The Abbé Loisy in a French work, _Les myths babyloniens, et les premiers chapitres de la Genèse_ (Paris, 1901), says a few things upon Jewish and Babylonian mythical relations worth translating: "We can no longer take the first eleven or twelve chapters of Genesis as a whole and treat them as a monotheistic redaction of the Babylonian myths.... The Biblical accounts are not mere transcriptions ... and the gaps between them presuppose much assimilation and transformation, much time, and probably many intermediaries to boot.... If the relationship of the Biblical narratives to the Chaldean legends is in many respects less intimate than was thought, it now appears to be more general. The Creation, and the Flood in particular, are still the most obvious points of resemblance; but the story of Adam and Eve, the earthly paradise, the food of life, the explanation of death,--all of which have sometimes been sought where they were not to be found,--are now found where there was no thought of seeking them.... The Biblical texts have no literary dependence upon the Babylonian texts; they do not even stand to them in a relation of direct dependence in the case of the special traditions they exhibit: but they rest on a similar--we might say a common--foundation, of Chaldean origin, whose antiquity cannot be even approximately estimated.... On the other hand, it appears certain that the period of Assyrian dominance, and the Captivity, quickened the recollection of the old traditions and supplemented them by fresh materials easy to graft on the ancient stem.... We may well believe that the metamorphosis was complete in the oral tradition of the people before the legend was embodied in the Biblical narrative." Babylonian Influence upon the other Semites The influence of the Babylonian religion upon other Semitic cults is worthy of notice, although its effect upon the Jewish faith was more marked than on any other Semitic form of belief. Yet still through conquest and other causes it undoubtedly exercised a strong influence upon the surrounding peoples, especially those of related stock. We must regard the whole of Asia Minor, or at least its most civilized portion, as peopled by races of diverse origin who yet possessed a general culture in common. Some of those races, if we be permitted to employ rather time-worn ethnological labels, were 'Semitic,' like the Assyrians and Hebrews, others were of the 'Ural-Altaic' or 'Armenoid' type, like the Hittites, whilst still others, like the Philistines, appear to have been of 'Aryan' race, resembling the Greeks and Goths. But all these different races had embraced a common culture, their architecture, pottery, weapons, crafts, and laws seem to have come from a common source, and lastly their religious systems were markedly alike. The Canaanites