A Library of Testimony
By L. A. S.
SOME interesting facts are mentioned in the Literary Digest of May 2 on the subject of Babylonian explorations and excavations versus the higher criticism, represented respectively by Prof. Herman Hilprecht, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, who professes to have discovered that the Hebrew prophets drew their inspiration from ancient Babylon. Professor Hilprecht is the author of a recent volume entitled “Explorations in Bible Lands in the Nineteenth Century,” and is described as a man of “simple-hearted, reverent faith.” Under his directions there has been conducted a systematic exploration of the ruins of Nippur, said to be the “Calneh” of Gen. 10:10. A vast library, of which only a small part has yet been unearthed, is among the discoveries made. From this library have been taken “over twenty thousand cuneiform tablets and fragments” believed to belong to a time prior to Abraham, making it the oldest library in the world. Among the varieties of writings found are several hundred contract tablets and temple lists written at the time of Assyrian, Chaldean, and Persian rulers, fragments of Neo-Babylonian hymns and letters, a number of business documents, and a large number of “literary fragments.” “This discovery,” says the Digest, “has an important bearing upon some of the critical disputes as to the authorship of the books of the Pentateuch.” The higher critics have found from their examinations of these books “evidence” that they could not have been written by Moses or in the time of Moses, because, they said, no such degree of culture as these books revealed existed in Moses’ time. But in this library, which is older than the time of Moses, Professor Hilprecht has unearthed “multiplication tables, grammars, scientific treatises, and volumes on astronomical subjects,” and tablets showing that free-hand drawing, clay-modeling, and sculpture were taught in the schools. At a lecture given in Leipsic, before a vast audience, Professor Hilprecht made this reference to the views put forth by the leading apostle of the higher criticism, Dr. Delitzsch:— As the attempt has recently been made to trace the pure monotheism of Israel to Babylonian sources, I am bound to declare this an absolute impossibility, on the basis of my fourteen years’ researches in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions. The faith of God’s chosen people is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” And the faith could never proceed from the Babylonian mountain of gods, that charnel-house full of corruption and dead men’s bones. Thus while the higher criticism is putting forth its teaching calculated to destroy faith in the reliability of the Scriptures, new evidences of the truthfulness of the Bible narratives are being brought to light, providentially it may well be, from the indisputable records left by those contemporary with the Bible writers. Surely those who turn away from all the evidence in support of the truthfulness of the written Word, will be without excuse. L. A. S.