two lines to settle the much contested situation of Haran,
and thus to determine the ancient watershed between the Semitic and
Aryan nations? The Abbe Banier, more than a hundred years ago, pointed
out that Haran, whither Abraham repaired, was the metropolis of
Sabism, and that Magism was practised in Ur of the Chaldees
('Mythology, explained by History,' vol. i. book iii. cap. 3). Dr.
Spiegel having, as he believes, established the most ancient
meeting-point between Abraham and Zoroaster, proceeds to argue that
whatever ideas are shared in common by Genesis and the Avesta must be
referred to that very ancient period when personal intercourse was
still possible between Abraham and Zoroaster, the prophets of the Jews
and the Iranians. Now, here the counsel for the defence would remind
Dr. Spiegel that Genesis was not the work of Abraham, nor, according
to Dr. Spiegel's view, was Zoroaster the author of the Zend-Avesta;
and that therefore the neighbourly intercourse between Zoroaster and
Abraham in the country of Arran had nothing to do with the ideas
shared in common by Genesis and the Avesta. But even if we admitted,
for argument's sake, that as Dr. Spiegel puts it, the Avesta contains
Zoroastrian and Genesis Abrahamitic ideas, surely there was ample
opportunity for Jewish ideas to find admission into what we call the
Avesta, or for Iranian ideas to find admission into Genesis, after the
date of Abraham and Zoroaster, and before the time when we find the
first MSS. of Genesis and the Avesta. The Zend MSS. of the Avesta are
very modern, so are the Hebrew MSS. of Genesis, which do not carry us
beyond the tenth century after Christ. The text of the Avesta,
however, can be checked by the Pehlevi translation, which was made
under the Sassanian dynasty (226-651 A.D.), just as the text of
Genesis can be checked by the Septuagint translation, which was made
in the third century before Christ. Now, it is known that about the
same time and in the same place--namely at Alexandria--where the Old
Testament was rendered into Greek, the Avesta also was translated into
the same language, so that we have at Alexandria in the third century
B.C. a well established historical contact between the believers in
Genesis and the believers in the Avesta, and an easy opening for that
exchange of ideas which, according to Dr. Spiegel, could have taken
place nowhere but in Arran, and at the time of Abraham and Zoroaster.
It might be objected that t