kind now stands on a firmer basis than in previous ages"—to what evidence does Mr. Tylor in these words refer?

4. Draw a map illustrative of this chapter.

THE TOWER OF BABEL (CHAP. XI. 1−9).

The Elohist in the previous chapter has left us to suppose that the nations were distributed upon earth in obedience to the natural laws which govern colonization and migration. And as a corollary from this narrative we should have supposed that the striking variety in human languages was the natural result of the dispersion of the races. The Jehovist, however, in a paragraph markedly characteristic, inverts this natural order and gives an account of the matter which is intended to show that variety in language was the cause, and not the effect, of the scattering of men upon earth. This scattering is referred not to the inevitable pressure of increasing population, nor even to war compelling the weaker to retire before the stronger, but to Jehovah's judicial interference. Men are represented as becoming audacious and vainglorious in the conscious strength of their combined numbers. Jehovah therefore decides to disperse them, and the means by which He effects this dispersion is the confusion of tongues.

Efforts have been made to bring into harmony these two accounts of the origin of differences in language. Philology has as yet nothing very definite to say as to the possibility of reducing to one the larger families of human speech. And it is said that these great divisions which have not as yet been shown to be related, may have been miraculously produced in some sudden manner such as is here indicated. Others, again, prefer to say that the suddenness of the divergence is only apparent, and that this appearance of sudden and miraculous interposition is due to the necessary brevity of the narrative. "Who does not see," says one acute critic, "that the early days of the human race are here given with the utmost brevity, and that the annals of many years are crowded between a few commas? It is more likely that discord was first sent among men, and that from this cause, leaving the work unfinished, they scattered into neighbouring regions, and gradually wandered farther and farther off; and that their languages gradually changed as they were thus isolated over the face of the earth." "More likely " it may be, but the critic might have seen that if this was the view of the sacred writer, he has told his story not only briefly but badly; for this is not the view that his narrative sets before the mind.

The fact is that here, as elsewhere, the Jehovist aims not so much at presenting historical information as at showing the ethical and religious significance of the leading points in history and the chief changes in man's condition. He seizes upon diversity of language as one of the most striking and important features of human society; and the religious significance of this feature he finds in these two ideas: (1) That this diversity is not only an inconvenience and an evil, but a judicial infliction, a punishment; and (2) that, though a punishment, it forms a salutary barrier preventing men from combining for wicked purposes. The story which brings out the wicked ambitions to which men dedicate their united strength, and the defeat of these ambitions by a divinely-ordained dispersion, sufficiently serves the purpose he has in view. He does not design to give an account of the origin of diversity in human language, but to show the purposes served by the breaking up of men into distinct nations.

CHAP. XI. I. And the whole earth was of one language, and of 2 one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they 3 dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick 4 for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered 5 abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children 6 of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them, which 7 they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one

The whole earth, i.e. the whole population of the earth, was of one language and of one speech, lit. of one lip and one (kind of) words ["labii unius et sermonum eorumdem."-Vulg.], the vocal sounds and the vocables were identical. If the race is one, plainly the language must originally have been one. Now, not only are languages different, but the sounds made by one race are impossible or extremely difficult to others. It came to pass, but when (chap. x. 25) is defined only by the clause, as they journeyed from the east; better, eastwards, in the east, the writer looking to Shinar from the standpoint of Palestine; they found a plain; as Herodotus remarks, Babylon "stands in a vast plain." Dwelling here, their first resolve (ver. 3, they said one to another) seems to have been simply that they should make brick (a manufacture afterwards carried on in that stoneless region to an extent that astonishes every traveller), or, in other words, should abandon tents and nomad life and build themselves houses so as to settle permanently in the fertile valley. They had brick for stone (which, as Murphy says, indicates that the writer was more familiar with stone as building material), and slime, asphalt or bitumen for mortar, as might be inferred from the lumps of it still found adhering to the bricks found in that district. Their second resolve, when they learned their powers as builders, was, Let us build. . . . whose top may reach unto heaven, which, according to Wright, means merely very high (cp. Deut. i. 28), but which, though hyperbolical, must yet be taken as indicating that in their ignorant audacity they judged that heaven itself was not to be reckoned wholly unattainable by them. "Nil mortalibus arduum est: cœlum ipsum petimus stultitia." They foresaw (or actually observed the first symptoms) that they would be scattered abroad as they increased in numbers; and on these wide flats there was no rallying-point which could serve as a centre. While yet united, therefore, they would show what their combined strength could do, and so make a name to themselves. This was a kind of ambition which could lead only to evil, to tyranny, and godless worldliness. So the Lord came down to see, watchful over all the ways and works of men. And the Lord said... This is represented as the result of His consideration of the state of matters on earth a dangerous beginning had been made, a powerful combination for

8 another's speech. thence upon the

9 build the city.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from face of all the earth and they left off to Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

:

evil, which, if allowed to grow, would pass beyond control, and must therefore be terminated by scattering the people. [There is here the same boldness of anthropomorphism as in Gen. iii. 22, ascribing to Jehovah something like jealousy of man.] So the Lord scattered them abroad, apparently by the means indicated in ver. 7, confounding their language. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound (bâlal) the language. This derivation is defended by Oppert. Babel was commonly supposed to be Bab-El or Bab-Il, the Gate (or House) of God. Prof. Sayce says: "The name Babel signifies 'Gate of God,' and is a Semitic translation of the older Accadian name of the place Ca-dimirra" (Smith's Babylonia, p. 53, note).

...

REMARKS.-I. There is some difficulty in identifying the tower here spoken of. Several of the most eminent Orientalists believe that the ruins known as Borsippa or Birs Nimrud represent it. According to Oppert, Borsippa (Barzippa) means the Tower of Tongues, and although it stands several miles from the ruins now known as Babil, it may not have been so remote from the original city, and was probably included within the subsequently-built walls, which embraced an area of 100 square miles. It is this tower which Nebuchadnezzar repaired, as one of his inscriptions relates: "This most ancient monument of Borsippa; a former king built it (they reckon 42 ages), but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words."

2. This breaking up of the race into sections, which were mutually exclusiv›, suspicious of one another, and unintelligible to one another, was not merely an important turning-point in the history of the world, but it was the introduction of a new epoch in God's revelation. This is the first step towards preparing a peculiar people, whose national prejudices and characteristics might serve as an external bulwark to His communications. He has not yet selected this people, nor set them in their place of defence, but we begin to see the kind of fence he means to run round them.

1. To what extent does philology countenance the statement that one language was once spoken by all men?

2. In what consisted the sin of the Babel-builders?

3.

What benefits are derived from the variety of languages?

4. Are there any indications in Scripture or in reason that unity of language will ever again be reached?

"The associative work of immodest men is all fruitless and astir with wormy ambition; putridly dissolute and for ever on the crawl; so that if it come together for a time it can only be by metamorphosis through flash of volcanic fire out of the vale of Siddim, vitrifying the clay of it and fastening the slime, only to end in wilder scatteredness; according to the fate of those oldest, mightiest, immodestest of builders, of whom it is told in scorn, They had brick," etc. Explain the allusions in these words of Ruskin.

CHAPTER XI. 10-26.-THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM.

10 THESE are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: II and Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, 12 and begat sons and daughters. And Arphaxad lived five and 13 thirty years, and begat Salah: and Arphaxad lived after he

begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and I daughters. And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 15 and Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three 16 years, and begat sons and daughters. And Eber lived four 17 and thirty years, and begat Peleg and Eber lived after he

begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons 18 and daughters. And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: 19 and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine 20 years, and begat sons and daughters. And Reu lived two 21 and thirty years, and begat Serug and Reu lived after he

begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons 22 and daughters. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat 23 Nahor and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred 24 years, and begat sons and daughters. And Nahor lived nine 25 and twenty years, and begat Terah: and Nahor lived after he

begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons 26 and daughters. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

As the Elohist bridged with a genealogical table the interval between the Creation and the Flood, so again he similarly deals with the space between the Flood and the Call of Abraham, the next great milestone of his narrative. In this table, as in that, there are ten members; but as the age of the succeeding generations steadily diminishes, the total number of years which elapsed between the Flood and the birth of Abraham is only 292 years. This gives us some unexpected results; as, e.g., that Shem was alive when Jacob was born, and that Eber survived Abraham. It is within this period also that room must be found for the peopling of the earth and for the development of the high civilisations of Babylonia and Egypt. [In this table, as in that of chap. v., there is considerable discrepancy between the figures of the Hebrew text and those of the LXX.]

The names in this table are now names and nothing more. It cannot even be determined whence the name Eber was derived. The usual derivation of the word which gives it the signification of " crosser, one who has come from the other side of the Euphrates (cp. Gen. xiv. 13), seems to imply that it was first given by the Canaanites. Besides, according to Ewald, the derivation itself is philologically inaccurate. It has been suggested that the word may mean "river bank "dweller in a land of rivers." or From the position of Eber in the genealogy it will be seen that many peoples besides

those to whom we restrict the name may have called themselves Hebrews. But the relation between the name of the ancestor and that of the people descended from him is not apparent. Why did Abraham not take the name of a dearer ancestor?

CHAPTER XI. 27-32.—THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH.

27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, 28 Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died

before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of 29 the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, 30 and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no 31 child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came 32 unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

In this section the immediate parentage and the family connections of Abraham are given.

Terah had three sons, one of whom, Haran, died before his father, which does not directly mean that he predeceased him, but that he died while with his father, in his presence. He left a son, Lot. His death took place in the land of his nativity, where, therefore, his father must have been for some time settled, in Ur of the Chaldees, Ur Chasdim. The late Mr. G. Smith had no doubt that this is the Babylonian city of Ur, now Mugheir, situated on the western bank of the Euphrates, not far from its mouth. There is, he says (Chald. Genesis, p. 298), not the slightest evidence of a northern Ur, and a northern land of the Chaldees at this period. [An interesting account of the city will be found in the first chapter of Tomkins' Abraham.] Though recent writers generally accept this site, the alternative one of Urfa (Edessa) is still adhered to by some competent scholars. Abram and Nahor took them wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, who according to chap. xx. 12 was his step-sister. Nahor married his cousin Milcah, the daughter of Haran, whose other daughter was Iscah. Why she is named does not appear; certainly not because Iscah was another name of Sarai. The migration accomplished by Abram was begun by Terah. He took Abram, Lot, and Sarai (leaving Nahor and his family behind, though they followed after, chap. xxiv. 10), and went forth from Ur, with the intention of going into the land of Canaan, but he only got as far as Haran (Charran, Acts vii. 2: now Harran, a small village in Padan-Aram (chap. xxv. 20), some miles s.E. from Edessa), and Terah died in Haran, being 205 years old. How long Abram lived in Charran does not appear, though certainly it was long enough to acquire substance and to enlarge his household, chap. xii. 5.