Show THE BABEL UND BIBEL DISCUSSION I The effort of Professor Delltsch t show In his Babel und BIbel lecture that Johovah und the rest of the Jewish Jew-ish roJIgloUs cult came from Dnb > lon stirred up a furore In the religious world and there Was quite a l general protest against the extreme positions he assumed One of the most pronounced pro-nounced o Delltscha opponents IsPro fessor Klttel of Lclpslc who claims tlvit the researches In Babylon have Immensely Im-mensely strengthened the foundations o the BIble accounts and have vindicated vindi-cated the Bible statements even In do tails Thus it lifts been claimed thai at the time of the earliest historical records Iho stories of the Judncs and of Saul the civilization and religion of Israel were at S low ebb nnd Professor Klttel appears lo concede this but he argues that this docs not prove that there might not hoe been a literature among the Jews as early 3 the time of MOSPS which may have gone Into decay de-cay Ilia position Is that Inasmuch ns the Egyptians undoubtedly had a Written Writ-ten language art and literature and the Babylonians and Assyrians had theirs also It would b6 l singular if Israel Is-rael had not And he instances the discovery dis-covery of the TeolAmarna tablets as specific proof and the cuneiform Inscriptions I In-scriptions as general proof ot his position posi-tion This argument Professor De I lltsch will have no difficulty In pointing out would be more perfect If any of tho excavations or the finds In any particular par-ticular had > brought to light either writing Inscription seal or tablet In any other language than the Babylonian Babylo-nian and Its variant Assyrian In Egypt nothing has been found but Egyptian nnd In the laler centuries Greek The TelelAmarna tablets are Babylonian A thousand years before the time of Moses the Babylonian culture cul-ture and literature prevailed In Syria and the region around about to the borders bor-ders of Egypt When that region was wrested from Babylon by Egypt the reports and records from the viceroys In rule there were written In the Babylonian Babylo-nian characters and language and forwarded for-warded to the Egyptian court These reports und records are the Telel Amarna tablets They prove nothing for or against either Philistine or Jew but on the contrary they show negatively nega-tively no intermixture of words or methods foT expression native to the region re-gion So far as the facts are known they could as well be cited by Delltsch to prove that nil had come from Babylon Baby-lon as by Klttel to prove that as there was a written language and vast liter nst ler ature In more ancient times the Jews mUst have had u written language ages after when they occupied the country I Is I not material Indeed to the main question whether Ihe Jews obtained their knowledge of writing and or literature from that earlier Babylonian culture remalnsfof which they may have found itt the country on their settlement or from the later Babylonian culture taken ta-ken I Oh at tho time of the exile In either case tho same old fitorles of origin or-igin of patriarchs patebas or kings rfiay have been taken from Babylonian originals and In either case Delltsch may be Justified But to argue that In those remote days where communication communica-tion between peoples was so precarious slow and often Impossible because one people had 1 a written language and itt crnturo another had Is fallacious Professor Kltt ls contention that the Bible Is sustained by thc researches and discoveries Is probably true it is so In a surprising degree and Professor Profes-sor Dclltsch does not dispute this But he contends that his Is because the Bible is a record 1 of things seen and learned by the Jews from Babylon when they came in contact with Babylonian Baby-lonian Idlers and culture How far ho is wrong in this It will be for the experts ex-perts to say when tho whole field of discovery and available proof Is worked over It ever it shall be In the meantime mean-time we who cannot t hope to get beyond the threshold of tills wide and tutu I cat subject must make up our minds as best we may What remains to everyone every-one is his own consciousness 01 rectitude recti-tude his faith in the wisdom power and protection of Providence and the determination to do what la I right and to trust his right position In the world to come by living up to his best lights In this and doing his full duty to God and to his fellow man |