Article July 24, 1902 Issue

A Library of the Days of Abraham

A RECENT issue of The Congregationalist and Christian World contains a most interesting article by Rev. A. T. Clay, Ph. D., entitled "A Library of the Days of Abraham." We republish the following extracts from it.

Very important antiquities are to be found in the different museums of this country, yet without question the most important archaeological material that ever came to America has just arrived at the University of Pennsylvania. A library, of which every volume or tablet was written prior to Abraham's leaving Ur of the Chaldees, and which was excavated on the recent campaign at Nippur.

A little over twenty-five years ago the intellectual world was startled by the announcement that Ashurbanapal's library had been discovered by the English explorers, Layard and Smith, and that among the clay volumes there were accounts of the creation and deluge which greatly resembled the Biblical stories. It was then ascertained that these legends were copies of older tablets which belonged to Babylonian libraries in the southern part of the valley. For some time scholar have assumed that every important Babylonian city had its library, and that if they could be found most important data for the reconstruction of the early history of man would be forthcoming.

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