The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
TOWER OF BABEL A MYTH
HIGHER CRITICS SAY THE STORY Is
ONLY HEBREW FOLKLORE.
Recent Explorations About Babylon
Overwhelming of Babel.
New York Herald.

A pivotal point in the current discussion
by the critics of the Bible regarding the
authenticity of the historical statements of
the Old Testament Is that relating to the
Tower of Babel. The opinion is held on one
hand that the story as contained in the
Bible is merely legend, introduced at a
late period in the first book of the Scrip
lures. On the other hand, it is claimed
that the story is simple statement of fact,
and that there really took place in the early
history of the human race the building Of
such a structure, the circumstances Of
which are carefully recorded in the Bible
as follows:
"And the whole earth was of one Ian
guage and of one speech. And it came to
pass as they journeyed from the East, that
they found plain in the land of Shinar,
and they dwelt there. And they said one
to the other: Go to, let us make brick and
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick
for stone and slime hey had for mortar.
And they said: Go to, let us build a city
and a tower, whose top may reach to
heaven. And let us make a name, lest We
be scattered abroad upon the face of the
whole earth.
'And the Lord came down to see the city
and the tower which the children 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 they have imagined to do. Go to,
let us go down and there confound their
language, that they may not understand
one anothers speech. So the Lord scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face Of
all the earth, and they left off to build the
city. 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. These are
the generations of shem: Shem was hun
dred years old, and begat Arphaxad, two
years after the flood"
All scholars agree, however that if such
building was ever undertaken, and in part
in the neighborhood of or Within the ancient
limits of Babylon. From the dawn of civili-
cation Babylon was regarded as sacred To-
cality, the name itself signifying the Gate
of Cod But Babylon was not destined to
last in all the glory of it's imperial grandeur,
and in the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah the
destruction of the great city is wildly pic
tured by the prophet in the following words:
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the
beauty of the ChaldeeS eXcellency, shall
be as wbeE God overthrow Sodom and Co
morrah. 1t shall never be inhabited, neither
shall it be dwelt in from generation to gen.
Grafton; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
there; nor shall the shepherds make their
fold there. But the wild beasts of the des-
ert shall lie there, and their houses shall be
full of doleful creatures, and owls shall
dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry
their pleasant places and her time is near
to come and her days shall not be pro-
longed."
TIE TOWER MOUND.
This is a perfect pen picture of the Baby
lon of To-Day. AL is gone. and in the entire
world there is to- day hardly place SO drear
and uninviung as the scene that breaks
upon the vision of the traveller he first
looks our over that Babylonian plain. But
not for loEg does the feeling of desola-
ton haE6 over him, for in the distance
rises a n ound that instantly attracts his
attention, sending his thoughts back to the
dawn of human history. 1t is the mound
that tradition points TO marking the
spot where stood the tower so famous in
history. The Herald is indebted to DIR.
William Hayes Ward for photographs
showing the mound, the ruins of the tower
on the summit and the recent excavations at
its base: These photographs were made by
Mr.. j. H. Haynes, of DR.. Wards party, dur
ing his late expedition to the mound and
surrounding plains. They represent the ruins
as they stand to-day.
1t was here, then according to the biblical
account, that the descendants of Noah jour
neyed, and began the building of city, the
browning glory of which was to be the Tow
err of Babel. According to biblical students,
the tower was undoubtedly temple Long
before its completion the Lord interviewed,
and by confusing the tongues of the people
compelled the abandonment of their colossal
undertaking.
In considering the evidence bearing on the
existence of the tower, it must not be for
gotten that the Babylonians, like the an
original foundations. Thus on the spot
where the tower was begun, great temples
were subsequently erected, the last u Whlcn
was that Of the famous Nebuchadnezzar,
and which was doubtless not great tower
constructed TO escape the terrors OF another
flood, but magnificent temple rlslng up IN
the midst of the new city of the plain, alike
for worship and to commemorate the glory
The present ruins known as Birs Nimrud
consist OF a huge irregular mound crowned
by the remains of a tower, which rises 100
tons of the interior of this mound many in
scribed bricks have been upearthed and
most of them bear Nebuchadnezzar's name
in cuneform characters. On one Of these
bricks is an inscription that the tower was
never completed, and that it had been aban-
doned since very remote period.
DR. WARDS OPINION.
DR. William Hayes Ward says: What is
usually spoken of as the Tower of Babel is
the temple pyramid, in seven stages, built
eve do not know how early) in honor of the
god Nebo, at Borsippa, a dozen miles from
Babylon, to the west of the Euphrates, and
repaired by the great King Nebuchadnez-
Ear who was named after that god The
ruin is now called Birs Nimrud or Tower
of Nimrod after a Mohammedan tradition.
visited it when in charge of the Wolfe
expedition, and photographs of 1T were
taken by our photographer, Mr.. j. II.
Haynes. 1t was the Babylonian style to
build the temples in the form of pyramids,
in stages, the separate stages being in
honor of different planetary gods. The
Egyptian style of enamelling the whole
face of the pyramid did not prevail in
Babylonia except in the earliest period. The
extraordinary thing about the Birs Nimrud
tower is that, while most OF Ut is now re-
duced to a rounded hill, the bricks of the
upper stage were in some great confagra-
ton melted together into solid vitrified
mass which has been in some way broken,
perhaps by lightning, and 1t is split from
top to bottom, and pieces Weighing many
tons have fallen to the ground and lie about
the base or have rolled down the hill.
81 think it improbable that this was the
Tower of Babel of the Genesis writer. That
was more likely the much larger pyramid
temple, or Ziggurat of Babylon, now called
Babel the measurements of which, taken
from an old inscription, We're published by
George Smith. 1t is now an immense hill
of burnt bricks, rebuilt by observation-disclosures,
and has long been used as a quarry.
Il regard the story of the Tower or
Babel, told in Genesis. as one of the most
interesting religious folk lore tales current
among the Hebrews which has been most
happily preserved 10 US by the sacred
writer 1t is not to be taken as veritable
cfor haf