DELUGE.) Scorn has been cast upon the fact that Abraham came from "Ur of the Chaldees." It has been claimed that the family of Terah was Aramean, and not Chaldean; that it belonged to Flaran; and that its Chaldean origin was a myth. Ur has been found, however, on the site of Mugheir in South ern Babylonia, and proves to have been the seat of three powerful dynasties, the last of which ruled Babylonia and claimed sovereignty in Canaan only a short time before Abraham was born. Colonies of Canaanitish and Syrian mer chants were settled at the time in Babylonia, and a contract which is dated in the time of Am raphel's grandfather is signed by a witness who is called "The son of Abi-ramu" or Abram.
(9) Illustrations. Many examples illustrate the life of the people during those long forgotten centuries of Oriental civilization which covered the period during which the Pentateuch was com posed, and they also show that the Old Testament is in complete harmony with the facts which are confirmed by archeology.
Neither the history nor the literature of the Old Testament any longer stands alone; the contem poraneous monuments of the nations whose life was intertwined with that of Israel, as well as the literatures which are older than the productions of that people, may be now compared with them.
(10) Comparative Methods. The comparative methods of science can at last be employed in the case of the Old Testament Scriptures, and we can test their truthfulness,by the external evidence of entirely independent witnesses.
There are large portions of the Old Testament history which can be illustrated only by such re search, and not covered by it, portions which from the necessity of the case do not admit of monu mental confirmation. The scenes of home life in the history of the patriarchs, for example, can never be the subject of inscriptions. All that archeology can do in such circumstances is to illustrate them from the life of other Orientals and to show that they contain nothing inconsistent with either history or geography.
The wanderings of Israel are not likely to be recorded on monuments, but it can be shown that these wanderings are the necessary interlude be tween the exodus and the conquest of Canaan, and that for both of these events there is sufficient ar cheological evidence. (See EXODUS, GEOGRAPIIV or.) Archeology is the handmaid of the Bible, and not a substitute for it. but it has confirmed our
confidence in the historical accuracy of the Old Testament in a t wo-fold manner : First, by show ing the high literary culture of the age to which the books belong: and, secondly, by recent and wholly reliable archeological discoveries which have shown that the doubts which had been cast upon the antiquity 'Ind credibility of the Old Testament narratives are wholly unwarranted.
(1 1) Menes. Previous to the spring of 1898 "critical science" had been assuring us that Menes, the reputed founder of the united mon archy of ancient Egypt and leader of the first his torical dynasty, was nothing more than a myth. His very name was shown to be an etymological invention of later times, even Maspero claiming that "the Menes of Egyptian tradition was fabu lous." (Macpero, Ilistory of Egypt.) M. de Morgan. however, the late director of the Antiquities of Egypt, discovered in that year a tomb at Negada. twenty miles north of Thebes, the contents of which are now in the Cairo Mu seum. Among them are the skull and bones of a king who was buried in the central chamber of the sepulcher, and there are various archaeological indications that these belong to the period which had been pronounced mythical. The tomb appears to have been made for l‘lenes himself, and the very name which had been "proved" to be an in vention can now be read in the hieroglyphs on one of the ivory objects now in the Museum at Cairo. (See MENES.) Another illustration may be found in relation to Grecian history. For a long time the literary critics denied that there was any history in Greece before the age of Solon; but these men have been forced from the field by the excavations of Dr. Schliemann and others, who have verified Greek tradition by clothing the Achwan princes and the kings of Mycena with flesh and blood. The re mains of Troy have been found, although it had long been declared to have existed only in "cloudland." We have called this class of men "literary critics" in contrast with those who employ the his toric method and rest their conclusions upon his torical facts. (See Fresh Light from the Monu ments, by Prof. A. H. Sayce, LL. D., Oxford University. Hon. Rev. r896, pp. 97, 98. The Alfonuntents and The Old Testament. Prof. Ira M. Price.)