The Bible and Babylon - Their Relationship in the History of Culture #252227

Against the hasty acceptance of a line of thought which has of late been vehemently urged in Germany, and has found too much countenance among some scholars in this country. The decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions has not only revealed a good many resemblances in the Babylonian records to some of the opening passages of the Hebrew Scriptures, but has shown that the civiliza tion of Babylonia was in many respects similar to that which is presupposed in the early narratives of the Old Testament. It is clear among other things, from the nature of the recently deciphered Code of Hammurabi, who was probably a contemporary of Abraham, that the Mosaic Code was analogous, in general character, to a system of legislation long ante cedent to it. The inspiration of the Divine lawgiver was exerted, in fact, not in creating.