ut we cannot so lightly put on one side
the whole of the results which the learning and research of so many
scholars have given us in the last century-and-a-half. We must therefore
unhesitatingly reject the theory that the Genesis Deluge story owes
anything either to star myth or to Babylonian mythology. And if the
Genesis Deluge story is not so derived, certainly no other portion of
Holy Scripture.

FOOTNOTES:

[171:1] _Babel and Bible_, Johns' translation, pp. 42-46.

[176:1] T. G. Pinches, _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical
Records of Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 102-107.

CHAPTER IV

THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL AND THE ZODIAC

The earliest reference in Scripture to the constellations of the zodiac
occurs in the course of the history of Joseph. In relating his second
dream to his brethren he said--

"Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and
the moon, and the eleven stars made obeisance to me."

The word "_Kochab_" in the Hebrew means both "star" and "constellation."
The significance, therefore, of the reference to the "eleven stars" is
clear. Just as Joseph's eleven brethren were eleven out of the twelve
sons of Jacob, so Joseph saw eleven constellations out of the twelve
come and bow down to him. And the twelve constellations can only mean
the twelve of the zodiac.

There can be no reasonable doubt that the zodiac in question was
practically the same as we have now, the one transmitted to us through
Aratus and Ptolemy. It had been designed quite a thousand years earlier
than the days of Joseph; it was known in Mesopotamia from whence his
ancestors had come; it was known in Egypt; that is to say it was known
on both sides of Canaan. There have been other zodiacs: thus the
Chinese have one of their own: but we have no evidence of any zodiac,
except the one transmitted to us by the Greeks, as having been at any
time adopted in Canaan or the neighbouring countries.

There is no need to suppose that each of the brethren had a zodiacal
figure already assigned to him as a kind of armorial bearing or device.
The dream was appropriate, and perfectly intelligible to Jacob, to
Joseph, and his brethren, without supposing that any such arrangement
had then been made. It is quite true that there are Jewish traditions
assigning a constellation to each of the tribes of Israel, but it does
not appear that any such traditions can be distinctly traced to a great
antiquity, a