File:A dictionary of the Bible.. (1887) (14781241062).jpg

Identifier: dictionaryofbibl01scha (find matches)
Title: A dictionary of the Bible..
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Schaff, Philip, 1819-1893
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Publisher: (n. p.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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Egyp-tian.—Rawlinsons Five Ancient Mon-archies, 1870, i. p. 247. Of their religionthe same author says it is more earn-est and less degrading than that ofEgypt. Idols and idol-worship pre-vailed. Of eleven chief gods and anequal number of goddesses, the greatestwas Asshur, one of whose symbols wasa winged sphere with the figure of aman armed with a bow issuing from thecentre. Among the other gods wereBel, Sin the moon-god, Shamas the j sun-god, Ishtar, and Xebo. Their idolswere of stone and clay, and were wor-shipped with sacrifices, libations, and I offerings, and by fastings of man andbeast. The tablets testify to the atten-tion given to religion by the learned,and the records and sculptures indicate ; the general spirit of worship prevailingamong the people, while it also showstheir gross idolatry. Modern Discoveries and General His-tory.—Concerning the history of theAssyrian kingdom and empire, compar-atively little was known previous torecent discoveries. The researches of79
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ASS ASS Botta, 1842-1850; Layard, 1851-1853 ;Sir H. Rawlinson, 1850-1867: Oppert,1857-1870 ; Lenormant, 1868-1873 ;George Smith, 1872-1877 ; and those ofRassam, 1878,—have rescued the an-nals of that country from obscurity, andfurnished the materials for a trust-worthy history. These records, to-gether with the vast buildings, monu-ments, and grand palaces, were buriedmany feet beneath mounds of earth,and their existence for hundreds ofyears was wholly unknown to the world.By patient excavation the monuments, dug up from the mounds, written incuneiform or wedge-shaped charactersand in the Assyrian tongue. The in-scriptions were upon slabs of stone,which formed the panels of the palace-walls, on obelisks of stone, on clay tab-lets, and on cylinders or hexagonalprisms of terra cotta two or three feetlong. These tablets and cylinders wereundoubtedly a part of the royal libraryin the days of Tiglath-pileser and ofother noted kings. The Assyrian power was a singlemonarchy from the beginn

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