Abstract
ARCHÆOLOGY is a two-edged sword for those who would “prove the Bible”, an uncertain lamp which may unexpectedly throw a distressing light on the mental calibre of chosen races; nay, more, traditions of similarities in Flood-narratives, or divergences in Creation-stories, may not unnaturally set up doubts in credulous minds as oppositions of science falsely so-called. It was one of the discoveries of Macalister at Gezer that Philistinism was a misnomer for boorishness, for the Philistines by the traces of their culture and civilisation there discovered have proved themselves to be far more worthy artists than the Hebrews. Mr. Handcock's book is of a kind which is published from time to time, giving the latest discoveries so far as they are analogous to the Old Testament, and recapitulating what was hitherto known. Here is again the Babylonian account of the Flood and the Creation of Man by Marduk from his own blood (why is no reference made to Mr. King, who first published the tablet containing the latter story?); an account of the Gilgamish epic and the Flood-story, told sufficiently accurately in their main points, although the distinction which the author makes in the epilogue is too nice for us (“‘the gods came down to smell the sacrifice like flies,’ a description which in its materialism contrasts somewhat strikingly with the dignified words of the Biblical writer, ‘And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.’”); and a proper rejection of the Chedorlaomer theory. The chapters on the latest diggings in Palestine form a useful précis of what has been published by excavators, and Mr. Handcock gives also a full index of Old Testament place-names. In judicious hands his book will go far to provide a guard against one edge of the sword; it has been the writer's endeavour to allow the facts to speak for themselves.
The Latest Light on Bible Lands.
By P. S. P. Handcock. Second edition, revised. Pp. xii + 371. (London: S.P.C.K., 1914.) Price 6s. net.
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T., R. The Latest Light on Bible Lands . Nature 94, 59 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/094059c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/094059c0