The picture, however, is lightened by one ray of hope ; for the seed of the serpent shall not finally prevail over the seed of the woman. ' It shall
bruise thy head,' though ' thou shalt bruise his heel.'
Traditions of a state of primeval innocence, of man's fall from his pristine purity, and of the conseiiiicnl entrance of (loiilli into tlie world, liave, it is said, been gathered by travellers from races far removed from Hebrew literature or its sources.* Striking parallels to Gn 3 are to be found in the Zoroastrian legends as to the beginning of man's career. Yima, the first man, is said to have passed his days in a primeval paradise. But after a time he committed sin, was cast out of Paradise, and delivered up to the serpent (identified with an evil ipirit), who finally brought about his death. A
* See Baring aoiild's Legmdt (if OT CharacUri, I. 28-39, and the rcferet ces there given.
later version of tlie story is told in connexion with the first pair Masha and Mashyana. Tlia lying spirit grew bold, and, presenting himself a second time, brought them fruits, which they ate. As a punishment, of the hundred privileges they formerly enjoyed only one was left to them.* Few of the parallel stories that are adduced are, however, so exactly recorded as these ; and we are inclined to believe that the similarities to the Bible narrative are often overstated. The fact that many people in many lands have sought to explain the existing disorders in the world as the consequence of man's lapse from a higher condition is deeply significant, and we shall return to it again. But the details of the legends in which such belief is embodied are not, as a rule, interest- ing save to the curious student of folk-lore, and they throw little light upon Scripture. It is to Assyria and the East that we naturally look for illumination. And it has been pointed out that the mythology of Babylonia and Assyria presents some curious parallels to the story of the serpent in the garden of which we read in Gn 3. On Assyrian inscriptions are found the names Diglnt = Hiddekel, and i}Mra = Euphrates, in connexion with the word Idinu or ' field, which is identified with Eden. Coniferous sacred trees appear frequently on Assyr. bas-reliefs and Bab. representations of a mythological character. On a Bab. stone cylin- der, now in the British Museum, two human figures arr depicted with a serpent behind them, having thtir hands stretched out towards the fruit that hangs from a neighbouring tree.t And the serpent figure is conspicuous in the legend of the Chaldiean tablets in which the evil serpent, Tiamat, is over- thrown by Merodach. (See Cosmogony, p. 505.) If the third Creation Tablet were not so ex- tremely dilticult to decipher as it is reported to be (partly in consequence of its fragmentary condition), it is probable that we should be able to trace in the story which it lecords even more striking similarities to the Scripture narrative. But Oriental scholars are not as yet entirely in agreement as to the translation of some of the more interesting portions of it ; and tlie inferences that may be derived from the i)assage now to be cited must therefore be regarded as somewhat uncertain. The following is the rendering of Boscawen t : —
• In sin one with the other in compact Joins,
The command woa established in the garden of the God,
The Asnan (fniit) they ate, they broke in two ;
Ita stalk thej; destroyed ;
The sweet Juice which injures the body.
Great is their sin. Themselves they exalted ;
To Merodach their Redeemer he appointed their fate.*
If this translation be trustworthy, we have here something very like the biblical story of the forbidden fruit ; hut the rendering given by Pinches dill'ers in some .significant particulars. Wo recall, for our warning, that an inscription inter- preted by Geo. Smith as a Bab. version of the story of the Fall turned out, when clo.sely examined by (Jppert, to be a hymn to the Creator.§ M.iking all line allowances, however, for uncertainty of translation, it seems probable, when we bear in mind the afiinity of the earlier Creation Tablets to Gu 1, as well as the other i>oints of contact witli
■ Compare Lcnomiant, Uixtoire Ancimne tU ^Orient, \. 30 IT.
t There is a photograjih of this In Boscawcn's BiMt and tht Monuments, p. 80. It is to be borne In mind that there is nothintf to su^'^'L-st that the fl^nires aro not both mates. And, as Hchrader (UAT'p. 37) points out, a specific feature of thii Bible narrative, vit that the woman pivo the fruit to the man, is not indicated.
: Ilal'i/lnnian and Oriental Rteord, Iv. 2(11. Another trans- lation by Pinches is ifiven at p. 32. See also Sayce, Anci/-nt MnnujnmtK, Ofi, 104 ; and Davis, GenfitU and Semitic Traftition, p. C.'i, who questions the accuracy of Boscawen's rendering, and urges that we have hero no true parallel to the Genesis narrative
I See, for original, Delltzsch, Asiyritclu Laatiitkft, p. »1.
the Btory of Eden to which we have adverted, that a legend of the fall of man, resembling in external features the account of Gn 3, was widely spread in Mesopotamia. Indeed, in another pas- sage cited by Boscawen we are inevitably reminded of the victory over the serpent of Gn 3" —