solar phenomenon, and Noah a representative of the sun-god (see p. 180 f.). But the utility of this distinction is largely neutralised by a universal tendency to transfer mythical traits from gods to real men (Sargon of Agade, Moses, Alexander, Charlemagne, etc.); so that the most indubitable traces of mythology will not of themselves warrant the conclusion that the hero is not a historical personage.—Gordon differentiates between spontaneous (nature) myths and reflective (ætiological) myths; and, while recognising the existence of the latter in Genesis, considers that the former type is hardly represented in the OT at all. The distinction is important, though it may be doubted if ætiology is ever a primary impulse to the formation of myths, and as a parasitic development it appears to attach itself indifferently to myth and legend. Hence there is a large class of narratives which it is difficult to label either as mythical or as legendary, but in which the ætiological or some similar motive is prominent (see p. xi ff.).
2. The influence of foreign mythology is most apparent
in the primitive traditions of chs. 1-11. The discovery of
the Babylonian versions of the Creation- and Deluge-traditions
has put it beyond reasonable doubt that these are
the originals from which the biblical accounts have been
derived (pp. 45 ff., 177 f.). A similar relation obtains between
the antediluvian genealogy of ch. 5 and Berossus's list of
the ten Babylonian kings who reigned before the Flood
(p. 137 f.). The story of Paradise has its nearest analogies
in Iranian mythology; but there are faint Babylonian echoes
which suggest that it belonged to the common mythological
heritage of the East (p. 90 ff.). Both here and in ch. 4
a few isolated coincidences with Phœnician tradition may
point to the Canaanite civilisation as the medium through
which such myths came to the knowledge of the Israelites.—All
these (as well as the story of the Tower of Babel)
were originally genuine myths—stories of the gods; and if
they no longer deserve that appellation, it is because the
spirit of Hebrew monotheism has exorcised the polytheistic
notions of deity, apart from which true mythology cannot
survive. The few passages where the old heathen conception
of godhead still appears (126 322. 24 61ff. 111ff.), only serve
to show how completely the religious beliefs of Israel have
transformed and purified the crude speculations of pagan
theology, and adapted them to the ideas of an ethical and
