PREFACE

EARLY in the history of Assyriology Professor Eberhard Schrader, of Berlin, published his Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament (Giessen, 1872), which appeared in a second edition rewritten and doubled in size (Giessen, 1883), and was then translated into English by the Rev. Owen C. Whitehouse (London, 1885). In this great book the Assyrian and Babylonian inscription material illustrative of the Old Testament was collected under the biblical passages in transliteration and translation. In German or in English dress this book went everywhere, every student of Hebrew or of Assyrian consulted it, every Old Testament commentator quoted from it or made reference to it; its influence was incalculable. The rapid progress of exploration, decipherment, and explanation soon left it antiquated, and the eagerly desired new edition appeared, entirely rewritten by Professors Heinrich Zimmern and Hugo Winckler (Berlin, 1902), and upon a new plan. In this new edition, far more learned than the former and crowded with matter of high importance, suggestive, brilliant, instructive, the original texts, as Schrader had given them, were omitted and their place supplied by elaborate discussion of all the questions involved. The loss of the inscription material was partially supplied by the exceedingly useful Keilinschriftliches Textbuch zum Alten Testament by Professor Winckler (Leipzig, first edition, 1892; second, 1903; third, 1909), which gave in transliteration and translation the important historical and mythological texts necessary to the understanding of the Old Testament.

Shortly after the publication of the third edition of Schrader's book I began the collection and translation of inscriptions with the purpose of supplying to English readers a complete Corpus of all the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian inscriptions which are parallel to or illustrative of the Old Testament. I had then no idea that it would grow to so great a size, or that its preparation would occupy so long a series of years, or that the labor involved would be so arduous. I should hardly have dared to undertake with a light heart a task which has taxed my energies during many an hour between lectures, and absorbed nearly all my summer holidays since it began. It has, indeed, cost so much that my early hopes and enthusiasm for it have slipped away, and, like Johnson with his Dictionary, "I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise."

The plan involves a number of very different kinds of scholarship, in all of which no man dare pretend equally to excel. In the first place, the texts are all translated into English, and they come from almost every type of cuneiform literature, and every type has its specialists. For the thoroughness and skill with which this fundamental task has been done I can only claim to have spent many years upon the historical and chronological texts as a specialty, and to have worked diligently and independently and sought carefully to know all that my colleagues have produced on the other fields. I hope that the translations represent fairly well the present state of the science of Assyriology, and I have confidence that experts will find not a few cases in which progress has been made beyond previous editions of others. The transcriptions are

printed to make possible the control of the translations without immediate recourse to the widely scattered original texts. They will be useful, not only to those who have actually studied Assyrian, but almost equally to those who know Hebrew or other Semitic languages. There are, I fear, some uneven places in the transliteration, ever a pitfall in all languages, but they will probably serve sufficiently their practical purpose. The introductions, especially those which deal with the historical sections, are intended to enable the ordinary reader to find the relationship between the text which follows and the period or situation to which it belongs. I could easily have made them much more extensive had I chosen to thresh out every theory and make every possible comparison with the Old Testament. The purpose of the book was, however, very different. My idea was to supply the materials and let the student exercise his own judgment upon them. It would be a most useful reformation in much of our academic, and even of our graduate teaching, if our pupils were compelled to do a little more for themselves. Here, assembled in one book, are the texts, here the absolutely necessary fundamental materials for the understanding of their bearing, and here also references to the publications of the original cuneiform texts, and to the most important discussions already held concerning them. I venture to hope that professors, teachers, and preachers who wish to lecture upon the manifold relations between Palestine and Babylonia and Assyria will here find the means by which they may introduce themselves, and especially their pupils, directly to the sources. I believe that this book contains the largest body of cuneiform literature yet assembled in any language for the illustration of the Old Testament.

I have had much encouragement and some help from colleagues on both sides of the sea during the years spent upon the work. It would be impossible to name them all, and it may seem invidious to mention any. It ought, however, to be said that Professor Stephen Langdon, of Oxford, has read in manuscript most of the religious texts and has pointed out a number of amendments and improvements. My friend, Professor Brünnow, of Princeton, has read the whole book in proof and has helped me in many places to find errors and inconsistencies which a mind polarized by so many rereadings of the same matter had failed to observe. I know of no way adequately to express my gratitude for these services. As I now set the book on its journey I find myself wishing that others had seen this or that within its covers before the type had placed it beyond correction. This desire comes to me the more readily because in the writing of it I have silently corrected literally hundreds of mistakes made by my predecessors in translations and in transcriptions. I may surely anticipate the discovery by others of many mistakes of my own. But, as Johnson said (it is surely time to quote him again), "I soon found that it is too late to look for instruments, when the work calls for execution, and that whatever abilities I had brought to my task, with those I must finally perform it. To deliberate whenever I doubted, to inquire whenever I was ignorant, would have protracted the undertaking without end, and, perhaps, without much improvement; for I did not find by my first experiments that what I had not of my own was easily to be obtained; I saw that one inquiry only gave occasion to another, that book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and to find was not always to be informed; and

that thus to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they had reached the hill where he seemed to rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them."

My obligations to the books and papers which have been published in this field before me are acknowledged with almost meticulous scrupulousness on every page. I have been so fearful of robbing somebody's treasure that I have printed references of acknowledgment in many cases where I had already reached the same conclusion long before. If I have overlooked anyone in this distribution of footnote compliments, here's an apology to him, and a letter will follow as soon as my attention is drawn to the matter.

The book was practically completed long ago, and its publication delayed by the absurd demands made upon American scholars by the machinery amid which many of them are compelled to sacrifice their larger usefulness. The delay has, however, permitted me to compare my translations with the admirable work of Professor Arthur Ungnad in Gressmann's Altorientalische Texte und Bilder, to my profit in many cases and to my comfort in all. I am under special obligations also to Professor Ungnad's treatment of the Hammurapi code in his joint work with Professor Köhler. I doubt whether this work of his has yet found adequate appreciation at the hands of other scholars. I have adopted so many suggestions from him that it seemed impossible to acknowledge every one of them in foot notes.

Earnestly and eagerly do I hope that the book may prove useful, may help some inquiring mind, or-most wonderful boon-may rouse some young mind to an interest in, or even to lifelong devotion to, the study of