Cave of Treasures

Historical source scan page 15

pagans, and objects celestial and terrestrial were generally worshipped. The author of the "Cave of Treasures" tells us that at that period men made golden images of their fathers and set them up over their graves, and that the devils who lived in these images called upon the sons of the dead to sacrifice their own sons to them. Now we know from the monuments which have been excavated in Babylonia that in the last centuries of the third millennium B.C. the Babylonians became great experts in the art of sculpture, and that they made images of both men and gods. The excavations have proved that gold masks were laid on the faces of the dead, and we may assume that gold masks were placed on the faces of statues, when they were "dressed" for festival occasions, as in Egypt. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, according to the custom of his people, but when God stayed his hand, and provided a ram for the blood-sacrifice, he realized that a human blood-sacrifice was not acceptable to Him, and that he must break with the traditions of his people, and leave the country. The custom of sacrificing children to devils seems to have been general in the days of Nâhôr, and it may have been introduced into the country by the hordes who came down from the north as a result of the conquests of Khammurabi. Be this as it may, in the 100" year of the life of Nahor God determined to put an end to the custom, and He made the Wind Flood. He opened the storehouses of the winds, and set free the whirlwinds and hurricanes, and sent a blast of wind over all the earth. This wind swept through Babylonia, and dashed the idols against each other, and smashed them, and then it threw down upon them the buildings in which they had stood, and piled up their ruins in high mounds above the images and the devils that dwelt in them. The cities of Ur and Erech were laid waste, and their sites were only known from the huge mounds of rubbish which were piled up by the Wind Flood. Now there is no record of this Wind Flood in the Bible, and it is only mentioned in the "Cave of Treasures," and in works based upon it, e.g. the Book of the Bee and the Book of Adam and Eve. Some light is thrown upon this Wind Flood by the cuneiform inscriptions, and the author of the "Cave of Treasures" must have derived his knowledge of it from documents based upon them. Nabonidus, king of Babylon, displeased the gods, and they made manifest their anger by making the storm wind to blow. And in one text it is distinctly said that the cities of Erech and Nippur were destroyed by a wind storm. (See Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, London, 1924, page 93, note 20.) The most terrible of all the storm-wind gods was Pazuzu, whose strength and violence were believed to be so great that he could overthrow even the mountains (Revue d'Assyriologie, vol. XI, page 57). Figures of this monster in stone and bronze may be seen in the British Museum. Terah, the father of Abraham, followed in his father's footsteps, and, according to the legend quoted on page 145, made figures of the gods, or idols, in clay and stone, and sent his son Abraham into the bazar to sell them. Fact underlies this legend, for a large number of terra-cotta figures of gods and demons have been found by many excavators 15 of 130