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

46 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE 0. T.
the son", which the Greeks transformed to 'Sardanapal' &c.
(Assyrisch-Babylonische KelHuschriften pp. 120 foil. Keil-
inschrlften und Geschichtsforschung pp. 517 foil.). With
reference to the subject that we are here considering, I
have already drawn attention in another place* to the fact
that a word that is used as an appellative in one language
has been preserved in the allied language simply as a
proper name. The word habal, abal, bal moreover
seems to be a foreign word in Assyrian (A. H. Sayce,
F. Delitzsch, P. Haupt) since it does not occur in any
other Semitic language in an appellative sense , and taken
in this sense, has no satisfactory derivation. It was pro-
bably adopted into the Assyrian** from the Sumiro-
Akkadian, in which the word for "son" is ibila (Syll. 307
in Delitzsch's Assyrische Lesestiicke), The same thing
46 occurs with kindred words. Meanwhile we find in Assyrian
along with it the old and genuine Semitic word |5 "son"
still preserved, occurring in the connection bin -bin i. e.
"son's son" = "grandson" (Assyrisch-Babyl. Keilinsch.
p. 193). Also the Assyrian for 'daughter', derived from
the same root, is bi-in-tu i. e. HJS (along with mar at,
martuv having the same meaning), see Assyr.-Bab. Keil-
insch. ibid.
VI. 5—VIII. 32. In this extract has been handed
down to us the Biblical account of the Flood. The parallel
Chaldaean accounts have, as regards their substance, been
long known to us through Berossus and Josephus (see
"Ppnn
* See Bibel-Lexicou Vol. III. pp. 507 foil.
** With the Assyr. ^^pi from the Akkadian ibil, compare '^piflj
fi'om I dig la t (see above p. 32). — Compare however J. Barth,
Beitrage zu Hiob p. 27, and the Author himself: Zur Frage nach dem
Ursprunge der altbabylonischen Cultur (Abhdl. der Akad. der Wiss.
1883) Berl. 1884 p. 24 anm.