at the Edomite sack of Jerusalem were
sold to the _Grecians_,[103:2] who took them to their country. While
there, they became acquainted with Grecian legends, and when they
returned from "the Islands of the Sea"--as they called the Western
countries--_they brought them to Jerusalem_.[103:3]

This legend, as we stated in the chapter which treated of it, was
written at the time when the Mosaic party in Israel were endeavoring to
abolish human sacrifices and other "abominations," and the author of the
story invented it to make it appear that the Lord had abolished them in
the time of Abraham. The earliest _Targum_[103:4] knows nothing about
the legend, showing that the story was not in the Pentateuch at the time
this Targum was written.

We have also seen that a story written by Sanchoniathon (about B. C.
1300) of one Saturn, whom the Phenicians called _Israel_, bore a
resemblance to the Hebrew legend of Abraham. Now, Count de Volney
tells us that "a similar tradition prevailed among the _Chaldeans_,"
and that they had the history of one _Zerban_--which means
"rich-in-gold"[103:5]--that corresponded in many respects with the
history of Abraham.[103:6] It may, then, have been from the Chaldean
story that the Hebrew fable writer got his idea.

The next legend which we examined was that of "_Jacob's Vision of the
Ladder_." We claimed that it probably referred to the doctrine of the
transmigration of souls from one body into another, and also gave the
apparent reason for the invention of the story.

The next story was "_The Exodus from Egypt, and Passage through the Red
Sea_," in which we showed, from Egyptian history, that the Israelites
were _turned out_ of the country on account of their uncleanness, and
that the wonderful exploits recorded of Moses were simply copies of
legends related of the sun-god Bacchus. These legends came from "the
Islands of the Sea," and came in very handy for the Hebrew fable
writers; they saved them the trouble of _inventing_.

We now come to the story relating to "_The Receiving of the Ten
Commandments_" by Moses from the Lord, on the top of a mountain, 'mid
thunders and lightnings.

All that is likely to be historical in this account, is that Moses
assembled, not, indeed, the whole of the people, but the heads of the
tribes, and gave them the code which he had prepared.[104:1] The
_marvellous_ portion of the story was evidently copied from that related
of the law-giver Zoroaster, by the