The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

408 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

birds, for instance, sent out by Xisuthros are three instead of
two, as in the Biblical narrative, though the number of times
[444] they were despatched is the same in both cases; and the ship
of the Babylonian version has been replaced by an ark in the
Old Testament account. In fact the Babylonian story has been
modified in Palestine and under Western influences. In an
inland country an ark was naturally substituted for a ship, more
especially as the latter contained a house with window and door;
even in Babylonia itself, in the processions of the gods, an ark
came to take the place of the ship of primitive Eridu. The olive
branch, again, with which the dove returned, according to the
Book of Genesis, points to Palestine, where the olive grew; while
the period of the rainfall has been transferred from Sebet or
January and February, when the winter rains fall in Babylonia,
to the“second month”of the Hebrew civil year, our October and
November, when the“former rains”began in Canaan. Similarly,
the subsidence of the waters is extended in the Hebrew narrative
to the middle of the“seventh month,”when the“latter rains”of
the Canaanitish spring are over.
But the most remarkable fact brought to light by a comparison
of the Babylonian story with that of Genesis is, that the
resemblances between them are not confined to one only of
the two documents into which modern criticism has separated
the Biblical narrative. It is not with the so-called Elohistic, or
the so-called Yahvistic, account only that the agreement exists,
but with both together as they are found at present combined,
or supposed to be combined, in the Hebrew text.^338 The fact
throws grave doubt on the reality of the critical analysis. As I
have said elsewhere:^339 “Either the Babylonian poet had before
him the present‘redacted’text of Genesis, or else the Elohist and
Yahvist must have copied the Babylonian story upon the mutual
[445] understanding standing that the one should insert what the other

(^338) See myEarly History of the Hebrews, p. 122 sqq.
(^339) Loc. cit., p. 126.