxenford," "a twenty bokes clothed in black or red." Here are Schrader's invaluable commentaries from Babylonia and Assyria, and the full and exact re- searches of the learned Abbe Vigouroux in La Bible et les Decowvertes Modernes. Of late years, besides the Transactions and Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology and the Victoria Institute, together with the Memoirs of the Exploration Committees, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Religious Tract Society, and other publishers are putting forth handy volumes of high authority, in attractive and convenient form, for teachers and students who may not have access to vast public libraries and class-rooms. The series en- titled By-paths of Bible Knowledge and such books as Prof. Sayce's Higher Criticism and the Monu- ments, Patriarchal Palestine, Egypt of the Hebrews, &c, and the excellent History of Egypt of Prof. Petrie, the series of small histories of the S.P.C.K., besides the magnificent illustrated works of Prof. Maspero, The Dawn of History and The Struggle of the Nations, vill PBEFACE. contain an immensity of solid learning well fitted for those who are not " specialists." These have all arisen since these " Studies " were put forth by way of pioneering nineteen years ago. I must add the masterly works of Prof. G. Adam Smith (Historical Geography of the Holy Land), and Dr. W. Max Muller (Asien unci Eurojja nach Altagyptischen Denkmaler), which I have scarcely had time to study as I would wish. It must be said with joy that a most generous spirit of fellow-work and mutual help animates men of different nations, in the field of exploration and in museums and libraries, and homes of private students. The writer of these pages must record his lively gratitude once more for unfailing kindness shewn to him by scholars in England, America, and various parts of the world, and by critics of different views and persuasions. He has also to express sincere regret that his correspondence and work altogether have of late years been sorely restricted by failing health, and must ask kind indulgence and forgiveness from friends far and near, assuring them of undi- minished regard and gratitude. Professors Sayce, Petrie, and Maspero, the Abbe Vigouroux and Canon Girdle- stone ; and M. Naville, M. Groff, Dr. de Cam, Prof. Rohart, M. de Lantsheere, Dr. Trumbull, Prof. Osgood, Mr. Pinches, Mr. Boscawen, and other distinguished scholars are hereby asked to accept most sincere thanks for their great kindness on many occasions. PREFACE. IX It is to be believed that in the sincere and devout spirit that consecrates the study of Holy Scripture itself with the additional knowledge which God is pleased to unveil to us from the remotest past, we are finding unawares a remedy for the homeless and restless spirit which challenges all things that are most surely believed among us, and that peaceable "ordering of the course of this world by His govern- ance," even the world of intellect, in which His Church may serve Him " in all godly quietness " : " Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell ; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before, But vaster " — When " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ " His main work lay in the busy swarming " Galilee of the Gentiles." What we are to understand by that is most truly and vividly painted by Prof. G. Adam Smith in his twentieth and twenty-first chapters of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, as in- deed partly aforetime by Dr. Merrill in his little handy book: Galilee in the Time of Christ (R. T. S.). This small book, and that larger one, are of great value in comparing what God did in the fulness of time by the Son of His love, with the scenes in which the Friend of God was " fore-evangelized " in the very midst and focus of the world that then was, two thousand years before. The parallel is " marvellous in our eyes" — how by that old fore-gospel covenant X PREFACE. in Abraham all nations should be blessed, and how in spite of all ignorance and bigotry and hindrance, " his Seed, which is Christ," in " the beginning of the Gospel," as St. Mark says, born in the city of David, was bred and grew up for His work in " Nazareth of Galilee" for " the sinless years that breathed beneath the Syrian blue." "A vision of all the kingdoms of this world was as possible from this village as from the Mount of Temptation," says Prof. G. Adam Smith, in summing up his results, and we may add : as possible as at Ur-Kasdim, at Kharran, Damascus, Shekem, Hebron, and Zoan in the old time before them. Let me here quote Prof. Max Muller's eloquent words : " If from our earliest childhood we have looked upon Abraham, the Friend of God, with love and veneration . . . his venerable figure will assume still more majestic proportions when we see in him the life-spring of that faith which was to unite all the nations of the earth, and the author of that blessing which was to come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. And if we are asked how this one Abraham passed through the denial of all other gods to the knowledge of the one God, we are con- tent to answer that it was by a special Divine revelation .... We want to know more of that man than we do, but even with the little we know of him, he stands before us as a figure second only to Onft in the whole history of the world." * * Chips from a German Workshop, vol. 1, page 371, &c, quoted by Dean Stanley, History of the Jewish Church, ed. 1883, I. 13. PREFACE. xl The author of these Studies was told many years ago by a very learned and distinguished Professor that they are " pre-critical," and gladly accepted the expression. It is not internal analysis, but external contemporary evidence, that has for the most part engaged his atten- tion for twenty-five years of leisure from pastoral charge. For in view of the resurrection to life of those great races and nations, among whom Abraham lived and moved and had his being, it seemed high time to bring these things into comparison with our own goodly heritage of Holy Scripture, in loyal deference to that divine goodness which, in the fulness of time, had awakened them from " the hole of the pit"; and to see what would be the result. "Truth springeth out of the earth, and Righteousness hath looked down from heaven." This providential un- veiling of the civilization of the most ancient Chaldsea, at Telloh and Niffer and elsewhere, pushes back all our accustomed reckonings of elates and conditions; and it takes time and much reflection to adjust our thoughts anew. Lately, in this sort of study, the author has been led to re-examine passages in the New Testament referring to the life of Abraham, and especially an expression in the Epistle of the Galatians (3. 8), where St. Paul declares that " The Scripture, foreseeing that God justifieth the nations of faith, fore-evangelized to Abraham : — ' In thee shall all the nations be blessed.'" Now it is usual to take the word " Scripture " here as a personification, as if St. Paul had written "God," and not "the writing." Xll PREFACE. It was thought, apparently, to be fore-dating Scripture to take the word as literal, and not as a rhetorical fio-ure ; as if Abraham could not, in the nature of the case, have possessed "living oracles" in writing. But I trust we have now outgrown " the days of this ignorance," and can well hold it credible that Abra- ham had recorded the words of God on which he lived, and that those written words, as well as older records of his forefathers, formed part of the material used in writing the Book of Genesis; as St. Luke drew up his record of the Gospel. It is no longer hard to believe that Abraham, thus " fore-evangelized " as the well-spring of blessing for all nations, before his departure from Kharran (Gen. 12. 3), recorded those " laro-e, divine, and comfortable words," and that St. Paul referred to this "fore-gospel," written ages before the "law was brought in because of transgression." For St. Paul's contemporary, Josephus, the princely and priestly historian of his nation, ascribes to Abraham great learning, and quotes Berosus, the Chaldaean historian, to that effect, as does Eusebius afterwards. Knowing what we now possess of the exact and innumerable writings of ages, even long before Abra- ham, is it credulous or irrational to understand St. Paul as referring literally to inspired writing as enlightening and evangelizing Abraham ? Who but Abraham himself would record the words wrung from his faithful heart, " My son ! God will provide PBEFACE. xni Himself the lamb/' as if he had heard the Voice : " Behold the Lamb of God ! " — when he rejoiced that he should see the day of Christ, as if he beheld the " nations " walking in the light " of that city which hath the foundations" for which he was look- ing as a stranger and pilgrim on earth ; as we in our day see the "springing and germinant" fulfilment of those promises, while times and seasons ripen to eternity in the purpose of the ages. Here is the " touch of nature " — of " our ransomed nature " — to " make the whole world kin " ; and as that old world rises out of its grave, and we behold it, almost with " no hint of death in all its frame," is it not our high calling to " use that world as not abusing it" — to lay Christian hands on its hoarded treasures and hallow them to God ? Dean Stanley nobly expressed the spirit becoming well such inquiries as these : — " So to delineate the outward events of the Old and New Testament as that they should come home with a new power to those who by long fami- liarity have almost ceased to regard them as historical truth at all, so to bring out their inward spirit that the more complete realisation of their outward form should not degrade but exalt the faith of which they are the vehicle." (Preface to " Sinai and Palestine") This is the spirit, as seems to me, in which we may do true and laudable service in museums and libraries, in lecture-rooms and learned societies, in homes and studies, travels and explorations. This is surely a XIV PBEFACE. branch of the " promotion of Christian knowledge " which needs no apology. These records, that eye hath seen and ear heard, were written by learned scribes, many of them ages before Abraham was in his cradle, very many during the days of the years of his pilgrimage. But God, Who has thus kept for us these records of the times of the " old fathers " — and even of " the old time before them " — " inhabiteth eternity " and " hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." As it is written : — " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them which love Him ; but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." " So, then, they which be of faith are blessed together with the faithful Abraham." H. G. T. Weston-super-Mahe, Monday in Easter Week, April 19th, 1897. P.S. — Since this Preface was completed I have read with great pleasure the small and handy volume of Pastor Stosch, of Berlin, The Origin of Genesis (Eliot Stock, 1897), in which the author argues from internal evidence that the chapters here studied were indeed originally written by Abraham himself, excepting that the fourteenth chapter was recorded by Melchi- zedek. I prefer to recommend the perusal of this book rather than attempt to condense its interesting and very thoughtful line of examination. PREFACE. XV The promised volume of Prof. Hommel has also been added just now to the valuable publications of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. It is entitled Ancient Hebrew Tradition as Illustrated by the Monuments : a Protest against the Modern School of Old Testament Criticism. This is a clear and intelligible condensation of very cogent external evidence, including the striking results of comparison with the Arabian researches of Dr. Glaser and others, and an estimate of the retrospective inferences to be drawn from the Tel el-Amarna Tablets. This eminent Assyriologist speaks thus : " I confidently assert that all the traditions concerning the period before Joseph {i.e. of the Patriarchs, including the primitive records which Abraham brought with him from Chaldsea), which have been handed down to us in Genesis in various recensions, were even at that time current among the Israelites, and that, too, in a written form " {i.e. during their stay in Egypt], p. 296— " traditions put into writing long before the time of Moses," p. 307. " We have clear evidence that Abraham must have brought the primitive traditions with him, and that they were not borrowed for the first time from the Canaanites after the conquest of the region to the west of Jordan." This very important addition to the " pre-critical " treatment of this great subject is entirely confirmatory of the tenor of these Studies, which were published in the same year (1878) that saw the beginning of xvi PREFACE. Wellhausen's History of Israel. Well might Bishop Lightfoot thus moderately estimate the danger of a sceptical mood in his celebrated defence of the New Testament : — " It seems to be assumed that, because the sceptical spirit has its proper function in scientific inquiry (though even here its excesses will often im- pede progress), therefore its exercise is equally useful and equally free from danger in the domain of criticism. A moment's reflection, however, will show that the cases are widely different." " In whatever relates to morals and history — in short, to human life in all its developments — where mathematical or scientific demonstration is impossible, and where con- sequently everything depends on the even balance of the judicial faculties, scepticism must be at least as fatal as credulity."* H. G. T. May 20th ; 1897. * Essays on the Work entitled Supernatural Religion (1889), page 26. CONTENTS. PAGE Description of the Plates ....... xxi CHAPTER I. Introductory CHAPTER TL Abraham's Fatherland .... CHAPTER III. Religious "Worship in Abraham's Time ..... 20 CHAPTER IV. Political and Social Life in Chald-ea ... 4G CHAPTER V. Migration to Kharran ...... .61 CHAPTER VI. The Land of Canaan ...... .75 CHAPTER VII. The Place of Sichem ........ 89 S 6517. b xv iii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE The Canaanite 94 CHAPTER IX. Abraham goes down to Egypt . . . . . .123 CHAPTER X. Egypt in the Twelfth Dynasty . . . . . .131 CHAPTER XL The Hyksos 160 CHAPTER XII. Abraham returns to Canaan . . . . . .189 CHAPTER XIII. Elam and its Kings — Kedor-La'omer's "War and Defeat . 196 CHAPTER XIV. Genesis Historical, not Mythical . . . . .237 Appendix of Notes . . . . • • • .243 Index . . . . . . . • • • .251 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I. — Royal Hittite (Coloured Frontispiece). II. — Naram-Sin, Nebuchadrezzar, and Khammurabi. III. — Marduk-nadin-akhi. IV. — Group of Heads Typical of Races. V. — Amenemhat, Khafka, and Teta and his Wife. VI. — Hyksos Statuary. VII. — Two New Heads, Probably Hyks6s, etc. VIII. — Hittites and Amorites. IX. — Arabs, Syrians, etc. X. — Babylonian Seal-cylinders. b2 ■im Plate III. s K ' gfJ* Plate IV. l# :•■■' .n ■ ^ Plate Y. i ■^ | ■ <4& 0 ' "'.-'^ - - — -^r SE <-r J _ w"' ■ — """• ^"^'LT - r ( xxi ) DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. Plate I. Frontispiece. See page 113. Chromo-lithograph f rom a water-colour drawing by the Author. Beniaining portion of one of the long panels in relief, executed in a kind of porcelain, from the ruins of a palace of Barneses III. at Tel-el- Yahudieh, in Lower Egypt, identified as a Kheta (Hittite). It has always seemed to me a princess or queen, and I quite believe so thought Dr. Birch, in whose old study at the British Museum the drawing was made, but it has, I am told, been doubted whether it may not represent a man. (See Prof. Hayters Lewis, T.S.B.A., vn., 177, etc., and Mr. Griffith's " Tel-el- Yahudieh," Eg. Expl. Fund, for descriptions of these beautiful enamelled works in porcelain.) This, and another, representing a Kheta king or prince (given in colour as frontispiece to my Studies on the Times of Abraham), exhibit the more refined and handsome aspect of the Kheta countenance, which in its coarser examples we have in Plate VII., and in their own portrai- ture from Mer'ash, which I long ago identified as a chief town of a Hittite kingdom — Markhashi. The sub-aquiline, finely-curved nose of this princess is characteristic ; rather thick, but not coarse, lips, and general outward curve of the face, but not a notably retreating chin. Plate II. Two typical heads from Babylonia. See pages 207, 234. Beliefs representing most renowned monarchs, rulers, and con- querors, viz. A, Naram-Sin, son of Sargon I. (cir. 3800 B.C.), whose features are of that straight and continuous outline shown also in the Babylonian head given in Plate IV. (H), and not unlike the familiar Greek type, with which compare the cameo of Nebuchad- nezzar the Great from an onyx cameo in the Museum at the Hague, Fig. B. With this is to be contrasted the aquiline Semitic profile of Abraham's contemporary Khammurabi (Amraphel, king xxn DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. of Shin'ar) given in Fig. C. These fine and extremely important portraits have that familiar and modern look which is so surprising also in very early Egyptian sculpture. Khammurabi's attitude seems devotional, while his remote predecessor's, sceptre and weapon in hand, speaks only of dignified command. Plate III. The head of Marduk-nadin-akhe, king of Babylon, cir. 1150, from a beautiful black boundary stone in the British Museum. It apparently furnishes a rare specimen of the Turanian type of ancient Chaldsea, as explained by Prof. Lenormant and Dr. Ernest Hamy (La langue primitive de la Chaldee, p. 383 and plate). Cf. a good woodcut of the entire figure, front. G. Smith, Hist, of Babylonia (S. P. C. K.). Plate IY. Eight typical heads, drawn by the Author. See page 101, etc. A. Head of the "chief of the mountains," Absha, from the procession of Amu, in the tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni- Hassan (from the Eg. Expl. Fund memoir on Beni-Hassan by Mr. Griffith, Vol. I.), twelfth dynasty. B. Head of Buten, bringing tribute. Wall-painting, from a tomb at Thebes, twelfth dynasty. British Museum. G. Jew of South Palestine. One of the men of Lakish making submission to Sennakherib. British Museum. D. Semitic-Elamite ambassador. British Museum. Assyrian Basement, No. 121. E. Arab fleeing on a camel. British Museum. Assyrian Basement. F. Northern Israelite. One of Jehu's officers bearing tribute to Shalmaneser II. Black obelisk in British Museum. The oldest known monument which gives with certainty the physiognomy of the sons of Abraham, still perfectly characteristic. G. Susianian captive. Assyrian Basement, Nos. 58-62. H. Babylonian war with Saiil-Mugina. Assyrian Basement. Compare this profile with those of Naram-sin and Nebu- chadnezzar and E in the plate, and contrast them with A, B, C, D, F. DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. xxiii Plate V. Egyptians of early date, drawn by the Author. See page 164, etc. A. Profile, and B, front face, of Amenemhat, a functionary of the twelfth dynasty, from the statuette in black stone in the British Museum. A characteristic type of the date. C. Statue in diorite of Kha-f-ra, the Pharaoh of the fourth dyn- asty, who built the second Pyramid of Gizeh, with the pro- tecting Horus-hawk, See Be Rouge's Six Prem. Dynasties. D. Head of Teta, the architect of the second Pyramid, and E, the head of his wife, from the false doorway of their tomb brought from Gizeh. British Museum. Typical of ruling Egyptians of the great fourth dynasty, whom Sir R. Owen compared to " Europeans." Plate VI. Group of Hyksos sculpture. Seepage 164, etc. The old attribution of sculpture of this marked character to the Hyksos has been very well and explicitly vindicated by M. JSTaville in his memoir on Bubastis {Eg. Expl. Fund), and also in his highly interesting paper on The Historical Results of the Excavations at Bubastis, read July 5, 1889, to the Victoria Institute (Trans. V. I., Vol. xxiii., pp. 137, etc.). " If, as I believe, the Hyksos were Mesopotamians they were not barbarians ; they belonged to nations which had already reached a high degree of civilization, and which in particular were well skilled in the art of sculpture" (p. 147). " The type of the features is quite different from the Egyptian. The cheek bones are high and strongly marked, the nose wide and flat and aquiline, the mouth projecting forward with stout lips. At first sight it is impossible not to be struck by the fact that we have there the image of a foreign race and not of native Egyptians. Thus, there has been an art of the Hyksos, or rather the conquered have made the education of their masters; for, except the characteristic foreign type, the workmanship, the style, and the attitude [of the Sphinxes of San] are absolutely Egyptian, and these monuments must have been made by Egyptian sculptors. . . . Some Egyptologists have suggested that the strange monuments of Tanis were, perhaps, the produce of local art, or that they belonged to a much older period. In this last case Apepi would only have usurped what had been done before him, and there would be no Hyksos style. I must say that when I went for the first time xxiv DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. to Tanis I very nearly adopted this view ; but the discoveries made in the excavations of 1888 have convinced me that Mariette's opinion was the truth. There has been a Hyksos art, and kings of later time have not hesitated in taking possession for themselves of what the so-called barbarians had made." p. 148. M. Naville then vividly describes the discovery of the two Hyksos statues — the one was at Gizeh and the other in the British Museum — and the legs of the statue of Khian ; the visit of Dr. Schliemann and Dr. Virchow, and the opinion of the latter " that the Hyksos monuments must be considered as representing Turanians, without being able to determine with which branch of this very large stock they must be connected. It was the same as the conclusion put forward in this country by Prof. Flower, who sees in the monuments of San a Mongoloid type. Turanians or Mongols — such is the racial origin attributed to the Hyksos by high authorities ; but that does not mean that the population itself was Turanian. The worship of Set-Baal, the influence of the Hyksos invasion over the customs of Egypt, and especially over the language, points clearly to a Semitic element which was pre- vailing among the conquerors, though their kings — at least those who left us their portraits — were evidently not Semites I said that I believed the Hyksos to be Mesopotamians. The researches of Assyriologists all agree that from a very early epoch the population of Babylonia consisted of several strata of popula- tions having each a different origin. It was then what it is now ; and I believe that the conquest of Egypt by the Hyksos is not un- like what would happen at the present day if the population of Mesopotamia overran the valley of the Nile. You would have masses, in great majority of Semitic race, speaking a Semitic language, having a Semitic religion, and being under the command of Turks, who are not Semites but Turanians " (p. 150). He then describes the two royal statues, saying of the younger ones : — " Consider attentively the face, look at the beautifully modelled features, the special care which the artist has taken to reproduce all the characteristic signs of the race, the strongly marked cheek bones, the stout und projecting lips, the somewhat hollow cheeks, the fleshy corners of the mouth. If you bear in mind that this has been cut in an extremely hard stone you will agree with me that this head, regardless of its historical value, is a work of art, and even a masterpiece " (p. 151). DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. xxv The reader will agree that we could not spare a word of this masterly estimate. M. Naville points out that the head in the British Museum represents a younger man than that at Gizeh, " but it is possible also that it is the same man at two epochs of his life, one young, perhaps, when he had but shortly ascended the throne, the other when he was more advanced in years." With four large and beautiful photographs of the younger face before me, most kindly given by M. Naville in 1887, and the vivid remem- brance of the statue itself in the British Museum, and also with the ftne photogravure of the front view of the older face {Bubastis, Plate XI.), it seems to me very probable that they represent the same Hyksos Pharaoh at different times of life. I may refer for more detail to a paper of my own on the Hyksos in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for November, 1889, pp. 184, etc., and to the selection of Hyksos heads in the plates which we are describing, viz. : — A. Profile, and B. Front face of the Sphinx of San described in the text, page 168. C. The head in the Ludovisi Collection at Rome, page 166. .D. The broken statue found in the Fayum, page 167. E. The younger colossal head from Bubastis, in the British Museum, page 172. F. The statuette of green basalt in the Museum of the Louvre, page 171. I think M. Deveria was right, and that F is a face of a Hyksos Pharaoh. The features are distinctly of the character of the other heads of this group. M. ]STaville has well observed that the bodies are often done conventionally by inferior sculptors, but the por- traits by highly accomplished artists. The remark of Mr. Ball applies : — " It is not likely that the Osarkons and Shishaks were of so Mongolian a type " (Mon. Illust., No. 55). Plate VII. A, B. Front and three-quarters aspect of head of a Pharaoh in Tcloft with urseus, from photographs most kindly sent to me by the Eev. William MacGregor, Vicar of Tamworth, from the original in his collection at Bolehall Manor House, purchased by him in Lower Egypt. The material is, strange to say, obsidian. It is of the character of the Hyksos sculp- ture so-called, and rightly, as I believe. The face has the same XXVi DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. * underbuilding as the San Sphinx type, and the Bnbastis heads at Gizeh and the British Museum, which in front view are nar- rower than one would expect. (See for the older head ISTaville's Buhastis, Plate XI.) The sub-aquiline nose, thick but expressive lips (the upper lip rather deeply channelled), the sad, anxious, not fierce or surly, look, are in common. But the chin recedes more than in the San Sphinx, and the contour of the coun- tenance is more like that of the Kheta, especially in the lines of the nose. The eye-brows are strongly marked. In all points the heads from Bubastis shew gentleness and refinement modifying the same ethnic type. When I compare this strongly marked face with the cast of Miss Edwards' royal head of a statuette from the Peretie Museum at Beyrout, it grows distinctly on me to perceive the same type in a young and delicate countenance. In Mr. MacGregor's obsidian head the muscular structure of the facial type is revealed by a rather haggard leanness, and confirms what we have learned from the rest. Its evident masterly reality in so strange and almost impossible a material is amazing. As far as I know, this head, as also the next, has not before been pub- lished. C, D, E. Front face, three-quarters, and profile views of a head now in the Edwards' Museum at University College, London, from a cast given me by the owner, the late Miss Amelia B. Edwards, thus described by herself : — "Head of a Hyksos King. " This head is in dark grey granite veined with diorite, evidently from the Sinaitic quarries, which were those worked by the Hyksos rulers. It was purchased by me from Mr. Grevile Chester in 1886, and it came from the celebrated collection of M. Peretie at Beyrout. " This is the first head of Hyksos type wearing the hlaft and uraeus of royalty known to science, and the first that has been seen in this country. It precedes by two years the Hyksos statues of Apepi found this year at Bubastis by M. Xaville. "Amelia B. Edwards, " Hon. Sec, Eg. Expl. Fund." " Sept. 3rd, 1888." DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. xxvn The three beautiful photographs now reproduced in collotype by the Woodbury Company were executed by Mr. William Percival Wiseman from the cast in my possession. Plate YIII. A. " Syrian," almost certainly Hittite (Pet He, 222). This face is no more strange than the portraits made by Hittites of themselves, as I proposed to shew from a photograph kindly given me by my friend, Dr. J. Gwyther, made by him at Mer'ash in Northern Syria, but, unfortunately, the slab was so much worn that the photograph cannot well be reproduced. See, however, the quaint portraits of another Hittite relief sculpture in Prof. Sayce's Hittites, p. 63 (R. T. S.). Dr. Gwyther's Hittites are really like heroes of "Donnybrook Fair," far more than they resemble any of our notions of Orien- tals, and my intention was to prove to the reader's eyes that the Egyptians had not " caricatured" the Hittites in such faces as A or B, two heads from Prof. Petrie's casts, 215, 216. G. Hittite warriors (Petrie, 13, 15). D. Eelief panel brought from Tell-el- Yehudieh, from a water-colour drawing by the Author (see frontispiece of Studies in the Times of Abraham). This and the companion panel represented in colours in the frontispiece of this volume will shew a much more refined and cultured version of the Hittite face, to which, indeed, great beauty was ascribed by the Egyptians in some favoured princess. E. A northern Syrian of Aia, which I take to be Kefr Aya near the Orontes {Petrie, 23). F. Amorite king from a panel of Eameses III. at Tell-el-Tehu- dieh, from a water-colour drawing by the Author (see Times of Abraham). It will be observed that the long beard, scaled off, has yet left its mark. When perfect, this figure exactly resembled the portrait of the same king in relief-sculpture on stone at Medinet- Habu, far away, a remarkable proof of the fidelity of Egyptian artists. G. A good example of Semitic Syrian race, and of Egyptian art. {Petrie, 238). H. A Syrian of Merom (Petrie, 123). xxvm DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. Plate IX. A. Chief of Punt, south-west Arabia and the Somali coast, temp. Hor-em-heb (Petrie, 5). B. Officer of Punt {Petrie, 113). C. Man of Yanuamu, North Syrian (Petrie, 81a : see also Petrie's Hist, of Egypt, n., 182). D. Menti of Sati. Arab of the desert (Petrie, 95). E. Shasu. Nomad Arab (Petrie, 42). F. Jewish governor of Gannata, temp. Rehoboam (Petrie, 37). G. Jewish governor of Yud-hammelek, probably Yehud of Dan, temp. Rehoboam (Petrie, 38). H. Sennakherib in his chariot at Lakish (British Museum). Plate X. Seal and seal-cylinders, in the British Museum, from casts by Mr. Ready. See page 140. A. Seal-cylinder found by Gen. di Cesnola at Curium in Cyprus, bearing the name of ISTaram-Sin (see text, page 207), described and figured by Prof. Sayce, T. S. B. A., v., p. 442. The inscription, as translated by him, reads thus: — "Abil-Istar son of ]lu-balid, the servant of the god Naram-Sin." Abil-Istar is worshipping Naram- Sin, "bowing himself in the house of Rimmon/' or Rammanu, the Sky-god, who is represented with his symbol, the thunderbolt, standing behind the king, while a priest stands behind the votary, over whose head (in grotesque false perspective) an antelope falls slain. B. The sacrifice of a bull, perhaps to Sin, from whom showers descend, as in the hymn given in page 22, etc. Beside him another god stands on a gryphon, symbol of the Sun-god. Compare Fig. F in this plate. G. This remarkable seal is explained by Lenormant (Les Origines cle Vhistoire, i., -pp. 119, 120). Who but this clear- sighted and gifted writer could have divined the meaning and analogy ? And who can but wonder at the imagery of devotion emblematic of things supreme, and consecrated for ever in the inspired words of God's prophet; just as the vast stages of ascent to the shrine of Babylonian temples furnished the vision of Jacob at Bethel, so far as the outward visible sign was concerned. The readers of the prophecies of Ezekiel will know how he was made of God to behold things of heaven suggested by these Baby- DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. XXIX Ionian symbols, as Isaiah, beheld the glory of God in His house, and the burning seraphim. " On waves, expressed as usual by tremulous lines, floats a wonderful and living vessel, which terminates at stern and stem by a human figure issuing as far as the waist. On this vessel one beholds two Kirubi, or winged bulls, back to back, seen in profile, which turn their human faces towards the spectator. These two Kirubi suppose necessarily the existence of two others, whom they hide, to support the other side of a ' pavois,' which they bear on their shoulders. On this ' pavois ' is a throne, where sits a bearded god, clad in a long robe, crowned with an upright tiara, or cidaris, holding in hand a short sceptre and a large ring, a circle without ornaments.* A personage of smaller dimensions, clad in a long robe, waits before the god as attending his orders ; it is evidently his angel, his maldch, as one would say in Hebrew, his shulcal, as one would say in Assyrian ; it is he who will serve as mediator to communicate between the god and his worshipper, who contem- plates him in an attitude of devotion." " All this offers a singular conformity with that which Ezekiel describes when he sees the four 'hay 6th, or Kerubim, in pairs back to back, and moving themselves ' each one in the direction of his face ' towards the four sides. " Above the heads of the animals it had the appearance of a 'pavois' (raqia') f of shining crystal, which stretched on high above their heads . . . and above the 'pavois,' which was over their heads, it had the appearance of a sapphire stone in form of a throne ; and on this form of a throne appeared as the figure of a man placed above it on high. " And I saw as enamel ('haschmld) [_' amber,' A. Y.], as a fire within which was this man, and which radiated all around, from his loins upwards, and from his loins downwards, I saw as fire, and as if a shining light with which he was encompassed. " Such as the look of the bow which is in the cloud in the day of rain, such was the look of this shining light which surrounded * This is the same symbol which the Sun-god holds in the tablet of Abu-habba, Mori. Illust., No. Ill, as Mr. Ball says, " indicating the straight course of the sun across the heavens," which he compares to the Egyptian hieroglyph shen, of similar form. ■ + I do not know what English word to use. Our A. V. and R. V. have "firma- ment." Segond translates in French "ciel," and in the same word Genesis "expanse." xxx DESCBIPTION OF THE PLATES. him ; it was the vision of the image of the glory of Jehovah " (Ezek. 1. 26, 28 ; cp. 10. 1, 18, 19). " The vision of Chapter 10 adds one agent more, still answering to one of the personages figured on the Assyrian cylinder : it is •the man clad in linen, carrying an ink-horn (ecritoire) at his girdle,' who received the orders of Jehovah seated on His throne above the cherubim, and who executes them as an angel or his messenger." Space forbids to quote further from this marvellous but just interpretation of the symbolic figuration of things divine which Ezekiel beheld transfigured in vision by the river Chebar. Lenor- mant adds footnotes still further developing his explanation of the cylinder, for which he refers to Plate III., Fig. K, of my Studies of the Times of Abraham. D. A cylinder-seal in the British Museum, representing " the god of Kharran," and so inscribed above the head of the tall figure, which I now believe to represent Sin, the Moon-god, of whom Kharran is the most ancient known seat of worship. The symbolic crescent is above his head. The small figure on the right probably represents the " messenger " god, Nebo, whose planet, Mercury, called "the prince of the men of Kharran," is the star (as I suppose) above the altar (see text, page 72). E. The celebrated seal-cylinder of the brother of a king of Erech, on which I have commented in the text (pages 140, 141). It is figured, and well described, by Mr. Ball (Mon. Illust., No. 43). " According to the inscription in the right-hand top corner [it] belonged to Ussi, the brother of the king of Erech, the scribe, thy servant. It may be referred to the times of Ur-ba'u and Dun-gi. The central figure, the only one whose head is covered, who carries a sceptre, and towards whom the others look, those nearest him having the hands folded on the breast in the usual attitude of deference, is probably the king of Erech. He wears the flounced robe of the Babylonian priests and gods, which, according to Heuzey, was really a fleecy stuff or woollen tissue, with tufts arranged in rows, called by the Greeks Jcaiinakes (the poet Menander mentions a purple robe of this kind, cf Josh. 7. 21). Two of his attendants wear a dress of similar material, and carry wands of office. Immediately behind him walks a shaven person- age in a fringed robe, who may represent the scribe, the owner of DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. xxxi the seal. An armour-bearer, or body guard, with bow and quiver, and an arrow in the right hand, leads the way. Under the inscrip- tion two slave boys are seen carrying a stool and a bundle of some kind." * F. A god with a guardian gryphon, crested, and a sacrificial animal, as I suppose, behind (seal-cylinder, British Museum). This is given for the sake of the gryphon, which may be compared with the symbolic creature of Sutekh. * See The Queen's Printers' Illustrated Teacher's Bible, 1897. ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. "TOOTHING in our days is more wonderful, not even the -^ colossal growth of natural science, than the fresh start of history. Everywhere the structure of historic litera- ture is rising anew on the basis of archeology, and even more than this : for as in the Church of St. Clement at Rome, deeper, more ancient, and hitherto unsuspected chambers have been brought to light, so the sagacious labours of antiquary and scholar have now recovered whole empires, such as the first kingdom of Chaldaea, and the primeval Elam, and a language, civilization, literature, and polity fresh risen from the dust of four thousand years. We need not speak of Egypt, whose triumph has been already celebrated. Still Egypt is daily yielding fresh spoils ; and in her records the germs even of European history are with keen delight recognized by the veterans of classic lore.* There is scarcely a study of more absorbing interest than is afforded by this new birth of history. It enlists students of many sciences, enrolling them in one guild, whose brethren learn at last duly to honour one another. In the cave geologist meets archaeologist over the engraven mammoth- tusk. Hither comes the artist too, smitten with surprise at * Gladstone, Contemporary Review, July 1S74; Homeric Synchronism. 1876. Macinillan. S 6517. 2 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. the genial freedom of some pristine Landseer's sketch. Here the zoologist recognises with delight the shaggy fell of fur and hair and the gigantic sweep of tusk, which authenticate at once the subject and the savage artist's fidelity. Over the prisms and tablets of Babylonia stand men of science and of literature in equal rapture. Queen Victoria's astronomer catechizes the astronomer royal of King Sargina. The scholar of Oxford, forsaking awhile his Bodleian, revels in the archives of Kouyunjik. The veteran ethnologist of London devotes himself to the life-like statuary of earliest Egypt, spirantia signet; and the poet of the nineteenth cen- tury honours as he best may the " noble rage " of Pentaiir, and pores with wonder over the descent of Ishtar into the "place of no return." The archaeologist becomes the judge, and often the vindicator, of the aspersed annalist of old time. The " father of pickaxes " avenges the quarrel of the " father of history " ; Herodotus, Manetho, Berosus, even Livy, even Josephus, raise their honoured brows from amidst the dust of exploration with laurels greener than ever. But this is not our chief point. There is one venerable collection of records, one " Bibliotheca," which professes divinely to make known the " purpose of ages." It is either historical, or else, as men euphemistically say, " unhistorical ; " which means fabulous. How do these chronicles bear the collation with independent and authentic evidence now borne by contemporary records ? Was the old isolation of Scripture better or worse for its credibility ? For better for worse it is now for ever past, and must give way to a manifold twining with the web of human memorial. No longer do the royal personages of Holy Writ hold their way as in another world to our imagination. Their names, their cities, friends, enemies, alliances, conquests, captivities, are read in hieroglyphic and INTRODUCTORY. 3 in cuneiform. It was, after all, tins very world in which they lived and died. This former isolation of which I have spoken, this seclu- sion of Scripture history from almost all besides which Ave were learning under the epithet "profane," was a matter of secret cogitation to many minds. For our own part, every new link of true connection between Biblical and other history does not darken or desecrate the Bible, but lights and hallows that other. It is true enough, indeed, that we could not reasonably wish the inspired writers to have filled their scrolls with things more or less remote from the supreme purpose of God; but when in His benign pro- vidence these records fall into our hands, they waken up a thousand dormant questions, quicken a reverent curiosity, substantiate or else at once annihilate our dreamy conjectures' and make us feel as we read again the hallowed stories of Abraham, Joseph, David, or Daniel, how truly the divine purpose ever was, not that His servants should be taken from the world, but kept from the evil, and made "salt of the earth" to those with whom they had to do. The test of " internal coincidence " has been applied to the Old Testament with admirable sagacity and effect by the late Professor Blunt* and others, and we may well be thankful that this line of proof was enforced by the very absence of external testimony. It is the task of this day to recognize this external testimony, never seen by our fathers, but now given into our hands as fresh as it is ancient ; much of it in the shape of actual parallel evidence, but far more in the scarcely less valuable form of "historical illustration," f the material out of which the enlightened imagination represents the times and men that were of * Undesigned Coincidences. Murray. t See for instance Hist. Illustrations of the Old Test, by Prof. Rawlinson. S.P.C.K. A 2 4 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. old ; for the historian must be a seer before he can be a judge, and this historic divination (so to speak) is one of the highest achievements of literature. Meanwhile, humbler workmen may select and store the material. We will, however, write a few words as to the available bearings of the work hitherto wrought on the future study of Holy Writ. And first, it is quite clear that the mere occurrence of a host of names, personal and local, alike in the monumental records of the past, and in the faithful traditional memory of the present (as in Egyptian or Assyrian annals, on the one hand, for instance, and in the rich harvest of ancient names gathered by the surveying officers in Palestine, on the other), is of very high value in direct confirmation. Then the study of the recovered monumental languages (especially Egyptian, Akkadian, and Assyrian) is beginning to take effect in the verbal interpretation of Scripture, and will be of more and more importance in settling the true meaning of words and phrases, now rescued from conjectural theory, and brought into the light of true knowledge. Of history we have briefly spoken. Its bony framework, chronology, is as yet very dimly discerned. But we believe that the spiritual life of history, theology, will be verified by the deepest research as truly as it is approved by the inmost consciousness of man. Of this "great argument" something will Lave to be stated in these pages. In collating the records of Holy Scripture with extraneous evidence, we will bear in mind tbeir relative rank. We gladly quote from a distinguished French historian his judgment on this point. Of the earliest portion of the Book of Genesis, M. Francois Lenormant thus writes : * — * Man. of Arte. Hist, of the East, Vol. I., p. 1. Asher, London, 1S09. INTRODUCTORY. 5 " This sacred story, even without the assured and solemn authority which it derives from the inspired character of the book in which it is found, would always form in sound criticism the base of all history ; for merely considered from a human point of view it contains the most aneient tradition as to the first days of the human race, the only one which has not been disfigured by the introduction of fantastic myths of disordered imagination run wild." Our endeavour in this work is, not so much to de- lineate a portrait of Abraham, "the friend of God," as to sketch-in the background of the historical picture in which he is the central figure : for the devious path of his pilgrim- age here on earth, led him " from one kingdom to another people " : from his cradle-land in Mesopotamia, the mother- country of all civilization, to the future home of God's people, hallowed even then by the presence of a Melchizedek and his fellow- worshippers, and into that marvellous land of Egypt, where the light still shines on monuments winch were old when Abram came thither. In truth his tent-pegs were everywhere struck into ground already rich with the harvest of the past, and broadcast with the seed of all the world's future destiny. The substance of the following work originally took the form of Lectures delivered during the winters of 1872 and 1873. An epitome was read to the members of the Vic- toria Institute in April 1877, and is published in the Transac- tions, xii., p. 110, &c, with the discussion which followed.* * In 1878 the author published a small quarto volume with illustrations, mostly from his own drawings, entitled Studies on the Times of Abraham (Bagsters, 15, Paternoster Row) . This has been recast and greatly enlarged by the author, with the title slightly altered, and now forms one of the series entitled by the publishers, Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, Her Majesty's Printers, The Bible Student's Library, under the general supervision of the Rev. Canon Girdlestone, to whose kind and friendly counsel the author is greatly indebted. He has now also, as formerly, to acknowledge, with most earnest thanks, the kindness of his friend Prof. Sayce, in examining the proofs, correcting translations, and in many valuable forms of assistance. 6 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. In 1875 appeared the first volume of a work by the Rev. R. Allen, entitled, Abraham: his Life, Times, and Travels. Two more volumes were promised, but have not yet been published. Mr. Allen has evidently devoted much careful study to the archaeology of early Chaldaea, and his Appendix contains a good collection of geographical descriptions. He has chosen the form of a biographical narrative, written as by a con- temporary, which ends (as far as it has yet appeared) with the death of Abraham's father at Kharran. The Author of the following work had carried the life of Abraham, in his Lectures, down to the end of the campaign of Kedor- la'omer. The two works are entirely independent of each other. In 1877 was published, Abraham the Friend of God, by J. Oswald Dykes, M.A., D.D. This work is a biography including the whole of the patriarch's career. Its plan is altogether different from that of the present volume. The footnotes to the following pages will guide the reader to the sources of information, and will, it is hoped, mark out a course of inquiry to many studious minds ; for the Author trusts he may rather awaken than satisfy an earnest interest in his subject. He believes that the true conditions of the patriarch's life may be better estimated in the light of these and kindred studies. Let not the devout Christian despise them as super- fluous or derogatory. He may not have met with those who believe that Abraham no more really existed than Hercules. Let the sceptic for his part honestly consider that the his- toric Abraham has a very good account of himself to give to the critical inquirer, which must fairly be explained away before the mythological Abraham can take his place. This topic is more fully treated in an Appendix. The highest and divine aspects of the subject do not fall within the special scope of these humbler contributions to Biblical study. INTRODUCTORY. 7 None the less does the Author recognize the transcendent significance of the person, the life, the faith of Abraham, which gives a dignity far beyond the nobility of earth to all that concerns him. The Author acknowledges with lively gratitude the in- valuable information and assistance so generously given him by distinguished scholars and antiquaries, especially by the late Dr. Birch, the deeply regretted George Smith, and other gentlemen of the British Museum, the Rev. Professor Sayce of Oxford, M. Chabas, the Rev. D. H. Haigh, the late W. R. Cooper, Secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, "W. St. Chad Boscawen, Esq., and Colonel C. R. Conder, R.E., formerly in command of the Survey of Palestine. He believes that he has fairly indicated in the footnotes his obligations to the published works from which he has drawn, both English and Continental. In the references the initial letters W. A. I. designate the Inscriptions of Western Asia, published by the Trustees of the British Museum ; P. E. F. the Quarterly Statements pub- lished by the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. In the present unsettled orthography of Eastern names, it has been difficult to preserve entire consistency ; nor is the Author prepared to defend himself at all points ; but he has endeavoured to steer an even course in the main, avoiding, for instance, such confusions as have arisen between Kharran and Haran, between Kham the patriarch and Ham the city, and working in the general direction of orthographic correct- ness and uniformity. By way of Appendix are given some notes which have occurred to the mind of the Author as desirable for ex- planation. ( 8 ) CHAPTER II. Abraham's fatherland. THE land of Abram's nativity was known by the name of its capital city, the dwelling-place of Terakh, the true site of which has been recovered of late years, and identified by the most ancient inscriptions found on the spot. On the westward side of the Euphrates rise from the dead marshy level mounds of ruin, which possibly mark the birth- place of Abram, and which gave the name of Uru-ma or Ur- ma, " Ur-land," to the whole region of Akkad. The plain, reaching to the Persian Gulf on the south-east, bounded (or nearly so) by the Euphrates westward, and the Tigris (Hiddekel) eastward, and on the north by the edge of the higher undulating country of Upper Mesopotamia, was about the size of Denmark, or less than, half the size of England. It had a rich alluvial soil, brought thither by the — " . . . . streams which, fast or slow, Draw down iEonian hills, and sow The dust of continents to be." In fact the very land is, like Egypt, due to the work of the rivers themselves in their annual overflow, an agency which has added about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty miles to the south, since the days of which we are writing. It is characteristic, perhaps, of these sons of Shem, that their home at that time should have been in the great city on the westward side of the river, if, as Prof. Sayce writes, " the ABE AH AM' 8 FATHERLAND. 9 original home of the Semitic people was apparently Arabia." * From the port where the Euphrates discharged its ample waters into the beautiful and sheltered sea, the " ships of Ur" set sail, like the ships of Egypt, with their precious lading of corn and dates, and other fruits ; for the warm land, irrigated like a garden (the only natural home of the wheat-plant, where it was twice mown in the year and then fed down),f was (as classic writers tell) the richest in all Asia. The wheat would commonly produce two hundredfold, and at the highest even three hundredfold. The other chief boast of Chaldasa is the stately date-palm, whose endless uses for man and beast have been celebrated in all ages. The shady palm- groves embowered the whole country, laden with their delicious golden clusters, and mingled with tamarisk, and acacias, and pomegranates. " This region," says Prof. Eawlinson, " was amongst the most productive on the face of the earth ; spontaneously producing some of the best gifts of God to man ; and capable under careful management of being made one continuous garden." This is indeed scarcely a subject of wonder, if it was in this part of the earth that the Lord God had " planted a garden," and had "put the man whom He had formed," as Sir Henry Rawlinson supposes ; and the gift of the wheat-plant, indi- genous only in Chaldsea, has by different nations been ascribed to an especial divine origin. It is remarkable that the name of Ur emerges in the Scrip- ture record first as the birth-place of Terakh's sons ; nor is it mentioned among the antediluvian cities of Berosus.J It is not one of the four cities of Nimrod, which were Babel, and Erech (now Warka), and Akkad, and Calneh. * Assyr. Gram., p. S ; Maspero, Baton, &c, p. 619. t Anc. Mon., Vol. I., p. 31 ; De Candolle in B. & O. B., II., 266. X See Lesprem. Civ., Vol. II., p. 22, as to the rise of Ur. 10 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Now the celebrated cycle of legends discovered by Mr. G. Smith makes the hero-king, provisionally called Izdubar, or Dhubar, now read as Gilgames, whom Prof. Sayce has identified with the Gilgamos of iElian,* rule over an empire stretching from the Persian Gulf to the "land of Bit-ani, or Bachtan near Armenia on the north," f and his capital was Erech. But it is clear that in Abraham's time Ur had lately ceased to be the reigning city and had been succeeded by Babylon. Ur had dominated the whole of Babylonia in the time of Urukh (or rather Ur-ba'u), the great builder-king, and his son Dungi, whose signet cylinder is now in the British Museum. No one could become the legitimate lord of Shumir and Akkad before he had been solemnly enthroned in the temple at Uru (Maspero, Dawn, &c, 619). So that a great change had happened before the time of Abraham. Since I first wrote on this subject the earliest history of Chaldaea has been more and more revealed by a succession of most important excavations following in the lines of Loftus, Rich, Botta, and Layard. The last of these more recent works have been carried on by M. de Sarzec at Telloh, the site of the ancient city of Lagash, and by Prof. Hilprecht, equipped by the University of Pennsylvania, at Nuffer or Niffer, the site of the most primeval capital Nippur. Some outline of the historic results, which are even now unrolling their amaz- ing scroll before our eyes, must be here given to enable us to estimate in a rough way what sort of land and condition of things were those out of which Terakh and Abram were called to bring away their patriarchal clan at the divine summons. It is hard, amidst the complexity of details, to find a clear path and keep oneself from being lost as amidst the reedy jungles of those endless marshes. I may quote a little, with * Sayce, Bab. Lit., p. 25. Bagster, 1877. t Assyr. Disc, p. 205. ABRAHAM'S FATHERLAND. 11 grateful acknowledgment, from an excellent short paper of Prof. Hommel on " The Oldest History of .the Semites " {Expos. Times, Dec. 1896). Bat first I will explain that the con- jectural date for the old Sargon, viz. about 2,000 B.C., had been overthrown by an inscription of Nabu-nahid (Nabonidus), the last king of Babylon, who states that Sargon's son Naram-Sin lived 3,200 years before, viz. 3750 B.C. If this record is true, the victorious Semitic power, which held all the west country to the Mediterranean in subjection, must have triumphed and flourished some 1,500 years before the days of Abraham. The museums are now in possession of historic inscriptions of Sargon and Naram-Sin which prove their conquests in North Mesopotamia, North Syria, and Magan (Sinaitic Arabia and Midian). Thus these over-lordships were influences which had been at work many centuries before, instead of fresh exten- sions of power in the times of which we are writing. A mace-head of Sargon of pear-like shape, formed of hard veined stone and bearing his royal title, is now in the British Museum (see photogravure, Boscawen, The Bible and the Monu- ments, p. 23), and a precious bas-relief portrait of Naram-Sin in stone is engraved in Maspero's Lawn of Civilization, p. 602 ; where also may be found (p. 601) reproduced a splendid cylinder- seal of Sargon's scribe Ibni-shar, which, as Prof. Maspero says, " must be ranked among the masterpieces of Oriental engrav- ing." Also in the De Clercq collection is a haematite seal- cylinder representing " Naram-Sin, servant of the god Marti!," the crescent-moon above the god. (Cat. Appendix, 121 Us.) This is important as shewing a secondary title of devotion to a western god, such as I had imagined (following Gr. Smith), if Kudur-Lagamar had been the same person as Kudur-Mabuk. We now proceed to Prof. Hommel's clear statement of historic results, as before, and since, Prof. Hilprecht's great discoveries at Nippur. 12 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. " The scheme of early Babylonian history which we were justified in constructing hitherto (after the publication of de Sarzec's Decouvertes and Part I. of Hilprecht) was some- thing like the following : — " Shortly before b.c. 4000. — Kings and the so-called elder Patesi (' priest- kings ') of Sirgnlla. Inscriptions purely Sumerian. " Cir. 3700. — Kings of Kis who certainly ruled over Sippar and Agade in N. Babylonia, and had possession also of Nippur. With their pre- decessors war had already been waged by the Patesi of Sirgulla, as is proved by an inscription of En-timinna. Inscriptions begin to be Semitic. " Cir. 3500. — Sargon and Naram-Sin. Inscriptions likewise Semitic. " Cir. 3300 ff. — The younger Patesi of Sirgulla, most notable of whom is G-udea (cir. 3000 or 2900). Inscriptions Sumerian. " Cir. 2800. — The so-called elder kings of Ur (Urgur, Ur-ba'u) and his son Dungi. The latter overthrew the Patesi of Sirgulla. Inscriptions Sumerian. " Cir. 2500 ( + ). — A series of Semitic kings of Nisin, who stand in the closest relation to Nippur, but rule also over Ur. Their inscriptions, however, are composed in Sumerian. " Cir. 2300. — The so-called younger kings of Ur, who were likewise Semites. "Cir. 2100. — Kings of Larsa, the first of them Semites, but thereafter comes a king of Elamite descent, Iri-aku (the Arioch of Gen. 16, 1) son of Kudur-Mabuk, who was overthrown (cir. 1900 b.c.) by the king of Babylon, Khammurabi (of the first dynasty of Babylon, which, remarkably enough, was of Arabian origin). " The above will now enable the reader the better to appre- ciate the surprising nature of the recent discoveries. " Thanks to the circumstance that the excavations at Nippur have been directed with true archaeological intelligence and with the utmost care, and not in the violent fashion which is too common in such operations, we can use the different strata dug through as excellent chronological aids. Directly beneath the platform on which was built the ' step ' temple of King Ur-ba'u of Ur (cir. 2800 B.C.) there was another platform com- posed of bricks of a peculiar form and size, stamped with the names of Sargon and Naram-Sin. ABRAHAM' 8 FATHERLAND. 13 " From this it follows that when the Bel-temple had fallen into decay after some 700, or, according to another reckoning, 1,000 years, Ur-ba'u cleared away all the rubbish down to the original platform, and laid upon the latter a new platform, on which he rebuilt the temple. An accumulation of eleven metres of rubbish had to be removed by the Americans before they reached the level of Sargon's platform. Now, since the temple of Bel was completely destroyed soon after the birth of Christ, these eleven metres of stone and earth contain nearly 4,000 years of Babylonian history (cir. 3500 B.C. — 200 a.d.). But Mr. Haynes has now continued the excavations below Sargon's platform, till water and virgin soil have been reached. In all he has sunk shafts to the depth of nine metres beneath the platform. " As the traces of pre-Sargonic buildings discovered during this process are of notably smaller dimensions, and no longer reveal the presence of a more ancient ' step ' temple, Hilprecht rightly concludes that the rubbish-heaps belonging to the epoch prior to B.C. 3500 must have accumulated more slowly, and that they pre-suppose a longer lapse of time than that between Naram-Sin and the final destruction of the temple of Bel. Hence the inference that the pre-Sargonic temple of Bel, whatever was its form, must have been founded not later than during the seventh thousand years B.C., and in all pro- bability still earlier." Well may we agree with Prof. Hommel " that we cannot be sufficiently grateful to God for the new light which is being thrown upon it [the pre-Abrahamic chronology] by the monu- ments which have been awakened from six thousand years of slumber." With the many centuries involved in those strata of Prof. Hilprecht's deepest diggings (or rather Mr. Haynes's work) we have only so much concern as that they give us a far 14 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. widened view of the antiquity, highly advanced civilization, and complex conditions of the ancient life into which Abram was born. As regards the art of Sargon's days one's eyes are enlightened with a vast surprise in studying the photogravure of that profile-relief of Naram-Sin given by P. Scheil (Rec. de Travaux, xv. 64) and reading the just and sagacious remarks of Prof. Maspero on the next page. After the brutal shew of brawny strength in the figures sculptured in stone, or graven in chalcedony, to which we are accustomed in the works hitherto accounted earliest, it is equally amazing and instructive here to see the graceful shoulder and fine agile arm in the best style of early Egyptian work, and the straight delicate nose resembling that of Kha-f-ra in his celebrated statue (Maspero, Dawn, &c, p. 602). This, however, is in keeping with the Babylonian profile, so strongly contrasted with the fierce eagle's beak and cruel force of the Assyrians, or the blunt homely mould of Turanian features as in Marduk-nadin- akhe. I cannot but feel that we have this refined type before us in the cameo of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, at Berlin. This, then, was the aspect of old Sargon's son and equally renowned successor. The primeval position of the Semites in Chaldaea was indeed vindicated by the late lamented G. Bertin, in a Memoir on The PreaJcTcadian Semites. He regarded that race as having passed through Northern Syria, and by that route entered Chaldaea. In his Populations of the Fatherland of Abra- ham, published by his sisters since his death, he asserts his opinion that they "settled for some time in Arabia Felix," and there " acquired the strong characteristics which make them a well-defined race." " The Semites first spread through Palestine and Syria, and a strong body of them crossed the Euphrates and peopled the whole of Assyria and Babylonia from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf." ABRAHAM'S FATHERLAND. 15 Mr. Bertin would have rejoiced had he lived to see the records now published by Hilprecht, and his conclusion that the majority of these kings, as Prof. Hominel says, "are Semites, who penetrated into Babylonia from the north, that Kish (east of Babylon), Erech, Ur, and Larsa mark the stages of this triumphal progress, and that their starting-point, Gish- ban (' city of the bow '), must have been the ancient bow- shaped Harran in Mesopotamia." But I think " the bow " refers rather to the renowned weapon of the nomads of the desert called by the Egyptians Sati-u, and by the Semites of Babylonia Suti, whose distinctive emblem was the bow and arrow, the use of which in a cele- brated religious tableau is being taught by the god Set to Thothmes III. (Wilkinson, Am. Eg., Birch's ed., iii. 137). In the year B.C. 2280, a powerful king of Elam, Kudur- influence ■*■ ° of Elam. nakhundi by name, had conquered the country, ravaged Erech, and carried off the image of Nana, or " Ishtar the Archer of the goddesses," * which remained at Shushan for 1,635 years, till recaptured and restored to Erech by Assur-bani-pal. Thus fell " Erech the blessed." Ur was a walled town of somewhat oval boundary, many & r f e t centuries old at the time of Abram's birth. It was the great port for the commerce of the Persian Gulf, and had been, as we have said, the capital of Chaldsea in the time of the great builder-king Ur-ba'u, and for some time afterwards at any rate. It seems very natural that Ur should have been Terakh's UrKasdim. home, the place of Abram's "father's house," since we find from the Babylonian records, that it was about his time the capital ; and being on the western side of the great river, it was the more open to the favourite land of the Semitic people, and the pastures bordering on, or including, the * Assyr. Disc, p. 226. 16 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. desert, and the better protected from the great eastern enemy Elam. It is true, however, that a subordinate channel of the Euphrates ran to the west of Ur. The lamented G. Smith writes as follows as to the identity of " Ur of the Chaldees " : "I have no doubt the Babylonian city of Ur is meant. There is not the slightest evidence of a northern Ur, and a northern land of the Chaldees at this period." * This view of a northern Ur Dr. Edersheim calls " evidently erroneous." I cannot, in view of more recent endeavours to revive the tradition that Urfa, a few miles from Kharran, is the Ur Kasdim of Genesis, see ground for doubt- ing the soundness of George Smith's judgment. Such is also the verdict of the late venerable Franz Delitzsch in his last book on Genesis (chap. 11. 28). He vindicates the identification of Uru (now Mugheir) with Ur Kasdim, and quotes Ed. Meyer : " Babylonia is esteemed by the Hebrews as the home from which their ancestors migrated " {New Com. Gen. 12. 1). See also Schrader on Gen. 11. 28 : " Ur of the Chaldees .... is identical with the town Uru of the cuneiform inscriptions, which in its remains is at present represented by the ruins of Mugheir," &c. Then follows an elaborate vindication. The history of Babylonia and the neighbouring countries is most difficult to trace in these early ages, and the chronology unsettled. At any time both may be suddenly en- lightened by some piece of terra-cotta under the sagacious eyes of our Assyriologists. Meanwhile we will venture, with great diffidence, to piece together in a tentative way some con- spicuous portions of this great puzzle-map, and see how they will fit. A venerable and most striking figure is presented to us in the person of Sargon. Of this prince, it is in after ages recorded that he was born in secret retirement, for fear of an * 2 Chald. Gen., p. 298. ABRAHAM'S FATHERLAND. 17 uncle who had usurped the government. His mother com- mitted him (like Moses) in a wicker cradle to the river, whose stream floated him away to the dwelling of a man called Akki, a water carrier, or perhaps irrigator,* who brought him up in husbandry. At length Sargon took the kingdom and became a renowned conqueror, carrying his arms successfully into Elam on the east, and through Syria on the west, even to the Mediterranean. " His image at the setting sun he set up." He subdued the whole of Babylonia, and established his capital at Agade (some distance north f of Babylon), where, however, he was besieged in vain by a revolted host, whom he com- pletely overthrew. Like some other great Babylonian monarchs he was a devoted friend to literature and science, and founded a library at Erech, whence his invaluable records were long ages afterwards removed by the enlightened Assyrian monarch Assur-bani-pal, copied, translated, and edited for his library ; and are now in the British Museum. The date of Sargon I. was given by MM. Lenormant and Menant as about B.C. 2000, but the date now received from Nabonidus is far earlier, viz. 3800. And we have monuments of his own time completely confirming the historic character of this ancient Sargon. His date may hereafter receive further elucidation. We now have abundant evidence of the predominating in- fluence of the Semitic race before the date of Abram, which would have been auspicious to the race of Terakh. " Hence- forward," says Prof. Sayce, " Sargon and Naram-Sin, instead of belonging to ' the grey dawn of time,' must be regarded as representatives of ' the golden age of Babylonian history ' ' {Coritemp. Review, Jan. 1897). But when (as both the Book of * "Le chef des eaux." Menant, Babylone, etc., p. 99. It is to be noted that this legend of Sargon's youth is of much later date than his own time. G. Smith, Hist. Bab., p. 78. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., p. 49. S 6517. B 18 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. Genesis and the monumental history indicate) the Elamitic power again swept over Western Asia, that would be in itself an incentive to migration from Ur, whence the decisive voice of Jehovah summoned Abram and his father towards Canaan. And Abranvs splendid exploit against Kedor-la'omer would have a still further significance than is apparent on the face of the Biblical record. In truth, the monumental records entirely agree with Holy Scripture in representing this region between the Persian Gulf and the Armenian mountains as the hive of the world, throw- ing off successive swarms of various great races ; " the cradle of Semitic civilization," as Dr. Birch writes, " highly civilized and densely populated at a time when Egypt was still in its youthful prime." But the descendants of Shem were not the only civilizers of Babylonia. As we have before stated, those far-spreading tribes, called by ethnologists Turanian, had been beforehand. " All appearances," says Lenormant,* " would lead us to regard the Turanian race as the first branch of the family of Japhet which went forth into the world, and by that premature separation, by an isolated and antagonistic existence took, or rather preserved, a completely distinct physiognomy." "A thick stratum of Turanian civilization underlay Semitism in Western Asia. In fact all the great towns both of Assyria and Babylonia bear Turanian names." So writes Prof. Sayce in a most interesting essay on the origin of Semitic civiliza- tion, f " The Turanian people," says Mr. G. Smith, " who appear to have been the original inhabitants of the country, invented the cuneiform mode of writing. All the earliest inscriptions are in that language, but the proper names of most of the kings * Arte. Hist, of East, Vol. I., p. 64. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., p. 298. ABRAHAM'S FATHERLAND. 19 and principal persons are written in Semitic in direct contrast to the body of the inscriptions. The Semites appear to have conquered the Turanians, although they had not yet imposed their language on the country." * " There were at first," writes Berosus the priestly Chaldaean Mixture of L •* races. historian (born B.C. 261), "at Babylon a great number of men of alien races f who had colonized Chaldaea." And Abram's childhood was doubtless familiar with the motley mixture of faces, costumes, and dialects of the great races of Japhet, Shem, and Ham, into which our learned scholars have divided mankind ; and among all these races of the sons of men his life's work lay. * Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., p. ?9. t i.e., different from the Babylonians. On this sense of aXkonQvels, see Chald. Magic, p. 350. B 2 ( 20 ) CHAPTER III. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IX ABRAHAM'S TIME. rPHE city of Ur was devoted to the worship of its chief -J- tutelary deity the great Moon-god, whose huge ziggurat, 1/ a sacred observatory-tower of three stages or more upholding the shrine, oblong in form and ascended by stairs, rose high above the buildings of the city in its northern quarter. There the royal " monthly prognosticators " kept the night-watches, holding in highest worship the " light that rules the night," chanting their hymns, casting their omens, offering sacrifices, receiving votaries, and within the temple-bounds holding courts of justice in the name of the king, their sovereign pontiff. The very bricks, made under sacred auspices, were stamped with the king's devotion : " To Sin his king, Ur-ba'u, king of Ur, his house built, and the wall of Ur built " ; and the like. On the bricks of the lower stage of the great temple of Mugheir we read : — * " Ur-ba'u, king of Ur, has built the temple of the god Sin." This inscription appears fully to identify the edifice, the god, the builder, and the local name, "Uru, the exact equivalent of the Hebrew ■fltf," says Mr. Boscawen. The worship of the Moon-god was the local cultus of this ancient city, and is thus described by M. Lenormant in his interesting work, Les premieres Civilisations : f " This god, considered as a male personage, was called in Accadian Uru-ki * See Menant, Babylone, p. 74. t Vol. II., p. 158. RELIGIOUS WOE SHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 21 and Aku ; in Assyrian Sin. In the inscriptions of the kings of the ancient Chaldaean empire he appears as holding one of the most exalted places among the gods, and the higher we ad- vance (in antiquity) the greater appears the importance of his cultus." " The monarchs of the primitive dynasties regarded him as their chief protector, as his name enters as a special element into the composition of most of their proper names. In fact he was the god of the most ancient capital of Akkad, the town holy above all to the Chaldyeans, the great city of Ur (now Mugheir), whence Abraham departed at the summons of Jehovah." With the deepest interest we read the liturgical hymns given by this distinguished historian. One of these, the best pre- served of all, and almost uninjured, is the hymn to the Moon- god actually used in the city of Ur in the earliest times, of which the Akkadian original is given with its Assyrian trans- lation on a tablet in the British Museum. From the French of M. Lenormant we have rendered this incantation as closely as may be, preserving a somewhat rhythmical cast in order to save it from prosaic flatness of effect. The grammatical construction, fluctuating from the second to the third person, is preserved. " Lord ! prince of gods of heaven and earth, whose mandate is exalted ! " Father ! god enlightening earth ! Lord ! good god, of gods the prince ! " Father ! god enlightening earth ! Lord ! great god, of gods the prince ! " Father ! god enlightening earth ! Lord god of the month, of gods the prince ! " Father ! god enlightening earth ! Lord of Ur, of gods the prince ! "Father! god enlightening earth! Lord of the alabaster house, of gods the prince ! 22 ABB AH AM ASD HIS AGE. "Father! god enlightening earth! Lord of crowns, duly re- turning, of gods the prince ! "Father ! god enlightening earth ! awarder of kingdoms, of gods the prince ! " Father ! god enlightening earth ! by lowering the proud himself enlarging, of gods the prince ! " Timely crescent mightily horned, doom-dealer, .... * splendid with orb fulfilled ! " Self-produced, from his home forth-issuing, pouring evermore plenteous streams ! " High-exalted, all-producing, life unfolding from above ! "Father, he who life reneweth in its circuit through all lands ! "Lord! in thy godhead far and wide as sky and sea thou spread'st thine awe ! "Warder of shrines in (Akkad's) land and prophet of their high estate ! " Gods' sire and men's, of childhood guide (?), even Ishtar's self thou didst create ! " Primseval seer, rewarder (sole) fixing the doom of days remote, " Unshaken chief, whose heart benign is never mindful of thy wrongs : " Whose blessings cease not, ever flowing, leading on his fellow- gods. " * Who from depth to height bright piercing openeth the gate of heaven !....* " Father mine, of life the giver, cherishing, beholding (all) ! "Lord who power benign extendeth over all the heaven and earth !....* " Seasons (?), rains, from heaven forth-drawing, watching life and yielding showers ! '• Who in heaven is high exalted ? Thou ! sublime is thy behest ! " Who on earth is high exalted? Thou ! sublime is thy behest ! " Thou thy will in heaven revealest ; (thee) celestial spirits (praise !) " Thou thy will on earth revealest ; thou subdu'st the spirits of earth ! "Thou! thy will in heaven as the luminous pether shines! . . . .* " Thou ! thy will upon the earth to me by deeds .... * thou dost declare ! " Thou ! thy will extendeth life in greatness, hope, and wonder wide ! " Thou ! thy will itself gives being to the righteous dooms of men ! Lacunae. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 23 " Thou ! through heaven and earth extendest goodness, not re- membering wrong ! " Thou ! thy will who knoweth ? Who with aught can it compare ? " Lord ! in heaven and earth thy lordship of the gods none equals thee!" There are yet some mutilated lines to complete this mag- nificent ode of pristine idolatry, calling on this "king of kings" to favour his dwelling the city of Ur, invoking him as " Lord of rest " (that is, of the weekly sabhath rest) : and so in broken sounds it dies away. In such strains did the kings and priests of Ur adore the moon as it "walked in brightness" through the crystalline spaces of a Babylonian sky. Mr. Boscawen has given this liturgical hymn {The Bible and the Monuments, p. 59), and remarks on the Moon-god taking the priority among the Semites : " It was so in the days of the Chaldeans' nomad life, it remained so for centuries after they had become settled in Babylonia. There was but one great centre of moon-worship in Babylonia, and this, strangely enough, the city which we may regard as the birth-place of the Hebrew nation, namely, Ur of the Chaldees, the moon being called * Lord of Ur ' ; but there were numerous shrines cf the Sun-god, indeed every city had its local sun-god or solar hero" (p. 61). In the engraved seal-cylinder of Ur-ba'u this god is set forth Ur-ba'u. under his usual symbol of the crescent. The design seems to re- present the introduction by priestesses of a female votary, led by the hand to the presence of a venerable enthroned personage, pro- bably the priest-king himself, who propitiously stretches out his own right hand, wearing a solid bracelet round the wrist. The priestesses have a peculiar crown-like mitre, the new votary a simple fillet round the head. All the disengaged hands are upheld in the religious attitude known as " the lifting up of 24 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. hands." The votary wears a long garment reaching to the feet, and bordered with a stripe ; over it a sort of tunic, cut with that long sweeping curve which we see in later Assyrian costume, and fringed. The principal priestess has the marked Babylonian dress characterised by its many flounces, which we cannot see with- out a smile, and which we find many ages later, worn by women of the Ei/ ten, from the same country, in the Egyptian triumphs.* These are produced by the spiral winding of very long shawls or similar constituents of dress. Mr. Loftus describes the dancing boy in a dress with flounces of red, yellow, and blue, whom he saw performing in Chaldaaa,! and Mr. G. Smith gives an account of a dancer similarly dressed J in a flounced and fringed garment of red and blue. The form and colours are surely relics of primaeval fashion, and the colours symbolical of the various heavenly bodies to whose worship the dancers were devoted. Eed was the colour of Nergal (Mars), blue of Nebo (Mercury), pale yellow of Ishtar (Venus). The third month of the year was sacred to the Moon-god, and its Semitic name Sivan is connected " in all probability " with his Semitic name Sin, as Sir Henry Rawlinson has pointed out.§ This was the month devoted to the very important task of making the bricks which they " had for stone," and Sin was the patron of the work. The month nearly corresponds with May. The walls and at least three great sacred buildings in Ur were the work of the great and renowned king Ur-ba'u, namely, the temple of Sin the Moon-god, another called Bit- * Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, Vol. I., p. 391. t Chald. and Susiana, p. 22. t Assyr. Disc, p. 130. § Herod., Vol. I., p. 505, ed. 1862. RELIGIOUS WOE SHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 25 timgal, and the tower of stages of which we have spoken, called Bit-sareser. The polytheism of this very early age is shewn by his having built, besides these, a temple to Nana, or Ishtar (Astarte, "the daughter of the Moon-god," as she is called in the hymn), at Erech, another to the Sun-god Samas (Shemesh) at Larsa (now Senkereh), another to Bel, and a separate one to Belat " his lady " (Beltis the wife of Bel), at Nipur (Niffer), another to Sar-Ili "his king," the supreme god II, " the king of the gods," at Zirgulla. In truth, poly- theism was stamped on the earth in temples and towers, and the warlike or beneficent works of kings. Rimmon was the patron of the all-important irrigation ; Sin of brickmaking and building ; Nergal of war. Polytheism glittered in scrolls of light in the constellations of the firmament ; it measured days and months, and years and cycles, and by its auguries of good or ill decided the least ways of house-life, and the greatest collisions of nations. It has been observed that gods were identified with stars before the invention of writing in Babylonia, " and that the most natural symbol of a deity was thought to be a star," which is accordingly the " determina- tive " * of the names of gods in cuneiform inscriptions. " It is plain," writes Prof. Sayce, " that the full development of astro- theology cannot have been much earlier than B.C. 2000." t And Mr. George Smith gives the same date for the develop- ment of systematic mythology : "2,000 years before the Christian era it was already completed, and its deities definitely connected into a system, which remained with little change down to the close of the kingdom." J And M. Lenormant writes at length to the same effect. § It is very interesting to * *-»~T in its later conventional form; originally a star of eight ravs. t " Astron. of Babylon." Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 176. % Chald. Gen., p. 52. § La Magie, p. 114 ; also see L s Dieux de Babylone, p. 20. Paris, 1877. 26 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. find Prof. Sayce from another point of view, writing thus in his excellent Lectures on Babylonian Literature* : — " The Gisdhubar epic on the one side cannot be older than the formation of the Accadian calendar and zodiac, which, as it begins with the sign of Aries, must be later than B.C. 2300." " On the other hand Accadian had ceased to be spoken before the seventeenth century B.C., and the earliest engraved gems we possess have representations taken not only from the adventures of Gisdhubar, but from other myths as well. Perhaps, therefore, we cannot be far wrong, in assigning the composition of the epic to about B.C. 2000, and referring the independent lays out of which it is composed to the centuries that immediately preceded. The bloom of Accadian poetry might then be placed just four thousand years ago, when the nature-myths, which had once expressed a very real and definite meaning, had grown faint and misunderstood, and become the subjects of numberless ballads and hymns." The whole system, then, of sidereal worship, with its hier- archy of the Chaldsean Olympus, was in full working order when Abram was born in his father's house, in " Ur of the Chaldees " ; and this family even had been drawn into the stream, for " thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (Euphrates), even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods." When the child saw the rising sun lift its orb above the mountains of Elam, he beheld a god, defender of the men of Sippara and of Larsa. Even the morning, the evening, and the mid-day sun had different names (as in Egypt), Dumuzi (Thammuz), and Tu or Tutu, the one the " Sun of Life," the other the god of death, f who was received by * P. 41. t " As'ron. of Babylon." Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 165. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 27 the gigantic guardians into the nether world,* and Adar the southern sun.f Such must have been his thoughts, as the child's wistful eyes pursued " the last faint pulse of quivering light " towards the " land of Martu," little thinking that thither his own pilgrimage would be led ; and when above the darkening ziggurat, which rose like huge stairs to heaven, the stars would come out of the fading sky, he would be taught to mark the pole-star Dayan-same, and the splendid configuration of the giant which we call Orion, and the stars of strong in- fluence called interpreters and judges and counsellors ; those bright and searching " eyes " the planets he would hail as the masters of destiny, the moon and sun among the mystic seven, with Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the order here given. Sulpa-uddu,J "the messenger of the rising sun," from its colour called " the blue star," was the planet Mercury, the star of Nebo. It was known as " the prince of the men of Kharran," the far northern city which was to be the second home of Terakh till his death. In that translucid heaven the varying phases of beautiful Venus, like a lesser moon, are visible, and made it the favourite of all eyes. The records of the Chaldean observers are singularly striking and happy in their phrases of native poetry. How interesting is, for instance, this tablet, translated by Prof. Sayce, with its life-like eye-witness of the stars' behaviour, and abrupt warnings, or auguries of good ! § "Venus drew forth a rising" (a slight haze creates a visible dawn). Misfortune. " In its orbit duly it grows in size. " Venus a rising does not kindle. Prosperity. Chald. Gen., p. 2t8. t La Magie, p. 120. % Or, Dunpa-uddu. § Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 1«7. 28 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. "Afterwards its station it makes to ascend, and proceeds, and, Venus rises, and the star Niru like a flag floated. " The view is clear. The country is smitten. "Rebellion is hostile. Cities by arms are oppressed." Venus was identified with the goddesses Ishtar and Bilat, and was the tutelary of Agade and of Erech. Saturn was a star of sinister augury, and from its feeble light was called Kus, darkness, and in Semitic Kaivanu, the Hebrew Kiun. Jupiter was the star of Merodach, the special patron of great Babylon. " The red planet Mars " was the star of Nergal, "he who goes forth in strength," and was claimed as " the king of Cutha." It was reckoned among the stars of Martu or the west. One would think that in the lapse of ages he had changed his colour, since it is called in these ancient observations " The White Star," although in the celebrated stage-tower of Borsippa his colour is a full red. But it is well known that this planet, most like the earth, has its seasons, and presents the singular aspect of a spreading white- ness from the growth of snow round the polar regions, and this may account for the epithet "white." His warlike character was marked by the titles * of " plunderer," " agent of deaths," and " star of the chariot." Among such lore was Abram's boyhood passed. It was attributed to him by his remote descendants that he had taught astronomy to the Egyptians, and it seems highly probable that they learned it from f the men of Chaldaea. It would seem that beneath this sidereal cultus lay a more ancient Turanian system of elemental powers and magic rites used without special sanctuaries. Rising above the swarm of deceitful omens, how sublime is that sure word of destiny spoken by Jehovah to His servant, when " He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell * Eawlinson, Arte. Mon., Vol. II., p. 546. t Proctor, Saturn, p. 189. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 29 the stars, if thou be able to number them : and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in Jehovah ; and He counted it to him for righteousness." * We have seen that in the hymn to the Moon-god he was invoked as " Lord of Rest." This must refer to the Sabbath- rest, the new moons and Sabbaths having been ever closely connected. " The Sabbath-rest was known," writes Prof. Sayce, " to the Accadians, who had been led by their astro- nomical observations to set apart the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month, as days of sulum or rest, on which certain works were forbidden." " But the Assyro-Babylonian Sabbath differed from the Hebrew Sabbath in its essentially lunar character. In the Old Testa- ment, Sabbaths and new moons are distinguished from each other ; in Babylonia and Assyria, the feast of the new moon was necessarily a Sabbath. The Babylonian calendar, in fact, was based on the week of seven days." We cannot suppose that Abraham's descendants first ob- served the Sabbath in Egypt. We find that it was observed by the Akkadians and Semites in Chaldgea whence Abraham came. The Book of Genesis distinctly says that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested ; a primal cause which is echoed in the giving of the law by God Himself when He said, " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy " "for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth," etc., "and rested the seventh day, ivherefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." f An additional reason given in the reproclamation of the law does not invalidate the original one ; and an astronomical connexion with the moon's time of revolution only more Gen. 15. 4, 5, 6. t Ex. 20. 10, 11. 30 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. plainly bears the image and superscription of the great King, who before resting from His work, had " set " or appointed the moon as well as the snn " for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years." Why should we " accept the week as of pagan origin," and why should the day which God's servants called "a delight, the holy of Jehovah, honourable,"" have sprung from a sinister planet, and unlucky auguries of the monthly prognosticators ? Surely " the rest of Jehovah thy God " was the pristine ordinance never, as it would seem, wholly lost, and now revindicated from all lower uses, and associations of ill-starred gloom or sensual laziness, to its first glory. The Sabbath is called by the memorable name, " day of rest of the heart " in an early calendar,! written in Assyrian, and from the Akkadian equivalent the word " Sabbath " is derived, " sabattu " ; " sajxdtu " is also explained to mean " com- plete," in W. A. I. II., 25, 14, says Prof. Sayce.J Let it be noticed that this " Sabbath " was " a feast," " a festival," " the white day " ; as well as a holy day of rest and sacrifice. It is clear that when Abram was brought up in his father's house at Ur of the Chaldees, the seventh day was a sacred day of rest ; and the very word sulum, which is, I suppose, equivalent to the Hebrew shalom, is fragrant with thoughts of peace, salutation, benediction, and salvation. It is an inquiry of absorbing interest how far the first and true revelation still lingered among the several leading races of the early world. The means of solving this question in its several branches are now being restored to us. Let us first then inquire whether the idea of " the Holy One that inhabiteth eternity " was really lost. Damascius (born about a.d. 480), § citing Eudemus the peripatetic, about * Isa. 58. 13. t W. A. I., II., 32. 1. % Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 76. § Cory's Fragments. Second Edition, p. 318 ; and see Lenormant, Les Dieux de Babylone, p. 6, 1877 ; see Appendix. RELIGIOUS WOE SHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 31 eight centuries earlier, says thai " of the barbarians the Baby- lonians seem to pass over in silence the One principle of the universe, but to make two, Tauthe and Apason," etc. napiivai, Ivo he Troieiv, TavOe kou Ana.(rav, k. t. X.) This appears to be the true account of the matter ; and the heathen neo-Platonist philosopher understood what he was writing about. The inferior " gods " were creatures, but the sole first creator is taken for granted, and rarely appears. See, for instance, the portion of the creation-tablets given by Mr. G. Smith, * where the one God is explaining to the newly created man his duties, or that fragment which recounts the rebellion of the angels.f Thus wrote the late Mr. Fox Talbot : % " Amidst the chaos of names a feeling of the real unity of the divine nature is visible. The phrase ' God and man ' sometimes occurs. ' God and the king ' is very frequent. No particular god is here named or intended, but the word -Hf- § is put absolutely, like the Greek to e ?ov, and may be translated either ' God * or ' heaven.' " In Mr. Boscawen's account of the creation-tablets, || I cannot think him right in his statement : " it was necessary for the Babylonian to develop the Creator, while the Hebrew starts with the postulate ' there is a God ; he is the Creator.' " For I do not think the idea of creation is involved in the words, " the chaos Tiamat was the genitrix (or, as G. Smith translates, ' the producing mother ') of them all." This chaos is surely no more to be identified with the Creator than the earth, or the water, in the Book of Genesis when it is said, * Cliald. Gen., p. 80. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. IV., p. 349; Records of the Past. Vol. VII., p. 123. % Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. II., p. 35. § Ana Akkadian, ilu Assyrian, i.e., god; but constantly prefixed as a "deter- minative " to the names of particular gods. || Academy, pp. 219, 344. 1877. 32 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. "Let the earth (or the waters) bring forth." The one originator of all is (as Damascius says) passed over in silence. Let us hear M. Lenormant* : — "When we penetrate beneath the surface of gross poly- theism it (namely, the religion of Assyria and Babylonia) had acquired from popular superstition, and revert to the original and higher conceptions, we shall find the whole based on the idea of the unity of the Deity, the last relic of the primitive revelation disfigured by and lost in the monstrous ideas of pantheism, confounding the creature with the Creator, and transforming the Deity into a god-world whose manifesta- tions are to be found in all the phenomena of nature " . . . . " The supreme God, the first and sole principle from whom all other deities were derived, was Ilu, whose name signifies God par excellence. Their idea of him was too comprehensive, too vast, to have any determined external form, or conse- quently to receive in general the adoration of the people ; and from this point of view there is a certain analogy be- tween Ilu and the Cronos of the Greeks, with whom he was compared by the latter. In Chaldsea it does not seem that any temple was ever specially dedicated to him." His name, indeed, is preserved in the most ancient name of Bab-ili, " Gate of God." This is, however, the Semitic name, which is exactly equivalent to the Turanian Ka-dimirra ; or, as M. Menant reads, Ka-dingira. It is deeply interesting to read that at one at least of the Chaldasan schools monotheism was taught down to a late date. " That at Orchoe or Erech was .... well known, and main- tained its reputation down to the times of the Romans. In the period of the Seleucidae the doctrine of the unity of God was distinctly taught there : as we know from tablets with cunei- * Anc. Hist, of the East, Vol. I., p. 452 ; and see La Magie, p. 102, 117. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 33 form inscriptions, dated in the reign of several Greek kings, found at Warka, and now in the British Museum. The only name of a deity found in them, and this is many times re- peated, is " God One." * This may have been, as in Egypt, a system of reserved and esoteric instruction. At all events this very city of Erech, from the time when it was the capital of Gilgames, was given over to the worship of Ishtar and other idols. The progress of corrupt worship is distinctly traced by Mr. ff C ^'J/ ioiQ/l G. Smith f in this very case of Ishtar. " Her worship was at first subordinate to that of Anu ; and as she was goddess of love, while Anu was god of heaven, it is probable that the first intention in the mythology was only to represent love as heaven- born ; but in time a more sensual view prevailed, and the wor- ship of Ishtar became one of the darkest features in Babylonian mythology. As the worship of this goddess increased in favour, it gradually superseded that of Anu, until in time his temple, the house of heaven, came to be regarded as the temple of Venus." Again, writing of the time of Izdubar, he tells us :J " The city of Erech, originally a seat of the worship of Anu, was now one of the foremost cities in this Ishtar worship." We find evidence, indeed, in some fragments of legal tablets written in Akkadian, of the early date of the most revolting practices, even in connexion with the worship of Anu himself. The mode of worship in primitive Babylonia is receiving fresh illustration day by day. It is certain that it was observed from week to week, and from festival to festival, and from fast to fast, with all pomp and splendour ; with processions, music and hymns of high-wrought adoration, and impassioned prayer. Probably the burning of incense was an accessory from early times, as we may learn from Khasisadra's sacrifice on issuing * Lenormant, Anc. Hist, Vol. I., p. 495 ; Les prem. Civ., Vol. II., p. 167. t Chald. Gen., p. 56. % Chald. Gen., p. 56. S 6517. C 34 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. from the ark.* But it is certain that propitiatory sacrifices were offered in abundance. The principal victims were the ram and the bull, the most valued subjects of man, as indeed the first and second signs of the zodiac bear witness. But to these a fearful addition must be made : I speak of human sacrifice. The horrible practice of parents devoting their own children in the fire is traced, in 2 Kings 17. 31, to the inhabitants of Sepharvaim, that is, the two cities of Sippara, separated by the stream of the Euphrates ; or rather, says M. Menant, by a canal f called Nahar-Agade. One of these was called Sippar-sa-Samas, " Sippara of the Suu- god" (the present Abu-habba, where Mr. Bassam has made memorable discoveries) ; the other, Sippar-sa-Anunit, was the ancient capital of Sargon the First, of which we have before spoken, Agade. The men of Sepharvaim, we are told, when transplanted to Samaria, were those who " burnt their children in fire to A- drammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim " ; the former, Adru, a form of Shamash the Sun-god, says Lenormant, the latter, Ann, each with the addition Melek, king. The temple of Samas at Sippara was originally built by Ur-ba'u, king of Ur. It is now clear that those Semitic races who practised this form of worship did not originate it, but received it from the Akkadians, who were their instructors in so much besides. M. Lenormant called attention to a fragment bearing most distinctly on this matter,J and Prof. Sayce has since treated it in an interesting paper read by him to the Society of Biblical Archaeology. § Prof. Sayce holds that u it was not only the worship of the sun, and all that it implied, which was borrowed by the * G. Smith, Assyr. Disc, p. 191. t Menant, Babylone, p. 96. \ Les. prem. Civ., Vol. II., p. 196. § Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.. Vol. IV., p. 25. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IX ABRAHAM'S TIME. 35 Semitic from the Accadian, but the dreadful rites with which it was associated as well" ;* and this inference he confirms by two cuneiform texts : one is that part of an Akkadian poem of pre-Semitic age mentioned by M. Lenormant, and of which Prof. Sayce gives the original Akkadian text and the Assyrian version, with his translation, which in effect agrees entirely with M. Lenormant's : — " The augur cried thus :— The offspring who raises the head among mankind ; — (his) offspring for his life he shall give ; the head of the off- spring for the head of the man he shall give ; the neck of the offspring for the neck of the man he shall give ; the breast of the offspring for the breast of the man he shall give."f " This highly interesting text," observes Prof. Sayce, " gives us distinct evidence of the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice among the Akkadians, as well as of the Akkadian origin of the sacri- fice of the first-born." He then quotes " a passage from the great astronomical work drawn up for the library of Sargon of Agade .... and based on Akkadian originals," of which we have before spoken. "When the air-god (Rammanu) is fine, prosperity. " On the high places the son is burnt : " thus shewing the place and mode of this terrific sacrifice ; and, we may add, the regular and common-place way in which it was regarded. Moreover, in the magnificent De Clercq collec- tion of seal-cylinders are intaglios which clearly represent human sacrifices, and are so classified and described in the catalogue {Tome //., pi. vn. 30 Us ; pi. xix. 178, 180). It is appalling to inspect these contemporary artistic records of the Sumerian age. This is a topic of deep and awful import, to which we may have occasion to return in the course of this work. We therefore will content ourselves with the sufficient proof thus given that the question, " shall I give my first-born for my * See also Sayce, Bab. Lit., p. 46. t Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 77. C 2 36 ABB AH AM AXD HIS AGE. transgression : the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? "* was answered in the affirmative when Abrain was a boy in Ur of the Chaldees. Among the ceremonies of worship, the use of a sacred ark dedicated to a deity would seem to have existed in the earliest times in Babylonia, as it did in so notable a manner among the Egyptians ; for in the sixth tablet of the great series, " the ark of his god Lugal-banda is mentioned in Mr. Gr. Smith's trans- lation in connexion with some observances of worship, f The traces of religious belief on the great subjects of human destiny in the life to come are very important, and stir our deepest feelings. As we draw nearer the fountain-heads of history. " such thoughts, the wreck of paradise," more clearly reveal themselves. The consciousness of sin, J and its desert and punishment, the origin of temptation and transgression. § the fall of angels and of man,|] the flood as the punishment of human iniquity,* - the fear of death (" death I feared, and lay down on the ground," "the waters of death will not cleanse thy hands "), the rever- ence and yearning for righteousness, and belief in its reward at the hands of God,** the belief in immortality of the soul.tt in judgment to come, in a heaven of blessedness and a place of punishment, are all now brought to light as "articles of faith" among Akkadians and Semites alike, gradually entangled and overlaid in the " many inventions " of the " evil imagination of man's heart," losing their only true significance and sanction as men u did not like to retain God in then* knowledge." In fact, * Mic. vi. 7. t Assyr. Disc, p. 175. " Long lists of these arks are given,"' says Mr. T?oscawen, "in W. A. I. II., and they appear to have been sacred barges like the boat of the Egyptian Osiris." X Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. II., p. 76; Records, Vol. VII.. p. 131. \ Chald. Gen., p. ^4. Assyr. Disc, p. 185. ■; Assyr. Disc, pp. 177, 181. ** Ibid., p. 193. H Trans. Soc Bib. Arch.,\o\. I., p. 106 ; Vol. IV., p. 7; Oppert, L 'Imm ort. de YAtne chez les Chald. RELIGIOUS WOB SHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 37 the result of all the investigation of recent years is that which has been most accurately summed up by St. Paul in the begin- ning of his epistle to the Romans. There is one point, however, of especial importance, to which ff ™ rrec - we shall have occasion to revert, but which must be lightly touched at once, as it regards the great beliefs of Abraham's early days (Schroder, by Whitehouse, II. 313). It is the resur- rection of the dead. This belief seems to have been especially associated with the great god of Babylon, Marduk (Merodach), of whom we will now speak. Marduk was identified with the planet Jupiter. His Ak- kadian name, which was but slightly altered, was Amar-utuki ; * and it is now found out that his worship at Babylon must have been of extreme antiquity, as it was restored by the ancient monarch Agu-kak-rimi,t and he is mentioned as the son of Ea in the tablet of the " Seven Wicked Spirits." J He was called "The God of Hosts," viz., of stars. "Marduk," writes M. Lenormant,§ "is one of the types of those gods who die and rise again to life periodically, characteristic of the religions of the shores of the Euphrates and Tigris, of Syria and Phoenicia. The famous pyramid of the royal city of Babylon passed for his tomb, where they shewed to devotees his sepulchral chamber, afterwards plundered by Xerxes, which they called the place of rest of Marduk:' He is called " the merciful one who takes pleasure in raising the dead to life." (Dawn, etc., 696.) Asari is a title of Marduk, identified by Hommel with the Egyptian Osiris (Ausiri). I have always been impressed with the deep, penitent and longing spirit of Chaldaean religious documents as in contrast with the mood of the Egyptian formulae o f devotion. It is like * Lenormant, Les prem. Civ., Vol. 1 1 ., p. 170. t Assyr. Disc, p. 225. ± Assyr. Disc, p. 399 ; Records of the Past, Vol. IX., p. 143. § Les prem. Civ., Vol. II., p. 171. On Marduk see also M. Lenormant s Essay, Les dieux de Babylone, Paris, 1877. 38 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. the great gulf between the Pharisee and the Publican in the Temple. The same thought is expressed by Dr. Pressense, " Egypt was self-satisfied ; it might be called the Pharisaic nation of antiquity," etc. {Ant World and Christianity, 84). But the wail of the heart-stricken miserable sinner breaks out in Chaldgea — " Falling with his weight of cares Upon the great world's altar- stairs That rise through darkness up to God." " Let the god whom I know not be pacified toward me ! " Mr. Boscawen followed this line of inquiry in a paper read some years ago to the Yictoria Institute, comparing these cries u de profundis" with the penitential Psalms of Holy Scripture. A hymn is given by M. Lenormant # which belongs to a col- lection of magic formulae, and contains an " expression of the belief in the resurrection of the dead, the care of whom would be naturally attributed to Mardnk, as a god who himself died and revived. This is one of the first indications which one can hitherto take hold of as to the ideas of the Chaldaaans and Babylonians regarding the future life." In the Akkadian text of the " Seven Evil Spirits," Marduk is called "Protector of the Covenant," says Prof. Sayce. His part as the earnest, pitiful, and indefatigable redresser of wrong, and reliever of misery, is a very important feature, and worthy of careful attention. Marduk was identified with Asari-mulu-dugga, the merciful helper of the human race, whom the Akkadians invoked in every necessity as the " eldest son of Ea," the god of the abyss and of wisdom. He was the great mediator of the old re- ligion, and to him was assigned the power of " bringing the dead back to life." This, therefore, was not a later develop- * Also given in Chald. Magic, p. 193 ; and by Mr. Boscawen, Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. IV., p. 297, in a very interesting paper. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 39 merit of the Semitic system, but part of the ancient heritage. There is much in this to remind us of the Egyptian Osiris.* The Egyptian analogies to the seven portals of Hades to be passed successively, with their guardians, the central judg- ment-hall, the water of life, and the mystic bark of Ea, else- where described, are very remarkable, and deserve mature study. As among the Egyptians, the lore of magic abounded. In- Magic. deed it is well known that from first to last the Chaldssans were the renowned masters of the art, from the highest form of astrology down to the lowest jugglery. Auguries, spells, amulets, inscribed phylacteries, invocations against evil spirits and diseases of every sort, are testified by the tablets to have been in continual use among the Akkadians, from whom the Semitic races learned this whole system of superstitious vanities. Besides the epic and the lyric poetry, which is emerging from the darkness of four thousand years, there are popular proverbs which will be available ere long in illustration of their ways of life. M. Lenormant has given a few specimens; such as these: — (On retribution.) " Thou go'st to spoil " The field o' th' foe ! " One comes to spoil " Thy field,— the foe ! " ( Good out of evil.) " Oh ! be it mine to eat the fruit of death, " And so transform it into fruit of life ! " (A field song of good omen.) " The wheat of uprightness " Unto its top of thriving growth shall press : " The secret spell " We know right well ! " The wheat of plenteousness " Unto its top of thriving growth shall press : " The secret spell " We know right well ! " t * Prof. Hommel has since proposed such analogies. Oriental Cong., London, 1S92, Vol. II., p. 227, &c. See Appendix. t Lenormant, Les prem. Civ., Vol. II.. p. 201. 40 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. This little ditty, which I have put into rhyme to avoid the flatness of mere lines of literal translation, may well remind us of the cheery Egyptian threshing-song to the oxen.* There are, indeed, snatches of pleasant song which the ploughmen of Akkad would sing to their oxen on the threshing floor and in the furrowed field. These are given by Prof. Sayce in his Lectures on Babylonian Literature.} It is a happy relief from sad and solemn studies to hear, as it were, the chirping of grasshoppers, and find " the old poetic fields " blooming from the dust of this "primitive and ante-Semitic Chaldsea," of which Ur was the ancient mother-town, and Terakh, Nakhor, Abram, and Lot were citizens. In the Abbe Yigouroux's now renowned work La Bible et les Decouvertes modernes, 6me. ed., i. 335, etc., he has argued the Chaldasan origin of Abraham from the linguistic side in an elaborate way, and Mr. Boscawen has lately at some length ex- plained the affinity of the Hebrew and Phoenician languages with the Babylonian and Assyrian in The Bible and the Monu- ments, chap. I. He had previously argued The Historic, evidences for the Migration of Abraham in a very interesting manner. {Trans. Vict. Inst. (1886), xx. 92, etc). It seems clear that in e very-day life the abominations of idolatry would press on the faithful servant of the One God, as he was earnestly striving to rise from the entanglement and manifold snares of the worship of innumerable " other gods." As in Egypt, so in Babylonia, it is not so much any- thing like absolute darkness as the multitudinous refraction and colouring of the light of heaven which meets our eyes. The soul of a man (how much more of a child) might on all sides be " secretly enticed," as well as outwardly " driven," to " worship and serve the creature more than the Creator " ; and at last to lose sight of the Creator altogether. In reading, * Wilkinson, Pop. Ace, Vol. II.. p. 43. t P. 63. RELIGIOUS WOE SHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 41 even in their wreck and ruin, in a far distant age, and with the eyes of a Christian of perhaps the thirtieth generation, these hep.iofelt prayers, praises, adoration — these narratives so honestly believed, so carefully recorded, — we may feel in some palpable degree the spell, and verify to ourselves the necessity of a sharp and sudden breach, a stern renunciation of the entire order of familiar life. For these ancient people (like the Athenians of St. Paul's day, and with far more earnestness), were " very religious." All that they did was sanctioned by the best they knew of faith and devotion. Their most costly efforts were devoted to the gods ; the temples, " the houses of their delight," were the prominent features of every city, and not, as afterwards in Assyria, mere adjuncts to the palaces. Their invasions of conquest, their magnificent public works of irrigation and the like, were all devoted to the gods. In their endless votive inscriptions, their psalms of adoration, their humble and penitent prayers, we have only to change the object, and all would be well. Only read Jehovah for Sin or Marduk, and we Christians stand rebuked by their devotion. The house of Terakh had turned to " other gods," as we know from Holy Scripture. It is a strange thing to find in the Talmud that Terakh's wife is called " Amthela, or Amtelai, the daughter of Karnebo." There was a town called by the name Kar-Nebo (Kar-Nabu, wall of Nebo) in Assyria, mentioned on the Paris Michaux Stone.* This was not far from Bagdad. Does not "daughter of Karnebo " mean a native of this town ? or should we now refer it rather to Karnavu, an Arabian city mentioned by Hommel from one of Glaser's Minasan inscriptions. (Hommel, Am. Heb. Trad. 250, 274.) * Records oftlie Past, Vol. IX., p. 94 ; Del. Wo lag das Par. 1 206. 42 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. It is interesting to find in Mesopotamia the name of a town Til-sa-turkhi (Del. Gen. 11. 25). I have long since suggested the comparison of " turakhu," the Assyrian name of the ante- lope, which was, I think, a sacred and sacrificial animal among the Chaldaeans, with the name of Terakh. Prof. Sayce now says : " Terah is Tarkhu, the name of a god among the Hittites (as in the name of Tarkhu-lara, king of Gurgum, and Tarkhu-nazi, king of Malatiyeh). It seems to be the same as Tarku or Tarqu (as in Tarkondemos). Turgu, the Kassite Bel, has been compared. A cuneiform tablet states that Turku represented the god Rimmon or Hadad." {Exp. Times , May 1897, p. 357.) But is it not rather the antelope ? The shades of the picture must be duly painted. Religion had turned to superstition, and superstition in its darker mood had brought forth magic, the great besetting sin of the Chal- daeans, by which the children of Abraham in the days of their captivity long afterwards became so deeply tainted. Earlier than the days of Terakh, we know that this malign and gloomy spell possessed the souls of his fellow-countrymen. The old Akkadian tablets bear witness to this. Rhythmic charms were sung, " non innoxia verba," to bring evil on an enemy. Thus the Assyrians, and the Babylonians before them, thought to utilize for their malicious ends the power of those swarming evil spirits who were (as they believed) the authors of every species of disease, and who might, as Prof. Sayce writes, "be swallowed with the food and drink that support life." They counted no less than 300 spirits of heaven, and 600 spirits of earth. The charms were in the old Akkadian tongue, and doubtless of most ancient date. They are bad enough for the hags in " Macbeth." This is the style ; and a little will suffice. The tablet is translated by Prof. Sayce in Records of the Past, and still more recently by Mr. George RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 43 Smith in his excellent manual of the history of Assyria. * The case of the victim is thus " lively set forth " : — " The evil curse like a demon fixes on a man As a scourge voice over him is fixed An evil voice over him is fixed The evil curse, the ban, the madness That man the evil curse slaughters like a lamb His god from over him departs His goddess, the giver of counsel, has stationed herself without The scourging voice like a cloak covers him and bears him away."f It is evidently going hard with the poor victim. What must be done for him ? Two things were orthodox :— An exorcism must deliver him, and a counter-mine must be driven for him under the sorcerer, who must thus be " hoised with his own petard." First, for instance. An exorcism : — " The painful plague, the potent plague, The plague which quits not a man, The plague-demon who departs not, The plague unremovable, the evil plague, Conjure, Spirit of heaven ! Conjure, Spirit of earth ! " f But perhaps this is rather a prophylactic than an antidote. So we will take the following : — " May the sick man, by offerings of mercy (and) peace, like copper shine brilliantly. To this man May the Sun-god give life ! Merodach (first-born son of the deep), The blessing and the dazzling glory are thine ! Conjure, Spirit of heaven ! Conjure, Spirit of earth ! " X But next, as to the sorcerer. The counter-charm : — " Like this date which is cut and cast into the fire The burning flame shall consume, and to its stalk he who plucks (it) shall not restore (it), For the dish of the king it shall not be used ; * Published by S.P.C.K., p. 17 ; see also Chald. Magic, p. 6 k t Sayee, Hibbert Lectures, Appendix III., pp. 471, 472. X Ibid., p. 450. 44 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. (So) may the guardian-priest cause the ban to depart from him (and) unloose the bond Of the torturing disease, the sin, the backsliding, the wicked- ness, the sinning, The disease which exists in my body, my flesh (and) my muscles. Like this date may it be cut, and on this day may the burning flame consume (it) ! May the ban depart that I may see the light ! " * We must note the symbolic actions which marked these magic rites, and the antiquity of the opinion that " curses fly home to roost." The following is a benignant spell, of the kind apparently alluded to in the little harvest-song which we have already given. The translation is by Prof. Sayce. " The pure pourer of libations to Ea, the messenger of Merodach, am I, The coal I have kindled, and I lull to rest, The fire have I lighted and I increase. The whole offering have I offered and I glorify. Like the coal I have kindled I will lull to rest. Like the fire I have lighted I will increase. Like the whole-offering I have offered T will glorify. May the god of herbs, the assembly of god and man, unloose the knot he has knotted ! From the knot of the heart may the god and goddess of the son of deliver him ! May his backsliding be outpoured on this day ! May they forgive him ! May they deliver him ! " f This is in the spirit of many old staves of benediction in all ages, down to those still sung in .country villages in England to bless the crops and apple-trees. Compare the field song given before. The reader who is curious in this matter may find other formula? of the same kind in Records of the Past, Vols. I. and II. ; and an elaborate and learned work on Magic among the Chaldaeans was written by M. Lenormant, and is available to * Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 473. t Ibid., p. -17o. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP IN ABRAHAM'S TIME. 45 the English reader in a translation sanctioned and amended by the author.* To this I am happy to add a more recent work, viz., Baby- lonian Magic and Sorcery, by Leonard W. King, of the B. M. (Luzac, 1896). The "Prayers of the Lifting up of the Hands " were written in metre, " rough form of verse and half- verse," with rubrics for ceremonial use (p. xxvii), and burning of incense (p. xxix). Offerings were presented of "pure water, honey, butter, dates, garlic, corn and grain, various kinds of flesh, fragments of gold, lapis-lazuli, alabaster," etc. " Pure water simply offered in a vessel before the god, or used for sprinkling on a green bough in his presence." Gifts to pro- pitiate the god and incense were offered before the words of the incantation can take effect (p. xxx). The Egyptians were scarcely less given to the use of spells, amulets, exorcisms, and the whole armoury of magic. Such things must not be overlooked by those who would endeavour to estimate fairly the spiritual thraldom from which in all ages the divine Redeemer has set His children free. When we turn from these debasing superstitions, and all the pitiful apparatus of idolatry, to the amplitude of Abraham's single faith in Jehovah, who among us can duly prize that " precious faith," the saving gift of God ? Who can value aright the goodly heritage of Abraham's sons according to the promise ? * Anc. Chald. Magic, Bagster, 1877. w ( 46 ) CHAPTER TV. POLITICAL AXD SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALILEA. E will now turn to the polity, and laws, and transaction of business. "It is the opinion of the majority of Assyrian scholars," says Mr. G. Smith in his important work, Assyrian Discoveries* " that the civilization, literature, myth- ology, and science of Babylonia and Assyria were not the work of a Semitic race, but of a totally different people, speaking a language quite distinct from that of all the Semitic tribes. There is, however, a more remarkable point than this : it is supposed that at a very early period the Akkadian or Turanian population, with its high cultivation and remarkable civiliza- tion, was conquered by the Semitic race, and that the con- querors imposed only their language on the conquered, adopting from the subjugated people its mythology, laws, literature, and almost every art of civilization." Prof. Sayce, in his valuable essay on Semitic civilization before quoted, has pointed out how the Semitic people borrowed their principal words of rule, civil authority, and law, from Akkadian sources. To the same effect writes M. Menant, in his work on Chaldsea.f " These peoples," viz. those ancient possessors of Chaldaea called Surniri and Akkadi, " had a constitution civil and religious so powerful, that they imposed not only their system of writing, but also their political and religious system on their invaders." It has, however, more recently been rendered doubtful by the surprising results of discoveries at Tello and Xiffer, whether the Semitic or Turanian population of Chaldasa were really earliest in the field, as students of Prof. Maspero's Dawn of Civilization will discover. "The * P. 419. t Babylone et la Chald., p. 49. Paris, 1875. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CEALDMA. 47 political constitution of the Assyro-Chaldaean kings submitted to the influence of that of their predecessors, for we see the new sovereigns adopt their titles, and perpetuate them during the whole duration of the empire." The most ancient title we can discover, and which is found among those of antediluvian kings, is that of "Shepherd." M. Men ant gives the cuneiform monogram of which the original pronunciation is not known,* " but it was rendered in Assyrian by the articulation ri\i (H^H)." The Hebrew word is often used in the Bible, beginning with Abel, who " was a shepherd of sheep." If often occurs in the sense of ruling, and is applied to God as " Shepherd of Israel." The readers of Homer will remember the familiar equivalent. Of all royal titles it is the most pleasing and patriarchal. The terms used for "throne," and "judge," besides the words of majesty, came from the Akkadian. It is clear that there was a hereditary element in the royalty of those days, which was of course almost the essence of a patriarchal power, but the lines were often broken by usurpation or conquest. There were viceroys of provinces, and chiefs or nobles, like the " princes " of Egypt : and the whole system was sanctioned and knit together by the strongest religious element. If the king, also sovereign pontiff, was not usually wor- shipped as a god in his lifetime, like the Pharaohs, as indeed appears in the case of Naram-Sin, son of Sargon I., as shewn by Prof. Sayce,t at least the more venerated were adored in after ages : as Gilgarnes, and Suqamuna and Amaraku. Khammurabi is called " god " in his lifetime, so too are Eri- aku, and Pur-Sin of Ur and Gimil-Sin, etc. A seal-cylinder * *y-y,y T- See also ^FiEi] sib, Assyr. ri'u, belu, shepherd, lord. Sayce, Assyr. Gram., No. 237, and JgT, No. 484, sheep. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. V., p. 442. 48 ABU AH AM AND HIS AGE. in the De Clercq collection represents " Da-na-tum, the son of Sin-taiar, the servant of the god Rim-Sin " (Eri-aku) (Cat. 187, text). Prof. Sayce now explains the name " Amraphel, king of Shinar," as Ammnrabi-iln, i.e. Khammurabi the god. M. Lenor- mant notices * that the two words expressed by the same ideo- gram and signifying "god," ana and dimmer, were sometimes applied to kings, t as in Egypt the title of ^ J, "Good God." This subject will be treated in reference to the shepherd-kings. The priestly office and other chief functions were hereditary among the Chaldaeans, properly so called, who are said by Diodorus Siculus to have been the most ancient of the Baby- lonians. As to the Hebrew name Kasdim, for the Chaldaeans, it might seem to be formed from " Casadu, a common Assyrian word (' to possess ') ; Gasidu will be the nomen agentis" as Prof. Sayce says in his Assyrian Grammar, \ p. 14. Thus the Kasdim would be the possessors of the land where they dwelt : the lords, and not the subject race. But it has been explained as a dialectic variant of the word Kaldi, applied in the inscriptions to Southern Chalda3a,§ and a later suggestion has been thrown out by Prof. Sayce in P. 8. B. A. 1896, p. 172. The kings and suzerains of ancient Babylonia were far from being always mere despots and tyrants, in the evil sense of those words. We may be sure that their power was limited in many directions by the established strong customs, the "com- mon law" of the generations ; the opinion and will of priests and princes, by whom they were surrounded ; the exigency of precarious and troubled times, of a very exposed country, and restless royal neighbours. But there are evidences of high aims and beneficent designs for the public good. * Etudes sur quelques p. des Syllabaires, p. 14. t W. A .1., II., 33, 1. 34, 35, e-f. t Assyr. Gram, for Comparative purposes, Triibner, 1872 ; not the later Assyr. Gram., Bagster. § Schracler, Gen. 11. 28. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALDMA. 49 Doubtless we shall soon know more of the polity and laws of early Babylonia, and the precedents of legal decision in the courts. For social life we may now refer to Prof. Sayce's con- cise account in his Private and Social Life among the Baby- lonians, R. T. S., and to Mr. Pinches' paper, Trans. Vict. List. xxyi. 123, &c, and Mr. Boscawen, Ewp. Times, vi. 371. Prof. Sayce has published in Records of the Past * a few memo- randa of decisions so laconic in expression as to be vague and uncertain in import, for the most part ; but there are some landmarks, and his comment is valuable : " The patriarchal character of society implied by them (the laws) will be noticed, as well as the superior importance possessed by the mother, denial of whom by the son involved banishment in contrast with the milder penalty enjoined for renunciation of the father. This importance of the mother in family life is still a distin- guishing feature of the Finnic Tatar race. The slave, it will be seen, was already placed to some extent under the protection of the state, and the first step on the road towards the amelio- ration of his condition had been made." One of these rules regards the " portion of goods," in the shape of real property, to be given to a child. " In every case let a married man put his child in possession of property, pro- vided that he does not make him inhabit it." Three bear witness to the predominant religious feeling in family life. " For the future a sanctuary shall be erected in a private demesne." f This law, one would think, might have been made an instrument of religious persecution, such as that which Abra- ham was said to have undergone, as we shall hereafter notice. But the next and the following decision seem to secure at * Vol. III., p. 21. M. Lenormant has also given and explained these laws, Chald. Magic, ch. xxxi. t The original, both Akkadian and Assyrian, is given by M. Lenormant, Etudes sur quelques p. des Syllabaires, p. 79. S 6517. D 50 ABU AH AM AND HIS AGE. least the undisturbed right of property : " (A man) has full possession of his sanctuary in his own high place. The sanc- tuary (a man) has raised is confirmed to the son who inherits." Then we find laws to secure the honour due to father and mother ; and the penalties of denial or family treason. " His father and his mother (a man) shall not (deny)." "A decision. A son says to his father : Thou art not my father, (and) con- firms it by (his) nail-mark (on the deed)." That is, I suppose, he formally repudiates the authority of his father by deed duly signed in the usual way by "his mark" with the finger nail on the clay. The penalty follows : "he giyes him a pledge, and silver he gives him." The Assyrian version gives it thus: " he recognises his pledge to him" : he enters into security for the future, and pays a fine. Next follows the parallel case of denial of the mother, with its severer penalty of personal disgrace and seclusion, or banish- ment. " A decision. A son says to his mother : Thou art not my mother " ; (in this case nothing is said of a formal deed, yet) " his hair is cut off, (in) the city they exclude him from earth (and) water, and in the house imprison him." (Assyrian version, " they expel him.") In the converse cases, where a father or mother repudiates a son, the father is the more severely visited. " A decision. A father says to his son : Thou art not my son. In house and brick-building they imprison him." " A decision. A mother says to her son : Thou art not my son. In house and property they imprison her." This seems as if she had the range of her garden or other premises. A married woman has her property secured to her. An un- faithful wife who repudiates her husband, " into the river they throw her." " A decision. A husband says to his wife : Thou art not my wife. Half a maneh of silver he weighs out in payment." POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALDJEA. 51 With regard to the preference given to the wife, M. Lenor- mant remarks : — " This peculiarity .... is so much the more worthy of attention, not only because we find nothing similar in the Semitic world, but because it is directly opposed to the spirit of some posterior Babylonish institutions as re- volting to morality as they were degrading to womankind, yet consecrated by religion, and as far as I can see of Kushite origin." These laws shew a very advanced social polity, afterwards exceedingly impaired among many or most of the ruling nations. The " wild justice " of personal revenge is here well broken in, and life and property efficiently protected. Even the slave is not subject to the irresponsible power of his master; wit- ness : " A decision. A master kills (his) slaves, cuts them to pieces, injures their offspring, drives them from the land and makes them sick ; his hand every day a half -measure of corn measures out (in requital)." Such were some of the laws of Akkad. In Kouyunjik Mr. G. Smith found half of a curious tablet, copied from a Babylonian original, giving warnings to kings and judges of the evils which would follow the negle3t of justice in the country. * They are most instructive. The administration of justice receives curious light from the tablets recording law cases in the courts. For instance : Mr. G-. Smith gives the following account f of a family lawsuit in the time of Khammurabi, a great king of whom we shall have more to say by and by ; that is, about the time of Abraham. " Zini-nana and Iriba-sin a dispute had. To settle it a judge they took, and to the temple of Samas they entered. In the temple of Samas sentence he pronounced : the slave Lussamar-Samas and the female slave Lislima to be the property of Iriba-sin ; the slave Ipsinan and the female slave Ilamannalamazi to be the property of Zini-nana. A statute in the * Assyr. Disc, p. 97 ; Records of the Past, Vol. VII., 119. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch. Vol. I. p. 91. D 2 52 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. temple of Samas and the temple of Sin they proclaimed : brother to brother should be loving, brother from brother should not turn, should not quarrel, over the whole a brother to a brother should be generous, the whole he should not have. By the names of Ur, Samas, Maruduk and Sarkimuna (four gods, of whom the last was a deified king of old time), and Kham- murabi the king they swore. Witness Davkinaseme son of Apiyatu. Wit- ness Abil-sin son of Urmanse. Witness Sin-esses the priest. Witness Ibus- hea the dugab. Witness Samas-mubanit priest of Gula. Witness Nabi- sin son of Idin-sin. Witness Sin-uzili son of Zini-nana (one of the parties). Witness Inu-sin son of Sin-seme. Witness Sin-gimlaanni the .... of the judges. Tablet the witnesses impressed in the month Addaru, in the year when Khammurabi the king, Anu, Anunit and Nana (a god and two goddesses) adorned." Tablets of this kind, to record important business, are generally fabricated in duplicate. First a tablet of clay was moulded and inscribed; then an outer coat of clay was put over the tablet, and the same record (sometimes with varia- tions of a merely clerical kind) inscribed on the outside. Thus if the outer shell be injured, the same inscription is found on the kernel inside. In this case the record is " in Semitic Babylonian, but most of the other tablets in the collection " (in the British Museum), as Mr. Smith tells us, "are written in Turanian, although occasionally one copy will give a Semitic equivalent for the corresponding Turanian word in the other." There are very many of these tablets belonging to the times of the early kings. They "relate mostly to sales of land ; but some are leases, others sales of grain, slaves, and camels, and a few are loans, wills, and law-cases." From such transactions Abram must have learned his knowledge of busi- ness, which we see in the acquisition of his wealth of various kinds, including "the souls which he had gotten in Kharran ;" that is, the servants whom he had acquired by purchase ; and especially in the solemn transaction for "the possession of a burying-place " with Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALBMA. 53 The Semitic people were the great agents in these trans- actions of commerce, as the descendants of Abraham in par- ticular have been ever since. In a religious aspect we must mark these judicial deter- minations as taking place in the temple, and being confirmed by oaths on the gods and the king. Among the striking analogies between Babylonia and irrigation. Egypt, it must not be forgotten that the annual rise and overflow of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris (Hiddekel), was a matter of the most serious and vital importance. The Tigris begins to rise in the early part of March, and reaches its highest level about the beginning of May. The Euphrates, which starts from the northern and oppo- site side of the same mountain range, begins to rise in the middle of March, is at its height in the beginning of June, and sinks from the middle of July till September. The one condition of successful cultivation was the careful observance, and skilful application of these natural provisions of the great fertiliser, water. And, accordingly, to this work the master-minds of Babylonia applied themselves, perhaps from the time of Peleg in whose " days the earth was divided," which Mr. Cyril Graham considers to refer to " the first cutting of some of those canals which are found in such numbers between the Tigris and the Euphrates." * However this may be, the work of irrigation can be traced to the remotest antiquity. The observation of the varying water-level was a solemn act of religious duty, like that of the Nilometer in Egypt, and seems at Babylon to have been entrusted to a special functionary. * Cambridge Essays, 1858. 3?2 means river or watercourse ; Ass. pidugu ; of. the name of Phalga, on Euphrates. 54 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Mr. George Smith, in his work on Assyrian Discoveries* gives a translation from a tablet belonging to the temple of Bel, written in the Turanian and Semitic Babylonian languages : — " In the month Nisan (the first month, mostly in March) on the second day, one kaspu (2 hours) in the night : The amil-urgal draws near, and the water of the river he observes, To the presence of Bel he enters and measures, And in the presence of Bel He marks it, and to Bel this prayer he prays : ' Lord, who in his might has no equal ; O Lord, good sovereign, lord of the world ; Executor of the judgment of the great gods ; Lord, who in his might is clothed with strength ; Lord, king of mankind, establisher of glory ; Lord, thy throne is Babylon. Borsippa is thy crown ; The wide heaven is the expanse of thy liver, (Lines 12 and 13 of doubtful meaning) Thy might thou f t l° r( l powerful, + Returning reward f To those cast down, do thou give to them favour, Answer to the man who praises thy might. Lord of the earth, of mankind and spirits, speak good. Who is there whose mouth does not praise thy might, And speak of thy law, and glorify thy dominion ? Lord of the earth, dwelling in the temple of the Sun, Take hold of the hands which are lifted to thee, To thy city Babylon grant favours. To the temple of Saggal, thy temple, incline thy face, For the sons of Babylon and Borsippa grant blessings.' " " There are," says Mr. Smith, " several of these tablets in the new collection, giving directions for similar ceremonies on different days of the month Nisan." The extreme necessity of these works of hydraulic en- gineering is marked mythologically by the fact of Ea, the great god of intelligence among the Babylonians, being the * P. 395. t Lacunae. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALDJEA. 55 patron of irrigation ; as Sin, the moon-god, of brick-making and building. In the records the same lesson is read in the account of whole cities destroyed from time to time by floods, as for instance Umlias in the time of Khammurabi, in the lifetime of Abraham. This great conquering monarch, whose exploits we shall have to record, commemorates in an inscription these beneficent works. " The canal Khammurabi, the joy of men, a stream of abundant waters, for the people of Sumir and Accad I excavated. Its banks, all of them, I restored to newness : new supporting walls I heaped up : perennial waters for the people of Sumir and Accad I provided." * At the present time the destruction of dykes and canals has resulted in the increasing ruin of the whole country, which is either a dusty desert or a mephitic marsh, or both by turns ; t and so complete is the subversion of all things that Sir A. H. Layard found the bed of a great canal leading to Niffer, " whose waters had once been confined between two enormous embankments," dry in the midst of the surrounding water. " Its solid banks now oppose the further spread of the marsh which reaches to their feet." "The greater part of the country below ancient Babylon," says this renowned explorer, " has now been for centuries one great swamp. It is, indeed, what the prophet foretold it should be, a desert of the sea." The great marshes, he tells us, " are yearly increas- ing, and threaten to cover the whole of southern Mesopo- tamia." The northern and drier parts of the country are described by travellers as intersected by the dry beds and banks of innumerable canals, which now present the appearance of turnpike roads : and the country after a flush of exquisite * Records of the Past, Vol. I., p. 7, Second Edition; see also Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., p. 58, etc. t Layard, Nin. and Bab., p. 549, et passim. 56 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. flowery verdure, which " withers afore it be grown up," passes again into a hot dusty desert. In the old days, however, of which we have to tell, when it was densely populated by various industrious races in the state of civilisation we have been describing, southern Babylonia must have been a goodly spectacle of cultivated beauty, "as the garden of the Lord." Here and there a few descriptive touches in the narratives of our modern travellers will help us to picture this old- world beauty. Mr. Loftus, for instance, thus describes the rise of the water and the river scenery * : — " A great change was taking place in the aspect of the country ; many old channels and watercourses, which I had been accustomed to see empty and dry, were now rapidly filling with river- water." .... " Hennayin, as he walked by my side, broke out into frequent exclamations of delight at the sight of little runners of the vivifying fluid as it trickled along, gradually filling the canals. 4 Is not this a beautiful country ? ' he continually exclaimed, while he looked up into my face with undoubted signs of gratification. While the embarkation was being effected, I was in full enjoyment of the scene before me. After the dust and barren dreariness of the ruins (of Erech, which he had just left) nothing could exceed the beauty and luxury of that river side and its now verdant banks .... bee-eaters, king-fishers, herons, pigeons, hawks, and other birds, in all their bright and varied plumage, were flying about, uttering their several cries, and luxuriating in their native element, scarcely deigning to notice the presence of human beings." Lower down the Euphrates "a thick forest of luxuriant date-trees fringe the bank on either side of the noble • Chald< and Sus., p. 275. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALDMA. 57 river, which supplies innumerable canals for their nourishment, and for the cultivation of cereals, which nourish in large quantities even beneath the shade of the palms. The ebb and flow of the tide is perceptible twenty miles above Korna, quite eighty miles from the Persian Gulf." This then is the scenery in which we are to picture the childhood and rising life of Abram in the house of Terakh his father, in a city renowned and venerated with especial honour, the sanctuary of a splendid religion, the mart and haven of a thriving commerce, the walled fortress of a royal military system, of which indeed it was the exposed western outpost across the boundary of the great river, and, as we have before noticed, open to the pastures and the wild spaces of the Arabian deserts. Truly Abram, like his descendant Saul of Tarsus, was " a citizen of no mean city." "We have given a rough sketch of the general state of Business. things civil and religious in the Chaldaea of those days, in which Abram was brought up. His father's house must have been dignified by eminent station and virtues, and its records and traditions became the more dearly cherished by him and his after the breaking of tie upon tie which had bound him to his kinsmen according to the flesh. Whether these registers and family records could have been kept in writing at that early time, used to be a matter of vague conjecture. Now, however, we know that even the daily transactions of business, in which Abram's race were so especially versed, were per- petuated with the utmost punctuality and decorum by means of those contract, and sale, and even loan tablets of terra cotta which are still existing ; and it is now known that in Chaldsea among the Akkadians, as in Egypt, papyrus was used as a writing material * as well as clay, and more rarely stone. * Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., p. 343 ; III., 430. 58 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Signatures were made (as we have seen) familiarly by the impress of the finger-nail, and more solemnly by the beautiful seal-cylinders of jasper, carnelian, and other hard stones, of which the British Museum possesses such a magnificent collec- tion, dating from a time before Abraham downwards. These cylinders were engraven all round, and being rolled across the soft clay of the tablets, set off their impressions in the manner of the modern calico-printing. The identical name Abram has been found in the Eponym Canon as that of a court-officer of Esar-haddon, and it is an extremely interesting thing that other Semitic names of the same precise type have been found both in Chaldaea and in Egypt. In the reign of Abil-Sin, the grandfather of Kham- murabi, one of the witnesses to a deed is " the Amorite the son of Abiramu," as we have seen. Hommel, Oes. des Alt. Morgenhmdes, 62. The very name Abram was older in Chaldsea than our patriarch. For information on the cuneiform system of writing we must refer to the excellent handbook of Ancient History of the East by Mr. Philip Smith ; * the work so often quoted in these pages by M. Lenormant ; f and the more extended volumes of Prof. Pawlinson, on the Ancient Monarchies of the East.J The student will use the Assyrian Grammars of Prof. Sayce and Delitzsch, and the Assyrian Manual of Lyon (Chicago, 1880) ; and an excellent vindication of cuneiform research is given by the Eev. William Turner, in his volume entitled, Studies Biblical and Oriental. § Of the domestic architecture little has as yet been re- covered. The better kind of houses were built of brick, plastered and ornamented in a very singular way by cones of * Murray, 1871. t Manual of Anc. Hist, of the Hast. Asher. 1869. % Five Gnat Monarchies. Second Edition, Murray, 1871. § Edin. : A. and C. Black, 187G. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN CHALDMA. 59 coloured clay thrust into the plaster in varied patterns of lozenges, squares, and zigzags, with much the effect of Norman ornamentation in our early churches. The leading architec- tural forms appear to have been derived from wooden buildings constructed of palm-trunks. The houses were probably covered with vaults of brick and terraced roofs, and very likely may have included some subterranean chambers for retreat in the hot seasons, such as are still used in the towns on the Euphrates and Tigris, where in the extreme heat the days are spent in the cellars, and the nights on the roofs. The graves of the departed were most carefully constructed Burial. vaults of brick, not arched, but closed by gradually approach- ing courses meeting at the top ; or the body was laid beneath a very large and strongly constructed covering of baked clay of oval ground-plan and arched form, or enclosed in two very large jars whose open mouths were carefully joined together. Ur and Erech were the great sacred burial-cities, where the dead were gathered in innumerable multitudes around the walls for many ages, as at xlbydos in Egypt, and as at the present day they are brought on camels from great distances to the Mohammedan cities of Nedjef and Kerbela. The deceased were interred with great care and devotion, and most ingenious means used to secure the best drainage of the vast sepulchral mounds. The body was generally laid on its left side, in the left hand was deposited a copper bowl with some small pro- vision of dates or other food, on which the right hand was trained to rest as if in the act of taking food. The seal- cylinder was worn in the usual manner round the wrist, and drinking vessels were deposited in the tomb. The usual metals for all instruments and weapons were copper and bronze. Gold was used for ornaments, and silver as current metal in GO ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. traffic ; iron seems to have been so rare as to be accounted a precious metal.* ining. It is clear from subsequent events that Abram was trained to military exercise, "his hands to Avar and his fingers to fight," probably first in the dangerous warfare of the chase, to wield the bow, the spear, and the sling : -and like his great descendant David, to slay the lion, still in Chaldaea a powerful beast and held in sore dread, and the more terrible lioness in her wrath. He must also have learned the use of the boat and the craft of fishing on that " great river " Avhose ample stream was the one grand feature of his fatherland : and in the harbour he would grow familiar with the " ships of Ur," and the seafaring people of other races. The days of the years of his life were divided into twelve hours of day and twelve of night, as by us at present, and seem to have been marked on dials. ¥ Rawlinson, Anc. Monartfiies, Vol. I., p. 167. ( 61 ) CHAPTER V. MIGRATION TO KHARRAN. TTTE have now seen something of the land and city in * ▼ which Abram was born and grew up in his father's house : a man of rank surrounded by all the conditions and influences of civilized life ; in the centre of the world's inte- rests and rivalries ; the hive which had thrown off the strong swarms of Assur, of Canaan, and it may be, before that, of Mizraim ; a land thick with conflicting powers, where his own kindred the sons of Shem had been in the ascendant, but were now for a while once more thrust down by the Cushite lords of Susa, who in their turn were perhaps troubled on their eastern frontier, where the Aryan race may have been feeling- its way into India, as Prof. C. E. de Ujfaivy dates the arrival of the Aryans in the Panjab about the year 2000 B.C.* We have spoken of the social conditions of mingled good and harm ; of the religious life in its strong and rank growth, where the ill weeds were springing up on all sides, and choking the good seed of pure primaeval faith in the Living God. There is not only presumptive evidence that a staunch up- holder of the primal uncorrupted creed would be on all sides beset by danger as well as temptation, but the power appears to have been asserted to compel a private citizen by order of the judge to build a heathen sanctuary on his own property. Thus there is nothing unlikely in the general sense of Jewish tradition that Abram was persecuted by the ruler of Chaldaaa, * Aperqu general sur les Migrations, etc., p. 19, 1874. G2 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. and that he and his father were expatriated on account of their faith ; * which is the story told by Achior to Holofernes in the Book of Judith. f Josephus mentions as a motive for their quitting Ur that Terakh hated Ohaldaea on account of his sorrow for his lost son Haran,J without, however, omitting the paramount cause, Abram's faithful obedience to the divine command, when "the God of glory appeared unto ' him ' when he was in Mesopo- tamia before he dwelt in Charran," It is worthy of notice that the Hebrew Chronology gives us all the ten generations from Shem to Abram as living together, with the one exception of the short-lived Peleg. That some patriarchal names are still found near Kharran, such as the well-known Seriej, perhaps *!!$?, in Kheber-Keui, not far off, and perhaps Peleg in Phalga on the Upper Euphrates, would indicate that the forefathers of Terakh had come into Chaldasa through that line of migration, and that he and his clan were returning to old quarters. The lifetimes of the patriarchs overlapped in manifold parallels ; so that family life was a many-stranded cord compared with the slender line of these latter days ; and tradition in every sense must have been correspondingly ample, strong, and accurate. At the time of his migration Abram was a married man, but not a father. His wife Sarai is identified by Josephus and other Jewish writers with Iskah a daughter of Haran, and sister of Lot and Milkah. The same syllabic sign will read Mil and is, as Dr. Haigh long ago pointed out in a letter to me, and Prof. Sayce would identify Iskah with Milkah. Thus she would be Abram's niece still. If this were so, when Abram said to Abimelech, " Indeed she is my sister ; she is the daughter of my father, but not the * Malan, Phil, or Truth, p. 93. t Judith 5. 8. % Antiq., Lib. I. c. VI. 5. MIGRATION TO KHAR RAX. G3 daughter of my mother," he must have used the word "sister" in that larger acceptance in which the term "brother" is applied to Lot,* and " daughter " in the very usual sense of descendant; and in this case we also learn that Haran's mother was a previous wife of Terakh, and not the mother of Abrarn. Sarai was ten years younger than her husband. The name *")£> (Sri) is much contested as to its etymology and forma- tion. Long ago the Rev. D. R. Haigh proposed as explana- tion Sar-I, (the god) I is king. But it was objected that no god I had been met with {Trans. Vict. Inst, xn. 151). I have always fancied since that the name was a theophorous name of such construction, and might contain the title of some one of the " other gods " which her fathers worshipped in Chaldaaa. The researches of Mr. Pinches have given addi- tional countenance to this explanation (B. & 0. Rec., n. 1U ; Trans. Vict. Inst, xxviii. 11, &c). In Trans. Vict Inst, p. 13, Mr. Pinches gives the Baby- lonian name " Ser-Aa " (Ser being a variant of Sin, the Moon- god, whose head-quarters of worship was Ur). This name seems to me very near to «H£>. But Sharru-Ai (Ai is king) is still nearer, if not identical (See Hommel, Am. Heb. Trad., 1U). Mr. Pinches' paper should be well studied, as shewing, in his opinion, " a tendency to monotheism, or to the idea that all the gods were but mere manifestations of one supreme deity." The name Sarrat = Sarah, he has also found. As to Abram's own name, I suggested in 1882 that it might be classed with Abi-ram, Akhi-ram, etc., and be ex- plained by the name of the god Ramu. Hesychius gives c P^a ? , o fyio-Toq 6eos (the Most High God), but this is held to be Rammanu. The name Abramu would thus mean * Gen. 14. 16. 64 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. "Eamn is father" (see Trans. Vict. Inst., xvi. 134). Now we know thafc in the time of the grandfather of Kham- murabi a witness to a contract was " son of Abi-ramn," a "son of Martu," or Syrian (P. S. B. A., xvi. 212). We go back in Babylonia two generations before Abrain, as Prof. Hommel says, and have no longer need to refer to the Ab- ramu who was an officer of Esar-haddon. That Eamu has not the determinative prefix does not prove that it is not the name of the god. The name of the god is found on the bronze plates of the gates of Balawat in the British Museum (P. S. B. A., vit. 90). Mr. Pinches has found names of a distinctly Hebrew cast in documents of the time of which we are treating. " Among other names which remind us of those of the Old Testament," says Prof. Sayce, " he has found in contract tablets dated in the reign of Khammurabi and other kings of the dynasty the names Yakub-ili and Yasup-ili, or Jacob-el and Joseph-el. The names are distinctly Hebrew, and prove that in the very century to which the Bible assigns the lifetime of Abraham, Hebrews with Hebretv names must have been Jiving in Baby- lonia " (Norivich Oh. Congress. See also Hommel, Anc. Heb. Trad., 96, 143). On the names Jacob-el and Joseph-el as names of localities in the Palestine list of Thothmes III., I have treated in The Life and Times of Joseph, p. 93. See also Hommel (Anc. Heb. Trad., 112, 296). We will now consider some indications of a westward drift of races, apart from the divine and separate destiny of Abram and his seed. " This age," says Sir H. C. Eawlinson,* " seems to have been in a peculiar sense the active period of Semitic colon iza- * Herod., Vol. I., p. 365 ; see also Anc. Mon., Vol. I., p. 54. MIGRATION TO KHARRAK 65 tion. The Phoenicians removing from the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Mediterranean, and the Hebrew patriarch marching with his household from Chaldaea to Palestine, merely followed the direction of the great tide of emigration which was at this time setting in from the east westward. Semitic tribes were, during the period in question, gradually displacing the old Cushite inhabitants of the Arabian penin- sula. Assyria was being occupied by colonists of the same Semitic race from Babylonia, while the Aramaeans were ascending the course of the Euphrates and forming settlements on the eastern frontier of Syria." In thus writing of Abram we are certain that this eminent scholar did not intend to derogate from the supreme and unique import of the call which summoned him forth. Among all the strangers who passed through the borders of the king of Salem, among all the patriarchal clans who " went down into Egypt," whether pressed by famine or led by ambition of conquest, yea, among all the sons of Adam, there was but one Abraham, " the father of the faithful." The general aspect of the great races is sketched by Prof. C. E. de Ujfalvy in his Apergu general sur Us Migrations des PeupUs. "The Aryans, the Semites, and the Chamites re- mained much longer neighbours (than other races before men- tioned), as the intimate relationship which exists between their religious and national traditions proves. Even after a first separation of the Aryans, the Semites and Chamites dwelt contiguous and lived in the strictest union. This union existed during the development of their language, and ceased not till the moment when a new shock from the hordes of higher Asia threw the Aryans a second time on them, and finally separated them ; the one extended themselves in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, the other turned away constrained to invade Africa by the isthmus of Suez. S 6517. E 66 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. "Throughout where the Semites appear, we see them succeed the Chamites who had preceded them in these dif- ferent countries ; thus in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, in northern Africa, and probably also in Arabia, and even in Abyssinia, where they arrived by crossing the Red Sea. Al- most everywhere the Chamites mingled themselves with the Semites, ethnologically speaking, they left some traces of their influence only in the character of the peoples ; thus in Europe (in Spain for example), in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, in Abys- sinia, the Phoenicians were Semitized Chamites. It is only when one knows that the inhabitants of Mesopotamia were Chamites who had become Semites, that one can explain to oneself the agreement existing between the Assyrio-Babylonian (Semitic) civilization and that of Egypt (Chamitic)." This very suggestive quotation must be borne in mind when we consider in a subsequent study the Egypt which met the eyes of Abram. " From the history of Egypt we learn," writes Mr. Kenrick,* " that about B.C. 2000 a great western migration of Palestinian and Arabian nomad tribes took place, in consequence of which all lower Egypt was subject to them for a long succession of years." Movers, B. /., Chap, viii., thinks "there are traces of a conquest of Syria and Palestine by Assyria first, B.C. 2000."| But we go much further back, as we have seen. In surveying the swarming fields of history, as we see the highway cast up, and the stumblingblocks removed, and the bounds of their habitation marked out for the sons of men by an unseen hand, we must fairly take into our account all that meets our view ; and so shall we enter into the noble confession of Joseph : " So now it was not you sent me hither, but God." * Phoen., p. 141. + Ibid., p. 310, note. MIGRATION TO KHARRAN. 67 We read a more instructive lesson than that of simple shep- herd-life, or the doubtful dignity of the " Bedouin Sheikh," in the life of Abram which now emerges to our sight from the busy haunts of men along the great roads of commerce and of war, and jostling with the hordes of keen seekers of some new city, whether Damascus, or Sidon, or Hebron, or Zoan, swarming westward to the " sea of the setting sun," and then southward to the land of Ham. When the God of glory appeared to Abram, and called him to his new destiny, the first migration of Terakh and his house was about 600 miles in length to Kharran. It is clear that Nakhor and his family followed him so far, for Kharran was afterwards called " the city of Nakhor " ; and Nakhor called on Abram's God, as we learn incidentally from the lips of Laban.* The obedience of Terakh himself is evident from the position assigned to him : " Terakh took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife ; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan ; and they came unto Kharran and dwelt there." f At Ur they left Nakhor and the sepulchre of the departed elder brother Haran, who had " died before the face of Terakh his father," and " whose monument," says Josephus, " is shewn to this day." And now began that great migration which for ever de- tached the pilgrims from their mother country. The early part of their way led through the rich warm Chaldaean levels ; and having, as we suppose, crossed the great river and passed by Larsa and ancient Erech, and seen the ruins of great Babel, they would come to the twin cities of Sippara : and by and by rising near the great place of bitumen -pits, Hit, to the Gen. 31. 53. t Gen. 11. 31. E 2 68 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. higher undulating country already occupied by tribes who had gone northwards to found the great dominion of Assnr, they would leave behind the more advanced cultivation of their native plains, and begin to encounter greater difficulties and untried dangers. But through whatever vicissitudes, in due time passiug up the fertile valley of the Belikh, the caravan, ascending towards the highlands, entered the resting-place of many years, a second home which became so familiar and dear to Abram, that we find him in his old age calling it "my country ; the house of my kindred." The region was called Padan-Aram, the plain of the highlands, or simply Padan, as in Gen. 48. 7. Description Kharran (not to be confounded with Haran, the name of of Kliarran. Terakh's son) is well known in secular history as a very ancient and important place — " the key of the highway from the east to the west," as Prof. Sayce calls it, # explaining the name as an Akkadian word meaning " road " — and was familiar with the march of armies and the incidents of war. The town, now a mere village of houses built, for want of timber, in the peculiar fashion represented in Assyrian reliefs,! with courses of stone gradually contracted so as to form a domed roof, lies on the slope of a low hill ending in a rocky vantage ground, on which stand the ruins of a fortress of very ancient date built of large blocks of basaltic rock. There is a careful description given, with a plan, by Dr. Sachau (Reise in Syrien, etc., 217, etc.), and some account is also to be found in P.S.B.A. 1891, 385, by Mr. Ains worth. There is an interesting sketch of the place by the late Dr. Malan in Churton and Jones's New Testament ; and the learned traveller has given the fullest description we yet possess in his work Philosophy or Truth.% He approached it from * Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch. Vol. I., p. 303. t Nin. and Bab., p. 112. % P. 93. MIGRATION TO KHARRAN. 69 the Highland side, where " the green slopes of the lower hills of Armenia " have died away, coming from the ancient Edessa, which has claimed itself to be Ur. " At every step from Oorfa on the way to Haran," he writes, " which now lies as it did of old at about six hours' march from Ur (Oorfa), the hills on the right hand and on the left of the plain recede farther and farther, until you find yourself fairly launched on the desert ocean ; a boundless plain, strewed at times with patches of the brightest flowers, at other times with rich and green pastures, covered with flocks of sheep and of goats feeding together, here and there a few camels, and the son or daughter of their owner tending them. One can quite understand that the sons of this open country . . . the Bedaweens love it, and cannot leave it : no other soil would suit them. The air is so fresh, the horizon is so far, and man feels so free, that it seems made for those whose life is to roam at pleasure, and who own allegiance to none but to themselves. . . . The village of Haran itself consists of a few conical houses, in shape like beehives, built of stones laid in courses, one over the other without either mud or mortar ; these houses let in the light at the top, and are clustered together at the foot of the ruined castle built on the mound, that makes Haran a landmark plainly visible from the whole plain around. That same day I walked at even to the well I had passed in the afternoon coming from Oorfa ; the well of this the city of Xahor, ' at the time of the evening, the time that women go out to draw water.' There was a group of them, filling, no longer their 'pitchers,' since the steps down which Rebekah went to fetch the water are now blocked up, but filling their water-skins by drawing water at the well's mouth. Every- thing around that well bears signs of age and of the wear of time ; for as it is the only well of drinkable water there, it is much resorted to. Other wells are only for watering the 70 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. flocks. There we find the troughs of various height for camels, for sheep, and for goats, for kids and for lambs : there the women wear nose-rings, and bracelets on their arms, some of gold, or of silver, and others of brass, or even of glass. One of these was seen in the distance bringing to water her flock of fine patriarchal sheep ; ere she reached the well, shepherds more civil than their brethren of Horeb had filled the troughs with water for her sheep. She was the Sheikh's daughter, the ' beautiful and well-favoured ' Ladheefeh. As the shadows of the grass and of the low shrubs around the well lengthened and grew dim, and the sun sank below the horizon, the women left in small groups ; the shepherds followed them, and I was left alone in this vast solitude. Yet not alone : the bright evening star in the glowing sky to westward seemed to point to the promised land, as when Abraham took it for his guide ; the sky overhead, clear and brilliant as when he gazed on it, and the earth, the ground on which he trod, all spake a lan- guage heard nowhere else. The heavens whispered and the earth answered, ' walk by faith,' ' stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief,' but do as Abram did, ' be strong in faith, giving glory to God,' and ' by thy works make thy faith perfect.' There is also for thee a promised land — thy home. Keep thine eye thereon, and thou, stranger and pilgrim on the earth, believe Him that promised, as Abraham did ; ' seek,' as he did, ' a better country, that is an heavenly,' and it shall be counted unto thee for righteousness." These thoughts of a servant of Christ are veritable living proof of the work of faithful Abraham, who rejoiced to see the day of the Messiah aforetime as far off as we look back on it. It is through the grace of Him who " aforetime made known the glad tidings " to Abraham, that this son of the far-distant Gentile is thus blessed, according to the very "evangel " : " In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." " So then" MIGRATION TO KHARRAN. 71 as St. Paul reasons,* " they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham ; " " if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The plain of Kharran was a very early and a very late out- post of Chaldean power. Through it Kedor-la'omer and his tributaries must have marched to their distant conquests while yet Abram and his father were dwelling there, and Abram's eyes probably looked upon the long array of Elam, Larsa, Shinar, and Goi'm with which thirteen years later he was so suddenly to be engaged in conflict. " The Moon-god, Sin, alone governed two large fiefs, Uru in the extreme south, and Harran towards the extreme north-west. ,, So writes Prof. Maspero {Dawn of Civ., 648). And, after quoting the great hymn of adoration to Sin, he adds, " Outside Uru and Harran, Sin did not obtain this rank of creator and ruler of things ; he was simply the Moon-god," etc., etc. "An inscription recently discovered at Sinjerli, north of the Gulf of Antioch, shews that among the Semites the Moon-god of Kharran bore the title of the ' Baal of Kharran ' " (Sayce, Exp. Times, May 1897, p. 357). "Between Ur and Kharran," as Prof. Sayce writes, "the common worship of the Moon-god must have formed a special bond of union, and the citizen of Ur would have found in Kharran a welcome, and all that he was accus- tomed to at home. That Terah should have settled in Kharran, therefore, was very natural." Prof. Hommel indeed tells us that " Sin," the Moon-god, " had his most ancient fane at Kharran " (Anc. Heb. Trad. 73). The plain of Kharran was irrigated in the true Chaldsean style, by water-courses from the Belikh river, which flows at several miles' distance from the hills southward to the Euphrates ; and to the west lies the plain of Seruj, fertile and thick with villages of the same kind of * 1 Gal 3. 9, 29. 72 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. ancient houses as we may well suppose to have been seen in these regions in Abram's time. The indications of Chaldaean worship at Kharran reach back as far as the days of which we are writing, as Prof. Sayce has shown from cuneiform inscriptions : * " Sulpa-uddu (the messenger of the rising sun, the blue star Mercury) is called i the spirit of the men of Kharran,' a very remarkable reference to a city which was closely connected with Accad in race and history from very early times, and whose laws are conjoined by Sargon with those of Assur, the ancient prse- Semitic capital of Assyria. The astronomical lore of the Khar- ranians is thus taken back to a remote period." Sin, the great tutelary of Kharran, was afterwards known to the Aramaeans as Ba'al-Kharran (Sachau, Berlin Acad. February 14, 1895. Inscription at Sinjerli). Kharran was, in fact, from first to last, bound up with the worship of the sidereal pantheon. Its gods are mentioned in the Rabshakeh's message to Hezekiah,| among " the gods of the nations," with those of " Gozan and Rezeph and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar." In the British Museum is a seal representing a priest in adoration before an altar with a star above it. In the distance is a diminutive figure. Behind the priest is inscribed in cunei- form " the god of Kharran." Probably the star is the planet Mercury, which, as we have seen, was lord of the men of Kharran, representing the god Nusku or Xebo. It is a curious thing, by the way, that the Talmud gives to the father of Terakh's wife the name of Carnebo, as we have before noticed. "Here was situated," writes Mr. Boscawen, in a note he has kindly sent me, " a famous temple to the Moon-god Sin " (the god of Ur), " apparently of very ancient date." " In an * T. & B. A., II. 247 ; III. 168. t 2 Kings 19. MIGRATION TO KHARRAN. 73 inscription K. 2701 of the British Museum, we have a mention of the temple in connection with an omen in the reign of Esar-haddon : — " When the father of the king my lord (Assur-bani-pal) to the land of Egypt went, into the plantations of the land of Kharran, the dwelling of the god of cedar-trees he went. The moon over the cornfields was fixed, having two crowns on his head (double halo) . . . While Nusku (the planet Mercury; stood at its side. The father of the k^.ng my lord went down . . . The crown on his head (Assur-bani-pal's) he plaoed. To rule the countries he appointed him. Then the road to Egypt he took." The omen was indeed a very intelligible one. The moon was seen from the " high place," the ziggurat or tower of stages of his own temple, with two crowns, and the attendant planet at his side. The portent suited the aged king's position and desire. Immediately the second crown is given to his son, who is to him as Nebo to the Moon-god Sin {Records, New Series V., 168, 169, 170). Notice that the god Laban was the patron of brickmaking, a title of Sin. Compare what we have before said on brickmaking. In a most important tablet discovered by Dr. Scheil in 1895 at Babylon we have an inscription of Nabonidus, in which he records the destruction of the great temple of Kharran by the barbarians in the year 609 B.C., and its restoration by Naboni- dus, who recovered the votive memorials of Assur-bani-pal which he had dedicated to Sin at his coronation by Esar-haddon. In this tablet Nabonidus describes an auspicious dream in which Nebuchadnezzar had appeared and conversed with him {Times, Jan. 9, 1896). So tenacious was this idolatry at Kharran, that in the early Christian centuries it remained the metropolis of heathenism, while the neighbouring Eclessa was the centre of the true faith. In the fifth century," says Sir Henry Rawlinson,* "the * Herod., Vol. I., p. 503, n. 74 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Sabaeans of Harran worshipped the sun as ' Belshamin, the lord of heaven,' and at a later period they used the Greek name of "H\io$ ; and again Gula under the name of ' Gadlat,' and Tar'ata (Atargatis or Derceto), are given by St. James of Seruj as the tutelary goddesses of Harran in the fifth century of Christ : " and still later are records of the same idolatry, and we even find that in this city the Sabians had a chapel which was dedicated to Abraham.* Thus then the " father's house " was still within an outpost of the old Chaldsean rule, a very imperfect approach to the land which Jehovah would show them ; still in the highway of the caravans and line of march of the armies, still sur- rounded by the worship which they had renounced. But Terakh was well stricken in years, and here he was minded to abide and end his days, without crossing the great river into the land of the stranger and the unknown regions of Martu, toward the sea of the setting sun. And hither came Nakhor and Milcah and their house, and they prospered and became great in the fertile and beautiful land, where the tender mercy of God allowed Abram to bury his father at the age of 205 years, perhaps in one of the rock-hewn tombs of Urfah. In his careful exposition of St. Stephen's defence (Acts 7) Bishop Wordsworth has shewn that, besides the first vision which "brought" or "took" Abraham out of Ur of the Kasdim, there was a separate and second call from Kharran, and that this was so acknowledged by the Rabbis and by Philo and Josephus, both of whom he quotes (iV. T., vol. I. G7). * Kitto, Bib. Cyc, " Haran." ( 75 ) CHAPTER VI. THE LAND OF CANAAN. TT does not appear that the tent-life of the nomad was -*- Abram's portion until his departure from Kharran. Up to that great decisive point we may seek our example of the mode of life in the book of Job, where we find the honoured patriarch dwelling in his house and sitting worship- fully among his fellow- citizens of dignity in the gate, while his flocks and herds were sent afield under the charge of his servants and the members of his house, duly accompanied by the faithful dogs. And this, I find, was the view of the well- informed Dr. Kitto, who writes thus : "In Mesopotamia the family had been pastoral, but dwelling in towns and houses, and sending out the flocks and herds under the care of shep- herds." (Oyc of Bib. Lit, 1851, v. "Abraham"). Mr. Boscawen is inclined to read Gen. 4. 20 : " 'All such as dwell in the city and have cattle,' which," says he, " exactly describes the life of the population of Ur, Erech, Sippara, and other cities, who dwelt in the towns and had large quantities of cattle feeding in the open country "* {Expos. Times, v. 354). And with this view minutely agrees the Greek text of Heb. 11. 9, which indicates that Abraham adopted the tent-life as consistent with his sojourn as a "stranger and pilgrim" in the land of promise. {See Bishop Westcott.) We will now try to picture to ourselves the fashion of Tentu/e. the new life of the tent. And here we will avail ourselves of the accurate judgment of the late Dr. Kitto*: — "There are * Bible Illustrations, Vol. I., p. 185, Dr. Porter's edition. 76 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. probably few readers who conceive further of Abraham's estab- lishment than that it consisted of one, or at most two or three tents, with some half a dozen servants, and flocks of sheep or other cattle feeding around. Now this is altogether wrong. His encampment must have formed, so to speak, quite a village of tents, with inhabitants equal to the population of a large village or a small town. " Great numbers of women and children were to be seen there, and some old men, but not many men in their prime, these being for the most part away, from a few to many miles off, with the flocks, of which there was probably less display immediately around the tents than the lowest of the common estimates of Abraham's station would assume. u We are told that Abraham was very rich, and it is stated of what his riches consisted, but we are not told of the amount of these riches which he possessed. However, by putting cir- cumstances together we may arrive at some notion not far from the truth. We have the strong fact to begin with, that Abraham was treated by native princes and chieftains of the land as a mighty prince, and equal, if not superior, to them- selves. Then we learn that his house-born slaves, able to bear arms and to make a rapid march followed by a daring enter- prise, were not less than three hundred and eighteen. A body of such men can be furnished only by a population four times its own number, including women and children. We cannot therefore reckon the patriarch's camp as containing less than 1,272 souls; and this number of people could not well have been accommodated in so few as one hundred tents." This is further illustrated with regard to the flocks, by the statements as to Job, and the present wealth of the Bedouin tribes ; and there is no doubt that this estimate is a very moderate one. The tents were probably, as they now are, of wool or goats' hair dyed black ; or in broad stripes of black THE LAND OF CANAAN. 77 and white, and made of cloth woven by the women from the produce of the flocks, mostly of an oblong shape, and eight or nine feet high in the middle. " The principal members of the family had each a separate tent, as Sarah, Leah, Rachel, and the maidservants." But the greater part of the daily life is out of doors, and the tents are but little used except for sleep- ing in, and as store places, and for similar purposes. " So Abram departed, as Jehovah had spoken unto him ; and Lot went with him : and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Kharran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their sub- stance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Kharran ; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan." So he went forth childless, but with a faithful wife, and a great retinue, and much wealth, and above all, " rich in faith." It is interesting to find in his track twin tells (ruin- mounds), whose name Feddan perpetuates the ancient and memorable " Padan," or rather Paddan. The route by which he and his train were led into the Abmm'. route. promised land cannot perhaps be clearly ascertained. Dean Stanley indicates the usual present route of travellers and caravans, crossing the Euphrates at Bir, where there is a much frequented ferry. But Dr. Malan contests this, and argues for a line from Kharran to Thapsacus, the Biblical Tiphsakh, some forty-five miles below Balis, where the Eu- phrates changes its course from south to south-east by east,* and where there is a very celebrated ford westward of the junction of the Belikh with the Euphrates. If this were his track he would have descended the fertile country down the course of the Belikh, have crossed the desert * Speak. Comm. 1 Kings 4. 24. 78 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. to the oasis of Tadmor, and thence probably to Damascus. And this course I observe Mr. Allen indicates as without doubt that of Abram.* But if Abram had flocks of sheep, it does not seem likely that he would have crossed the desert ; and the easier travelling, and the traditions, make it, I think, more probable that this was not his route, nor the way by the ferry of Bir. The discovery by Mr. Consul Skene, and the lamented George Smith, of the true Carcheniish at the modern Jera- bolus, about seventeen miles south of Bir, and on a much more fertile track of travel, and straighter line towards Canaan, makes it to my mind far most likely that this was Abram's way across the Euphrates. The most ancient form of the name appears to be " Gargamis." This opinion will be found to be confirmed by Prof. Maspero's account of Carchemish and the other great cross- ing places of the Euphrates (Struggle of the Nations, 144, etc.). "For an invader approaching from the east or north, it (Carchemish) formed his first station. He had before him, in fact, a choice of the three chief fords for crossing the Euphrates. That of Thapsacus, at the bend of the river where it turns eastward to the Arabian plain, lay too far to the south, and it could be reached only after a march through a parched and desolate region, where the army would run the risk of perishing by thirst." [This of course would apply also to caravans.] Prof. Maspero then mentions the northern ford at Samosata, which is not here in question, and proceeds: " Carchemish, the place of the third ford, was about equally distant from Thapsacus and Samosata, and lay in a rich and fertile province, which was so well watered that a drought or a famine would not be likely to enter into the expectations of its inhabitants. Hither pilgrims, merchants, soldiers, and all the wandering denizens of the world were accustomed to direct * Abraham, p. 3G0. THE LAND OF CANAAN. 79 their steps, and the habit, once established, was perpetuated for centuries." This is written on the supposition that George Smith's identification is right, as it is " now generally ac- cepted." Prof. Maspero gives a plan of the site, and a sketch of the great ruined mound. Canon Tristram has drawn a charming picture of the per- formance of crossing the broad Euphrates (Ch. Congress Report, Carlisle, 1884, 242) : "Standing not very long ago on the top of the vast mound of Carchemish, overhanging a bend of the Euphrates, I could detect on the south-eastern horizon the outline of the vast and rich plains of Harran, and while there I saw a party of Bedouins cross the river. Even so high up the Euphrates is a mighty river, and I know of no spot further down its course where its turbid and eddy- ing waters can be crossed as at Carchemish, which completely commands the passage. The Arabs crossed from the other side (as Abram would have to do) in a primitive style. Their goats, asses and cows were tied together in single file. The leader mounted on an inflated hide on which he paddled himself, with the line of animals attached, down stream, till, taking advantage of the bend, he landed his convoy about a mile down the river on my side (the west). Other files followed, with women sitting astride behind them, or children bound round their shoulders. I went to meet them, and, enquiring whence they were, was told that they had come away from Harran in quest of fresh pasturage. " So crossed Abraham from Harran ; so crossed Jacob with wives, wealth and cattle, doubtless at this very spot. But no one could have made the passage unless on friendly terms with the holders of the great Hittite city, then the eastern key of Syria." A most interesting account of " Kalaat Jerablus " appeared in the Times of August 19, 1880. 80 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. " The Ain-el-Bedder joins the Euphrates at the northern angle of the enceinte." This has suggested to my mind the ancient name of " Pethor" in the Kamak list of Thothmes III., viz., Pedri (Xo. 280), which I hold to be identical with Pterin, the name of the great Hittite capital Boghaz-Keui in Cappadocia. I take Bedder to be the name Pedri as pro- nounced by the people on the spot. Now, on examining Rey's and Sachau's maps, I see that this streamlet flows from Tas- hatan, the very site identified by Mr. Boscawen with the ancient Pethor, and called Pitru in the cuneiform records. But I must not be beguiled among the striking identifi- cations to be found in the neighbourhood of this part of the Euphrates (see Tomkins, T.S.B.A., ix., and Bee. of Past, New Series, v. 38). Here then Abram had fairly " crossed the Rubicon," and found himself " Among new men, strange faces, other minds." It is doubtful whether the ruined city now called Membij, a little distance southward, occupies the site of any town so ancient as the days of Abram. But Aleppo is a very ancient city, and retains a quaint tradition of the patriarch, who is said by the inhabitants to have stopped there on his way to Palestine, to milk a famous white cow which he had.* This is, however, as it seems, to be understood as a figurative story of his having taken contribution from Aleppo. Dr. Malan quotes from Ibn Batutah the statement that " Haleb, Aleppo, takes its name from Abraham's new milk (Haleb in Ar. ; Heb. ^Spi), the milk of his flocks, which he gave to the poor." f This is an Arabian notion of etymology, but it connects Abraham with Aleppo, a very ancient city, which lay on his probable route from Carchemish to Damascus. * Rambles in Syrian Deserts, p. 109. t Phil, or Truth, p. 100. THE LAND OF CANAAN. 81 " The castle of Aleppo is a tumulus on a large scale, raised by enormous labour, like the pyramids," we are told by the author of the interesting Bumbles in Syrian Deserts* Here George Smith found an inscription in the ancient hiero- glyphic commonly named from Hamath ; f and here, alas ! his worn-out body found its resting-place, side by side with Burckhardt. Dr. Sachau gives photographic views of Hamah, Horns, and Aleppo in his admirable work Reise in Si/rien, etc. In each we see the bold eminence, lording it over the city, which marks, and hides within its ruin, the old-world works of so many ages. Hamath (Hamah) is the next important place on the way Hamath. to Damascus, " in the deep glen of the Orontes, whose broad rapid stream divides it through the centre. Hamath takes rank among the oldest cities in the world, having been founded by the youngest son of Canaan some 4,000 years ago." J Here have been found some of those important incised stones, in a character which is now the subject of close study by Prof. Sayce § and others ; and which is supposed to be the writing of the great Hittite nation. One of these inscriptions has been found by the Rev. E. J. Davis so far west as Ibreez in the Taurus, and since others have been added to the list.] The Orontes runs through a deep and beautiful ravine, where " you see the yellow river shooting along far below between rows of willows that stoop to kiss its murmuring waters." 1" At length the caravan would reach Horns, the ancient Emesa, where there are still huge mounds of ruin after the manner of the Assyrian heaps. This place is very near the site of the celebrated capital of the Kheta (Hittites), Kadesh, where afterwards the * P. 35. t Assyr. Disc. pp. 164, 422. % Dr. Porter, Cities of Bashan, p. 306. § Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., V., 22. || Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., IV., 336. T Cities of Bashan, p. 307. S 6517. F 82 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. chivalry of Egypt dashed itself against the formidable Syrian alliance. The lake westward of Horns, formed by a great dyke across the Orontes, is still called Bahr-el-Kades, and on an island of this lake, doubly moated and strongly fortified, stands the stronghold in the Egyptian picture of the cam- paign of Rameses II.* This, however, was not the existing island, as appears by M. Gautier's explorations (Academy, 1895, 150). We have soon to say more of the Hittites, and perhaps to ascertain whether they were already in possession of these northern regions, which Prof. Sayce regards as their cradle, or whether, as Prof. Lieblein believes, they were afterwards driven by the Egyptians hither from the south, where at least some of them were dwelling when Abram was at Hebron. Damascus. Following still the great route, Abram would pass on with the grand range of Anti-Lebanon rising to his westward side, until he descended into the lovely plain of Damascus. Nicolaus of Damascus, who was secretary to Herod the Great, says : "Abram ruled at Damascus, a foreigner who had come with an army out of the land beyond Babylon (yTtep BaftuXuvcg), called the land of the Chakheans," | and adds, that he migrated to CanaiiEea, and that "the name of Abram is well known even to this day in Damascus, and a village is pointed out which is still called the house of Abram." It is still true that the inhabitants shew a place called the Sanctuary of Abraham, " three miles north of Damascus, at the opening of a wild ravine which runs far up into the heart of Anti-Lebanon. It is a rude mosque built on the side of a naked cliff, its inner chamber opening into a deep cleft." J There are also traditions associating Abraham with a vil- lage called Harran-el-Awamid, that is, Harran of the Pillars, * Wilkinson, Anc. Eg., I., 400. t Jos. Ant., lib. I., c. vii. X Porter, Cities of Baslian, p. 351. THE LAND OF CANAAN. 83 sixteen miles eastward from Damascus in the marshy land visited by Mr. McGregor, where there are three handsome columns of basalt, and a very ancient well called Abraham's well. Without following Dr. Beke, who would identify this place with the Kharran of Abram's abode with Terakh, this tradition is confirmatory of the Damascene historian's statement, and it seems not unlikely that Abraham may have brought the familiar name thither. Besides the words of Nicolaus, and local traditions as old as his time, we have the interesting fact that Abraham's trusty servant was " Eliezer of Damascus," as the difficult Hebrew expression seems to mean. Whether Abraham may have had any temporary power at Damascus as ruler (the statement of Nicolaus) may be doubted or credited ; but any argument from the fact that the places still shown are villages in the neighbourhood really tells in its favour, as agreeing with the tent-life which would keep him from dwelling within the walls of the city. The people of Damascus were, it appears, an Aramaean race, and kindred with Abram ; and the arrival of so great and able a "prince " might have induced them, exposed as their rich city was to attack from Canaanite and other warlike tribes, to invoke his power for their protection, as An'er and the other Amorite chieftains afterwards did. By a short chain of reasoning, Dr. Malan shews * that Abram could not long have lingered anywhere on his way to Canaan, for Hagar was given by Sarai to Abram " after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan," and he was " four- score and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram " ; and he was " seventy and five years old when he departed out of * Phil, or Truth, pp. 98, 143. F 2 84 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. Kharran." So there was only about a year from the leaving Kharran to the beginning of the " dwelling " or settlement in Canaan. Nevertheless, his knowledge of the neighbourhood of Damascus must have come into instant request in that hour when the fugitive from the lost battle summoned " Abrarn the Hebrew " to the one daring feat of arms recorded of him. It may not be easy to make out in detail the way by which Abram " pastured on from verdant stage to stage," but there seems fair reason to believe that he followed in the main the line of country which we will now try to sketch. Leaving the immediate neighbourhood of the beautiful and well-watered city, and with his patriarchal caravan under ex- perienced eyes, and doubtless with due precautions in the disposal of his trained servants against a sudden attack, he would slowly traverse the broad rich land lying for leagues around Damascus, crossing the Pharpar stream in its slow meandering course, and in due time ascending the stony uplands to. the high levels of Bashan, the region which was to receive its name from Jetur the son of Ishmael. These rugged highlands and far-extended downs sloping away east- ward to the desert were even then held by fierce and strong- marauders, the Eephaim, whose chief seat of rule and sanc- tuary of idolatrous worship was at Ashtaroth Karnaim, or Ishtar of the two horns, that is, of the crescent moon, " The mooned Ashtaroth, Heaven's queen and mother both ; " these, with the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim, and the more southern Khorites in their mount Se'ir, had lately been reduced to subjection by Kedor-la'omer. In this romantic and beautiful region, shaggy in its western glens with the abundant growth of oak and ilex, and with park-like glades of rich herbage and lovely flowers, " where wood-pigeons rose in clouds from the oaks, and jays and wood- THE LAND OF CANAAN. 85 peckers screamed in every glade," * a land where the open pastures are unrivalled in their depth of herbage, and the vines, now so long untended, still bear their clusters among the ruins, it was his lot to " ride upon the high places of the earth," so swept by cool and healthy breezes, so watered by the dews of heaven and by springs and rills of the earth, that all things must have tempted him to linger on his way. Dr. Tristram gives a delightful account of this part of Bashan f : — " Though when viewed from an eminence the whole country seems a boundless elevated plain, covered with forest, it was by no means over a plateau that we had to ride. Rising as the country does suddenly from the deep valley of the Jordan, it is naturally along its whole western border deeply furrowed with many streams which drain the district ; and our ride was up and down deep concealed glens which we only perceived when on their brink, and, mounting from which on the other side, a short canter soon brought us to the edge of the next. The country was surpassingly beautiful in its ver- dant richness and variety. We first descended the ravine of a little streamlet, which soon grew to a respectable size, its banks clothed with sparse oaks and rich herbage; the cheery call of the cuckoo and the hoopoe greeted us for the first time this spring, and resounded from side to side. Then our track meandered along the side of the brook with a dense fringe of oleanders, ' willows by the water-courses,' shading it from the sun, and preventing summer evaporation, while they wasted their perfume on the desert air without a human inhabitant near. Lovely knolls and dells in their brightest robes of spring opened out at every turn, gently rising to the wooded plateau above. Then we rose to the higher ground, and * Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 473. t Tbid, p. 462. 86 ABE AH AM AXB HIS AGE. cantered through a noble forest of oaks. Perhaps we were in the woods of Makanaim." Here still from every vantage-ground Abram's eyes must kave bekeld tke snowy keigkts of Anti-Lebanon towards the north, and the shining summit of Hermon flashing back the sunlight like a polished breast-plate, from which it took its Amorite name Shenir. Naturally he would keep to the higk level, and avoid tke broken and riven ground above described, except wkere tke far-reaching glens of tke Yarmuk cleave tke kigkland ; and to tke east he would leave the barren and craggy fastnesses of the formidable Argob, still the asylum of tke fiercest outlaws, and would linger in kis tents at green and skady kalting-places in compassion for tke women and ckildren, and tke lambs and kids of kis flocks : and would jealously avoid tke heathen haunts in groves and on high-places, where smoke arose to the foul image, and the frantic dance swept round. From some commanding height, he must have gained his first thrilling sight of the promised land, and looked down on the sweet blue waters of Gennesaret. " It is said," writes Dean Stanley,* "by those who have visited those parts, that one remarkable effect produced is the changed aspect of the hills of Judah and Ephraim. Their monotonous character is lost, and the range when seen as a whole is in the highest degree diversi- fied and impressive. And the wide openings of the western hills as they ascend from the Jordan valley give such extensive glimpses into the heart of the country that not merely the general range, but particular localities can be discerned with ease. From the castle of Rubad, north of the Jabbok, are distinctly visible Lebanon, the Sea of Galilee, Esdraelon in its full extent, Carmel, the Mediterranean, and the whole range of Judah and Ephraim. 'It is the finest view' (con- * Sin. and P., p. 320. THE LAND OF CANAAN. 87 tinues Dean Stanley), to use the words of the traveller from whom most of the information contained in this chapter is derived, 'that I ever saw in this part of the world.'" The same view is thus described by the Rev. A. E. Northey*: — " We could clearly discern the north end of the Dead Sea as well as part of the Sea of Galilee, with the whole extent of the Jordan valley, the river gleaming here and there at its wind- ings. In front of us, a little south of west, were Ebal and Gerizim, and directly opposite to us we could distinguish Mount Tabor, with the ridge of Carmei stretching into the far distance, and the wide plain of Esdraelon, narrowing into the "VYady Farrah which debouches on the Ghor. Farther north we could see Jebel Safed behind the Sea of Galilee, and far away in the blue haze we were gladdened at last by the sight of the snow-sprinkled peaks of Hermon. It was a glorious panorama, embracing many points of interest, and withal most lovely in itself. Immediately in front were fine forests of oak covering the rounded hills that trend down westwards towards the Ghor. Behind us lay the undulating heights of Gilead, the valleys of Kefrenjy and Zerka making wide landmarks." The greater part of the route to which we have referred is noted by the late Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, in the quarterly state- ment of the Palestine Exploration Fund for October 1872. It is much frequented by large caravans of camels bearing corn and barley to Damascus, and on their return sometimes apples or apricots, or rude agricultural implements. It seems to be well watered, and from Sunamayn to Mezayrib lies " over a monotonous plateau." This village is built in the centre of a "lakelet, on a small tell of basaltic boulders." The country changes its character with rocky wadys, and hills excavated into caves, and passes one of the ancient Arbelas, where there * P. E. F., Ap. 1S72. 88 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. remains " the large circular basaltic mound which formed the old fortress. It is about 300 yards in diameter, with a de- pression in the centre containing several ruins built of old materials. On the outside a wall of large unhewn stones is in places visible." Subsequently the route lay through a woodland country, such as we have described, and the view, so wide and lovely, seen from the height of Eubad, was in the main the very prospect which must have presented itself to the eyes of Abram, Sarai, and Lot as they descended from these summits on their way. The last descent would bring the long train down into the "fine wide valley "* of the Yabbok (now the Zerka) ; " a rapid stream only to be waded at certain spots," fringed with oleanders and other shrubs, and with " beautiful level meadows" on its banks; and at length on the deep green valley of the Jordan, where they must have passed the waters of the rushing river probably at the ford of Damieh, " just below the junction of the Zerkah and Jordan."f Once across the stream, Abram stood at length on " the land that Jehovah would shew him." * P. E. F., Ap. 1872. t Maj.-Gen. Sir C. W T arren, R.E. 3 Our work in Palestine, p. 234. ( 89 ) CHAPTER VII. THE PLACE OF SICHEM. A FTER the halt and muster, and the calling on the name of -^- Jehovah, began the exploration of the land of promise. "Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the oak (not plain) of Moreh."* Although the Septuagint version has, "Abram travelled through the land in its length unto the place of Sychem," and even the English expression might suggest a more extended journey than from the Jordan across to Sichem, there is no such difficulty in the* Hebrew, which is quite indefinite in its purport, and does not suggest any particular direction or extent. "We are therefore at liberty to follow the usual opinion that Abram travelled from Kharran by the same course, as to the latter part of his journey and his entrance of the promised land, which was afterwards followed by Jacob. His way would now be up the long valley called Wady Far'ah, the lower part " a broad plain on the south of which rises the block of the Kurn Surtabeh," but straitened in its upper course "through two narrow rocky gorges." This picturesque and fertile valley, well watered with springs, would lead the patriarchal train to the lovely "place of Sichem" ; and most interesting it is to think that it was here that the law was proclaimed by Joshua, and the tribes stood on Gerizim and on Ebal to affirm the blessings and the curses. It was hard by in the upper course of the valley, as it would seem, that the forerunner John the Baptist received the * Gen. 12. 6. 90 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. penitent crowds in " JEnon near to Salim," where still the name of Ainun, a few miles from Salim, the " much water " of the " copious springs," and the " open valley on one of the main lines through the country from Jerusalem to Nazareth," afford their testimony to the spot ;* and it was here at Sychar that He whose day Abraham rejoiced to see first revealed himself as the Messiah. This place is therefore hallowed in association with " the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after," the " baptism of John," and " the Seed, which is the Christ." These green places must have been the grazing-ground of Abram's flocks and herds while he abode in peace under the spreading canopy of the "oak of Moreh," where afterwards Jacob hid the " gods of the strangers " ; f " its situation," writes Major-Gen. Sir C. W. Wilson, " with easy access to the Mediterranean on the one hand, and to the Jordan valley and Transjordanic district, marking it as a place of importance from the earliest period." J Shekem is said to have borne the more ancient name Mamortha, Mabortha, or Morthia, which I connect with Martu, and view as evidence of pre-Semitic occupation of a situation which no race of men could possibly overlook or neglect. I now find Prof. Sayce writing : " In ' the terebinth of Moreh ' we may see Martu, the Sumerian form of the name Amorite (see Gen. 58. 22). This would point to the note that the 'Canaanite' was then in the land" {Exp. Times, May 1897, 358). It would also quite agree with the names mentioned above. " The situation of Shechem is soon described." I am here quoting from Dean Stanley. § " From the hills through which * P. E. F., July 1874. + Gen. 35. 2. t P. E. F., Ap. 1873, p. 66. § Sinai and Palestine, p. 296. THE PLACE OF SICHE3L 91 the main route of Palestine must always have run . . . the traveller descends into a wide plain, the wildest and the most beautiful of the plains of the Ephraimite mountains, one mass of corn unbroken by boundary or hedge, from the midst of which start up olive-trees, themselves unenclosed as the fields in which they stand. Over the hills which close the northern end of this plain, far away in the distance, is caught the first glimpse of the snowy ' hill of Hermon.' Its western side is bounded by the abutment of two mountain ranges running from west to east.* These ranges are Gerizim and Ebal, and up the opening between them, not seen from the plain, lies the modern town of Nablous " (the older Shechem probably lay further eastward down the valley). " A valley green with grass, gray with olives, gardens sloping down on each side, fresh springs rushing down in all directions ; at the end a white town embosomed in all this verdure, lodged between the two high mountains which extend on each side of the valley, that on the south Gerizim, that on the north Ebal, this is the aspect of Nablous, the most beautiful, perhaps it might be said, the only beautiful spot in central Palestine. The general situation of the place must have been determined then, as now, by the mighty burst of waters from the flank of Gerizim. Thirty-two springs can be traced in different parts. Here the bilbul delights to sit and sing, and thousands of other birds delight to swell the chorus. The inhabitants maintain that theirs is the most musical vale in Palestine." f Major-Gen. Sir C. W. Wilson, R.E., gives the actual width of the valley as only about 500 yards between the bases of the mountains ; the height of Ebal above the sea as 3,029 feet, or 1,200 feet above the valley ; Gerizim 2,898 feet above the sea. It is at the watershed point that the mountains are recessed on * See a contour-map in Recovery of Jerusalem. t Thomson, Land and the Book, p. 470. 92 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. either side into a grand natural amphitheatre, the scene in all probability of the ratification of the law.* It seems clear that " the place of Sichem " means the city : the word being used as equivalent to city in other passages,! and the place was in the possession of " the Canaanite," as we are expressly told. Strange to say, the name of Shekem does not occur, I believe, in any Egyptian list of places ; but Dr. W. Max Miiller appears to have read it at last in the celebrated Travels of a Mohar, "the mount of Sa-ka-ma," that is, Shekem (Asien u. Europe^ 394). "At the foot of the northern slope of Gerizim," says Sir C. W. Wilson, " is one of the prettiest cemeteries in the country : consisting of a courtyard, with a well, and several masonry tombs, one of which was said to be that of Sheykh Yusuf (Joseph)4 The place is called El 'Amud (the column), and the Rev. George Williams has with much probability identified it with 'the pillar that was in Shechem,' where Abimelech was made king ; and with the ' oak of Moreh,' near which Abraham built his first altar to the Lord after entering the promised land, and Joshua set up a great stone." From the rocky platform on the summit of Gerizim, more than a thousand feet above his encampment, Abram could com- mand " a prospect unique in the Holy Land. That from the summit of Nebo surpasses it in extent, that from mount Gilead perhaps in grandeur of effect, but for distinctness and variety of detail Gerizim has no superior." "We thought," writes Canon Tristram, § whom we are quoting, " we had bid adieu to Hermon, but once more it rose before us in spotless purity far beyond and above Tabor, Gilboa, and the lesser hills of Galilee. On our right we could trace the * P. E. F.. Ap. 1873. s t Smith, Diet, of Bible, " Shechem " ; and see Gesen. Lex., p. 503. Bagster, 1847. t Tomkins, Life of Joseph, p. 169. § Land of Israel, p. 151. THE PLACE OF SIC HEM. 93 Trans jordanic range from the sea of Galilee, Bashan, Ajlun, Gilead, down to Moab. On the left the Mediterranean formed the horizon from Carmel perhaps to Gaza ; while Joppa and Caesarea could be distinctly recognized." " The southern view was more limited, being shut in by the hills of Benjamin. At our feet was spread the long plain of Mokhna, into which the vale of Shechem debouches, where Jacob pastured his flocks, and where there was ample space for the tents of Israel when gathered thither by Joshua. All central Palestine could be taken in at a glance." * Hither, then, into the midst of the land of Canaan, Jehovah had led that faithful servant whom He condescended to call his friend, and here began fresh trials of Abram's faith. Here, indeed, was the land, but the Canaanite was already in it. Sturdy Amorites held the fastnesses, roving Perizzites were scattered afield, Zidonians and Arvadites colonized the coast, the powerful sons of Kheth, rivals of the Egyptians, were strengthening their hold. Beyond the rushing Jordan lay robust Rephaim, terrible Emim, uncouth Zamzummim, barbaric Khorites in their dens and caves of the earth ; and Abram still was childless among men. Yet the Lord had said :f " I will make of thee a great nation, .... and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed " ; and now again in this first resting-place at goodly Sichem J Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, " Unto thy seed will I give this land : and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him." " This is," says Franz Delitzsch, " apart from 3. 8, the first Theophany related in Holy Scripture. Here for the first time is the revelation of God accompanied by His rendering Himself visible."- * See the admirable treatment of Shekem in Prof. G. A. Smith's Hist. Geog. of the Holy Land, chap. V., and again chap. XVI., p. 333. t Gen. 12. 2. X Gen. 12. 7. ( 94 ) CHAPTER YIII. THE CAXAAXITE. PALESTINE is called by no other name in the Book of Genesis than "The Land of Canaan." We are told "the Canaanite was in the land" ;* and again, "the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled (were settled) then in the land," by which it seems we must understand that they were not the original inhabitants, bat had already colonized the land before the time of Abram's arrival. The Perizzite is generally understood to mean the villager or agriculturist. In the Tel-el-Amarna tablets Duisratta, king of Mitani in Northern Syria, sends to the Pharaoh a messenger named Pirizzi. The Canaanites came from the shores of the Persian Gulf, bringing with them the names Arvad and Tyre (Zur) from their old settlements on islands near the western coast. f- Prof. Franz Delitzsch writes on Gen. 10. 6, "The name of Ham's fourth son, 1^33 [Knlm], sounds as though it denoted a people of the low country, and a people inhabiting the low lands on the Mediterranean coast between Rhino-colura and Berytus are actually so called ; then also those in the low land on western Jordan, as far up as the lake of Gennesaret, and hence in a wider sense the land west of Jordan and its Phoenician population. The Phoenicians themselves called their eponymous hero, who was regarded as the brother of Osiris ("To-*^) {see Sanchoniathon in Ens. Prmp* i. 10, 26) Xva, and themselves Xrao*, or, as * Sayce, Races of O. T., 102. t Rawlinson, Herod, Vol. I., p. 121 ; Lenormant, Man, Vol. II., p. 144. THE CANAAN1TE. 95 Augustine heard it from the mouths of Punic peasants, Ghanani The immigration of the Canaanites from the Erythraean Sea (the Indian Ocean, and especially the Persian Gulf), that home of the Hamitic nations, is testified to by Herodotus (i. 1, vii. 89), Strabo, and Dionysius Periegetes ; Justin (xviii. 3) adds that after leaving their native place they first inhabited Assgrium stagnant (perhaps the marsh land on the Lower Euphrates) before turning towards the Mediterranean coasts and founding Sidon. The credibility of this testimony is acknowledged by Bertheau, Ewald, Knobel, Lassen, von Gutschmid, Dillman, Konig (Lehrgeb. sec. 4) During their progress from east to west the Canaanites would find time and opportunity for appropriating the Semitic language." Whatever the derivation, the name was known in Palestine, both to the Egyptians and Assyrians, as Kanana. Cloth of Kanana is mentioned,* with cloth of Martu (Syria), in an As- syrian tablet ; and Kanana occurs as the personal name of an Egyptian on a heart-shaped amulet in the British Museum,f but is better known as a local name in the representations of the conquests of Seti I. at Karnak,J where a fortified place bears the name of Kanana. This has been well identified by Col. Conder with Khurbet Kan'an, 1^ miles below Hebron. See Tomkins, Life of Joseph (R.T.S.), 114, where some remarks are made on the special local occurrence of the name in this neighbourhood. It is curious to find the name also located on the east of Jordan, near the ancient Ashteroth-Karnaim, Tellul Kan'aan, the mounds of Kan'aan, with ruins (Schumacher, Across the Jordan, 199 and map). Maspero agrees as to the site of the fortress taken by Seti (see The Struggle of the Nations, 370, note). "It seems to me," he sums up, "that this name * Tran. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 524. £^j | J ^| i.e. Kan-a-na. t Birch, Cat. Eg. Rooms, p. 78. t Mariette-Bey, Itineraire,^. 173. 96 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. should be Pa-Kanana, and that the town bore the same name as the country." Lenormant writes (Les Orig. cle VHist., in. 321), "Between this last town (Hamath) and Tunep (which is now identified with Tennib) a fortress of Kanana on the banks of the river Arantu (Orontes) seems to have marked the extreme limit of the north of the territory of the Canaanite tribes, just as the fortress of Pa-Kanana their extreme limit south, on the side towards Egypt." This northern Kanana seems to have been the present Tell-Kounana, marked in Rey's map of North Syria not on the Orontes but on the Afrin, near it, and a long way south of Tennib (Tunipa). The indications of Egyptian lore on the subject of Canaan are given by Dr. W. Max Miiller in his Asien und Eurojja, 206, &c, in a very interesting manner. Prof. Sayce observes : " A Babylonian would have said ' the land of the Amorites ' ; an Assyrian ' the land of the Hittites.' It is only in the Tel el-Amarna tablets that we find ' the land of Canaan,' as here. In these even the king of Babylonia speaks of the land of Canaan." In the genealogy of the sons of Noah, in the tenth chapter of Genesis, we are told that " Canaan begat Zidon his first-born, and Kheth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Gerga- site, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite." Of these the sons of Kheth (Hittites) and the Amorite are especially important, both in the life of Abraham and in the history of Egypt. It would seem that several old-world races of earlier date were vanishing away on the east of Jordan, such as Rephaim, Zuzim, Zamznmmim, Emim, of whom we shall have more to write. The many circles and dolmens of rough stone which have been found by travellers and surveying officers may be memorials of these early races. THE CAXAANITE. 97 The earliest of all records of Palestine hitherto found among the historic documents of Egypt deserves still more minute attention than it has yet received, since it carries us back to times much more remote than those of Abraham. This is the inscription of Una, an officer of high rank under the Pharaohs Teta and Pepi Merira of the sixth dynasty.* This important tablet, found at Abydos, and now in the Museum at Grizeh, reports among other services the repeated reduction of tribes of the Amu and Herusha. Am-u is the usual Egyptian word for the Semitic races of Asia (from DP, people), and Heru-sha signifies the Lords of the Sand, and appears to designate those tribes (the Amalekites for instance) who led mainly a nomad life, as the Bedouin hordes do now. Five times in the reign of Pepi did these lords of the desert require chastisement. On the last occasion it is said that the barbarians of the land of Khetam (§^ ^ ^) had revolted. This, according to Brugsch,t would be the desert to the east of the Delta, which agrees well with the passage cited by Chabas from an inscription of Ptameses III., in which the Herusha-u inhabit the red land (to-tesher), which is the designation of the same tract. But in Una's time this people possessed a very rich region to the north with corn-crops, figs, and vineyards, and bordering on the sea, and the region thus fertile may be identified, by data to be mentioned presently, in accordance with the views of M. Chabas, as the southern country to the south and west of Hebron. This celebrated record has been elaborately examined and discussed by the best Egyptologists. A translation is given * De Rcug6, Six prem. dyn. p. 122 ; Brugsch, Hist. d'Eg., p. 71 ; Chabas, Etudes, etc., p. 114, Second Edition, Records of the Past, Vol. II., p. 1, New Series, t L'Exode, p. 27, and map. S 6517. G 98 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. by Maspero in the new series of Records of the Past, vol. v., and in The Dawn of Civilization, p. 420, he has given ns his mature judgment as to the route of the ravaging Egyptian forces under their general Una : " He advanced, probably, by Gebel Magharah and Gebel Helal, as far as the Wady- el-Arish, into the rich and populous country which lay be- tween the southern slopes of Gebel Tih and the south of the Dead Sea. Once there he acted with all the rigour permitted by the articles of war, and paid back with interest the ill- usage which the Bedouin had inflicted on Egypt." " This army came in peace, it completely destroyed the country of the Lords of the Sands. This army came in peace, it pulverized the country of the Lords of the Sands. This army came in peace, it demolished their ' douars ' (oval or circular intrenched posts). This army came in peace, it cut down their fig-trees and their vines .... it burnt the houses of all their people .... it slaughtered their troops to the number of many myriads," etc., etc. In fact, Prof. Maspero is speaking of the great range of country which, as we shall see, was swept long- after Una's time by Kedorla'omer's forces when " he came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh (Barnea), and smote all the country of the Amalekites " before he passed up the west coast of the Dead Sea and fell upon " the Amorites that dwelt in Hazezon-Tamar " (Engeddi). And those Amalekites were to the Egyptians " Heru-shau," Lords of the Sands. And the route which Maspero describes is the same by which the Eev. F. W. Holland believed (as he told me) that Abraham came into Egypt. This will be more fully described in a future chapter. Here, then, we find long before Abraham's time the in- habitants and the products of Southern Palestine and the desert brought before us in a lively and graphic manner, and the power of Egypt already lording it over these tribes, THE CANAANITE. 99 occupying outlying fortresses and laying these lands under tribute. Another most interesting point is that the history of the great Asiatic colony of Zoan (Tanis, and now San), which, as Scripture tells us, was built seven years after Hebron, is carried back to the same era by a monument found among its ruins, bearing the name of Pepi Merira, on which occurs the name of the god Set or Sutekh, identical with the ill-omened Baal, the especial object of worship among the sons of Kheth,* to whom, however, there was a temple in Memphis even in the times of the fifth dynasty.f Egyptian cylindrical seals of stone, of the Babylonian shape and style, have been found among the remains of the old empire. After the age of the sixth dynasty they disappeared, and in the age of the twelfth dynasty long thin cylinders of ivory were used in place of them.J The early reigns of this dynasty are marked by the next important mention of Palestine, in the story of Sineh (or Saneha, or Saneham as read by Dr. Haigh). A translation of this romantic story, from the papyrus at Berlin, is given by Mr. C. W. Goodwin in Records of the Past, vol. vi. We are still before the date of Abraham, as I believe, and now we find significant changes. A strong fortified wall had just before been constructed by Amenemhat L, the founder of the twelfth dynasty, to secure his eastern frontier against aggres- sive Asiatic neighbours. The hero, a prince of the blood-royal of Egypt, heard of the sudden death of the Pharaoh, whom we have just men- tioned, on the Libyan side of the Delta. Led apparently by panic, he ran away, and after exciting adventures he was brought on his way to Atima,§ that is Edom, and was invited * Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 113. t Meyer, Set-TypJion, p. 47. % Birch, Cat. Eg. Booms, B. M., p. 74. § Adema, or Aduma. Chabas. G 2 100 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. by Ammu-Anshi, king of Upper Tennu, who had fugitive Egyptians at his court, to enter his service. This he did, preserving still a strong feeling of allegiance to Egypt ; and received to wife a daughter of the king. Prof. Maspero now reads the name Kaduma or Kaclima, " a word which in Semitic denotes the East," as he remarks. Saneha (Sinuhit, as Maspero reads) was given in charge a choice and fruitful district called Aia, which Maspero compares with Aian (iEan), " given by the geographers of the classical epoch to the cantons bordering on the gulf of Akabah." The romantic story is given by the same accomplished author in the New Series of Records of the Past, vol. ii., and the reader should also refer to The Dawn of Civilization, p. 470, etc. Now we gain traces of the land of the Heru-sha some centuries later than Una's campaigns, for the country of the Upper Tennu seems nearly identical with the scene of that old warfare, and I am apt to think the name the same as that of the Biblical Zin. The roving tribes are called by the generic name of Sakti or Sati, before mentioned, of whom Amenemhat I. boasted that he could " make them come to him like a whelp." * The name of the king Ammu-Anshi in part resembles that of a king of Keclar in the time of Assur-bani-pal, Ammu-ladi.t We do not here encounter the Heru-sha by name, although they are mentioned in an inscription of the eleventh dynasty,! and recur in a triumphal tablet of Thothmes III. at Gizeh, and afterward ; but the Nemmasha, whose name Maspero regards as meaning, like Heru-sha, Lords of the Sand, are * Records of the Past, Vol. II., p, 14. t See also Sayce, Patriarchal Palestine, 63. The name Ammu-Anshi is South Arabian and of high interest in its historic connections. (Hommel, Anc. Heb. Trad., etc. 51). % Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. IV., pp. 192, 193. THE CANAANITE. 101 mentioned here in much the same connection as the celebrated thirty-seven Amu at Beni-hassan, who brought "mestem (stibium, or black paint for the eyes) from the barbarous Petti- shu " ; for these Nemma-sha brought rich garments, unguents, and cosmetics " from the country of clothes " to the court of Egypt. This may remind us of the "cloth of Martu, and cloth of Kanana," before mentioned, and this country of clothes may well have been Palestine. Indeed, the package borne on the ass in the procession of the Amu appears to consist of ornamental stuffs intended for clothing. " The Nemma-sha always have appeared to me," wrote Dr. Birch in a letter to the author, " to be possibly the nomades of Hero- dotus." In this case they might be the ancestors of the Numidians, their descendants having drifted farther west, like other inhabitants of Canaan ; " No/>caS^, wandering tribes of Asiatic origin." * In these ancient records we find settled inhabitants with an advanced cultivation beset, as in all ages, by wandering tribes, Heru-sha, Shasu, Petti, and the like ; but we do not find mention, among the spoils, of golden vessels, or treasures, and objects of luxury. These appear to have been rare, as M. Chabas has remarked, in those days. It has been noticed that these early records of Egyptian doings in Palestine give no hint of Canaanites. "The only inhabitants of this country were then," says M. Lenormant,t " the Sati, a remnant of whom we find mentioned during the eighteenth dynasty, as also are the remnants of the Rephairn in the Book of Joshua. Now the Sati, on all the Egyptian monuments where they are represented, have a perfectly re- cognisable Semitic character. Other texts, also dated during the old empire and the twelfth dynasty, expressly state that * Smith, Class. Diet., " Numidians." t Manual, &c, Vol. II., p. 148. 102 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. the only neighbours the Egyptians had at this time on the Syrian side were the nations of the race of the Aamu, that is Semites, whom the sons of Mizraim generically designated by this name, derived from the Semitic word am, ' people.' On the other hand, the Book of Genesis gives us a fixed date ; a time at which the Canaanites were already established in the land. This date is that of the arrival of Abram in Palestine." Perhaps this should be received with caution. At any rate, the shepherd-kings are called Sati in the inscription of Ahmes, as M. Chabas has remarked.* In a paper on Prof. Flinders Petrie's " Ethnographic Types from Egypt " (Journ . Anthrap. Inst, June 12, 1888, p. 222), I said : "I have some- times thought it worth inquiry whether these Sati-u are to be connected with the Suti, the bow-bearing desert-folk of whom Fried. Delitzsch writes {Wo lag das Parodies? 235)." Lately I have been glad to find Prof. Sayce taking the identification as established {Pat. Palest., 40). " The Tel el-Amarna tablets," says he, " shew that it is the case." I will add a few words from the late Prof. Eeginald Stuart Poole.f "A comparison of all the passages referring to the primitive history of Palestine and Idumaea shows that there was an earlier population expelled by the Hamite and Abrahamite settlers. This population was important in the time of the war of Kedor-la'omer ; but at the Exodus, more than four hundred years afterwards, there was but a remnant of it. It is most natural, therefore, to infer that the passages under consideration (viz., those referring to the Canaanites, as then in the land) mean that the Canaanite settlers were already in the land, not that they were still there." This may well be received as the summing-up of the evidence on the matter. * Les Pasteurs, p. 21. f Smith's Diet, of Bible, " Ham." THE CANAANITE. 103 The chief races of Canaan with whom Abraham had dealings were the Amorites and the sons of Kheth. Both the one and the other hold important places in the Egyp- tian records. The Amorites occupy the foreground in Holy Scripture, although the Hittites were the great rivals of the Egyptians, the Kheta of their annals, the Khati of Assyrian history. But this is natural, since the great shock of decisive attack brought the Israelites against the fortresses and legions of the south, while the head-quarters of Kheth lay far away on the Orontes. And in Abram's time it is clear that the advanced posts of Canaanite military power were held by the Amorite, while the sons of Kheth were as yet quietly occupied, as it would seem, in the pursuits of traffic, to which they remained ever faithful, even in the days of their warlike prowess. TTe will, then, beo-in with the Amorite. OlftK- The race The is called in Egyptian \\ ^ ^ , ^ Amar.) A broad new light has of late been cast by Chaldean lore on the Amorite. For kings before the time of Abraham claim rule over " the land of the Amorites," and the Semitic equivalent of Martu, viz. Amurru, is now known to be the real value of the name before read as Akharru. " It is only quite recently," says Prof. Sayce, " that the true reading of the name has been discovered, though it was suspected long ago by Norris" (Higher Crit, etc., 163). Still more remark- able is it that Mr. Pinches has found evidence of Amorite occupation in Babylonia itself, and Prof. Sayce has shewn that a suburban portion, "just outside the gate of Sippara, now called Abu-Habba," was given to Amorite settlers in the time of the father of Khammurabi, that is, in the very times of Abraham (Academy, Nov. 2 and Nov. 12, 1895). Is it, then, surprising that Abraham should be in alliance with An'er, Eshkol, and Mamre, at Kiriath-Arba' ? It is surely worthy of 104 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE, attention that as Amuru was equivalent to West in early Chaldsean records, so no less is the West expressed in Egyptian hieroglyphic by the word Amur, as, for instance, in the Booh of the Dead (Pierret, Vocab\, 31 ; Renouf, Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch, xix., 111). The principal early seat of the Amorites in the South was the mountainous country east and west of the Dead Sea, # a part of thein, by name Jebusite, holding the fortified post afterwards taken by David. This region contained, at any rate, two chief fortified cities, both depicted in relief among the tableaux of the conquests of Seti I. and Eameses II. Dapur is identified by M. Chabas with the ancient city of Debir, or Kiriath Sepher of the Anakim, but now generally with Tabor ; and the other, called " Kodesh of the country of Amaor," he considers identical with Kadesh-Barnea. This place, represented as standing on a hill side with a stream on one side, and surrounded by trees, is most plainly distinguished from the Kodesh of the Kheta (Hittites) on the Orontes, which is in a flat country on a recess of a lake, girdled by a double moat with bridges. This water is generally considered to be the Bahr-el-Kades near Horns, the ancient Emesa. I am now persuaded that Dr. Trumbull, in his excellent work, Kadeah Barnea (p. 163), is quite right in arguing that the hill-side Kadesh is that of the hill-country of Naphtali. It is defended by Amorites and pig-tailed Hittites allied together in their usual fashion. The Amorites extended their ground by the conquest of two large and most fertile provinces on the east of Jordan ; but their old seat in South Palestine was known as the " mountain country of the Amorites," still bearing, as Prof. Palmer tells us, the old name 'Amarin ;t and other probable * Chabas, Etudes, p. 264. t Hist. Jewish Nat., where a sketch is given, p. 34. THE CANAANITE. 105 traces are cited in the statements of the Palestine Explora- tion Fund,* as 'Amurieh, applied to several places in the hills, Wady el 'Amary, on the east of Jordan, etc. The Amorites are represented by the Egyptian artists as long-haired and bearded, with fair and fresh complexion, " the eyes bine (says Mr. Osbnrn), the eye-brows and beard red, the hair so much darker from exposure and other causes, as to be painted black." f Among the beautiful reliefs in a kind of porcelain on panels, brought by the Kev. Greville J. Chester from the palace of Barneses III. at Tell el Yahudieh in Lower Egypt, and now in the British Museum, is a fragment containing the head of an Amorite king. This is very interesting, not only as a specimen of excellent modelling in relief, but as shewing that the Egyptian artists carefully studied the features of captive chiefs. For there are two portraits of this king. Besides this small profile he figures in the representation of the same triumph at Medinet Habu, some three hundred and fifty miles away, in a different style of art, and doubtless by another hand. Yet the identity of the strongly marked face cannot be mis- taken if we restore the beard (of which the indications yet remain where it was broken off). For comparison we give the outline from Medinet Habu in Brugsch's Geographical Inscriptions. The eye in the porcelain relief was originally enamelled or coloured with a vitreous glaze. The hair of the Amorites was bound by a fillet, sometimes ornamented with small disks. Their dress was a long close tunic with short sleeves, bound round the waist by a girdle, with falling ends. They were armed with the bow and oblong shield, and used chariots of solid construction fit for rough ground. From a comparison of the passages of the Pentateuch * P. E. F., July 1872, 1876. t Egypt's Test, p. 129. 106 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE. in which the Amorites and the Anakim are mentioned, I am inclined to the conclusion that the sons of Anak were a dis- tinguished clan among the Amorites, and not a distinct people. In the representation of the assault of Dapur by Rameses II. the standard of the Amorites appears hoisted on the highest tower of its citadel. It is a shield pierced by three arrows, and surmounted by another arrow fastened across the top of the staff.* The fine series of casts from the bas-reliefs of Egypt and photographs from the mural paintings of the tombs, which Prof. Petrie made public in 1887 at the meeting of the British Association at Manchester, has put us in possession of a verit- able gallery of ethnic types, in which we depend on the skill of no artist, since the hand of the faithful Egyptian sculptor was withdrawn from his chisel on those high walls which my friend climbed at the risk of his neck on rope ladders. He not only thus reproduced the forms, but most carefully also recorded the colours as well, and the memoranda he wrote are published in the Report of that Meeting of the British Association {Report of Special Committee, p. 439, etc., Remarks ly Rev. H. G. TomJcins on the Collection, p. 450, etc). Afterwards the latter paper was made by the author the basis of a communication to the Anthropological Institute (June 12th, 1888), from which, as it is buried in Transactions, I do not hesitate to quote at some little length : — " The Amorites came, I have always believed, from the plain of the Euphrates, whatever their original seat, and Prof. Sayce has well pointed to Beth-ammaris and Ap-ammaris, west of the Euphrates, as preserving their name, which had a chief halting place at Gar-emeri-su, the region of Damascus. [This, by the way, should be remembered in connection with Abraham's reported stay there, as well as his alliance at Hebron and depen- dence on his faithful henchman ' Damascus-El iezer '] ." " A tribe of them were called Yebusi, and had their stronghold where David drove them out, * Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, Vol. I., p. 389. THE CANAANITE. 107 or at least put them down ; and here, as elsewhere, they were dove-tailed with the ' Khethi ' (Hittite) in a very remarkable way. This was true at Hebron, Yebus, Tabor, Megiddo, Kadesh-on-Orontes, and doubtless these are merely examples ; and this fact is as clear in the Bible as out of it. The Gribeonites were also Amorites (2 Sam. 21.2) and Khivvites [Hivites]. I believe the Anakim were a ruling clan of the Amorites. This opinion results from a careful study of all the references in Scripture, and I have pointed out that Arb'a appears to be a numerical symbol of a Chaldaean god" {Times of Abraham, 102). "Mr. Petrie has given us a good series of Amorites (photos, 146-9, 157, &c.) of different dates, but all of the same type, shewing a handsome and regular profile of sub-aquiline cast, the nose continuing the line of the sloping forehead (146-8 are very good). The cheek-bones are high, the faces have a decided and martial expression, and look like those of tall strong men, as we know them to have been. They wear long robes and capes, like most Syrians of those times." Prof. Sayce has since given ample information, with beau- tiful photo-gravures, in his book on The Races of the Old Testament, R.T.S., and has explained his views clearly in a most interesting paper on "The White Eace of Palestine" {Expositor, vol. viii., 48, etc.). Also we have a very learned and thoughtful memoir by M. de Lantsheere of Brussels {Revue des questions scientifiques, April 1887). Prof. Sayce {White Race) has noticed the likeness of the Kabyles of northern Africa to the Amorites, and also to the Lebu (Libyans) of the Egyptian monuments, and their pro- bable consanguinity. Now the Libyans claimed Arba' as their founder, after whom Kiriath-Arba' was named, as I shall notice shortly, and this agrees with the other indications. The so-called " New Race," whose remains and handy-work Prof. Petrie has found in Upper Egypt, seem clearly, I think, to be of this Libyan stock, as he believes {Nagada and Ball as, 62), and he has not failed to point out the connecting links with Syria as shewn by the pottery of the Amorite fortified town of Lachish, discovered by him and Mr. Bliss {Tell el- Hesy). This ancient stronghold is the only site where we are sure of being on the actual work of the Amorites (Flinders 108 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Petrie, Tell el-Hesy ; A Mound of Many Cities, F. J. Bliss ; " The Story of a Tell " in The City and the Land, P.E.F.). In Pal. Exp. F. Quarterly, 1886, p. 200, I have shewn cause for believing that the " sons of Anak " were Amorites of great stature and brought their gods and names and ways of life into Southern Palestine from Babylonia or wherever their primaeval cradle-land may have been. This paper I commend to the serious student, but it is too elaborate for anything more than reference here. M. de Morgan claims the "New Race" as the primitive inhabitants of Egypt (Recherches sur les Origines de VEgypte, Paris, 1896). The close alliance of Abraham with the Amorites gives a special interest to their history, and it is recorded that the land was spared till the fourth generation, because their iniquity was not yet full ;" as if in contrast with the guilt of the men of the Jordan-plain, which was already running over. " The gods of the Amorites " are distinguished in the Book of Joshua,* from " the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt." What those gods may have been we cannot certainly tell, but the Canaanite idolatry in general may be clearly distinguished in the light of modern research both from the religion of Babylonia and from that of Egypt, although there are threads of connection, running through from east to west, as w T e shall have occasion to shew. There is, however, one important passage in which the Amorite religion is expressly identified with the Phoenician Baal-worship, which Ahab learned from Jezebel, " according to all (things) as did the Amorites, whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel." f * Chap. 24. 15. 1 1 Kings 21. 26. THE CAN AMITE. 109 It has been remarked that the name Senir given to Hermon, the grandest height of Lebanon, is the only word of the Amorite language expressly so identified in Scripture. It has also been preserved to us in the Assyrian annals, in the identical form Saniru, as the scene of the great defeat of Hazael, king of Syria, by Shalmaneser. On the language of the Amorites the reader is referred to the valuable remarks of Prof. Sayce in The Higher Criticism, etc., p. 356. I am strongly impressed with the belief that they must have brought a large importation of cultus aud place-names and tradition with them from, the plains of the lower Euphrates. The local names appear to me to have travelled like thistle-down, and taken root from point to point on their way. Next we must treat of " the sons of Kheth : " HH, f D |X] »»««■ Here we encounter the early development of a great, civilized, and warlike nation.* It is likely that the most ancient notices of the sons of Kheth are those which occur in the records of Sargon I.,| who attacked and conquered them on the upper Euphrates. The tables of portents given by Mr. G. Smith, and by Prof. Sayce in his important paper on Babylonian Astronomy, bear witness to relations of hostile rivalry between Akkad on the one hand and the kings (Sar is the royal title used) of the Hittites (Khati) of Syria (Amurri), and of Phoe- nicia (Martu), which cannot be represented by a single expe- dition of conquest, but rather indicates an established system of warlike reprisals. " Prosperity to Akkad " seems familiarly to involve "adversity to Martu," and repeated notices of the kings of Elam and of Gutiuni or Guti (the Goim of Scripture) remind us of the state of things which we shall have to examine in our study of the campaign of Kedorla'omer. The Khati, or Kheta, as written in Egypt, fill a n eminent place in the * De Lantsheere, He la Race et de la Langue des Hittites, Bruxelles, 1891. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 215, Ac. ; G. Smith, Hist. Bab., p. 78 ; Sayce, Bab. Lit., p. 11. 110 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. annals of the Pharaohs, and Ephron the Hittite was one of the fathers of a race whose history may possibly yet see the light of day in their own long-forgotten records. Even the contemptuous scribes of Egypt cannot hide their grandeur and their valour in the field. And here we find in the story of Abram almost the earliest historic mention of the race, since the name of Kheta does not emerge in the Egyptian annals until the time of the great con- queror Thothmes III., of the eighteenth dynasty. In his reign Ave find the " Chief of the great Kheta " distinguished by his tribute of gold, slaves, and cattle.* Thus in a few centuries after Abram had bought the cave of Makpelah from the sons of Kheth, they were a great and powerful people. This was the time when the descendants of Jacob were settled and in- creasing in Lower Egypt, and before the Exodus the Kheta had become the terrible rivals of Egypt, and had mingled their genealogy with that of the renowned Pharaohs of the nine- teenth dynasty, and their gods had reared their heads above the ancient divinities of the land of Ham. The history of the Kheta in connection with their personal and local names has been elaborately studied by the learned Dr. Haigh,| and Prof. Sayce has more recently treated the in- dications of philological affinity,:]: concluding from the names given in Egyptian and Assyrian records that their language could not have been Semitic. The Hittite names in the Bible, as it has been remarked, may generally be explained from Semitic sources, but it is possible that they may have been either conformed to Hebrew names (as the name Uriah is slightly different from IMyaikki king of Que, a Hittite of the north, mentioned by Tiglath-pileser II.), or translated from the Hittite tongue. * Records of the Past, Vol. II., p. 45, Second Edition, t Zeitschriftfih' JEgyptische Sprache, 1874. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. V. THE CANAAN ITE. Ill It is remarked by Dr. Haigk in connection with the kindred of Kheth and Mizraim, that one of the chiefs who fell in the celebrated battle at Kadesh on the Orontes bore the name of Matsrima ; the name is given by Prof. Maspero as Mizraim.* The last achievement of the lamented George Smith, on the suggestion of Mr. Consul Skene, was the recovery of the real Carchemish of the Hittites in the ruins of Jerabolus on the western bank of the Euphrates, whose mounds await the ex- ploration which is so earnestly to be desired. Some authors hold the opinion, expressed by M. Lieblein, that the Kheta had their earliest abode in Palestine, to the south, in the neighbourhood of Hebron, but were driven thence to the Orontes. It seems, however, much more credible that they were among the tribes who came down by the way of northern Syria, and that the kinsmen of Ephron were the ad- vanced portion of the migration. There is every inducement to the thorough scientific ex- amination of the mounds of long extinct cities in northern Syria, which should be well supported at home. The Duke of York, speaking in the chair at a lecture by Col. Conder in May 1894, at Westminster, said : " The work that lies before us in the immediate future, as you will hear directly, is nothing less than the systematic excavation, as far as may be possible, of the chief historic sites of Syria." The long list of places engraved by Thothmes III. on his temple-walls at Karnak shews how very many sites may yet be identified in these regions,! and the German archaeologists have shewn us at Samalla what reward we may expect. * Hist. Anc, p. 221. t See my paper on the Northern Syrian list in Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. IX., part 2, and in Records of the Past, 2nd series, Vol. V., 25, etc. : also my Notes on the Geog. from the Nile to the Euphrates, etc., Trans, of Br. Assoc, Bath Meeting, 1888, sec. E, and Bab. and Or. Records, Vol. III., 92, etc. 112 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. This accords with the westward drift of races in the earliest times, of which perhaps the first great wave brought the domi- nant and historic race of the Egyptians to the Lower Nile, for from its origin Egypt was rather Asiatic than African. Hereafter in writing of the Hyksos we shall have to men- tion the Khati in connection with the great alien conquest of Egypt, and I quite believe that Maspero has truly stated that in Abraham's time " the bulk of the Khati had not yet de- parted from the Taurus region, but some stray bands of them, carried away by the movement which led to the invasion of the Hyksos, had settled around Hebron " (Struggle, etc., 148). Within the last nineteen years most earnest attention has been fastened on this long-forgotten people, the Hittites. It would be out of place in this volume to enter at large on the elaborate, and often controversial, literature that has arisen. The whole subject may be studied in Dr. Wright's Empire of the Hittites, Prof. Sayce's small volume The Hittites (R. T. S.), and also in his Races of the Old Testament, one of the same series (R. T. S.), in the very clear and able treatise of M. de Lantsheere, of Brussels, on the Hittites, and in elaborate and learned disquisitions of Dr. de Cara, of Rome, in which he has followed out affinities which have been suggested in different directions. It ought never to be forgotten that almost the earliest pioneering work in this quest and " restitution of de- cayed intelligence" was done by the learned and courteous D. H. Haigh as long ago as 1874, in the Zeitschrift fiir JEg. Spr,, and with singular enterprise and sagacity. But it would be an utterly " disproportioned thought" to detain the reader of these pages, which are concerned merely with the settlement of Ephron the Hittite and his neighbours at Kiriath-Arba'. The " Khethi " (Khati) people now appear clearly to have been a Mongolian (or Mongoloid) race, as Prof. Sayce says. Dr. Birch said to me : " they seem to me to be pig-tailed THE CANAANITE. 113 Tartars," and his few words, spoken with much consideration, gave me the first lively impression of the type, which seems now to have emerged from a hazy sort of dissolving view into a well-focussed picture. I may perhaps reproduce a few words again from my paper on Prof. Petrie's casts : " The facial characteristics of the Kheta are very marked and interesting. They have a great protrusiveness of the central part of the countenance, which is most marked in the king ' taken alive ' by Rameses III., and figured in the row of royal captives at Medinet Habu." " Our cast gives us a far better notion than the drawing in Lepsius or Brugsch, where the face is much tamed and refined. Happily two Hittite reliefs at Merash, photographed by my friend Dr. Gwyther, give an excellent comparison, shewing in two faces out of three a very coarse version of this profile." " The relief -panel of a Hittite prince, and another of a Hittite princess, in the British Museum, from Tel-el- Yehu- dieh, engraved in my Studies on the Times of Abraham [and given in this volume], shew the same formation of the face in a more agreeable version. In Barker's Lares and Penates, p. 203, is a very interesting wood-cut of a terra- cotta head found at Tarsus, which is surely that of a Hittite, as Dr. Birch remarked. The comparison with the Huns may be very appropriate, and the whole context is well worthy of attention. . . . The intention of the Egyptian artists seems to have been to give them as people of yellowish complexion, and the Hittite lady from Tel-el- Yehudieh is fair. The chief of Kadesh on Orontes in Tomb 34, Thebes, is white. Their mode of wearing their hair, which was dark and straight, was this : it was trained into three divisions or tails, one over each shoulder and one down the back, and each, when carefully arranged, ended in a spiral turn. The savages of Huleh-water who captured "Rob Roy" have three plaited pig-tails in a S 6517. H 114 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. similar style (woodcut, Rob Roy on the Jordan, 241), and one face is of the same general cast. I will also mention that the high head-dress of the Hittite king Khita-sar, whose daughter Rameses II. married, is to be seen on the head of a Kurdish shepherd in the frontispiece of Capt. Cameron's interesting book, Our Future Highway" It is to be noticed that the double-eagle of the Hittites is now found as the emblem used by the very early Chaldsean kings of Lagash (Maspero, Dawn, &c, 604). I have often fancied that the name Lakish (^^7) may have travelled from Lagash. Col. Conder has expounded the Turanian affinities of the Hittites in an elaborate paper read to the Royal Historical Society in June 1887, on their " Historical Connections." Surely the relief-sculpture brought from Moab by M. de Saulcy and engraved by Maspero (Struggle, etc., 685) is a Hittite with just such a pig-tail curled up at the end as the Hittite king wears at Medinet Habu. In the reign of Amenhotep I. (the successor of Ahmes who drove out the Shepherds), the only war in the north was directed against some tribe called Amu-Kehak, but his suc- cessor Thothmes I., came into conflict with the Rutennu. This name requires some explanation, as it affects the whole question of the races of Canaan. a _ Ruten, or Rutennu. " The ethnic name of Rutennu, given in the hieroglyphic portion of the text of Tanis (before cited) as a translation of the name of Syria- Ashur, is adopted in preference to designate in quite a general way the great nation which, to the east of Egypt, inhabited the regions of Palestine as far as the plains of Mesopotamia.' 1 Thus writes Brugsch,* adding that the lists of Thothmes III., * Hist. cVEg. p. 157, 1875. THE CANAANITE. 115 at Karnak, discovered by Mariette, prove incontestably that the name Ruten (or Luten) was applied not only to the peoples who inhabited the country north of Palestine, but also to all the races who occupied Palestine proper as far as Arabia Petreea. But the Southern Ruten were specially designated " the people of Upper Ruten," whilst the same nation towards the side of the Mesopotamian plains were called " the people of Loiver Ruten." The name is now read Lotanu by Maspero ; see The Struggle, etc., 120, and by Sayce, Pat Palestine, 95, etc. ; but by Petrie still Ruten {Hist Eg.). (The same sign in Egyptian hieroglyphics stands for R and L.) Now the invaluable lists of Karnak * give a vast number of names, many of which are certainly identified ; and the land of the Upper Ruten extends as far south as Gerar, Kiriath Sannah, and Rehoboth, and includes the mountain region of the Amorites, and the country occupied by the sons of Kheth about Hebron in the time of Abraham. It is clear, therefore, that these peoples were included among the Ruten before they were distinguished by name (as far as we yet know) in the Egyptian annals. The Upper or Southern Ruten are mentioned in the title above the group of prisoners at Karnak as " Chiefs of Ruten, of all the unknown races, of all the lands of the Fenekh-n." f This would suggest that the word had some collective meaning distinct from an ethnic purport. It is surely not unnatural that the Phoenicians should have Canaanite language, adopted a Semitic language as fitted to their purposes of com- civilization. merce. The sons of Kheth, and the Amorites, may also have religion. been able generally to converse and bargain in such a tongue, although remote from their own native language. Thus there may have been no difficulty to Abraham and his family in * Tomkins, Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. IX., and Records, New Series, Vol. V. t Mariette's Listes, &c, p. 3. H 2 116 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. holding necessary intercourse with them. The Tel el-Amarna tablets have made this certain. Some two or three centuries (probably) after Abraham, the Syrians gave tribute to Thothmes III. of golden manu- factures, the vessels proceeding from their country being most artistic in form and elaborate in design. In fact, it is clear that the ruling races of Syria and Pales- tine were in a high state of civilization and wealth by this time, although their glory has so faded from the face of the earth that in their own land scarcely the smallest relic had been found until those recent explorations of which Prof. Sayce and MM. Perrot and Chipiez in their splendid work on Eastern Art have given so interesting an account ; and it is on the temple walls of their enemies that the memory of their prowess, refinement, and luxury is perpetuated. The extremely graceful vases and tazze of the Canaanites bear witness to the objects of their idolatry in the figures and heads of the heifer (often with the horns surmounted by a disk), which doubtless represents their Astarte (Ashtoreth, called in Egyptian Astarata), and the ibex, and the crested head of the hawk, bird of the Sun-god to them as well as to the Egyptians. The greatest god of the Hittites was Sutekh, identical with Ba'al, whose cultus, supreme during the rule of the Hyksos in Lower Egypt, was revived by the lords of the nineteenth dynasty, as we shall explain in treating of a later episode in the life of the patriarch. The same god was localised as tutelary of this and that city : " Sutekh of the city of Ta-aranta, Sutekh of the city of Pa-iraka, Sutekh of the city of Khisa-sap," etc. In South Palestine the name lingers, it seems, in the Jordan valley, as " Sat-h el-Ghuleh " (Sat-h the Demon), P. E. F. Thanett, 243. An account of the Canaanite religions will be found in THE CAXAANITE. 117 Lenorinant's Manual of the Ancient History of the Fast* The conclusion is equally applicable to the whole group, although written with regard to the religious system of the Phoenicians. " It will be understood how well it has been defined by the learned Movers, who has scientifically studied the subject : ' an apotheosis of the forces and laws of nature, an adoration of the objects in which these forces were seen, and where they appeared most active.' Around this religious system gathered, in the external and public worship, a host of frightful debau- cheries, orgies, and prostitutions, in honour of the deities, such as Ave have already described at Babylon, and which accom- panied all the naturalistic religions of antiquity. The Ca- naanites were remarkable for the atrocious cruelty that stamped all the ceremonies of their worship, and the precepts of their religion. "No other people ever rivalled them in the mixture of bloodshed and debauchery with which they thought to honour the deity. " As the celebrated Creuzer has said : ' Terror was the in- herent principle of this religion ; all its rites were blood- stained, and all its ceremonies were surrounded by gloomy images. When we consider the abstinences, the voluntary tor- tures, and, above all, the horrible sacrifices imposed as a duty on the living, we no longer wonder that they envied the repose of the dead. This religion silenced all the best feelings of human nature, degraded men's minds by a superstition alter- nately cruel and profligate, and we may seek in vain for any influence for good it could have exercised on the nation.' " The personal appearance of the Kheta, their clothing, arms, and equipment in the field, military formation, and style of war, may be gathered from the broad battle-pieces which * Vol. II., p. 219. 118 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. celebrate the achievements of Seti I. and Rameses II. They brought into action chariots of a light and graceful construc- tion in considerable numbers, and had mounted warriors as disciplined cavalry, and to carry orders on the field. The horses and chariots of the Egyptian armies were evidently introduced from Syria, and were unknown under the ancient empire. The dress of the Kheta was a short kilt, and over this a long and rather close tunic ; and, in* full dress, a mantle or kind of cape covering the shoulders, and worn by many races of Syria. They had oblong shields, or else of convex outline at the top and bottom and inwardly curved at the sides. Their arms were the spear, bows and arrows, and a short sword. For the most part they wore a close-fitting skull-cap, which perhaps was quilted in squares, or diamonds. From the beau- tiful panels in relief of the palace of Rameses III., before mentioned, we give two very interesting, although broken, representations of a Kheta chief, and, as it appears, a lady of the same nation : she is represented as of fresh and fair com- plexion, and wearing a full robe. The warrior has the close tunic, the skull-cap, and dirk, and his hair appears conven- tionally to represent rows of curls. The countenances are worthy of attentive study, as most faithfully portrayed by Egyptian artists, strongly confirmed by their own relief -sculp- tures (see Prof. Sayce, The Hittites). The Egyptians were, through their religious beliefs, educated in the art of por- traiture to the highest point. It has long been thought by travellers that some of the tribes of the Lebanon are descendants of the Canaanites of old time, and that their strange and heathenish observances, so tenaciously withheld in secrecy, but known to include the worship of the sun and moon, are relics of the old-world idolatry : but more recent inquiry has led to the conclusion, indicated by the late Mr. Consul Finn, that the mass of the THE CANAANITE. 119 settled peasantry of Palestine (fellahin) are in reality Ca- naanites by descent, and still retain their ancient religion, thinly veneered with Mussulman compliances. These points have been explained in a most interesting way by M. Clermont- Ganneau, and in Col. Conder's article on the Mukams or high places of Palestine, in the Quarterly Statement of the Explora- tion Fund for April, 1877.* " The peasant dialect proves to be much nearer to Aramaic (which Jerome says was the native language in his time) than to modern literary Arabic"! That the Canaanite population still reaches, as of old, even into Lower Egypt, we shall have occasion to shew hereafter. The very ethnic names still linger, we are told, in the old haunts of Hittite, Amorite, and Phoenician; and legends of Abraham may still be heard from the lips of the children of Canaan, who shew where he watered his flocks, and tell how his dogs wore collars of gold, a very credible tradition to those who recall the elaborate adornment of their favourite hounds by the lords of Egypt. The important treaty between Rameses II. and the prince Khetasar was engraven in the Hittite counterpart on a plate of silver, " of which," says M. Chabas, " the Egyptian text gives us the form V\ : an oblong surmounted by a ring which served to suspend it. M. Kenan has met in the Higher Lebanon with monuments where may still be distinguished the points of attachment of plates of metal on which they wrote the sacred records. No doubt the decrees intended to be brought into public notice were exposed in the same manner on movable tablets of wood or metal, instead of being engraven on monu- ments as in Egypt. This explains the extreme rarity of ancient inscriptions in Syria and Phoenicia." Stopped in their migration by the " great sea of the setting * P. E. F., July 1876, p. 136, and July 1S77, p. 138. t Ibid.. 1878. P. 2. Phoeni- cians. 120 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. sun," the Zidonians, who had ere while tried their wings over the waters of the Persian Gulf, took flight in those adventurous voyages which made them the "hardy Norsemen " of the ancient world. They built their nests on the narrow ledge of the Phoe- nician plain, and took the wide waters for their dominion, and the spoils of commerce were their treasure. To them ministered the inland- trading sons of Kheth, guarding their traffic by their chivalry. The sea gave its splendid Tyrian dye, and the sand its crystal for the costly vessels of glass ; good exchange for gold, silver, copper, and, most precious of all, the indis- pensable tin. The Turanian element in these colonies is marked by the names of Martu (Marathus, now ximrit) and Usu. These names are explained by Mr. Boscawen in the notes to his Assyrian Reading Boole. Martu means the abode of the setting sun, which (as I have before mentioned) was regarded as a god (Tu) by the Akka- dians, as also by the Egyptians (Turn). The name Martu was given to Palestine, and in an especial locality to the city Marathus. Usu, which also means the sunset, or west,* was a city f in Phoenicia. Both Martu and Usu were regarded as divinities of the west, J and there is a strange Phoenician fable in San- choniathon of Usoiis, a giant who was the first to venture to sea on a tree from which he had torn the branches, reminding us in its rugged form of the beautiful Egyptian imagination of the sacred westward-steering bark of the sun-god, departing to the regions of the nether ocean ; which fable, however, was itself, I think, brought from the borders of the Persian Gulf. For there is a hymn in the magical collection, says M. Lenor- * Lenormant, Syllabaires, &c, p. 29. t Said to be a suburb of Tyre, Cory, Hodge's edition, Indes. X La Magie, p. 110. THE CANAANITE. 121 mant, which turns entirely on the ship of Ea (the god of the abyss) adorned with " seven times seven lions of the desert," in which are voyaging Ea and Davkina, Asari-mulu-dugga, Mun- abge, and Ningar, the great pilot of heaven.* This hymn is written only in Akkadian, and appears to indicate the origin of the sacred arks, or ships, which were dedicated to the gods in Chaldrea as well as in Egypt, and of which, Mr. Boscawen says, long lists are given in W. A. /., II. F. Lenormant has given a most striking description, and sorb of explanation, of a mysterious seal-cylinder (which is en- graved in photogravure in this work) in his Origines de VHis- toire, vol. i., 119, etc. The symbolism of primal antiquity is a most alluring subject, and that of cherubim and seraphim connects Chaldsea with Egypt in a manner which " finds no end, in wandering mazes lost." But we must not be enticed into these marvels, or into the lore of the Phoenicians, since the destinies of Abraham did not lead him across their borders, so far as we know. In the Palestine Fund's Quarterly Paper, April 1885, I suggested that the name Beth-lekhem may have owed its origin to the god Lakhmu. This suggestion has been approved by Prof. Sayce, Col. Conder, Mr. Lowy (Trans. Vict. Inst, xxviii. 30) and Prof. Hcmmel (P. S. B. A., xvm. 19). In the same communication I noticed the use of the name Lakhmu in the name Lakhmi borne by one of the giants, brother of Goliath. It seems to me that this is not at all the only divine name brought thither by the Amorites from Chaldaea, as Saph, Anat, Tammuz, Ashera, etc. Since these musings the immensely im- portant discovery of the Tel el-Amarna tablets has assured us of the Babylonian culture so early brought into Canaan, and so well explained by Prof. Sayce in his recent book, Patriarchal * La Magie, p. 149. 122 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Palestine (S. P. C. K., 1895). In writing the present work as published nearly twenty years ago, little had I dreamed of the intercourse between Babylonia and Canaan, extending into Egypt in the fashion now so well known. In studying the lists of Karnak I had become satisfied that Egypt held great military posts east of Jordan and Euphrates, and had tran- scribed names of localities from cuneiform sources, but that Egypt dominated the whole Babylonian Empire in suzerainty was no less amazing as a revelation to me than to all the world. The necessary retrospective inferences of this knowledge now on our estimate of earlier times must of course be taken into account in a reasonable historical survey of the period coeval with the Hyksos, and this will become more and more apparent, as students of Prof. Maspero's two volumes on the Dawn of History and The Struggle of the Nations will understand, and has been shewn in a very clear manner by Prof. Hommel in The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, etc. We have taken a hasty survey of the Canaan which Abram found, availing ourselves of the sources of information at our disposal apart from the Biblical narrative itself, and leaving unnoticed neither the brighter spots nor the deep shadows of the scene. We mark the westward streaming races, the continuity, the variety, the trodden highways down into Egypt, into Sinaitic Arabia, for ages an appanage of Egypt although contested by Amalekite hordes and by Chaldaean kings ; the busy cities with their daughter-villages and settled culture and traffic, as islands in the wide untilled pastures of the desert, whither the wander- ing clans of marauders come up from the sandy wastes. We see the patriarchal clan compact in a common destiny apart from all, and above every other characteristic blessed in a pure and holy faith, a veritable fellowship with the living and true God. ( 1*3 ) CHAPTER IX. ABRAHAM GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. T71ROM the shady tree of Moreh by Shekem, Abram -*- journeyed southwards. It must have been in the spring that he "plucked up his tent-pegs" in the green valley, and " pastured on " his leisurely way " unto the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east." It took Canon Tristram ten hours * to ride from Shekem to Bethel, but Bethel. doubtless Abram must have gone more softly. Perhaps the patriarch chose this new post not without reference to its defensible character. It is widely different from the first camping-ground, being " almost the central spot of the ' hill-country of Benjamin,' which, itself a little territory bristling with hill-tops, each one a mountain-fast- ness or a ' high place ' for worship, was the central heart of Palestine." f " The hill " seems to have been well identified, and there are still ruins of a Christian Church, "as if the primitive Christians had been aware of the sacred associations of the spot where Abraham raised his altar " ; and from it, the north end of the Dead Sea, and the barren tract which extends from the oasis of Jericho to it and the Jordan, are distinctly visible. That this plain, now covered with salt and brimstone, was once well watered and cultivated, we have abundant * Land of Israel, p. 159. t Tristram, Sunday at Home, 1872, p. 215. 124 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. evidence in the traces of former irrigation and aqueducts. Near this hill by Bethel is a circle of large rough stones, possibly of earlier date than Abram's altar.* Hai, the royal town on the east, was the same as the Ai f afterwards destroyed by Joshua, and made into a heap (tell) for ever, and the only name of the place once identified with it is Et-Tell, the ruin-heap.J Sir H. Kitchener, K.E., has, in- deed, met with the name of Khurbet Haiy, one mile east of Michmash (Mukhmas), which he considers to mark the site of 'Ai. This is some distance from Et-Tell, and is mentioned in the notes published in January 1878. But Conder and Harper give reasons which lead to the decided preference of Khurbet Haiyan, two miles east of Bethel. Bethel became -a memorable place. But on this first oc- casion of Abram's sojourn there he does not seem to have lingered long. He "journeyed, going on still toward the south," that is, toward the tract between the mountains and the sandy desert which was called the Kegel. " He moved southward, § leaving the hills over which his flocks and herds had fed, and where the pasturage must have been exhausted as the summer advanced. The hill country of Judaea, south of Jerusalem, and in the Hebron district, even now affords pasture for sheep and goats, who browse upon the undergrowth of wood and upon the aromatic plants that clothe these mountains. " Flocks are sent there towards the end of summer, when the heats of the dry season have parched up the grass and flowering plants. Abraham went on from Bethel (going on journeying still toward the south). The rolling plains and downs of the south country, or Negeb, so well described by * Two similar circles are mentioned by Dean Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 277. t With the article, >VF. t P.E.F., 1874, p. 62 ; Our Work in Pal., p. 203. § Mrs. Finn, Sunday at Home, 1872, p. 327. ABBAHAM GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. 125 Messrs. Drake and Palmer, from Beersheba onwards, are excellent winter quarters for tents and for cattle, as the Tiyahah Bedaween of our own day know by experience. Upon the mountains the climate is suitable for summer, for there the cool breezes temper the heat ; but in winter shelter is needed from the driving blast, the snow, and the rain-storms to which the hill-country is exposed. Abraham consulted the comfort and the safety of his people, and of his cattle, when he took them to the south ; for he had no landed property where- on to build houses or stabling for their protection." " His journey to Egypt must also have been made in the cool season, when the short desert can be comfortably crossed. He went because of the famine in Canaan. Now the pressure of famine is in this country most felt in winter. We had several instances," continues Mrs. Finn, from whose instruc- tive pages I am quoting, " when scarcity of the grain-crops caused a good deal of distress, almost amounting to actual famine. Even though a harvest may be bad, there is sure to be some corn produced ; and the summer fruits, the melons, figs, grapes, and the different kinds of vegetables, yield a very large proportion of the provisions needed for summer con- sumption. But it is in winter that the stress comes. What little grain can be spared must be reserved for seed, and then there are no fruits to take the place of corn. Then is felt the want of bread for man, and of fodder, grain, and straw for beast. Then do those who are near the south country go down into Egypt. We have known this to happen ; and when, two years ago (viz., in 1870) the distress was very great, the Philis- tine country was almost depopulated, the inhabitants having gone into Egypt for food." This extract is valuable, bringing, as it does, the light of present experience to illustrate the descent of the patriarch into the great home of harvests and abundance of food. 126 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. We know, indeed, that evident marks have been lately discovered of the ancient fertility of this now comparatively barren region of the " south." But then the same explorations have shown that in the earliest times a large population de- manded these resources for their sustenance. Probably many of those cairns, and rude stone circles, and inclosures of the primaeval shepherd-folk Qiazeroth) may have been made by the Sati, the Herusha, the pras-Canaanite occupants of the land in the days of Ammu-anshi the king, or in the still older times of Una the Egyptian general of the sixth dynasty, of which we have written. When Abraham was there, however, the land had been already settled by the Amorites. South and west of Beersheba (the place afterwards so named), the patriarch must have passed through the terri- tory of Gerar, with whose ruler, Abimelech, he had afterwards so much to do. So Abram went down into Egypt, pressed by sore famine, although he knew well that his destined lot was not in Egypt ; and his purpose was simply to sojourn, not to dwell. In general, however, it was not likely that any tribe of tLe sons of men should stay in Palestine without seeking to go down into Egypt. Canaan was a highway to Egypt. The Delta was as an antechamber thronged by motley company. The strong chain of fortresses built by Amenemhat I., with its connecting wall, to keep out the marauding hordes on the east, had not been effectual. Whether it were before or after Abram's visit that the rule of the Hyksos Pharaohs was es- tablished in Lower Egypt, at all events we may be sure that the power represented by them had already strongly developed itself, and was dominant, perhaps, in fact, if not in form ; for the pressure came on Egypt at first, not as an organized mili- ABRAHAM GOES DOWN TO EG ITT. 127 tary invasion, bnfc as a gradual pacific immigration ; not a deluge, but a stealthily -rising tide. We will now examine some of the indications of early and increasing connection between Western Asia and Egypt in their relation to the history of Abraham. And first, a strong link is shown in the incidental state- ment,* "now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." This refers, says Petrie, probably "to the settle- ment before the eleventh dynasty " (that is, before 2800 B.C.) (Tanis I. 4). The builders of Hebron doubtless pressed on, and founded their colony in Lower Egypt as an advanced post in their progress, probably a commercial settlement established and carried on with the goodwill of the strong Pharaohs of the old empire. Among the vast ruins of San have been found an inscription of Pepi Merira of the sixth dynasty, perhaps brought thither, and colossal statues of Amenemhat I., and his contemporary Usertesen I., the earliest monarchs of the grand twelfth dynasty. In their time, as we have said, the great wall of defence was constructed, passing some forty miles to the east, of which remains are still existing, " a long rampart defending the entrance from the eastward." f Zoan appears to be a Semitic name, implying departure for a journey. The truth is that this eastern country swarms with Asiatic associations. To return to Hebron. It was built by the Anakim, who KiHatu. called it Kiriath-Arba', after the name of Arba' the father of Hebron. Anak (See Pat. Palestine, p. 37 ; Higher Criticism, p. 187). The passage (Josh. 14. 15) is very curious: "and the name of Khebron before (was) city (Kiriath) of Arba' the great man among the Anakim ;" the force of the title "the * Num. 13. 22. t Brugsch, Histoire, p. 138. 128 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. great (Adam) man " apparently being " the founder of the race of the Anakim." Now Arba' simply means " four," and was thus taken by the Rabbinical interpreters, who made the four consist of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam. But it seems clear that somehow Arba' was an individual founder. How could such a hero be called " Four " ? A possible solution has occurred to my mind as at least worthy of consideration. The Anakim are considered to be a tribe of the Hyksos,* and probably came from the regions of Chaldasa. Now it was the regular system in Babylonia to give numerical symbols to the gods. Thus the numeral of Sin the Moon-god was thirty, the number of days (approximately) in the month. There were two Ishtars, each fifteen, moon- goddesses, making the number of the month between them ; and the like. The system had a special example in Syria, where Eshmun, eighth and greatest of the Kabirim, simply means "eight." Might not Arba' be the god "four," and either a deified hero, or a god regarded as a race-father in the olden fashion ? (See Rec, New Series, vi. 131, note, for a Hittite "Three.") "If K. L. Tallquist is right," says Prof. Sayce, " Salas (' Three ') is the mother of the Babylonian Fire-god." At first no god appeared answering to the number four, but Mr. Boscawen found the number given as that of the ancient god Lugal-banda on a tablet in the British Museum. Lugal- banda means in Akkadian " strong king." He was worshipped at Erech by the now celebrated hero of the cycle of legends made so famous by the late Mr. G. Smith, Gisdhubar, or Dhubar (as his name is provisionally read), now Gilgames, and had his sacred ark ; and in his honour Sin-gasit, a very early king of * Speaker's Comm., Vol. III., p. 74. ABRAHAM GOES DOWN TO EGYPT. 129 Erech, built a temple there. He was also worshipped at Amarda or Marad in Chaldaea. " His name appears to have been given in Assyrian as Sarra-ikdu,"* says M. Lenormant. I fancy that traces of the name Arba may be found, as for instance, in Arba-ki (Arba- land) in the north of Mesopotamia conquered by Assur-nazirpal, with its " strong cities,"! as well as in " Kiriath-arba', which is Hebron." There is now an Arba west of the Afrin in North Syria, marked in Rey's map in the Giaour-Dagh (Amanus range) in the " land of the Amorites." But the matter does not end here : for Arba' was claimed as the father of the Libyans, as Pleyte has shewn, quoting Movers.J This would agree well with the ancient belief that the Canaanites were, to a great extent, driven far westward into North Africa, as well as with the similarity, or identity, of Amorites and Libyans. Now these points indicate the track of the great migrations from Chaldaea to the borders of Egypt, and even beyond : and it would appear that the worshippers of Arba' brought the name of their deified founder into these distant settlements. Thus, perhaps, the mystery of Arba' may be made clear, quite consistently with all that we know of the Hyksos and the Anakim. Dr. Haigh considers the name Khebron (alliance) as prob- ably referring to the league between- the three Amorite chief- tains Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, and Abram ; and thinks that these constituted the " four." I have given some reasons for another conjecture as to " Arba' " ; but it seems possible that this memorable confederacy may have originated the other name, Hebron, or rather Khebron. * Lenormant, Les Dieux de Bab., p. 16. t Records of the Past, Vol. III., p. 62. % Bel. des pre- Israelites, pp. 63, 212. S 6517. I 130 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. We have seen indications that the mixture, and even fusion of races, so characteristic of the Chaldasan country, had ex- tended itself in the tideway of migration through Mesopotamia, Syria, Canaan, and even into the Delta. We shall not be surprised to find, if so be, even a Turanian element in Egypt when we treat of the " Shepherd-kings." Meanwhile, let us well mark the conditions of the life of Abram, when brought at last into the land of promise. However his appointed lot, as a " stranger and pilgrim," enabled him to keep his house and his faith clear of the evil tribes and corrupt religions around him, he was still, nay, more than ever, in the way of seeing and hearing, and even sharing too, the great movements of prime races that should in " the purpose of the ages " all be blessed in him ; the strong races that were shaping the world's destinies throuo'h the chain of nations, which from Elam was radiating its forces into Eastern and Northern Asia at one end, and at the other from Egypt into Southern and Western Africa. He was soon to be brought into close intercourse with the Pharaoh of Egypt, and into sudden battle with the king of Elam : not at all the mere simple shepherd swain whose converse was with the bleatings of his flocks, and whose sole studies the reveries of a mystic piety. Such thoughts have been suggested with good warrant by the Rev. G. S. Drew, in his very able and useful work on Scripture Lands in Connection with their History r Very justly does he remark : " It is surely a great error to con- found the patriarchs with the Bedouins as they are now living in those parts The true parallel of the modem Bedouins was seen in the Amalekites of Abraham's days." The detailed inquiry into the conditions of the life led by Abraham, of which the results are given in these pages, will surely deepen this impression. * London, Henry S. King & Co., p. 18. Stcond Edition, 1871. ( 131 ) CHAPTER X. EGYPT m THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. WE will try to represent to ourselves the Egypt that met the eyes of Abrani, Sarai, and Lot. First, in giving entrance through the guarded portals of the great wall built by Amenemhat L, the methodical Egyptian officers wrote down their names, and the number of their clan, and reported their arrival at head-quarters. This was the strict custom of that business-like people, literally the inventors of red tape." Then they would pass on, well pleased, into the region of Goshen, and find pasturage in flat reaches of rich land, which must surely have recalled to their memories the broad plains of the Eu- phrates, and the w 7 eli-known scenes of childhood. Here were the glistening straight lines of the canals from sky to sky ; here the flaming sunsets reached down to the flat horizon ; the rosy dawn suddenly struck across vast spaces, and woke a thousand screaming water-fowl among the marshes. And now was opening before Abram the grandest, most perfect civilisation of the world, and a religion mysterious, elaborate, refined, and of captivating power. In the Delta he would, at all events, and with whatever latitude we view the chronological problem, be coming once more into a mixture of races and influences, of interests and views, w 7 hich singularly corresponded with the condition of the other great centre of the world's doings in the region where his younger days had been passed, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. If (as seems most likely) the sojourn in Egypt was during the earlier times of the Hyksos domination, then the * See Lepsius' Denkm., Vol. II., pp. 20, 22. I 2 132 ABU AH AM AND HIS AGE. interest and excitement of the time would be at a still greater height than before. What we have to see hereafter in our study of the warfare of Kedor-la'omer will agree very well with the threatening aspect of things to the east ; and we may well picture to ourselves the defences on the side of the desert as perfectly fortified by a strong line of moated wall, with bastions at frequent intervals, and thoroughly guarded night and day by the well-disciplined Egyptian troops, the great military station of Avaris swarming with soldiers of various races and arms : the sacred city of Zoan, some forty miles' journey to the west, where the worship of Set, or Baal, would be in full force and splendour of observance ; about seventy miles from this was the city of Turn (the sun -god), An (On, or in Greek, Heliopolis). Not thirty miles farther south lay the ancient capital Memphis, across the river, with its groups of pyramids indenting the sky ; and still further up the Nile on the same Libyan, or westward side, the beautiful expanse of highly cultivated land * surrounding the great artificial lake with its waterworks, enormous labyrinth, and sacred city, the seat of the ancient worship of Sebek the crocodile-god. We will give some account, then, of the Egypt of the great twelfth dynasty as the background, and then endeavour to fill in the picture with the personages and court of the conquering shepherd-kings. The lore of Egypt has in all ages had a mysterious influence of attraction for inquisitive and reflective minds. But not until the present century has any sound critical knowledge been reached ; and Egyptology has its crowning victories yet to win. Even now great elementary "questions await their solution : and especially, notwithstanding all the learning and sagacity devoted to the study of the fragmentary records hitherto discovered, * See Petrie, Ten Tears' Diggings, and KaJiun etc. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 133 the framework of chronology has yet to be constructed on some indubitable basis. Like most of the world's rulers, the Egyptians were a mingled race, drawing fresh contributions from very different and distant quarters ; but these ethnic accretions did not result in the development of a higher form of civilisation from a savage beginning : rather the reverse.* In his history, Brugsch has expressed a very positive opinion that " the ancestors of the Egyptians do not belong to one of the races inhabiting Africa, properly so called. The formation of the skulls and the proportion of different parts of the bodies, studied from a great number of mummies, demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians must have belonged to the great Caucasian race," — " Du t not of the Pelasgic or Semitic branches, but of a third, Cushite. However it may be, it is certain that the cradle of the Egyptian nation must be sought in central Asia." Petrie considers that the civilised Egyptians came from the land of Punt across the Red Sea and by the Coser road, and were of kindred race to the Phoenicians and Philistines. At any rate the Egyptians looked on Punt as the land of their gods, and the Punites are represented at Der-el-Bahri with those curved and pointed beards which are given to the gods of Egypt. It is not agreed what was the lineage of the early dynastic Egyp- tians. Maspero prefers to look to the white race of Africa (which we chiefly call Libyans), but allows that there were accretions from Asia (Dawn, etc.). They were in different ages certainly affected by the various influx of very different human elements, and so it is quite right to call them a mingled race, but I believe their civilisation first came from the east side, and especially their earliest religion and most honoured traditions of their golden age, as Prof. Petrie holds (Hist of Eg. I. 12). * Birch, Rede Lecture, p. 12, 1876. Bagster. 134 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE. The annals of Egypt are broken by strange and dark chasms. Such a one succeeds the pristine glory of the old empire, which fades suddenly with the sixth dynasty, and from its mist emerges the dimly discerned outline of the eleventh, passing on by a distinct connection into the "high and palmy" splendour of the great twelfth dynasty, a second Egypt ; as if the phoenix had arisen from its pyre. M. Lenormant has noted a very remarkable point of differ- ence.* " If you study the precious collection in which M. Mari- ette has brought together five hundred skulls of mummies, all belonging to ascertained periods, you prove to your surprise that the heads of Egyptians, earlier than the sixth dynasty — which we find, by the way, in the state of skeletons, in their sarcophagi, and which appear not to have been mummified, — belong to another ethnographic type than those of Egyptians later than the eleventh dynasty. The former are dolichocephalic (long-headed), the latter brachycephalic (short-headed)." M. Lenormant suggests that an influx of population from above the cataracts may have descended on Egypt, whose original inhabitants were purely Asiatic, and that the Theban princes of the eleventh dynasty, the Entefs and Mentuhoteps, had an Ethiopian origin. After this long time of interruption Egypt recovered itself, but " the ancient traditions," writes Mariette,f " are forgotten. The proper names used in families, the titles given to function- aries, the writing itself, and even the religion, all would seem new. Thinis, Elephantine, Memphis, are no longer the favour- ite capitals : it is Thebes which for the first time becomes the seat of sovereign power." But after the obscure reigns of the eleventh dynasty, in the Thebaid blossoms at once the glory of the second great Egypt, * Les prem. Civ.. Vol. I., p. 280. t Aperqu de I' Hist., p. 21. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 135 from the Mediterranean and the Sinaitic peninsula to the new fortresses of Kummeh and Senineh, higher than the second cataract. Singularly enough, the memorials of this period no longer exist above ground like the pyramids of the earlier age (with the exception of some ancient buildings at Karnak, a few scattered pyramids, and an obelisk or two), but in the un- rivalled subterranean chambers and galleries of Beni-hassan, covered with the beautiful pictures of agricultural and domestic life : of field-sports, fishing, and marsh-fowling ; of festivals, games, processions, and the endless humours and conceits of daily doings, which afford us in the pages of Wilkinson almost a cyclopaedia of Egyptian manners. Beni-hassan is not far from midway up the river between Memphis and Thebes. It is in one of these tombs that the ever- memorable proces- fff^ r8 sion, at first identified with the sons of Jacob, is still seen.* This will always deserve the closest attention, especially from those who study early Semitic life. For it is the oldest group which can be identified as clearly representing a Semitic race. The lord of the tomb is Khnum-hotep, an officer of rank under Pharaoh Usertesen II. He stands, colossal and majestic, staff in hand ; an attendant behind him bears a pair of sandals, the prince, however, wearing his own ; and around his feet wait three favourite dogs. To him approach two scribes bare-footed, of whom the fore- most holds out a tablet inscribed in true official style : — " Sixth year of the reign of king Osortasen II : report of the Amu brought by the son of the prince Khnum-hotep, bringing mestem from the bar- barian Petti-Shu ; their number is thirty-seven." * See Chabas, Etudes, p. 110 ; Brunch, Hist. d'Eg., p. 99, etc. The whole scene is given in Bible Educator, Vol. I., p. 105; in a coloured plate, see Wilkinson by Birch, Vol. I., 481 ; and lastly in the Archceol. Survsy, Eg. Exp. Fund, Beni Hasan, Yol. I., with principal figure in colours. 136 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Above the group is written : — " Come to bring mestem, he brings thirty-seven Amu." The second court-scribe has his office and name also written : — " The inspector of these, Khiti by name." He approaches empty-handed, but ushering in the chief of the Amu, who bends with outspread hands in an attitude of Oriental courtesy, holding in his left hand a curved throwing- stick which was used by the Egyptians themselves in the fashion of the Australian boomerang. It was also familiar to the Assyrians, and is still in use by the tribes of Central Africa, and by the Bisharin of Sinaitic Arabia near the Red Sea, descendants doubtless of the Amu of old.* The great richness of the garments worn by these Amu would suggest that they were brought (as we have before hinted) from " the country of clothes," especially if contrasted with the light and simple white linen of the Egyptian courtiers. The chief is distinguished by a magnificent coat, elaborately bordered and fringed, and covered with ornamental stripes in designs of zigzags, reversed chevrons, and circular spots, recalling the curious ornamentation of the old Chaldean build- ings at Erech by coloured cones, in patterns resembling Norman mural decoration. Doubtless the chieftain wears beneath his robe of state a kilt from the waist to the knees, as do three of his followers who have no such upper garment. He leads a large and handsome ibex from the Sinaitic mountains, whence the barbarous Petti-Shu had procured the stibium (mestem) or black antimonial paint for the eyelids. The ibex is muzzled and collared, and over and under his head is the title of the chief, "Jiaq (chieftain or sheikh) of the foreign land Absha."| * Bonomi, Xineveh, p. 136. t Brugsch, Diet. Geog., p. 13. 1877. EGYTT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 137 It is clear that these Ainu are received with signal marks of honour, for they come into the presence of the monarch vari- ously armed, with music playing. The chief and his immediate attendant only are unshod, the other men wear strapped shoes, and the women red boots. The Jiaq, whose splendid robe is wrought chiefly in red, blue, and white, is followed by a kilted attendant leading by its collar and horn an antelope. Then come a group of four men clad in long tunics reaching midway down their legs ; two of them white, the other two with stripes and cross-bars and zigzags and spots, red and blue and white. They are variously armed with spear and bow and throw-sticks. Then solemnly paces an ass, unled, loaded with bales or panniers, apparently of brightly patterned cloth, above which quaintly protrude the heads of two children ; and between them rises some object difficult to identify, of shape rather like a shuttle, but apparently as much as two feet long, which curiously reminds me of the form of the remarkable block of tin discovered at Falmouth, and described by Sir Henry James.* A similar object, but longer, is carefully tied on the back of the second ass in this procession, and a third appears in profile below. These objects seem to be coloured brown, but they may have been wrapped in some covering. The form is this ^"b^ , while that of the block of tin is in the main quite similar, §__3> although not bulging so much in the sides. The Cornish block is two feet eleven inches long, by eleven inches wide. Sir R. Burton has discovered tin-workings in the ancient land of Midian, on the east of the Red Sea ; while in Num. 31. 22 this precious metal is mentioned among the riches of the Midianites. This would bring it quite into the region of Petti- Shu ; and it might well have been brought with the mestem by * Arch. Journal, p. 196, 1871 ; also p. 39, 1359 : and Rawlinson, Her., Vol. II., p. 418, 138 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. the Amu. And if (as has been supposed) the shape of the block is that adopted by the Phoenicians, the subject may deserve further inquiry. Behind the ass come four women clad in garments of similar style and pattern to those of the men, but rather longer. Their hair is abundant and long, bound round with fillets. They wear red ankle-boots bordered with white round the tops. With them in front marches a young boy holding a spear, and clad in a short frock. Behind the women paces the second ass laden with bales or panniers, and on its back, bound tightly by crossed straps, a spear, with the before-mentioned shuttle-shaped object, and another sideways beneath, which is apparently as much as three feet in length. Then follows a kilted man play- ing with a plectrum a lyre of simple and antique form, and having a shield slung on his back ; and lastly, another man similarly clad, but armed with a curved club of red wood tipped with black, in his right hand ; in his left a bow of elegant curvature, and a quiver slung on his shoulders. The persons of the whole party are of a strongly-marked Semitic type, their complexion light and sallow, their hair black : that of the men bushy, and their beards pointed, their features prominent, noses aquiline, distinctly contrasted with the countenances of the Egyptians. We give the head of the first man of the procession as a specimen of the type of these Amu. The importance of this scene can scarcely be overrated. It shews distinctly the honourable reception accorded to these eastern clans, even in the highest ascendant of the great twelfth dynasty. Indeed, Brugsch considers that we should perhaps even except from the limits of the government of these sovereigns the parts of the Delta situate on the eastern side, on the shores of the lake Menzaleh, and inhabited by a nation of mingled Egyptians and Semitic immigrants, whose EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 139 influence prevailed soon after in a manner so disastrous to the Pharaohs and their country. The picture in the tomb is about eight feet long, and one and a half high, says Dr. Lepsius ; * and the same high authority concludes : " I view them as a migrating Hyksos family, who pray to be received into the blessed land ; and whose descendants, perhaps, opened the gates of Egypt to the Semitic conquerors, allied to them by race." In comparing the variegated patterns of the dress of these Semitics with the mural designs of the coloured walls produced in Chalda^a by polychromatic work in cones (as at Erech, etc.), I have the approval of Maspero (Dawn, etc., 7 and 9 note). " The shape of their arms, the magnificence and good taste of the fringed and patterned stuffs with which they are clothed, the elegance of most of the objects which they have brought with them, testify to a high standard of civilization, equal at least to that of Egypt." So says Prof. Maspero (Dawn, etc., p. 470). It is very interesting to compare minutely this group with the procession represented on a beautiful cylinder, of which we give a photogravure in one of the plates of this volume. It is the same style of dress, the right shoulder and arm exposed, with stripes and fringes, the armed figure with bow and quiver leading the file. But I do not think our seal represents prisoners of war, but rather some procession as in the case of the thirty-seven of Beni-Hasan. To compare a Chaldean engraved cylinder with a very remote wall-painting in Egypt adds to the interest of the study. May not both belong to the race called Sati or Suti, the people of the " Land of the Bow," so widely comprehensive and far-spread in their roving hordes ? The cylinder-seal is reproduced by Maspero in The Struggle of the Nations, p. 723 (also by Layard, JYiu. * Letters from Egypt, p. 112. Eng. trans., Bohn. 140 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. and Balyl., p. 538 ; Smith, Chakl Gen,, p. 188 ; Rawlinson, Anc. Mori., Vol. i. p. 264.) It " came from Erech, and origi- nally belonged to a member of the royal family of that city," says George Smith, and " presents us with a curious picture of a rude nomad tribe apparently arriving in Babylonia. The chief marches in front armed with bow and arrows, and wear- ing the same kind of boots, with turned-up ends, as dis- tinguished the Hifctites in ancient times, and are still" worn in Asia Minor and Greece." The owner of the cylinder was " the brother of the king of Erech, the librarian." " The office of librarian was considered honourable enough to be borne by a brother of the reigning monarch." In Mr. Eeady's cast, now under my eyes, it appears to me that the third and fifth figures are carrying weapons which have each a transverse head of spiky form, and are some kind of axes. The second figure, next to the warrior, holds a staff of honour, and the fourth, in a curved and fringed gown, is a woman. "With regard to Asiatic culture and experiment in the arts in Syria, and their influence on Egypt in the time of the eighteenth dynasty, the very interesting remarks of Prof. Petrie in the second volume of his History should be carefully considered, and the reflex inferences on earlier ages (backward light) observed ; as in the literary matter of the Tel el-Amarna records. Such reasonable consequences of reflection will more and more prevail in our historic criticism (Petrie, Hist. Eg., Vol. ii. p. 145, etc.). It is manifest that the tableau at Beni-Hasan represents a parallel case with that of Abraham. The wives are admitted with their husbands, unveiled, and seen by the "princes of Egypt." The same formal and business-like reception of Shasu and other Asiatics, with their cattle, was observed as a regular EG1TT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 141 custom, and is found (for instance) in the time of Meneptah the son of Rameses II., usually identified with the Pharaoh of the Exodus ; the actual certificate of such a case still being extant in Papyrus Anastasi VI., of which M. Chabas gives a translation.* If this were so under the truly Egyptian rule of the twelfth dynasty, then we may be sure of it under the Asiatic Hyksds. Since it is believed and argued by some writers, as, for gfgjjj^ instance, by Canon Cook, in his very able excursus on Egypt dynasty. and the Pentateuch,! that Abraham was in Egypt during the dominion of the twelfth dynasty, it will be best to sketch the Egypt of that epoch before treating of the Hyksos. Under the Amenemhats and Usertesens Egypt was in full activity. Not only were the frontiers vigorously protected, but the land was admirably cultivated, the administration of public affairs organized with perfection of detail, gigantic engineering works carried out for the storage and distribution of the all-fertilising Nile water by the formation of a vast artificial lake, as a reservoir to equalize the effects of the annual floods, and provide irrigation for the district to the west of the river, still called Fayiun (E. Pi-dm, the sea). Pastures and fields were channelled, and innumerable trick- ling rills drew the water pumped by the shadoof over all the thirsty land. The plough was drawn by oxen, which also threshed the corn to the music of the cheery song which still remains to us.} The abundant harvests were stored in long ranges of vaulted granaries. Orchards, vineyards, gardens, were exquisitely cultivated. Flowers were everywhere, in- doors and out : in the hand, on the head, on the altar of offerings, wreathed round the sacred vessels ; above all, the * Nineteenth dyn., p. 107. t Speaker's Comm., Vol. I. X Wilkinson, Anc. Eg., VoL II. p. 43. U2 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. exquisite lotus, which has almost disappeared with the papyrus from the waters. Grand cattle were carefully tended and housed in majestic ranks ; large flocks of sheep were among the ample possessions, of which the inventories were duly presented to the lords of the soil. Asses of fine breed were used for riding and burden, and in litters of state, but the horse seems as yet unknown. Dogs of various kinds, for the chase, the flock, the house, were petted and depicted with their masters. The cat, first honoured in Egypt, and from which even ladies were named, was whim- sically trained as a retriever of wild fowl in the marshes, where whole families were wont to glide about in their light skiffs of papyrus to enjoy their beloved sport. The crocodile and hippo- potamus afforded more formidable prey. The love of animals equalled that of flowers. Solemn apes, nimble ichneumons, and quaint creatures from foreign regions, were among the pets of the family. In their paintings all kinds of animals are depicted with a spirit and fidelity worthy of Bewick. As a curious contrast, it is well worthy of notice that, as Sir Samuel Baker has remarked, a negro has never been known to tame a wild animal. The African tribes never make pets. The Egyptians, on the other hand, were probably more ad- dicted than any other ancient people to this kindly and pleasant practice. The Rev. Henry Rowley has confirmed to me the observation of Sir Samuel Baker. The inference as to the different origin of the Egyptian race is as interesting as it is legitimate, and corresponds with a previous notice in these pages as to their religion. The people were hospitable, cheerful, fond of music, sing- ing, and dancing ; and games of every kind enlivened their festive hours. Captives, dwarfs and deformed persons, made sport in their presence. They were clad mostly in linen, shaved their heads and faces, and wore wigs, and ornaments EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 143 many and beautiful. It is worthy of note that in that very important personal adjunct, the private seal, the form of the Babylonian seal-cylinder went out of fashion during this period,* an interesting token of connection. The precious lapis-lazuli, always so highly valued, was brought from Babylonia. " Cylinders are often met with in early times," says Petrie, "but died out of use almost entirely by the eighteenth dynasty" (Ten Years, etc., p. 145). " This points to a con- nection with Babylonia in early times," he continues. In reality we now know that the use of these cylinder-seals in Egypt was much earlier than I had believed ; " in the very earliest days of their history, long before the epoch of the fourth dynasty, it may be of Menes himself, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy," as Prof. Sayce now says. The " learning of the Egyptians " was caref ally cultivated, and the education of the scribe was the high-road to all de- partments of state-employment alike. The British Museum possesses a curious relic of the schools in a wooden tablet or lesson-board (prototype of the modern slate) still covered with successive inscriptions in grammar and rhetoric. It dates from the period of which we are treating. For portable documents papyrus was the common material, but leather was also used.j For more formal and durable records the Egyptians resorted to the walls of their temples and tombs, and erected stela? or stone-tablets beautifully carved in relief. Although, as Brugsch notices, " the ancient ground on the two shores of the Nile is covered with debris belonging to this time," % so great has been the devastation of successive ages, that the monuments remaining above ground are very few. * Birch, Cat. Eg. Rooms, p. 74, B.M. ; Petrie, Ttn Years' Diggings, p. 145. t Dr. Birch, Zeitschrift, 1871. t Hist. cl'Eg., p. 84. 144 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE Aii ancient part of the vast temples of Karnak, the celebrated obelisk of Usertesen I. at Heliopolis, marking the site of the great temple which has utterly perished, another fallen obelisk at Begig in the Fayum, and some pyramids, especially the brick pyramid of one of the Usertesens at Dashur, with fine colossi, more or less broken, from Thebes, Abydos, and San (Zoan), are the principal remaining monuments of the grand twelfth dynasty, the glories of whose separate reigns are well recounted by Brugsch in his history. To these Prof. Petrie has now added the extremely valuable discovery of domestic buildings and other remains at Kahun in the Fayum (see Ten Years' Diggings in Egypt and Kahun, Ulahun, etc.). We will now turn to the religion of Egypt. We will try to draw near this great and mysterious subject with a fair and earnest mind, and with that deep fellow-feeling due to the faith in which the generations of the highest of primeval nations lived and died, and trusted to live for evermore. For they were the very contrary of fastidious sceptics, and however remote, unimaginable, grotesque and despicable may be the details of their religious life, it was at least earnest ; it swayed the whole being under the sceptre of the world to come, and we shall find them, amidst the absurdities of their own " many inventions," holding some of the supreme truths of revelation, truths that strike like beams from heaven across the lonely spaces, and on the fantastic imagery of their painted tombs : — " At which high spirits of old would start, Even in their pagan sleep." " Such thoughts, the wreck of paradise, Through many a dreary age, Upbore whate'er of good and wise Yet lived in bard or sage." * * Christian Year, Fourth Sunday after Trinity, EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 145 The results of our inquiry into the religions of Chaldaea will suggest the question : " Is the Egyptian religious system homogeneous and consistent, or compound and incongruous ? If the latter, can we disentangle the various elements which were woven into it ? " I think a partial answer to such reasonable questions is attainable ; but better results may be expected from the labours of M. Naville in collating the texts of the great Ritual, or Book of the Dead* We have seen in studying the religions of Babylonia that the ideas of the Akkadians attributed a living spirit (Zi) to the elements and objects of nature, and that thus a very ancient cultus arose of invocations and deprecations of these potent spirits. Now M. Lenormant expressly asserts that these elemental spirits were utterly unknown to the Egyp- tians, although that profound and subtle race were devoted to the study and practice of magic, using spells, exorcisms, magical amulets, and an endless apparatus of the "curious arts." | This is a most important contrast, and would lead to the conclusion that the pristine Turanian religion of Chaldrea, in respect at least of the worship of elemental spirits, had not formed any portion of the complicated system which grew up in Egypt. This is the more remarkable, since the barbarous African tribes of the present day seem generally given over to a devouring dread of elemental spirits.^ It is, I think, to be doubted whether, as some have supposed, the substratum of the old Egyptian faith was derived in any appreciable degree from Nigritic sources. * A new translation of the Ritual by Sir P. Le Page Renouf is in preparation. Bagster. t La Magie, p. 97. Vet Mariette-Bey mentions Ren, "one of the spirits of the earth," whose bronze figure, represented as adoring the Sun, is in the Museum of Boulak. He does not give the date. Princip. Monuments, etc., p. 124 ; and see Pierret, Diet, a" Arch. Eg. p. 235, " Genies." X See (for example) Rowley, Bel. of Africans, p. 55. S 6517. K 146 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. The magical usages of the Egyptians arose, says M. Lenormant, from the corruption of a higher religion and more pure in its tendencies than the naturalistic system of Akkad. It was a theurgic system, intended to invoke or even compel divine assistance, in however unworthy and super- stitious a manner. This distinction is, I believe, as well- founded as it is important. Setting aside, then, the notion that Egypt derived its oldest germs of religion from any such imagination of ele- mental spirits, we come to the great question whether the belief of the One God was the real fountain of faith. The ever marvellous Prisse Papyrus has been commented on in an excellent spirit by Prof. Osgood in the Bibliotheca Sacra of 1888 under the head of " The Oldest Boole in the World; Society, Ethics, Religion, in Egypt before 2000 B.C." In thus explaining the value of the fragment of Kakimna, and the Avisdom of Ptah-hotep, as translated by M. Yirey (see also Records, New Series, Yol. III.), Dr. Osgood most righteously repudiates the notion that independently of God's revelation men have beaten out their true religion on their own anvil jiroprio Marte. " All a priori theories of development are frail craft," he writes, " among the reefs of hard facts, and, to avoid shipwreck, the study of the monuments of Egypt and Chaldeea is now an indispensable requisite for those who would instruct others about the development of religious thought and morality among men." Well may some theorists remind themselves in St. James's words that : " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." After summing up the religious principles of the princely sage of the fifth dynasty, Prof. Osgood pronounces his verdict : "All this is as far removed from a ' nature god ' as it is from EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 147 pantheism," although he cannot attribute to him " monotheism in our understanding of the term." Still, that such "sweetness and light" originated in a primal fountain of God's revealed truth, and a fundamental faith in One God, is as much to be believed as that " they sought out many inventions," Eccl. 7. 29 (Vulg., "ipse se infinitis miscuerit qucestionilnis") That this was indeed the case is strongly affirmed by writers who have deeply studied the subject. " The fundamental doctrine was the unity of the Deity, but this unity was not represented ; and he was known by a sentence, or an idea, being, as Jamblichus says, ' worshipped in silence.' But the attributes of this being were represented under positive forms ; and hence arose a multiplicity of gods that engendered idolatry, and caused a total misconception of the real nature of the deity, in the minds of all who were not admitted to a knowledge of the truth through the mysteries." So writes Sir Gardner Wilkinson ; * and to the same effect M. Lenormant.f M. Pierret expresses himself with remark- able precision : " that which is out of doubt, that which to every one is clearly disclosed by the texts, is the belief in one only God. The polytheism which the monuments seem to argue is only apparent ; the numberless gods of the pan- theon are only the disguise of the one being in his different characters (rflfes)."J And M. Maspero declares: "AH the divine types interpenetrated and absorbed themselves in the supreme God. Their division, pursued even ad infinitum, in no way broke the primitive unity of the divine substance : they might multiply at will the names and the forms of God ; they never multiplied God." § * Anc. Fr/., Vol. I., p. 327. iAnc. Hist., Vol. I., p. 318 ; La Magie, p. 71. % Diet. d'Arch. Eg., " Religion." § Hist. Anc, p. 29. K 2 148 ABRAHAM AKD HIS AGE. Some of the most ancient texts on this topic have been treated by M. Robiou in his interesting lecture on the transi- tion from monotheism to polytheism ; * and the great theme has been eloquently expounded by the late M. l'Abbe Ancessi.j I need not linger on this point. But next emerges a question not less significant. Was the one " self -existent God, -who had no second," such as we find Him in Holy Scripture, a true Creator of all ? or was the complex of all the visible manifestations of his power regarded as a part, or identical extension, of his own being ; the god of the pantheist ? The solution may be easily confused by a regard to the innumerable derivative gods, triads, and couples ; but these must all be excluded from the true line of inquiry, as not creatures (although the terms used in Egyptian texts may appear literally to bear the sense), but manifestations, as above explained. When, however, we come to the creation properly so called, the aspect of things is very different. Let us hear M. Maspero.J After speaking (as above cited) on the real unity of the godhead, he continues :— " His action, reaching over the primordial chaos, reduced it to order without effort. He says to the sun, ' Come to me/ and the sun, coming to him, began to shine. At his command Shu, the luminous, levels the land, and divides the waters into two distinct masses. The one, spread on the surface of the ground, gave birth to rivers and ocean ; the other, hung in the air, formed the vault of heaven, the ' waters on high,' on which the stars and the gods, swayed by an eternal current, behold themselves floating. But in establishing the laws which regulate the harmony of the world, the Ordainer of all things had, by that very work, excited against himself the maleficent forces of nature." * Croyances de VEg.; Paris, Vieweg., 1870. t Job et VEgypte; Paris, Leroux, 1877. X Hist. Anc. p. 29. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. Ud Then arose the protracted struggle between the Creator and the " sons of rebellion " under their chief, the long twisting- serpent Apap. This account of the Egyptian cosmogony will, I think, sustain the opinion that the works of God were viewed as proper creations, having an existence given to them separate from their Maker ; although ever dependent on his supporting power. Indeed the last passage stirs up the quite contrary doubt : " Have we here a system of original dualism „« an independent eternal creator and master of evil, parallel with the eternal Creator and lord of good ? " This must, I believe, be answered in the negative. There can be no reasonable doubt that the great serpent Apap was viewed as one of the works of God. The retractation of M. Mariette, published in 1872,* in which he intimates that the true view is not that of Jam- blichus, but that of Eusebius, is, I am aware, quite contra- dictory to the views here cited, and would lead to the conclusion that the Egyptians acknowledged that "the uni- verse is God, formed of many gods who compose his parts." But the Ptolemaic temples of Dendera and Edfou, to which M. Mariette refers, set forth a late and debased form of the- osophy. The terms implying self-existence and unique deity applied to Ammon at Thebes, Ptah at Memphis, and the like, are explained to us when we regard them as expressing in various manifestations the being of the One God ; and we adhere after all to the exposition of Jamblichus, and the original views of Mariette. But we need to attend to the caution of Prof. Erman : " The Egyptian religion seemed intelligibly and systematically * Itimraire, p. 54. 150 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. rounded off when each god was held to be the incarna- tion of some power of nature. Now we comprehend that we had better reserve our verdict on the matter until we know the facts and the history of the religion ; and how far we are from knowing them is proved to us by every text." (E.E.F. Arch. Rep., 1894-5, p. 48.) It seems to my mind that " henotheism " presupposes an original basis of revelation as monotheism. Most likely St. Paul knew from earthly and heavenly instruction all that need be known when he wrote the first part of his letter to the Romans, in which he deals in so assured a spirit with the early history of idolatry. Although the fresh fountain-head of Egyptian faith may have been never so pure, long before the time when Abram went down to sojourn and found himself at Zoan, and per- haps at Memphis, the city of Ptah the great Creator and Father-god, the system of religion had become in many ways as complicated and corrupt as that which he had left behind by the great river in the plain of Shinar. The local worship of the different characters and phases of the godhead, as tutelaries of the various nomes, had ripened into the strange system of separate and almost rival triads. The gods stood wrought in stone, or painted on the walls, quaint and monstrous, with their symbolic beast and bird, frog and serpent-heads, and weird equipments. Worse than this, the degrading worship of the pampered brute (which, we happily know, was not older than a king of the second dynasty, and may have been adopted from some Xigritic tribes), and the divine honours paid to the living or departed Pharaoh, with multiplied worshipping and serving of the creature more than the Creator, had fearfully blocked up the way of access to the living and true God. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 151 If, as we have before explained, the sidereal pantheon had been fully developed in Chaldsea, no less in Egypt was the elaborate system of solar worship exalted to its full lordship. Sun-gods. Tum, the nocturnal sun, giving himself fresh birth as Har- em-khu (symbolised by the sphinx), and culminating in his course as Ra, may well have recalled to Abram's mind the Xindar, the Duzi, the Tutu, of his native skies. Memphis was, however, devoted to the supreme worship of Ptah the creator. An (Heliopolis) was the grand seat of the sun-god, whose priest in a later age gave his daughter in marriage to Joseph. There was one god who had the distinguished honour of being venerated with peculiar affection throughout the whole land, and whose name was the golden key to the most hallowed recesses of the Egyptian heart. This was Osiris, kindred to the gracious helper of mortals Asari-mulu-dugga of the Akkadians, and to Marduk of Babylon, mediator and raiser of the dead. " The peculiar character of Osiris," writes Sir Gardner Wilkinson,* " his coming upon earth for the benefit of man- kind, 'with the titles of manifester of good and truth,' his being put to death by the malice of the evil one ; his burial and resurrection, and his becoming the judge of the dead, are the most interesting features of the Egyptian religion. This was the great mystery ; and this myth and his worship were of the earliest times, and universal in Egypt. He was to every Egyptian the great judge of the dead ; and it is evident that Moses abstained from making any very pointed allusion to the future state of man, because it would have recalled the well- known judge of the dead, and all the funeral ceremonies of Egypt, and have brought back the thoughts of the 'mixed * Anc. Eg., Vol. I., p. 331. 152 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. multitude,' and of all whose minds were not entirely uncon- taminated by Egyptian habits, to the very superstitions from which it was his object to purify them." Osiris was from the first the local god of Thinis and Abydos. The spot where his body (dismembered of his limbs) was buried became the centre of such an immense stratified mass of sepulture as that which still marks the site of ancient Erech. The Kom-es-sultan is a tumulus of the most rare interest, which has been partly examined, but still awaits more perfect exploration.* M. de Rouge has noticed the promise of resurrection implied in the title of a pyramid of the fifth dynasty, which means "the soul arises, or appears." The force of the word ba (soul) will be ex- plained hereafter. It is interesting also to find that the tomb (pyramid) of Pepi's queen, of the sixth dynasty, bore the name of Men-ankh, abode of life ; and at the same time the sar- cophagus is designated the "coffer of the living." f "The true sanctuaries of Egypt," says Pressense, " are its tombs." It appears to me that common sense refuses to believe the theory which would derive these mysteries of human destiny, united essentially with the name, and work, and even the person of Osiris, from any observation of the phenomena of the mere visible luminary. How could the immortality of man, and the resurrection of the flesh, and judgment of the dead, and retribution for the deeds done in the body, have been learned from the most intense and superstitious contemplation of the sinking, the rising, the blazing sun ? Thus very reasonably argues M. Ancessi.J The idea could not arise from the natural imagery, but might well clothe itself in such investiture, if previously revealed to mankind. * See Mariette, Itineraire, p. 147, Alexandria, 1372 ; and the excellent descrip- tion of Miss Amelia B. Edwards, A Tlwusand Miles on the Nile, 1876. t De Rouge, it'.r prem. Dyn., pp. 81, 131, 136. 1 Job et UEgypte, p. 113. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 153 In the times of the twelfth dynasty, the weird and mon- strous forms which cover the chamber-walls of royal sepulchres of the later empire had not yet taken possession. The scenery of the subterranean chamber was still that of " the warm precincts of the cheerful day," and the tombs of Beni-hassan have the same character as those of Gizeh, where the homely and out-of-door doings of the fourth dynasty are so "lively set forth." Nevertheless the coffins of the eleventh dynasty are covered with wings,* symbolizing the protecting care of Isis over the Osiris within ; for the mystic identification of the deceased with the beneficent god was already established even in the time of Men-ka-ra (Mycerinus), whose cedar coffin in the British Museum contains a touching apostrophe to him in that character.! "Before the time of Menkaura," says Dr. Birch, "the god Anubis is mentioned in the tomb as the special deity of the dead, to the exclusion of Osiris ; but the coffin of Menkaura marks a new religious development in the annals of Egypt." The custom of preserving the body as a mummy, the abun- dant use of amulets, the identification of the deceased with Osiris, the deposit of portions of the ritual, and engraving them on the stone sarcophagus which contained the coffin, the con- tinual offerings of food to the dead, and recital of prayers for their happiness, were all long established. There was a strange intermixture of revealed truths and Mono- ° theistic wanderings of the imagination. " We have abundant notices basis. on the monuments of that (twelfth) dynasty,"! writes the late Canon Cook, " which agree with the intimations of Genesis ; proving, on the one hand, that the forms of worship were purely Egyptian ; and, on the other hand, that the fundamental * Mariette, Princ. Monum. p. 37. t Birch, Hist. Eg., p. 4j. % Speakers Comm., Vol. I., p. 450. 154 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. principles which underlie those forms, and which belong, as we may not doubt, to the primeval religion of humanity, were still distinctly recognised, although they were blended with specu- lation and superstitious errors: they -were moreover associated with a system which, on many essential points, inculcated a sound, and even delicate, morality." And in a note the same learned author adds : " The earliest known text of the seven- teenth chapter of the Ritual belongs to the eleventh dynasty. It undoubtedly indicates the previous existence of a pure mono- theism,* of which it retains the great principles, the unity, eternity, and self-existence of the unknown Deity. Each age witnessed some corruption and amplification of the ancient religion, and corresponding interpolations of the old texts. The very earliest has several glosses, and the text taken apart from them approaches very nearly to the truth as revealed in the Bible." M. Lefebure gives a curious specimen of development. He mentions f a theory " that the heavenly soul, or Ba, returned every evening to its earthly body, or Osiris, and that in like manner the soul of the deceased, rising to heaven with the luminary, left and rejoined its body alternately. This doctrine appears not very distinctly till after the expulsion of the Shep- herds, but on the sarcophagi, and not in the compositions, generally earlier, of the Book of the Dead, where it scarcely enters." In this interesting essay M. Lefebure has traced the advance of fabulous invention in a very instructive way : "First of all the deceased, thanks to the efficacy of the ceremonies ful- filled by him or on his behalf, of the sacred texts which he possesses, and of the judgment which makes him ' veridicive^ revives, resumes his organs, and, become immortal, enjoys the blessedness of the nether world, where he constructs himself a dwelling. But Hades, the abode of the manes in all the * See also Mahaffy, Prolegomena to Anc. Hist., 262. t Melanges Eg., Vol. II., p. 237. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 155 primitive mythologies, was also the desolate realm of darkness ; and so they end by bringing back the dead on the earth, there to begin afresh their daily life with more liberty and power, and even with the faculty of taking all possible forms." And more strange speculation follows, of a later date. A very interesting account of a sepulchral stele of the eleventh dynasty, commemorating the artist Iritisen, has been given to the Society of Biblical Archaeology by M. Maspero. It is well worthy of study as bearing on the view of the subject under con- sideration, which was entertained before the time of Abraham.* It is exceedingly interesting to notice the keen appreciation by the Egyptians of the complex nature of man. The body (kha, ^ ))t was animated by the soul (#«)> n °t immediately, but through the intervention of the breath of life (nef, £^ I ) 5 the soul (la) was itself the habitation or vehicle of the spirit (Mu, the luminous, '^ ? ^}), a word especially applied to the disembodied spirit. It was the soul (ba 'fe*) which was brought to judgment for the deeds done in the body, and was symbolised by the heart, taken from the body and weighed iti the balance in the Hall of Truth, in the presence of Osiris the judge. The soul is that part which, inclining towards the fleshy nature, is the feeble and needy portion of man, which the nobler and divine spirit (Jehu) protects and raises. It is the spirit which speaks the pleading word throughout the awful transactions beyond the tomb.t In view of these things the words rise unbidden to our memory : " Keep thy heart above all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life."§ These matters, and the lea and its * Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. V., p. 555. t It is a curious thing that in Akkadian klia means a fish, and Jehu a bird. Com- pare the hieroglyphic expressions. % See M. Pierret's monograph, Le Dogme de la Resurrection, etc. Paris, Franck. § Prov. 4. 23. 156 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. relation to the man, are explained from Egyptian sources by the author of the most exhaustive German History of Egypt, Prof. Wiedemann, in a small illustrated volume on The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of Immortality (Grevel, 1895). There was also a most interesting discussion on the subject at the Congres Provincial des Orientalistes at Lyon. Compte Rendu de la 3me. Session, Lyon, 1880, 252, &c. We must notice that the ever-recurring expression, "the Osiris (such an one) justified" as usually translated does not, according to M. Pierret, correspond with the true meaning of the phrase, which was originally applied to Osiris himself, and should be rendered " truth-teller " (veridique). "The Egyptians had an especial worship for the truth, which they considered as a manifestation of God. Ma-lzherou ^~^ expresses truth of speech; it is a sacred privilege given by Thoth to Osiris.* The deceased, assimilated to Osiris, is equally gifted with this faculty ; he is ma-Wierou, truth-teller, he utters the truth."f The record written by Thoth as the result of the judgment is another matter. We have seen that Abram in Chaldaea must have been familiar with the belief of the resurrection of the body, and that he found it the great dominant faith in Egypt. Is it then unlikely, apart from the words of Scripture, that he should have accounted that God was able to raise (Isaac) up even from the dead ? J And can we reasonably believe that the old fathers looked only for transitory promises ? It is laid down for Jewish youth in Religion, Natural and Revealed, by N. S. Joseph, 1880, that "the absence from the Pentateuch of direct teaching as to the future life is freely ad- mitted, but it is argued from such passages as Gen. 5. 24, 15. 15, 49. 29, 33, Lev. 20. 3, that Moses assumed the belief as a postulate." * Ritual, c. xviii. + Diet. d'Arch. Eg., p. 316. t Heb. 11. 19. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 157 But there must be care used in discriminating between the Egyptian belief and Christian doctrine. I gladly quote the wise and enlightened words of our beloved and lamented Prof. E. H. Palmer : — " To embalm a body is to set one's self up in direct opposition to the laws of God and nature ; and the superstitious adjuncts of an Egyptian entombment shew how easily the practice led to idolatrous observances. In this, as in every other instance, the law of God, as enunciated in His Word, indicates the right coarse to be pursued. The sentence, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,' is strictly conformable to nature, and points conclusively to interment as the proper method of disposing of the dead. To allow the gradual dissolution to proceed, without either violently retard- ing or hastening the progress of decay, is manifestly more in accordance with the sanctity of the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit than to subject it to the indignities of incre- mation or embalming." {Hist of the Jewish Nation, 1874, p. 8.) However elaborately the body of the departed was preserved from its appointed lot by antiseptics and precious spices, this very piety was the measure of a shrinking faith in the power of God and His " desire toward the work of His own hands" ; and at the same time certified the ignorance in those subtle and religious minds of the great distinction, " it is sown an animal body,* it is raised a spiritual body." They supposed that the first animal body must be reconstructed, and its heart restored to its place to beat again, " not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." It is also to be remarked that the Egyptians did not look for a general and simultaneous resurrection of the righteous, nor for any resurrection of the wicked. It would be private and individual in each man's separate history, the judgment pre- * crw/aa \pv\tKoy. 158 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. vious to the resurrection ; and that a gradual revival, beginning almost from the hour of death, which itself was not perfect and absolute, but left a lingering germ which, duly cherished, should spring up into future life and perfection. "The hymns and funereal prayers do not even name death, but only the second life," says M. Chabas.* "The idea of death is veiled in the Egyptian doctrine under different images, such as ' the arrival in port ' ; 'the happy west ' ; ' the good sepulture,' " etc. Surely these sublime beliefs, on which the Egyptians staked their lives and spent their substance, this denial of death and strong yearning after an entire immortality of body, soul, and spirit, may well remind us of our Lord's argument from the words of Jehovah to Moses : " I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living ; for all live unto Him." Even the Egyptians to this extent, and so partially, " knew the power of God," although only from the primal revelation. We have now given a sketch of the splendid era of the twelfth dynasty, as the groundwork of our estimate of the Egypt which formed the western wing of the great world in Abraham's time. This illustrious dynasty terminates with a queen, and a period of obscurity. Short reigns, and probably internal trouble, characterize the thirteenth dynasty, of which, however, the earlier sovereigns were in possession of both kingdoms, and many erected their monuments in the Delta, even in Zoan itself.f We must refer the student for detailed information to the pages of Maspero or Petrie, and hasten to the still more troubled times of the mysterious " Shepherd kings," only premising that the distinguished historian Brugsch has proved that at least the kings of the thirteenth dynasty, down to the twenty-fourth monarch, Sebek-hotep V., who * Etudes, p. 331. Second Edition. t Brugsch, Hist. d'Eg., p. 115. EGYPT IN THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. 159 erected his statue in the Delta, and probably much later, must have maintained the sovereignty of Lower Egypt ; and that the Hyksos domination consequently cannot have begun till towards the end of the thirteenth dynasty, or indeed, as Mariette says, after the fourteenth dynasty (Cat. of Alydos). Indeed, Zoan is said to have been one of the favourite residences of the sovereigns* of the thirteenth dynasty. The centre of power was displaced from Thebes to the Delta, and this may in itself afford an indication that danger was perceived in that quarter. Another portent of harm was the abandonment of the important mining stations of Sinaitic Arabia. Thus decayed the power of the thirteenth dynasty : "As it shrinks," writes Dr. Birch, "the Shasu, and their kings, the ever renowned Hykshos of Manetho, come forward."! * Maspero, Hist. Anc, p. 129. t Rede Lecture, p. 23. ( 160 ) CHAPTER XI. THE HXKSOs. "VTOTTVTTHSTANDING the great ability with which Canon -^ Cook has advocated the opinion that Abraham was in Egypt under the twelfth dynasty, a large number of Egypt- ologists place his sojourn there during the dominion of the Hyksos. It is, therefore, very necessary to give the most careful attention to the data which at present enable ns in some sort to estimate the character of these conquerors, and the effect of their rule in modifying the condition of the country and people as we have described it. The approximate dates assigned to the beginning of the Hyksos domination by some chief authorities are these : Lepsius (quoted by Chabas), B.C. 2101;* Mariette, 2214 ;f Brugsch, 2200 ;t Naville, cir. 2200 ; § R. S. Poole, cir. 2081 ;|| Lenor- mant, 2214 ;% Lauth, 2185.** Now since all the ordinary systems of Biblical Chronology make Abram's entrance into Canaan occur between B.C. 2078 (Hales) and B.C. 1921 (Ussher) we must surely be right, without attempting to dogmatize in so difficult a matter, in the course we are pursuing by proceeding to give a view of the Egypt of the Shepherd kings. According to Manetho (Josephus, c. Apion, I. 14) Salatis was the foreign conqueror who invaded and ruled the Delta of the Nile. But this is rather a title than a proper name, a title which was borne by Joseph, Shallit, foijty (Gen. 46. 6). Next to this conqueror came Bnon (i3»av), which certainly looks like a Canaanitish or Hebrew name, and may well mean * Etudes, etc., p. 14. t Itin., p. 44. J Hist. d'Eg., p. 180. § La lift, de VAnc. Eg., p. 8. || Smith, B. Die. E*ypt. % Anc. Hist., Vol. I., p. 197. ** Aeg. Chron., p. 129. 1877. THE RYKSOS. 161 son of strength or wealth (pX p). The third bore the name Pakhnan (na^av), which Lauth thinks involves the name Pa-kanana, a guess which, to my mind, is not unlikely. " But compare the Abehnas of the Turin Papyrus," says Prof. Sayce. Now if this king were a son of Kanaan, we have not only the name in its larger import, but specifically the Pa-kanana of Seti I., which we believe to be the present Khurbet Kan'an very near Hebron, and he may have been one of the southern Hittites or Amorites, or (like the later Hyksos king Khiyan) an eminent leader of the north of Syria, where we now find a Tell Kunana on the Afrin towards the lake of Antioch. If this be right, it is not the only instance of an Egyptian called Kanana, for in the British Museum is a heart of green basalt, which did duty, with an inscription on it from the Ritual, for the heart of a deceased " person named Kanana," as the late Dr. Birch says {Guide to Egyptian Rooms, 1874, p. 78). These things help towards the conclusion of Prof. Maspero (Struggle of the Nations, 57) : " The most adventurous among them (the Hittites), reinforced by the Canaanites and other tribes who had joined them on their southward course " were the foreigners, whom Manetho calls Phoenicians, who established the Hyksos domination in Egypt. With this also agrees the consonance of the name Khiyan with the name Khayanu, borne by two princes of North Syria in the later days of Assurnazirpal and Shalmaneser II., if Khiyan were one of the Hyksos, as Naville believes, and also Maspero (Bubastis, 27 ; The Struggle, etc., 60). The throne-name of Khiyan is on the breast of the Baghdad lion. While I was drawing this sphinx I noticed to Dr. Birch that it had originally been sculptured like those of San, with a royal human face, but that the face had been marred and " roughed " into that of a lion. It has always, I believe, been taken as a lion, and not a royal sphinx, but Naville considers it as undoubtedly an original monument of S 6517. L 162 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. Khiyan. Here we should have had that king's face, which is destroyed, and unhappily the upper part of the statue of Bubastis has not yet been found. The special subject of the Hyksos has been studied carefully by the late M. Chabas (Les Pasteurs), by Dr. Stern (Deutsche Revue, Oct. 1882, 75, etc.), and by Dr. de Cara (Gli Hyksos, &c), besides occupying much attention in the course of larger histories of Egypt. I may refer also to a paper on the subject by myself in the Trans, of the Anthrop. Institute, 1889. There is a very strange interest in the study to which we now apply our minds. If mystery be the atmosphere of Egypt in general, it is most of all characteristic of the Delta. If her history is a series of enigmas, the reconstruction of the Hyksos period is the most puzzling task of all. The best picture we can produce must be tessellated with fragments from the most various sources. We have already brought many together, and arranged them in a rough outline. We have seen the western migration of different races, Turanian, Hamitic, Semitic ; have traced the line of their smouldering camp-fires from the Persian Gulf to the eastern branches of the Nile, the names of their stations, the titles of their gods, the records of their conquests, and, last of all, their very presence with living tradition on their lips from point to point, along their old time-honoured highway. We must now add fresh and more lively colours to the mosaic. And our first materials must come from "the field of Zoan," from Mazor (2 Kings 19. 24, Heb.), a name still in use : Masr, to wit (the name of Cairo), and Mushra, the stream which still waters the ancient plain of Zoan, and on which floated the canoe of the adventur- ous MacGregor towards the ruin-heaps,* " lying bare and gaunt, in stark silent devastation." * Rob Roy on the Jordan, p. 74. THE HYKSds. 163 It is here that the monumental evidence has been discovered, chiefly by the exploration of Mariette and the scientific excava- tions of Petrie. But let us first notice with Meyer that the red crown of Lower Egypt, probably, itself bears witness to the foreign and eastern character of the population there, the desert and eastern lands being called by the same name, Tesher, that is, red. The red crown is in reality a throne, like that which represents Isis, and figures in the hieroglyphic name of Osiris. The earliest royal name and titles found at San are those of Pepi-Merira of the sixth dynasty, whose general Una engaged in repeated campaigns against the Herusha, as we have before narrated. These titles on a block of stone in the midst of the ruins of San would be of singular importance, if, as Brugsch has said,* they carry back the date of the city to so remote a period. " The sanctuary of the Great Temple," we are told by Mariette, f " existed from the sixth dynasty (but Petrie doubts the proof from blocks of Pepi, see Tanis, I. 4) ; the kings of the twelfth and of the thirteenth dynasties vied with each other in adorning it. At this epoch Ptah appears to have been its principal god," to whom was dedicated a colossal statue of Amenemhat I., of which " the face is well preserved, and recalls in its type the Ousertasen I., of Abydos ; the nose is short and flattened (epate), the lips are thick, the mouth large and smil- ing, the cheeks very full." The ethnic types of the Pharaohs of various periods form so interesting a study, that I quote the description given by Mariette of the statue of Usertesen at Abydos just mentioned : " The eyes are large, the nose straight and short, the mouth thick (epaisse) and good-natured : . . . . Ousertasen is one of the few Egyptian princes who betray in their physiognomy an origin indisputably Egyptian." * Hist. d'Eg., p. 70. t Princ. 3£ons., p. 272. l2 16± ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. I do not doubt that this is the very type of countenance exhibited by the sensible, kindly, and unaffected-looking "short-faced gentleman," bearing the royal name of Amen- emhat, who sits in the northern vestibule of the British Museum, and of whose head we give an illustration. At San were found also two colossal statues of Usertesen I., and a smaller statue of a princess royal, his daughter Xefer-t. Next we come to a splendid colossus erected in the great temple, representing Ra-smenkh-ka Mer-mesha, whom Brugsch places as the eighteenth Pharaoh of the thirteenth dynasty. The fellow statue has been found also. His title Mer-mesha designates, in the lists of the nomes, the high-priest of the principal temple of Mendes. And here we find the handiwork of the Hyksos, who, far from destroying these grand monu- ments of the legitimate sovereigns, were content in the Egyptian manner to set their mark on them. Thus, on the right shoulder of Ra-smenkh-ka's statue Apapi inscribed his own royal legend. This is not the only memorial of the thirteenth dynasty at San. There is also a statue of a Sebek-hotep, and a mutilated stone inscribed during the same period. Before proceeding to describe the original sculpture of the Hyksos, we will mention one or two further instances of their adopting previous monuments. Again, a sphinx at San and its companion in the Louvre, and other sphinxes in the same museum mentioned by Mariette, bear the inscriptions of Hyksos monarchs. The sculptures which have been taken as memorials of the conquerors are not numerous, but they possess in every point of view a special power of attraction, and are so precious that each deserves to be described : — I. A pair of statues on a common base, utterly unlike anything Egyptian. Two men standing side by side, in a very unheroic attitude, behind two tables of offerings which THE HYKSOS. 165 are entirely covered above, in front, and on each side with the spoils of the watery wastes. On the flat top are large fish ; a similar fish hangs in front. Beneath the fish a close mat of parallel depending lotus-stems, with unblown buds, and the lovely sculpturesque flowers gracefully disposed in successive rows. On each side hang four pairs of the large venerated geese of the Nile, the most esteemed of sacrifices. These quaint poten- tates rather resemble fishmongers in their bearing than con- querors : scantily clad in short kilts of linen, the familiar Egyptian shenti, their arms, adorned with plain bracelets, rest- ing on the tables, the outspread hands supporting the fish ; their heads burdened by the most enormous weight of hair, divided by the shoulders and falling in four great rope-like tresses over the breast, and in still longer twists down the back. Long beards they wear in curly rows, having much the appear- ance of the ring-mail hauberks of old crusaders, but with shaven upper lips. The visage, sooth to say, is singularly plebeian, and as unlike as possible in its type to the pleasant ingenuous look of the earliest European-like Egyptians of the pyramid-age, or the stately calmness, or the attractive kindli- ness, of the courtly twelfth dynasty. The noses are pitifully marred ; the cheek bones are high and prominent, the upper lips long and drawn downwards, the mouth sad, heavy, and anxious, the lower lip projecting beyond the chin, which is poor and ignoble, the eyes small, but not near together : the whole aspect severe, but not without a sorrowful earnestness and force. It is affirmed by Mariette that the same race still in- habit the country.* "There is not a traveller but is struck with the foreign type which characterizes the populace of the villages scattered through all the north-east part of the Delta, and especially in the borders of the Lake Menzaleh. The * Rev. Arch., p. 106, 1861. 166 ABB AH AM AXD HIS AGE. Egyptian fellah (peasant) is tall, slim, light in his step ; he has well-opened and lively eyes, short and straight nose, month well formed and smiling : the mark of their race among this people is above all in the ampleness of the trunk, the leanness of the legs, and the slight development of the hips. The in- habitants of San, of Matarieh, of Menzaleh, and the other neigh- bouring villages, have quite a different look, and from the first meeting in some sort make the observer wonder where he is. " They are of tall stature, although thickset ; their back is always a little bent, and what is remarkable before all is the robust build of their legs. "As to the head, it betrays a marked Semitic type, and not without surprise one recognises here the faces of the four sphinxes which Tanis has yielded from amidst its ruins.* The inferences from this fact are self-evident : since these Shepherd- kings are still in Egypt, it is because the war undertaken by Amosis did not end in the radical expulsion of the conquered. The Semites, who for more than five centuries inhabited the north of Egypt, finished by becoming dwellers on the shores of the Nile ; and an agreement consequent on the peace doubtless permitted the bulk of the population to abide in the places they occupied." Prof. Maspero, however, ascribes these twin figures to the late Tanite dynasty, xxi. II. Extremely similar to these figures is the invaluable fragment (described and figured by M. Lenormant) preserved in the Yilla Ludovisi at Rome.f Although the face is injured, this is otherwise well enough preserved to give a perfect view of the singular head-gear. Apart from the monstrous wig, we have a still more quaint resemblance to an early crusader's effigy in the regular curved * See on this question Wilkinson, 3Iodern Egypt, Egypt and Thebes, Vol. I., p. 4fi9 ; Bidletin de Vlnstitut Egyptien, No. 3, pp. 36, 37, 41, 42. + Frammento di Statna di uno dei Pastori di Egitto. Roma, Salviucci, 1877. THE HYKSOS. 167 rows of the curly beard, and the hair closely brought down over the forehead in similar rows. But on the upper and lower lip the mouth is shaven quite clean, so as to expose the face in a perfectly regular curve, as if it were shewing through the opening of a mail-coif. The wig looks as if superinduced on the natural hair, and is most elaborately constructed. From the middle parting above, four huge twisted locks on each side drop down to the breast. Behind on each side four twists fall flatly down the back, and in the midst of these a great gather- ing of hair is plaited into a long " pig-tail," which descended below the side-locks, till its original length is lost in the frac- ture of the statue about as low as the bottom of the shoulder blades. The photograph does not, I think, give any indication of the royal uraeus-ornament having ever been sculptured on the front of the head. Perhaps the earlier Hyksos monarchs may not have assumed the Egyptian symbol of royalty. As to the countenance, it may have been rather more well- favoured than those of the twin statues of San. The eyes, appear as if larger and better formed, and the mouth less grim ; but in the main the resemblance of the heads is very close and striking. III. Thirdly, we must consider the upper part of a broken colossal statue of a standing king,* found (not in the Delta, but) among the ruins of Crocodilopolis, the sacred city of the god Sebek in the Fayum. This shews that the Hyksos had at least included this garden of Egypt, with the magnificent works of the twelfth dynasty, the great lake, the labyrinth and sepul- chral pyramids of the Amenemhats, within their conquest ; and, as Mariette has remarked, that Memphis must have been theirs, as indeed Manetho informs us. But indeed Upper Egypt was really theirs, as is shewn by an inscription of Apepi I., Ra-aa- * Mariette, Princ. Mons., p. 56. 168 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. user (Fraser, P. S. B. A., June 1893), at Gebelen above Thebes (E. E. F. Annual Rep,, 1892-93, p. 18), as also by a Hyksos sphinx at El-Kab (P. S. B. A., xv. pp. 496, 499). " We remark the general form of the head," says Mariette, "the prominent and bony upper cheeks, the thick lips, the wavy beard covering the lower part of the cheeks, the whole aspect which gives to the physiognomy of the monument a character of individuality so decided. The unusual ornaments disposed on the breast should also fix our attention. The king was clad in panther-skins ; two heads of these animals appear on the shoulders." This dress indicates a full compliance with Egyptian customs : for it was the robe worn by the Pharaoh as sovereign pontiff, and must, one would think, imply initia- tion into the mysteries. IY. The next group of statuary gives us the uninjured contour of the face. Four sphinxes of unique type were un- covered at San, one of which is in the Museum at Gizeh. These are sculptured with extreme vigour, but quite different in style from the usual Egyptian treatment. Instead of the fully developed human head royally adorned, the faces are compassed by a vast and shaggy mane, rayed round the visage with a hairy fringe, from out of which look the stern features, royally distinguished by the Egyptian basilisk-crest above the fillet or diadem bound across the hard brow, and by the square-cut beard below ; both marking, I imagine, a later Hyksos-date than the fish-offerers and the Ludovisi head. And what a front is this ! as full of gnarled strength, as the great sphinx of Gizeh is instinct with superhuman serenity. The brows are knit with anxious care, the full but small eyes seem to know no kindly light ; the nose, of fine profile curve, yet broad and squared in form, has its strongly-chiselled nostrils depressed in accordance with the saddened lines of the lower cheek. The lips are thick and prominent, but not with the unmeaning THE HYKSOS. 169 fulness of the Negro ; quite the opposite. The curve is fine, the " Cupid's bow " perfect which defines so boldly the upper outline : the channelled and curved upper lip has even an expression of proud sensitiveness, and there is more of sorrow than of fierceness in the down-drawn angles of the mouth. " To look at these strange forms," writes Mariette, " one divines that we have under our eyes the products of an art which is not purely Egyptian, but which is not exclusively foreign either, and one concludes that the sphinxes of Avaris (San) may well offer the immense interest of being of the time of the Hyksos themselves. See the inscriptions on the right shoulders, erased. Sutekh at the head ; then the title of ' the beneficent god '; then the illegible cartouches of the king ; and the whole recalls so well by the manner in which the inscrip- tions are placed, by the length of the lines, by the style of the hieroglyphics which remain, the legend of Apophis on the colossus of Ra-smenkh-ka, that I do not hesitate to read the same legend on the new monuments. According to the Sallier papyrus Apophis raised a temple to Sutekh. I doubt not that our sphinxes are due to the piety of this king towards the god of his nation." This appears the more clear since the papyrus seems to refer distinctly to an avenue of sphinxes.* " The king Apepi (established) feasts and days for sacrificing daily victims to Set ; and statues of the king, with fillets (bandeaux, such as these sphinxes wear round the head), as is the case with a temple having (statues of) Phra-Harmakhis (that is, sphinxes) facing one another/' " I stand quite astonished," says Dr. Ebers, " before these outlandish features, which in their rough earnestness form the sharpest contrast to the smiling heads of the Egyptian Colossi." | * Chabas, Les Pasteurs, p. 17. See the footnote, t j£g. u. die Bucher Hose's, p. 207. 170 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. The inscriptions incised on the right shoulders have been taken to be usurpations and not original. It should, however, be noticed that in Chaldaean statues of Gudea in the Museum of the Louvre, the royal titles are described as "cartouche on the right shoulder," and this reminds one of the symbolic expression " the government shall be upon His shoulder." (See Records, II. series, 92, etc.). M. Grolenischeff would persuade us that these sphinxes are .portraits of Amenemhat III., and has given us beautiful photo- graphs to confirm his opinion (Rec. cle Tr., xv. 131, etc.), but on repeated study of his arguments and inspection of his plates, I cannot at all agree with Prof. Maspero in accepting his con- clusion. On the other hand it is clear to me that, whether a Hyksos monarch or not, the sphinx does not represent Amenemhat III. I am of the same opinion as my friend Prof. Flinders Petrie has expressed in his Hist of Eg. I., 238 ; and so is Prof. Sayce, who has carefully inspected the sculpture at St. Petersburg. I must not neglect to quote the opinion expressed by the late venerable Lepsius in a letter to Miss Amelia B. Edwards, 4 Sept. 1883. " In the Hyksos statues I see no Semitic features, but Hamites of the Puua (Phoenicians) of the Erythraean Sea (see my Xuoische GrammatiJc), and I place them in the oldest, not the latest, Hyksos period." We must remember, of course, that M. NavihVs discovery of the two statues of Bubastis was several years subsequent, and would come under a later Hyksos period. Y. There is yet another sphinx, at the Louvre, bearing the name of Meneptah, but formerly inscribed by Apepi, whose name M. Theodule Deveria has succeeded in deciphering on its base. VI. We have seen that Apepi's sphinxes at San, and the statue of Crocodilopolis, bear the insignia of Egyptian royalty. THE HYKSOS. 171 This is also the case with a very valuable figure at the Louvre, thus described by M. Deveria in a letter to Mariette :*"A magnificent fragment of a royal statuette of green basalt, which bears the character of the race which you have recog- nised in the heads of the four sphinxes. The eyes are small compared with the Egyptian type ; the nose vigorous and arched, but flat (your own expressions) ; the cheeks bony, and the muscles of the mouth strongly marked ; the lips thick, and the angles (of the mouth) not raised ; the chin, unhappily broken, seems to have been projecting. . . . The character of the figure is Egyptian ; and the personage bears the uraaus, is vested in the schenti (linen garment round the loins) finely plaited, and a dagger with hilt in the form of a hawk's head is passed through the girdle." M. Deveria adds, that although this statuette has no inscription, it evidently belongs to the same art as the figures at San. It has the purely Egyptian head-dress commonly called Klaft, formed of a striped cloth in the manner so ingeniously shewn by Mr. Sharpe to the Society of Biblical Archeology.! It has been however supposed by Maspero to be of much later (sa'ite) date. TIL It remains to notice the small lion of granite from Baghdad, which at last happily rests in the North Vestibule among the more ancient Egyptian statues in the British Museum. It is figured in Pleyte's Religion des Pre-Israe1ites,% and noticed by the late Mr. George Smith (by whom it was purchased) in his Assyrian Discoveries.^ Its face looks as if it had been anciently re-chiselled and diminished in size. May it not have been a human face of the same type as the San sphinxes, as, I believe, the face of the king whose name is on its breast ? The defaced cartouche has, however, now been read by Mr. Griffith, and is accepted, as the throne-name of Khiyan, * Rev. Arch., p. 257, 1861. t Trans. Soc. Bib, Arch., Vol. IV., p. 243. X PL I., fig. 9. § P- 420. 172 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Suser-en-Ra, and it is, says M. Naville, decidedly an original monument of that king, as we have before noticed in these pages. Now this would be a very important king, if he were, as formerly supposed, the identical monarch from whom a cele- brated stele at Bulak, found at San, dates four hundred years to some year in the reign of Rameses II.* This would bring the Hyksos king in question to about the year B.C. 1750, as Brugsch has remarked-! But it is, I believe with M. Naville, a monument of Khiyan. Lastly, in Bubastis, M. Naville discovered two fine colossal heads of statues, of which the lower parts, needful for comple- tion, have unhappily never been found. The one represents a man of more advanced years than the other, and more perfect head, which is now in the British Museum. It is photo- graphed in two positions in Naville's Bubastis, and was found, like the other, near the remains of a doorway bearing the titles of the Apepi of later date. " I believe," wrote M. Naville to me, "that both these statues, which were of the same size, represented Apepi, and that it was his cartouche which was engraved along the leg, and which has been twice erased." Photographs of the older face are given by Prof. Petrie in his History, vol. I., pp. 239, 240. It may there be compared with the sphinxes of San. Prof. Sayce agrees with me that they have " the very same cast of features and expression, though 1 heightened in all their finer attributes and softened by Egyp- tian culture,' and that ' this must practically settle the question of the Hyksos origin of the older sphinxes and statues.' " " We must accordingly return," he concludes, " to the old view, that the very remarkable type of head and face presented by the Hyksos monuments was that which characterised the monarchs whose names are found upon them. Prof. Flower considers the * Records oftlie Past, Vol. IV., p. 33. + Hist. d'Eg., p. 171. THE HYKSOS. 173 type to be Mongoloid ; Prof. Virchow expresses himself more doubtfully. If, as we have seen, its nearest analogue is to be sought in Northern Syria and Mesopotamia within the limits of the old kingdom of Mitanni, it is among the inhabitants of this region of Asia that ethnologists may expect to discover the racial origin of the Hyksos conquerors of Egypt " (Races of the Bible, p. 97). M. Naville says : " we recognised directly the type of the sphinxes of Tanis." .... "I am brought back by my excavations to the opinion of Mariette, and I believe that the monuments which he assigned to the Hyksos are really the work of foreign kings." .... "I consider that the group of monuments to which he gave the name of Hyksos really belongs to them " (Bubastis, pp. 26, 27). " The shep- herd kings employed native artists for making their portraits," p. 28. "Quite recently," adds M. Naville, on July 5, 1889, at the Victoria Institute (Trans. Vict. Inst.) "in the first hall, not very far from the statues, I discovered the first part of his name, what is called his standard. As Apepi was a powerful king, though he was one of the last Hyksos, and as we know from the inscription that he raised important buildings at Bubastis, it is probable that it was he who erected the great statues, and that the fine head which is now at the British Museum is the portrait of Apepi. This interests us particularly, because the Byzantine chronographer George the Syncellus relates that Apepi was the king in whose reign Joseph rose to the high position described in Genesis. According to the Christian tradition Apepi was the Pharaoh of Joseph." We are not concerned here to adduce the interesting frag- ments which afford some tantalising glimpses of the patriotic and strenuous conflict that issued in the final expulsion of the enemy. It is more to onr purpose to open our eyes to everything which may help us to identify their race and country. 174 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. The name Hyksos, by which they were known to the Egyptian priestly historian Manetho, is generally believed to be compounded oiShasu* the usual word for the Arab hordes, and hyk king ; and may have been a mere nick-name used after their expulsion. But the Egyptians call them in their records Menti (Syrians), f Sati, the roving Asiatics armed with bows ; or by a word of hatred or contempt. Manetho says they were of ignoble race, " some say Arabians " ; and also uses the term Phoenicians for the earlier monarchs. Africanus calls them Phoenicians. It is clear enough from what quarter they came. As we have seen, the few sculptures yet discovered shew a type, most strongly marked, common to all the royal heads. M. Lenormant has suggested more than once that this may display a Turanian element : " a race which is not even purely Semitic, and must be pretty strongly mixed with those Turanian elements which science reveals to-day as having borne so large a part in the population of Chalda^a and Babylonia."J " The anthropological type of the statues of the Museum of Bulak, and of that of the villa Ludovisi, a type which may yet be studied alive on the shores of Lake Menzaleh, differs radically as much from the Semitic, as from the Egyptian." § The learned Professor then proceeds to indicate a similar suppo- sition to that above quoted, and adds that his friend and fellow- traveller Dr. Hamy proposes to treat the question from an ethnological point of view in a forthcoming publication. The continuity of the great movement from Chaldrea iden- tified with the names of Kudur-Xakkkhunte, Kudur-Mabuk, and Kudur-Lagamar (Kedor-la'omer), streaming downwards in the Hyksos conquest of Lower Egypt, is also ably ex- pounded by M. Maspero in his historyj and will be treated * Birch, Brugsch, Maspero, etc. t Brugsch, Hist. d'Eg., p. 155. t Les prem. Civ., Vol. I., p. 208. § Frammento cli Statua. etc., p. 13. || Hist, ancienne, etc., p. 173. THE HYKSds. 175 in a future chapter of this work. It is not difficult to discern many minor points of support to this theory, and I cannot but think that the Turanian element will become more apparent on further inquiry. M. Lenormant has pointed out a striking similarity to the Hyksos heads in a very rude broken statuette of alabaster, found by Sir A. H. Layard at Babylon.* It appears to be extremely ancient, and bears some inscriptions containing the name of the god Nebo ; its beard and hair are arranged in the same fashion as those of the Hyksos, with the remarkable difference that the long tresses part behind and come forward, leaving the back of the head (as Prof. Sayce has kindly ascertained for me) with " no pig-tail ; in fact, no hair at all " : a very strange variety of fashion, for which I cannot at present account : the ancient Babylonians being remarkably fond of ample back-hair and strongly -developed "pig-tails," as the seal-cylinders will shew. The same ornamental feature ap- pears in the representation of the Kheta king at Medinet Habu, among the prisoners of Barneses III. He wears a long "pig-tail," curled up at the end. The curious little statuettes of metal in the British Museum bearing the name of Gudea, a very ancient viceroy of Zergulla, should be noticed in this connection (see wood-cut, G-. Smith's Hist of Babylonia, S.P.C.K., p. 72). They have high cheek- bones, gaunt faces, long peaked beards, and wear pointed head- dresses ornamented with horns on the sides. Mr. Boscawen has described them in an interesting paper read to the Society of Biblical Archaeology on the 4th December 1877. Statues of Gudea had the royal cartouche on the right shoulder, as we have mentioned, like the titles of the sphinxes of San in the inscription of Apepi. * Rev. Arch., p. 231. 1868. 176 ABBAHAM AND HIS AGE. fke^iiyktM. ^ e w ^ now ta ^ e * nfco accounfc tne religion of the Hyksds as far as our information may lead us, and here we encounter their god Sutekh, which was held to be identified with the old Egyptian god Set. To this inquiry a great interest is added by the fact that this name equally denotes the god (or local gods) of the Khati, and that the same object of worship was especially adored by the kings of the great nineteenth Egyptian dynasty at the time of the Hebrew Exodus. When we say " the Egyptian god Set," however, it is right to remember that we cannot go back to the origin of the matter ; that the strife of Set and Horus may have had some actual historic foundation in the rivalry and fusion of two powers symbolized by the red and the white crown of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively. Whatever may be the truth of Apepi's attempt to force Sutekh worship on the Egyptians, it is certain that the Hyksos kings, whose memorials we possess, were ready to take Egyptian divine titles compounded with the name of Pa, the Sun -god of Heliopolis (On). This agrees well enough with the marriage of Joseph, prime minister of a Hyksos king, with the daughter of Puti-p-ra, priest of On. I fear to enter on the great Set-Sutekh question. It seems to me that Set, or Sut, is a fire-god, or a god of solar heat. One form of his name has a determinative of flame (Meyer, Set-Typlwn, p. 2), and his symbolic creature seems to be really a gryphon (eagle-headed lion). If, indeed, we look to " Turanian " quarters, Mr. R. Brown has some interesting remarks on Seth as the name of the Etruscan Hephaistos, and similar Turanian words meaning " fire-place," " baker," etc. (Pro. Sod. Bib. Arch,, 1888, p. 348). We have at present sacred places of Neby Shit in Syria and Palestine, and Deir Seta in Northern Syria, near Edlib. In the form Setekh, or Sutekh, we have Setekh -bek (equi- valent in form and meaning to Ba'al-Bek) in the North Syrian THE HYKSdS. 177 Karnak list No. 155 ; and Sikhi-satakh, in Assyrian annals, Records, Vol. 35 (Shalmaneser), as a place (Prof. Sayce tells me) in the Kurdish mountains, .east of Euphrates. The places in the Karnak list which I have mentioned may help us to trace the name to its early haunts, and thus to trace the worshippers as well. The G-nostic Sethians in the second century made a wild confusion between the patriarch Seth and the heathen god (Les Origims, etc., i., p. 219), and thus places of Set worship became burying places of Seth. The towns whose Sutekhs are invoked to guard the cele- brated treaty between Barneses II. and Kheta-sar, form an interesting subject of study. I think I have made out most of them as belonging to the land of Kheta or Khati, from Euphrates to the Taurus and the Phoenician coast-land, with Aleppo as about the centre of the group. Elsewhere {Bab. and Or. Record) I have something to say on these places. Set was the god of the Hyksos, the especial deity of the Kheta, and under their influence his worship was revived in great splendour by the Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty. The history of his cultus is both interesting and difficult, and has been treated by many authors : of whom we may mention the late Yicomte de Rouge, M. Pleyte, and Dr. Ed. Meyer in his monograph. The worship of Set dated from the very earliest times in Egypt as the god of the mixed population of Lower Egypt (see Lenormant, Les. Orig., i., p. 218), as Hathor also was introduced, and Besq from Arabia. As early as the fifth dynasty a temple was dedicated to him at Memphis.* His name occurs on the Turin altar-legends of Pepi Merira (sixth dynasty)! in a very interesting way as correlated with Osiris, and having for his goddess Xephthys, as Osiris had Isis : * Meyer, Set- Typhon, p. 47. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 114. S 6517. M 178 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. so also " Set in the city of Pa-neham," the place from which (as Dr. Haigh has remarked*) Saneham received his name, viz., the modern Ben-ha in the Delta. But still earlier, during the fourth dynasty, M. de Rouge has found abundant traces of Set.j J ^ ^', Baal, is equivalent to \ q <$, Sutekh, and P So 5$> ^ efc > anc * ^ ears ^ ie same determinative sign, of which we shall have something to say. "If we will compare these early documents," writes M. de Rouge, " we shall convince ourselves that the comparative study of the form of the language of ancient Egypt, the sacred traditions of a neigh- bouring people, and the authentication of one and the same religion, common from the first to certain peoples of Syria and the Delta, all bring us back towards the primitive kindred of Mizraim and Canaan, a kindred which various traits equally indicate to us as between these two races and their Arabian, Libyan, and ^Ethiopian neighbours." To these weighty remarks of the late illustrious Egypto- logist, we must now add a still further extension of the affinity through Syria and Mesopotamia to Chaldoea, and probably Elam. But it is very needful to follow him in his admirable caution and discrimination : still, the affinities be- tween Babylonia and Egypt must now be carried many cen- turies farther back than the time covered by M. Oppert in his valuable treatise.J M. de Rouge considered that Horus and Set typified respectively the monarchies of Upper and Lower Egypt, like the vulture of the goddess Nekheb, and the uraeus of the goddess Uati, or the bended reed and the bee. It seems that the sun above the horizon was regarded as Horus, but in his nocturnal course as Set ; § thus identified * Trans. Vict. Inst., p. 44 ; 1877. t De Rouge, Six prem. Dyn., p. 9, etc. t Rapports de VEgypte et de VAssyrie; Paris, 1869. § 'TNJ THE HYKSOS. 170 with the power of darkness, the brother and destroyer of Osiris, and himself destroyed by Horus the avenger ; the rising sun of the morning slaying the destroyer of his father. If Set was the especial type of the kingdom of Lower Egypt, and god of the hostile Asiatics, he would naturally become identified by the expelled Egyptian refugees and patriots of Upper Egypt with everything evil and oppressive ; and moral evil would be associated with what we call physical evil. This would lead to the hatred and contempt with which after the Hyksos had been driven out, their symbol, the un- gainly Set-figure, was chiselled from all the monuments. The origin and meaning of this figure have been very variously explained. In the later times it was represented as an ass ; but nothing could be farther from the first mean- ing of the solar symbol, which I believe to have been really an eagle-headed lion. Such forms are familiar both in Babylonian and Egyptian sacred art.* Among the relics of Egyptian origin found by Sir A. H. Layard at Arban on the Khabour with archaic Assyrian sculptures,! is a scarabseus with a hawk-headed lion seated in the usual attitude of the Sutekh-animal, with a flying hawk above. May not these be J Horus and Set ? The next scarabseus figured has the same hawk-headed lion walking, with the uraeus before it. Set and Uati, the god and god- dess of Lower Egypt (?). Above the former is inscribed ====>, which reads " lord of two worlds," the usual title of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. The horns or ears of the Set-monster may be conventional representations of rays of light. The same are found on the black bird (eagle) which is used as a hieroglyphic in the name * See Wilkinson, Anc. Eg., Vol. I., p. 226. t Nin. and Bab., p. 282. X See for the Horus, for instance, the relief of Menkahor ; Six prem. I)yn., p. 98. M 2 180 ABEAHAM AND HIS AGE. of the Negroes,* 1^\, and on the gryphon of Ba'al,f which is hawk-headed, the same animal, I think, as that sacred to Mentu, if not the same god also. They quite agree with the head of Set as an eagle's head. This is evidently the case in Pleyte's plate x. fig. 17. Moreover, the Set-monster is occasionally represented with wings.J On the whole, 1 think it is an eagle-headed lion in its origin. In the Museum of Leyden is a remarkable statuette of Set, having a human figure, seated on a throne. § It has the head of the monster (the horns broken off), which seems to have terminated in a beak, but unfortunately it is much injured. A similar statue was at Bulak.|| The Leyden statue is said to be at least as old as the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty ; but, if so, surely it would be older. The date of the Bulak porcelain statue is not given. The eagle-headed lion, crested and winged, is identified with Mentu the solar war-god on the blade of the beautiful axe of Armies, found with the splendid jewels of queen Aah- hotep,^ and photographed in Mariette's Album of the Bulak Museum. The same gryphon occurs in the "N.TV. palace at Nimrud,** and in the bronze ornaments of the throne from Niinrud ; and has been found sculptured on a rock in Phce- nicia,ft and it figures among the monsters in the tombs of Beni Hassan. We have seen that the Set-animal is sometimes figured with wings, more often without ; sometimes the animal is seated, sometimes crouched like a sphinx ; sometimes only the head is joined (in the Egyptian style) to the human body. J J But always the head has the two rays, or crest-feathers, or * See Meyer, Set-Typhon, p. 7, note; and Pleyte, Belig. des pre-Isra elites, p. 108. t Bunsen's Egypt, Vol. I., p. 515. X Pleyte, pi. iv. § Pleyte, pi. III., and p. 91. || Mariette, Boidaq, p. 107. 1 Prbic. 3fons., p. 260. ** Layard, Nin., Vol. II., p. 459. tt Renan, Mission de Phenicie, p. 137. XX See below, and the Leyden statuette. THE HYKSdS. 18l ears, or horns, as in the black eagle-hieroglyphic before noticed, which may, perhaps, be assimilated to the high plumes of Mentu and Amun-Ra. The head, however, appears to me to be originally the eagle of the Assyrian sculptures (always crested) as distinguished from the hawk of the Egyptian Horus. The human eagle-headed figure may be seen very well in a sculpture from Nimrud, chasing a winged sphinx.* The origin of the name Set, or Sut, or Sutekh has been fff^ f made the subject of conjecture. Letting alone the Egyptian f^ ama Set, it has recently struck me that Sutekh may be the epony- mous god of the Suti, or Sati, the archer-hordes of the deserts of Western Asia, who were the Shasu of the Egyptians and gave the familiar name to the Hyksos. This guess I venture to throw out for inquiry. Maspero says : " Sutikhu, Sut KM, are lengthened forms of Sutu or Situ" {Struggle, etc. p. 59, note 1). Lenormant repudiates any except an artificial con- nexion, based on assonance between the Egyptian Set or Sut and Sutekh (Les Orig., etc., n., part 2, p. 306). It is characteristic of the religion of the Canaanites that human sacrifice should be attributed to the Hyksos in Egypt : and that Ahmes, who expelled those rulers, should have the credit of abolishing it.f We have seen that the Egyptians identified Sutekh with the Ba'al of Caanan. If it be true that the Hyksos burned human victims in the fire, particularly during the dog-days (as Manetho says), J when the Solar god would be especially honoured, the intense hatred of the Egyptians would be very natural. The author of Ps. 106 says that the children of Israel " sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto the ' Shedim,' " and identifies these with the " idols of Canaan." It is interesting to notice the identification of the colour * Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., p. 346. f Piejte, Rel., p. 140. X Hid., p. 139. 182 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. red throughout with the Canaanite country and worship. As we have said, the eastern land was called the " red " by the Egyptians, the crown of the lower kingdom was red, and so called ; the Set-animal was of red hue, red animals and red- haired men were devoted to Set as victims. We may compare the connection of the colour with Phoenicia, and with Edom. And now we will endeavour to estimate roughly the extent and nature of the influence exercised by the Hyksos in Egypt. First, we must set off from the notion of sudden and violent change the gradual rising of the tide from the east in the Delta. Dr. Ebers does not hesitate to say : ~ " at the end of the thirteenth dynasty the Delta swarmed with foreigners. . . . The fourteenth dynasty is already thrust out of all Lower Egypt ; Memphis falls into the hands of the intruders, and the proper Hyksos period begins." Some such inference we might surely draw from the admission of Manetho himself, that the conquerors won the land easily and without fighting. Hetep-ab-Ra, a king attributed to the thirteenth dynasty, bears the name of Her-nez-atef, son of Aamu, which means "the Asiatic," and was applied to the Hyksos, at any rate in the eighteenth dynasty. (See Daressy, Rec. cle Trcwcmx, xvi., 133. Griffith, E. E. F. Arch. Report, 1894-5.) Whatever cruelty or destruction may be laid to the charge of the Hyksos by Egyptian chroniclers, we must take into account the evidence of the monuments which remain. " The Shepherds possessed themselves of Egypt by violence," writes Mariette, "but the civilization which they immediately adopted on their con- quest was rather Egyptian than Asiatic, and the discoveries of . . . (San) prove that they did not even banish from their temples the gods of the ancient Egyptian pantheon." f * Eg. u. B. Hose's, p. 198. t Rev. Arch., p. 337, 1861. THE HYKSOS. 183 "They did not disturb the civilization more than the Persians or the Greeks, but simply accepted the higher one they had conquered." So our revered scholar Dr. Birch has summed up the matter ; * and Prof. Maspero has very happily described it thus : f " The popular hatred loaded them with ignominious epithets, and treated them as accursed, plague- stricken, leprous. Yet they allowed themselves very quickly to be domesticated. If they held a higher rank in military and political status, they felt themselves lower than their subjects in moral and intellectual culture. Their kings soon found it more profitable to cultivate than to plunder the country, and as none of the invaders, in the perplexity of finance, knew where he was, he must needs employ Egyptian scribes in the service of the treasury and administration. Once admitted to the school of Egypt, the barbarians pro- gressed quickly in civilized life. The Pharaonic court re- appeared around these Shepherd-kings with all its pomp and all its following of functionaries great and small. The royal style and title of Cheops and the Amenemhats were fitted to the outlandish names of Jannes and Apapi. The Egyptian religion, without being officially adopted, was tolerated, and the religion of the Canaanites underwent some modifications to avoid hurting beyond measure the susceptibility of the worshippers of Osiris." Let us recall the invaluable earlier story of Joseph, and we can well understand the fusion of elements in the Egypt of the Hyksos. It is curious to find among the imports of the Hyksos into Horses. Egypt, according to M. Lenormant,J the noblest and the basest of domesticated animals. The horse, unknown in Egypt before, although used in chariots by Chaldaean kings long before Abraham, is first mentioned by implication in the * Rede Lecture, p. 24. t Hist. Anc, p. 172. J Les prem. Civ., Vol. II., p. 327 et seqq.; and Chabas, Etudes, p. 427, etseqq. 184 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. time of Ahmes, the first Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty, who expelled the Hyksos, and who drove his royal war-chariot ; from which it is naturally inferred that the horse, which came from the east, had been introduced before the war of liberation. The same thing is clear from Scripture if Apepi was the master of Joseph.* The humbler animal is the pig, which was unclean among the orthodox Egyptians, but appeared in the train of the bar- barians, and was afterwards restricted to Lower Egypt. It was viewed as an adherent of Sutekh, who is even symbolized in an Egyptian wall-picture as a vermilion-coloured pig. The animal brought his name with him, in Egyptian J?TtT ^v (I ^o ^?>?> shaau, which in English we spell sow. On the other hand, the domestication of some beautiful species of gazelles and antelopes, formerly herded with the sheep and goats, ceased from the land. The coincidence of Holy Scripture with the evidence of the monuments is to be observed. No horses are mentioned in Abraham's time, but they were common when Joseph was in office. On the other hand, asses, given to Abrain, were ex- tremely numerous even when the pyramids of Gizeh were built. The subject of the camel in Egypt has been treated with his usual ability by M. Chabas.f Although unknown as far as graphic representation is concerned, it is mentioned in several most interesting texts of the nineteenth dynasty, when it was well known : and the gift of camels to Abram would in all probability be natural to the Shepherd-kings. Sir R. Owen remarks J that " if the miraculous incidents of the narrative did not exclude it from use in the quest of scientific truth, the incidental notice of ' camels ' among the gifts to Abraham by the Pharaoh whom he deceived, significantly * Gen. 47. 17 ; 50. 9. t Etudes, p. 398, et seqq. t J. of Anthrop. Inst, p. 253. 1874. THE HYKSOS. 185 indicates the date and other conditions of the incident (Gen. 12. 16), and consequently the earliest period of Egyptian history to which it can be referred, viz., after the introduction into Egypt of that Asiatic ruminant by the nomad invaders." The late learned zoologist and Assyriologist, the Rev. W. Houghton, came to the same conclusion (P. S. B. A., 1890, 80, etc.). The bones of dromedaries have been found in diggings of great depth in the Delta by Hekekyan Bey. It is characteristic of early times that silver is mentioned gST""* before gold among Abram's possessions, for it was very much more rare in Egypt, and was known as " white gold." I do not know what is the earliest date of any silver vessel or ornament preserved in the Museums, but among the celebrated jewels of queen Aah-hotep at Bulak (of the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty) are several beautiful works in silver;* and Prof. Ebers mentions a diadem, wrought of gold and silver, of one of the several Pharaohs named Entef, of the eleventh dynasty, long before the time of Abraham,! which is in the Museum of Leyden. The subject of marriage in Egypt has been treated by %[™ and Prof. Ebers. The wife held a very honourable place in the oldest times, as the monuments clearly shew. This agrees well with the Pharaoh's view of the matter, which, indeed, was quite as characteristic of the old Turanian people of Chaldsea, and also guided the conduct of Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abram's unworthy misgiving equally beset him when about to visit this latter potentate, and does not, therefore, bear any especial relation to Egypt, whether under native sovereigns or conquerors. In a letter which I received from M. Chabas,J that eminent Egyptologist thus writes : " In my * Mariette, Princ. 3fons., pp. 261, 263, 264. t Eg. u. die B. Mose's, p. 272. X Dated Chalons, s.S. April 1, 1877. The letter is written in English. 186 ABBAHAM AND HIS AGE. opinion, no hieroglyphic record can be surely referred to Abraham's times. The peaceful visit of a family of thirty- seven Aniou in the reign of an Amenemhat only shews that Asiatic tribes could find in Egypt a favourable reception at this time. " It is, moreover, very likely that the Egyptian officer who introduced them had prevailed upon them for that visit to the Nile-countries, in the hope to obtain the favour of the Pharaoh by this unwonted exhibition. Saneha also seems to have been a native Aniou, as was Joseph, and, like him, became a high officer of the king. But the presents made to Abraham by Pharaoh on account of Sarai (Gen. 12. 16) are not such as might be expected from a prince adorning with gold and lapis-lazuli the walls of his palace. The respect for marriage-ties evinced by the king of Egypt belongs to the usual rule of morals of the Egyptians, and does not belong to any particular period." These opinions, so kindly communicated in reply to ques- tions on my part, appear fully accordant with the conclusion formerly expressed by M. Chabas, as quoted by the late Eev. S. C. Malan : * " Chabas,t a very safe and equally able and learned Egyptian scholar, places Abraham under the Hyksos, about B.C. 1900, concluding from the similarity of manners at the court of Abimelech and at that of Pharaoh, that the two kings were of the same race." A light is thrown on Abram's dread, however, by a Berlin papyrus, which records the seizure of the wife and children of a foreigner by a king of the twelfth dynasty. The bearing of this text on our subject has been shewn by M. Chabas.f The word used in Gen. 12. 15 for the officers of Pharaoh's court is the correct Egyptian title (Sar), which is in fact * Phil, or Truth, p. 144. t He v. Arch., xve. ann^e, 1 livr., p. 7. J Canon Cook's Excursus, Speaker's Comm., Vol. I., p. 445. THE HYKSdS. 187 common to the Turanian and Semitic Babylonian, Egyptian, and Hebrew languages. But in Babylonia it was the title of the sovereign himself, and not even of his viceroys, whereas in Egypt the same word was applied to subordinate functionaries, such as those who spoke of Sarai to the Pharaoh. Thus, for instance, Una, the distinguished officer of Pepi-Merira, whose achievements in Southern Palestine we have before recounted, after detailing the ranks and honours bestowed upon him, boasts that he had satisfied the heart of his lord more than any " Sar " besides.* The royal title of the " Pharaoh " is thus explained by M. Pharaoh. Pierret.f " Just as the Turks say ' the Porte ' (gate) for the court of the Sultan, the Egyptians, instead of speaking of the king, said ' the Palace,' the great dwelling, ^^,per-aa, whence the Hebrew njHSf" etc - Thus in English we say " the Court," meaning the judge. The inscriptions mentioned and elucidated by M. de Eouge in his work on the six first dynasties, shew in an interesting way the transition from the literal sense to the royal title. Thus an officer speaks of having been put by Menkaura (My- cerinus) among the royal children in the palace (per-aa) of the king.J But by the time of the eleventh king of the same fourth dynasty (Sahura) the word appears to have been used in the sense of the familiar title Pharaoh. § With that absolute candour which marks the word of God, the mutual behaviour of Abram and the Pharaoh is set be- fore us. In all points the Pharaoh dealt honourably. Touched by the hand of Jehovah, to save himself no less than Sarai and Abram, he did not turn in revenge when he knew the truth ; * De Roug£, Six prem. Dyn., p. 119. t Vocab. p. 434. % P. 66. § Six prem. Dyn., p. 82. 188 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. he did not even in word offend ; but he remonstrated as an injured man who knew how to rule his own spirit, and " com- manded his men concerning him ; and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had." The Abram of Scripture is certainly no ideal hero. What- ever good we might have gained by contemplating the picture of a faultless saint we must be content to forego. Far higher lessons were in store for the children of faithful Abraham. But doubtless he had learned great things in Egypt. It was not Egypt with all its wisdom, refinement, luxury, and art that should inherit the blessing. Egypt, like Chaldaea, was corrupting her way. Those only who have tried to penetrate the labyrinth of her religion can appreciate the " sweetness and light," the " liberty of the glory," in which Abraham " walked with God." Gladly with him we turn our back on goodly Goshen, pass out through the garrisoned gateway of the long sentinelled eastern wall, plod the weary waste, rise to the breezy uplands, rear the unhewn altar, and " call on the name of Jehovah." Egypt was on the downward way, multiplying idols and drifting away from the living God. But in the person and house of Abram the great reformation was being brought to pass. All was onward and upward, through many a sorrow, but towards the light. Saving, strengthening, cleansing faith was the heart of Abram's religion, and he would add to it nothing of all the philosophy or ceremonial of dazzling Egypt. "Abram believed Jehovah, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." ( 180 ) CHAPTER XII. ABRAM RETURNS TO CANAAN. " A ND Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and -£±- all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south."* M. Chabas has remarked that the expressions "to go up" to Palestine, " to go down into Egypt," were just as much in use among the Egyptians as in the mouths of the Hebrews.! He cites passages from the papyri. For instance, Seti I., when he set out to attack Kodesh and the land of Amaor, made an ascent; and in papyrus Sallier I. the officer must " go up into Syria," and in the very interesting despatches of papyrus Anastasi III., the expression repeatedly used is that this and that officer is " gone up." " The South " is, as we have said in our last chapter, the proper name of the region between the hill-country of Judah and the desert. It is the " Negeb," m, and this very name occurs (Xegeb) in the record of the conquests of Shishak among the Egyptian annals. Doubtless Abram returned as he came, by the road which the Rev. F. W. Holland found out, as he told me in a letter. It is described and mapped by Dr. Trum- bull in his beautiful and complete work on Kadesh Barnea, and with all feasible detail by Major-Gen. Sir C. W. Wilson, R.E. (P. E. F. Qy. 1884, 4, etc.). It is concisely described in Prof. G. A. Smith's Hist. Geog. of the H. Land, 7th ed., 282. In Scripture it is " the way of Shur." In the P. E. F. Qy. two interesting sketches by Mr. Holland are given, which shew the style of country, so mountainous and wild. * G"n. 13. 1. t Nineteenth Dyn., p. S*7. 190 ABB AH AM AXD HIS AGE. Here is a little touch of truth in the progress of the family, as one after another rises up to man's estate in the separate responsibility of his position. When the clan left Ur, " Terakh tool: Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife." TThen they left Kharran, after Terakh's death,* "Abram departed, and Lot with him And Abram tool: Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son." In going down to Egypt Abram alone is mentioned. But while there Lot must have grown into separate importance, and doubtless the generous Abram had cared for this, for after "all that Abram had" is mentioned " Lot with him " ; and soon after came the need of dividing their encampments and parting company. u Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." Long before this the Egyptian nobles took great pride in the rearing of cattle, and in tombs of the fourth dynasty these are beautifully depicted. There is, for instance, a servant taking away a calf on his back ; the mother-cow stretching out its neck and shewing affectionate regret in a most natural way. There are also grand specimens of kine like "prize cattle," both long-horns and short-horns, and some with no horns at all, and the landlord is taking account of his stock with great pride. Their colours varied : the most valued being black and tan, lifxt white, and lastly red, like the fine cattle of Devon. t TTe may be quite sure that no poor specimens were given by the Pharaoh to his friend. ^Ve have spoken of gold and silver. TVhen Abram was in Egypt gold was abundantly used, not only solid, molten, and graven, and in rings for currency, but beaten into thin plates for overlaying bronze, silver, wood, and stone ; and in the time of L'sertesen L, fine gold leaf was already employed.J * Acts 7. 4. + Osburn, Mon. His. of Eg., Vol. I., p. 456. ; Wilkinson, Pop. Ace, Vol. EL, p. 145. ABB AM RETURNS TO CAXAAX. 191 In tombs of this age at Beni- Hassan, the whole process of working gold is represented, up to the manufacture of beautiful ornaments. How exquisitely wrought and artistic these could be by the end of the Hyksos period, many thousands of English eyes might see when the splendid jewels of queen Aah-hotep were displayed in a gallery of the great Exhibition of 1862. Of silver we have before treated. So when Abram again passed across the eastern Nile-streams, and out through the guarded gates into the " land of Khetam " and the sandy wastes of the Shasu-folk, he was a far more mighty man in the eyes of the world than when he had come down into Egypt. In his excellent book entitled Scripture Lands, the Rev. G. S. Drew has described the scenery in its relation to the patriarchal character and destinies. If, as we may well sup- pose, the return took place in spring time, this description would picture to us what Abram saw in coming back to his old ground.* " Xow (at Beersheba) we came in view, north and north-east, of the hills of Judaea ; and as we went on our way there was the richest profusion of field flowers I ever beheld. Imagine the Sussex Downs enclosed on all sides by gently- rising embankments, and cover them with flowers of golden and purple, and, above all, of scarlet hues, and you have the plain of Beersheba as I saw it. Flocks of sheep and goats, of camels and asses, were browsing everywhere, but we saw no oxen Through a long winding pass, singularly beautiful with its living green, we came to Dhoheriyeh, beyond which we were in the hill-country of Judaea. Xaked grey rocks, swelling and rounded in their outlines, and here and there covered with rich verdure by the terrace cultivation, gardens, vineyards, and frequent walls, surrounded us everywhere, while we were still * Scripture Lands, p. 6. Second Edition, 1871. 192 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. some distance from Hebron I shall never forget the glaring grey of the landscape just before (at 11 a.m.) we rode up the hill, whence we had our first view of the old city, April 15th. For a few weeks late in spring-time a smiling aspect is thrown over the broad downs, when the ground is reddened with the anemone, in contrast with the soft white of the daisy, and the deep yellow of the tulip and marigold. But this flush of beauty soon passes, and the permanent aspect of the country is not wild indeed, or hideous, or frightfully desolate, but, as we may say, austerely plain ; a tame unpleasing aspect, not causing absolute discomfort while one is in it, but left without one lingering reminiscence of anything lovely, or awful, or sublime." But Abram did not linger here ; " he went on his journeys," that is, " by his stations," " from verdant stage to stage," as the poet Thomson well expresses it, " from the south (Negeb) even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the begin- ning, between Beth-el and Hai ; unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. And there Abram called on the name of Jehovah." We have before given a description of the scene. Surely Abram must have heartily rejoiced to reach the place of the altar once more, in the holy promised land ; to breathe the high pure air of the mountains in freedom, and to inhale the clearer spiritual atmosphere, rebuild his altar, lay his sacrifice, kindle the sacred flame, smell the sweet savour ascend- ing, and raise on high the most holy Name with fresh devotion. We have not read of the altar and the Name of Jehovah in Egypt. Not that Abram would return to the abomination of idolatry : but we may reasonably think it fared not so well there with his soul's health. Doubtless Dean Stanley is right in saying that Egypt represented to him what we call "the world."* And Abram had shaken off its dust from his feet, * Sermons in the East, p. 2. ABB AM RETURNS TO CANAAN. 193 and returned to " a closer walk with God." This is most sir- nificantly shewn by what followed. His nephew Lot was by this time a great patriarchal chief, with flocks and herds and tents ; and in one respect perhaps Abram might have envied him, for he had with him, not his wife only, but his daughters too. " The land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together ; and there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle, and the herdmen of Lot's cattle ; and," it is significantly added, " the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land." They dwelled, but Abram and Lot only sojourned in their wide-scattered encampments. It was most unseemly that this strife should arise before the heathen. Now Abram's noble character shines out. He was the head ; yea, the whole land was given to him by the promise. But in his magnanimity he " said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee .... for we be brethren. Is not the wJioh land before thee ?" Thus he gave his nephew the full choice. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain (circle) of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar." Dean Stanley, with a few firm touches, has sketched the panorama from Abram's tent. " To the east there rises in the foreground the jagged range of the hills above Jericho : in the distance the dark wall of Moab ; between them lies the wide valley of the Jordan, its course marked by the tract of forest in which its rushing stream is enveloped ; and down to this valley a long and deep ravine, now, as always, the main line of com- munication by which it is approached from the Central hills of Palestine, a ravine rich with vine, olive, and fig, winding its way To the south and the west the view commanded the bleak hills of Judaea, varied by the heights crowned by what were afterwards the cities of Benjamin, and overhanging S 6517. N 194 ABB AH AM AXD HIS AGE. what in a later day was to be Jerusalem, and in the far distance the southern range on whose slope is Hebron. Northward are the hills which divide Judaea from the rich plains of Samaria."'" But woe to Lot ! for what he cared to behold was that low valley of the Jordan, widening into its " circle " of deep-lying green irrigated country, where the rushing river loses itself in the Salt Sea, 1300 feet below the Mediterranean, finding not an outlet, but ever steaming up in that hot depth to heaven, and still bearing the name of the misguided patriarch, " Bahr Lut." " The name of Lot is also connected," says Sir George Grove.f " with a small piece of land, sometimes island, some- times peninsula, at the north end of the lake." " Like the land of Egypt " : this would be a thought of no good omen to Abram, but " Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed east : and they separated them- selves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly." So for the present we lose sight of Lot. It must have been a sad parting ; but when he had gone his way, Jehovah again spake to His faithful servant : " Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward : for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth : so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee." AVe may be sure that this was a great crisis in the life of Abram ; and in his noble and unworldly conduct we must * Sinai and Pal., p. 218. Fifth edit. ; and see a very beautiful view by D. Roberts, t Smith, Die. of Bib. "Salt Sea." ABEAM RETURNS TO CANAAN. 195 "glorify the grace of God." It is likely that up to this time he had viewed Lot, his departed brother's son, as his heir. The first promise : " I will make thee a great nation," may have been regarded as consistent with this. But now Lot was gone ; and at this very time the blank was filled by the direct promise of "seed as the dust of the earth " ; and the command to survey the land of their inherit- ance. Abram keeps to the uplands, and retraces his steps along the mountain range southward to the " oaks " (not plain) of Mamre, a chief of the Amorites who became his trusty ally, in the near neighbourhood of Kiriath-Arba'. The place was always held in honour, and for ages a venerable tree was pre- served, and even worshipped. "About two miles north of Hebron, just after quitting the garden-like vale of Eshcol, with its fair terraced vineyards and olive trees," writes Canon Tristram,* " we turned a little to the east to visit Rameh, the ancient Mamre, now left without a tree, save one or two decrepit old olives, and for the most part a heap of undistinguishable ruins, scattered among the barley- fields. There is one exception, in the basement of the magnifi- cent Basilica erected by Constantine on the spot where Abra- ham's oak once stood, and which had become an object of idola- trous worship In one corner of the building is an ancient drop- well, carefully lined with hard limestone, and still containing water ; probably far older than the church, and perhaps reach- ing back to the time of Abraham. What memories does this bleak desolate spot recall, from the days when the father of the faithful sat there in his tent-door, looking out, not on bare stony fields, but on green glades beneath the ancient terebinths." And it is duly recorded that when Abram "removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the oak-grove of Mamre, which is in Khebron," he " built there an altar unto Jehovab." * Land of Israel, p. 398. N 2 ( 196 ) CHAPTER XIII. ELAM AXD ITS KIXGS — KEDOR-LA'OMER's WAR AXD DEFEAT. ONLY in two places in the Pentateuch does the name Elain occur. Then it drops into forgetfulness for some twelve centuries, to emerge again in the latest historical books and in the prophets. Half a millennium later there are Elamites in the upper chamber on the day of Pentecost. This word is the key to one of the most curious " restitutions of decayed intelligence " ever known in the world of literature. In the Book of Genesis we find Elam entered in the great record of races as the first-born of Shem. Xext comes Assur. Not a word more of Elam until twice in the fourteenth chapter we find the same title given to Kedor-la'oiner, "king of Elam." Now although the name of Amraphel (^""ON) king of Shinar is first mentioned in specifying the "days" in which the conquest took place, we soon find that the king of Elam must have been his overlord ; for the subjugated kings " served " Kedor-la'omer, and it was he, " and the kings that were with him," that undertook to reduce them to submission when they revolted. These things were very surprising and perplexing to thoughtful Bible-readers till very lately. Now they are furnishing one of the most striking confirma- tions of our faith in the historical record which the wit of man could possibly imagine. For this pristine Elam is "rising up," with its kindred nation the old Turanian Chalda^a, as if to shew that in God's providence there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed when the set day is come. As Prof. Maspero says : " From the outset Assyriologists have never doubted the EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 197 historical accuracy of this chapter (Gen. 14), and they have connected the facts which it contains with those which seem to be revealed by the Assyrian monuments " {Struggle, etc., p. 47, note). It is but a rough patch-work, perhaps, that we can put together at the best to represent this old forgotten Eiam. But, such as it is, an honest mind will view it with wonder and delight, and long for the time when much new material will help us, or our children, to a more perfect result. Beyond the Tigris in its lower course, to the east lies the £«»* °f country which was Elam, the name Elamu being " but a trans- lation of the old Accadian name of Susiana, Numma, a word connected with the Vogul numan, 'high," ,# or perhaps "the East" (Hommel, P.S.B.A. xvn., 200). This region was " chiefly composed of the broad and rich flats intervening be- tween the mountains and the Tigris, along the courses of the Kerkhah, Kuran, and Jerhi rivers,"t but including a; part of the highland country, of which a very interesting account is given by Mr. Loftus.J "The great range . . . attains an elevation of eight or ten thousand feet above the sea, and bears in a general direction towards the north-west. Its rocky masses belong entirely to the cretaceous and lower tertiary series, rising in huge, elongated saddles of compact altered limestone parallel to each other. At intervals, where the elevating force which produced the present configuration of this region has acted with extreme intensity, the continuity of the beds became broken, and masses of rock were left standing isolated with precipitous escarpments, presenting retreats accessible only to the savage inhabitants. ' Diz ' is the name applied to natural fortresses of this kind, which frequently bear on their summits * Sayce, Trans. Soe. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 468. + Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., p. 26. % Chald, and Sus., p. 308. 198 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. acres of rich grass, and springs of delicious water, whither a native chief with his adherents can retire in safety in times of need, and defend their difficult passes with a handful of men against the whole power of the Persian government itself. " Superimposed on the harder limestone rocks are beds of a softer nature, marls, rivalling the coloured sands of our own Isle of Wight in their brilliant and variegated aspect : vast piles of amorphous gypsum dazzling the eye with its excessive whiteness, and successive layers of red sands alternating with gravel. These formations follow the contortions of the harder crystalline limestones, lie at extraordinary angles on the slopes of the saddles, and fill up the hot, feverish valleys between them. Wherever the highlands of Persia are approached from the plains of Mesopotamia, the same formidable barrier of mountains presents itself. To attain the high level of the garden of roses, which the Persian poet loves to descant on, it is necessary to climb the successive ridges by roads scarcely better than goat tracks, which regular gradation of ascents is appropriately described by the Greek historians as Kkipauceq, or ladders. All the great rivers which flow from the east into the Tigris have their sources in these mountains, crossing diagonally through the intricacies of the chain. Instead of flowing in a south-east direction along the trough which separ- ates two parallel limestone saddles, and by this means working out its channel in the soft rocks of the gypsiferous and marly series, and rounding the extremity of the saddle where it dips under the overlying deposits, each of these rivers takes a direc- tion at right angles to its former course, and passes directly through the limestone range by means of a ' tang,' or gorge, apparently formed for this express purpose. On reaching the next succeeding gypsum trough, it follows its original south- east course for a short distance, and again crosses the next chain in the same maimer, until it attains the verdant plains of EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 199 Assyria or Susiana. Many of these tangs expose a perpendicular section of one thousand feet and upwards, and were formed, not by the scooping process which attends river action, but by natural rents produced by the tension of the crystalline mass at the period of its elevation." We may easily imagine how this grand defensible high- land would nurture a formidable race, who, cultivating their own varied country, and having every variety of resource at their command, would hang like birds of prey above the wealthy warm plains across the Tigris, ever ready to pounce. It was in fact from these eastern ranges that the Akkadians had descended, taking with them their traditions and a memory loyal to the high places where the heavens rested on the pillars of the earth. It was on the mountains of Mzir, some three hundred and fifty miles, as it seems, to the north-west of Susa, that the ark rested, according to the Chaldyean tradition.* It was somewhere in the sequestered strongholds of these moun- tains of Elam, that Izdubar (or Gilgames) in his valour sought out and slew the dreaded tyrant Khumbaba (whose name pro- claims him an Elamite, or Susian proper) in his forest of pines and cedars.f This old-world story in itself stamps the dread with which the early men of Erech looked towards those moun- tains of the rising sun. The capital, from the earliest times, was Susa, on an open gravel plain about thirty miles from the mountains, to which her rulers would retire from the fierce heat of summer. This plain was amply watered and of luxuriant fertility. " Nowhere have I seen," says Mr. Loftus, " such rich vegetation as that which clothes the verdant plains of Shush, interspersed with numerous plants of a sweet-scented and delicate iris."J The great mound of the citadel rises one hundred and twenty feet above the stream of the Shapur, which * G. Smith, Assyr. Disc, p. 21 7. t Chald. Genesis, pp. 185, 215, 259. % Ibid., p. UG. 200 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. runs close to it on the west, with the " tomb of Daniel " on the bank between ; and on the eastward was the ancient course of the Euheus, the " river Ulai " of Scripture, the bed of which is now forsaken and overgrown with rank vegetation. " The numerous remains of irrigating canals with high embankments, which diverge from it on either side, proved it to have been a main artery. The Arabs of the locality call it ' Shat-atik,' or ancient river."* It was the eastern branch of the river Choaspes (Kerkhah), whose waters have always been renowned for their purity. " It is difficult to conceive," says the same excellent writer, " a more imposing site than Susa. ... Its great citadel and buildings raising their heads above groves of date, konar, and lemon trees, surrounded by rich pastures and golden seal of corn ; and backed by the distant snow-clad mountains. Neither Babylon nor Persepolis could compare with Susa in position, watered by her noble rivers, producing crops without irrigation, clothed with grass in spring, and within a moderate journey of a delightful summer clime." t Shush is some twenty miles south of the latitude of Baby- lon. Its neighbourhood is infested by lions and wild boars, whose trails intersect the low jungle : also " wolves, lynxes, foxes, jackals, porcupines, francolin, and a small species of red- legged partridge. "J The explorations of Mr. Loftus in the huge mounds laid open the remains of magnificent buildings of the Persian period, including the stately palace described in the Book of Esther. But we are only entitled in this place to notice the more ancient objects discovered in the citadel. " There is every probability," he says, "that some of the brick inscriptions extend as far back as the period of the patriarch Abraham." § * Chald. Genesis, p. 424. t Ibid., p. 347. X Ibid., p. 346. § Ibid., p. 414. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 201 M. Lenormant mentions a still more primitive relic : " The Anarian cuneiform writing, as science has now proved, was originally hieroglyphic, that is, composed of pictures of material objects ; and these forms can in some cases be reconstructed. An inscription entirely written in these hieroglyphics exists at Susa, as is positively known ; but it has not yet been copied, and is therefore unfortunately not available for study." * The very important archaeology of earliest Elam will, we trust, be recovered by researches now undertaken by M. de Morgan, who has broken off his great work in Egypt for this new exploration. In truth this region was the seat of a civilization of the most ancient date, while in the back-ground rose the old Turanian Media, stretching away towards the Caspian, where a kindred but not identical language was spoken. There were in Elam very various races living side by side Jjjjjj* for ages, whose contrasted types of visage may be easily dis- criminated in the Assyrian sculptures. And it has in like manner been noticed by Prof. Oppert,| that in the Khorsabad inscription of Sargon, "nearly all the names of the Elamite towns are Semitic {see Gen. 10. 22), but the Susian ones are not." The race of the sons of Shem bear the physiognomy which marks their kindred through the world. The keen and refined features are set off to great advantage by contrast with the blunt outline and thick protruding lips, which have been identified with the Kissians or Cossaeans of classic authors, Kassi Kassites. of the monuments, the sons of the eastern Gush of the Bible. J This race of the Kassi came to the front in later times, and became masters of Babylonia. It is important to distinguish them from the Turanian Elamites whom M. Lenormant knows as " the Susians properly so called." This may partly be done by * Manual, Vol. I„ p. 434. t Records, Vol. IX., 5. % Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., Vol. II., p. 500. 202 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. marking the variations of the language, as M. Lenormant * and Prof. Sayce f have shewn, but most strongly in the names of their gods, of which M. Lenormant gives as Kassian the follow- ing : — Sakh, Khali, Mnrbe or Urus, Sibarru, Dunyas, Buryas, Sikhn or Sipak, Sumu. None of these are found among the Susians, who had the following : — "At the summit of the divine hierarchy Susinka (meaning ' the Susian'), the national god of Susa, and Nakhkhunte, a goddess who (they tell us) had in this town her image, unseen by the profane, in the depth of a sacred wood. The goddess Nakhkhunte seems to be the same whom they identified with the Nana of Chaldaea, after the conquest of the famous statue taken away from Erech (which we shall refer to hereafter), an episode which has left traces in some mytho- logical legends much later. . . . Below these two personages come six gods whom Assurbanipal notes as of the first rank, and who appear to have been grouped in two triads, correspond- ing, perhaps, with the two superior triads of the Chaldseo- Babylonian religion : Sumud, Lagamar, and Partikira ; Urn- man or Amman, who seems to have been a solar god, Uduran, probably lunar, and Sapak. Finally, the annals of Assurbanipal mention twelve gods and goddesses of minor importance, whose images were also taken away in the sack of Susa ; Ragiba, Sungamsara, Karsa, Kirsamas, Sudun, Aipaksina, Bilala, Pani- dimri, Silagara, Napsa, Nabirtu, and Kindakarbu. We should also add Laguda, whose worship was established at Kisik in Chaldaea, and a god whose name, rendered by Khumba in the Assyrian transcriptions, is Khumbume in the original Susian documents." Now this information is of especial importance to our purpose. For instance, the last name, Khumba, stamps the old potentate Khumba-ba, whom Gilgames slew in his forest, as a true Susian, and marks the ancient date of the god. * La Magie. p. 321. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., 400. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 203 Nakhkhunte and Lagamar figure in a notable way in our history. On the other hand, some of the Kassite gods, as Sakh, Dunyas, Buryas, appear in the composition of names in Chaldaea, which we must therefore mark accordingly as Kassite.* M. Lenormant distinguishes carefully between the Susian FJamite , n . . . _ languages. language and the more northern old Turanian tongue of Media, called proto-Medic to distinguish it from the Aryan of a later date. These subjects have been treated in a masterly way by Profs. Lenormant and Sayce in the now celebrated work La Magie, and a paper in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, from which we are quoting (T. S. B. A., in.) ; and we must refer the student to these high autho- rities, contenting ourselves with drawing in strong outline the main features. The truth is, that from the very oldest times we cannot Mamite activity. isolate the history of Babylonia, or Chaldaea, or Assyria. The mountaineers of Elam, of Media, of Armenia, of Syria, are always on the alert, and even the plains themselves are perpetually heaving with the fluctuating tumult of the rival races of the sons of men. But this is not all. If the historian had a stronger tele- scope, or the power of clairvoyance, he would discern in the still further distance forces on the outskirts of the great field operating with no less effect although so remote. For instance, -we have taken no account of the great Aryan races, whose ever progressive power was destined to mastery over all others. Yet students of ethnology are telling us that, even about the very period of our survey, vast movements were finding place which could not have been without their influence on the Avestwarcl current of conquest and migration. * See the dynastic lists in G. Smith's History of Babylonia, and at the end of Menant's Bab. et la Chaldee. Also in Records of the Past, New Series, Vol. I. 204 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. " The Dravidian race formerly occupied the whole of India, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and along the Indus as far as Beloochistan. Driven back by the immigration of the Aryans, it had been obliged to withdraw little by little till near the southern part of the Indian peninsula, and to-day it is circumscribed on the plateau of the Deccan. " The commencement of the migration of the Dravidian race agrees with the arrival of the Aryans in the Punjab : that is to say, that it took place about the year 2,000 before Jesus Christ." * A very ancient tradition seems to have borne witness to the oppression of Babylonia by the Elamites under Khumbaba, after whose death at the hands of the hero Gilgames, that mighty conqueror, identified conjecturally by Mr. George Smith with Mmrod, became overlord of all the principalities as far as the Armenian mountains. Gilgames appears to have been of the race of Cush, the Kassi, like the Mmrod of Genesis. His thick and clustered hair in snaky twists was quite a tra- ditional mark of this hero in the seal-cylinders and sculp- tures. It is worth notice that Attila the Hun, in the fifth century, designated himself " Descendant of the great Mmrod, t . . . king of the Huns, the Goths, the Danes, and the Medes. Herbert (author of ' Attila,' a poem) states that Attila is repre- sented on an old medallion with 'a teraphim, or a head, on his breast,' and the same writer adds : ' we know from the Hamartigenea of Prudentius that Nimrod, with a snaky-haired head, was the object of adoration to the heretical followers of Marcion ; and the same head was the palladium set up by Antiochus Epiphanes over the gates of Antioch, though it has * Apercu general sur les Migrations des Peuples, etc., p. 18, par C. E. de Ujfalvy. Paris, 1874. t Six- Eel. Creasy, Fifteen decisive Battles. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 205 been called the visage of Charon. The memory of Nimrod was certainly regarded with mystic veneration by many ; and by asserting himself to be the heir of that mighty hunter before the Lord, he vindicated to himself at least the whole Baby- lonian kingdom.' " It is interesting to trace this appalling head through its Gorgonian development, so far down the ages, from the most ancient Babylonian gems. The early kings whose names are recorded in the frag- mentary inscription of Agu-kak-rimi, brought home by Mr. Gr. Smith, were rulers of Babylonia, but of Cassite race, that is of the Cushite race of Elam, and form in that author's History of Babylonia the first Cassite dynasty.* The overshadowing influence of Elam on Babylonia is curiously marked in the old astrological tablets of Sargon I., so ably explained by Prof. Sayce, who thus traces the origin of those massive stage-pyramids of the Chaldean plains : — " The Accadai, or * Highlanders,' who had founded their creed in the mountains of Elam, believed that the gods only came down to the highest parts of the earth ; and therefore raised artificial eminences, like the Tower of Babel, for their worship in the plains of Babylonia, f These towers would have been admirably adapted for observing the heavens, and their sacred character would have harmonized with the astro-theology of Chaldasa." An Elamite is among the astronomers who report to the king, under whose Semitic rule it is natural to find that the prosperity of Elam signifies evil to Akkad ; J and we see Sargon ravaging the country of Elam under the propitious omen of a suitable moon. § And now we approach the most important points of the fragmentary story of Elam. In the annals of Assurbanipal, * Hist. Bab., Vol. II, 11; Assyr. Dtec, pp. 225, 232; Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. IV., 132. t Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., 151. X Ibid., 215. § Ibid., Vol. I., 49. 206 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. king of Assyria, son of Esar-haddon (b.c. 668-626), he records that when he conquered Elam and took the city of Susa, B.C. 645, he brought back an image of Nana which Kudur- Nankhundi (or Kudur Nakhkhunte) had taken away on his overrunning Babylonia 1,635 years before ; that is in the year B.C. 2280.* This gives us an invaluable date some three centuries before the time of the king of Elam mentioned in Gen. 14. ; thus (as Mr. G. Smith remarks) " confirming the statement of Genesis that there was an early conquest of Baby- lonia by the Elamites." "He laid his hands on the temples of Akkad, and oppressed Akkad." M. Oppert deduces the same date in a different manner f in confirmation of this result. Let us not forget that the only hint of this dominant early power in the world till very lately was the title, " king of Elam," given to Kedor-la'omer in the Biblical sketch of his campaigns. Now, however, was found a name of even earlier date, of which the former element Kudur was manifestly identical with Kedor (1*0), and the latter is now known to be the name of a goddess of the Elamites ; whilst it is equally manifest from the same Assyrian annals that Lagamar J was a god of the same people. Thus the conquest of Babylonia by a king of Elam agrees with Scripture, but not the date, nor the latter half of the name, nor the extended warfare in Palestine. We must seek further than Kudur-Nakhkhunte. At length, from a totally different quarter, we are enabled to reconstruct almost (perhaps quite) the whole history inde- pendently of the Bible ; § for in Southern Chaldaea have been found some original inscriptions of a later Elamite prince, * Assyr. Disc, p. 223. + Records, etc., Vol. VII., 23. t Ibid., p. 353. § See Sayce, Expos. Times, Vol. IV , 14. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 207 whose name is given as Kudar-Mabuk, son of Simti-sil-khak. One of these was found at Mugheir (Ur of the Chaldees) and in it Kndnr-Mabuk assumes the title adda Martu, " father of Phoenicia." Another is graven on a bronze statuette in the Louvre representing a goddess, brought from Afadj in Baby- lonia. This inscription is given by Mr. G. Smith in a valuable paper published in 1872,* and in it the monarch styles himself adda Yamutbala, " father of Yamutbal," which was a part of Elam. Here then is an Elamite prince who is ruler in the land of Martu, that is Phoenicia, and one half of whose name agrees with that of Kudur-lagamar. " From his Elamite origin and Syrian conquests, I have always conjectured Kudur-Mabuk," writes the lamented George Smith, " to be the same as the Chedor-la'omer of Genesis, ch. 14." This supposition was originally put forth, I believe, by Sir Henry Rawlinson, who afterwards (in 1861) was disposed to doubt the identification.! We will therefore examine the matter (see Hommel, P.S.B.A. xviii. 24). The remarkable tablet before mentioned, which gives the conquests of Sargon I. and his son Naram-Sin in clauses, each headed by its favourable omen, gives successive invasions of Syria and conquests of the Amorites by that monarch, as far as the Mediterranean, and (like the Egyptian and Assyrian monarchs of later times) " his image at the setting sun he set up." % It appears that Naram-Sin, like Pur-Sin II. before him, was worshipped as a god, and probably while yet alive. One evidence of this is the inscription on a most interest- ing seal-cylinder, found by General di Cesnola at Curium in * Notes on the Early Hist, of Assyria and Babylonia, p. 19. Harrison ; see also Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., 43. t Herod., Vol. I., p. 354, note. \ Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. I., p. 50 ; Records of the Past, Vol. V., p. 61. 208 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. the isle of Cyprus, and described by Prof. Sayce.* Moreover he afterwards conquered Makan and its king. This Makan was the name of the Sinaitic peninsula and Midian (still pre- served possibly in the MuTma on the east of the gulf of Akaba, in the region explored by the late Dr. Beke and by the late Sir R. Burton, R.X.). However this may be, it is clear that the connection between these aggressions and the troubles at the end of the twelfth dynasty of Egypt, the loss of the mining stations of Sinai, the dread of " Assyria " on the part of Salatis the first Shepherd-king, and the general bearing of the east on Egypt, must be carefully held in view in all Baby- lonian research regarding this early period. Ivudur-Mabuk had a son whose name was Eri-aku. It is found in many inscriptions, and signifies in Akkadian, "ser- vant of the Moon-god." He was associated with his father, and as his especial capital received the city of Larsa (now Senkereh), on the east of the Euphrates, between Erech and Ur, which has been identified by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Edwin Norris, Mr. George Smith, and M. Lenormant, with the Ellasar (ID^frO of Genesis, f and is now generally accepted as identical. Now the name Eri-aku is quite identical with the *]V*)^ (Ariok) of Gem 14, and if the identification of Larsa be correct, of course as to name and title the monarchs are the same. The name of the father Ivudur-Mabuk is only half- identical with Kudur-Lagamar. Prof. Hommel believes that he has found " the same deity as in the well-known name Kudur- Mabuk " in an Elamitic proper name, Ma'-uk-titi ; " Mabuk and Ma'uk are only variants of spelling" {P. S. B. A. xviii. 23). * Trans. Soe. Bib. Arch., Vol. V„ p. 441. t La Langue prim., p. 37S. It is a most ancient city, and appears to be the Snrippak of which Hasisadra (Noah) was a native. Menant, Bab., p. 85 ; G. Smith, Mist. Bab., p. 54, note. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. . 200 On the other hand, Lagamar was a most important Elamite god. That Kudur-Mabuk might have borne the name of this god as a religions title seemed very credible, since a much later Elamite monarch, a Kudur-Nakhkkunte, calls himself " the servant of Lagamar," and Naram-Sin calls him- self, on a seal cylinder, " the servant of the god Martn," which, if Mabnk be the Syrian deity whose name was given to Bambyke (now called Membij), would seem quite parallel. (See Sayce, Pat. Palestine, p. 6G.)* At all events we now have the name Kudur-Lagamar in cuneiform records. M. Lenormant thinks that Eri-aku, being a Babylonian name adopted by an Elamite prince, may have been assumed as a throne-name on his accession. This would involve a double name in his case ; and Mabuk, it was thought, a similar title adopted by the father. Bat Kudur-Mabuk is generally regarded as a different man from Kudur-Lagamar ; " possibly they were brothers," says Prof. Sayce. We will now pass from the names to the deeds of these potentates, who belonged originally, says Mr. G. Smith, to the north-western part of the country of Elam. The great event of their reign in Babylonia was their capture of the "royal city " of Karrak, the site of which is not yet iden- tified, " but it was probably not far from Nipur " f (Niffer, about half-way between Babylon and Ur). Eri-aku became a great rebuilder of cities, temples, and fortifications, including Ur, Erech, Larsa, Nipur, Eridu, Zirgulla, Karrak ; and before his overthrow by Khammurabi " rebuilt Gisgalht-ki of the goddess Ma-sig-dng," says Hommel, "a striking illustration at the same time for the vassal- ship of Amraphel to Larsa in the days of Ariok (Gen. 14). A few years afterwards Khammurabi overthrew his former * Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. III., p. 479. t G. Smith, Hist. Bab. p. 71. S 6517. 210 ABB AH AM ANB HIS AGE. patron and rebuilt the temples of Larsa " (P. S. B. A. xv. 110). The copper head of Khammurabi's mace or sceptre, in- scribed with his name, is now in the British Museum, and is engraved in The Straggle of the Nations, p. 41. In the ruin-heaps of Eri-aku's capital Larsa, fifteen miles south-west of Erech, Mr. Loftus made very interesting dis- coveries dating back to tombs of the time of Urba'u.* " The whole area of the ruins is a cemetery ; wherever an excava- tion was made, vaults and graves invariably occurred, and the innumerable cuneiform records contained in them substantiate their undoubted antiquity. So numerous were the clay tablets, I almost arrived," he says, " at the conclusion that the fine brown dust of the mounds resulted from their decomposition." The most memorable conquests of Kudur-mabuk and Eri-aku were, however, those which delivered into their hands Syria and Palestine, and conferred on the lord of Elam the proud addition of " father of Martu." This career of victory would really appear to be the same as that recorded in Gen. 14 of Kudur-lagamar and his viceroys. With re- gard to the date, Canon Rawlinson gives the probable date of Kudur-mabuk at about B.C. 2100 ;f Prof. Sayce's opinion, expressed to me in a letter, is that he must be placed at B.C. 2000 ; and M. Lenormant also assigns his reign ap- proximately to the epoch of Abraham. J Prof. Hommel now gives, and explains, for Khammurabi's reign the date B.C. 1947- 1892 (Heb. Trad., p. 125). The other kings subject to Kedor-la'omer besides Ariok were the kings of Shinar and of Goim (" nations ") shin'ar. Tiie lan( j f ghin'ar ("ftttEO is identified by Assyriologists with the Sumir of the cuneiform inscriptions^ which is * Chald. and Sus., p. 252. + Bible Educator., Vol. I., p. 68. X La Langaie prim., p. 374. § Chald. Magic, p. 387 ; Sayce, Bab, Lit., p. 75. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 211 conjoined with Akkad in the royal titles, as we have seen in the case of Kudur-Mabuk. M. Bertin says that S.W. Babylonia is still called Somer by the Arabs {Bah. Chron. and Hist., 21 note). The king of this province bore the name given in Hebrew as SfilStf , Amraphel of the Authorised Version. But it has been proposed to identify Amraphel with Khammurabi. Several theories have been set forth to shew how this may be done. See, for instance, the English trans- lation of Schrader's Keilinschriften unci das Alte Testament by Prof. Whitehouse, p. 299. Prof. Hommel is of this opinion, in which Prof. Sayce now joins, although by another method {P. S.B.A. xix., 75). He makes Amraphel equal to Ammurabi-ilu, Khammurabi the god. Compare what is else- where said on divine honours paid to Chaldean kings. The D^Ji, Goi'm, or "nations," are identified with the Goim. " Guti " (or " Gutium ") of the inscriptions, also called Ku. "In the great work on astrology compiled by order of Sargon I., king of Agade, as well as in some bilingual geo- graphic lists, which appear to be of about the same time, the Gutium are clearly marked as the Semitic tribes, as yet imperfectly organized, who dwelt then to the north of Baby- lonia, and of whom one part became afterwards the nation of the Assyrians." # But the Hebrew appears correct in reading 1 and not \ for we now have cuneiform inscriptions which justify that reading by its equivalent, Tud-Khula. It is worthy of remark that the auxiliaries of the Hittite alliance against Rameses II. were commanded by a " Ta'adal," as M. Lenormant has noticed (Les Or iff. in., 79). Mr. Pinches has discovered injured tablets which, although of late date, appear to be copies of ancient records, and contain * La Langue prim., p. 376. 2 212 ABEAHAM AND HIS AGE. the names of Eri-aku, Tudghula, and Kudur-Laghghamar in connection with one another (see his paper read to the Victoria Institute, Feb. 3rd, 1896, and Knowledge, May 1st, 1896), and the name is now read by P. Scheil as Kudurla'ggamar (see Hommel, Heb. Trad., 174, 180, and a letter from Mr. Pinches to me). Dr. Scheil has discovered, in the Museum at Constantinople, letters written by Khammurabi to his vassal Sin-idinnam of Larsa, in which mention is made of the Elamite king Kudur-Laghghamar. Thus we have the viceroys of northern and southern Baby- lonia, and the lords of the country afterwards bearing the name of Assur, under their lord paramount the king of Elam, engaged in just such a campaign as those which gave Kudur- Mabuk the title of father of Martu. We will now consider the Biblical narrative of this campaign. In the deep valley of the Jordan had been formed one of those confederacies of cities so characteristic of the Canaanite races, as we learn equally from Scripture and from the annals of Egypt and Assyria. The region is called DH&Tl pfoV, the " vale of the Siddim." The word rendered vale is applied to open valleys inclosed by hills. " Siddim " has been an enigma to the commentators. Dr. Deane has suggested that the gypsum of the cliffs is called in Heb. sid, and would thus account for the name.* Col. Conder, E.E., comes near the same point. f Taking the word as it stands, however, without the late addition of points, it seems likely enough that it might have been the " Shedim," to whom we have before referred, the local Canaanite gods to whom the sons of Abraham were afterwards enticed to offer sacrifice. The " Valley of the She- dim " would be no unlikely designation of so thick a hive of * Bible Educator, Vol. IV., p. 15. t P.E.F., 1878, p. 18. EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 213 allied Canaanites. Anyhow, in this tropical depth they had established a hot-bed of heathenish vice. Franz Delitzsch remarks that "the possession of the Arabah, i.e. of the great deep-sunken valley to the north and south of the Dead Sea, was of great value to a conqueror of Upper Asia, becanse ' this was the road traced out by nature itself, which, starting from the iEIamitic Gulf, and cutting through the great wilderness watered by the Nile and Eu- phrates, was the means of intercourse between Arabia and Damascus, and because at no great distance from the south- west border of Canaan, and near to the Iduruaaan mountains is found the point of intersection of the roads from the east of the Mediterranean to Arabia, and from Middle Egypt to Canaan ' (Tuck)." The cities of this alliance were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, and Bel'a (afterwards Zoar) ; their respective kings Bera, Birsha, Shinab, and Shemeber, and a king of Bel'a, whose name is not given. It seems clear enough that these kings were especially formidable to the eastern con- querors, and their subjugation very important. In fact they commanded the great route of Arabian commerce, and enriched themselves with the wealth which the Egyptians, the Phoe- nicians, the Babylonians, and Elamites valued so highly. Doubtless, many a rich caravan of " Midianite merchant- men"* with "spicery and balm and myrrh," many a long train of Amu with their bales of rich clothing and cosmetics and metals, would pass within reach of those Canaanite lords, who must not be allowed to levy their black-mail for their own independent profit. If these chieftains were allied with the Pharaohs of the Delta they would be ready enough to throw off the eastern yoke, and would fear the Babylonians * Gen. 37.. 28. The present Hadj route to Ai-abia passes within twenty miles of these cities. See map in Tristram's Land of Moab. 214 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE. just as heartily as Salatis himself; and all the more because they were on the highway instead of being ensconced within the great walls of the old monarchs of Egypt. So only " twelve years they served Kedor-la'omer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled," with Lot among them. Is it not possible, as I have elsewhere suggested,* that the presence of so wealthy an independent Semitic leader, with his greater relative Abram near at hand over the mountains, may have emboldened them to this outbreak ? It is easy to see that the mastery of Egypt by the allied races to whom the Canaanite clans belonged would be almost sure to briDg about a struggle to rid themselves of the eastern domination, and the Semitic influence would naturally be an- tagonistic to the lords of Elam, of the rival race who had for the time conquered Babylonia and were wielding its forces. These things were likely enough to bring it to pass that, " in the thirteenth year they rebelled." It is interesting to inquire, where was Abram when the first expedition of Kedor-la'omer passed the Euphrates ? The answer seems clear enough. For Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born,f and it was "after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, "J that Sarai gave Hagar to Abram. And this agrees with Abram's age when he left Kharran, viz., seventy-five. § But this seems to involve two things. First : Abram must have arrived in Canaan in the year in which he set out from Kharran, and so he could not have been long at Damascus, as Dr. Malan has shewn. || Secondly : the stay in Egypt could not have been very pro- tracted, as it is simply reckoned as part of the " dwelling in the land of Canaan." Now let us add to these data what we are told in Gen. 15, that ''after these things," viz., the in- * Trans. Vict. Inst., 1878. t Gen. 16. 16. % Verse 3. § Gen. 12. 4. || Phil, or Truth, p. 143. EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 215 vasion and defeat of Kedor-la'omer, "Abram said, Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?-" and consider that thus "the fourteenth year" after the first invasion must fall within the " ten years " of Abram's dwell- ing in Canaan before his taking Hagar. Therefore it is certain that Abram must have been dwelling at Kharran, and Terakh yet alive, when this great motley array of the four eastern kings drew its march through Kharran on its way to conquest, and again returning with the spoils and captives to Chaldsea and to Elam. So that Abram had very probably set eyes on Kedor-la'omer some fourteen years before he found himself in arms against him. This second expedition is an exceedingly interesting study for several reasons. The chapter containing it is generally viewed by critics as a contemporary, or at least very ancient, record of Canaanite origin. The way in which " Abram the Hebrew " is mentioned seems unlike the way in which he or his children would have named him. Prof. Sayce has suggested that it may be of Babylonian origin : since Am- raphel, king of Shin'ar, although not the sovereign in chief, is first mentioned in specifying the reign. At any rate it seems that materials of this kind are quoted in the narrative, and it is the only point in the long life of Abram in which we find him discharging the duty of a military leader. We have already seen the mode in which an Egyptian general of the old empire had operated for the reduction of the revolted Herusha, in almost the same country which formed the objective of this Elamite king's campaign. Pro- bably the descendants of these Herusha felt the sword of Kedor-la'omer. Una's achievements, however, were within easy reach of his base of operation. But not so in the other case, for Susa is practically some two thousand miles march from Sodom and Gomorrah. 216 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. In his essay on Merodach-Baladan,* M. Lenormant has noticed the able strategy of Sargon, who, to reduce that Babylonian patriot, supported by Elain, instead of marching direct against Babylon, swept the whole course of the Tigris to the Chalda?an marshes to cut off his enemy from his supports, " reserving himself to return at length on Babylon and its neighbouring towns, which, thenceforth isolated, must soon fall into his power. We see," remarks the historian, " that the famous turning movements, of which we have heard so often within the last few years, are no invention of yesterday. The plan of Sargon, very ably conceived, suc- ceeded entirely." Now we may truly carry back this strategy some twelve centuries from Sargon, and indeed much further in effect, since Una's last campaign in the time of the sixth Egyptian dynasty was conducted on the same principle. Drawing together the contingents of the different states of Babylonia, Kedor-la'omer would pass up the Euphrates, cross the Khabour, perhaps at Arban (ancient Sidikan), the Belikh, near Kharran, the Euphrates at Carchemish, and so march by the route which we have described in tracing the migration of Abram, passing Aleppo, Hamath, and Emesa. The further march is indicated in the Biblical narrative, if we take for granted (which we may well do) that the army returned over the same ground, excepting where the contrary is stated ; Kedor-la'omer then doubtless received the homage and tribute of the ruler of Damascus ; but instead of pouring down the valley of the Jordan in a direct course to the revolted cities, he first cut off their supports, and completely cleared his flanks by an extended campaign ; for, sweeping all the highland plateau to the east of Jordan, and following the great ancient course of commerce where now the Hadj road goes down into * Les prem. Civ.> Vol. II., p. 243 EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 217 Arabia he chastised and disabled the old-world tribes who had evidently shared in the rebellion. The first of these tribes whom he " smote " were the Rephaim, to whose race in after time Og king of Bashan belonged. They are called Amorites ; * and Og is expressly called by that name (Josh. 9. 10), a " king of the Amorites." Their stronghold was Ashteroth Karnaim, the site of which was only a subject of conjecture. It appears to have been enrolled by Thothmes III. in his Karnak Lists as Astaratu {Southern List, 28), and next to this name occnrs the remark- able name Anau-repa (perhaps er-Rafeh, four miles from ed- Dr'aah, see Merrill). This reminds one of the Rephaim. This Rafeh is about fifteen or twenty miles, I believe, in eastward distance from Tell Ashary. It is remarkable that within four or five miles from this great fortified strong- hold are ruined places near the Yarmuk river still called el-Amuriyeh and Tellul Kan'aan (Schumacher, Across the Jordan). Thus this district bears the names of its ancient lords till this day in "the hold of Rapha," "the mound of Ashtoreth " (or the Ashera, if it be, as Oliphant and Schu- macher "believe, Tell Ashary), "the Amorite town," and "the mounds of Canaan." Ashteroth-Karnaim appears also in the Tel el-Amarna tablets as " Ashtarti " (P. S. B. A., xix. 24). It has been considered by Oliphant and Schumacher to be marked by extensive ruins with triple rampart at Tell Ashary between the River Yarmuk and the main road from Damascus to Arabia (Across the Jordan, p. 203). See on the Rephaim and the whole of this episode Prof. Sayce's Patriarchal Pales- tine, p. 37, etc. The next tribe southwards which he encountered were the Zuzim in Ham, which has been identified with Hameitat, Amos 2. 9. 218 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. about six miles to the east of the lower part of the Dead Sea.* Here are extensive ruins, and " the name (of Ham) is read in the Targums," says Canon Tristram, " Heinta," very nearly the name given to him on the spot. I fancy it may be the place named Huina in the list of Thothmes III., which name is perhaps found in the Jebel Humeh, a little way to the north of Kureiyat, which Tristram identifies with Shaveh-Kiriathaim (Land of Moat, p. 297 and map). The name Zuziin occurs nowhere else in the Bible. After defeating these people, Kedor-la'omer smote the Emim (Q^K) in Shaveh-Kiria- thaim ; that is, the plain of the twin-towns. This name also does not recur in Scripture. However this may be, Kedor-la'omer passed on from the Emim still further southwards, and smote the Khorites in their mount Seir, the cave-dwelling people, or rather, perhaps, the white race, as Prof. Sayce thinks, in the ridges and ravines of their wild mountain country. Brugsch has identified the " Saaru of the tribes of Shasu " who were conquered by Rameses III., with the Seirites.f In those later times, how- ever, these Saaru did not live in rock-hewn dwellings, it seems, but in tents.J Their wild and inaccessible range of mountains stretched from the Dead Sea and westwards, reaching south to the gulf of Akaba, which bounds to the east the Sinaitic peninsula, and the mountaineers of Elam must have found congenial scenes while chasing these hardy clans in their perilous fastnesses. This achievement the eastern commanders ap- pear to have thoroughly carried out, even "unto El Paran" (which is thought by Prof. Hommel to be Aila or Elath on the ^lamitic Gulf) "which is by the wilderness." This * Land of Jlonb, p. 117. t Hist. oVEg., p. 146. t Chabas, Nineteenth Dyn. t p. 51 ; see also W. Max MUUer, Asien u. Evropa, p. 136. EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 219 wilderness (Heb. midbar) bore the name of Paran, wher- ever El Paran itself may have been. It is clear that this was the extreme limit of the expedition, and before reaching it the whole range of mountains must have been harried, and the Khorites thoroughly put down. In Arrowsmith's Map of Syria (1823), a place called " Phara, Paran " is marked on the Roman road running westwards from Akaba towards Suez. It is some twelve miles south of the Hadj route to Egypt. " A genuine trace of it (the ancient Paran) may perhaps be found in the Phara, marked in the Roman tables of the fourth century as a station on the road between the heads of the two gulfs, one hundred and twenty Roman miles from the western, and fifty from the eastern extremity." This is the place, and it would be in the wilderness ; * but the ex- pression in the Hebrew text TS'Vftri 7^ seems consistent with this. In this case Kedor-la'omer would have cleared the whole route to the gulf of Akaba and the mining region of the Sinaitic peninsula ; and as that would seem to have been the great object of his expedition, and, moreover, as the same achievement appears to have been carried out by Naram-Sin, I do not see any difficulty in believing that after overcoming the formidable obstacles which lay in his path he should have attained such a point (if not even the Paran of the "Wady Feiran) before "they returned, and came to En-Mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites." This would seem to suggest the sweeping a broad expanse of desert, and would be consistent with the Kadesh (Kadesh- Barnea) being the 'Ain Gadis described by Prof. Palmer, f and since so perfectly by Prof. Trumbull. Kadesh was a great stronghold, both a sanctuary and a seat of government, as the names indicate. * Cp. Hitter, I., pp. 69, 428, seqq. Clark's Trans. : Speaker's Com., I., p. 685. t P. E. F., Jan. 1871. 220 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. Prof. Palmer has given a sketch from this spot in his History of the Jewish Nation* " In the immediate neigh- bourhood are the mountains of the Amorites (Deut. 2. 19, 20), still called by their Scriptural name, in its Arabic form, 'Amarin." And " the Amalekites and Canaanites " are said to have been there in the days of Joshua. f Dr. Trumbull, in his beautiful and very learned book Kadesh Barnea, has shewn many reasons for believing that Kedor-la'omer must have found his turning-point at Kala'at en-Nakhl, " which was the one oasis which is in mid-desert in the great highway across the wilderness of Paran. ... It is there that the great desert roads centre ; and it is at that point that a turn northwards would naturally be made ; that indeed a turn northwards must be made in following the road Canaanward " (p. 37). The kind of country inhabited by the Khorites may be seen in Prof. Hull's Mount Seir, etc., and in Major-Gen. Sir C. "VV. Wilson's article on Mr. Holland's notes in P. E. F. Q., 1884, 4, etc., and map. From Prof. Hull's book may be gathered some notion of what the route further extended southwards would have been. Mr. Holland's own account of his routes, with his map, is given in the Trans. Vict. Inst, xiv. 1, etc., where it may well be seen how natural a great turning-place is Kulat Xakhl, as Dr. Trumbull says. And now Kedor-la'omer began to draw towards the special end of his expedition. Having made good his rear by " smit- ing all the country of the Amalekites," he made his way towards the " Salt sea," skirting along its western border. " Up to En-gedi they could march without interruption," writes Canon Tristram, J " by the shores of the sea below ; and though there are several openings south of Engedi by which * P. 34. t Num. 14. 43. t Land of Moab, p. 25. EL AM AXD ITS KIXGS. 221 troops could easily make the ascent into the upper country, yet any of them would necessitate a long march across a rough and almost waterless wilderness. Practically, then, Ziz was the key of the pass. To the north of it the shore-line is im- practicable even for footmen, and there are no paths by which beasts could be led up. Hence the old importance of Hazezon- Tarnar, or Engedi, which is still the route by which the trade between Jerusalem and Kerak (Kir of Moab, a formidable fortress on the east side of the Dead Sea) is carried on, and by which the former city obtains its supplies of salt." Here, then, half way up the western side of the deep hot " Salt sea," the leader of the conquering forces was unable to push on by the shore, and compelled to force the difficult and steep pass to the left. There lay before him the beautiful recess of the mountains where the Amorites had nestled in their choice settlement of Hazezon-Tamar, afterwards and still called En-gedi ('Ain-Jidy), the well-spring of the kid. In his admirable books of travel entitled The Land of Israel, and The Land of Moab, Canon Tristram has given full and accurate descriptions, and many landscape illustrations of the region of the Dead Sea. The statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund also contain very interesting details. Dr. Tristram thus describes 'Ain Jidy : * " Several hundred Engedi feet up the slope, about a mile and a half back from the shore, is the true 'Ain Jidy, midway between the two wadys. Its little silver thread of a streamlet dashes down lofty but (in volume) pigmy cataracts to the sea. Below the falls, in the centre of the plain, is a group of ruins of some extent, built of unbe veiled squared stones of fair size, but nothing mega- lithic, and all very much weathered. These crumbled walls carry us with a mighty stride across the history of man. They * Land of Israel, p. 281. 222 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. are all that remain to tell of a city as old as the oldest in Syria, perhaps in the world, Hazezon-Tamar (the Felling of the Palm Trees), which is Engedi, the contemporary of Sodom and Gomorrah, an existing city when Hebron first arose. Through it passed the Assyrian hordes of Chedor-la'omer, on the first great organized expedition recorded in history ; the type and precursor of all those invading inroads which, from the days of Tidal, king of nations, to Saladin, have periodically ravaged the east. The plain around is now as desolate as the old city of the Amorites, though once a forest of palms, . . . and the real fertility of Engedi lies only in the immediate neighbourhood of the fountain, or is enclosed in the narrow gorges of the two boundary streams, choked with canes and great fig-trees, and so deep that they are not perceived until the traveller has entered them." Prof. Gr. Adam Smith gives a very delightful description of the oasis of Engedi : "He who has been to Engedi will always fear lest he exaggerate its fertility to those who have not. The oasis bursts upon him from one of the driest and most poisoned regions of our planet. Either he has ridden across Jeshimon, seven hours without a water-spring, three with hardly a bush, when suddenly, over the edge of a precipice, 400 feet below him, he sees a river of verdure burst from the rocks, and scatter itself, reeds, bushes, trees, and grass, down other 300 feet to a broad mile of gardens by the beach of the blue sea ; or he has come along the coast (like Keclor-la'omer's army) through evil sulphur smells, with the bitter sea on one side, the cliffs of the desert on the other, and a fiery sun over- head, when round a corner of the cliffs he sees the same broad fan of verdure open and slope before him. He passes up to it, through gardens of cucumber and melon, small fields of wheat, and a scattered orchard, to a brake of reeds and high bushes, and a few great trees. He hears what, perhaps, he EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 223 has not heard for days — the rush of water ; and then through the bush he sees the foam of a little water-spout, six feet high and almost two broad, which is only one branch of a pure fresh stream that breaks from some boulders above on the shelf at the foot of the precipice. The verdure and water, so strange and sudden, produce the most generous impressions of this oasis and tempt to an exaggeration of its fertility. The most enthusiastic, however, could not too highly rate its usefulness as a refuge, for it lies at the back of a broad desert, and is large enough to sustain an army.' 1 (Hist. Geog. of the Holy Land, 209.) It is easy to imagine the fresh vigour of the eastern warriors when they had smitten the Amorites in this lovely place of gardens and palms. The very name of Hazezon still survives in that of Husasa, by which the land at the top of the pass is known, and the pass Hazziz (2 Chron. 20. 16) is the same word in reality, as suggested by Sir G. Grove.* Following the track of Kedor-la'omer, the sons of Moab, Amnion, and Seir ascended to Judaea by this precipitous way. Thus we have a double identification of this historic spot, haunted by such primaeval remembrances of war, in the names of Husasa, and 'Ain-Jidy. There is also a Wady Husasa about six or seven miles further north. After smiting the valiant Amorites in their green and palmy nook under the mountains, the host of the eastern kings clomb the perilous height. "The path is a mere zigzag, chiefly artificial, cut out of the side of the precipices, but occasionally aided by nature." The height is about 1800 feet. The spring is G10 feet above the Dead Sea level and 1,340 feet below the top of the precipice, according to Sir C. W. Wilson. Then the march must have been over the hill-tops, and down * Smith, Die. of Bib. " Ziz." 224: ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. across the wadys, and so by a bending route until they came into the Jordan valley, perhaps on the level at the north-west corner of the lake, "a proper and natural spot for the in- habitants of the plain of Jericho to attack a hostile force descending from the passes of 'Am Jidy." # The fight at Hazezon-Tamar had been within seventeen or eighteen miles of Abram's abode at Mamre, and the march inland over the hills must have brought the army of Kedor- la'omer still nearer. Abram's allies, An'er, Eshcol, and Mamre, Amorites though they were, do not appear to have been en- gaged with their kinsmen in the lost battle ; but it must have been a time of great alarm when the Elamite king was pour- ing down his forces into the vale of Siddim. " And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim ; with Kedor-la'omer king of Elam, and with Tidal king of Nations (Goim), and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Ariok king of Ellasar ; four kings with five. And the vale of Siddim was full of slime-pits (bitumen-pits). And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there ; and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah (it does not say, of the other three cities) and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed." ernes of the All attempts to fix the sites of the " cities of the plain " Plain, L (Kikkar) have hitherto been futile. In 1874 Col. Conder, R.E., writes thus : f " Having carefully examined in person the whole tract from Jordan mouth to the Ras Feshkah, I do not hesitate to say that if the cities of the plain were within * Sir G. Grove, Die' of Bib. "Siddim." t P. E. F„ 1874, p. 39 ; see note in the Appendix. EL AM AND ITS KIXGS. 225 this area, all trace of them has utterly disappeared. ... It seems to me certain that the gradual rise of the level of the plain caused by the constant washing down of the soft marl from the western hills would effectually cover over any such ruins, did they ever exist below the surface. The tract, however, pre- sents literally nothing beyond a flat expanse of semi-consolidated mud." The same officer thus describes the scenery : " No- thing is more striking than the general aspect of the country we have thus passed over. The broad plain, bounded east and west by the steep rocky ranges at whose feet lie the low marl hillocks of a former geological sea ; the green lawns of grass leading to the lower valley, where in the midst of a track of thick white mud the Jordan flows in a crooked milky stream through jungles of cane and tamarisk, are all equally unlike the general scenery of Palestine. . . . The chorus of birds and the flow of water are sounds equally unusual and charming in the stony wilderness of the Holy Land." The arguments for the northern situation of the cities (which in fact seems involved in the very phrase of the ancient record "cities of the KiJckar" the well-known "circle of Jordan," Gen. 13. 10, etc.), have been so ably put by Grove, Tristram, and others, that it seems needless to reproduce them. The line of Kedor-la'omer's march, so perfectly traced in the firm strokes of the primaeval record, equally ascertains the northern position of the final scene of his long warfare. The name Hazezon-Tamar reminds us that Jericho also stood in a great tract of palm-groves some nine miles long, of which all but two or three trees are gone ; although on the other side of the Dead Sea they still grow abundantly.* Dr. Tristram com- pares the climate of Jericho to that of Egypt ; and that of 'Ain-Jidy is exceptionally healthy and fit for a sanatorium for " Land of Moab, p. 356. S 6517. P 22G ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. delicate chests. The late lamented 0. F. Tyrwhitt-Drake thus writes : * " The climate of Jericho would seemingly have changed since the days of Josephus, or more probably the surplus irrigation was not then, as now, suffered to become stagnant pools, causing malaria and fever. The great Jewish historian in many passages vaunts the wonderful fertility of the place, and calls it QzUv xtyiov, a region fit for the gods. At present the luxuriance of vegetation is almost tropical. But the inhabitants are lazy, dissolute, and incapable of continuous work. . . . All kinds of vegetables, such as tomatoes, vegetable marrows, etc., are in season all the year round. Grapes grow to a great size, . . . indigo flourishes, but is seldom cultivated : sugar, too, and cotton would doubtless succeed. Sloth, however, and indolence on the part of the government and peasants, now reign supreme, where a little care in drainage, and steady cultivation, might annually raise produce of equal value with the revenues of all the rest of Palestine." In truth this region might well again become " as the garden of the Lord." As to the bitumen-pits in the vale of Siddim, it is stated by Dr. Thomson f that the ancient name is still used by the Arabs, who dig such pits in the chalky marl (that is, gypseous marl) of the Lebanon for the same purpose. They call them biaret hummar (1£n m^O). The bitumen from the Dead Sea was used by the Egyptians at an early period for embalming their dead. On the north-western coast of the lake Dr. Tristram found "the shore lined with a mass of bitumen, in which pebbles of all kinds were thickly embedded." J The Chaldean troops would be as much at home in these low, hot plains as the Elamites on "the high places of the earth," in Bashan and Se'ir. * P. E. F., 1874, p. 75. t Tlie Zand and the Book, p. 224. % Land of Israel, p. 277. EL AM AND ITS KINGS. 227 The defeat of these demoralized Canaanites must have been The Battle and its complete. All who could escape fled to the mountains. The sequel, crowning triumph of this adventurous and skilful campaign must have satiated and burdened the eastern army with plunder, and " all the victual " which they took from Sodom and Go- morrah, including the beer and wines which the Egyptians imported from this very region, together with the security of having thoroughly beaten their enemy down the whole line to the frontiers of the Egyptian territory, and the knowledge that Egypt itself (as Manetho says) was in fear of their power, must have sent them on their homeward way in high exultation and carousal. Stanley has noticed that the Septuagint translators have taken the word which we have in our Authorised and Revised Versions as goods (E^D^), as horse (£0*1), which is a variant reading ; and translated accordingly in vv. 11, 21, " horse " — " above all the war-horses, for which afterward Ca- naan became so famous," says Stanley. This is highly interest- ing, and seems to me more likely than " all the goods " or "riches," which would be much more unwieldy in climbing perilous heights in the hill-country. Then Abraham gave up all the horses to the king of Sodom. This would be most generous. The route of their return would be up the valley of the Jordan to the Sea of Kinnereth, some sixty miles, then round the west side of that beautiful lake, and through the northern "garden of the Lord," which was afterwards "the goodly heritage of Naphtali, ' satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lokd ' (Deut. 33. 23) ; from Kinnereth north- ward to Dan," * now Tell-el-Kady, thus described by Canon Tristram : " Nature's gifts are here poured forth in lavish * Land of Israel, p. 578. Laish is identified by Mariette with the Lauisa (No. 31) of the Karnak lists of Thothmes III. Col. Conder thinks the name may survive in Luweizeh, some five miles further north. P. E. F., 1876, p. 96. Mem. I., 139. P 2 228 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE. profusion, but man has deserted it." Yet it would be difficult to find a more lovely situation than this, where " the men of Laish dwelt quiet and secure." "We have seen the land, and behold it is very good. ... A place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth" (Judg. 18. 9, 10). "At the edge of the wide plain, below a long succession of olive-yards and oak glades which slope down from Banias, rises an artificial-looking mound of limestone rock, flat-topped, eighty feet high, and half a mile in diameter. Its western side is covered with an almost impenetrable thicket of reeds, oaks, and oleanders, which entirely conceal the shapeless ruins, and are nurtured by ' the lower springs ' of Jordan ; a won- derful fountain like a large bubbling basin, the largest spring- in Syria, and said to be the largest single fountain in the world, where the drainage of the southern side of Hermon, pent up between a soft and hard stratum, seems to have found a collec- tive exit. Full-grown at birth, at once larger than the Hasbany, which it joins, the river dashes through an oleander thicket.* On the eastern side of the mound, overhanging another bright feeder of the Jordan, are a holm oak and a terebinth side by side, two noble trees. . . . This terebinth is, I believe, the largest of its kind in Syria, and the other tree is more comely than the so-called Abraham's oak at Hebron." In his lively and graphic way, Mr. McGregor describes the whole of this neighbourhood, and gives a ground-plan of Tell-el-Kady, and maps of the country, f It was in the winter that he visited the place. He thinks the mound almost entirely artificial. It is defended by a rampart thirty feet high, enclosing an area of oblong form with the corners rounded, about 300 yards by 250, which contains within it the spring-head itself. No wonder that Kedor-la'omer, as he drew on his long train, cumbered * Land of Israel, p. 580. + Rob Roy on the Jordan, p. 213. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 229 with all its captives and their goods in their triumphal home- ward march, should halt by these abundant waters, before crossing the mountain track that would lead him to the next delightful and luxurious halting-place, Damascus. Here, then, among these old enemies, was Lot, on his way back to his native country, or perhaps, to grace the triumph at Susa, an enslaved prisoner of war, spoiled of all he had, and bitterly rueing the parting with Abram and his evil choice. But meanwhile, in the south, those that escaped from the lost field of battle fled over the mountains to Hebron, and " told Abram the Hebrew ; for he dwelt in the oak-grove of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshkol, and brother of An'er : and these were confederate with Abram" (see the remarks of Dr. Trumbull on Abraham's covenant with these three princes, The Blood-Covenant, App. 316, and its relation to the trees). This at once shews the importance and dignity of "Abram the Hebrew," the foreigner ; for these stricken Canaanites fly straight to his tent. Their knowledge of his character led them thither, and they were not mistaken. He had borne no part in the contest, although the invaders had marched and fought within so short a distance of his own abode. But now came news that Lot was ruined and taken away captive. Then all his yearning pity for his nephew, who had been to him as a son, kindled into a flame. Doubtless he was prepared for some such sudden call. His people were within easy reach and under strict discipline. The Lord Him- self bare witness afterwards : " I know him, that he will com- mand his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." * Men-servants from Egypt and a large following Abram had ; * Gen. IS. 19. 230 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. but only the very choice of his home-people would he take on such a perilous service as this. He did not need to " arm " them, as our version suggests. They were doubtless both well- armed and ready for the word of command. " He drew out his trained (men), born in his own house (not bought, or given to him), three hundred and eighteen." They are after- wards called "the young men." They were choice men, "trained," or, as Gesenius explains the word, "skilled, of tried fidelity." They must have been such men as the last choice of Gideon, fit for an "enterprise of great pith and moment." And of course Abram must leave a sufficient staff behind for all the service of the camp. Happily Abram and the Amorite chieftains were, as the Hebrew says, " lords of a league," and, as we know from what followed, An'er (LXX., 'Awdv) and Eshkol and Mamre led their contingents ; and if each commanded as many picked warriors as Abram, they must have mustered altogether some twelve or thirteen hundred. All had friends to rescue, or at least to avenge. Not an hour was lost. Down the passes they go, and speeding along the green depths of the Ghor on the track of the enemy, and after four days' and nights' swift march they see the camp ; and with all precaution and secrecy wait for night. The very picture is drawn for us in the history of David : * " Behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken." Eastern armies are notorious for a loose night-watch. Xedor-la'omer had no reason to suspect the least danger. Josephus tells us f his men were asleep, or too drunken to fight. It was after a march of some hundred and forty miles, that Abram and the Amorites had to attack the forces of the four kings. * 1 Sara. 30. 16. + Antiq., Book. I., c. x. EL AM AND ITS KIXGS, 231 Ifc was in the fifth night, says Josephus. Such a surprise it must have been as that of Gideon. " He divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them." And now their turn was come to flee to the mountains in wild dismay and rout, leaving their camp, and captives, and the spoil of all their war. The liberated prisoners might join in the pursuit. The trusty Eliezer would know the ways across the mountains to Damascus right well. Abram is not content with mere victory. All the next day and night * the pursuit rages, until the remaining fugitives had reached Khobah, north of Damascus. No wonder they kept clear of the city, where they would have had an evil welcome. The name of Khobah is not unknown in Egyptian records, if Brugsch f is correct ; and the place is still shewn, " in the corner of the vast plain, just w T here the bare hills, intersected by a deep ravine, descend on the mass of verdure which reaches up to the very foot of the rocks." J It w T as here, I suppose, that the chief of the routed forces turned at bay, unable to escape further on their homeward route to the north. The tradition is that at this point, where there is now a holy place, Abram returned thanks to God for his victory. " It is a rude mosque built on the side of a naked cliff, its inner chamber opening into a deep cleft," § three miles north of Damascus. The name Khobah means " a hiding place," || and if indeed any of the chiefs took refuge here, as the Canaan ite kings " fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah," from Joshua,^" this would account for the pursuit ending at this spot. It does not, however, as Canon Eawlinson ** has remarked, necessarily follow from either the Hebrew word in this ancient * Josephus. t Pierret, Yocab., p. 354, and ref. Geog. II., 75. See also Tel-el-Amarna Tablets Offord, P. S. B. A., xix., 25. t Stanley, Sermons in the East, p. 211. § Porter, Giant Cities, etc., p. 351. J| Gesenius. 1 Josh. 10. 16. ** Anc. Mon., Vol. I., p. 162, note. 232 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. record, or the equivalent Greek in Heb. 7. 1 (from the LXX.) that either of the eastern kings was actually slain. What was the personal result to them beyond the utter rout and over- throw of their army, we do not know. But the more we reflect on the real significance of the history, the more does the con- viction grow that this battle was a great event in the history of the civilized world, in which if a predominant conqueror then existed it was Kedor-la'omer. Doubtless Abram intended effectually to hinder the return of this monarch to the land of Canaan, and he disappears thenceforth from the Biblical narrative. Hommel gives from Scheil a letter of Kham- murabi to Sin-idinam, original and translations, at length {Arc. ffeb. Trad., 174, etc.) on the defeat of Kudur-Laga- mar, and his consequent position. This refers to the great overthrow of the Elamites at Larsa, when they were driven out of Babylonia. But of Kudur-Mabuk and his son Eri-aku of the Chaldtean inscriptions we have some further account to give. In two in- scriptions we find Khammurabi alluding to the defeat of Kudur- la-akh-ga-mar, then his foe, not his ally, as Prof. Driver says {Exp. Times, viii., 143, note). And we now know that Kedor- la'omer was eventually conquered and driven out of Babylonia, as we have above said, and Khammurabi assumed the title "king of Martu." We will gather up the fragments of this story. Eri-aku conquered Erech and Karrak, and reigned at Larsa, and also won the city of Dur-ili in Upper Baby- lonia,* and, as we have seen, was king of Sumir and Akkad, while his father was sovereign from Elam to Syria. Eri-aku was reigning at least twenty-eight years after the capture of Karrak, from which so many documents were dated. Then * Becorts, Vol. V., 68. ELAM AND ITS KINGS. 233 Kliammurabi established his power at Babylon with great splendour, and attacked Eri-aku, in Southern Babylonia. But Eri-aku claims to have successfully repelled " the evil enemy " for a time. However, we have Khammurabi's own records of his final conquest over Eri-aku and his ally the lord of Elam, as we have said. " From the time when Kliammurabi fixed his court at Babylon, that city continued to be the capital of the coun- try, down to the time of the conquest of Babylonia by the Persians."* He founded the first Chaldaean empire (see Maspero, Dawn, etc., 39, etc.) and reigned fifty-five years. It is observable that most of the inscriptions of Kudur- Mabuk and Eri-aku have been found at Ur (Mug-heir). The Elamite conquest could scarcely have been other than adverse to Terakh and his house ; so when Abram assailed the eastern forces to rescue Lot he was probably encountering an old enemy of his house and people. During the time of Sargon the Semitic language had begun to supersede the old Turanian Akkadian, and the custom grew up of recording the contracts of sale and loan in Semitic, when- ever one of the contracting parties was of that race. "The decline continues rapid " (says M. Lenormant) " under the Kissian [now called Arabian] kings, of whom the first is Khammurabi, when the capital is definitely fixed at Babylon. It is under these kings, who occupied the throne during many centuries, that the Akkadian became extinct as a living and spoken language." f The oldest bilingual royal inscription in Akkadian and Semitic yet found belongs to Khammurabi. J He was a great * Records, Vol. V., 09. + La Magie, p. 291. X Assyr. Disc, p. 233. 234 ABRAHAM AXD HIS AGE. and splendid king, who developed the resources of the Baby- lonian country, and consolidated its power for the first time in a long inheritance of grandeur. One of the few distinct chronological data which we possess is given in a notice that Khammurabi considered his own time as seven centuries later than Urba'u.* This would bring the date of Urba'u, the first great monumental king, to somewhere about B.C. 2600. Although the great monarch Khammurabi records stately temples reared, cities fortified, and delightful channels of run- ning water dug and banked on a huge scale, and although he assumes the titles, " the king renowned through the four zones," and " king of the four zones, king of regions which the great gods in his hands have placed," yet his only records of military achievements hitherto discovered relate to conquests in the country of the Euphrates and Tigris. Scrip- ture is equally silent as to any campaigns in Palestine from this quarter for centuries after the time of Kedor-la'omer. In fact the next recorded collision between east and west arose from the conquests of the Egyptian Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Assyria after the expulsion of the Hyksos. "In connection with the supposition that Abraham may have been contemporary with Kudur-Mabuk (writes Mr. Cr. Smith) we may note that the name of Ishmael is mentioned in the next reign, that of Khammurabi. A son of a man named Ishmael was witness to some contracts : his name is Abuha son of Ismiel."t Prof. Sayce tells me that Ishma'il is also found in a contract of the time of Sargon of Akkad, discovered at Xiffer. Akhu-Tabbe (Ahitub) occurs in the same contract. And since the lamented death of Mr. G. Smith * Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol I., p. 61. + Xotes, etc., p. 23. EL AM AXD ITS KINGS. 235 at Aleppo, very numerous names of Biblical form have, as we have before said, been found on tablets as early as the age of Abram, including the very name of Abramu,and now the names of Jacob-el and Joseph-el also, so that these familiar names were not newly invented for the patriarchs of the Bible. (See Sayce, Patriarchal Palestine, Preface ; and now also Hommel, Anc. Heb. Tradition.) It is needless to recall the various opinions of scholars on the chronological points involved in this portion of history, or the wavering of the same mind as one spark of light after another appeared in the course of research. Yery modestly and truly George Smith confessed : " I never lose sight myself of the fact that, apart from the more perfect and main parts of these texts, both in the decipherment of the broken fragments and in the various theories I have projected respecting them, I have changed my own opinions many times, and I have no doubt that any accession of new material would change again my views respecting the parts affected by it. These theories and conclusions, however, although not always correct, have, on their way, assisted the inquiry, and have led to the more accurate knowledge of the texts ; for certainly in cunei- form matters we have often had to advance through error to truth." It seems at present established that Kedor-la'omer and Kudur-Mabuk, and Khammurabi, are closely linked together in history in the way that has been recounted in these pages ; and there is, I think, a growing disposition among scholars to admit that those are right who have set the date of Abram at about 2000 before Christ.* Hommel makes B.C. 1900 " the approximately correct date of Abraham's migration from Haran," etc. {Anc. Heb. Trad., 140.) * La Magie, p. 2S9 ; Babylone, etc., p. 98. 236 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. All that is hitherto known tallies in the most remarkable manner with the firm strong outline in the Book of Genesis of facts which, as M. Lenormant justly pronounces, "have a historic character the most striking "; # and when we estimate at its true value the decisive interposition of Abram in his only recorded act of warfare, we do not wonder at the honourable acknowledgment of the sons of Kheth, "A prince of God art thou among us." * La Langue prim., p. 373. ( 2:37 ) CHAPTER XIV. GENESIS HISTORICAL, NOT MYTHICAL. THE foregoing studies are simply specimens of the kind of treatment naturally invited by the comparison between the sacred Scriptures on the one hand, and the results of recent research on the other. They scarcely cover three chapters out of the thirteen or fourteen of the Book of Genesis in which the story of Abraham is given to us, namely, those which form the first of four well-defined stages in " the days of the years of his pilgrimage" according to Franz Delitzsch, Edersheim, and others, chapters 12—14 inclusive. But these three chapters involve the relations of the patriarch towards his native country and the Land of Promise, with Elam on the east, and Egypt on the west ; comprising the whole of the grand " first civiliza- tions " of that age of which any records remain. I have tried to deal fairly, and to give the student the means of testing every statement for himself. The learned reader will, I trust, deal leniently with endeavours of so tenta- tive a character in a field so little cultivated when my book was first issued, but now so fruitful. The effect of twenty-five years' work on my own mind has been to confirm the " most striking historic character" of the Biblioal narrative. u The fundamental Biblical part of the entire theological system," wrote Franz Delitzsch, w is throughout historic " (0. T. Hist, of Redemption, p. 1). This historic record is, however, the base of a sublime psychological, spiritual, and theological lore familiar, more or 233 ABB AH AM AND HIS AGE. less, to every well-instructed Christian. To this the present series of studies may be regarded as introductory, or supple- mentary, or confirmatory ; and surely nothing which is fit to serve these purposes will be indifferent to any soul that has embraced the truth which St. Paul enunciates when he writes : "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." In order to emphasise the historical position of the life of Abraham, the author reprints, with slight addition, his remarks * on Prof. Goldziher's Mythology among the Hebrews (translated by Mr. Russell Martineau). In this elaborate work it is seriously asserted that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and the whole group of patriarchal characters of the Bible in general had no real existence, but are mythical creations belonging to a system of very early development. The general line of argument is twofold. The author first endeavours to establish an etymology of the proper names suitable to his theory, and then knits up the story, or some selected particulars, into the mythical web. He has thus trans- lated the old fathers far away from the earth and its doings. For instance, Abram (father of height) is the nightly sky. Sarah (princess) is the moon : so is probably Milka. Hagar (the flying one) is a solar name. Isaac (the laugher) is origin- ally the sun, but further on " the ' smiling one,' whom the ' high father' intends to slay, is the smiling day, or more closely defined the smiling sunset, which gets the worst of the contest with the night-sky and disappears " (p. 96). Thus narratives which are distinctly treated in the Penta- teuch by Moses, and by Joshua and the Prophets, and the Evangelists and Apostles, and especially by our Lord Himself as veracious history are resolved into fables, not indeed " cunningly * Originally published in the Trans. Vict. Inst., Vol. XII., p. 110. GEXESI8 HISTOBICAL, NOT MYTHICAL. 239 devised," but spontaneous (p. 31), and the inevitable growth of the human mind according to supposed psychological laws. I offer a few thoughts on this mode of exposition. (A.) And, first, the philological argument is of a very slight texture indeed. The names, for instance, are for the most part not shewn to have ever been used with the asserted significance. Abraru was never a word for heaven, nor was even " ram " in Hebrew, although " rayam " in iEthiopic is adduced ; and no instance is suggested in any language where Abram denotes anything but a man, and this (by the way) not only in Scrip- ture, for Abramu was a court-officer of Esar-haddon (Ep. Can., p. 39). Again, no instance is given of Yitskhak (Isaac) really de- noting the sun or the sunset, or anything else than a man whose name is explained in the Scripture narrative ; nor of Sarah being a title of the moon in Hebrew or any other language ; nor of Hagar meaning the sun in Hebrew. The noon-day sun may well be called al-hajira (the flying one), as our author tells us, by the Arabs quite consistently with a slave having borne (if so be) a similar name. Moreover Hagar occurs among the Pharaohs of the xxix th dynasty ; so that Hagar may after all have been a real Egyptian name. The Hagarenes, too (Hagar- anu in Assyrian), are mentioned both in Scripture and in an inscription of Tigiath-pileser II. A curious statement is made (p. 158) that " Sin (the moon) and Gula of the male triad are balanced respectively by * the highest Princess,' and by Malkit ' the Queen ' in the female ; and these are only Sarah and Milkah again." This is hard to understand, for Gula was a goddess, not a "male," and could not be " balanced " by Malkit. In fact, Gula was the " female " corresponding to Samas the Sun-god, and " sometimes replaced," says M. Lenormant,* " by a group of three wives, equal among * La Magie, p. 107. 240 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. themselves : Malkit, G-ala, and Anunit." Moreover, the spouse of Sin does not appear to have been called Sarah ; nor is there any evidence of a goddess called by the Hebrews Milcah. So with Abimelekh king of Gerar. Prof. Goldziher includes this title in the " Solar " list, p. 158. Yet the name, like Abrani, appears in the Assyrian annals (viz., as a prince of Aradus in the time of Esar-haddon). If all owners of lofty, or even celestial, titles are to be rele- gated to the skies, what will become of the Egyptian Pharaohs, whose especial glory it was to boast themselves in "solar titles " ? We have a good instance of a name which has a very mythical look at first sight, in Ur, Abram's birthplace. This, however, is happily tied hard and fast to this world by the bricks of which it is built, which bear the name of the town Uru. The local and personal names of Holy Scripture will yield rich results under reasonable inquiry. (B.) But I turn from philology to psychology, which is made responsible for this line of explanation. Now the characters and doings of these old fathers and their wives and families are so thoroughly human, so very various, yet each so consistent in itself, bearing such marks of truth- fulness under the touchstone of human experience, that this kind of exposition in the hands of such men as the late Prof. Blunt has acquired a very distinct and acknowledged value. I appeal from psychology beside herself to psychology sober as a very credible witness to the genuine historical character of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (C) Then again, historical research is daily adding fresh confirmation to our trust in the sacred records. Look, for instance, at the episode of Elam. The world had nothing to shew of this old powerful highland monarchy conquering as far GENESIS HISTORICAL, NOT MYTHICAL. 241 as the Egyptian borders, except in closest relation to the life of Abraham, and so only through Lot. But now we read the story in quite a consonant sense in Chaldsean muniments. What right have we to rend out the figure of Abram from the canvas, leaving the Amorite chiefs, on the one hand, and the allied kings of the East, on the other ? (D.) But this form of credulous scepticism is, most of all, a violation of the spiritual consensus of the whole Hebrew and the whole Christian Church. Prof. Goldziher has nowhere so utterly wandered as in his opinions on religion, whose genesis he thus explains (p. 218): — "It must be regarded as established and certain that the psychological process of the origin of religion, a process influenced only in its most advanced stages by ethical and esthetic forces, is, in the first instance, developed out of the older mental activity which resulted in the creation of myths." Now this is the very inversion of the order of things established alike by Scripture and Archaeology ; that the spiritual faculties which cry out for the living God germinated first from the embers of an " older mental activity " exhausted (as the Professor goes on to say) by this creation of myths, is surely the most unlikely thing imaginable in itself, and con- trary to what we find in the dedications, prayers, and hymns of earliest date, both in Chaldaea and Egypt. If . our author denounces as inhuman, and therefore monstrous in itself, the opinion of Renan that " the Semites never had a mythology," surely we may, on similar ground, repudiate the dogma that all mankind were destitute of religion until in the course of ages they produced it for themselves. In the Expository Times, vol. vil, 49G, etc., is a very interesting notice of Prof. Kohler's article on Abraham in the new Real-Encijclopcedie by Prof. Tasker. " To him Abraham is S 6517. Q 2±2 ABE AH AM AND HIS AGE. no myth, but a real person, and the sublime story of his life is history, and not fiction." And I am glad to find Prof. Kohler holds such views as are expressed above as to the mythical theories. On the .other hand, he "holds that the author of the Book of Genesis made intelligent and honest use of the materials at his disposal, but that it is impossible to reconstruct any one of the three sources E, J, P ; he also inclines to the view that the writers of these narratives had access to very ancient records, some dating ' even from pre-Mosaic times.' But if the possi- bility is allowed of the preservation of a reliable tradition concerning Abraham to the time when the documentary sources of the Book of Genesis were written, no reason remains why, in spite of all the objections just urged, we should regard him as a legendary hero, a product of Israelitish imagination in later years. A sentence which AYellhausen wrote in a different con- nexion should be remembered here : " If the Israelitish tradition be only possible, it would be folly to prefer any other possibility to it." Finally, the life of Abraham is a vital part of that unique, coherent, and divine development which St. Paul calls "the purpose of the ages" (Eph. 3. 11), whereby the Book of Genesis is intelligibly correlated with the Apocalypse through all the intermediate range of sacred literature. I appeal to sound historical criticism, to sober psychology, to pure religion ; and trust that we see how consonant these are with a straightforward belief in the record as it stands. ( 243 ) APPENDIX. NOTES. 1. Passage from Damascius. Prof. Sayce* understands Damascius to state that Sige " was the primitive substance of the universe." "Now Sige," says he, "is the Akkadian Zicu or Zigara," the heaven, "the mother of gods and men," while Apason is Ap'su, "the deep," and Tavthe Tihamtu, "the sea," etc. Prof. Sayce has explained to me how he reaches this meaning : "I prefer the reading k.t.k. This may well be compared with what Damascius states on the authority of Endemns the disciple of Aristotle as the doctrine of the Babylonians. Much more may be learned about Sige in Irenaeus and other early writers. But the term seems to have been used always by the Gnostics in its proper Greek form and sense. Nevertheless, as Simon Magus was a Samaritan, brought up in the lore which had been im- ported by the worshippers of " Adrammelech and Anammelech " from Sepharvaim and such head-quarters of Chaldaean religion, it may be possible that the Akkadian Ziku* was the traditional name which became confounded with the Greek 2%-/?) of all things, whatever divarications and " endless genealogies " they and their Gnostic brood may have feigned lower down the stream. 2. Salt and brimstone near the Dead Sea. See Canon Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 245, where he speaks of " morsels of sulphur" in the mud of the Delta, north of the Dead Sea ; and p. 243 : " As we approached the sea, the whole of the upper level was more or less incrusted with a thin coating of salts, apparently deposited from the atmosphere, with deposits of gypsum, and occasionally varied by thicker deposits of sulphur." For the sulphur on the western shores see Land of Israel, pp. 279, 301, 365 ; Land of Jloab, 354 ; on the east, see Land of Jloab, 243. 3. Mazor ; hence Mitsraim = " the two defences," Upper and Lower Egypt. The origin of the name is treated * Cha 7 d. Magic, pp. 123, 140, 156. APPENDIX. 245 very carefully by Prof. Ebers. Aegyptm und die Bilcher Mose's, p. 85. On the occurrence of Matsrima as a Hittite proper name, see ante, p. 89. 4. Osiris. Is the Asar of Egypt connected with the A-sar of the Assyrians ? [This note is retained as written before 1878]. See Rev. C. J. Ball, P.S.B.A., June 1800, and xv. 48 (November 1892), by whom the identity of Asari, a title of Merodach, and " AsAri, or rather Uasar (Wasari) " | , Osiris, is estab- lished, and even the identity of the graphic signs in Akkadian and Egyptian, as before mentioned in this volume. See also Prof. Hommel's memorable paper in Trans. Ninth {London) Congress of Orientalists, i., pp. 218 et seqq. 5. Monotheism in Egypt. Canon Cook reiterated his belief on this subject : * "I hold it to be a fact, settled on the surest evidence, that the oldest Egyptian inscriptions bear strongest witness to a primeval belief in the unity of God, and the absolute dependence of all creation on His will. One of the most instructive documents is the text of Chapter xvn. of the Egyptian Ritual, published by Lepsius in the Aelteste Texte, etc. It shews that at a very early age, far before the Mosaic period, interpretations were already common, each obscuring and cor- rupting the original text, which was purely monotheistic. Comparing the text, as it stands in that work, with all later texts, e.g. de Rouge's, and Lepsius in the Todtenbuch, it be- comes self-evident that the later the text the wider is the departure from the original truth, the wilder and grosser are the superstitions engrafted on it." (Canon Cook's verdict agrees with that of M. Robiou, derived from the monumental inscriptions, as noticed in the text of this work, p. 120. and also with that of Profs. Mahaffy and Lefebure, Prolegomena to Anc. Hist., 2G3, etc.) * Trans. Viet. Inst., Vol XII., p. 93, 1878. 246 ABRAHAM £SD HIS AGE. 6. Embalming the dead. In his valuable Studies, Biblical and Oriental* the Rev. W. Turner quotes Chwolson as noting that mention is made in an Arabic writer of the discovery of embalmed bodies in South Chalda^a. Is there any other evidence of such a discovery ? 7. Among the most useful and accessible handbooks of the Bible-student has been the Queen's Printers' well-known "Aids." A fresh edition is now ready, with Illustrations selected and described by the Rev. C. J. Ball. It is with vivid gladness and satisfaction that I find so much support to my own old convictions expressed in general terms in his preface, and specifically in the expositions of the successive photogravures which form this excellent collection ; such as the attribution of the group of so-called Hyksos sculptures to that date and race, and his agreement in the date of Raineses II. and Me- neptah for the oppression of Israel and the Exodus ; and many points in which I would have cited his authority in my text if I had been earlier aware of the preparation of this work. 8. Hobah. This name Khobah occurs in the Tel el- Amarna tablets (P. S. B. A., vol. xix., p. 25). 9. The name "JSarai" It is due to the late learned Dr. Haigh to say that substantially the view I have suggested was put forth by him in the Zeitschrift f. Aegypt, Spraehe, 1877, p. 39, and in a letter to myself in 1877: " *-*!£> Sar-I. '/is king ' ; I was a divine name, and Ave know from the tablets that it was equivalent to Iau, Iahu." Compare Hornmel, Heb. Trad. 166, and Pinches, P. S. B. A., xv. 13-15. 10. Babylonia and Palestine. In the P. E. F. Quarterly, 1885-6, I contributed several papers bearing on the culture of Babylonia transported into Palestine, the gigantic heroes of Philistia, the worship of Tammuz, Lakhmu, and kindred P. 110, note. APPENDIX. 247 matters too discursive for this volume, hut inferring the early and strong influence of Chaldsea in the West. 11. "Biblical Proper Names" Under this title a paper of mine maybe found in Trim*. Vict Inst, which was read and discussed on Jan. 26, 1882, and elicited some very interest- ing comments from Professors Cheyne and Maspero, Canon Girdlestone, and others. The late Lord A. C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells, wrote to me : " The argument from the agreement linguistic, moral, and religious, between the names and the surrounding circumstances of those who bore the names, is very cogent as unmistakable evidence of historic truth." In view of the cogent argumentative use made by Pro- fessors Hommel and Sayce, Mr. Pinches and others, of proper names, Hebrew, Babylonian, Arabian, etc., it may be worth while to refer to this old forgotten paper. 12. " The sons of AnaJc." That this renowned Amorite clan "came (as I wrote) from the plain of the Euphrates, whatever their original seat," is the more likely since we can now trace two out of the three great names (Xum. 13. 22) to Babylonia. Prof. Sayce tells me he has found " Akhamanu " in a contract tablet of the reign of Zabum before the time of Abraham ; and among the kings of a contemporary dynasty with that of Khammurabi, the fifth out of eleven is Shusshi, sW which is equivalent to "Sheshai" (Josh. 15. 13, 14) In the paper referred to in note 11 above, I suggested that the second element in Akhi-man might be "Mann the Great " of the Babylonians, the god of fate (see Lenormant, Chald. Magic, 120, and compared Talm-on and Akhiman, temple-porters in the time of David, with these Anakim). Absalom's mother was "the daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur," in the Amorite region of Bashan. 13. Maraihu8—Martu mul the land of Amurri. See the treatment of this subject by M. Delattre in P. S. B. A. t xvn. 72. 248 ABRAHAM AND HIS AGE. 14. The Sutekh of the Hyhsos. Is it not possible that Sutekh bears the name of the Suti, or Sati, the nomad archer- hordes whose name was used by the Egyptians to designate the Hyksos ? Prof. Maspero says, " Sutikhu, Sutkhu, are lengthened forms of Sutu, or Situ (Struggle, etc., 59, note 1)." Comp. Zannukhu or Zanni, god of Mitanni. (Sayce, "Language of Mitanni," Zeitschr. f. Assyr. v. 269.) "The Egyptian Sute = Bednin, Asiatics, is, as Jensen points out, a Babylonian loan-word " (Hommel, ffeb. Trad. 211, note). Did they not bring Sut, or Sutu (Sut-ekh) with them as their eponymous god ? 15. TercCklts wife. Tnrakhu, the antelope, appears to be even the symbol of sacrifice. Mr. Ball has given a picture of human sacrifice from a seal-cylinder (Mon. Ulust., Xo. 108), in which an antelope is springing up from the heel of the victim, a sort of ideograph of sacrifice. In a Syriac MS. edited by Dr. Bezold (Die Schatzhohle, etc., Leipzig, 1883, 35), the mother of Abram is called Jauna (Yauna = J"QV Dove ? also a most renowned sacred animal). Surely, Yauna could not represent a descendant of Javan (J,*) ? 16. Abram and "Amram. Does not 'Amram (D^JO rank with Abram, Akhiram, and the like, and, with other names begin- ning with 'Am, indicate an Arabian origin as Prof. Hommel has pointed out ? This would agree with other indications of kindred in the life of Moses, his retreat to Midian, etc. 17. Khammurabi — Amraphel. Prof. Sayce writes to me from Paris that Dr. Scheil has found the name of Khammu- rabi-ilu' agreeing with his theory. Mr. Ball accepts Amraphel as assuredly Ammurabi, or Khammurabi. 18. Aamn, or Amu. Dr. W. Max-Miiller suggests that the Amu may have been so-called, not from D>*, people, but from their weapons, the " boomerang " or throw-stick, Am (Asien and Europa, 125). APPENDIX. 249 19. "The faith of our father Abraham? To the addi- tional notes, rapidly put together at the last, I would add one more, containing- the testimony of three witnesses, worthy of all credit, to the relative value of reason and faith. These are all gone from us, but they are all the more worthy of hearing. The late Dr. Edersheim, himself a lineal and spiritual son of Abraham, in his preface to his Lives of the Patriarchs, writes : " When all has been done, the feeling grows only more strong that there is another and a higher understanding of the Bible, without which all else is vain"; and explains his well-known meaning, to which his own course of devoted life agreed. A short story will bring for- ward the consensus of two noble sons of Abraham in spi- ritual genealogy : — Bishop Selwyn was requested to write his name in a book of autographs, and a vacant space was found under the writing of Dr. Arnold of Rugby — the end of a letter to his beloved sister Susanna. The Bishop looked earnestly at those affec- tionate words, and said : " Do you wish me to write my name under Dr. Arnold's ? Then will you allow me to add the connecting link between myself and him ? " I assented gladly, and he wrote — " The highest exercise of reason is Faith." "Dr. Arnold." with his signature as Bishop of New Zealand, " Nov. 10th, 1867," adding a few emphatic words unwritten. On the day before this Lord Derby had written to ask his acceptance of the See of Lichfield. Thus it was at a great turning-point of his pilgrimage that the words were written. Reason " seeing: Him Who is invisible," is transfigured into faith (Rom. 12. 1, 2.) " "Where reason fails with all her powers There faith prevails, and love adores." ( 251 ) INDEX. Aah-iiotep, Queen. page Her jewels . . 135, 191 Abimelech. King of G-erar . . .185 Abram. Born at Ur . .8 The name Abranm in the Assyrian Eponym Canon . . . .58 Name of . . . .63 Called of God ... 66 Migrates to Kharran . 67 „ to Canaan . . 77 to Egypt . .126 Back to Canaan . .189 Pursues and defeats Kedor- laomer. . . 230, 231 Absiia. Mentioned in tomb of Khnum-hotep . .136 AdrAmmelech and Anammelech. Worshipped at Sepharvaim 34 JEnox. Near to Salim . . .90 Ahmes. First king of eighteenth dynasty . .180, 184 Naval officer, his inscrip- tion . . . .102 Akkadian. Language, had ceased to be spoken before the 17th century, b.c. . . 26 Calendar and Zodiac later than 2300 B.C. . . 26 Poetry at its height 4000 years ago . . .26 Sabbaths. ... 29 Worship . . .33, 40 Human sacrifice . .34 Proverbs . . . .39 Laws .... 49 Magic . . . .42 PAGE 114 Aku, see Six. Aleppo. Its name . . . .80 Castle of . . . .81 Amar-utu-ki, see Marduk. Amenemhat. Amenemhat I. fortifies the Delta . 99 „ subdues the Sati . 100 ,, colossus of, at San . 127 Egypt under the Ame- nemhats . . .141 An officer of the twelfth dynasty . . .164 Amenhotep. Amenhotep I., second king of the eighteenth dy- nasty .... Amil-tjrgal. His office and prayer . 54 Ammu-Anshi. King of Tennu . .100 Amorites. Their land . . .103 Personal appearance of . 105 Chariots of . . .105 Standard of . . .106 Gods of . . . .108 Their language . .109 AhbAphbl, King. Identified as Khammurabi 211 Amtelai. Name of Terakh's wife in the Talmud . . • .41 Amu. Egyptian name for Semitic people . . . .97 The thirty-seven at Beni- hassan . Amun-Ra. Plumes of 101 181 252 INDEX. An. page Biblical On, Greek Heli- opolis . . . 132, 151 Anakim. Perhaps a tribe of Hyks6s . 128 Anastasi. Papyrus Anastasi VI. re- ferred to . . .141 Papyrus Anastasi III. cited 1 89 Ancessi, Abbe. On Egyptian religion 148, 152 Anu. God of heaven . . .33 "Worshipped at Erech . 33 Apap. The wicked serpent . .149 Apepi. Hyksosking . . 172, 173 Arabia. Early home of Semites . 9 Arba'. Meaning of the name . 128 Arban, on the river Khabour. Antiquities found by Lay- ard at . . . . 179 Arbela. East of Jordan . . .87 Architecture. Domestic, of Chaldsea . 58 Argob, in Bashan . . .86 Probably Eri-aku . .208 Arks, Sacred. Used in Babylonia as in Egypt . . . 36, 121 Aryans ..... 203 Asari. A title of Marduk . .37 Asari-mulu dugga. Identified with Marduk . 38 Analogous to Osiris . . 39 Asiiteroth Karnaim . .217 Ass. Painted at Beni-hassan . 137 In Egypt. . . 142, 184 A ssur-bani-pal. King of Assyria, took Susa . . .15, 206 Removed the Library of Sargon I. from Erech . 17 page 129 116 ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL. Conquered Arba-ki . Astarte. Canaanite figures of . Astro-theology. Fully developed in Ckalda?a about 2000 b.c. . . 25 Attila, the Hun . . . 204 Avaris. In the Delta . . .132 176 180 10 Ba'al. Identical with Set . Gryphon of Bachtan, or Bit-ani. Near Armenia . Baghdad. Granite lion found at . 161, 171 Baiir-el-Kades. Lake on the Orontes. . 82 Bahr-Lut. Name of Dead Sea . .194 Baker, Sir Samuel. His remark on pet animals 142 Beersheba . . . .191 Beke, Dr. On Harran-el-Awamid . 83 Bel. His temple at Nipur. . 25 BelIkh River. Affluent of the Eu- phrates . . 71, 77 Beni-hassan. Subterranean chambers of . . . .135 Bethel. Described . . .123 Bir. Ferry over Euphrates at . 77 Birch, Dr. On the Nemma-sha . .101 On the Hyksos . .183 BlSHARlN. Of Sinaitic Arabia . .136 Borsippa. The great tower of stages . 28 Boscawen, Mr. W. St. Chad. Assyrian Beading Book cited . . . .120 His papers on Gudea . 175 INDEX. 253 His geographical inscrip- His Excursus on Egvpt tions .... 105 141, 153 ,0n the Rnten . 114 On Abram in Egypt 160 „ origin of the Egyptians 133 Creation. „ the Delta . ' . 138 Akkadian ideas of . 31 Bubton, Sir R., R.N. Egyptian opinion on 148 His discoveries in MidiaD . 137 Creuzer. On Canaanite religion 117 Camel. Crocodilopolis. In Egypt 184 Statue at . 170 Canaanites. (See also Kiieta, Amorites.) From the Persian Gulf Their religions Their present descendants. 94 116 119 Damasctus. Quoted .... Damascus. Tradition of Abram at Dan, now Tel-el-Kady . 30 82 227 Canals. Daniel, Tomb of . 200 In Babylonia . . 53 , 55 Dashur. Carchemish. Brick pyramid of 144 Modern Jerabolus . 78, 111 Davis, Rev. E. J. Cattle. Inscription at Ibreez 81 In Egypt Cesnola, General di. Antiquities found in Cy- 190 Dayan-same. Name of the Pole Star in Chaldsea Dead Sea. 27 prus by 207 Shores of. 220 Chabas, M. Fr. Debir. On Camel in Egypt . 184 Or Kiriath-Sepher . 104 „ Abram in Egypt. 185, 186 Delta. „ Egyptian phrases 189 Of Egypt, its condition . 126 „ Hittite tablet 119 Deveria, M. Theodule. Chaldsea. On statue in the Louvre . 171 Described 8 Dog. Pantheon of . 26 Dogs of Abram 119 Astronomy of . 27 Drake, Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt. Sabbath in 29 On route through Bashan 87 Religion of . . 30, 36 On climate of Jericho 226 Chaldees Dravidians . . . . 204 Ur of the Chaldees . 16 Drew, Rev. G. S. Dress of . 24 Quoted . . .130 191 Cosmogony of . 31 Duzi, see Tahzi. Chester, Rev. Greville J. Antiquities brought home Dwarfs. In Egypt . 142 by . . . 105 Ebers, Professor. Choaspes, modern Kerkhaii On Sphinxes of San . 169 River, see Kerkhaii. ,, History of the Delta 182 Clermont-Ganneau, M. „ Marriage in Egypt 185 On Canaanites 119 Eden. Conder, Col. C. R., R.E. Garden of, perhaps ir On Mukams . 119 ' Chaldsea 9 254. INDEX. Edwards, Miss Amelia B. PAGE Letter from Lepsius 170 Egypt. Lower Egypt described . 131 Religion of 144 „ distinguished from Christi- anity 157 Elam. Kudur-nakhundi king of. b.c. 2280 . 15 Name of . 197 Description of . 197 Races in . 201 El-Paean 218 Emim. {See also Imu.) . 218 E^-GEDI 221 Entef. Name of kings of the eleventh dynasty . 134, 185 Erech. Now Warka, a city of Nimrod ravaged by Ku- dur-nakhundi, b.c. 2280 15 Monotheism, taught at 32 Ishtar worshipped at 33 A great burial city . 59 Description of a cylinder- seal from 140 Eri-aku. Son of Kudur-mabuk . 208 His buildings and con- quests . . . .209 EsAR-HADDON. Crowned by his father . 73 Esther, Book of . 200 Et-tell, see Ha¥. Exorcism. Akkadian . . .43 Fall. Of angels . . .36 „ man . . . .36 Fatdm. District on the west of the Nile . . . .141 Obelisk in . . .144 Fenekhu . . . .115 Finn, Mr. Consul. On Canaanites . .118 Finn, Mrs. page Describes Abram's journey to Egypt Flood. Punishment of sin . Floods of Euphrates and Tigris .... Umlias destroyed by Flounces. Used in Babylonian dress . 125 36 24 GAEGAMIS. Ancient name of Car- chemish . . .78 Gerar 126 GERIZIM. Described . . .91 GlSDHUBAR. Epic of, not older than b.c 2300 ... 26 Epic of, probable date about b.c 2000 . . 26 Go'im. Gutium of the inscriptions 211 Gold. Used by Akkadians . .59 Gold, White. Silver so called in Egypt . 185 Goodwin, Mr. C. Wycliffe. Translates story of Sineh . 99 Grove, Sir George. On the Dead Sea . .194 GUDEA. Viceroy of Zergulla, his statuettes . . .175 Gutium, see Goim. HaS. Identified . 124 Haigii, Rev. D. H. Quoted . . 99 On Hittite names . 110 „ Khebron . 129 ,. Pa-neham . . 99 Ham, probably Hameitat. Hemta of the Targums . 217 Hamatii. On the Orontes . 81 Incised stones found at . 81 Hamy, Dr. On statues of Hyksos . 174 Harran-el-Awamjd. Near Damascus . 82 INDEX. 255 PAGE Hazeroth . . . .126 Hazziz 223 Hebron (Khebron). Its foundation . . .127 Heliopolis, see An. Herbert. Author of " Attila " . . 204 Herusiia-u. Nomad tribes . . .97 Hommel, Prof. F. "The Oldest History of the Semites " quoted . 12 Homs. Ancient Emesa. . .104 Horse. In Egypt . . .183 Hurki, see Sin. Husasa, ancient Hazziz . .223 Hyksos or Shepherd Kings. Date of . . . .160 Period of . . .161 Statues of, at SRn, &c. .164 Name and race of . . 17* Their religion . . .176 Hymns. Akkadian, to the Moon- god . . . .21 On the ship of Ea , .120 Ibex. From Sinai , . .136 Ibreez. In the Taurus, inscription found at . . .81 Ilu, the supreme god . .32 Lw, perhaps the ancient Emim, see Emim. Iron. Pare among the Akkadians 60 Ishmael. When born . . .214 Isiitar, temple of, at Erech . 25 Izdubar. Or Gilgames, perhaps same as Nimrod, slays Khumbaba . . .199 Jamblichus. On Egyptian religion , 147 James, Sir Henry, R.E. page Describes a remarkable block of tin . . .137 Jerabolus, see Carchemisii. Jeriii. Piver . . , .197 Jericho. Climate of 226 Jetur. Son of Ishmael . .84 Job. His mode of life . .76 Justified. Epithet in Egyptian in- scriptions . . .156 Kadesh Barnea . .104, 220 Kadesh on the Orontes . .81 Ka-dimirra. The Turanian name of Babel . . . .32 Kaivanu, Heb. Kiun . .28 Kanana. Name of Canaan in Egyp- tian and Assyrian . 95 Karnebo. Father-in-law of Terakh in the Talmud . .41 Karrak. Taken . . . .209 Kasdim. Derivation of . . .48 Kassi. In Elam . . . .201 Kassian gods . . . 202 Kedor-la'omer. King of Elam . . .196 His first expedition to Canaan . . .214 His second expedition . 215 Kenrick, Mr. John. On Western Migration . 66 Kerbela. A Mohammedan burial city . . . .59 Kerkhah. Choaspes. River . . .197, 200 Khammurabi. Canal constructed by . 55 His conquests . . . 234 256 INDEX. &c, 113, 119, Kharran. Called the city of Nakhor . Described Its history Its gods . Khasisadra. His sacrifice Kiiatti, Assyrian name of Hit- tites, see Kheta. Khebron. Or Hebron, its foundation . Dr. Haigh on . KlIETA, Or HlTTITES. Sons of Kheth, Khatti, conquered by Sargon I. Their golden vessels Arms, &c. Personal appearance of ■ . Literature on the Khetam. Land of . Khetasar Kheth, see Kheta. Khnum-hotep. His tomb Khobah. Near Damascus Khorites Khumba. Susian god Khumbaba. Slain by Izdubar Kings. Their titles Worshipped Their limited power Kiriath-Sepher KlSSIANS. Kassi of the monuments . Kitto, Dr. Description of tent life KLAFT,an Egyptian headdress . KOM-ES -SULTAN. Tumulus of Abydos . Kudur-mabuk. King of Elam, formerly thought identical with Kudur-lagamar . KUDUR-NAKH-UNDI. King of Elam, B.C. 2280 15. 202, PAGE 67 68 71 72 33 127 129 109 116 108 117 112 97 177 135 231 218 202 204 47 47 48 104 201 75 171 153 207 20fi Kuban. Kiver Kurn Surtabeh. Hill near Jordan PAGE . 197 Lapis-lazuli. Used in Egypt 143 Larsa. Perhaps Ellasar 208 Lauth, Professor . 161 Laws. Akkadian. 46 Family lawsuit. 51 Layard, Sir A. H., see A.rbax . Leather. Used for writing in Egypt 143 Lefebure, M. On development in Egypt 154 Lenormant, Professor F. On Canaanite religions 116 „ Egyptian skulls . 134 ,, Elemental Spirits 145 ., Egyptian Magic . 146 Describes the Hyksos head in Villa Ludovisi . 166 On statuette from Babylon 175 ,, languages and gods of Elam . . .201- -203 Lepsius, Dr. On the Amu of Beni- Has- san .... 139 „ the Hyks6s. 170 Libyans. Claimed Arba' as their father .... 107 Lieblein, Professor. On the Hittites . 82, 111 Loftus, Mr. W. K. His account of Elam 197 „ ,, Susa 200 Ludovisi, Villa. Head of Hyksos at . 166 Magic. Akkadian . . 39, 42 Egyptian . . 45, 145 Makan, the Sinai'tic Peninsula 208 Malan, Rev. Dr. S. C. Description of Kharran . 68 On Abram's route . .77 „ life of Abram . .186 Mamre the Amorite . . 195 Marathus . . . ,120 IXDEX. 257 Marduk. Akkadian Amar- page DTUKI. Identified with Asari- mulu-dugga . . .38 Marriette. On Egyptian religion . 149 „ Monuments of Zoan . 163 „ the Hyksds . 169, 182 Marrtage. Laws of . . . .50 In Egypt . . .185 Mars 28 Martu. Explained . . .120 Maspeeo, Professor. On Monotheism . 148, 149 „ the stele of Iritisen . 155 „ theHyksos . 161, 183 Mazor . . . . 127, 162 McGregor, Mr. John. At Zoan . . . .162 On Tell-el-Kady . . 228 Medinet Habu, see Rameses in. Memphis. In Lower Egypt . .132 Temple of Set at, t. fifth dynasty . . .177 Mexaxt, M. On Chaldeans . . .46 Menbptah. Son of Eameses II. . .141 Men ka-ra, Mycerinus. His coffin . . .153 His palace . . .187 Mentu. Gryphon sacred to . .181 Mektu-hotep. Name of kings of eleventh dynasty . . .134 Mexzaleh. Lake in the Delta . .174 Merodacii-baladan . .216 Meyer, Dr. E. On the red crown of Lower Egypt . .163 On Set . . . . 177 Midi ax. Riches of the Midianites . 1 37 Milkaii 62 MoiIAR. Travels of a . . .92 MoKJINA. IWi.F. Plan of, described . . 93 Monotheism. Whether lost by the Akka- dians . . . .30 In Egypt . . 147, 153 Month. Third month sacred to the Moon-god . . .24 Nisan, ceremonies in .54 Moon. Moon - god. Akkadian Uru-ki or Aku; Assy- rian Sin . . .20 Hymn to . . . .21 Moses . . . . .157 Mother. Importance of, among; the Akkadians . . .49 Mukams, see Conder, Col. C. R. MUKNA. In Midian . . .208 Mullias, see Flood. Mythology. Systematically developed about 2000 b.c. . . 25 Nablous, see Sichem. Nabu-nahid (Nabonidus). An important inscription of . . . .11 Nakhkhunte. Susian goddess . . 202 Nana . . . .15, 202 Naram-Sin. Deified in life-time . . 207 Son of Sargon I. . .207 Naville, M. His labours on the Ritual 145 Nebo 24 Nedjef. A Mohammedan burial city 59 Negeb. Or "the South" de- scribed . .124, 189 Nemma-Sha. Nomads, Dr. Birch on .101 Nephthys . . . .177 Nergal. God of War . . .25 Nkolaus of Damascus. On Abram ... 82 S 6517. 258 INDEX. NlFFEU. PAGE Peleg. PAGE Ancient Nipur . 209 | Possible derivation . 53 XlMROD. Pepi Meri-ra. Identified with Izdubar . 204 King of sixth dynasty 97, 127 NlZIR. His queen's pyramid 152 Mountains of . 199 Petti-Shu. Ncrris, Mr. Edwin. Nomad tribes . 136, 137 Cited .... 208 Pharaoh. Northey, Eev. A. E. The title . 187 View from Enbad . 87 Pharpar, Eiver. Numidians, see Nemma-sha. Its course 84 NuMMA. Phoenicia. Akkadian name of Elam . 197 Language of . 115 Nusku, see Nebo. Eeligion of Blocks of tin . 117 138 Omens. Pierret, M. Paul. In annals of Assur-bani- On the word Amur (West) 104 pal .... Tables of . . 73 ,, Monotheism 147 109 „ the epithet " justi Bed'' 156 Oppert, Professor Julius. Pig In Egypt Pig-tail. 184 On Egypt and Assyria 178 Orchoe, see Erecti. Of Hyksos . 167 Orontes. Of Hittites 113 Hamatli on Osburn, Mr. William. 81 Pleyte, M. \V. Quoted 129 On the Amorites 105 Polytheism . 24, 150 Osiris. Poole, Mr. Eeginald Stuart. His worship . 151 On the Canaanites . 102 Owen, Sir E. On camel in Egypt . 181 Proto Medic Language ranian) Proverbs. (Tu- 203 Pad AN- ARAM. Akkadian 39 Plain of the Highlands . 68 Prudentius, cited . 204 Palmer, Professor E. H. Psychology. On land of the Amo- rites . . .101, 220 Egyptian Ptah. 155 Pa-neham 178 The Creator, worshipped Pax jab. at Memphis . . 151 Aryans in 204 Pur-Sin IE, King . 207 Pantheism. Defined by M. Lenormanl 32 Ea. Panther- skins, robe of . 168 Midday sun 151 Papyrus. Eam, see Sacrifice. Used by the Akkadians 57 E AMESES. Anastasi VI. referred to 141 LLI. palace of, at Tell-el- Almost extinct in Egypt 142 Yahudieh . 105, liS Skiffs of . 142 Pavilion of, at Medinet Eor writing in Egypt 143 Habu . 105 Prisse, commented on 146 II. assault of Dapur 106 Anastasi III. cited . . 189 „ his treaty with Kheta- Saltier I. cited . . 189 sar 119, 177 Paran .... 219 III. conquers the Shasu . 218 IXDE.Y. 259 Ra-smenkh-ka. page Called Mer-mesha, colos- sus of . . . .164 Rawlinson, Rev. Professor. On ancient monarchies, cited . . . .58 „ date of Kudur-Mabuk 210 Rawlinson, Sir H. C. On Western migrations . 64 „ Kudur-Mabuk . . 207 Red. The colour of Nergal (Mars) . . .28 Red Land, to - tesher (Egyptian) . . .163 Remarks on . . .181 Renan, M. Ernest. On monuments in Higher Lebanon . . .119 Rephaim. Tribe on East of Jor- dan . . . 84, 217 Resurrection. Believed by Akkadians . 37 Associated with Marduk . 37 In Egypt . . .152 RlMMON, RAMJIANU. Patron of Irrigation . 25 Robiou, M. Felix. On Egyptian religion . 148 Rouge, Vic. Emmanuel de. On Set . . . . 178 Rowley, Rev. Henry . .142 Rubad, see Stanley, Northey. Ruten. Upper Ruten in Southern Palestine . . .115 Upper and Lower . .115 Sabbath. The Moon - god, called " Lord of Rest," i.e., of Sabbaths . . .23 Known to Akkadians and Assyrians . . .29 Sabians 74 Sacrifice. page Akkadian, the ram and the bull ... 34 Human . . . .34 ,, Akkadian texts on 35 „ attributed to Hyk- s6s . . . 181 „ abolished by Ah- mes . . .181 Sakti, or Sati. Semitic race . . .100 M. Lenormant on . .101 The Shepherd - kings called . . . 102, 174 Salatis. The first Shepherd-king, his inscription . .208 Samas, Shemesh . . .25 San, see Zoan.' Sanctuary. Laws concerning . .49 Saneha. Story of . . . 99, 186 Sar. Title in Chaldaea and Egypt . . . .186 Sara'i. Identified with Iskah . 62 Import of her name . 63 Sargon I. Legend of . . .17 Sargon, King of Assyria . 216 Sarru-ikdu. Assyrian name of Lugal- banda . . . .129 Sar-turda. His numeral 4 . .128 Saturn 28 Sayce, Rev. Professor. Assyrian grammar cited . 58 On Hittite language . . 110 „ languages of Elam and Media . . .202 Describes seal - cylinder found at Curium . . 208 Seal-cylinder. Of Ur-ba'u described . 23 Babylonian . . .58 Buried with the dead . 59 In Egypt . . .143 Sebek. The crocodile-god . .132 2G0 INDEX. Sebek-hotep. ] PAGE Sin, Akkadian Aku. page V. king of thirteenth dy- Semitic name of the nasty .... 159 Moon-god . 24 Se'ir, Mount .... 218 Patron of brick-making . 25 Semitic. His numerical symbol 30 . 128 Civilization 18 SiNA'iTic Arabia. Type of countenance 138 Mining-stations of . 159 Semneh. SlNGASIT. Above the second cataract 135 Built a Temple at Erech Senkereh. to Lugal-banda . 128 Ancient Larsa . 208 SlPPARA. SepharvaTm, see Adrammelech. Twin cities of (Sephar- Sepulture. va'im) .... 34 OfChaldsea . 59 Human sacrifice at . 34 Set, see Sutekh. Skene, Mr Consul. Shadoof HI Suggestion as to Jerabolus 78 Shalmanezer. Slave. Defeats Hazael at Saniru . 109 Akkadian laws, concerning 51 Shapur, river . 199 Law suit, concerning 51 Sharpe, Mr. S. Smith, Mr. George. On Egyptian head-dress Klaft .... Discovery of Carchemish . 78 171 Buried at Aleppo 81 Shasu. On early kings 205 Nomad tribes . 174 Smith, Mr. Philip. SHAT-ATfK. His Manual of Ancient Kiver at Susa . 200 History of the East, Shaveh-Kiriathaim 218 cited .... 58 Shedim .... 181, 212 Sodom. Shemesh, or Samas. Taken .... 227 The Sun-god, his temple Sphinxes. at Larsa 25 Of San . . . 164, 170 Shenir. In the Louvre . . 164, 170 Amorite name of Hermon 86 Stanley, Dean. Assyrian Saniru 109 On Abram's route . View from Eubad . 77 86 Shinar. Sumir of the inscriptions 210 Description of Sichem „ View from 90 Ships. near Bethel . 193 OfUr . 9 Star. Shush. Symbol of gods 25 Ancient Susa . 200 Stars shewn to Abram 28 Shushan, see Susa. Sulpa-uddu. SlCHEM. Akkadian name of Mer- Described 90 cury, Star of Nebo 27 SlDDIM. The prince of the men of Vale of . 212 Kharran 27 SlDON . 119 Sulum, see Sabbath. Silver. SUQAMUNA .... 47 Used by the Akkadians 59 Susa . In Egypt . 185 Described 200 SlMTI-SlLKHAK. Inscription at . 201 Father of Kudur-Mabuk 207 SUSIAN GODS .... 202 I XI) EX. 261 PAGE SUSIANS 201 SUTEKH. Or Set, same as Ba'al 99, 116, 176 The nocturnal Sun . .178 His symbolic figure . . 176 Statuette of, at Ley den . 180 Porcelain statuette of, at Buiak . . . .180 Pig connected with . .184 Tablet. In duplicate, how formed . 52 Talbot, Mr. H. Fox. On Monotheism . .31 Tang. Or mountain gorge . .198 Tan is, see Zoan. Tell-el-Kady, see Dan. Tell-el-Yahudieh. Palace of Rameses III., at .... 105 Teman, see Harkavy. Tennu. In Southern Palestine . 100 Thammuz, or Dumuzi. The Sun of Life . .26 Thomson, Rev. Dr. W. M. On Bitumen-pits . . 226 Tiiotii.mes. III. tablet of, at G-izeh . 100 Conquests of . . .110 I. fights against the Ruten 1 1 4 III. geographical lists of Karnak . . Ill, 114 TlIROWING-STICK. Used in Egypt . .136 Tid'al 211 Tigris. River . . . .197 Tin, see Midian. Tristram, Rev. Canon. Description of Bashan . 85 View from Gerizim . .92 On Mamre . . .195 „ Engedi . . 220, 221 „ Dan . . . .227 Trumbull, Rev. Dr. On Kadesh Barnea . . 220 Tu, or Tutu. Setting Sun, the god of death . . . .26 TUMC. PAGH The nocturnal Sun . .151 Turanians. First civilizers of Baby- lonia . . . .18 Invented Cuneiform writ- ing . . . .18 Conquered by Semites . 19 System of elemental worship . . .28 Turanian element in Egypt. . . .130 Turanian Elamites . .201 Turanian language of Media . . . .203 Turner, Rev, William. " Studies Bil.lical and Ori- ental,'' cited . . 58 Uati. Goddess of Lower Egypt 179 Ujfalvy, Professor de. Quoted on the Aryans in the Panjab . . .61 On Vryans, Semites, and Chamites . . .65 Ula'i, or Eul^eus, see Siiat-atik. Una. Inscription of . . 97, 187 Ur. Uru, capital of Uru-ma . 8 Situation and port . 9, 15 Ur-ba'u and Dimgi, Kings of .... 10 Devoted to the Moon-god, his temple . . .20 Ruins described . . 24 A great burial -city . .59 Ur-ba'u. King of Ur (Mugheir), his temples . . .24 Usertesen. I. Colossus of, at San . 127 II. Pictures of his reign . 135 I. Obelisk of . . .144 „ Statue of, at Abydos . 163 ,, Two statues of, at San 164 ,, Gold leaf used in his time . . . .190 Usous, see Usu. IJsu. Explained . . .120 262 INDEX. Venus. page Planet, its phases ob- served in Chaldaea . 27 Identified with Ishtar and Bilat . . . .28 Tutelary of Agarde, and of Erech ... 28 Wady Far'aii. From Jordan to Sichem . 89 "Wheat. Indigenous in Chaldaea . 9 Wigs. In Egypt . . 112, 167 Wilkinson, Sir J. Gardner. On Osiris . . .151 Williams, Eev. George. Describes El 'Amud . .22 Wilson, Maj.-Gen. Sir C. W., E.E. Description of Sichem 90-92 Woman, see Marriage, Mo- ther. Worship, see Sacrifice. Yabrok, sec Zerka. Yamutbal, see Elam. ! Zerka. Ancient Yabbok . . 88 Zi. Akkadian word for Spirit 145 Zidonians. Their navigation . .120 , Ziggurat. Tower of stages, its uses . 20 ! ZlRGULLA. Temple of Sar-ili, at Zir- gulla . . . .25 Gudea, Viceroy of . .175 Ziz 223 ZOAN. Tanis, now San . 99, 127 Favourite residence of thirteenth dynasty . 159 Its monuments . .163 I Zodiac, see Akkadians. Zuzim . . . . .217 EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, Her Majesty's Printers, DOWNS PARK ROAD, HACKNEY, N.E. HER MAJESTY'S PRINTERS' Special ftufcluatiotts. THE STUDENT'S HANDBOOK TO THE PSALMS. Memorial Edition. LEX MOSAICA; OR, THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM. THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS. OUR BIBLE AND THE ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. THE HEBREW MONARCHY. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY. SPECIAL EDITIONS OF THE HOLY BIBLE. SPECIAL EDITIONS OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. &c. &c. EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, /act* ^Tajeotg's printers : LONDON — GREAT NEW STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C. EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, AND NEW YORK. (Statu vnmcut ^HilHtcattcms £*rtie (Office: East Harding Street, London, E.C. ABR. CONTENTS. The Student's Handbook to the Psalms (Second Edition, with Memoir of the Author) ....... Lex Mosaica ; or, The Old Testament and the Higher Criticism The Bible and the Monuments ; or, Primitive Hebrew Records in the Light of Modern Research . Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts . The Hebrew Monarchy : a Commentary, with a Harmony of the Parallel Texts ...... The Queen's Printers' gtfrle giiufcent'* g&mrcg j— Vol. I. The Foundations of the Bible . Vol. II. The Law in the Prophets . Vol. III. The Principles of Biblical Criticism Vol. IV. Sanctuary and Sacrifice . Vol. V. Hezekiaii and His Age The Queen's Printers' gpfwciol G5Mt«m* of tlje Clohj mbU :— The VARIORUM Reference Bible (Large Type). The VARIORUM Reference Apocrypha (Large Type) . The VARIORUM Reference Teacher's Bible (Large Type). The VARIORUM Reference Teacher's Bible (Nonpareil 8 vo.) The Queen's Printers' Illustrated Teacher's Bible (New Edition, 5 6 7 8, 9 10, 11 12-17 13 14 15 16 17 1897) Aids to Bible Students (New Edition, 1897) The Variorum and other Teacher's Bibles The Queen's Printers' Special (C'Mtiona of ilje i'ooh of The Annexed Book of 1662 in Tyfe {with Appendices) . The Historical Prayer Book ...... Barry's Teacher's Prayer Book {with Glossary) . Select Glossary of Bible Words, also a Glossary of Important Words and Phrases in the Prayer Book .... 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Robert Sinker, D.D., writes '.—"I trust the new Edition (Student's Handbook to the Psalms) will have a very wide circulation. It deserves it." The Times.— " Very useful to students and devout readers." The Church Times.— "We thoroughly commend it to our readers." Literary World.—" Dr. Sharpe has taken infinite pains to place his subject as clearly as possible before the English reader." Record.— "Dr. Sharpe is to be warmly thanked for his book. It is good to find a scholar referring to the 'old paths' and confessing that 'continued study ever demonstrates more fully' their superiority." The Christian World.— "It is full of useful information." Sunday School Chronicle.— " The book is one which Sunday School Teachers will find exceptionally useful." The Irish Times.— "This handbook to the Psalms will be invaluable to every earnest Christian student. Dr. Sharpe lays the Christian communities under an obligation everywhere." The Scotsman.— " The book will be highly prized by those who 'stand in the old paths' and is one which those who are seeking to advance will find worthy of their consideration." Western Morning News.—" A scholarly and valuable book, which should be found in all theological libraries." EYRE 8f SPOTTISWOODE. Special ^xxblicatiom LEX MOSAICA; Or, THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM. EDITED BY THE Rev. RICHARD YALPY FRENCH, D.C.L., LL.D., F.S.A., WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE LATE RIGHT REVEREND LORD ARTHUR C. HERVEY, D.D., Bishop of Bath and Wells. (SJsgHgs bg Various ©Irittrs on tbt ^ab of |ttos£S anb i\t ^igbcr Criiirism. XilST OIF COUTHIBUTOHS: Rev. A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D. j The late Rev. J. Sharpe, D.D. Rev. George Rawlinson, M.A. 1 Rev. Alexander Stewart, LL.D Rev. George C. M. Douglas, D.D. F.A.S Rev. R. B. Girdlestone, M.A. Rev. Richard Valpy French, D.C.L Rev. J. J. Lias, M.A. Rev. F. Watson, D.D. Rev. Stanley Leathes, D.D. Rev. Robert Sinker, D.D. Rev. F. E. Spencer, M.A. Rev. Robert Watts, D.D., LL.D. WITH A SUMMARY BY THE Kev. HENRY WACE, D.D., Principal of King's College, London. Royal 8vo., Half-bound Vellum Cloth, Red Burnished Edges, 15/- SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The Times. — "'Lex Mosaica' is a sustained and reasoned criticism of the Higher Criticism conducted by a variety of competent hands." Church Times.—" The deliverance of fourteen able men speaking at their best." Record.—" We fully believe that this book will be of great use in this time of unrest." Churchman. — "This important work is a thorough exposition of the crude and arbitrary guesses of the theoretical school of criticism, and contains a powerful defence of the traditional view." Tablet.— "An important contribution to the literature of the subject." 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THE BIBLE MDJHEJIOHUMESTS. The Primitive Hebrew Records in the Light of Modern Research. By W. ST. CHAD BOSCAWEN, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Member of the Society of Biblical Archeology. WITH 21 PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS. Demy 8yo., Bound Cloth Boards. Price 5s. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, All of which, with the exception of those marked (*) have been repro- duced from Photographs taken by Messrs. EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE from the originals. MANEH WEIGHT. I ASSYRIAN TABLET OF THE FALL. MACE HEAD OF SARGON I. (B.C. MERODACH AND THE DRAGON. 3800). SEAL OF TEMPTATION. TABLET OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL I. * RUINS OF TELLO. iB.C. 1800). * HARPER AND CHOIR (B.C. 3000). INDIA HOUSE INSCRIPTION OF BRONZE FIGURES (B.C. 2800; AND NEBUCHADNEZZAR II. (B.C. 606;. FIRE GOD (B.C. 722 . FIRST CREATION TABLET (COPIED * STATUE OF GUDEA (B.C. 2800). ^nrm^RV^TnNT' OF NEBTJCHAD- I DELUGE TABLET [PORTION OF BOUNDARY STONE OF NEBUCHAD TH E ELEVENTH TABLET;. TABLET FROM THE TEMPLE OF ! ?|h UG ^^^^°p t HF rHAT THE SUN-tiOD AT SIPPARA (B.C. SEAL REPRESENTING THE CHAL- 900). TEL EL-AMARNA TABLET B.C. 1450). EAGLE-HEADED FIGURE. DEAN NOAH. WINGED HUMAN-HEADED LION. JACKAL-HEADED GOD. Some ©pinions of tbe press. The Times— "An able attempt to bring the Primitive Hebrew Records into rela- tion with the Babylonian and Assyrian versions of the same traditions, it is well U f)aiiv Chronicle.—" A useful contribution to the literature of the subject." 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The Speaker.—" The book is an able epitome, and the fact that it is based to a large extent on the works of such authorities as Davidson, Driver, Scrivener, Hort, Skeat, and Westcott of course adds to its value as a record which is thoroughly abreast with con- temporary scholarship." EYRE Sf SFOTTISWOODE, Special IHtMtcaitons. OUR BIBLE AND THE ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS -a>«///W. The Tablet.— "Mr. Kenyon's volume deserves to find a place in every colleee w/™;,^ 1 ? U 1 ° / J ,e t tt *r "itnxhiction to the art and mystery of textual criticism could knowledge " student at the outset of his studies in this department of Sunday School Chronicle.—" We can unreservedly recommend it." The Christian.— " A guide handy in size and worthy of confidence." The Christian World— "Bible lovers of all degrees of learning will profit by this painstaking and scholarly production." Oxford Journal.— "The facsimiles of manuscript pages are remarkably interesting." .The Irish Times— "We direct attention in chief to Dr. Kenyon's work as a scientific accomplishment. He has with the utmost skill and perspicuity collected all the latest authorities for the integrity of the texts of the sacred Scriptures." The Scotsman.— "' Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts ' Avill take a prominent place m the well-known and widely valued series of books for Bible Students issued by the Queen's Printers. Western Morning News.— " Every clergyman should not only have it on his shelves, but be frequent in recommending it." The Manchester Guardian,— " There is probably no book published at anvthing like the same price from which the student can obtain the same amount of thoroughly trustworthy information." The Publishers' Circular.— "For the Bible Student as well as the general reader interested in Biblical history and criticism, Dr. Kenyon has provided a work which is likely long to remain unrivalled." %ist ot illustrations. THE SAMARITAN PENTA- TEUCH-ROLL AT NABLOUS. CLAY TABLET FROM TELL EL- AMARNA. HEBREW SYNAGOGUE - ROLL (Brit. Mus. Harl. 7619). THE MOABITE STONE. HEBREW MS. (Brit. Mus. Or. 4445). SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH (Rome, Barberini Library, 106). CODEX MARCHALIANUS. PESHITTO SYRIAC MS. (Brit. Mus. Add. 14425;. CODEX SINAITICUS. CODEX ALEXANDRINUS. CODEX VATICANUS. CODEX EPHRAEMI. CODEX BEZAE. CODEX CLAROMONTANUS. CURSIVE GREEK MS. (Evan. 348). CURETONIAN MS. OF OLD SY- RIAC (Brit. Mus. Add. 14451). BOHAIRIC MS. (Brit. Mus. Or. 1315). SAHIDIC MS. (Brit. Mus. Or. 4717 (10) ). CODEX VERCELLENSIS (Old Latin). CODEX AMIATINUS (Vulgate). THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS. ALCUIN'S VULGATE (Brit. Mus. Add. 10516 . MAZARIN BIBLE. ENGLISH GOSPELS OF THE 10th CENTURY (Brit. Mus. Reg. 1 A XIV.) WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE (Bodleian MS. 957). TYNDALE'S NBW TESTAMENT. GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. io Special ^uMicafions. THE HEBREW MONARCHY: a Commentary, CONTAINING A HARMONY OF THE PARALLEL TEXTS AND EXTRACTS FROM THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY R. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., late DEAN OF CANTERBURY, j&:N:DE£EiJsr wood, wl.il., Trinity College, Cambridge; Rector of Great Ponton, Lines.; Diocesan Inspector of Schools. Small 4to., Bound Cloth, Bevelled Boards, Gilt Edges, 21/- Extracts from Dr. Payne Smith's Introduction, " HHHE object of this important Commentary is unique. It is to exhibit the -1- History of the Hebrew Monarchy in a connected narrative, with every- thing necessary for its elucidation. Thus it commences with the agitation of the Israelites for a more permanent form of government ; and ends with those portions of the prophetic books which throw light upon the purpose of the Hebrew Monarchy, the reasons of its fall, and its survival in that which was ever the true reason of its existence — the spiritual reign of David's Son. . . ." " These extracts show what was the ultimate purpose of God in establishing monarchy in Israel, and under the veil of an earthly kingdom they reveal to us the nature of the true kingdom of God. . . ." " We can understand Jewish history only by seeing it in relation to Christ, and as we look back upon the strange course it has run we see in His coming its reason and explanation. And as these were given beforehand in the writings of the goodly fellowship of Judah's prophets, both the history and these writings gain in clearness by being brought close together." EXTRACTS FROM OPINIONS. The Guardian, 17th December 1896.— "It is convenient to the student to have the paralled historical texts before him. . . . Much industry and scholarship have been expended upon it." The Morning Post, 22nd January 1897.—" It is a book for all churches. ... It is remarkable for its excellence from several points of view, but more especially from an evidential standpoint. It does more than establish a harmony of parallel texts. It brings forward facts and arguments of the most conclusive force to disprove the allegations of the exponents of the Higher Criticism. . . . The statements of the text are amply illustrated by parallel or significant passages, from Herodotus, Virgil, from Ancient Inscriptions, from the Jewish Rabbinical writers, from Josephus, from the Christian Fathers, &c." The Literary World, 29th January 1897.— " Certain to run into more than one edition. We need not emphasize its helpfulness." EYRE 8f SFOTTISWOODE, Special publications', n HEBREW MONARCHY-*™.'""'*'- The Baptist Magazine, February 1897.— "The object of this important Com- mentary is unique." The Schoolmaster, 9th January 1S97 — " It is a monument of patient, thoughtful. and thorough work." The Irish Times, 17th December 1897.— "The volume is one which every Bible student will treasure. The harmony of the parallel texts is of the highest value. The typography is excellent, and the correctness of the notes is wonderful." The Daily News.—" A unique Commentary entirely uncritical, written for those who take the old view of the Bible histories. Its originality consists first in the weaving together of the different histories, such as those in the Books of Kings and the Books of Chronicles, into a single narrative ; and secondly, in the introduction of the Psalms and passages from the Prophets, at the point in the history to which they refer, and at which they were written. For example, at the point in the Scripture narrative in which Nathan rebuked David for his crime against Uriah the Hittite, and David repented and fasted and lay all night upon the earth, there naturally comes in the fifty- first Psalm, written at the time and expressing his penitence. This is almost as naturally followed by the thirty-second Psalm, giving utterance to his sense of Divine forgiveness. For preachers, the reading of the Psalms and Prophets into the narrative gives the volume real value as an aid to exposition." The Record.—" The design of this work is highly to be commended. The whole Commentary is one which clergymen or theological students or educated readers of the Bible generally, who may be debarred from the use of a full theological library of reference, will find admirably suited to their needs." The Expository Times.—" The notes are surprisingly numerous ; they are skilfully chosen and tersely expressed. Further, their range of material is wide, all the things we usually find in a Dictionary of the Bible being gathered into the service, with not a few we should not expect to find there. The indexes are excellent. The author is evidently fit for his work. He is conservative in criticism, but he is a scholar. He has read the commentaries on his books, and he has read his books themselves." Mr. Gladstone writes :— " I am delighted with the ' Hebrew Monarchy.' " Rev. F. J. Chavasse, Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.—" It supplies a distinct need, and is likely to prove of real service to the clergy and to Bible students generally. The Ven. Archdeacon of Sheffield— " Deeply interesting; it is what I have long wanted, and will be an immense help." The Archbishop of York (Dr. Maclagan).— "It seems to me likely to be very useful and to cover ground which has not yet been occupied." The Archbishop of Armagh.—" From the study of it I expect valuable results. A work which commended itself in its inception and idea to the two spirits, so noble and so diverse, whom you mention in your dedication, must be a blessing to many. The Bishop of Durham (Dr. Westcott).— "A very solidand valuable help to the study of the history of Israel, admirable in plan and execution." The Bishop of Lincoln.— "One effect of modern criticism has been to lead men to excuse themselves from studying the Bible. Many of the modern books seem to miss the real spirit of the Book. I am so glad you have brought out the historical value of the Prophets." Canon Crowfoot (Head of Lincoln Theological College).-" It will be constantly in my hands. It is unique in its plan, and that plan is most admirable. Canon Blackley. — "A work of vast labour and care." The Rev. Dr. Plummer.— " Welcome and useful. An immense amount of informa- tion in a very handsome volume." The Rev. Dr. Sinker (Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge)..-" Having regard to the tvpe of readers for whom it is primarily intended it is admirably done. The idea is a very good one and well worked out, the work is thorough and exact, and the matter is pleasantly and interestingly put." Principal of St. Aidan's College, Birkenhead— "Admirable in arrangement and plan." GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 12 special f^ubttcaftons. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY. Cloth. Boards, Red Edges. Demy 8vo. Volumes I. -VI. Others in preparation. THIS Series of Volumes, popular in style and moderate in size and price, is designed to meet the needs of the ordinary Bible Student, a large and increasing class of practical students of the Bible, as well as the requirements of more advanced scholars. Much light has been thrown in the course of the present century on almost all branches of Biblical Inquiry, and it is very desirable that such results as are surely ascertained should be placed within the reach of all in a systematic manner. Difficulties will always remain, owing to the extreme antiquity of the Sacred Books, and to the peculiar nature of their contents. On these questions experts must be heard upon both sides, but the multitude which is so deeply interested in the results has neither the time nor the training for battling over technical details. Accordingly, the preparation of these volumes is entrusted to men who have patiently considered the drift of modern inquiry so far as it concerns their own special branches of study, and who are not lightly moved from their carefully formed convictions. Their aim is to set forth as clearly and accurately as possible the literary position of the Books of the Old and New Testa- ments and their contents in relation to Theological, Historical, and Scientific questions. The series is mainly constructive and positive in tone, and will tend to check that bewilderment as to the very foundations of sacred truth which, if allowed to spread, will seriously affect the work of the Sunday School Teacher, the Bible Class Leader, the Home and Foreign .Missionary, and the devotional student of Scripture. EYRE Sf STOTTISWOODE, Special ^tblicaficms. 13 THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY. FOURTH EDITION, REVISED. Volume I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE BIBLE: STUDIES IN OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM. BY R. B, GIRDLESTONE, M.A., Hon. Canon of Christ Cliurch; late Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Cloth Boards, Red Edges. Demy 8vo. Price 3s. 6d. SOME OPINIONS. Guardian. — "Written in a reverent spirit." Theological Monthly.—" Any one who takes up the book will be led, we think, to peruse and ponder till he arrives at a sound conclusion on what is, and must remain, one of the most important matters within human ken." Church Review.—" An invaluable work." Rock.—" Canon Girdlestone as an expert gives us the results of his own personal research. We are taken into the very workshop and shown the methods and processes. Churchman— " It is worthy to become a text-book in a theological assembly." Christian.—" "Will assist many to gain a firm foothold with regard to the verity of Holy Writ." literary Churchman.— " This is a book of exceeding breadth of learning, and quite exceptional value. We desire to give an unusually emphatic recommendation to this valuable treatise." Literary Opinion.—" The style throughout is clear, elevated, and forcible." Globe.—" A mine of strength to the holders of the ancient faith." Quiver.—" We can heartily commend it." Baptist.—" Canon Girdlestone's arguments will command general respect." National Church.—" Precisely the kind of work wanted in these critical times." Evening News.— "A perfect armoury of argument and scholarship." Yorkshire Post.—" Shows results as interesting as they are valuable." Church Bells.—" The various topics involved are put in a very interesting way." British Weekly.—" It has a calm and dignified style— with a splendid courtesy to opponents, and altogether it is a pleasant book to read." GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.C. 14 special ^ublicatiotts THE BIBLE STUDENTS LIBRARY— continued. Volume II. THE LAI IN THE PROPHETS. BY THE REV, STANLEY LEATHES, !>.!>., Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London; Prebendary of St. Paul's ; Author of " The Structure of the Old Testament" ; " The Religion of the Christ " (Bampton Lecture) ; " Christ and the Bible," &c, &c. SECOND EDITION". Cloth Boards, Red Edges. Demy 8vo. Price 3s. 6,T>. 3 Minister of Cameron. Cloth. Boards, Red Edges. Demy 8vo. Price 6s. THOUGH specially designed for Bible Students, this volume demands no attainments in Hebrew scholarship for its appreciation. Its main aim is to guide and strengthen an ordinary reader, with his English Bible in his hand. In particular, the dismemberment of the Mosaic legislation into three antagonistic Codes is shown (taking Sanctuary and Sacrifice as conclusive tests) to be quite at variance with a fair and comprehensive survey of the legal, historical, and prophetical Records of the Old Testament. "While exposing the views of Wellhausen (the applauded pioneer of " Higher Critics "), the author seeks at every turn to give a positive presentation of Bible truth on the topics handled. Mere destruction is not his aim, but to instruct and re-assure. A special helpfulness characterises his constructive surveys of the prophecy of Ezekiel, and of the so-called Priestly Code. Some ©pinions of tbe press. The Morning Post.—" Dr. Baxter has shown in his reply a wide knowledge of the subject discussed, and has rendered a powerful support to the opponents of that dogmatic criticism of which Wellhausen is a prominent example." The Daily Chronicle.—" Dr. Baxter is always interesting, and he certainly tries to be fair. \\ ellhausen's answer will be awaited with much interest." The Record.—" We suggest that any reader who is somewhat cowed at the long list of learned names hurled at him should work patiently through Dr. Baxter's book, argument by argument. He will find one sweeping piece of destructive theorising (we refuse to say criticism) after another toppling over. It is impossible to devote to this remarkable book the space which the importance of the subject and its striking handling calls for. It is the most vigorous attempt which we have yet seen to carry the war into the enemy's country." The Speaker.—" An effective answer to the German Professor's attack, and well deserves the high praise given it by Mr. Gladstone and Professor Sayce." Church Quarterly Review.—" The book must be read to understand its force ; the new theory is destroyed. Dr. Baxter has not been answered, and that simply because he is unanswerable." The Church Times.—" We are sincerely grateful to the publishers for this valuable addition to the Bible Student's Library. A book like this will form a rallying point for those who had begun to think that the possession of common sense was a thing to be ashamed of, and unwavering tradition on any point rather a source of weakness than of strength." The Churchman.— "We strongly recommend those who have not done so to read, mark, and inwardly digest the ' Sanctuary and Sacrifice.'" The Christian World.—" It is an honest and serious discussion of important questions. Those who differ from Dr. Baxter may learn from his criticisms." The Christian News.— "' Sanctuary and Sacrifice' should be possessed and studied by all those who are interested in such subjects, and especially by ministers, who have to be able to defend the Bible as the Word of God. It is an able, spirited, and masterlv refutation of the contentions of the leader of the school of modern critics." The Methodist Times.—" This is by far the most telling challenge to the higher criticism that has yet appeared in English." The Critical Review.—" ' Sanctuary and Sacrifice ' is able and interesting." The Primitive Methodist.—" Those who have been unsettled in their faith in the Old Testament by the speculations of some modern writing would do well to make the acquaintance of this volume." EYRE 4r SPOTTISWOODE, Special publications. 17 THE BIBLE STUDENT'S LIBRARY— continued. Volume V. HEZEKIAH AND HIS AGE BY Rev. ROBERT SINKER, D.D., Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge. Cloth Boards, Red Edges, Demy 8vo. Price 3s. 6d. THIS work compares the Bible history of this King with contemporary records, and generally deals with his period in an interesting way. The Assyrian Inscriptions have yielded a most striking confirmation of the Bible story ; they have shewn the connection of events ; they have filled up gaps, and so imparted greater coherence to the narrative, clearing up difficulties where some have accused the scriptural account of inaccuracy. The growing development of God's purpose is traceable in the Scriptures written aforetime for our learning, and it has become an imperative duty to study them in the fullest light obtainable. No period of early history is more full of suggestiveness. The intense human pathos interwoven in the life of Hezekiah and the Monuments which survive of his handiwork in Jerusalem impart to his reign a more than ordinary interest to the modern reader, and particularly to those keenly interested in all that concerns the Holy Writ, and are willing to avail them- selves of all fresh light thereon, as it arises. COHNTTEj^TS. chap. CHAP. VII.— "SICK UNTO DEATH," "I WILL I.— INTRODUCTORY, REIGNS OF UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AHAZ. II.— CHRONOLOGY. HI.— THE SURROUNDING NATIONS. IY.— THE OUTLOOK AT HEZEKIAH'S ACCESSION. ADD UNTO THY DAYS FIF- TEEN YEARS." YIIL— FACE TO FACE WITH ASSYRIA. IX.— THE GREAT INVASION. X.— THE GREAT DELIVERANCE. V.— HEZEKIAH THE REFORMER. XL— CONCLUSION. VI.— THE WARRIOR, THE BUILDER, APPENDIX.— THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE WISE KING. ISAIAH XL.-LXYI. GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. ABK. 18 tuti£nts" were from the outset prepared with the utmost care, in order that the Student might have at his disposal the Best and Surest information from the pen of the most Eminent Authority on each of the various subjects treated. The cordial approval of the principle and contents of former editions by eminent Biblical Scholars, and by the representatives of all classes of Teachers throughout the "World, has led to the enlargement of each successive issue, in order to give to the Student The Best, Most Reliable, and Most Recent information that could be obtained. In the present issue, very considerable improvements and additions have been made. The Articles have undergone a careful and thorough revision, and, pursuant to recent discoveries, new matter has been added and the whole volume brought up to date. The Hifts will therefore be found more than ever Practically Useful, Exhaustive in Treatment, and Complete in their character. Several new Articles have been added. The Publication of the VARIORUM Bible, and of the Revised Version which followed it. called popular attention to the sources from which we have received the Sacred Text, and the quotations in the VARIORUM Notes of Manuscripts, Versions, Ancient Fathers, etc., have aroused a spirit of enquiry as to their relative importance. To meet this, the Rev. Professor Swete has written for these AIDS a new Article entitled, The Bible : its History.— In this Article, the Rev. Professor Swete places before the Student a summary of the most important results which have been reached by competent enquirers on such questions as the formation and transmission of the original Text, its Versions, Ancient and Modern, etc., etc. The Bible and its Contents:— Old Testament, a valuable summary and analysis of each Book by the Rev. Professor Stanley Leathes, has been further expanded by Canon Girdiestone. „ The Apocrypha has been summarised and analysed by the Rev. Dr. "Wright. The New Testament Article by Prof. W. Sanday will be found to contain the best results of modern New Testament Scholarship, and his Analyses of the Gospels and Epistles are simply invaluable. GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.C. 26 Special ^ubUcafions. AIDS TO BiBLE STUDEUTS-continued. Important articles revised: — References in the New Testament to Passages in the Old, revised and extended by the Rev. Dr. Swete. Hebrew Poetry, by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D. Metals and Precious Stones, by Professor N. Story Maskelyne, F.R.S. Plants and Animals : — Criticisms of their Identifications in the Revised Version, by the Rev. Canon Tristram, D.D., F.R.S. The Bible and the Monuments, or the Hebrews in their relations with the Oriental Monarchies, has been revised by the Rev. Professor Sayce. The Glossary of Bible Words, in the Variorum Edition, has been revised and enlarged, and will be found very complete. It refers to the Authorised and Revised Ver- sions, with their marginal readings, and to the Variorum Notes ; also to the Apocrypha. It also includes particular names of Plants, Animals, Metals, &c., which" formerly appeared under their individual articles, but are now inserted in the Glossary for ready reference. The Supplementary Contents, or Key to Subjects, which indexes the names and words not treated alphabetically elsewhere, will be found of very great use to Teachers. The Concordance (40,000 references) is added, also an Atlas of new Maps, with Index, revised and brought to most recent surveys. ADDITIONS TO THE 1897 EDITION. A Comprehensive Series of 172 Illustrations, selected and described by the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A. References in the New Testament to Passages in the Apocrypha and other Jewish Writings, by the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A. The Period between the Testaments, a comprehensive article by the Rev. G. H. Box, M.A. A Combined Index to the Proper Names, Places, and Subjects of the Bible, by the Rev. C. Hole, M.A. A List of some of the Contributors to the AIDS: REV. PROFESSOR SWETE, D.D., Begins Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. Rev. PROPESSOR STANLEY LEATHES, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London, &c. Rev. C. H. H. WRIGHT, D.D., Examiner in Hebrew, Universities of Oxford, Durham, and London. Rev. PROFESSOR W. SANDAY, D.D., LL.D., Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis, Oxford. Rev. PROFESSOR CHEYNE, D.D., Oriel Professor of Interpretation, Oxford; Canon of Rochester. Rev. PROFESSOR SAYCE, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Assijriologtj, Oxford. Rev. CANON TRISTRAM, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Durham. Rev. S. G. GREEN, D.D., Co-Editor of the Revised English Bible. Rev. C. HOLE, M.A., Professor of Ecclesiastical History at King's College, London. PROFESSOR N. STORY MASKELYNE, M.A., F.R.S.. Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Oxford ; Hon. Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. Sir J. STAINER,M.A.,Mus. Dac.,Professor of Music in the University of Oxford. F. W. MADDEN, M.R.A.S., Author of "History of Jewish Coinage," d-c. Rev. G. H. BOX, M.A., Hebrew Blaster at Merchant Taylors' School. Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A., Chaplain to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, Member of Council of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, etc , &c. &c. &c. &c. EYRE 8r SPOTTISWOODE, Special publications. 27 Wt\* (SJueen's Printers* VARIORUM and otter TEACHER'S BIBLES. OPINIONS OF TUP] CLERGY. The late Archbishop op Canterbury (Dr. Benson) :— The Archbishop said, at a Diocesan Conference:—'' I should, like to call the atten- tion of the Convocation to the New Edition of the ' Variorum Reference Bible,' published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. I will just read an account of what it contains. The whole book has been revised. It was laid, I may say, before the Lambeth Conference— the promise of it— and now it is finished. The old. edition forms the basis of the new edition ; it is printed in larger type ; and every passage which has been disputed by great scholars as to its correct translation or rendering, is marked by a figure before and after the sentence or word, these figures referring to the foot-notes, which give the alternative renderings or readings, together with the authorities for the same, abbreviated to save space. The collection of these notes from 69 commentators for the Old Testament, and 73 for the New, has occupied many years close study and preparation. The New Edition is much amplified as com- pared with the old one, and you may like to know that the opinion of Dr. Westcott is that it is much the best edition of the kind that has appeared." The late Archbishop op York (Dr. Thomson) : — "The names of the authors guarantee its excellence. A miniature library of illustrative matter. If such a book is carefully and generally used, there must be a great improvement in Bible knowledge in this generation. The critical matter at the foot of the columns is remarkably complete. The last feature gives it special value." The late Archbishop of Armagh:— "I have carefully examined the •Variorum Teacher's Bible' published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. The varied and valuable amount of information it contains is most remarkable. There are few subjects connected with the Bible left un- elucidated. The Student of the Bible will find the Variorum Edition a treasury replete with instruction." The Bishop of Durham (Dr. \Yestcott) :— •'Admirably done. I constantly use it." The Bishop of Limerick:— " The Variorum (Teacher's) Bible, with its References, Concordance, Various Read- ings and Renderings, and supplemented by its Aids to Students, serves as a Biblical Encyclopaedia, useful by its compactness and the value of its contents, to Biblical Students of all grades." The Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Bickersteth) :— '"I am much gratified with it . . . eminently fitted for teachers, and all who desire in a clear and compendious form very full information respecting the sacred Scriptures. „ "A most valuable work, and will greatly enrich the library of Biblical Students. The Bishop of Llandaff :— "An immense amount of information, a great help to Teachers, and to Bible readers generally. "The names guarantee the value of the information. I trust it will be largely circulated." The Bishop of St. David's (Dr. W. Basil Jones) :— "I have delayed . . . until I could find more time to look into the volume; it contains so large an amount and variety of matter in a very small space. But its contents appear to me of the highest value and admirable in arrangement. I would refer especially to the various Readings and Renderings in the foot-notes." GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.C. 28 Special publications. The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol:— "A very valuable work, well suited for those for whom it is designed, and for all earnest students." The Bishop op Liverpool:— " I admire it very much, and think it a most valuable edition of the Holy Scriptures. I shall be glad to recommend your work." The late Bishop op Wakefield (Dr. Walsham How) :— "I have carefully examined the (Variorum) Teacher's Bible published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, and I consider it a most valuable work. Believing that the Bible is its own best interpreter, I am sure that the aids to an intelligent under- standing of the text itself, together with the assistance given to students who' desire to have an accurate conception of the purest form of that text, will prove of inestimable service to all Bible readers." The Bishop of Down and Connor:— "I consider the Variorum Teacher's Bible highly useful both to Teachers and Students. The various readings in the foot-notes largely increase its usefulness, placing before the professional Student an amount of information and research which to many would otherwise be inaccessible." The Bishop op Coek:— "The eminent names of those who have contributed Articles to the Teacher's Aids are a guarantee for the accuracy of the information, which will be found most valuable to those who wish to understand or teach, or first to understand and then to teach, and help to provide that skilled and accurate teaching, which is not only the true antidote to prevalent unbelief, but the great preventive of it." The Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Fitzgerald) :— "I find it to be a most perfect compendium of information on almost every Biblical matter that could be comprised within such a compass, and it seems marvellous how much has been introduced and how varied the topics. It will, I am sure, prove a most important aid to Clergymen, Sunday School Teachers, and many others, and I hope to avail myself of it yet in that direction." The Bishop of Tuam:— " I admire greatly the most valuable contents." The Bishop of Kilmore (Dr. Darlet) :— " I have looked through it carefully ... a most valuable edition of the sacred Scriptures. The Variorum foot-notes represent much critical research, very carefully arranged ; the Aids to Bible Students contain a mass of interesting information in a convenient form ; useful alike to Teachers and Students." The Bishop of Ossory:— " I feel pleasure in bearing my testimony. "An invaluable aid both to Clergymen and Teachers, and a marvel of cheapness. The more I have examined it, the more thoroughly have I been satisfied and pleased." The Right Rev. Bishop Barry:— "For the study of the Text is invaluable." The Dean op Salisbury:— " I am fully sensible of the great boon you have put within the reach of Bible students and it will be my endeavour to promote the knowledge of this valuable edition." The Dean of Ely:— " I hope to make use of it, with its various adjuncts of Notes, Readings," &c„ &c. The Dean of Lincoln:— "The work will be extremely useful." The Dean of Rochester (late Master of Balliol College, Oxford) :— "A great achievement of toil and thought." EYRE 8f SPOTTISWOODE, Special Igxxbiicaiions. 29 The (late) Dean op St. Paul's (Dr. Church) :— "A wonderful digest of learning. The names of the various scholars are, of course, warrant of care and accuracy, and certainly nothing so complete and com- prehensive, in such a compass, has ever before been attempted." The Dean of Peterborough:— "Your Bible strikes me as admirable in every respect. The Various Renderings considerably enhance the value of the work. It will give me very great pleasure to do all in my power to promote the circulation. I know of no one volume to be compared to it for the amount of information it conveys." The Dean of Norwich (Dr. W. Lefrot, D.D.) :— "There is no work of the kind comparable to this work. It is invaluable." The Vert Rev. Dr. Vaughan, Bean of Llandaff, and (late) Master of the Temple : — "I use the Variorum Teacher's Bible with pleasure and profit." The Dean oe Lichfield:— "I am both surprised and delighted at the fulness and accuracy of information to be found in it. " I will gladly mention it with the approbation which it so well deserves." The Vert Rev. Dr. Butler, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge .— "A great achievement." The Vert Rev. Dean Parrar:— " It lies always on my desk. I place a high value upon it." The late Ven. Archdeacon Hesset:— "Students of the sacred volume will owe a deep debt to the projectors and producers." The Rev. Canon Bodt:— " Very well done." The Rev. Canon Knox Little :— "Most useful and helpful." The Rev. Dr. Wace, of King's College :— "A work of incalculable usefulness." The late Rev. Dr. Edersheim :— " It is certainly the best, most complete and useful which has hitherto appeared." The Rev. Dr. Samuel G. Green:— "As a companion to the Revised Version it is invaluable." Dr. Salmond, of Free College Aberdeen .— " I trust it may secure a very wide circulation. The former edition has come to be a familiar book among our students." The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes :— "Incomparable and invaluable." Dr. Greenwood, Victoria University (Oiven's College) , Manchester .— "Its merits and remarkable features are already known to me." The Rev. Joseph Parker, D.D.:— " I have examined your Bible with great care. It is quite as valuable for preachers and hearers as for Teachers and scholars. " It is almost a library in itself, containing everything that is immediately needed for the elucidation of the sacred text." The Bishop of Ontario:— "My opinion of it is nothing so good has hitherto appeared. It is admirably adapted for its purpose of assisting Teachers, and cannot fail to be appreciated by all who are really anxious to find the best instruction in the sacred volume." The Rev. J. H. Vincent, of Chautauqua: — "The book is indeed a marvel, a library of learning, a book of books, concerning the 'Book of Books,' and deserves a wide circulation in Europe and America." GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 30 Special fabrications. POPULAR EDITION OF THE STANDARD BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, 1662. THE ANNEXED BOOK IN TYPE, WITH APPENDICES. An exact copy, in type, of the Manuscript Book of Common Prayer which was annexed, as the authoritative record, to the Act of Uniformity of 1662. In 1891, by special permission of the House of Lords (now the custodians of the MS. Book), H.M. Printers produced by photolithography a facsimile of this "Annexed Book," but the work was necessarily too costly for the majority of Churchmen. To the Type-Edition are appended (I.) A List of Erasures and Corrections in the MS. Book. (II.) A Collation of the MS. Book with "the Convocation Copy " from which it purports to be fairly written. (III.) A Collation with the Authorised Version of Quotations therefrom inserted in the Annexed Book. Royal 8vo., Cloth, Bevelled Boards, Red Burnished Edges, price 10s. 6d. THE HISTORICAL PRAYER BOOK: BEING THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER WITH THE SOURCE OF EACH COMPONENT PART AND THE DATE AT WHICH IT WAS INCORPORATED IN THE BOOK STATED IN THE MARGIN. Edited by the Rev. JAMES CORNFORD, M.A., Lecturer at the London College of Divinity. SPECIALLY PREP ABED FOR THE USE OP STUDENTS AND ALL MEMBERS OP THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. NEW CHEAP EDITION. Cloth, Red Edges, 3/6. SOME OPINIONS. Globe.— "The system adopted is excellent." Guardian. — " The work has been done most carefully." Record.— " Welcome to the student of the Prayer Book, or to the averaere Churchman." Leeds Mercury. — " The edition will be of great use." Commended also by The Times, &c, &c. EYEE Sr SPOTTISWOODE, Special ^publications. 31 FIFTEENTH EDITION. TZHZIE Queen's Printers' Teacher's Prayer Book: BEING THE BOOK OF COM3ION PRAYER, with INTRODUCTIONS, ANALYSES, NOTES, and a COMMENTARY UPON THE PSALTER. Right Rev. ALFRED BARRY, l> t U, 3 Canon of Windsor, Late Bishop of Sydney and Metropolitan Primate of Australia and Tasmania; GLOSSARY by the Rev. A. L. MAYHEW, M.A. The ** t^eacbev'^ tyvaiiev geck," now so well known, is the only- work of the kind published in a popular form at popular prices. It is issued in two sizes, 24mo. and 16mo., and in various bindings (see School Edition and Prices below). In the arrangement of the work the most simple plan has been adopted, the Prayer Book and its explanation being interpaged throughout ; and the work of Dr. Babry as Editor makes it of such standard value as to entitle it to rank as a companion volume to the Queen's Printers' " Teacher's Bibles." __ 24mo. EDITION. d. Cloth boards, red edges 3 6 Leather, limp, gilt edges 4 6 Leather, round corners, red under gold edges, and gold roll inside cover 5 6 Polished Persian Calf, limp, round corners, red under gold edges, and gold roll inside cover . , 5 8 Morocco, limp, gilt edges 6 6 Morocco, boards, gilt edges 7 Morocco, circuit 8 Morocco, limp, round corners, red under gold edges, and gold roll inside cover , . . . 7 6 . . 12 16mo. EDITION, S. d. 6 7 6 8 4 9 9 9 ti 12 SCHOOL EDITION (without Commentary on Psalter and Glossary), price 2/6. GREAT NEW STREET, LONDON, E.G. 32 gpcctctl 3?uMicaUon5. ^ SELECT GLOS8AEY of Bible Moibs Worbe ant) pbraaes in tbe prater l&ooh, "With Eeferences to the Text and Illustrative Passages from English Classical Authors, containing obsolete expressions, especially in Psalms, as well as Theological, Ecclesiastical, and Liturgical Terms, with Explanations and Etymologies, By Rev. A, L. MAYHEW, M.A., Chaplain of Wadliam College, Oxford. price: s. Cloth, gilt edges 2/- Paste Grain Roan, gilt edges 3/- Morocco, limp, gilt edges 7/6 LARGE TYPE. For the Aged and Infirm. THE PSALTER with COMMENTARY, BY Tbe Rig-lit Rev. ALFRED BARRY, D.D. Size, 8h x 7 x 1 indies. The Introduction to the Psalter is included, the main purpose of which — as prefatory to the special annotations on each Psalm—is to examine the general character, style, and structure of the Psalter, especially in relation to its use in the service of the Church in all ages. Prices and Etinclin^s. Cloth boards, red edges, burnished 3/6 Leather, round corners, red under gold edges 7/6 Turkey Morocco, limp, ditto, ditto, gold roll inside cover - - - 12/6 EYRE 8f SPOTTISWOODE. Date Due ■ H BSH80.T65 Abraham and his age. Princeton Theological Sem, imi7r Speer Llbrary 1 1012 00050 4516 •■■'•'■'-. '••■■-•■ ••" • ■■ ■'--• m >