--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Christenson, A. B. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 5 published: 1912-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Christenson, A. B., "The Beginnings of Human History," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 5 (March 1912): 412–418.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1505unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1505unse start_page: 412 end_page: 418 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1505unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Beginnings of Human History The Beginnings of Human History BY A. B. CHRISTENSON, A. B., OF THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, PROVO, UTAH [It is due to the author to say, in view of later discussions on similar topics, that the following article was written during his stay in Germany, in the year 1910. and has been in the keeping of the editors — since December of that year. Editors.] With regard to the beginnings of human history, and the origin of religious and moral ideas upon the earth, there is, perhaps, no other record known to man at the present time that is so simple, and yet so comprehensive and wonderfully consistent with the facts of modern investigation and discovery, as the Pearl of Great Price. For it is here, as nowhere else in the known records of mankind, that we are taken back to the very "beginning" of time, and see planted there, in the virgin soil of man's understanding and hope, the seeds of divine truth and knowledge ; seeds which the ravages of accumulating centuries, even among the barbarous and savage races of the earth, have been unable wholly to destroy. In this respect, therefore, it is safe to say that the Pearl of Great Price is one of the most remarkable books in the world today. Not alone does it give the key to a proper understanding and appreciation of the rays of light and truth which, during the last few years, have been streaming into the hazy realms of . modern thought and scholarship from the east, and that are now so ruthlessly breaking down the theories, assumptions, and sophistries of evolutionists and critics, in regard to man's life and civilization in primitive ages ; but it also blazes the way for future discoveries that will no doubt prove even more "startling" to the thinkers and scholars of the present generation, than many of those that have already been made. So, whatever the world may choose to think or say about this divinely inspired booklet, in the future ; or, however much its testimony may be neglected or disregarded, one fact continues to stand out supreme as the years go by. and that is, that, through the simple truth-reflecting words of the Pearl of Great Price especially, the Latter-day Saints already knew and published to the world, decades before the evidences of their existence were dis- THE BEGINNINGS OF HI 'MAX HISTORY 7 ::<;: . covered by scholars, the wonderful facts of which the monuments and tablets of Babylonia, Assyria, Palestine and Egypt testify, !n such emphatic and unmistakable terms. The importance of tins point to the claims of the Latter-day Saints can hardly be overestimated. For it shows that these "convincing" evidences, often in reality only fragments, mere echoes or shadows of truths and systems well known anciently, which have been brought to light by the researches of recent years, could, of course, and no doubt would, have been known to scholars long before, in greater fulness, and in their proper historic setting, had the word "Mormonism" not, in the very nature of things, and, perhaps, fortunately, too, been destined to make its way in the world, from the first, under such dense clouds of prejudice and vilification. And yet, neither the time, energy, nor means so unselfishly spent by honest and faithful investigators in the recovery of even these fragments of truth and knowledge in regard to the past history of mankind, can be in vain. This very work, if we read the scriptures aright, is an important and necessary part of the work of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, which has already so marvelously begun, and which will continue until the whole earth shall be covered by righteousness and truth. The following passage from the Pearl of Great Price, in this regard, is clear and to the point "And righteousness will I send down out of heaven, and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a — New Jerusalem." "Book of Moses" 7:62. This wonderful prophecy has been, and is still being, fulfiled in a most remarkable manner; not alone in the restoration of the gospel, through revelation in our day, and in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, "out of the earth," but also in the recovery from the ground of hundreds of thousands of other monuments, many of which have been buried in the earth for upwards of four thousand years, and now testify <>f these very things so clearly predicted by the inspired prophet and seer of old. Cities, temples with their decorations and furnishings, statues, engrav- 364 IMPROVEMENT ERA ings, carvings, inscriptions, and even great libraries of "imperishable" clay tablets, have already been unearthed, which directly and indirectly bear testimony of, and go to prove beyond question, the truths revealed in the Pearl of Great Price, as well as those made known in other scriptures, pertaining to the great work of the Latter-days.Yes, truly do many of these monuments and tablets bear record of the fact that the fundamental truths and principles in regard to the Messiah and his gospel of redemption and salvation were a common heritage of mankind, in the most primitive ages of human history. They, indeed, show that there were "actually" people among the primitve nations who possessed by far clearer and more consistent ideas of the Christ and his mission than the great majority of scholars and divines of modern Christendom. Hence the great commotion in "learned circles" during the last few years over these discoveries, which, after all, were often only the slow discovery on the part of scholars of their own lamentable ignorance in regard to the fundamental facts of ancient history, both sacred and profane. For these monuments also prove, and the fact is being reconfirmed and emphasized almost daily, by newly discovered evidence, that the art and general civilization of the so-called primitive nations were , often of an almost infinitely higher order than had even been dreamed of by the evolutionists and "critics" of a few years ago. Some of the conclusions and, at present, more hopeful tendencies in the world of scholarship, along these lines, will be indicated somewhat more fully by quotations given below. The authors of these, with two or three exceptions, will to many need no introduction. They are already known the world over, wherever the subjects upon which they write are seriously studied or discussed. They represent, therefore, the very highest degree of present-day learning in their respective lines, at any rate, it may be fair to say, in the more "conservative circles." True it is, however, that in the way of theory and assumption they have, fortunately or unfortunately, according to one's point of view, not always "seen their way clear" to go as far as others, whose names may be found among the "radicals." Of course, it will not be inferred from what has been said above that the writers quoted are in any way trying to establish the truth or divinity of "Mormonism." Absolutely not As a ! rule, they are working hard to prove the value or consistency of the beginnings of HUMAN HISTORY 365 something very different, indeed. Rut this makes our point all the stronger. The facts are at hand, and do what men will, when these are duly considered, the conclusions naturally and inevitahly point somewhere nearly in the direction of the Truth. Each raithor's words, however, will speak for themselves "We are just beginning to learn how ignorant we have been of the civilized past, and how false our ideas have been in regard to it. We are but just beginning to realize that the fragments of Hebrew literature, contained in theOld Testament, are the wrecks of a vast literature which extends over the ancient oriental world, from the remotest epoch, and that we cannot understand them aright except in the light of the contemporaneous literature of which they formed — a part." Sayce, "Higher Criticism and the Monuments," p. 24. "We cannot emphasize the fact strongly that Egyptian too civilization is at the very outset full So far as the monumpntal grown. testimony is concerned, it has neither childhood nor you'h. Every fresh discovery brings out the fact into clearer relief." ***** "The monumental history of Egypt gives no countenance to the fashionable theories of today which derive civilized man, by a slow process of evolution, out of a brute-like ancestor. On the contrary. i fs testimony points in an opposite direction: the history of Egypt, so far as excavation has made it known to us, is a history, not of evoluton and progress, but of retrogression and decay." Sayce, — article in Hilprecht's"Recent Researches in Bible Lands," p. 103. "We are faced with the strange but undeniable fact, which we also find in studying the oldest stone vases and seal cylinders, that Babylonian art, 4000 B. C. shows a knowledge of human forms an observation of laws of art, and a neatness and fineness of execution, far beyond the products of later times. The flower of Babylonian art, indeed, is found at. the beginning of Babylonian history." Hil- — precht, Univ. of Penn., "Recent Researches in Bible Lands,'' p. 88. "In Southern Arabia we came upon traces of a high ptate of civilization at a very early period. Evidence of this is supplied by the ruins of ancient temples, towns, and aqueducts, and, above ail, — by the numerous inscriptions which still survive." Hommel. "Ancient Hebrew Traditions," p. 77. "The high standard of Hittite culture, as revealed by their own archives and monuments at the dawn of their history in the fourteenth century B. C, argues in itself a long period of settlement and development under civilized conditions; while a long contact with the culture of the Euphrates valley is indicated also by the fact that their earliest international correspondence was conducted in the AssyrioBabylonian language, while their scribes had sufficient intimacy with the cuneiform system of writing to be able to apply it to their own language, which was radically different. The great deities of the Hit- 366 IMPROVEMENT ERA tite pantheon also have their prototypes in Babylonia." Gastrang,— Univ. of Liverpool, "The Land of the Hittites," p. 317. "They reflect, without doubt, the early Arabian monotheism of the Assyrians, for nearly all of the deities borrowed from the Babylonian pantheon, first of all Ashur, then Bel, Samos, Marduk, Nindar. and Nirgal, are here identified with the ancient Ai or Ya. From this it is at once apparent that Jonah's mission to preach Jehovah to the Ninevites is by no means so absurd as the modern "critics" would have us think: he would here have found ready to his hand a text for his sermon not a whit less apposite than that Athenian altar to 'the unknown God,' which later on supplied a theme to St. Paul." Hommel, "Ancient Hebrew Traditions," p. 145. "As so many of the gods could be identified with Marodack and with Ya; it is probably not going too far to say that, to the initiated Babylonian and Assyrian, Marodack and Ya were one and the same.'' ***** "The fact is, all these gods were really one." ***** "It is many years since, in consequence of the identification of so many gods with Ya or Yau (Heb., Jah) (our Jehovah), I had come to conclusion, a conclusion which I am now in a position to this — prove." Pinches, article in "Journal of Transmission for Victoria Institute," pp. 8, 13. "There is hardly any doubt, then, that we have here the longsought parallel to the Biblical "tree of knowledge," for that, too, was in the domain of "the lord of knowledge," the God Ae, and also in the land which might be described as that of "the lord of Eden," the "hidden place of heaven and earth" for all the sons of Adam, who are no longer allowed to enter into that earthly Paradise wherein their first parents gained, at such a cost, the knowledge, imperfect as it must have been, and evidently undesirable, which they handed — down to their successors." Pinches, 'The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia," p. 77. "All heathen peoples have preserved the idea of the one supreme God, the uncivilized often more clearly and distinctly than the civilized, wherefore we should be all the less justified in assuming this fact — to be the result of their own thought and reflection." Lueken, "Die Traditionen des Menschengeschlechtes," p. 27. "These inscriptions prove how in remote ages there had been drawn up various legends of the creation of the world, many of them presenting thoughts and conceptions of the work of the creator similar to those found in the Hebrew writings. They therefore tend to show how important the Priests of Chaldea considered it, to possess among the religious documents of their schools of theology a carefully worded account of the beginnings of all things." — Boscowen, F. R. H. S., "The Bible and the Monuments," p. 84. "But they (the Babylonians) occupied themselves with special predilection with the West, i. e., Phoenecio-Palestine, and we repeated }- find (in "Hal ylonirn literature) such phrases as: when such and 1 THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN HISTORY 361 such happens, then will a great king arise in the West, then will justice and righteousness, peace and joy reign in all lands, and bring blessing to all nations (peoples l, and other similar prophecies." Delitzsch, "Wo las das Paradies?" p. 133. I! we add to this the fact that in Babylonian names, reference to judgment. 'raising from the dead' and 'forgiveness' occur with " comparative frequency, it would ainost seem as though the Babylonians had possessed a deeper sense of religion than the Arabs." Hommel, "Ancient Hebrew Tradition," p. 87. "It is curious in these hymns, dating back certainly to the twentyfifth century before the Christian era, to find phrases and expressions almost similar to those used by the Hebrew psalmist. The discovery of these fragments of the liturgy of the temple of the 'great light tin Ur), in which the ancestors of Terah and Abram worshiped, is a very important one, for the monuments now show that the city of Kharran (Harran) in North Mesopotamia, to which Abram emigrated, was a colony from Ur of the Chaldees, and its 'temple of brightness' an adjunct of the mother-temple of Ur. Perhaps in these hymns we may — trace the first inspirations of the songs of Zion." Article by W. St. Chad Boscowen, "Religious Systems of the World," London, 1905, p. 19. "A tithe of all that the land produced was theirs, and was rigor- * ously exacted, for the support of the temples and priests." * * * * "Why it should have been a tenth we cannot say." ***** "However this may be, the tithe became a marked characteristic of Babylonian religious life. It was paid by all classes; even the king and his heir were not exempt from it."— Sayce, "The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia," p. 469. "The Babylonian temple, it will be seen, thus closely resembles the temple of Solomon. That, too, had its two courts, its chambers for the priests, its sanctuary, and its Holy of Holies. Roth alike were externally mere rectangular boxes, without architectural beauty or variety of design. It was only in the possession of a tower that the Babylonian temple differed from that of the Israelites. They agreed even in the details of their furniture. The two altars of the Babylonian sanctuary are found again in the temple of Jerusalem; so, too. are the mercy-seat and the table of shewbread. Even the bronze * 'sea' of Solomon, with its twelve oxen, is at last accounted for." "It is impossible not to be struck by the many points of similarity between the Babylonian ritual and arrangement of the temples and that which existed among the Israelites. The temple of Solomon, in fact, was little more than a reproduction of a Babylonian sanctuary.'' ***** "The internal decoration of the sanctuary, moreover, was similar in both countries. The walla were made gorgeous with enameled bricks, or with plaques of gold and bronze and inlaid stones. Some times they were painted with vermlllion, the monsters of the Epic of the Creation being pictured on the walls. Bui more often the painted or sculptured figures were, as at Jerusalem, those of cheru 368 IMPROVEMENT ERA bim and the sacred true, or other vegetable devices." — Sayce, "The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia," pp. 459, 471. "We now see, for the first time clearly, the obvious relation between Abraham and the conclusions in regard to the religious history of the Hebrews, which we were able to deduce, in chapter III., from the Arabian personal names of the Khammurabi dynasty. They form, as it were, an effective background to his history, and confirm, in a manner which is little short of marvelous, the accuracy of the details supplied by Biblical tradition in regard to the Friend of God, and his escape from the contagion of Babylonian polytheism." "Nay, more, I confidently assert that all the traditions concerning the period before Joseph (i. e., of the Patriarchs, including the primitive records which Abraham brought with him from Chaldea), which have been handed down to us in Genesis, in various recensions, were even at that time current among the Israelites, and that, too, in a — written form." Hommel, "Ancient Hebrew Traditions," pp. 199, 296. "The Mosaic age, therefore, instead of being an illiterate one, was an age of highly literary activity and education through the civilized East. Not only was there a widespread literary culture in both Egypt and Babylonia, which had its roots in a remote past, but this culture was shared by Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, and more especially by Syria and Palestine." "We have learned many things of late years from archaeology, but its chiefest lesson has been that the age of Moses, and even the age of Abraham, was almost as literary an age as our own." Sayce, — "Monumental Facts and Higher Critical Fancies," pp. 40, 43. To these quotations might be added, if space would permit, a number of others that equally well go to prove the soundness and consistency of the point of view given us by the Pearl of Great Price and other scriptures which have been revealed in this dispensation. Enough, however, have perhaps been given, at present, to suggest, at least, that the Latter-day Saints have absolutely nothing to fear, but a thousand things to be thankful for, in the actual results of this so-called modern investigation and discovery. The wordy battle, therefore, which has been raging throughout Christendom, during the last half century, over the theories and "dogmas'' of skeptics and "critics," seems only to have been the Lord's method of clearing the intellectual and religious atmosphere of the world of an immense lot of its cobwebs and dust, that the light of truth might the better reach the minds and hearts of his children. The misunderstandings and doubts that have been raised by the storm will no doubt, like sand and ashes thrown on the heads of those who caused into the air, gradually settle them, while humanity, except in individual cases, will be none the worse for their having been.