II. The Ten Ante-diluvian Kings of Berossus.—The number ten occurs with singular persistency in the traditions of many peoples[1] 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;[2] although there are allusions to it in the inscriptions which encourage the hope that the cuneiform original may yet be discovered.[3] 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,[4] another was given by Sayce in 1899.[5] The first-named writer has subsequently abandoned some of his earlier proposals,[6] substituting others which are equally tentative; and while some of his combinations are regarded as highly problematical, others have been widely approved.[7]
The names of the Kings before the Flood in Berossus are: 1. (
Greek characters),
2. (Greek characters), 3. (Greek characters) [(Greek characters)], 4. (Greek characters), 5. (Greek characters) [(Greek characters)],
6. (Greek characters) [(Greek characters)], 7. (Greek characters), 8. (Greek characters), 9. (Greek characters) [Rd.
(Greek characters)], 10. (Greek characters). 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. (Hebrew characters) (= Man), and 4. (Hebrew characters) (= 'workman');
while 8 is in both series a compound of which the first element means
'Man.' The parallel between 7. (Hebrew characters) || 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.]
- ↑ Babylonians, Persians, Indians, Phœnicians, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. See Lüken, Traditionen, 146 ff.; Lenorm. Orig. i. 224 ff.
- ↑ Preserved by Eus. Chron. [ed. Schœne) i. 7 ff., 31 f. See Müller, Frag. Hist. Græc. ii. 499 f.
- ↑ See Je. ATLO2, 221 f.
- ↑ PSBA, xv. 243-246.
- ↑ Exp. Times, 1899, 353.
- ↑ AOD [1902
- ↑ See Zimmern, KAT8, 531 ff.; Dri. Gen. 50 f.; Nikel, Gen. u. Kschrfrsch. 164 ff.
