Mormonites, or in verses 18 and 19 of the last chapter of Revelation, "Latter-day Saints," should led Egyptian archæologists to give up Egyptian evidence, pause and read Rev. xxii. 18. Dr. Robinson's 'Biblical Researches in Palestine.' Col. Chesney. Dr. Layard. – Idumean travellers and draughtsmen to Petra; Botta to Khorsabad, the town of Shalmaneser; made Dr. Robinson carry on his Biblical researches in Palestine; and empowered the British Government to send Colonel Chesney on "the Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris," in 1835, 1836, and 1837; Layard to Koyunjik, and the palaces of Sennacherib and other Nineveh and its Assyrian monarchs; led Layard to illustrate passages in Ezekiel and Nahum, before his time, obscure; and led Col. Rawlinson. Colonel Rawlinson to make those researches, whose announcement, in the 'Athenæum' of the 23rd of August, 1851, has so delighted archæologists and philologists. But to our argument. Remains,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1849. Shishak, who took Rehoboam captive. See Dr. Wiseman's' Lec tures': the Dr. quotes this very figure in the British Museum. At the northern end of the Egyptian gallery, on the right-hand side of the door, before you come to the library, there is a seated figure from Karnak, with an animal's head.* It is inscribed with the name of Sheshonk I., a name first made out by Champollion. This figure is undoubtedly a monument of the reign of Shishak, who took Rehoboam, the king of Judah, captive† (1 Kings xiv. 25). We need only allude to this one fact, and will refer the reader to the works cited below, if he wishes for the names of other kings or people referred to both in the Bible and on Egyptian monuments." In passing, also, let us just notice the re-discovery of Petra, the capital of Edom, called Sela in Scripture; *Pasht (Bubastes), the lion-headed deity. See Birch, Arundale, and Bonomi's ' Gallery of Antiquities selected from the British Museum,' Vol. I. p. 16, pl. 8. ** See, amongst others, the works of Wilkinson, Birch, Osburn, Gliddon, and Mr. Gosse's excellent compilation, published by the Society in capital, Petra. that Petra which Burckhardt passed through, Captains Idumea and its Irby and Mangles inspected, and the Count Laborde illustrated in his superb work, published at Paris in 1830.* our to Porter's Tra vels,' 2 vols. 4to. Sir R.K. P. about 1812, travelled, and was among the first to make us acquainted with Assyrian Omitting for the present the travels of Sir Robert Ker Porter, the nearly abortive researches of the learned Rich, and the vastly important discoveries of Botta, and own countrymen Layard and Rawlinson, so familiar the public, we come down to an important notice in the 'Athenæum' of the 23rd of August, which will be memorable in the history of the interpretation of the arrow- many of them headed character. Colonel Rawlinson, in a letter, announces that the king who built the palace of Khorsabad, excavated by the French, was Shalmaneser (the "Sargon" of Isaiah xx. 1), who came up against Hoshea, the king reigning in Samaria, and made him give him presents (2 Kings xvii. 3), and finally, for rebellion, shut that monarch in prison, and afterwards took his capital, "and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (1. c. v. 6). On one of the tablets from Khorsabad, figured in Botta's work (plate 70), this conquest is sculptured. Omitting Shalmaneser's other deeds, we only allude to what Rawlinson says, that Khorsabad "retained among the Syrians the title of Sarghun, as late as the Arab conquest" ('Athenæum,' 1. c. p. 903). His son, Sennacherib, built the great palace of Koyunjik, which Dr. Layard has been recently excavating, and from which he has brought so many remains, some of Lincoln's Inn Fields; also, Dr. Cook Taylor's Scripture Proofs from Egyptian Monuments,' and that cheap book by Champollion the younger, 'Egypte Ancienne, par M. Champollion Figeac,' published in the 'l'Univers.' * 'Voyage de l'Arabie Petree, par Leon de Laborde.' Archeology, and its bearing on Scripture. His fine drawings are in the British Museum, and ought to be republished. Khorsabad, the palace of, built by Shalmaneser. Conquest of Samaria, represented on Botta's great plate 70 of ment de Niniveb decrit, par mesure et M. E. Flardin.' 5 vols. folio. See Ezra viii. 27, copper, precious "vessels of fine as gold." Samaritans portrayed on marbles. Supplement of Names of Kings, Rulers, or Vice roys, important in marking definite epochs. which will delight the Biblical scholar as well as the artist, when described, figured, and displayed. Omitting other results of Layard's, Botta's researches, and Rawlinson's determination, we close this part with an interesting quotation from Col. Rawlinson's letter:-" I have already identified the Samaritans among the groups of captives portrayed upon the marbles of Khorsabad; and when I shall have accurately learnt the locality of the different bas-reliefs that have been brought from Koyunjik, I do not doubt but that I shall be able to point out the bands of Jewish maidens who were delivered to Sennacherib, and perhaps to distinguish the portraiture of the humbled Hezekiah." This is "no cunningly-devised fable," but is, and will be, as clear to any one visiting the British Museum, as it is to Colonel Rawlinson. On it, and the preceding instances, a powerful argument may be formed, as for the truth of 2 Tim. iii. 16; and one, in our opinion, which is quite unanswerable. It is now generally known that Dr. Young, in or about 1819, discovered the name of a king on the Rosetta stone in the British Museum; and from this discovery any results in the interpretation of Egyptian Hieroglyphics date their origin. It is trite, but remarkable, that definitiveness is chiefly attached to royal names in history, or to names of rulers-as, for instance, "when Julius Cæsar landed in Britain, he was Emperor of Rome," "when Bonaparte was First Consul of France," "when Washington was President of the United States," "when the Marquis Wellesly was Governor General of India," "when Sir Stamford Raffles was Lieutenant Governor of Fort Marlborough, and held Java for this country," "when Sir James Brooke was Rajah of Sarawak❞—so, precision is peculiarly the property of the Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal names of royal personages in Hieroglyphics. It is curious that we often, in Scripture (see Genesis, Exodus, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra, especially), see the names of royal or great personages distinctly recorded, whose connection with the Jews is very obscure. This is not the place to enter into details; those acquainted with archæological and philological criticism, know the importance of definite "resting points." Those who have perused the Chevalier Bunsen's learned but somewhat fanciful work, the translation of which is entitled, ' Egypt's Place in Universal History, and have at the same time studied the history of Scotland, for instance, or any other country, at a time when some dukes held fiefs or petty kingdoms, independently of the monarch, must feel the difficulty of only having two or three links of a chain, Lepsius an when the author wishes to make out a strict chronological royal lineage. This of itself would be a powerful argument for attaching doubt to many of Bunsen's inferences. *No one has more graphically described the solitary grandeur of Egypt, and the monarchical superiority of its monarchs, and the definitiveness of the "names of royal personages," than Percy Bysshe Shelley, in a fine Ode printed in Monckton Milnes' 'Life and Letters of John Keats.' It was written in 1818, under peculiar circumstances of competition, and in a space of time not likely to allow of so mature and finished a production: I saw a traveller from an antique land, Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone History." Bunsen. First published in 1657. A new edition was lately edited most carefully by the Rev. John Sansom of Oxford. Sermons preached at Northampton, North America, in 1739; pub lished in 1773 by his son. That learned man has carried too far the principles of his master, Niebuhr, just as in Paleontology the reasoning of Cuvier might induce him, or his followers, to push his reasoning out of the pale of strict scientific induction. We believe that the time is not far distant when, in the land of Edom, other cities besides Petra will reveal their inscriptions; and doubtless if Botta and Layard be supported by their respective governments, other cities of Assyria, mentioned in Scripture, will give up their records. The development of our knowledge of history, secular and scriptural, is gradual. Bishop Cosin's learned work on the Canon of Scripture, assisted much in setting on a definite basis the ground of our present accepted Bible. Jonathan Edwards in his History of Redemption,' was among the first to point out the end and. object of the Old Testament, and showed that from a certain point, namely, that of Abraham leaving Ur of the Chaldees, any other nation, alluded to, is treated episodically, or only in so far as they came into contact with the Jews. Bishop Newton, by his work on Prophecy, still further developed a part of Edwards's thesis; while Dr. Keith, from subsequent travellers and his own experience in the East, added very much to Newton's evidences. The 'Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, from the Church of Scotland,' by Messrs. Bonar and M'Cheyne, also much developed our acquaintance with the geography of Biblical countries, their manners, etc., recorded in 1813. 28th thou the Bible. Dr. Pusey, in Professor Buckland's 'Bridgewater Treatise,' and perhaps Dr. Chalmers before him, pointed out a remarkable but intentional space between the first and second verses of the first chapter of Genesis, most important in geological reasoning, and now generally recognised. The Biblical researches of Professor Newton, 1755, etc. The 'Mission of land,' by Messrs. Bonar and M'Cheyne, 1839. 3rd thousand, sand, 1850. |