between Michael and the dragon in Revelation, xii. 7 to 9, where the dragon is called "the great dragon, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." This description is strikingly like the impression gathered from the fragments of the cuneiform story; the dragon Tiamat who fought against the gods and led man to sin, and whose fate it was to be conquered in a celestial war, closely corresponds in all essential points to the dragon conquered by Michael. These fragments of the cuneiform account of the Creation and Fall agree so far as they are preserved with the Biblical account, and show that in the period from B.C. 2000 to 1500 the Babylonians believed in a similar story to that in Genesis.
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Fight between Bel and the Dragon, from Babylonian cylinder.
