part, says the Rev. Mr. Maurice, the very names by which they were anciently known over all the east; many of them were afterwards translated, with little variation, by the Greeks, in their systems of geography.* But without the aid of learning, any man, says Bishop Watson, who can barely read his Bible, and has but heard of such people as the Assyrians, the Elamites, the Lydians, the Medes, the Ionians, the Thracians, will readily acknowledge, that they had Assur, and Elam, and Lud, and Madai, and Javau, and Tiras, grandsons of Noah, for their respective founders.+ Moses has traced in one short chapter, (Gen. x.) continues Mr. Maurice, all the inhabitants of the earth, from the Caspian and Persian seas to the extreme Gades, to their original, and recorded at once the period and occasion of their dispersion. This fact, and the conclusions from it, remarks Bishop Tomline, which are thus incontrovertibly established by the newly-acquired knowledge of the Sanscreet language, were contended for and strongly enforced by Bochart and Stilling leet, who could only refer to oriental opinions and traditions, as they came to them through the medium of Grecian interpretation. To the late excellent and learned president of the Asiatic society, we are chiefly indebted for the light recently thrown from the East upon this important subject. Avowing himself to be attached to no system, and as much disposed to reject the Mosaic history, if it were proved to be erroneous, as to believe it if he found it confirmed by sound reasoning and satisfactory evidence, he engaged in those researches to which his talents and situation were equally adapted: and the result of his * Maurice's History of Hindostan, vol. 1. H laborious inquiries into the chronology, history, mytho logy, and languages of the nations, whence infidels have long derived their most formidable objections, was a full conviction, that neither accident nor ingenuity could account for the very numerous instances of similar traditions, and of near coincidence in the names of persons and places which are to be found in the Bible, and in ancient monuments of eastern literature.* Whoever, indeed, is acquainted with the writings of Mr. Bryant and Mr. Maurice, and with the Asiatic Researches, published at Calcutta, cannot but have observed, remarks Bishop Tomline, that the accounts of the creation, the fall, the deluge and dispersion + of mankind, recorded by the nations upon the east continent of Asia, bear a strong resemblance to each other, and to the narrative in the sacred history, and evidently contain the fragments of one original truth, which was broken by the dispersion of the patriarchal families, and corrupted by length of time, allegory, and idolatry. From this universal concurrence on this head, one of these things is necessarily true; either that all these traditions must have been taken from the author of the book of * Asiatic Researches and Maurice's History. + The following curious and valuable commentary on the tenth chapter of Genesis, which records the primitive settlements of the three families, is furnished by Abulfaragi, in his History of the Dynasties:"In the 140th Phaleg, the earth was divided, by a second division among the sons of Noah. To the sons of Shem was allotted the middle of the earth, namely, Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Samarra, (a town of Babylonian or Chaldean Irac), Babel, Persia, and Hegiaz (or Arabian Petrea). To the sons of Ham-Teman, (or Idumea, Gen. 49th chapter, 7th verse), Africa, Nigritia, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Scindia, and India, (or western and eastern India), on both sides of the Indus. To the sons of Japheth, also, Garbia, (the North), Spain, France, the countries of the Greeks, Sclavonians, Bulgarians, Turks, and Armenians."-Dr. Hales. Genesis, who made up his history from some or all such traditions as were already extant; or lastly, that he received his knowledge of past events by revelation. Were then all these traditions taken from the Mosaic history? It has been shown by Sir William Jones and Mr. Maurice, that they were received too generally and too early to make this supposition even possible; for they existed in different parts of the world in the very age when Moses lived. Was the Mosaic history composed from the traditions then existing? It is certain that the Chaldeans, the Persians, the most ancient inhabitants of India, and the Egyptians, all possessed the same story; but they had, by the time of Moses, wrapt it up in their own mysteries, and disguised it by their own fanciful conceits.* No notice in the sacred records respecting the primitive tongue-arguments of various writers stated-probability that all the people of the earth journeyed and settled in the plains of Shinar-division of the people of all the earth-remark of Shuckford respecting the Babylonian and Hebrew language-answered by a passage in Jeremiah, &c.-alphabetic writing-writings of Job-language of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. IT is no where stated in the sacred records, that the language of Adam has been preserved; neither, as we have already remarked, are the opinions of the learned on the subject found to agree. Some writers assert that the confusion of tongues at the building of the tower of Babel was only partial, and that the primitive language Bishop Tomline-Christian Theology, vol. 1.. has been transmitted to the posterity of Eber, or Heber.* Other writers, in agreement with this opinion, affirm, that the building of Babel was commenced by the worst part of mankind; that they who had departed from the piety of their ancestors, were the only people who engaged in the undertaking.-In support of this doctrine it is asserted, that only part of the posterity of Noah journeyed from the East; but, in contradiction to it, other writers maintain that all the people of the earth journeyed thither and settled in the plains of Shinar. The high probability concerning the truth of this latter opinion will presently appear. Josephus says that Nimrod was the projector of the design of building Babel; while Bochart asserts, with as much confidence, that when the project of building the tower was formed, Nimrod must have been either very young or even not born. The late learned and indefatigable Sir William Jones was of * From Eber (Gen. x. 21) Abram is called a Hebrew, Gen. chap. xiv. 13, and his posterity Hebrews, Gen. xxxix: 14; Exod. i. 15, 16. Some, however, have thought that Eber, in Gen. x. 21, is not a proper name: and Abraham is called a Hebrew, not from Eber, as the proper name of a man, but as this word imports one who comes from beyond the river Euphrates: And then, what we render "the children of Eber," imports the inhabitants beyond the river Euphrates.-Bishop Kidder. By Eber (Numbers xxiv. 24) is meant, either the people bordering on the Euphrates; or the Hebrews, the posterity of Eber. If the former; they, as well as the Assyrians, were subdued both by the Greeks and Romans; if the latter, which is most probable, they were afflicted, though not much by Alexander himself, yet by his successors the Seleucidæ, and particularly by Antiochus Epiphanes, who spoiled Jerusalem, defiled the temple, and slew all those who adhered to the law of Moses. Mac. i. 1. They were worse afflicted by the Romans, who not only subdued and oppressed them, and made their country a province of the empire, but at last took away their place and nation, and sold and dispersed them over the face of the earth.--Bishop Newton. opinion, that the primitive language of mankind is extinct. It is very important to the subject of our inquiry to ascertain, whether all the people of the earth journeyed from the East and settled in the plains of Shinar, or only part of them.* On this point the sacred text appears to be perfectly decisive. "And the whole earth was of one language (or lip), and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the East+ that they found a * “ After a certain time," says Bishop Tomline," the whole race of men moved from their original habitations in Armenia, and settled in the plains of Shinar near the Euphrates, in Assyria or Chaldea. Here they began to establish themselves, and began to build a city and town whose top might reach to heaven." In the two first editions of the "Elements of Christian Theology," Bishop Tomline stated that a part only of the inhabitants of the earth "journeyed from the east" and settled in the plains of Shinar; "but from a more attentive consideration of the subject, to which," says the Bishop, "I have been led by the learned and ingenious 'Remarks on the Eastern Origination of Mankind, by Mr. Granville Penn, published in the second volume of the Eastern Collections, I have been induced to change my opinion."-Vide Christian Theology, 9th edition, vol. 1, page 139. + By the east, most persons understand Armenia, where they sup pose the ark rested, and Noah and his sons first planted themselves; but this has a great difficulty in it; for the mountains in Armenia lay north of Shinar or Assyria, and not east. To solve this, Bochart imagines, that Moses, in this place, has followed the geographical style of the Assyrians, who called all that lay beyond the Tigris, the east country, though a great part of it, towards Armenia, was really northward; and all that lay on this side, they called the west, though some of it certainly lay south. (Vide Phaleg, lib. 1.) But there is no need of this solution: (vide Stackhouse's Body of Divinity.) For though the Gordyean mountains (whereon the ark probably rested) lie in a manner north of Babel, yet since the plain or valley of Shinar extends itself quite up to the mountains of Armenia; no sooner was Noah and his family descended from these Gordyean mountains into the level country on the south, but they were very full east of the upper, or northern parts of the land of Shinar: so that it might truly and in the most literal sense be said, that as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. (Wells's Geography.) This, however, has not hindered some from carrying the ark as far as mount Caucasus before |