BABEL, or Babylon. This term signifies Confusion; and the City and Province of Babylon were called by this name; because when the tower of Babel was building, God confounded the languages of those men, who were employed about this edifice, so that they could no longer understand one another. Several conjectures have been Gen. xi. 7.started concerning the manner of producing this confusion of languages at Babel, which have no relation to our subject. The Reader may consult the Commentators, what M. Simon has written on this matter, in his critical History of the Old Testament, l. i. c. 14, & 15. and what is said by the Author of Les Sentimens de quelques Theologiens de Hollande, Lettre 19. The construction of the Tower of Babel, and the confusion of Languages are fixed to about the year of the World 1775, an hundred and twenty years after the Deluge.
It is thought1 that Nimrod the Son of Cush was the principal Author of this attempt to build the Tower of Babel. He designed, says Josephus, to raise a Tower so high, as might secure him from a new deluge, and put him in a condition to revenge the death of his Ancestors, caused by a general inundation over the World. It is scarce possible to think, that he could Gen. xi. 4.conceive so foolish an imagination. The Scripture says no more, than that the undertakers coming from the East into the land of Shinar, said to one another, Let us make a City and a Tower, the top whereof may reach to Heaven, and let us make our names celebrated before we are dispersed over all the earth. Now God observing that they had begun this work, and were resolved not to quit it, till they had finished it, descended from Heaven, and confounded their language; so that they were compell’d to scatter themselves throughout the Earth, and abandon their undertaking.
We do not know how high this Tower had been raised, and all that we find in Authors concerning it deserves no credit. Many have thought, that the Tower of Belus mentioned by Herodotus2, and which was still in his time to be seen in Babylon, was the Tower of Babel; or at least was built upon the old foundations. This last opinion seems the more probable, by reason that this Tower was compleated, and raised to its full height. It was composed, says Herodotus, of eight Towers placed one upon another, decreasing gradually in their size from the first to the last. Above the eighth was the Temple of Belus. This Author does not tell us what the height was of the whole edifice; but only that the first of the eight Towers, which served as a basis to the other seven, was a furlong, or an hundred and fifty paces high, and wide, or square; for his text is not very clear3. Some Writers are of opinion, that this was the height of the whole edifice; and in this sense Strabo understood him4. Others maintain, that each of the eight Towers was a furlong in height, and that the whole fabrick was eight furlongs, or a thousand paces high; which seems impossible. Nevertheless S. Jerom5 says, upon the report of others, that it was four thousand paces in height; and others affirm that it was still higher.
Belus King of Babylon, by whose directions the building of the Tower, which Herodotus speaks of, is said to have been undertaken, lived long after Moses, whether by Belus we suppose the Father of Ninus to be meant, or Belus the Son of Semiramis. Belus, the Father of Ninus is set down by Usher under the judicature of Shamgar, about the year of the world 2682, of the Julian Period 3392, long after Moses.
Modern Travellers vary in the description they give us of the remains of the Tower of Babel. Fabricius says, it might have been about a mile in circumference. Guion says the same. Benjamin, who is much more ancient, informs us, that the foundations were two thousand paces in length. The Sieur de la Boulaye le Gouz, a Gentleman of Anjou, who says he made a long stay at Babylon or Bagdat, declares, that about three leagues from this City, there is a Tower called Megara, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates in an open field. This Tower is all solid within, and is more like a Mountain than a Genef. x. 10.Tower. The compass of it is about five hundred paces; and as the rains and winds have very much ruined it, it cannot be more than about an hundred and thirty eight foot high. It is built of bricks four inches thick; and between every seven courses of bricks, there is a course of straw three inches thick mixed with pitch or bi-tumen; from the top to the bottom there are reckoned about fifty courses. The Reader may see, if he pleases, what we have said in our Comment upon Genesis, Ch. x. v. 4. It is highly probable, that all which is related of this Tower, except what we find concerning it in Scripture, is fabu-lous; and that the remains of some Towers, which are shewn in Babylonia, are far from being those of the Tower of Babel, but are only ruins of old Babylon, built by Nebuchadnezzar.
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