Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/239

 II. The Ten Ante-diluvian Kings of Berossus.—The number ten occurs with singular persistency in the traditions of many peoples as that of the kings or patriarchs who reigned or lived in the mythical age which preceded the dawn of history. The Babylonian form of this tradition is as yet known only from a passage of Berossus extracted by Apollodorus and Abydenus; although there are allusions to it in the inscriptions which encourage the hope that the cuneiform original may yet be discovered. Meanwhile, the general reliability of Berossus is such, that scholars are naturally disposed to attach considerable importance to any correspondence that can be made out between his list and the names in Gn. 5. A detailed analysis was first published by Hommel in 1893, another was given by Sayce in 1899. The first-named writer has subsequently abandoned some of his earlier proposals, substituting others which are equally tentative; and while some of his combinations are regarded as highly problematical, others have been widely approved.

The names of the Kings before the Flood in Berossus are: 1. , 2., 3. [], 4. , 5.  [], 6.  [], 7. , 8. , 9.  [Rd. ], 10. . Of the suggested Bab. equivalents put forward by Hommel, the following are accepted as fairly well established by Je. and (with the exception of No. 1) by Zimmern: 1. Aruru (see p. 102), 2. Adapa (p. 126), 3. Amelu (= Man), 4. Ummanu (= 'workman'), 7. Enmeduranki (p. 132), 8. Amel-Sin (p. 133), 9. Ubar-Tutu (named as father of Ut-Napištim), and 10. Ḫasisatra, or Atraḫasis (= 'the superlatively Wise,'—a title applied to Ut-Napištim, the hero of the Deluge). On comparing this selected list with the Heb. genealogy, it is evident that, as Zimmern remarks, the Heb. name is in no case borrowed directly from the Bab. In two cases, however, there seems to be a connexion which might be explained by a translation from the one language into the other: viz. 3. (= Man), and 4. (= 'workman'); while 8 is in both series a compound of which the first element means 'Man.' The parallel between 7. || Enmeduranki, has already been noted (p. 132); and the 10th name is in both cases that of the hero of the Flood. Slight as these coincidences are, it is a mistake to minimise their significance. When we have two parallel lists of equal length, each terminating with the hero of the Flood, each having the name for 'man' in the 3rd place and a special favourite of the gods in the 7th, it is too much to ask us to dismiss the correspondence as fortuitous. The historical connexion between the two traditions is still, 23 ff.]