The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament; - The Search For ...

4 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE 0. T.
4 was a time when «&c." In other cases where this word
f n u m a occurs in Assyrian texts , it has clearly descended
to the condition of a mere temporal particle, sometimes (see
Tiglath Pileser I col. VIII. line 52) even referring to the
future (''if ever the temple shall become old" &c.). In all
these instances, however, this introductory Inuma is
followed by an apodosis ; compare the cuneiform text cited
below in illustration of verse 20. In the present case the
verbal form shows that line 5 constitutes the apodosis. The
meaning is:—Before the creation of the Heaven and the
Earth* (i. e. in the mind the of author, before the separation
of the entire universe into an upper portion ='Heaven', and a
lower portion = 'Earth') there was simply a chaotic flowing
mass, within which the generative processes were at work.
An ordered world, a cosmos, had not yet arisen. Indeed
the products of generation were still destitute of the condi-
tion necessary to organic life, namely light. Accordingly
the buds of vegetation had not yet sprung up (lines 1 — 6).
1. There was a time, when above the Heaven had not named,
2. Beneath, the Earth had not named a name,
3. The Ocean was their first generator,
4. Mummu-Tiamat the mother of their whole &c.
Compare with this Oppert's translation : —
Formerly what is above was not called Heaven,
And that which is the Earth beneath had not a name :
An infinite Abyss was their generator,
A chaos, the sea , was the mother that gave birth to all this
universe.
[The reader might also compare the rendering given by Prof. Sayce,
and his remarks on pages 51 — 3 in the History of Babylonia (Ancient
History from the monuments S. P. C. K.), and also in his later work
"Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments" p. 27— Tr].
* "bear a name" and "exist" are to a Semite correlative ideas.
Respecting Q]^' in the sense of 'the nature of a thing manifesting itself,
see the Old Testament theologies, and compare P. Haupt 'die sumer-
ischen Familiengesetze' I (1879) p. 81.