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

26 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE 0. T.
is to be regarded as an Assyrian one (compare RammS,n-
Rimmon) that has found its way both among Hebrews and
Aramaeans. It may be better therefore to leave the deci-
sion of this question in suspense.
26 7. and he formed man from the dust of the earth. In
comparison with this passage we can at present only cite
the Chaldaean account handed down by Berossus respecting
the creation of man by mingling the blood of the gods with
the earth (see above p. 14).
— and he blew into hu nose the breath of life. In the
fragment marked 18 in Delitzsch 2°'^ ed. p. 80 lines 15, 16
we read
:
15. a-n a pa-di-su-nu ib-nu-u a-vi-lu-tu
1 6. r i-ml-n u-u s a b u 1-1 u-t u b a-s u-u i t-t i-s u
i. e. 15. To redeem them, created mankind
16. The Merciful one, in whom is the power that sum-
mons to life.*
Notes and illustrations. We must understand as subject the "God of
life" i. e. AN.ZI (ZI = napistu) line 1.— Respecting riming root
QT]") = nn see Fr. Delitzsch in Smith's Chaldaean Genesis (Germ,
ed.) p. 269. Respecting basfi see Assyrio-Babylonian Cun. Insc. p. 304
rem. 1. How the phrase 'to redeem them' (root ^'^ mO) *° ^® understood
in this connection is not very clear. G. Smith's "'to their terror"
is clearly impossible. Smith evidently read ana haddisunu and was
thinking of the Hebrew pnn-
to them"(?).
Oppert renders "to form a counterpoise
8. And Jahve- Eloliim jylanted a garden in Eden towards
the East. "Eden'', Hebrew jli;, has in its origin nothing to
do with ]'ll! plur. ''H-^ 'delight', and is a word signifying
afield', 'plain', introduced among the Hebrews from Babylonia.
The usual Assyrian ideogram for 'field', 'steppe', 'plain' is
interpreted in the syllabaries by 1-di-nu i. e pP, and since
* bullutu {]Q^2) is Infioit. Pa. with causative meaning (Assyrio-
Babylonian Cuueif. Inscr. p. 272). Oppert rightly gives the sense:—
"the principle of life."