It was during this period of Babylonian influence and tutelage that the traditions and myths of Chaldaea became known to the people of Canaan.  It is again the tablets of Tel el-Amarna which have shown us how this came to pass.  Among them are fragments of Babylonian legends, one of which endeavoured to account for the creation of man and the introduction of sin into the world, and these legends were used as exercise-books in the foreign language by the scribes of Canaan and Egypt who were learning the Babylonian language and script.  If ever we discover the library of Kirjath-sepher we shall doubtless find among its clay records similar examples of Chaldaean literature.  The resemblances between the cosmogonies of Phoenicia and Babylonia have often been pointed out, and since the discovery of the Chaldaean account of the Deluge by George Smith we have learned that between that account and the one which is preserved in Genesis there is the closest possible likeness, extending even to words and phrases.  The long-continued literary influence of Babylonia in Palestine in the Patriarchal Age explains all this, and shows us how the traditions of Chaldaea made their way to the West.  When Abraham entered Canaan, he entered a country whose educated inhabitants were already familiar with the books, the history, and the traditions of that in which he had been born.  There were doubtless many to whom the name and history of “Ur of the Chaldees” were already known.  It may even be that copies of the books in its library already existed in the libraries of Canaan.

There was one Babylonian hero at all events whose name had become so well known in the West that it had there passed into a proverb.  This was the name of Nimrod, “the mighty hunter before the Lord.”  As yet the cuneiform documents are silent about him, but it is probable that he was one of the early Kassite kings who established their dominion over the cities of Babylonia.  He is called the son of Cush or Kas, and “the beginning of his kingdom” was Babylon, which had now for six centuries been the capital of the country.  His name, however, was as familiar to the Canaanite as it was to the inhabitant of Chaldaea, and the god before whom his exploits were displayed was Yahveh and not Bel.

It was about 1600 B.C. that the Hyksos were finally expelled from Egypt.  They were originally Asiatic hordes who had overrun the valley of the Nile, and held it in subjection for several centuries.  At first they had carried desolation with them wherever they went.  The temples of the Egyptian gods were destroyed and their priests massacred.  But before long Egyptian culture proved too strong for the invaders.  The rude chief of a savage horde became transformed into an Egyptian Pharaoh, whose court resembled that of the ancient line of monarchs, and who surrounded himself with learned men.  The cities and temples were restored and beautified, and art began to flourish once more.  Except in one respect it became difficult