Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/131

DELUGE. 101 DELUGE. swallow, and a raven. The dove and the swallow returned, the raven did not. Vta-napishti oll'ered a sacriike on the mountain, and the gods 'smelt the pleasant odor.' la rebuked Hil for ordering such a deluge, when he might have punished men by beasts, famine, or pestilence; and Ishtar, who had already during the deluge c.pressed her sympathy with mankind, now lifted up her gems made by Anu (probably the raiiJ)0w ) , which would remind her forever of the flood, la pacified Bil's disappointment at the deliverance of I tanapishti: and Bil himself went on board the ship and announced that Uta- napishti and his wife were thenceforth to be gods and live "afar o(V, at the moutli of the rivers.' These tablets containing the Gilgaiuish epic were found in the library of Assurbanipal (B.C. 668- 0-2ti) at Kuyunjik: but they were only copies of originals found in turn by Assurbanipal's scribes in the temple archives at Uruk (modern Warka). Several fragments have since been found, giving the dimensions of the ark, and directions concerning food, treasures, men, and animals to be taken into it. Especially interest- ing is a tablet published by Peiser {Zcilschrifi fiir Assyrioluyic, Leipzig. 1889), giving a mai) of Babylonia, surrounded by the ocean at the time of Uta-napishti 'in the year of the great serpent," and probably dating from the ninth century B.C. The earliest reference to the flood is in a fragment published by Scheil (lieceuil de iravaux, Paris, 1878), dated the 28th of Shebat of the year when Ammi-zadugga (b.c. 2133- 2008) built the fortress of Ammi-zadugga. The hero of the flood (abubu) is here called Atra- hasis, which, reversed (Hasis-atra) , is evidently Berosus's Xisuthrus. A fragment likewise refer- ring to Atra-hasis is found in Eeilinschriftliche BibUothek, vol. vi. (Berlin, 1900). As even Scheil's fragment appears to be a copy of an older original, the flood story is likely to have existed in several versions in the third millen- nium B.C. The narrative in Genesis (chaps, vi.-ix) is re- garded by the modern critics as made up of two versions interwoven. This was recognized by Jean Astrue (q.v. ) as early as 17.53. Using as a clue the divine names Yahweli and Elohinij he roughly outlined the two accounts. At the present day his intuition has been widely ac- cepted, and scholars proceed to rearrange the material and assert that the Yahwistic narra- tive is found in Gen. vi. 5-8, vii. 1-5. 7-10. 12. 16h, 17, 22, 23; viii. 26, 3a, 6-12, 13b, "20-22. The flood is represented as sent because of man's wickedness. It is occasioned by a rain lasting forty days. Xoah is saved with his family in an ark. or hnu>e. With him are a pair of all unclean animals, and seven pairs of all clean animals. The flood comes after seven days and destroys all living things on the earth. At the end of forty days Xoah sends out a raven, which does not return; then a dove, which returns with an olive twig: and. after seven days, the dove is again sent out. and this time does not return. Seven days later Xoah disembarks, builds an altar, and offers a sacrifice of which Yahweh smells the 'rest-giving odor,' and promises not to destroy the world again. Portions of the priestly narrative, as another of the main sources of the Hexateuch is named, are found in Gen. vi. 0-22: vii. 6. 11. 1.3-16a. 18-21. 24; Vi'ii. 4, .'), 13. 14-10; ix. 1-17. Xoah is represented as a just and perfect man whom Elohim desires to save, and therefore conunands to build an ark, giving its e.aet measurements. Noah is to take into it his family and of all living beings a pair. The flood is brought about by the sub- terranean waters of the great abyss breaking through the openings in the earth's crust and the windows of heaven being opened. It begins in the booth year of Xoah's life, on the 17th (or more jirobably, according to the Greek version, the 27th) day of the second month. It increases during 150 days, or five months of a solar year, and begins to decrease in the seventh month. The ark then grounds on one of the mountains of Ararat ( I'ratu. see Cii.^ldiaxs) . The waters decrease until the tenth month, when, on the lirst day, the tops of the mountains are seen. On the first day of the first month in the 601st year of Noah's life the ground is dry. and on the 27th of the second mouth, consequently after a full solar jear, Xoah leaves the ark, and is blessed by Elohim, who points to the bow in the sky as a guarantee that a flood shall not again occur. The striking similarity between the Genesis narrative and the Babylonian account is mani- fest, and has been explained in two ways. Both records have been thought to be independent de- velopments of an old Semitic tradition; and the one has been said to be copied from the other. Those who believe that the Hebrew narrative is taken from the Babylonian think that the age of the two Hebrew versions of the deluge story can be approximately determined. There are in- dications that the Yahwistic scripture originally did not contain this tale, but traced the history of existing tribes back to their earliest progeni- tors without the interruption of a flood. The evident dependence upon a Baljylonian original, and the first acquaintance with the waters of Noah in the work of Deutero-lsaiah, also point to a Jew living in Babylonia, possibly at Uruk, not long before B.C. 540, as the author who in- serted in the Yahwistic document the story of the flood. His original seems to have been more like the Gilgamish epic than the Berosian story, as the regard for the number seven, the rain, the cover of the ark, the bitumen, and the sacri- fices indicate. The priestly editor of the Penta- teuch, who may have been none else than Ezra (see Hexateuch), apparently supplemented this account by another familiar to him. showing a somewhatgreater affinity to the Sippara version found in Berosus, and Scheil's fragment, in the fourth century B. C. Absence of polytheism in the Hebrew is an unquestionable advance in thought, but it was not made without a sacrifice. Instead of a divided council of gods in which, through Ishtar and Ta, sympathy with the whole humag race found fine expression, and mercy won the day over justice unmollified by kindness, the one all-powerful God became responsible for the ruthless destruction of life, and His par- tiality to those finding favor in His eyes became accentuated. As to the origin of the Babylonian story, and also of the Hebrew narrative, if it be independent of the former, it has been maintained by some scholars that an actual occurrence, such as the incursion of a tidal wave through an earthquake, thq destruction of a single city through a rain- storm, the flooding of some district from a .sys- tem of canals not properly protected, or the