nown--there were _seven_ persons saved in the ark.[102:2] There were
also _seven_ persons saved, according to some of the _Hindoo_
accounts.[102:3] That this referred to the sun, moon, and five planets
looks very probable. We have also seen that Noah was the _tenth_
patriarch, and Xisuthrus (who is the Chaldean hero) was the _tenth_
king.[102:4] Now, according to the Babylonian table, their _Zodiac_
contained _ten_ gods called the "_Ten Zodiac_ gods."[102:5] They also
believed that whenever all the _planets_ met in the sign of Capricorn,
_the whole earth was overwhelmed with a deluge of water_.[102:6] The
_Hindoos_ and other nations had a similar belief.[102:7]

It is well known that the Chaldeans were great astronomers. When
Alexander the Great conquered the city of Babylon, the Chaldean priests
boasted to the Greek philosophers, who followed his army, that they had
continued their astronomical calculations through a period of more than
forty thousand years.[102:8] Although this statement cannot be credited,
yet the great antiquity of Chaldea cannot be doubted, and its immediate
connection with Hindostan, or Egypt, is abundantly proved by the little
that is known concerning its religion, and by the few fragments that
remain of its former grandeur.

In regard to the story of "_The Tower of Babel_" little need be said.
This, as well as the story of the Creation and Fall of Man, and the
Deluge, was borrowed from the Babylonians.[102:9]

"It seems," says George Smith, "from the indications in the (cuneiform)
inscriptions, that there happened in the interval between 2000 and 1850
B. C. a general _collection_ of the development of the various
traditions of the Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and other similar
legends." "These legends were, however, traditions before they were
committed to writing, _and were common in some form to all the
country_."[103:1]

The Tower of Babel, or the confusion of tongues, is nowhere alluded to
in the Old Testament outside of Genesis, where the story is related.

The next story in order is "_The Trial of Abraham's Faith_."

In this connection we have shown similar legends taken from _Grecian_
mythology, which legends may have given _the idea_ to the writer of the
Hebrew story.

It may appear strange that the _Hebrews_ should have been acquainted
with _Grecian_ mythology, yet we know this was the case. The fact is
accounted for in the following manner:

Many of the Jews taken captive