"can sCR.rcely be overlooked;" and Bab-iJ,, compressed into n moment of time, but, after the gate of God (Rosenmiiller, Gesonius, receiving this special impul~e, was len to Colenso) ; but the first is based upon n develop and complete itself as tho nations purely mythical personage, Bel, the imllgin- wandered farther aud ever farther from the ary founder of the city ; and the second, if plains or Rhinar (cf. Kurtz, ' Hist. of thQ Old even it were supported by evidence, whicl1 it Coven:u:t,' vol. i. pp. 108-117 (Clark'A is not, is not so likely es that given by For. Theol. Lib.), 11nd 1 Qua11-y on Genesis,' llfoses. Beo&11Be the Lord did there confound pp. 195-206). • -ho"" is not explained, but has been conjec- tured to be by &n entirely inward process, CHALD..EAN LEGEND OF TIIE TOWER I.JI! nz., changing the ideas associated with words BAnEr..·-Berosus, indeed, docs not refer to it. (Koppen) ; by a procesa wholly outward, viz., an alteration of the mode of pronouncing nnd early writers arc obliged to have rocoms~ words (Hoffman), though more probably by to somewhat doubtful authorities to confirm lJoth (Keil), or possibly by the first insensibly it. Eusebius, e. g., quotes Abydenus as snying leading to the second-the language of all that "not long after the Flood, the ancient the earth : and from thence did the Lord race of men were so puffed up with their scatter them. As the result not simply of their gromng discord, di.ssensio aninwrum, strength and tallness of stature that they per quam factum sit, ut qui tui-rem strue- began to despise nnd contemn tl,10 gods, and bant distracti sint in contraria studia et laboured to erect that very lofty tower which consilia (Vitringa) ; but chiefly of their is now called Babylon, intending thereby to diverging tongues-a statement which is sup- scale the heavens. But when the building posed to conflict with the findings of modern philology, that the existing differences of approached the sky, behold, the gods called language among mankinJ are the result of in the aid of the winds, and by their lielp slo1" and gradual changes brought about by overturned the tower, and cast it to the the operation of natural causes, such &S the ground ! The name or' the ruin is still called influence of loc:i.lity in changing and of time Babel, because until this time all men had in corrupting human speech. But (1) mo- Jcrn philology hwi as yet only succeeded used the same speech ; but now there was in explaining the growth of what might sent upon them a confusion of many anu he called the sub-modifications of human diverse tongues" (' Prae~v. ,' ix. 14}. But ~re~ch, and is confessedly unable to account the diligence of the late George Smith ha~ for what appears to be its main division into been rewarded by discovering the fragment a Shemitic, nn Aryan, and a Turanian of an .Assyrian tablet (marked K. 3657 in tongue, which may have been produced in the sudden and miraculous way described ; British Museum) containing an account of and (2) nothing prevents us from regarding the building of the tower, in which the gods the two events, the confusion of tongues and are represented as being angry at the work the dispersion of the nations, &S occurring and confounding the speech of the builders. simultaneously, and even acting and reacting In zol. i., lines 5 and 6 (according to W. St. on each -0ther. As the tribes parted, their speech wonld diverge, Rud, on the other hand, C. Boscawon's translation) run- as the tongues differed, those who spoke the " Babylon corruptly to sin went, and same or coguate dialects would draw together Small and great mingled on the mound;" and draw apart from the rest. We may even suppose that, prior to the building of while in coL ii., Jines 12, 13, 14, 15, are- Babel, if any of the human family had begun to spread themselves abroad upon the sur- " In his anger also the secret counsel l,ie face of the globe, a slight diversity in human pourcJ out speech had begun to show itself; and the To scatter abroad his face he set truthfulness of the narrative will in no wise be endangered by admitting that the Divine He gave a command to make strange interposition at Babel may have consisted in their speech guickening & natural process which had . their progress he impeded/' already commenced to operate; nay, we are rather warranted to conclude that the whole (' Records of the Past,' vol. vii. p. 131 ; cf. work of subdividing hwnan speech was not ' Chaldaian Genesis,' p. 160.)
HOMILETICS. Ver. 4.-The tower-builders of Babel. I. THE IMPIETY OF 1'Hlmt DESIGN, I. ..tl.m'bition. They were desirous of achieving fame, or "a name" for themselves, Whether in this there wae a covert sneer at the exaltation promised to the Sliemitcs, OH. XI. 1-0.] 'NIE BOOK OF GENESIS. 167