Chaldæan-Ana or Anu, Bel or Baal, and Hea. Roman-Jovis, Juno, and Minerva. Christian (early)-Yahuh, Mary, and Jesus; (later) It has been well said by a writer on science that the only Egyptians-The Book of the Dead and the Maxims of (1) Brahmanism (Hinduism)-The four Sanhitas (2) Buddhism—The Tripitaka, or Three Baskets. Parseeism-The Zend Avesta. Confucianism—The Five Classics (King), and Four Shu. Taoism-The Tau-teh-king. Judaism The Pentateuch and the Talmud, or Book Christianism―The Old and New Testaments. * See Acts ii. 2. THE LEGEND OF CREATION ITS Two DISCORDANT ACCOUNTS COMPARED WITH GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES, AND WITH EACH OTHER-ORIGIN OF THE LEGENDTHE AKKADIAN AND PERSIAN ACCOUNTS-THE LEGEND OF THE FALL OF MAN, AND OF HIS REDEMPTIONTHE LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE, THE TOWER OF Babel, and JONAH AND THE BIG FISH-THE RAINBOW, DANIEL AND THE LIONS' PIT, ETC. THE book of Genesis contains two accounts of Creation differing in nearly every detail; they can neither be reconciled with each other, nor be made to harmonize with science. The late Dean Stanley, of the Established Church, admitted that "the first and second chapters of Genesis contain two narratives, differing from each other in almost every particular of time, place, and order." The legend is, like "the Fall of Man,' ," "the Deluge," and "the Tower of Babel," of Babylonian origin, all being obtained during the Captivity. "The discovery and decipherment of the Assyrian records," says Mr. Edwards, "have raised the curtain upon forgotten dramas of the earth's history, and have removed the Jewish writings from the solitary position they once occupied. We have now before us the voluminous literature of a race allied to the Jews in blood, creed, thought, and language." Not only are the above legends Babylonian, "but the ritual, dress, and furniture of the Temple were Babylonian; and the religious poetry of the Hebrews is anticipated by that of Babylon. The history and chronology of the Hebrew scriptures are proved faulty and unreliable, and the whole evidence at command I supports the opinion of critics as to the very late date of the Jewish literature."* During the explorations of the ancient cities of Assyria and Babylonia a number of clay tablets were discovered in 1876, and again in 1887 at Tel-el-Amarna, in Egypt, evidently relics of an ancient library containing the official correspondence between the King of Egypt and the officers and sovereigns of Assyria, Babylonia, and other Asiatic countries; a tablet was also discovered among the ruins of Lachish in Southern Palestine. They are written in the form of epic poems, and disclose the originals of the above legends. The decipherment of these may be looked upon as one of the wonderful discoveries of our age; for, by this, the existence of the two contradictory accounts of Creation given in Genesis, which before was a puzzle, is now explained. The first account (the Elohistic) in Genesis extends from chapter i. 1 to ii. 3, when the second account (the Yavistic) commences, and extends to the end of the second chapter. The word Elohim, or Aleim (the plural of El, or Eloh, and Al), meaning “the gods," or "the Mighty Ones,” is used in the first account; whereas Iahuh, or Yahuh, Elohim, or Aleim, meaning "Yahuh of the gods" (erroneously rendered in the A. V. as "Lord God"), is the appellation of deity in the second account. The Genesis cosmogony, it must be borne in mind, was based upon mistaken ideas of the universe, the shape and movements of the earth and sun, and their mutual relations; and upon the truth of the occurrences reported in Genesis rests the whole Christian theory of "Redemption." For if the "Fall" of man did not occur, sin did not enter the world by the disobedience of Eve. And if Eve did not sin, there is no sin for mankind to inherit, and, consequently, no necessity for a redeemer to suffer the sacrifice imputed to Jesus, and entailed by the supposed fault of our ancestors. The word "create " is not a correct rendering of the Hebrew word BRA, which literally means carved, formed, re-arranged-i.e., out of something existing before-chaos. The scientific errors of the legend as given in Genesis will be obvious. * The Witness of Assyria. I. "The earth was without form and void." Every object has form, which is an essential of material existence. 66 Void means empty or vacant. To speak of the earth as being-i.e., existing, occupying space, and yet void-is a direct contradiction. 2. First day.- Light and darkness" created and "divided" from each other. Light and darkness could not be created, for every educated person knows that they are both produced by the relative position of the earth with regard to the sun; but the sun is not created till the fourth day; and light and darkness could not be divided, for they were never united. The writer was obviously ignorant of the nature and property of light, and would have been much surprised had he been told that it is radiant energy transmitted from the sun, in vibratory waves, through the ethereal medium of the universe. 3. Second day. "A firmament in the midst of the waters" created. The writer evidently is labouring under the delusion that the earth was flat and occupied a position in the centre of the universe. 4. Third day.—The vegetable kingdom created"Grass, herbs, fruit trees, yielding fruit"-mosses, trees, insectivorous plants (though insects are not yet created), and flowing plants without insects to fertilize them. All this without a ray of sunshine, and without an atom of chlorophyll to give colour to the plants, leaves, and flowers. 5. Fourth day.-"The sun to RULE the day, and the stars to RULE the night." Here is evidence that the writer was a planet worshipper. He was unaware of the fact that it is to the sun that we are indebted for light and vegetation. 6. Fifth day." Whales, fishes, and birds" created. The water population first, the winged population second, and the land population third. Here is an error again, for science proves that a part of the water population appeared first, the land population second, and the winged population last. 7. Sixth day." Insects, reptiles, cattle, man” created. Insects and reptiles are proved by science to have been evolved thousands, possibly millions, of years before man. Now, if we compare the consecutive order given here, in accordance with the imaginative and primitive ideas of the ignorant writers of the Pentateuch, with the consecutive order of the different species as they were really evolved by nature, as seen in a previous chapter, we shall find They are shown here discrepancies which cannot be reconciled; fossil remains deep down in the earth cannot lie. side by side:— Man, in the first account, was of two sexes, like the gods, for the gods of Moses, and Yahuh the supreme god, who ruled them, were, like Brahma, androgynous—“ Male and female created they them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam” (Gen. v. 2). ADM meant a human or intelligent being. The two accounts are here placed side by side, by which the discrepancies can be easily seen : GENESIS I. TO II. 3. 1. The Creators are Elohim, or Aleim, "the gods" (wrongly rendered "God"). 2. The earth, a chaos covered with water. The waters must be assuaged before vegetation can appear. 3. Plants are created fully developed with seed and fruit, from the earth generally (i. 12). 4. Fowls, fish, and equatic animals form one act of creation, land animals and reptiles another (i. 21-25). 5. Fowls created out of the water (i. 20). 6. Trees created before man (i. 12-27). 7. Fowls created before man. GENESIS II. 4 TO END. 1. The Creator is Yahuh Elohim, chief, or ruler of the gods (wrongly rendered "Lord God"). 2. The earth is a dry plain. Vegetation cannot exist, because there is no moisture (ii. 5). 3. Plants in germ, waiting for development by rain, appear to be confined to the Garden of Eden (ii. 8, 9). 4. Fowls and land animals created at the same time in one creative act (ii. 19). 5. Fowls created out of the ground (ii. 19). 6. Trees created after man (ii. 7, 8). 7. Fowls created after man (ii. 19). |
