Chapter V: Mesopotamia and the Bible (2)

A Babylonian temple was also the court of justice, and as the Jewish Sanhedrim met in the temple at Jerusalem, so did the council of the grey-haired ones meet in the courts of Chaldean temples to answer judgment. Dr Oppert has translated some contracts and legal decisions relating indubitably to captive Jews who had been carried to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem. One of the most interesting of them is a law-suit commenced by a Jewish slave named Barachiel in order to recover his freedom. The case was as follows:--Barachiel--who bears the same name as the father of Elihu in the Book of Job (xxxii. 2-6),--had been the property of a wealthy person named Akhi-nuri, who had sold him to a widow of the name of Gaga, about 570 B.C. He remained in the house of this lady as a slave, with the power of liberating himself by paying a sum equal to his _peculium_ or private property, which he had been allowed to acquire, like a slave in ancient Rome; but it seems that he was never fortunate enough to be able to afford the sum of money required. He remained with Gaga twenty-one years, and was considered the _res_ or property of the house, and as such was handed over in pledge, was restored, and finally became the dowry of Nubti, the daughter of Gaga. Nubti gave him to her son and husband in exchange for a house and some slaves. After the death of the two ladies he was sold to the wealthy publican, Itti-Marduk-baladh, from whose house he escaped twice. Taken the second time, he instituted an action in order that he might be recognised as a free-born citizen, of the family of Belrimanni; and to prove that he was of noble origin he pretended that he had performed the matrimonial solemnities at the marriage of his master’s daughter, Qudasa, with a certain Samas-mudammiq. Such a performance, doubtless, implied that the officiating priest was of free birth, and no slave or freed-man was qualified to take part in it.

The name Barachiel, says Dr Oppert, is evidently that of a Jew. He is called “a slave of ransom;” that is to say, not a slave who has already purchased his freedom, but a slave who was allowed by special laws to employ his private fortune in the work of liberating himself. He professes to have been the “joiner” of the hands of bride and bridegroom at a wedding which must have taken place before the thirty-fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, when he still belonged to the house of Akhi-nuri, “the seller of the slave,” as he is called at the end of the text.

The judges, after perusing all the evidence, do not find any proofs that Barachiel was a man of free birth, and accordingly say to him:--“Prove to us that you are the descendant of a noble ancestor.” Thereupon Barachiel confesses that he is not free-born, but has twice run away from the house of his master; as, however, the act was seen by many people, he was afraid, and said he was the son of a noble ancestor. “But I am not free-born,” he confesses, and then gives an account of the events of his life. The judges decided that Barachiel should be restored to his condition as a slave of ransom.[54]

Such a story as this serves to show what the life of many an Israelite may have been during the Captivity.

3. _How the Writings were Read._

To the ordinary visitor to the British Museum, looking at the cuneiform inscriptions--nothing but arrowhead characters variously grouped--it seems wonderful that they should constitute a language, and incredible that they should be read. The question is often asked, “How can we trust the translations put before us? How do we know that they are any more than guesses?” It may be well, therefore, to relate how the key to the lost character was obtained, and how the decipherment proceeded until now the translation of narrative texts can be made with as much certainty as translations from the Hebrew of the Old Testament.

The clue was obtained from the Behistun inscriptions, through the energy of Sir Henry Rawlinson; and the records of the successive steps of the discovery will be found in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society_, in the _Quarterly Review_ for March 1847, and in such popular works as Mr Vaux’s “Nineveh and Persepolis.” Edwin Norris and others had laboured, and the process of deciphering cuneiform texts was already well advanced when Sir Henry Layard and Mr Rassam discovered such abundant treasures in the mounds on the Tigris. The inscriptions which are now known to record the personal history of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, are almost always in three forms of the cuneiform character, which may be described as Persian, Median, and Assyrian, and were addressed to different races of his subjects. The most extensive monument of the kind is found on a rock escarpment at Behistun, on the frontiers of Persia, a place on the high road from Babylonia to the further east. The rock is almost perpendicular, and rises abruptly from the plain to the height of 1700 feet, an imposing object which must always have attracted the attention of travellers. It was known to the Greeks, who erected on the top of it a temple to Zeus; and it had probably been sacred to Ormazd, the supreme deity of the Persians. High up on the face of this rock, 300 feet above the plain, there are two tablets, one of them containing sculptured figures and nearly a thousand lines of cuneiform character. The sculptured portion of the rock represents a line of nine persons united by a cord tied round their necks, and having their hands bound behind their backs, who are approaching another of more majestic stature, who, holding up his right hand in token of authority, treads on a prostrate body. His countenance expresses the idea of a great king or conqueror, and behind the king stand two guards with long spears in their hands.

The reign of Darius was disturbed by many revolts, and the insurrectionary attempts of many impostors and pretenders. It is these impostors who are represented as prisoners in the sculpture, and over the head of each figure we find his name and description. The first one, the prostrate figure, is “Gomates, the Magian, an impostor,” who said, “I am Bartius, the son of Cyrus; I am the King,” and so on. The inscription is by far the largest and most important record which has been preserved of the greatness of Darius, and of the Persian state and system. The lines over the monarch himself would read in English as follows:--

“I am Darius the king, the great king, the king of kings, the king of Persia, the king of the (dependent) provinces, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of Arsames, the Achæmenian,” &c.

It will be noticed here how the word king is repeated; as the inscription proceeds the name Darius is repeated also. A German scholar, Professor Grotefend, had observed that such inscriptions generally begin with three or four words, one of which varies while the others do not. He suspected that the word which changes would be the king’s name--as different inscriptions would relate to different kings--and that the other words gave the king’s titles. He felt convinced that a word which was constantly repeated signified “king,” and conjectured that when two kings were mentioned they were probably father and son. Finding that the names of Cyrus and Cambyses would not suit, because no two names in the inscription he was dealing with commenced with the same letter, he tried others. Cyrus and Artaxerxes seemed equally inapplicable, because of their unequal length, the two names he was dealing with being of six letters each. The only names remaining were those of Darius and Xerxes; and these on further comparison appeared to agree so exactly with the characters that he did not hesitate at once to adopt them. Having thus found out more than twelve letters, among which were precisely those composing the royal title, the next business was to give these names their original Persian form, in order that by ascertaining the correct value of each character, the royal title might be deciphered. From the “Zendavesta” of Anquetil du Perron, M. Grotefend found that the Greek form Hystaspes was originally represented in Persian by Gustasp, Kishtasp, or Wistasp. The first seven letters of this name were at once discovered, while a comparison of all the royal titles led him to the conclusion that the three last formed the inflection of the genitive singular, corresponding to the Latin Hystaspis. Thus did Grotefend proceed step by step, his ingenuity and perseverance being beyond all praise. Meantime Sir Henry Rawlinson, although stationed in Persia and cut off in a great degree from the results of European scholarship, was devoting himself with ardour to the study of the Behistun inscription, and making independent progress.

It turned out that of the three forms of arrow-headed character in this class of inscriptions the Persian was the easiest to decipher, being an alphabetic language, and that the other two were not purely alphabetic. Still, a sure clue was obtained, and the key being applied by an increasing number of investigators, the Median and the Assyrian in the course of time yielded up their secrets. At length, in 1857, to put the method of decipherment to a test, the inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I. was submitted to four eminent Assyriologists, namely, Sir H. Rawlinson, Dr Oppert, Mr Fox Talbot, and Dr Hincks, who made translations of it independently, and sent them, under seal, to the secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. When they were opened and compared it was found that they exhibited a remarkable resemblance to one another, much greater, in fact, than could have been the case if the method of decipherment had not been sound. Since 1857 immense advances have been made, until now, as Dr Sayce confidently declares, it is possible to translate an ordinary Assyrian text with as much ease and certainty as a page of the Old Testament.

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Assyrian Discoveries.” By
George Smith. “The Chaldean Genesis.” By George Smith.
“Ancient History from the Monuments: Assyria.” By George
Smith. “Ancient History from the Monuments: Babylonia.” By
Rev. Dr A. H. Sayce. “Nineveh and its Remains.” H. A. Layard.
“Nineveh and Persepolis.” W. S. W. Vaux. “Guide to the
Kouyunjik Gallery.” British Museum. “The Story of the Nations:
Assyria.” By Zénaïde A. Ragozin. “The Story of the Nations:
Babylonia.” Zénaïde A. Ragozin. “Hibbert Lectures.” Dr A. H.
Sayce. “Records of the Past.” “Transactions of the Society of
Biblical Archæology.” Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible.” “From
Under the Dust of Ages.” St Chad Boscawen.]

THE VANDALISM OF THE ORIENTALS.

It seems to be quite providential that the calamities of cities and the burial of treasures of art and knowledge should result in their preservation, and contribute to the education of the world. It is remarkable also that the explorers of the buried cities of the East should be the Christian nations of the West, and that such a wealth of discovery should enrich this nineteenth century. Through the catastrophe which overwhelmed Pompeii, and preserved it under volcanic ashes for 1700 years, we have become better acquainted with the private life of the Romans than would have been possible by any other means. The fugitive from Pompeii, in the hurry of escape, abandoned articles of intrinsic value, and could not pause or stoop to pick them up; yet they were saved from the hand of the robber that they might give instruction to the world many centuries afterwards. The golden diadems, ear-rings, and bracelets which Dr Schliemann found in a great silver vase on the supposed site of Troy had been packed in the greatest haste, and the fair owner, unable to return to them, no doubt gave them up for lost; but she was an instrument in the hand of Providence, and knew not what she did. By the recovery of the Assyrian royal library, we are being informed concerning the religion and mythology, as well as the history, of early nations, about whom we knew too little through the ordinary channels of history. Think of Assurbanipal’s librarian at Nineveh speculating on the ultimate destiny of the records under his care! How could he guess that when the empire was passed away, its kings forgotten, its gods put aside as mythical inventions, there would come scholars from beyond the pillars of Hercules and learn to decipher its records?

How disappointing is it, then, to all lovers of knowledge, as well as to all students of Bible antiquities, to know that, now, when the existence of these treasures is known, there is too little enterprise in our people to go and reap the harvest of them; and while we wait they are being carelessly or wantonly destroyed! One explorer tells of an Arab who found an entire black statue, and because it was too heavy to carry away bodily, broke off its head and carried that away first. Palaces and temples, when unearthed, are used as quarries for the building stone. Limestone slabs, covered with precious sculptures and inscriptions, are burnt for the sake of the lime. Decaying mounds of bricks, because they contain nitre, are carted off as manure for the fields! The following are a few instances of the vandalism which seems to be defeating the apparent intention of Providence.

The beautiful sanctuaries “erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at the end of the last century, were destroyed by the Turkish governor of Assouan in 1822.”--_Professor Maspero._

The great Sphinx at Gizeh.--“The nose and beard have been broken off by fanatics.”--_Professor Maspero._

Sebakh diggers ply their occupation in the midst of the mounds of the ancient city of Thebes. “_Sebakh_, signifying ‘salt,’ or ‘saltpetre,’ is the general term for that saline dust which accumulates wherever there are mounds of brick or limestone ruins. This dust is much valued as a manure or ‘top-dressing,’ and is so constantly dug out and carried away by the natives, that the mounds of ancient towns and villages are rapidly undergoing destruction in all parts of Egypt.”--_Miss Amelia B. Edwards._

“Prisse d’Avennes relates that when he visited, in 1836, Behbeit el Hagar, the site of the old Heb, in the Sebennyte nome, near the present city of Mansoorah, he went away disgusted, seeing the regular trade that was carried on in the most beautiful sculptures of the ruined temple, which was besides used as a quarry by the inhabitants of the spot.”--_M. Naville._

“When the sheikh on whose land I was excavating became reassured as to the object of my researches, he told me that some twenty years ago a great number of inscribed stones were unearthed on that spot [site of Goshen]; but since that time they had disappeared, most of them having been used for building purposes. The great number of broken pieces which are built into the walls of the houses prove that the sheikh spoke the truth.”--_M. Naville._

“At Babel there are four wells scientifically built. When Mr Rassam cleared one of them of _debris_ he came to water at the bottom. Each stone is 3 feet in thickness, is bored, and made to fit the one below it so exactly that you would imagine the whole well was hewn out of the solid rock. Yet the Arabs break up these stones for the sake of making lime.”--_Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, viii. 185.

“In 1815 Lady Hester Stanhope conducted excavations at Ascalon, and found a colossal statue of a Roman emperor, thought possibly to have been that of Augustus, erected by Herod. It was unfortunately broken up by the workmen in search of treasure supposed to be concealed within.”--Conder’s “_Syrian Stone-lore_.”

“At Cæsarea a broad street has been laid out (by the recent immigrants from Bosnia) which passes directly over the remains of the Roman temple built by Herod in honour of Cæsar and of Rome (the finely dressed white stone being turned to good account by the colonists), and over the Crusaders’ Cathedral, the foundations and walls of which also furnish splendid building material.”--“_Quarterly Statement_ of Palestine Exploration Fund,” July 1884.

“I pointed out that while the objects underground would keep a few years longer, the march of civilisation was rapidly erasing all records of the past above ground. The ancient ruins were being burnt into lime, the old names were giving way to modern appellations, and the records of the past were disappearing.”--_Colonel Sir Charles Warren._

“Of Memphis there is at present hardly a trace left; and other great cities known to ancient travellers have disappeared with their monuments. Mummy cases and coffins with most interesting inscriptions have for centuries been used as fuel. And innumerable manuscripts have suffered the same fate.... The tombs are convenient abodes for Arab families, who destroy the paintings and inscriptions either by the dense smoke of their fires or by actually pulling down walls. I was taken to see the ‘Lay of the Harper,’ one of the most interesting remains of Egyptian poetry, which was published a few years ago by Dr Dumichen, but we found the walls on which the poem was written a mere heap of ruins. But the vandalism of European and American travellers is most fatal to the monuments. There is, or rather was, a famous picture at Beni-hassan, which was formerly thought to represent Joseph presenting his brethren to Pharaoh. An English lady has been heard to request her guide to cut out for her the face of Joseph!”--_P. Le Page Renouf._

TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] From “Records of the Past.” New Series, vol. ii.

[2] See Bishop Butler’s “Sermon on the Character of Balaam.”

[3] Rev. H. G. Tomkins argues that he was a Semite, though in close contact with the Hittites.--“Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” November 1889.

[4] Major Conder, in the “Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” August 1889.

[5] See the authorities given in “Rawlinson’s Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament.”

[6] Dyer’s “Pompeii.”

[7] Exod. xxix. 22; Levit. vii. 32, viii. 25, ix. 21; Num. xviii. 18.

[8] See Sayce’s “Fresh Light from the Monuments,” p. 139.

[9] “Records of the Past,” New Series, vol. ii.

[10] Brugsch, “History of Egypt,” vol. ii.

[11] May it not perhaps have been a new name given to Bubastis, after rebuilding?

[12] M. Naville, whose excavations at Tell Basta have shown that Bubastis was a very large city, and a favourite resort of the king and his family, thinks it quite possible that, at the time we are speaking of, the king was at Bubastis and not at Zoan.

[13] Gesenius gives the meaning, “rush, reed, seaweed;” and in Exod. ii. 3, Moses is said to have been laid in an ark of _souph_ or reeds.

[14] In this paraphrase I render one of the _vavs_ by “then” instead of “and.” This will be allowed me. What will be objected to is the assumption that Lasha is Laish, especially as Lasha contains a different radical, the _ayin_ (לָשַׁע). But the passage in Genesis may give an archaic spelling; and as Lasha signifies “the breaking through of waters,” it is eminently descriptive of the source of the Jordan at Dan. To place Lasha in the south-east of Palestine, as is done in Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” is to charge the description in Genesis with being defective, for how are the limits of a people defined by tracing two sides of an irregular quadrangle?

[15] Josephus: “Wars,” iii. 10. § 8.

[16] “Twenty-one years’ Work in the Holy Land.”

[17] For an account of the “Book of Jasher,” see the “Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch.”

[18] Little Hermon is really a misnomer for the conical hill of Duhy just north of the Valley of Jezreel. The mention of Tabor and Hermon together in Psalm lxxxix. 12, has misled those who did not realize that Tabor would be in the same line of vision with Mount Hermon, for many observers in the south.

[19] See the chapter on Jerusalem.

[20] _Greek_ “Akra.”

[21] ἡ καθύπερθεν αὐταῖς

[22] “Survey Memoirs.”

[23] This is Dr Sayce’s improved translation, in “Records of the Past,” Second Series, vol. ii. The inscription has since been cut out and stolen.

[24] “Quarterly Statement,” Jan. 1890.

[25] Might mean arched, or gibbous, or humped. Conder understands it “rising to a peak.” Q. S. Oct. 1873.

[26] “Quarterly Statement,” January 1876.

[27] “Wars,” v. 4. 2.

[28] “Quarterly Statement,” Jan. 1886.

[29] In the Authorised Version it is Meah, in the Revised Version Hammeah. It might be translated Tower of the Hundred.

[30] Ezra iv. 16, 20; v. 3, 6; vi. 6, 8, 13; viii. 36.

[31] The Nethinim were but servants of the Levites.

[32] “Recovery of Jerusalem,” pp. 155-9.

[33] Zion is only called Moriah as the hill of vision (2 Chron. iii. 1).

[34] The resemblances are better seen in the Hebrew.

[35] “Quarterly Statement,” April, 1890.

[36] “Quarterly Statement,” Jan.-March 1870.

[37] Antiq., vii. 14, 4.

[38] Antiq., ix. 10. 4.

[39] “Sinai and Palestine,” chap. iii.

[40] “Quarterly Statement,” July, 1890.

[41] “The Recovery of Jerusalem,” p. 284.

[42] “Quarterly Statement,” 1872, p. 116.

[43] It would be legitimate to read “by the sheep-pool” instead of “by the sheep-gate.”

[44] xv. 11. 5.

[45] v. 5. 2.

[46] “Sinai and Palestine.”

[47] Conder’s “Tent Work.”

[48] See a paper by Rev. Charles S. Robinson, in the _Century Magazine_, November, 1888.

[49] Genesis x. 6.

[50] Lessing: “Education of the Human Race.”

[51] “Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” February, 1889.

[52] It is right to say that some writers are not convinced that Nineveh was 60 miles round. They regard Nimroud, Kouyunjik, &c., as so many separate cities.

[53] Or Gilgames. (See _Academy_, Nov. 8th, 1890.)

[54] “Records of the Past.” New Series, Vol. i.

* * * * * *

Transcriber’s note:

1. Obvious spelling, printers’ and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.

2. Where appropriate, both hyphenated and non-hyphenated words have been retained as in the original.

3. Where appropriate, original spelling has been retained.

4. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r.

5. In chapter 3, for the numbered subsections, the number 4 was incorrectly stated as 5. This has been corrected.