One of the most valuable publications of the British Museum is their monograph on the Gilgamesh legend, which contains a fine and scholarly translation of the deluge tablet in an unabridged form. Our own copy of this publication has been of great value to many students who have sought its aid in their detailed studies of the Old Testament.
Another one of the disputed portions of the Old Testament text which brought great comfort to the habitually hopeful among the destructive critics, is that section of Genesis which deals with the record of Nimrod and the tower of Babel.
Modern archeology not only has failed to bring any aid to the critics in this particular incident, but has robbed them of all their carefully erected structure of argument which was predicated upon the assumption that the tower of Babel was entirely mythological. Among the recent excavations in Mesopotamia was the work in the region which bore the oriental name of Birs-nimroud. When the excavators had finished their enormous task, they had laid bare a magnificent ziggurat of tremendous antiquity which was the largest so far discovered. At the time these ruins were first seen, this enormous tower covered an area of 1,444,000 square feet. It towered to the height of a bit more than 700 feet. Time has, of course, ravished this monument to some extent, but enough of its grandeur and glory remains to show it forth as the most ancient as well as the most magnificent of the Babylonian ziggurats.
According to the description given by Herodotus, in the middle of the fifth century, B. C., the structure then consisted of a series of eight ascending towers, each one recessed in the modern fashion of cutting-back that is used in certain types of sky-scraper architecture. The famous Step Pyramid at Sakkara is another ancient example of this type of structure, each successive and higher tower being smaller than the one upon which it rests. A spiral roadway, according to Herodotus, went around the entire ziggurat, mounting rapidly from level to level. He states that at each level a resting place was provided in this spiral roadway. At the top of the structure was a magnificent temple in which the religious exercises of the day were observed.
That this was the tower of Nimrod is generally accepted by the authorities of our present day. The name of Nimrod which in the Sumerian ideographs is read “Ni-mir-rud” is found on a number of artifacts and records of high antiquity, and reference is made as well to the great monument that he built.
So as we read our way through the episodes which constitute the earlier records of Genesis, we also dig our way into the older strata of humanity and find ourselves walking hand in hand with the twins of revelation and scientific vindication! They coincide in all their utterances, teaching us that all that the Word of God has to say to men may be accepted without question or doubt.
The late Melvin Grove Kyle has written extensively of his own researches at Sodom and Gomorrah, so that it is unnecessary to recapitulate the results of his lifetime of labor. The sulphurous overburden and the startling confirmation of the Book of Genesis derived from the work of Dr. Kyle and his associates would vindicate the Scriptural claims to historical accuracy even if they stood by themselves.
In the general argument and discussion that long has clustered about the record of Abraham, the starting point of critical refutation has generally been the fourteenth chapter of Genesis. It is stated that the battle of the kings that occurred in this disputed portion of Holy Writ, was in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar. Since a contemporary is named as Ched-or-la-o-mer, a storm of argument has swept over and about that one opening verse of this important chapter. The allies of Ched-or-la-o-mer are well known from his own records, and Amraphel was not to be found among them. It was a tremendous blow to criticism when the discovery was made that Amraphel is the Hebrew name of the Sumerian form, Khammurabi.
Plate 3
