CHAPTER IV.

Journey from the east to the land of Shinar:-Noah and "the “whole earth” settled there ;-Situation of the land of Shinar. -The Tower of Babel :-Period and cause of its erection :— Its erection a violation only of the implied command of God ;Did not occur during Noah's life.-The Dispersion :-Situation of the land of Shinar peculiarly adapted for it :-Natural tripartite division of the earth.-Theory of the distribution of mankind :-Principles governing it.

THE situation of the mountains of Ararat, and the course thence taken by Noah and his family, having been approximately determined in the preceding pages', the events recorded in the first nine verses of the eleventh chapter of Genesis, which have been postponed in consequence of the digression contained in our last chapter, will now form the subject of inquiry.

The first two verses of this short yet distinct and comprehensive account, inform us, that "the "whole earth was of one language and of 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 dwelt there." However it may have been attempted to construe these words, it appears to me that only one meaning can reasonably be attached to them, if taken in their 1 See Chap. ii. 2 Gen. xi. 1, 2.

JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF SHINAR.

65

plain and natural sense; namely, that down to the time of the building of the Tower of Babel, and the subsequent confusion of tongues and dispersion of mankind, the whole human race was "of one lan

guage and of one speech;" and that so far from any separation among them having taken place in the neighbourhood of Ararat, and a portion only of them having reached the land of Shinar, "the "whole earth”—that is, all the inhabitants of it then in existence,-journeyed together from the east to that country, and dwelt therein. Supposing, for a moment, however, that we did not possess, as a certain guide, the account of the inspired historian, we could, I conceive, come to no other conclusion than that it would be most improbable that an old man and his three sons, after having witnessed so awful a visitation of the Divine vengeance on the human race, should (unless by the express command of the same Almighty Being who had so miraculously preserved them,) at once have separated, and gone different ways on the face of the earth, of which they were the only surviving inhabitants. So far, indeed, from their possessing any desire to disperse, it may be asserted that the feeling of the necessity of union in the rising world. must have been so strong, that their only dread would have been, lest by any means they should be separated from each other. We are told, in fact, that the object of mankind in beginning to build the City and Tower of Babel was in order to

F

66

SITUATION OF THE LAND OF SHINAR:

prevent their being "scattered abroad upon the "face of the whole earth';" which simple statement of Scripture, by itself, without comment or explanation, is far more intelligible and consistent, than any of the hypotheses by which it has been attempted to account, in other ways, for that remarkable occurrence in the history of the human race.

2

It has been shown how the patriarch Noah and his family journeyed from the east, simply by descending the valley of the Euphrates, from the mountains of Ararat, to the point (about the 38th degree of east longitude,) where that mighty river turns nearly at a right angle to the southward, and passes through the chain of Mount Taurus in the neighbourhood of Samosata. The spot to which they were thus brought by following the course of the river,—namely, that part of Mesopotamia which is more immediately at the foot of the mountain chain of Taurus, and to the east of the Euphrates,—may, in the absence of any authority from Scripture for supposing that they subsequently travelled in any other direction, be consequently considered to be that plain in the land of Shinar which became the first fixed residence of the progenitors of the human race.

The period at which the children of men arrived in the land of Shinar is nowhere expressly mentioned in Scripture, nor is it, indeed, stated whether Noah himself ever reached that country. Let us, 2 page 34.

1 Gen. xi. 4.

NOAH SETTLED THERE.

67

then, consider what other means we have of coming to some conclusion on these points:-We are told that "Noah began to be an husbandman, and he

planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, " and was drunken; and he was uncovered within "his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw "the nakedness of his father, and told his two bre"thren without'." From this short account two facts may reasonably be inferred. The first is, that this occurrence took place at no great distance of time after the Flood, since it is evident that the three sons of Noah were still residing with their father, and were all present at the time it occurred: the second is, that as at that time Noah had "begun to be an husbandman," and had "planted "a vineyard," he must be considered to have already chosen some fixed place of habitation; and since, after he had once been stationary, there could scarcely have existed any sufficient motive for his again becoming migratory, it may, I think, be assumed, that the spot where he thus settled was the country in which mankind are stated to have taken up their first permanent residence, that is, the land of Shinar itself.

As before observed, the only legitimate inference to be drawn from the words of Scripture respecting the building of the Tower of Babel is, that the whole human race were concerned in its erection, and, consequently, that no dispersion of mankind

1 Gen. ix. 20-23.

68

DATE OF THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES.

or division of the earth amongst them, had taken place, before the time when "the Lord scattered "them abroad upon the face of all the earth'." Those commentators and historians, therefore, who, grounding their calculations on the chronology of the Hebrew Text, conceive the earth to have been divided in the time of Peleg, at a period anterior to the Confusion of Tongues and the general dispersion consequent upon it, appear to have no just foundation for their opinion: nor is such an assumption at all necessary, if, instead of following the Hebrew chronology, we adopt that of the Samaritan and Septuagint versions, and fix the birth of Peleg in the 401st year after the Deluge. Neither does the opinion that the dispersion took place, not at the birth of Peleg, but during his subsequent lifetime, appear to be warranted by the statement of Scripture; since in that case the name given him, of (Péleg, division,) would not have been more appropriate to him than to any of his contemporaries. If, however, the confusion of tongues and the consequent division of the earth be considered to have occurred at or immediately before the very time of Peleg's birth, then the propriety of his name (which like all others of those times was significant,) is clearly apparent, "for in his days was the earth "divided"."

According to all the versions of the Scriptures, the death of the patriarch Noah happened in the