The Old Testament In the Light of The Historical Records and Legends Part 41

454). This man's history has been tentatively dealt with by the present author in Part IV. of the catalogue of tablets belonging to the late Sir Henry Peek. From a tablet in the Louvre, we find that irku was not his real name, but that he was called Marduk-na?ir-abli. The curious thing about this double naming of irku, however, is that the majority of the tablets where he is called irku say that he was the son of Iddina, and the majority of those calling him Marduk-na?ir-abli say that he is the son of Itti-Marduk-bala?u. Fortunately doc.u.ments exist reversing this parentage, and showing conclusively that irku and Marduk-na?ir-abli are one and the same personage. Were it otherwise, we should have to credit his slaves with two masters, and his wife with two husbands, a state of things probably unknown in Babylonia.

From a tablet dated in the first year of Darius, we learn that he bought a field before the great gate of Ura in the province of Babylon, this field being beside that of his wife amat-Bau, which she had brought as her dowry. Other doc.u.ments record that he made loans of silver and produce, both alone and a.s.sociated with his brothers. In these his proper name is generally used, but sometimes he was called irku. The hiring and letting of houses, the buying and selling of slaves, etc., are also recorded of them. In the third year of Darius he and his brothers came into considerable property in Babylon, sharing it among them, and there is also record of Marduk-na?ir-abli paying his father's debts. This increase in their resources naturally enabled them to deal in the produce of their fields, and in all probability they managed his wife's as well, whilst there is at least one record that she lent money on her own account. To enumerate all the interesting points which the tablets reveal to us concerning their various transactions, however, would naturally take too much time and s.p.a.ce.

In exchange for the slave Daan-bel-u?ur, the slave's wife, their six children, and a cornfield upon the ca.n.a.l called ?upau, which Marduk-na?ir-abli gave to his wife amat-Bau, he received from her two sums of silver and one of gold, a ring, and two slaves, who had been part of her dowry. The slaves he gave her, though now her property, were in all probability still at his disposition, but Daan-bel-u?ur seems to have served him so well when in charge of his affairs, that after having parted with him, though only to his wife, he must have found, to his regret, that he and his family were naturally not so much at his disposition as when he could call them his own.

Under the name of Marduk-na?ir-abli, he appears before us princ.i.p.ally in the character of an agriculturalist and dealer in produce, combining with this money-lending on occasion. As irku, he dealt largely in s.h.i.+ps, and apparently also in boats for pontoon bridges. In the fifth year of Darius he was in Elam, and there is a reference to the sending to him of a messenger, "with the charioteers of Bel-abla-iddina, captain of Babylon."

Many years afterwards irku is said to have received the rent of a house situated "upon the _giu_ of Borsippa," and the question naturally arises, whether _giu_ may not be for _giru_, "bridge," though a house upon a bridge crossing a comparatively narrow ca.n.a.l near Babylon is certainly not what one would expect.

On the 16th of Sivan in the twenty-sixth year of Darius, irku was the scribe who drew up a contract referring to two s.h.i.+ps, one apparently for service on the Euphrates, the other for the bridge. Later on, he borrowed some money upon the security of two of his female slaves, Muezibtum and Naru, the wrist of the former being inscribed with the name of one of his relations, the other with his own name, irku (it is given as iku on the tablet). This loan is distinctly stated to be for the purpose of acquiring "a s.h.i.+p for the bridge" (_elippu a giiri_), and this he seems to have bought two months later, unless there was another contract for a vessel which has not come down to us. In the Peek collection is a large tablet referring to the completed bridge, the traffic upon it, and the s.h.i.+ps moored to it, suggesting that a portion of it at least was used as a quay or landing-stage. More research is needed, however, ere its precise nature will be clear-perhaps the etymology is misleading, and _giru_ or _giiru_ means, in Babylonian, "pier" or "landing-stage" simply.

The following is one of the inscriptions which refer to his hiring a s.h.i.+p-

"(Concerning) the s.h.i.+p of Iddina-Bel which is with ama-iddina, son of Bel-iddina, for navigation. He has given the s.h.i.+p for hire as far as _bitum a ?erua_ (= _birtum a ?erua_, 'the fortress of _?erua_') for 1/3 of a mana of white silver, coined, to irik (irku), son of Iddina, descendant of egibi. The silver, 1/3 of a mana, the hire of the s.h.i.+p, and its provisions, he has received. The s.h.i.+p shall not cross the great (water), if it pa.s.s, he shall pay 5 mana of silver. Each has taken (a copy of this contract)."

The names of three witnesses and the scribe follow this, after which is the date-

"Babylon, month Adar, day 6th, year 26th, Darius, king of Babylon and countries."

The tablets in which Marduk-na?ir-abli, _alias_ irku, are mentioned, prove that Babylonia maintained its character as a maritime nation to a very late date. As, however, voyages on the ocean are not provable, it is doubtful whether their s.h.i.+ps sailed to any great distance-in all probability they confined themselves to making coast-voyages only. Judging from the penalty attached to taking the s.h.i.+p across the great (water), the question naturally arises, whether the sea (the Persian Gulf) may not have been intended. The word used in the original is _rabbu_, which would then correspond with the last word of the poetic expression, "the rolling main."

Such, as far as s.p.a.ce allows, was life at Babylon and the chief cities of Babylonia, where the Israelites dwelt for so many years, and colonies of them existed until a very late date, as the drinking bowls inscribed with charms against sickness and evil spirits in Hebrew and Aramaic show. Some of the Hebrew names contained in the tablets from Babylonia have already been referred to (p. 458), and to these several others may be added, such as Banawa or Beniah; Gamariawa or Gemariah; Malakiawa or Malchiah, who had a son bearing the heathen name of Nergal-e?ir; together with several similarly-formed but otherwise unknown names (as was to be expected).

Examples of these are, Azziawa, ?uliawa, Niriawa and Agiriawa. The Gemariah mentioned above was witness, with his compatriot Barikia (Berechiah) and others, on the occasion when a-Nabu-duppu sold Nanaa-silim, his Bactrian slave-girl. The scribe's name on this occasion was Marduka (Mordecai), son of epe-ili. Mordecai means "the Merodachite,"

and is interesting as showing how Babylonian monotheism, such as it was, reconciled the Jews to accept what they would otherwise have regarded as a heathen name.

Interesting in the extreme would it be, if we could know what the Jews thought of the country and the city of their captivity. In that enormous walled tract known as the city of Babylon were large open s.p.a.ces covered with gardens, and cornfields, and orchards, mostly, perhaps almost exclusively, of date-palms, the fruit of which formed such an important part of the food of the people. These were the trees, in all probability, on which the Jewish captives hung their harps when, in their captivity, they mourned for the city of Sion, from which they were so far away. The rivers of Babylon, of which the well-known psalm speaks, were the Tigris and the Euphrates, with the innumerable ca.n.a.ls and watering-channels which the nature of the country rendered so necessary to the fertility and productiveness of the land, and without which it would have been a desert.

There, too, they looked upon the buildings of old time, the fanes which were there when their forefather Abraham was a dweller in the land, changed, doubtless, beyond recognition. Chief among these was the great temple of Belus, joined to the tower called "the temple of the foundation of heaven and earth," and which Nebuchadnezzar speaks of as "the tower of Babylon." There, too, were the shrines dedicated to Zer-panitum, consort of Merodach, the G.o.ddess Nin-ma?; Nebo, the G.o.d of wisdom; Sin, the Moon-G.o.d; ama, the Sun-G.o.d; Gula, the G.o.ddess of healing, and many other divinities. Whilst the Jews were there, they must have seen many of this king's building operations-the strengthening of the fortresses and the walls, and the repair and extension of the moats and ditches; the raising of the level of the great street, Aa-ibur-sabu (the remains of which have just been found by the German explorers on the site of the city), along which, yearly, at the beginning of the year, processions went, and the images of the G.o.ds were in all probability carried. Then there was the rebuilding of the royal palace, with its roof and doors of cedar, the latter being also overlaid with bronze, probably after the manner of the bronze gates of Shalmaneser found by Mr. Ra.s.sam at Balawat. The thresholds were also of bronze, and the palace was adorned, in other parts, with gold, silver, precious stones, and various other costly things.

They must have seen, also, the construction, between the two great fortifications called Imgur-Bel and Ne-mitti-Bel, of that great building which was to serve as a castle and a royal residence at the same time.

This was in connection with the old palace of Nabopola.s.sar, Nebuchadnezzar's father, built, as already stated, in a fortnight. Chief among the shrines restored by Nebuchadnezzar with great magnificence must be mentioned e-kua, the sanctuary of Merodach, in the temple e-sagila (the temple of Belus), and that called Du-azaga ("the glorious seat"), otherwise described as "the place of fate," where yearly, on the new year's festival (the 8th and 9th of Nisan) the statue of the G.o.d Merodach, "the king of the G.o.ds of heaven and earth," was placed, and the king's future declared on the question being put. Doubtless the glory of the place attracted not a few, causing them to decide to stay there permanently, and these, mingling with the native population, were lost to Israel, like their brethren of the ten tribes, and even as Nergal-e?ir, son of Malakiawa (see above) seems to have been.

CHAPTER XIII. THE DECLINE OF BABYLON.

The Jews who remained at Babylon and other cities of the land-Alexander the Great's intentions with regard to the city, and the result of their non-fulfilment-A Babylonian lamentation dated in the reign of Seleucus Nicator and his son-The desolation of the city after the foundation of Seleucia-The temples still maintained-Antiochus Epiphanes and the introduction of Greek wors.h.i.+p-His invasion of Egypt-The Arsacidae-A contract of the time of Hyspasines-Materials for history-Further records of the time of the Arsacidae-The latest date of Babylonian wors.h.i.+p-The Christians of Irak or Babylonia.

Notwithstanding the return of large numbers of Jews to Jerusalem, a considerable portion of the nation had become attached to the land of their captivity, and remained in Babylon and the other cities of Chaldea, as well as in Persia. These, no longer captives, but settlers by their own free will, had probably decided to stay in the land either from the desire to continue the businesses which they had started there, the relinquis.h.i.+ng of which would have meant, in all probability, ruin to themselves and their families; or because of aged relatives for whom the journey to Jerusalem, however much they might have desired it, would have been an impossibility; or because of official and civil positions which they held either at court or in the employment of rich or influential personages, by whose support they hoped to be able to aid their compatriots; or because of the attractions of a great city, whose origins must for them have possessed a special interest (notwithstanding the horrors of the captivity which their forebears must have experienced there), and whose position for thousands of years as the capital of a large province gave it a preponderating influence, not only in the country of which it was the capital, but in all the civilized world at the time.

This being the case, there numbers of the Jews stayed, and there they witnessed the gradual departure of the sceptre from that city which one of their own writers had described as the glory of kingdoms, and the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency. After the pa.s.sing of the kingdom into the hands of the alien Persian kings, things went on as usual under their rule for a considerable time-the people lived on their land, and bought and sold, and transacted their ordinary business, and trade seems to have been good (judging from the number of doc.u.ments which have been preserved) until the end of the reign of Darius Hystaspis. Thereafter there was either a great falling off, or else the doc.u.ments were deposited in other places, or a more perishable material was used for them. In any case, they become comparatively scarce, and their rarity may be due to the departure of trade from the capital, brought about by the removal of the court from Babylon, and the consequent migration of her merchants to other places.

Things had been going, in fact, from bad to worse for Babylon, and among the clay records left, some of the royal names which we should like to see are to all appearance absent. It was still, however, a place of great importance, when, in the year 331 B.C., it opened its gates to Alexander the Great, surrendering, like Susa and Persepolis, without striking a blow. Doubtless to them it was perfectly indifferent under which foreign potentate they lived, and a change in that respect could not make their condition worse, and might be to their advantage. Had he not died long before the term which nature has fixed, the city might have taken upon it such a renewed lease of life as would have caused it to exist as a great capital to the present day. As it happened, the Babylonians began to see their fondest hopes realized, for it must soon have become noised abroad that the new conqueror of Asia intended to make Babylon his Eastern capital, and they saw the clearing away of the rubbish which was the preliminary to the restoration of the great and renowned temple of Belus, e-sagila (or e-sangil as they called it at that time), actually proceeding, not only during the reign of Alexander, but also during that of his successor, Philip, as well. The mental calibre of the latter, however, who came to the throne on the death of Alexander in the year 323 B.C., must soon have told the Babylonians that the realization of his great predecessor's schemes was hopeless, and the downward course of the city's star, arrested as it were for a moment, soon began again.

The next change of rulers was that following upon the unworthy bearing of Antigonus with regard to Seleucus, Alexander the Great's favoured general, who had espoused his claims to the throne of the Eastern empire. After aiding Ptolemy of Egypt against Demetrius, son of Antigonus, he set out with a small force, and gathering recruits in his course, especially among the Babylonians, with whom he was popular, he entered their capital without opposition in 312 B.C., from which date the era of the Seleucidae is regarded as beginning. How the Babylonians took the foundation of Seleucia on the Tigris, which is often mentioned in the numerous astrological tablets of this period, is not recorded, but from the way in which they speak of the migration of the inhabitants of Babylonia to Seleucia implies that they took it greatly to heart.

"Blessed shall he be who serveth thee as thou hast served us," sang the Psalmist when lamenting the captivity of the Jews at Babylon, and if success in conquest be a sign of blessedness, then Seleucus must have been happy indeed. The Babylonians could not have regarded the continual and increasing desolation of their city with indifference, however, and it is not impossible that their loyalty to their king suffered somewhat in consequence. This, to all appearance, found vent in expressions of regret, and an old lamentation, referring to the depredations of the Qutu at a period so remote that we can hardly, at this distance of time, estimate, and of which a copy was made for a certain Bel-zer-liir, might well express their feelings at this period:

"For the misfortunes of Erech, for the misfortunes of Agade, I am stricken.

The Erechitess wept, that departed was her might, the Agaditess wept, that departed was her glory (?); The daughter of Erech wept, the daughter of Agade cried aloud; As for the daughter of Larancha, in her garment her face was hidden.

The ?ursagkalamitess wept, that her husband was in trouble; The ?ul?ut?ulitess wept, that cast down was her sceptre; The Maitess wept, that her 7 brothers were slain, that her brother-in-law was stricken.

The Agaditess wept, that her elder was slain, the lord of her well-being; The Keitess wept-they have wrought destruction (?) for the name of her house: 'My helpers are shattered'; The Dunnaitess wept, 'Who has a resting-place, who has leave to go forth?

Whose is it to defeat (?) the enemy, (with) the exits cut off?'

The daughter of Niffer wept, for the raging (?) Qutu a.s.sembled, She bowed down her face on account of the trouble of the husband of her well-being.

The Dur-ilitess wept, for the Qutu collected, For the son of her city destroyed, the overthrow of her father's house.

Weep for Erech, ravaging (and) shame has she received- As for me, in the storm a place of refuge I know not.

Weep for Larancha (for the spoiling?) of (my) mantle I am in trouble.

My eyes see not my ..., the mothers are cut off from the child.

Weep for Niffer, as for me, (with) abundance of affliction (?) Heaven has bound me fast; The throne of my glory has been caused to pa.s.s away from me; The bridegroom, the husband of my well-being, Bel has taken away from me."

"Like its original written, made clear, and acquired.

Tablet of Bel-zer-liir, son of Bel-aba-usur, descendant of the sculptor.

(By) the hands of Bel-bulli?-su, his son. He who fears the king shall not take (?) (this) tablet (?) away.

"Babylon, month Elul, day 15th, year 25th, Siluku and Antiukusu (Seleucus and Antiochus), king of countries.

By those same "rivers of Babylon" where the Israelites had mourned in captivity, thinking of Jerusalem, there the Babylonians themselves came at last to lament the departed glories of their land. Many a time, it is true, they had seen the country which was their fatherland overrun by enemies, but it had always recovered, and risen to a greater height of prosperity. This time, however, there was to be no healing of her wound.

The large and well-peopled s.p.a.ce within the walls of the great city gradually became uninhabited, and the houses fell into ruin. A time even came at last when the great walls had to be demolished-or at least practically so-in order that they might not afford protection to the lawless bands which infested the country, and were only too ready to make the most of such an advantage.

Notwithstanding the desolation of the city, however, a certain number of people continued to inhabit the site, probably officials of the temples (whose services still continued), and tradesmen who supplied the wants of those whose duty held them attached to the place. Here, year after year, the usual sacrifices were offered to the old G.o.ds of the Babylonians, especially "My Lord and Lady," _i.e._ Bel (Merodach) and Beltis (Zer-panitum, his consort), and prayers were made for the king at the time reigning, and also for his sons (if he had any). That inscriptions may come to light which will show more clearly the state of things in that vast ruined city is exceedingly probable, and a sufficient number of tablets referring to this period are known to exist even now, and show in some measure the state of the city and the kind of people who dwelt in such parts of it as had been reserved for that purpose.

To those who inhabited Babylon's desolation, the most important thing, in all probability, was the wors.h.i.+p, with all the old rites and ceremonies, of the deities whose temples and shrines still existed there. But those old priests and temple scribes occupied their time in another way, namely, the keeping of careful records of every historical event for the purpose of being able to tell the future. These historical notices are preceded by indications of the positions of the moon and the planets, together with the price of grain or other produce, during the period referred to. The positions of the planets, etc., were combined afterwards, by the "monthly prognosticators," with the historical happenings, for the purpose of foretelling events, which at that late period was probably done much more systematically than during earlier ages, to the great advantage of the modern student of this period.

The following will give an idea of these historical notices:-

(Month Ab, 143rd year, Anti'ukusu, king = 168 B.C., reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.)

"An., the king, marched victoriously among the cities of the land of Melu??a, and ... the people (_puli?e_(144) the Greek p???t??) (constructed?) idols (_puppe_, evidently a Greek word, probably meaning 'images of G.o.ds') and works like a shrine (of?) the Greek(s?)...."

The inscription then goes on to speak of the appointment of a _zazak_ (apparently a grade of priests) by the king, the handing to him of the gold in the treasury of e-saggil for the great (shrine) of Bel, the (dedication?) of an unsuitable or an untimely image of the G.o.d Uru-gala on the 8th day of the month, and other similar occurrences. From the lines translated above, it will be seen that the Babylonians had not by any means escaped from the influence of Greek civilization, not only Greek words, but also, to all appearance, Greek G.o.ds and shrines having made their appearance. The word used in speaking of the image of the G.o.d Uru-gala is _tamil_, but the things which the citizens made were _puppe_, possibly used like our word "idol." It is possibly to this period, or a little later, that the transcriptions into Greek of Babylonian tablets (which promise to be of considerable value for the study of the a.s.syro-Babylonian language) belong.

If the translation given above be correct, it would confirm the account in the second book of Maccabees (vi. 2), from which it would appear that this ruler tried to habituate the Jews to Greek customs, and also to the Greek religion, going even so far as "to pollute also the temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympus; and that in Garizim, of Jupiter the Defender of strangers, as they did desire that dwelt in the place" (vi. 2). "The abomination of desolation" which was set on the altar at Jerusalem (1 Macc. i. 54) is understood by commentators to mean an idol-altar, though almost any heathen image would suit the sense, and a statue of a G.o.d, with or without a shrine, might be meant. The reference to Melu??a in all probability refers to one of his expeditions to Egypt, and is generally supposed to indicate Ethiopia.

Another change which the Babylonians experienced was when the rule of their Greek masters was exchanged for that of the Parthians, and the Seleucidae gave way to the Arsacidae. Concerning the period of the change, and the way in which it came about, very little is known. The varied fortunes of the Seleucid princes is ill.u.s.trated by the fact that a satrap of Media named Timarchus, in 161-160 B.C., had succeeded in proclaiming himself king of Babylon; and from 153-139 B.C., Arsaces VI. (Mithridates I.) was in possession of all the district east of the Euphrates-Babylonia, Elam, and Persia. After his death, however, all this portion seems to have returned to the rule of the Seleucidae, and their era was in all probability restored. After the death of Antiochus Sidetes, in 129 B.C., the province of Kharacene became independent under a ruler named Hyspasines or Spasines, who, two years later, seems to have made himself master of Babylon. An interesting tablet dated in the reign of this king (who used the Seleucian era) shows something of the state of things on the site of the old city, and that somewhat vividly.

(The inscription is preceded by five introductory lines, which are unfortunately imperfect, but do not seem to affect the transaction as a whole.)

"In the month Iyyar, the 24th day, year 185th, Aspasine (being) king, Bel-lumur, director of e-saggil, and the Babylonians, the congregation of e-saggil, took counsel together, and said thus-

"'Itti-Marduk-bala?u, chief of the construction over the artificers (?) of the houses of the G.o.ds, scribe of Anu-Bel, son of Iddin-Bel, who formerly stood (?) at the side of Aspasine, the king, who (relieved?) want in the gate of the king; lo, this is for Bel-a?e-u?ur and Nabu-muetiq-urri, his sons-

" '(As) they find the whole of his keep, a sum (?) has been collected (?) in the presence of the aforesaid Bel-lumur and the Babylonians, the congregation of e-saggil.