SYMBOLS AND TRADITIONS CORROBORATING SCRIPTURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 4, 16 May 1884, Page 3

SYMBOLS AND TRADITIONS CORROBORATING SCRIPTURE.

(From the Catholic Mirror.)

Bbv. J. F. X. O'Cohob, S.J., of Woodstock College, delivered the third academic lecture of the season in the hall of Loyola College, on Monday night, on " Egyptian Picture Writing and Cuneiform Inscriptions," in which he showed, by means of stereoptician views, the striking similarity between the picture writing of the ancients and that of the North American Indians and the Aztecs. Even our own familiar English, he said, is not free from these cabalistic marks, as instance the common symbol for dollars, which is popularly but erroneously supposed to stand for " Uncle Sam." The study of the ancient lore hidden in the cuneiform characters of legends of the East, is not merely a movement valuable in its gratification of the learned and curious, but also from the fact of its inadvertent corroboration to Holy Writ. Not, indeed, that the Scriptures need other confirmation to us than the simple word 3of God, but it is a satisfaction to be able to answer the enemies of Christianity with records of history outside oE Holy Writ. In the newlydeciphered language we have an account of the Creation, a description of the Oarden of Paradise, and a legend oE the Deluge. Ttie analogy between these accouuls and the narrative in the Bible is most striking. It is the same tradition evidently applied in a different sense. Since th& Hebrew and Assyrian have substantially the same tradition, and since the evidence clearly points out that they were not taken one from the other, the remaining explanation is that they were taken, from the same original tradition banded down in different ways from the lips of Noe. Thns in the Scriptures we have an account of the Deluge. Outside the Scriptures, and in no way connected with them, we have another account of the fact. What other reasonable explanation can there be than the truth of an original tradition from which both were taken ? If the Chaldean cuneiform narrative translated by Berosus is remarkable for its resemblance to the Scriptures, the Assyrian cuneiform narrative of the Deluge is simply astounding. It the future Chaldean and Assyrian discoveries are of equal importance to what has been made known, they cannot be published too soon. The cbie'f idea in all is that the flood was sent as a chastisement. Genesis says, " Noe opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven, which did not return."—" He sent forth also a dove after him . . , but she not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him. into the ark." The Chaldean legend is as follows : " Xisthrus loosed some of the birds j these finding no food nor place to alight on, returned to the ship, A few days later Xisthrus again let them free, but they returned to the vessel their feet full of mud. Finally, loosed the third time, the birds came back no more." The cuneiform interpretation draws much closer to the Scriptures. Izdober states that successively were sent out a dove, a swallow, and a raven; The two former not finding a place to alight came back, but " the raven saw the corpses in the waters, ate, rested, turned and came not back. " In the Mexican legend, Tezpi sends out a vulture which does not return. Among the Greeks and Latins the legend is preserved by the fables of Odd, and the odes of Horace. As the cuneiform inscriptions date back at least 2,000 years before Christ, and thus probably anterior to the time whea Moses wrote down, Ihe traditions of the Jewish people, we get some idea of the value of their testimony. We must recollect, too, that the tower of Babel was built shortly after the Deluge, and when all the earth was of one tongue, and the traditions of the primitive revelation which had been preserved from the time of Noe were yet fresh in theix minds.