Show GENESIS NOT A COPY those modern theologians who insist that the opening chapters of gene big containing the accounts of the creation the fall the flood etc are but condensed translations trana lations of much older bab ionian works on the same subjects the existence of which has in late years been revealed through the labors of explorers explore re have but bui little claim to be heard until they are able to explain with some degree ot of probability when suen buen translations could conlu have taken place for if no period could be pointed out io in the history ot of the hebrews as now known to us in which such a transcription could ahti anve been made the whole theory is oi 01 worth worthless lese the time of the exile has baa bee been n suggested eug during the seventy years jean that the jews iu in babylon baby JOB frere were prohibited from returning returns ng to 0 o canaan there were undoubtedly some who had access at various times to ao the royal libraries and who might be suppo supposed seu to nave bave nad had the qualifications necessary for the deciphering of the ancient babylonian inscriptions we need only mention daniel who for a number of years held the position of ime rime minister in the vast empire and aeu eime azra E ara who was much favored by the emperor cyrus ayrue anu ana who is supposed to have been a man well versea in the sciences of his age but notwithstanding on reflect lun it will appear how absurd the supposition Is ie that genesis eneris during this period received an audition addition from babylonian sources on this subjects a writer in the july number of the revue evue Semi fique lique paris cemarka with much force without shutting abutting his eyes wilfully to the light no one will believe that during the half century that the exile lasted an priest driest would study the poly theistic documents doon menta of the destroyers of jerusalem in order to extract from them an edifying recital with ahe object of explaining the origin of the holiness ot of the sabbath this hypothesis is the more finore senseless because an author of the time of the exile would hauw been incapable without having lost all patriotic sentiments of fixing the place of the garden blessed by gahwe amid those accursed waters of babylon which had witnessed so many tears and heard so many lamentations of hla his countrymen ithe theory generau generally suek accepted by the theologians no uch such a monster ever existed among any people and the very fact of having imagined it does no honor A 4 0 the critics the alleged addition must certainly have laken place previous to that titue time the era of david and was a golden era in many respects respect intercourse with foreign nations flourished as never belora cuneiform inscriptions were by the scholars ot the country literature was en outraged ou raged and the language developed to its highest perfection but with all this the impossibility of en upon apon the sacred scriptures anything foreign to them ought to be apparent at this abts time particularly vi kihen hen the spiritual interest ot of the nation WRE centered in the temple and the re observances connected with the boly place buy any attempt at adding to fa those books or taking anything from them would have been detected immediately and when we go beyond this thin point and reach the reign of the judges R it is ie obvious that no literary importations from the far east are possible the only rational conclusion is that the first chapters of genesis as a the rest of the pentateuch belong to the age of moses it has been supposed because the babylonian accounts are older than tham those iu in genesis that the latter must be copies of the former the id not sound it has about the same logical value as the hypothesis once advocated that china was first settled by colonists from egypt be cause a resemblance was discovered in the fet feast of lamps lamp of the chinese and a similar feast described by Hero herodotus dolus as observed by tue the AH the ancient nations exhibit striking similarities in traditions big bie tury tory habits and religious ideas it la Is related that who at one time joined the british army when scein the ruins of the ancient temples ol of egypt thought they had bad found temples dedicated to their deities and that they proceeded to worship accordion according to their own customs babylonians egyptians and hebrew all had similar accounts of the creation the fall the deluge etu etc but it does not follow that one nation had copied the records of another A far more rational conclusion in ia that the agreement found Is ia the result of instructions received when mankind was but one family which instructions instruction 19 spread pread through the diverging lines 1 as people multiplied and settled in the various countries this accounts satisfactorily both for th the similarities and discrepancies to in tb the accounts As AB for the hebrews their of the first history of mankind may have been received through abraham who according to the chronology of genesis might have heard it from shem the oldest son of nosh noah with whom he was fur for some years at least that the descendants of abraham should have retained the instructions of their illustrious ancestors abraham lease isaac jacob jocephis sephis Jo 19 certain moses had bad therefore ino no need of babylonian works for his historical part of genesis Ge nesle further abraham bad as is well known visited egypt and gained considerable influence at the court josepha Joseph Js influence in egypt was also second only 7 to that of the king there is no duurt that the influence of bob auch men was exerted to gia give the egyptians a knowledge of the true god and his hie dealings with men from the beginning but the egyptian priests guarded with the utmost care their learning moses was educated as a prince and had consequently access to any bist historical orical works or traditions left by abraham or by joseph it will therefore bese be seen enthat that moses even if his own people should have forgotten the teachings of their ancestors ancestor had been placed in a position where be could obtain full and authentic information ou on the subjects pertaining to the worlds world Is hig history tory genesis is evidently an introduction to the law it contains conta ioa the groundwork for tle tie theocracy the develop ment of which is recorded in the following books of the bible only those who would like to make of the whole sacred volume a work of fiction can find any difficulty in believing that genesis to is the work of the inspired pen of the founder of the mosaic theocracy |