of the Scripture story by the above translation. 1293. KALISCH describes also the latter fates of the Temple, as follows, Gen.p.316: We Actually the Mexicans have a legend of a tower-building, as well as of a Flood. Xelhua, built the great pyramid of Cholula, in order to one of the seven giants rescued in the flood, reach heaven, until the gods, angry at his audacity, threw fire upon the building, and broke it down, whereupon every separate family received a language of its own. will not lay much stress upon it, since the Mexican legend has experienced much colouring at the hands of the narrators,-chiefly Dominicans and Jesuits; and we lay still less upon the point that the Mexican terracepyramid has a great resemblance to the construction of the Temple of Belus: but both these points deserve to be noticed. The temple of Jupiter Belus with its tower was regarded as one of the most gigantic works of antiquity, and attracted the curiosity of travellers from every country. HERODOTUS, who saw it himself, dwells upon it with emphasis, i.181. . . . . It was partially destroyed by Xerxes, when he returned from Greece, B.C. 490; upon which the fraudulent priests appropriated to themselves the lands and enormous revenues attached to it, and seem, from this reason, to have been averse to its restoration. A part of this magnificent edifice still existed more than five centuries later, PLIN.Vi.30. But the other part was, in the time of Alexander the Great, a vast heap of ruins. The ambitious Macedonian determined to rebuild it, and issued his orders accordingly. But, when the work did not proceed with the vigour and result which he had anticipated, he resolved to undertake it himself with his whole army. He lacked, however, the perseverance of the oriental despots; for, when 10,000 workmen were unable to remove the rubbish within two months, he abandoned his pretentious designs. However, the portion of the structure which was in existence in PLINY'S time was imposing enough to be still called the Temple of Belus. And Ben-people, to which it naturally belongs. jamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, described it as a brick building, the base measuring two miles, and the breadth 240 yards; he adds, that a spiral passage, built round the tower, in stages of ten yards each, led up to the summit, which allows a wide prospect over an almost perfectly level country; and concludes with the old tradition, that the heavenly fire, which struck the tower, split it to its very foundation. More than six hun dred years the ruins of Birs Nimroud remained unnoticed and unknown. They were first rediscovered by NIEBUHR, in 1756,-then more accurately described by KER PORTER, RICH, BUCKINGHAM, &c.: but their examination, and the discovery of some of the monumental records they contain, were reserved to the last decennium, 1848-58. 1295. And upon the credibility of the whole story, as a matter of history, he writes as follows, p.314:— We have, however, other and incomparably more important remains of the event than those uncertain ruins,-[uncertain, only in respect of the question whether the mound, Birs Nimroud, does represent the ruins of the Temple of Belus-it is certain that such a Temple, as above described, once existed,-] or these scanty reminiscences. They exist in the languages themselves, standing in more or less remote connection of consequences with that event. Each of these languages is, no doubt, the production and expression of the spiritual and natural constitution of the 1294. KALISCH also observes, Gen. p.313- Most of the ancient nations possessed myths concerning impious giants, who attempted to storm heaven, either to share it with the immortal gods, or to expel them from it. In some of these fables the confusion of tongues is represented as the punishment inflicted by the deities for such wickedness. And even JOSEPHUS, Ant.I.iv.3, quoted a similar tradition [in the words of the Sibyl, probably of very late date, and copied from the Scriptural story, the gods sent storms of wind, and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language: and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon']. DELITZSCH adds, p.314:— Certainly,' if this wonderful divine influence had not occurred, the one primeval tongue would not have remained in stagnating immobility. It would, by virtue of the rich abundance of the gifts and powers vouchsafed to man, have gone through a process of continual self-enrichment, and have gained in spirit and uniformity. Now, however, when the lingual unity of the race was lost, together with their unity in God, together also with the unity of their all-defining religious consciousness, instead of a manifoldness in unity, there came a splitting-up with loss of unity, a cleaving-asunder with utter loss of connection,-such, however, as points back with a thousand fingers to the fact of the original unity. If the last statement be true, yet how does it prove the historical truth of the narrative in G.xi. 1-9 ? CHAPTER XII. GEN.XI. 10-XI.26. 1296. THE following Table exhibits the variations from the Heb., of the Sept., Sam., and Josephus, in respect of the numbers which express the parent's age at the eldest son's birth, in the list of the Post-Diluvian Patriarchs: EE 1297. The Scripture story, then, represents that in Abraham's time, not four centuries after the Deluge, the descendants of Noah's three sons, Dynasty, the earliest extant, show that the arts at that day, some 3,500 B.C. [date of Menes, more than 3,400 B.C. (HUMBOLDT)— 3,643 B.C. (BUNSEN)-3,892 B.C. (KENRICK)— 3,893 B.C. (LEPSIUS)-3,895 B.C. (HINCKS)-in each case more than 1,000 years before the Usherian date of the Deluge,] had already arrived at a perfection little inferior to that of the xviiith Dynasty, which, until lately, was regarded as her Augustan age. NOTT, Types of Mankind, p.211. Bas-reliefs, beautifully cut, sepulchral architecture, and the engineering of the pyramids,-reed-pens, inks (red and black), papyrus-paper, and chemically-prepared colours, -these are grand evidences of the civilisation of Memphis 5,300 years ago, that every man with eyes to see can now behold in noble folios, published by France, Tuscany, and Prussia. Ibid. p.237. The glimpse which we thus obtain of Egypt, in the fifth century after Menes, according to the lowest computation, [still 1,000 years before the Deluge,] reveals to us some general facts, which lead to import inferences. In all its general characteristics Egypt was the same as we see it a thousand years later, [and for how many centuries before?]-a well organised monarchy and religion elaborated throughout the country, the system of hieroglyphic writing the same, in all its leading peculiarities, as it continued to the end of the monarchy of the Pharaohs. KENRICK'S Ancient Egypt, p.131. 1299. Moreover, as before observed, in this short interval the most marked differences of physiognomy must have become stamped on the different races, since we find on the most ancient monuments of Egypt precisely the same negro face, head, hair, form, and colour, fully developed, as we observe in our own days. In three or four centuries (who had no children before the Flood, xi. 10), had so multiplied that there were already in existence the kingdoms of Shinar (Babylon), Elam, &c., mentioned in G.xiv.1, as engaged in a joint campaign against five kings of Canaan, and those of Egypt, G.xiii, and Gerar, G.xx. Besides these, however, there were the Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, Horim, who were smitten by the king of Elam, G.xiv.2,5,6, and the multitude of other nations, Gomer, Magog, Madai, &c., who are referred to in G.x as already existing before the time of Abraham. This appears from the fact that the earth was divided' -not of the primeval time before the in the days of Peleg, the fourth in Flood, but when that deteriorating descent from Shem, and Abraham was change, whatever it may have been, in the ninth; whereas all the nations which is intimated in G.vi.3, had alin G.x are described as being in the ready passed upon the race-the comfirst or second from one or other of plete change of colour, form of skull, the sons of Noah, except the Arabian and general physical character, had tribes in v.26-29, mentioned as the been effected, which seems not to have sons of Joktan, Peleg's brother. Nay, been modified in the least, from that the small district of Canaan was al-time to this, during the lapse of four ready occupied by many powerful nations, x.15-19. 1298. And some of these nations had already attained a very high state of civilisation. When Egypt first presents itself to our view she stands forth, not in childhood, but with the maturity of manhood's age, arrayed in the time-worn habiliments of civilisation. Her tombs, her temples, her pyramids, her manners, customs, and arts, all betoken a full thousand years. Archd. PRATT says, in reference to this, Scripture and Science, p.55:— There is no evidence (!) that Shem, Ham, and Japheth had not in them elements differing as widely as the Asiatic, the African, and the European differ from each other (!). They may have married, too, into different tribes, and their wives have been as diversified as themselves. 1300. DELITZSCH notes on this point, grown nation. The sculptures of the ivth p.290: Thus far the possibility of the derivation of the peoples from one family is established by Natural Science. Meanwhile, we do not wish to be silent as to the fact, that the maintenance of the contrary is becoming more and more prevalent. The distinguishing characteristics of the races, it is said, lie not only in the colour of the hair, but also especially in the form of the skeleton, and particularly of the skull. This difference is in the case of the principal races so great that it is impossible to account for the variation through any kind of climatic or other ordinary influence. And even if such a variation were possible, yet, in any case, a space of time of about 400 years (from the Flood to the patriarchal times, in which the race-development is already an accomplished fact) is besides far too short; so that both Natural Science and Chronology give positive proof of manifold division of the human race from the very first. As regards the first proof, however, no account is here taken of the incalculably great, and, in correspondence with the character of the primeval time, doubly intensified, influence of the spiritual and moral tendency of that age upon the bodily development. And as regards the second, we await complacently the final results of the investigation of the monuments, especially the Egyptian, and of such inquiries as that about the age of the by-gone American -especially, Mexican-civilisation. Perhaps, the chronological net of the Biblical primeval history really requires an extension. Allowing, however, that the Scripture has in fact leapt over hundreds, or even thousands, of years, would that be sufficient to throw our thoughts into confusion about it? The Bible history is the history of salvation: the history of salvation is, however, the heart of the world-history. And, as the heart is smaller than the man, although it determines his life, so, perhaps, the Bible chronology is more contracted than the world-chronology, although this is raised upon the scaffold of the other (!). For the sacred history, that of the Gospel, as well as of the Pentateuch, is complex, i.e., it steps from one main-point of the history of salvation to the next, without drawing marked attention to the interval between them. the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land,' G.xii.6, xiii.7. 1302. Accordingly, Prof. RAWLINSON writes, Aids to Faith, p.282:- Were we bound down to the numbers of the Hebrew text, in regard to the period between the Flood and Abraham, we should, indeed, find ourselves in a difficulty. Three hundred and seventy years would certainly not seem to be sufficient time for the peopling of the world, to the extent to which it appears to have been peopled in the days of Abraham, and for the formation of powerful and settled monarchies in Babylonia and Egypt. But the adoption of the Septuagint numbers for this period, which are on every ground preferable, brings the chronology into harmony at once with the condition of the world, as shown to us in the account given in Scripture of the times of Abraham, and with the results obtainable from the study, in a sober spirit, of profane history. A thousand years is ample time for the occupation of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, by a considerable population, for the formation of governments, the erection even of such buildings as the Pyramids, the advance of the arts generally to the condition found to exist in Egypt under the eighteenth dynasty, and for almost any amount of subdivision and variety in languages. 1303. In another place he writes, p.259: even B.C. 3159. The But there The date of the Deluge, which we are most justified in drawing from the sacred documents, is not, as commonly supposed, B.C. 2348, but rather, B.C. 3099, or modern objectors to the chronology of Scripture seek commonly to tie down their opponents to the present Hebrew text. is no reason why they should submit to this restriction. The LXX version was regarded as of primary authority during the first ages of the Christian Church; it is the version commonly quoted in the N.T.; and thus, when it differs from the Hebrew, it is, at least, entitled to equal attention. The larger if it stood alone, have as good a claim as the chronology of the LXX would, therefore, even shorter one of the Hebrew text, to be con not, however, stand alone. For the period 1301. AS DELITZSCH observes, the dif-sidered the chronology of Scripture. It does ficulty lies not so much in the question whether the derivation of all the races of the earth from one family is possible. Mr. DARWIN'S recent investigations, on the origin of species, have shown us that such derivation is, perhaps, not scientifically inconceivable, provided only that a sufficient lapse of time be allowed for it. But then this theory would require thousands or tens of thousands of years, instead of four hundred, which is all the Bible allows us for the development of seventy distinct nations from the three sons of Noah: since, at the time when Abram came into the land of Canaan, we are told 1304. However, even if we adopt Prof. RAWLINSON'S extreme estimate, and suppose the Flood to have occurred B.C. 3099, yet still this is not sufficient (1299) to bring the Scripture EE 2 tific fact. narrative into agreement with scienAnd thus we have LEPSIUS writing, Briefe aus Egypten, p. 35:— We are still busy with structures, sculptures, and inscriptions, which are to be classed, by means of the now more accurately determined groups of kings, in an epoch of highly flourishing civilisation, as far back as the fourth millennium before Christ. We cannot sufficiently impress upon ourselves and others those hitherto incredible dates. The more criticism is provoked by them, and forced to serious examination, the better for the cause. Conviction will soon follow angry criticism; and finally those results will be attained which are so intimately connected with every branch of antiquarian research. 1305. It is easy, however, to understand why the Alexandrian interpreters may have altered the numbers, either for the reason above mentioned by Prof. RAWLINSON (1303), or, perhaps, because they already saw the difficulty which the smaller numbers occasioned. But can any good reason be conceived for the Hebrews corrupting their Scriptures, and changing the numbers in their Pentateuch, if they had originally the same numbers as are now found in the Septuagint? HALES, indeed, says, Elements of Hist. Chron., i. p.278: The motive, which led the Jews to mutilate the Patriarchal genealogies, is most clearly exposed by Ephrem Syrus, who died A.D. 378. "The Jews,' says he, 'have subtracted 600 years from the generations of Adam, Seth, &c., in order that their own books might not convict them concerning the coming of Christ, He having been predicted to appear for the deliverance of mankind after 5,500 years.' He quotes also ABULFARAGIUS to the same effect,-the corruption being supposed to have been made after the Christian era, in order to give more time for the appearance of the Messiah, who was expected by tradition to come in the sixth millenary age of the world. certainly has the advantage. There is every reason to think that the Rabbins have been scrupulous in the extreme in making alterations. The LXX,on the other hand, showssigns of a carelessness that would almost permit change, and we have the probable interpolation of the second 'Cainan,'-[whose name is inserted between Arphaxad and Salah in the LXX, but is rejected by all commentators as an interpolation into the original text.] 1307. Prof. RAWLINSON adds further, p.264: Whether the chronology of these versions admits of further expansion (!)-whether, since the chronologies of the Hebrew Bible, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the LXX differ, we can depend on any one of them (!),—or whether we must not consider that this por tion of Revelation has been lost to us, by the tions of systematisers (!),—it is not necessary mistakes of copyists, or the intentional alteraat present to determine. 'Our treasure,' as before observed, 'is in earthen vessels.' The revealed Word of God has been continued in the world, in the same way as other written compositions, by the multiplication of copies. No miraculous aid is vouchsafed to the transcribers, who are liable to make mistakes, and may not always have been free from the design of bending Scripture to their own views. Still, at present, we have no need to suppose that the numbers have in every case (!) suffered. 1308. It is difficult to see what could 6 have been the object of a miraculous re- tematisers.' 1306. But, as only 4,000 years had 1309. Upon the general question of elapsed from the Creation to the Chris- the possibility that all human beings tian era, and the Messiah was not ex- may have been derived from one pair, pected for 1,500 years, there would and that all the now-existing varieties seem to have been hardly sufficient of the race may have been gradually reason for the Jews making the altera-developed during a prodigious lapse of tion in question at so early a time, time, through a long succession of ages, if ever they desired to make it. Mr. the following remarks of Dr. Norr, POOLE says, SMITH's Dict. of the Bible, tending to show that there may have i.p.320:been different centres of creation for the human race, are well worthy of consideration, Types of Mankind, p.273–5. With respect to probability of accuracy arising from the state of the text, the Hebrew These authorities, in support of the extreme | known physical influences. Notwithstanding age of the geological era to which man be- their immense geographical distribution, emlongs, though startling to the unscientific, bracing every variety of climate, it is acare not simply the opinions of a few; but knowledged by all travellers, that there is such conclusions are substantially adopted by among this people a prevailing type, around the leading geologists everywhere. And, al- which all the tribes (north, south, east, and though antiquity so extreme for man's exist-west) cluster, though varying within preence on earth may shock some preconceived scribed limits. With trifling exceptions, all opinions, it is none the less certain that the American Indians bear to each other some rapid accumulation of new facts is fast degree of family resemblance, quite as strong, familiarising the minds of the scientific world for example, as that seen at the present day to this conviction. The monuments of Egypt among full-blooded Jews; and yet they are have already carried us far beyond all chrono-distinct from every race of the Old World, in logies heretofore adopted; and, when these features, language, customs, arts, religions, barriers are once overleaped, it is in vain for and propensities. In the language of MORTON, us to attempt to approximate, even, to the who studied this people more thoroughly than epoch of man's creation. This conclusion is any other writer, All possess, though in not based merely on the researches of such various degrees, the long, lank, black, hair,archæologists as LEPSIUS, BUNSEN, BIRCH, the heavy brow,-the dull, sleepy, eye,-the HUMBOLDT, &c., but on those also of such full, compressed, lips,-and the salient, but writers as KENRICK, HINCKS, OSBORN, and we dilated, nose.' These characters, too, are bemay add, of all theologians, who have really held in the most civilised and the most savage mastered the monuments of Egypt. Nor do tribes, along the rivers and sea-coasts,-in the these monuments reveal to us only a single valleys, and on the mountains,-in the prairies, race, at this early epoch, in full tide of civili- and in the forests,-in the torrid and in the sation; but they exhibit faithful portraits of icebound regions,-amongst those that liveon the same African and Asiatic races, in all their fish, on flesh, or on vegetables. diversity, which hold intercourse with Egypt at the present day. The only race in the Old World, with which any connection has been reasonably conjectured, is the Mongol. But, to say nothing of the marked difference in physical characters, their languages alone should decide against any such alliance. No philologist can be found to deny the fact, that the Chinese are now speaking and writing a language substantially the same as the one they used five thousand years ago,—and that, too, a language distinct from every tongue spoken by the Caucasian races. On the other hand, we have the American races, all speaking dialects indisputably peculiar to this continent, and possessing no marked affinity with any other. Now, if the Mongols have preserved a language entire, in Asia, for 5,000 years, they should likewise have preserved it here, or, to Now the question naturally springs up, whether the aborigines of America were not contemporary with the earliest races, known to us, of the eastern continent. If, as is conceded, Caucasian,' 'Negro,' 'Mongol,' and other races, existed in the Old World, already distinct, what reason can be assigned to show that the aborigines of America did not also exist, with their present types, 5,000 years ago? The naturalist must infer that the fauna and flora of the two continents were contemporary. All facts, and all analogy, war against the supposition, that America should have been left by the Creator a dreary waste for thousands of years, while the other half of the world was teeming with organised beings. This view is also greatly strength-say the least, some trace of it. But, not only ened by the acknowledged fact, that not a single animal, bird, reptile, fish, or plant, was common to the Old and New Worlds. No naturalist of our day doubts that the animal and vegetable kingdoms of America were created where they are found, and not in Asia. The races of men alone in America have been made an exception to this general law. But this exception cannot be maintained by any course of scientific reasoning. America, it will be remembered, was not only unknown to the early Romans and Greeks, but to the Egyptians; and, when discovered, less than four centuries ago, it was found to be inhabited, from the Arctic Sea to Cape Horn, and from Ocean to Ocean, by a population displaying peculiar physical traits, unlike any races in the whole world,-speaking languages bearing no resemblance in structure to other languages, and living everywhere among animals and plants, specifically distinct from those of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceanica. Further, in reflecting on the aboriginal races in America, we are at once met by the striking fact, that their physical characters are wholly independent of all climatic or are the two linguistic groups radically distinct, but no trace of a Mongol tongue, dubious words excepted, can be found in the American idioms. If such imaginary Mongolians ever brought their Asiatic speech into this country, it is clear that their supposed descendants, the Indians, have lost it, and the latter must have acquired, instead, that of some extinct race, which preceded a Mongol colonisation. It will be conceded that a colony or nation could never lose its vocabulary so completely, unless through conquest and amalgamation,-in which case they would adopt another language. But, even when a tongue ceases to be spoken, some trace of it will continue to survive in the names of individuals, of rivers, places, countries, &c. The appellatives, Mississippi, Missouri, Orinoko, Ontario, Oneida, Alabama, and a thousand other Indian names, will live for ages after the last Red Man is mingled with the dust. They have no likeness to any nomenclature in the Old World. 1310. He adds also on p.281: The following conclusions were advanced by Mr. DUPONCEAU, as early as 1819, in substantially the following language: |