King's Business - 1947-05

A N C IEN T TR A D IT ION S AND TH E F A L L O F MAN

Paul R. Bauman, D.D.

TJOW valuable, after all, are the fantastic garbled traditions and folklore of any people, ancient or modem? This question is often asked, and, lest we be accused of a “conservative bias,” the answer is given in the words of a professor of archaeology, himself a liberal, under whose teaching the author once sat: The archaeologist is a bit slow to relegate dim racial memories to the Umbo of pure fiction. Allowing for childlike love of the mysterious, the grandiose, and a tale well told, there is still the kernel of wheat in the bushel of literary chaff. Further­ more, to the historico-literary stu­ dent, the kernel of historical fact is often better evaluated through the study of the chaff . . . Tradition of high-lighted embellished history can­ not be discarded. It is a valuable de­ pository of elements which the his­ torian must sort, relate, and restore to some semblance of order. Tradi­ tions do not condense out of thin air. Something lies back of a tradition; something gets it going. That "some­ thing” may be a person or an event, or both. Now, consider once again that last statement: “Traditions do not con­ dense out of thin air. Something lies back of tradition; something gets it going.” It is no wonder, therefore, that after one of the most ancient records in God’s Word had suffered so long at the hands of the critics, a well-known British writer could be so bold as to state: However eloquent or emphatic in its denunciation the advocates of new­ fangled theories may be, the Bibli­ cal story of the Fall is so deeply rooted in history, in tradition, and in the universal experience of man­ kind, that it is safe , to affirm that it will be found standing when much modem philosophy will have sunk in a sea of oblivion. Throughout the world, in the traditions of the peo­ ples both civilized and uncivilized, this story has its representation in forms so marvelously correspondent that the only satisfactory explana- PAGE EIGHTEEN

tion is that together they record, with varying detail, some tremend­ ous human tragedy in the past which has left an indelible impression be­ hind. A few examples will illustrate the value of traditional corroboration. Take, for instance, the old Greek fable of Pandora, the first woman, who was given by Jupiter to the pro­ genitor of the human race. Every one of the gods had bestowed upon her some precious gift. In spite of these, she brought upon Epimetheus,

power of the serpent, who finally brings about his death by horrible torments.” A similar idea occurs in the traditions of the Egyptians, who believed that the first king suffered from the venomous bite of a snake One cannot read even the most an­ cient cosmogonies without being im­ pressed by the extent to which the idea of an ancient enemy in the form of a serpent occurred in them. For example, in the Chaldean account, the serpent seems to have been iden­ tical with the dragon of the deep, which was resisted and finally de­ stroyed by the god Marduk. This great enemy was known as Tiamat, and though Tiamat represented the darkness which was destroyed by the light of the sun, such epithets as “the serpent of night,” “the ser­ pent of darkness,” “the wicked ser­ pent,” and “ the mighty strong ser­ pent” are used to describe this great embodiment of moral evil.4 Curiously enough, in addition to writing their traditions on tablets of clay, the ancients endeavored to make pictorial representations of the main events recorded in their stories. On one early Babylonian seal, now in the British Museum, is pictured a tree containing four and five hori­ zontal rows of branches. Each of the two lowest brahches bears a bunch of fruit, and on either side of the tree sits a human figufe with the

Adam and Eve Seal her husband, terrible disaster. “In the house of Epimetheus was a closed jar, which he had been for­ bidden to open. But the curiosity of the woman could not resist the temptation to know its contents; and, when she opened the lid, all the evils incident to man poured out. She had only time to shut down the lid, and prevent the escape of hope.” * Nearer yet to the Biblical narra­ tive is the ancient Hindu tradition which tells of the first pair, who, free from guilt and in fellowship with Vishnu, the second person of the Hindu triad, began life in a beau­ tiful garden. But, hearkening to the enticements of Naga, a serpent, they fell under the dominion of evil. Lat­ er, the serpent’s head was crushed by the foot of a strong man who was a member of the human race. Lenormant described a similar story from the Persian records. "Yania, the first man, passed his existence in the enjoyment of Edenic blessedness, till, falling into sin, he is cast out and given up to the

Fall Seal From Tepe Oawra

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