The builders of Babel

Front matter

OF BABEL

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Pf^esident Whjte Library, Cornell University.

Preface

The following pages have been written to ■elucidate the fulfilment of one of the oldest prophecies of the Bible in the events that constitute the history of the civilized world. History, in the ordinary sense of the word, signifies the authentic history of mankind, which admittedly commences at the first Olympiad, ^^6 B.c. But the history to which we refer has been developed far before that date by the new science of " Prehistoric Archseolo^," which has come into existence within the last fifty years, and has been consolidated and rendered fruitful by some of the ■ most astute and enterprising of modern philosophers.

*By studying the relationship of languages, identifying and interpreting ancient myths, de- ■ciphering hieroglyphic, cuneiform, and other vi PREFACE.

archaic inscriptions on papyri, clay tablets, and cylinders, on buildings, rocks, and slabs, medals and coins ; by comparing the architecture of old edifices in different parts of the world, and thus tracing the migrations of the early civilizers of mankind, a record of prehistoric times is disclosed that was unknown to our ancestors, and which bridges over the misty gulf that has hitherto intervened between the primeval history of the Hametic and Japhetic branches of Adam's race in the Book of Genesis, and the Grecian era.

This dark interval is thus found to have been occupied by a civilization that flourished in Chaldaea, Arabia, Egypt, Phoenicia, and her many and distant colonies, for nearly two thousand years ; and preceded the Japhetic (better known as the Aryan) and Semitic civilizations, which have been long supposed to have divided the whole world of history between them. This increase of our knowledge of Oriental affairs has restored the links that bind the builders of Babel to their descendants, throughout all their generations, to the present day — assuring us of the reality of the dispersion at Shinar, and its object, cause, and con-

PREFACE.

sequences ; and setting the seal of truth on the sacred record.

The importance of utilizing such inquiries, for the establishment of the authenticity of the Scriptures, cannot be exaggerated ; for every addition to our knowledge of prehistoric events, from whatever quarter it may come, must contribute to a better understanding of the primeval Jiistory in Genesis, and mitigate the evils that <have arisen from the unnatural state of hostility that has prevailed, throughout all the ages of Christendom, between the religionist who disregards science, and the philosopher who ignores revelation.

Both these classes — and they are numerous and influential even in the present day — are equally hostile to, and deprecate, any attempt to reconcile Scripture and science ; the former, because they despise the Bible, and reject its authority ; and the latter, because they cannot, ■or will not, distinguish between what is true and what is false in science. But there is a third class, composed of those who regard Scripture as the exposition of divine infallible truth, and who, at the same time, respect science as the true interpreter of the phenomena of nature. Such viii ' PREFACE.

men are honestly and earnestly seeking for the harmony' that must necessarily exist between the well-ascertained facts of science and the rightly understood words of revelation. To such this work is dedicated ; and the Author trusts that his inquiries may operate to encourage the study of jSecular knowledge in connection with the knowledge that has been so wonderfully preserved for our instruction in the pages of the Bible — to the better understanding of God's way upon earth, "His saving health among all nations."

D. M'C.

Dublin, March 1st, 1871.

Chapter I. The Dispersion

The increase of laiowledge — Its effects — Prehistoric Archaeology — The Bible — ThcVedas and Zendavesta — The contributions of science to the authentication of the Scriptures — The extent of the Flood — The confusion of language and the dispersion — Noah's prophecy — Its fulfilment — The dispersion a tribal separation — The ethnical condition of the Globe — The pre-eminence of the Caucasian race — The Semitic and Japhetic branches of the Caucasian race — The two families of the inflectional languages — The Hamitic race — Distinguished from the Semitic race — The distinctive characteristics of the Semites and Japhetites

Page I— 25

Chapter II. Ham

The Hamites — Their early supremacy — The ancient kingdom of Childaea — The Builders of Babel — The present aspect of Mesopotamia — The discoveries of Layard and others in the East — Confirmation of Scripture history — Early Chaldaean monarchs — Nimrod — The Scripture date of the Chaldsean monarchy confirmed — The Hamitic civilizing element — How established — The commence-

CONTENTS.

merit of history — Myths, of Antiquity — Not wholly ideal — Identity of Cush, Ethiopia, and Arabia — The testimony of old historians — Modern misdescriptions of Arabia — Palgrave's Arabia— Phoenician traffic— Scripture evidence of Phoenician prosperity— Carthage— The religion of the Phoenicians— Moloch 4nd Ashtaroth — Cush — Mizraim — Phut — Canaan — Early descent of the Canaanite into Egypt — Cyclopoean structures of the Hamites — Chaldjean Architecture— Birs Nimroud— The Temple of Belus — Egyptian Architecture — The Hall of Karnak — The Labyrinth — Phoenician Architecture — American pyramids and tumuli — Identity of American and Hamite traditions — Aztecs and Toltecs — ^Hamite route to America — The Rock Temples and Pagodas of India and Ceylon — Architectural remains in Burmah, Cambodia, and Java — All of Hamitic origin — The Hamitic origin of alphabetic writing — Phoenician literature — Similarity of Hamitic and Semitic languages — Change of language in Chaldeea and Canaan — Traces of the Hamitic language — Contrast of Hamitic and Semitic characters — Cuneiform writing — The downfall of the Hamite — The cause .... Page 26 — 103

Chapter III

The key-note of Semitic history — Two classes of Semites — Divine revelations to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — Revelation to Moses — Manifestation of divine power to the Israelites — The supernatural not favoured by the Japhetite — Semitic monotheism not an instinct — But a revelation — Difference between Japhetic and Semitic intellects — The scientific philosopher — The Prophet — Primary and secondary causation — Prophetic element peculiar to the Semite — The office of the Prophet — The supernatural element twofold — ^The influence of language as to Semitic character — ^The science of language — The Japhetic languages — The Sanskrit and Zend — The Semitic languages — Sever-

CONTENTS.

ance of language at Shinar — Well-attested miracle — Devotional character of the Semitic language — Examples — The future of the Jews — How attested — The Arabs — Their conquests — Their return to Arabia — The fulfilment of their destiny — All religious knowledge Semitic — The education of Adam's race — The only evidence of the Lord God of Shem Page 104 — 162

Chapter IV. Japhet

The Japhetic channel of religion and civilization — The expansive powers of the Japhetites — Their early migrations —The Brahmans— The Vedas— The Aryans— The date of the Vedic poems — The religion of the authors of the Vedas — Their debasement by Brahmanic sacerdotalism — The influence of their language on their religion — Resemblance between the Semitic, Indian, and Persian traditions —The Creation— The Flood— The date of the Aryan entry into India — Difference of Hindoo and European civilization — The Western Japhetites — Two bands of European emigrants-^The climate and soil of ancient Europe — ^Japhetite tribes of central Europe — Celtic, Teutonic, Sclavonic — Aborigines of Europe — Progress of Japhetic civilization — Grecian civilization — Early state of Greece — The Pelasgi — Homeric poems — Their use — Phoenician civilization — Purified by the Greeks — Inferiority of the Hamites — Greek knowledge of the physical sciences — The stationary period — The effect of sacerdotalism — Contest between sacerdotalism and philosophy — Revival of the physical sciences-^Copernicus — Galileo — Kepler — Newton — Discovery of the law of gravitation — Geological knowledge — The Atmosphere — Optics — Electricity and Magnetism — The Mariner's Compass — The discoveries of Columbus, Cabot, and others — The Telescope — Chemistry — Physiology and comparative Anatomy — The increase of knowledge — The age of progress —

CONTENTS.

Rapid advance of mechanicaLarts— Steam— Its progress — Progress of religious knowledge — The Japhetic faculty — Japhetic expansion — The downward moral tendency of civilization— The duty of the Japhetite— The future of the Japhetite Page 163—255

Chapter V. The Adamite

The generations of Noah — The Karaite —The Semite — The Japhetite — The ethnical condition of the world before the migrations from Shinar — Aborigines of Europe— India — Australia — Africa — The Japhetite excluded from Africa — The future of Africa — The, antiquity of the Negro race — The Scripture testimony of pre-Adamite races — The Unity of Mankind — The difference of the religious and scientific doctrines of unity of race — Plurality of races — Climate and soil inadequate to account for diversity of mankind — Plurality of race the doctrine of a divine creation — Autochthons — Replenishing the earth — Bunsen's error — Plurality of races not inconsistent with Christian doctrine — ^The struggle between ecclesiastical authority and scientific knowledge — The result in favour of science — Errors of the religionist and of the philosopher — How to be corrected — Warning to the Japhetite . Page 256 — 303

THE BUILDERS OF BABEL.

Chapter I

"So tJie Lord scattered them abroad."— Gsa. xi. 8.

The present era of the world is marked by a rapid accumulation of knowledge, produced by an unprecedented increase of scientific discoveries. Nature is yielding up her secrets abundantly to the inquisitive spirit and persevering research of the philosopher ; and man is calling on each new fact, as it becomes developed, to aid in t;he expansion and extension of the comforts and conveniences of civilized life. The ground on which we tread, the air we breathe, the clouds above and the ocean around us, so long unquestioned by man, are now eloquent of the presence and power of the Creator ; and the smallest particle of matter that contributes to the great whole reflects the wisdom and good-

I

THE BUILDERS OF BABEL.

ness of the mighty Architect of the universe. The same spirit^of inquiry that has thus tended to develop the laws by which the Creator has produced and regulated the phenomena of nature from the beginning, has also led to the investigation and development of the state and condition of pre-historic man, from relics of antiquity and works of art which have survived the long-buried fabricators, and are now contributing materials for the construction of their long-lost history.

Fifty years ago the records of the civilized world commenced with the Grecian and Roman histories. With the exception of the Bible, and some fragments of the writings of a few Oriental historians, which have been preserved in the works of later authors, nothing was known of those centres of Easteirn civilization, which undoubtedly existed in the fertile valleys of the Nile and Euphrates, and throughout all the countries that lie between those rivers and the Ganges, long before the dawn of European civilization. The remains of cities, temples, and palaces, of pyramids and catacombs, hieroglyphic and cuneiform inscriptions on rocks, monuments, medals, and coins, met the eye of

THE DISPERSION.

the traveller throughout the East ; but the stories they had to relate of former generations were untold and unknown, until the modern science of " Pre-historic Archaeology " drew aside the veil that concealed them, by disclosing the mode of deciphering the mysterious characters, and has thus enabled the present generation to read some of the secrets of the remote past. ChampoUion and Young, very early in the present century, supplied a key to the perusal of the hieroglyphics of Egypt ; and Rawlinson, Hinckes, Jules Oppert, and others, have interpreted and taught us how to decipher the cuneiform inscriptions on the Babylonian and Assyrian monuments ; so that the political and religious institutions, and the domestic habits and customs of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, may now be studied and apprehended like those of the nations and peoples of the historic era.

The only written history of events contemporaneous with those thus rescued from oblivion, is that contained in the Holy Scriptures, which have preserved for us the records of the Semitic race, reaching back to that period of the earth's Ijistory when life and light struggled out of

THE BUILDERS OF BABEL.

chaos, and expanding onward through the ascending stages of the animal and vegetable creations, until, in the fulness of time, a man appeared in the image and after the likeness of his Creator, and was endowed by Him with dominion over all the other works of the Creation. If this history be true, if the Bible is — what it assumes to be — the word of truth, it would be strange if the lamp of science — ^which reveals in the dust and stones beneath our feet a deeply interesting and instructive history of their own past existences, and the relics of ancient art, which are now speaking intelligibly, and with authority, from their long neglected graves — did not shed some rays of light on its old records, to develop their teachings, and multiply the proofs of their truth and inspiration.

The Bible is a book which is radically different from every other written document, ancient or modern ; and even irrespective of its claim to be of divine origin, and of its sacred truths which lead from time to eternity, it is, in a secular point of view, worthy of the most critical study and serious attention, of the wisest philosophers. It has been well observed that

THE DISPERSION.

it is the oldest book in existence, and yet it never grows old.

" Unchanged, unchanging — old without decay,"

it speaks to the present generations of mankind as intelligibly as it has spoken to all generations since it was written. The world has progressed from small beginnings to its present dimensions ; nations have been born, waxed strong, and died out ; advancing knowledge has established true, and obliterated many false, theories; but the records of the past and the predictions of the future that are preserved in the pages of Holy Writ, though often questioned, have never been falsified. The Vedas and the Zendavesta, the sacred books of the Brahmans and Zoroastrians, are proved by severe criticism to be as old, or nearly as old, as the books of Moses, and are deeply interesting and instructive as submitting to modern consideration the ancient thought of the great Aryan progenitors of the Hindoo and Persian ; but there is nothing that authenticates them as containing outpourings of a supernatural influence. , They propound no cosmogonies that have not been disproved by the discoveries of science — no histories that are

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intelligible and instructive — no prophecies that were to be verified by subsequent events. There are no witnesses to attest a divine origin of these writings, as the outcast Jew and the restless Ishmaelite, the desolations of Palestine, the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, the barren sites of Tyre and Sidon, and the degradations of Egypt, attest the inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, from Moses to Malachi. They are essentially human, and wholly devoid of any divine element. i

The early histories of all people and communities, except that of the Jews and Arabs, are mythological and unhistorical ; and the inclination of the neologians of the present day is to relegate the early chapters of the Book of Genesis, from the Creation to the Dispersion at Shinar, to the same category of unreality. The calling out of Abraham is supposed by them to be the commencement of Semitic history, as the first Olympiad (jy& B.C.) is admitted to be the commencement of genuine Grecian history. But it will be found that every science that springs up around the paths of progressing humanity, and every new fact that is brought to light by the inquiring sons of Japhet, confirm and establish

THE DISPERSION.

the history of these primeval events that have been preserved for us in the first eleven chapters of Genesis.

Two sciences of recent growth — geology and comparative philology — have contributed much to the elucidation and authentication of this portion of the Scriptures ; though in their infancy they were upheld by the sceptic, and denounced by the believer, as destructive of the claims of the Mosaic record to inspiration. The geologist has, from the stones, clays, and gravels that form the crust of the globe, compiled a history of the divine modus operandi in the formation of our earthly abode, and elucidated the order in which the various forms of animal and vegetable organisms with which it has been furnished came into existence. The comparative philologist has, in like manner, from words and grammar that lay unheeded around, like the stones of the geologist, traced the pedigrees of the human familie? of the world to their re* spective sources. By the former, therefore, we can test the Mosaic record of "the Creation ; and by the latter, the primeval history of Adam's race, preserved in Genesis. The labours of the archaeologist have also contributed valuable information regarding the early career of mankind, which will be found to assist in guiding us through the misty ways of their primeval history.

For centuries, all Christendom, with few exceptions, believed that God had made the world and all things in it in a period of six natural days. The Bible was supposed to have stated such to be the fact, and few believers conceived that there could be any doubt upon the subject. The first chapter of Genesis treats of the creation of the world and its inhabitants. The science of geology instructs us as to the mode in which our globe was formed, and the order in which its vegetable and animal organisms came into existence. When the science was in its infancy, it was generally supposed that the teachings of Genesis and geology were wholly irreconcilable ; but since it has struggled into its present state of maturity, it has been found that the order in which created beings have been shown by the geologist to have come into being, is in truly wonderful accordance with that presented to us in the first chapter of Genesis, and proves the truth and inspiration of the Mosaic record — subject only to the condition that we read the word " day," in that chapter, as indicating a long geologic

THE DISPERSION.

period of time, and not a mere natural day of twenty-four hours. And, accordingly, there being satisfactory evidence within the pages of the Bible, that the Hebrew word may be so understood, few persons of enlightened understanding have hesitated to adopt that rendering of the word "day," and to appropriate the irresistible evidence of inspiration that it carries with it. Those who still desire to adhere to the natural day reading, lose the valuable testimony that geological science has contributed to the authenticity of Holy Writ.

Again, the Mosaic narrative of the Flood was long considered as recording that all the dry land on the face of the earth had been submerged beneath the waters, and that the overflow had carried destruction to every living creature, from east to west and from pole to pole; with the exception of Noah's family and the few animals that were with them in the ark. The knowledge of later days has corrected our notions in this respect, by showing that such an occurrence as a universal submersion of the dry land could not have taken place within the last six thousand, or even sixty thousand years; but there are indications that a partial, though in itself an lo THR BUILDERS OF BABEL.

extensive subsidence and submergence, did probably take place in the countries surrounding Ararat and the Caspian Sea, at no distant period of time, destructive of caurse to all the animal creation within its sphere, unless so far as some may have been preserved by human exertion. Besides, it is manifestly an impossibility that every known species of terrestrial animal could have been congregated from arctic and tropical climes to one spot in Southern Asia, and from thence diffused, over mountains and across seas,, to the remote bounds of the earth where they are now found.* And accordingly it has been shown that the Hebrew text of the record of the Flood does not represent and necessitate a belief that the Noachian deluge was more than

* In a recent discussion in a scientific institution on the extent and effect of the Noachian deluge, it was admitted by those who contended for its universality, that such a construction of the sacred narrative necessitates a new creation and redistribution of animals throughout the earth after the event ; and it was suggested by the Chairman, that by the application of Darwin's theory to a limited extent, we might, for anything that science shows to the contrary, account for all the various animals now distributed over the face of the earth, from those species that were preserved in the ark. This admitted alternative of consequences — a new creation, or multiplication of species by natural selection — is a sufficient refutation of the doctrine of a universal deluge. — Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute^ April, 1870.

THE DISPERSION. ii

a partial or local catastrophe, or that it prevailed over any part of the earth's surface more extensive than that occupied by the race of Adam at that early period of their history, and destroyed them, with the exception of Noah's family, and the comparatively few species of the animals with which they were surrounded in that country.

We now approach the narrative of another event recorded in the early chapters of Genesis, which has not met with as much consideration and discussion as the records of the Creation and Flood ; but which, when read by the light of comparative philology, will be found to supply another proof of the truth of this primeval record of our race. After the waters had swept over the abode of Adam's race, it became the mission of Noah's family, consisting of eight persons, to replenish, or colonize, the earth with their descendants. How that mission was to be fulfilled, and how that the arm of the Lord was stretched out to effect His purpose, is recorded in the narrative of the confusion of tongues, and the dispersion of the confederated descendants of Noah on the plains of Shinar ; and this record we shall now proceed to verify.

The localities of the three leading events of primeval history — the creation of Adam and his fall, the flood, and the confusion of languages — are marked on the map of the world by the confluence of two rivers, by z. mountain, and by a plain. Euphrates and Hiddekel, or the Tigris, meet on the site of Eden, the scene of Adam's creation and fall ; the mountains of Ararat look •down upon the lands that were covered by the flood in the days of Noah ; and the plain of Shinar witnessed the confusion of speech which caused a severance of the family of that patriarch that has never been restored, and continues to the present hour. We are thus led to Mesopotamia, in South-western Asia, the country of the two great rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, which descend from the mountains of Ararat, in the high lands of Armenia, water the plains of Shinar, join their streams where Eden bloomed, and pour their combined waters into the Persian Gulf. From the regions of Ararat the families of Shem, Ham, and Japhet journeyed instinctively down the banks of the Euphrates, or of the Tigris, until they reached the plains of Shinar, or Babylonia ; and there they commenced to build a tower, or temple, of bricks and slime ; and there it was that the

Almighty effected a separation of the three tribes, by confounding their common language, so that they could not understand each other's, speech ; and they left off to build the city, and were scattered abroad on the face of the earth.

To understsmd and appreciate the nature, object, and effect of this divine visitation on the forefathers of our race, it will be necessary to> revert to that period of the family history when their progenitors, few in number, were congregated at, or near to, Ararat, before they had commenced their pilgrimage down the Euphrates to Mesopotamia. Then it was that Noah uttered that prophecy of the destinies of each of his three sons and their respective descendants, which has had its fulfilment in the history of the civilized world from that hour to the present : —

Cm-sed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Blessed be the Lord God of Sham ; and Canaan shall be his servant.

God shall enlarge Japhet ; and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant.

This declaration of the future of the threesons of Noah' is followed by a short description of the regions which were to be occupied by each of the three families ; and which were, no.

14 THE BlflLDERS OF BABEL.

doubt, so occupied at the time it was written. The progeny of Japhet were to have the possession of certain specified districts ; the Hamites were to appropriate others ; and to the Shemites were allotted other regions for their dwellingplaces. It was plainly in the counsels of God that the tribal identity of each of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, should be preserved, by a tribal separation, in order that the realization of Noah's prophecy might be ensured and conspicuous ; and this was accomplished by the confusion of tongues, which eventuated in their dispersion or severance, as recorded in the eleventh chapter of Genesis. The accomplishment of the prediction, which will appear to have been fulfilled to the letter, required that the three families or tribes should not only be severed, but that their posterity should be kept separate and distinct from each other. And it is impossible to conceive any means better calculated to ensure such a result, than the endowment of each of the families with a language that was unintelligible to the others. No more effectual link could have been devised to bind the members of the same tribe together than the tie of a common language ; while the object of keeping the three distinct from each other could not have been more surely attained than by rendering them mutually unintelligible. Thus the dispersion at Shinar was a tribal separation ; and they were divided, as the Scripture record declares, " according to their Jangitages."

The tenth chapter of Genesis assigns with sufficient certainty the countries in which the early Hamites, Semites, and Japhetites were respectively located after their separation. The Hamites occupied the region which extended from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, including Palestine, Babylonia, Arabia, and Egypt. The descendants of Shem had possession of the countries to the north and east of Babylonia — Assyria, Elymais, and Kurdistan ; while the Japhetites were settled in Greece, Asia Minor, and Armenia.

The enlargement of Japhet purports, not only an increase of population of that particular tribe, but its accompaniment, a territorial expansion by migration, or colonization of other lands throughout the earth. Such was the declared destiny of Japhet's descendants. "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem," was a blessing on the Semite as a people who should from the beginning be signalized as acknowledging and worshipping the only true God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Such was the destiny of the progeny of Shem. Ham had no blessing, and no part to perform, either politically or religiously, on the stage of the world's history. His descendants had no defined destiny to fulfil, beyond the predicted servitude of Canaan to Shem and Japhet.

Now, if this Scripture record be true — if Noah's prophecy defines, affirmatively or negatively, the future of these three tribes — if the Bible account of the confusion of language and the dispersion had any reality, the history of the world, from its earliest date, should be an echo of Noah's prediction, and present to view three tribes or varieties of civilized man, all ethnographically of the same race, and yet plainly distinguishable from each other by their respective languages, which involves, as will be found, a distinction in their moral and intellectual qualities and instincts. And while one of these tribes was to be conspicuous for a tendency to enlarge their borders, by colonizing and diffusing themselves throughout the earth, a second was to be remarkable as recipients of the testimonies and .oracles of the true God, who is ultimately to be blessed, or recognized and acknowledged by all mankind, as the Lord of the whole earth ; and a third, politically superior to the other two in their early days, and in the occupation of the all-important site of Babylon, the capital of the mighty Nimrod's kingdom, was to disappear, after a short-lived supremacy, from the great procession of progressing humanity, losing their identity as a separate people in the onward march of civilization and religion. Such ought to be the aspect of humanity presented by history, if this primeval prophecy be, what it purports to be, the well-spring of the events which constitute the history of the civilized world. And if that history is found to be conformable with the prediction, we shall be furnished with another sensible and convincing proof of a special Providence in the affairs of mankind and of the truth and authenticity of Holy Writ.