1.00.2. Introduction

Introduction

Sir James George Frazer wrote an impressive 3 volume set of negative commentaries on Genesis. This book (published in 1918, by MacMillan, London, England) is the first volume (from Creation till the Tower of Babel). He was a proud scoffer, but the evidence that he assembled in order to try to attack Scriptural integrity is simply great. So ignore Frazer’s temporal theorizing about "Jehovistic" vs. "Priestly" documents; unrepentant scoffers like him later had to abandon such spurious attacks. (Frazer sought out contrived errors and wanted to discredit Scripture - but just looking at the evidence that he assembled in 1918 - from around the world - gee, I see faith building similarities! I’d like to thank him.) By the beginning of the 20th Century most of the world had been "discovered," mapped, and the "Civilized World" had been successively introduced (over the course of the previous 300 years or so) to the wide variety of life and heritages from around the globe. From staid scientific publications to the sensationalist popular media of the modern era an array of new and exotic discoveries had been heralded and duly discussed by kings and emperors, along with theologians and philosophers as well as by the common man. The "Christian World" tried to assimilate all of the new knowledge flowing into the generally understood historical conventions of: The Creation, Man’s Fall from Grace, the Great Flood and the Tower of Babel as generally accepted historical events, particularly since the Bible is very clear on their humankind encompassing scope and precise sequence. All of humankind shares the same origins heritage until breaking up during the dispersion at Babel. Therefore - all of humankind should still retain remnants of these stories in their diverse cultures. In 1918 Sir James George Frazer brought much of the compendium of world legends as related to biblical accounts together into this well researched volume. The carefully cataloged recollections in these 5 long chapters (the printed book is 400 pages!) had been slowly brought back to the "Civilized World" by many different ship captains, traders, missionaries, historians and other inquisitive travelers to distant lands. Men had tried to compare and contrast these various beliefs against their own "Christian" knowledge of the distant past. The longest single chapter (#4; about 250 pages) concerns the many surviving records of the Great Flood in the world. They’re found on every continent. The Global Flood of about 5,000 years ago left the strongest single historical imprint upon all of humanity, no matter where on the globe folks had later moved to and settled.

Yet in spite of all the evidence supporting the Bible’s accounts of our early history (of about 6,000 years) we’re increasingly in danger of losing our true common history. Skeptics and modern false teachers have proclaimed that the Flood of Noah was merely "regional" in scope, even though the Bible is quite clear: (Gen 7:19) "...all the high hills, that [were] under the whole heaven, were covered." In Frazer’s time, just as today, doubts of the Bible’s absolute accuracy abounded, as you will see in his commentaries throughout this volume. But when we look at this today - we can see how well these foundational events of humanity’s origins were still remembered around the world - even up until less than 100 years ago. This book was scanned in, fully re-formatted, and (mostly) spell checked (British English spelling), and it is now in the public domain - meaning that it is free for you to copy and use in any way. One request though ... even if you re-post the entire text or excerpts elsewhere, please let folks know where it originally came from (i.e. www.creationism.org) and please let them know that we’re still adding more quality creation science information each month. (Digitizing this book took a lot of work and we will have more materials on the way for you.) Lord Bless you.

[from Chapter IV - The Flood] "...the calamity which their traditions say once befell them, destroying the whole human race, excepting one man, who landed from his canoe on a high mountain in the West. This tradition, however, was not peculiar to the Mandan tribe, for amongst one hundred and twenty different tribes that I have visited in North and South and Central America, not a tribe exists that has not related to me distinct or vague traditions of such a calamity, in which one, or three, or eight persons were saved above the waters..."

Painter and traveler, George Catlin, 1830’s