ro and Sayce, pp. 17
and 543. For creation of man out of clay by a divine being in Egypt, see
Maspero and Sayce, p. 154; for a similar idea in Chaldea, see ibid.,
p. 545; and for the creation of the universe by a word, ibid., pp. 146,
147. For Egyptian and Chaldean ideas on magic and medicine, dread of
evil spirits, etc., anticipating those of the Hebrew Scriptures, see
Maspero and Sayce, as above, pp. 212-214, 217, 636; and for extension
of these to neighboring nations, pp. 782, 783. For visions and use of
dreams as oracles, ibid., p. 641 and elsewhere. See also, on these and
other resemblances, Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, vol. i, passim;
see also George Smith and Sayce, as above, chaps. xvi and xvii, for
resemblances especially striking, combining to show how simple was the
evolution of many Hebrew sacred legends and ideas out of those earlier
civilizations. For an especially interesting presentation of the reasons
why Egyptian ideas of immortality were not seized upon by the Jews, see
the Rev. Barham Zincke's work upon Egypt. For the sacrificial vessels,
temple rites, etc., see the bas-reliefs, figured by Lepsius, Prisse
d'Avennes, Mariette, Maspero, et. al. For a striking summary by a
brilliant scholar and divine of the Anglican Church, see Mahaffy,
Prolegomena to Anc. Hist., cited in Sunderland, The Bible, New York,
1893, p. 21, note.

But while archaeologists thus influenced enlightened opinion, another
body of scholars rendered services of a different sort--the centre of
their enterprise being the University of Oxford. By their efforts was
presented to the English-speaking world a series of translations of the
sacred books of the East, which showed the relations of the more Eastern
sacred literature to our own, and proved that in the religions of the
world the ideas which have come as the greatest blessings to mankind
are not of sudden revelation or creation, but of slow evolution out of a
remote past.

The facts thus shown did not at first elicit much gratitude from
supporters of traditional theology, and perhaps few things brought more
obloquy on Renan, for a time, than his statement that "the influence of
Persia is the most powerful to which Israel was submitted." Whether this
was an overstatement or not, it was soon seen to contain much truth. Not
only was it made clear by study of the Zend Avesta that the Old and New
Testament ideas regarding Satanic and demoniacal modes of action were
largely due