Oriental Records; Historical. Confirmatory of the Old and New Testament Scriptures

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1877 Excerpt: ... SACRIFICE. OTH sacrifice and oblation were presented to God by members of the first human family, and the sacrifice was offered in faith. But faith could not exist without the declaration of some truth preceding, or the promise of some blessing that should thereafter be received. That blessing might be the bruising of the serpent's head, the triumphant issue of a prolonged conflict predicted in Eden after the Fall. (Gen. iii. 15.) The next recorded sacrifice was offered by Noah, after the subsidence of the Deluge; and after this, the mention of sacrifice is frequent in the Old Testament, and sacrificial rites, of some kind or other, became prevalent throughout the Gentile world. Whether or not this manner of worship was directly ordained of God at the beginning, it received the Divine sanction; both these sacrifices were signally accepted; and under the Mosaic law the victims became typical of the body of Christ, who suffered to make atonement for the sins of all mankind. Then were these words written: "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" (Heb. x. 26); that is to say, for those who refuse the benefit of that atonement. "The Babylonian legend of the Creation," as the late Mr. George Smith called it in the fifth chapter of his Chaldean Account of Genesis, was inscribed in tablets of which there are but a few fragments as yet translated; but in the fragmentary translations we find some very important sentences in relation to this subject, and may hope that other students will, from time to time, recover much of what is wanting to complete the Chaldean tradition of the Creation, the Fall, and the events which followed. Tablet K 3364, in the British Museum, contains on the obverse an address to the newly created man, called Adam, as in the Bible,1 instru...