BIBLICAL REVELATIONS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10974, 13 June 1903, Page 6

BIBLICAL REVELATIONS.

A Remarkable Discovery.

TO THE EDITOIt.

Sir, — In view of what, has b^een written of late concerning the' evidence for the authenticity of the Bible^it.may intereskyour readers' to 'hear of an'inipbrtaht archaeological discovery, and what ik thought, jf it, by such a journal as the London Times. The article, which occupied thr,efe' columns of the Times, was devoted' to What is described as "one. of. the most remarkable historical monuments that has ever been discovered from- the buried cities of the, ancv, ent world." The monument referred; td bears upon its surface the Code e^L.aw# of King Khammurabi, , ruler of "Assyria, of which the, far-famed and moat'splendid city of Babylon was the capital. The Code of Laws of this great King is acknowledged to be a thousand years older than the Mosaic account, and the only logical inference is, that it has served as a copy for the Hebrew legislators who adapted the great code to their own requirements. This should be extremely interesting to some of your correspondents, who were some time ago exercised in mind over the allegation of plagiarism levelled at the writers of the Old Testament. The discovery reveals to us, Bel, the mountain-god, king of the spirits of earth, the lord of heaven and earth, who foretells the destiny of all. This Bel Ogives laws from his mountain peak, just as Moses is said to have received them from*Javeh (or Jehovah) a thousand years, later. The writer amply demonstrates that "the whole of the legal code^ of the Hebrews embodied in what is called the Old Testament is founded upon that of King Khammurabi, who flourished b.c. 2200.- The uniqueness of the Hebrew Scriptures has thus received a completely shattering blow." The following paragraph is of especial interest to many ,' of your readers as giving an insight into the views of 4 those who have made the subject pf man's, mental and physical evolution a life study, as opposed to those who hold fast to the oft-exposed errors that have been handed down to us from a hoary antiquity. In confronting the great problems of existence, the everlasting "whence gnd whither," the tissue of old traditions and mythologies fall, back,' into' the nurseryland of thought. We find that men like the late .Archbishop of Canterbury rejected as truths the Biblical accbuht' of- the Creation and the story of the Fall in the Garden. He looked,- upon them as merely symbolical myths. In this way the Fall of Man is placed on all-fours with other mythological stories- found in the literature of all the nations ''of antiquity." With the passing out of the story of "the fall" poes, that of original. Bin and the necessity of an atonement, and man is brought face to face with the logical fact .that right conduct is all-in all, or) ais M-athew "Arnold has %it, "Ethics, enkindled, lit up by feeling." The most pregnant passage of the Times' article is as follow.s.: — Archaeological- research is not, perhaps, always welcomed by those whose accepted conclusions it reverses. If it confirms Some old traditions, it discredits others-; and, .when' su^h tr,adi- . tions are consecrated by relisrious associations, or enshrined in venerated religious literature,, doubts'" thrown, upon them sls4< apt for a time to be regarded as a slur upon religion itself. The Code of Khammurabi a<Jds one more to a series of discoveries which have proved tt>'eve*ry open niitad that the ideas, religious and secular, of, the early Hebrews enshrined for u»an'the Old Testament were not all original, but were Jarpely influenced by an older Babylonian civilisation disclosed by the witness of the monu-

ments. The Biblical accounts of the Creation or of the Deluge are shown to be 'variants 'of traditions common to -the Hebrews with, or perhaps borrowed by them from, other nations of antiquity. The chronology of Archbishop Ussher, still preserved in our Authorised Version of the Bible, has been utterly discredited by modern discoveries. The ''days" of the Mosaic account .of the Creation need no longer be understood literally, under pain of excommunication of its equivalent. . Nor is the explanation of the Fall of Man, as an early attempt to explain the perennial insoluble problem of the origin of evil now received with the piotfs horror of even half a century ago. We have, it may be hoped, left behind for "ood the 'non possumus' attitude of earlier theology towards new light. We can welcome tlie light which archaeology .has to throw upon sacred, no less .than on profane, history. If the Code of the wise and just King Knanrmurabi anticipates the traditional fame of Moses or of Justinian, or reverses some previously accepted views about early jurisprudence, w,e need be no more disturbed than if the spdtie of the explorer antedates Grecian civilisation, or upsets, our .hitherto, ap r c^ejirM "knowledge of cr fhe" feriers Cadmus fl-ave." Archflpologv, Biblical or other, still finds new worlds to conquer. It confirms the traditional fame of Minos; it rescues Khammurabi from undeserved oblivion. Thus, -then, truth slowly emerges from the mists of doubt; man-created systems of religion fade away; and man himself is called to the higher destiny of creating his own Heaven, on earth. — I am, etc., , OMEGA.