The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1851-03-19

lai"uys ItHlaIkdOle tor It's SIMPLICITY and STA
: bllI'y, and consequently, bids falrest for the
honor oforiginaliiy' The local circumstance
ofAbraha6ls birth is, by no means, sufiicen
/ TO support the priority OF the Chaldee, which
, some have commended for; for though Abra.
ham was a ChaIdean, he might not have
E used The corrupted language spoken there
/ after The confusion, inasmueh as the original
tongne might have been retained perfect in
E his particular Tribe, which had no concern
IA the building Of Babsl-a circumstance the
: more probable, If We consider the honor ap>
!. propriated to thi, very family, Of preserving
: pure and entire the Knowledge and worship
; tfIhe true God. Hence, The Argument in
Support ofthe ChaIdee, from Abrahairl's be-
5 ing ChaIdean, can have no weight. uDles,
1t be proved, that he and his family had not
been favored in any peculiar manner, so as
> 10 be permitted to retan the original Lam
, guage; or had forfeited this privilege, BY a
: participation IN the guilt Of those who had
been concerned in the building of Babel.
I With respect TO the Syrac, its antiquity
has been left as undetermined by the an
clients, as The boundaries of the country. il.
: self, which have ROT been accurately ascer-
tanned: and, as the latter has been divided
into different Provinces, so has its language
into different dialects.
i Of these the three following have been
+ particularly distinguished: Isl. The Ara,
i mean $50 called from Aramus the last of the
sons OF Shem) used in Mesopoinmia, and the
outer Syria. End. The dialect of Palestine
and the inner Syria. Sd. The ChaIdee. or
Nabalhean dialect, spoken in .he mountain.
Gus pats OF Assyfia, tnd the most unpoish-
ed Of The three. 9
i Some have pretended That the Ssriac was
first OF all the Oriental Tongues, and that
las Christ spoke in it, il was probably the Ian
guage of Adam, and his posterty, until the
confusion of tongues, This argument is
rather sPeclous than. solid; foril is we'll known
that The Syrlac spoken by our Lord and his
1 Apostles could not have been the ancient
ISyrlac or ChaIdee; il was rahar a mixture of
the Chaldee and Hebrew, which originated
in The lines of Babylonish captivity, This
Iis PLAIN from certain passages in the Gospel
LAS, Tor instance, in The words Of our Lord
fIreeorded by 81. Matthew, eli eli lama Sa-
bacthani. Octhese words the three first are
/ Hebrew, and the last Syriac, corresponding
with the Hebrew ozabihani or gnzabtaan.-
Many other words might also be adduced
that show an affinity between the syriac
land the Hebrew.
/ O'hers have supposed the Arabic coeval
with the Hebrew, assigning the same origin
! to both; The latter being derived from He
Der, the father Of Pelcg, and tae former, as
they say, from Joctan, the brother Of Peleq,
and Afterwards proPogatea in Arabia Deser>
TIA, by lsmael; herce they account for the
same roots IN general, allowing for slight
variation Of dialect, which time aud distance
might naturally produce. ....
That the Arabic is e dialect of The Hebrew.
or derived from the same source, is general
! ly acknowledged; indeed this is plain from
sew raj circumstances in le bool Of Genesis.
job was an Arabian, YET we find that The
names Of his daughters are Of Hebrew ex,
1 traction. We also find that the brethren of
Joseph c6nversed with the Ismaelitcs or A.
lTabiah merchants, without the aid of an in
,erpreter, which evidently shows that both
nations ancently used the same language.
AS TO the E'kopic language, it has been
remarked that such is lis affinity TO the Ara.
( bic, that lie who studies the latter, acquires
at the same time. an almost equal knowledge
Iof the former. Whence it has been suppo.
sed that the Ethiopians were colony O! the
/ Arablans, rather than Of the Egyptians -
There can be no doubt, that both Ethiopia
and Egypt, if we consider their distance from
| Chqlded, or that part of Asia where the Con,
fusion and Dispersion took place, must have
been peopIed later than The countries adlp
cent to ChaIdea, and, consequently, can
have less pretensions to priority of Ian,
guage.
The Pbenician language next claims our
attention, on account of the antiquity of the
Samaritan Penta;euch, supposed 10 have
been written in the Canaanilsh--th is, the
old Phenician or Hebrew characters, whence
Iits priority to the present Heblew has been
inferred.
But II we examine. into the origin OF this
lcelebTated PentRteuch, il will be found to-
have no such claims. These Samaritans
lwere the descendents Cf,that mixed multi-I
tude whom SaImanaser, king of Assyria, had
sent from Cdlh and other Provinces Of hisl
empire, to inhabil those pats cut Of which
he had carried the ten tribes into captivity.
These colonies were annoyed by wild beasls
| to such degree, that they attributed this
calamity TO their ignorance Of the God oil
their country, which induced them to pe,i,l
tion Esarhaddon, that one of tie captive
Priests might be sent to instruct them, ard
that their petition was erSnled. This hap
tpened about 20 years ailer the captivity.
But the effects of this mission were not
suchqs might have been expected; the Sa-
morians soon relapsed into their formerI
dolntry, and worshipped the fass gods Of
the nations Etom whence they came. as WE'LL
las The God Of Israel. The Priest already
mentioned, therefore, P,obaby taught them
from tradition. and not from a copy Of the
Law, which forbade oil idolairous worship;
Ior, jf he introduced copy Of lhe Law, Il is
not Ike i would have been preserved among
such a people, through space of26o years,
for SO long, at, least, did they continue ido!a-
tera, before the son Of Joissa, the High Priest
came among them. After the SaInatitans
had, built lheir- Temple on. Mount Gsrizlm,
his same person was constituted. its High
Priest, Upon this occasion, he is supposedl
10 have procured version ofthe PeDtaieucb]
Einto the Samaritan character.
That this was tho origih Of The Samaritan
Pentatedch, seems evident. from several con-
IsiderAtons; for after This perod.t .the Sanari,
Itans entirely copfortied ia the worship OF the |