TOWER OF BABEL—THE MODEL.
The Pyramids were, without doubt, copied from and built after the model
of the Tower of Babel. At the time that Joseph was entrusted by Pharaoh
with the task of making provision against the approaching famine that
he predicted would take place, the building of the City and Tower of
Babel by Nimrod the son of Cush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, and
the confusion of tongues that followed, were of comparatively recent
date. Abraham’s father Terah was in the service of King Nimrod during
their erection.
We are told in the Scriptures 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. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn
them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for
mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose
top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be
scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”[19]
In this description the motive assigned for the building of the
above-mentioned city and tower is that the people over whom Nimrod
reigned might be preserved together with renown. They found a plain by
the river Euphrates that suited their purpose, resembling the plain of
Egypt by the river Nile. In Shinar there was no stone, so brick was
used in its stead. This plain was fertile and produced much corn. The
settlers anticipated another Deluge, and on that account they provided
themselves with the means of subsistence when that calamity might recur
on the earth. The precaution they took for this event was to build a
place of safety, with a granary that would hold a sufficient amount of
corn to last during the whole period of the visitation. They built a
gigantic granary resembling the great Pyramid of Jeezeh, which they
filled with corn. Joseph imitated this example in Egypt.
The same event is thus recorded in the Talmud:—“Cush, the son of Ham
and grandson of Noah, married in his old age a young wife, and begat a
son, whom he called Nimrod, because in those days the people were
beginning to rebel again against the Lord’s command, and Nimrod
signifies ‘Rebellion.’ Now Nimrod grew up, and his father loved him
exceedingly, because he was the child of his old age. When Nimrod was
forty years old his brethren, the sons of Ham, quarrelled with the sons
of Japhet. And Nimrod assembled the tribe of Cush, and went forth to
battle with the sons of Japhet. And he addressed his army, saying, ‘Be
not dismayed, and banish fear from your hearts. Our enemies shall
surely be your booty, and ye shall do with them as ye please.’ Nimrod
was victorious, and the opposing armies became his subjects. And when
he and his soldiers returned home rejoicing, the people gathered around
and made him king, and placed a crown upon his head. And he appointed
counsellors, judges, chiefs, generals, and captains. He established a
national government, and he made Therach, the son of Nahor, his chief
officer. When Nimrod had thus established his power he decided to build
a city, a walled town, which should be the capital of his country. And
he selected a certain plain and built a large city thereon, and called
it Shinar. And Nimrod dwelt in Shinar in safety, and gradually became
ruler over all the world; and at that time all the people of the earth
were of one language and of one speech. Nimrod in his prosperity did
not regard the Lord. He made gods of wood and stone, and the people
copied his doings. His son Mordan served idols also, from which we
have, even to this day, the proverb, ‘From the wicked wickedness comes
forth.’
“And it came to pass about this time that the officers of Nimrod and
the descendants of Phut, Mitzrayim, Cush, and Canaan took counsel
together, and they said to one another, ‘Let us build a city, and also
in its midst a tall tower for a stronghold, a tower the top of which
shall reach even to the heavens. Then shall we truly make for ourselves
a great and mighty name, before which all our enemies shall tremble.
None will then be able to harm us, and no wars may disperse our ranks.’
And they spoke these words to the King, and he approved of their
design. Therefore these families gathered together and selected a
suitable spot for their city and its tower on a plain towards the east
in the land of Shinar.
“And while they were building rebellion budded in their hearts,
rebellion against God, and they imagined that they could scale the
heavens and war with Him. They divided into three parties. The first
party said, ‘We will ascend to heaven and place there our gods and
worship them.’ The second party said, ‘We will pour into the heavens of
the Lord and match our strength with His.’ And the third party said,
‘Yea, we will smite Him with arrow and with spear.’
“And God watched their evil enterprise and knew their thoughts, yet
they builded on. If one of the stones which they had raised to its
height fell, they were sad at heart, and even wept; yet when any of
their brethren fell from the building and were killed, none took
account of the life thus lost. Thus they continued for a space of
years, till God said, ‘We will confuse their language.’ Then the people
forgot their language, and they spoke to one another in a strange
tongue. And they quarrelled and fought on account of the many
misunderstandings occasioned by this confusion of language, and many
were destroyed in these quarrels, till at last they were compelled to
cease building.
“The tower was exceedingly tall. The third part of it sank down into
the ground, a second third was burned down, but the remaining third was
standing until the time of the destruction of Babylon. Thus were the
people dispersed over the globe, and divided into nations.”[20]
In this narrative the object of these wicked idolaters was to ascend
and carry war into heaven against God. To accomplish this object or
design they built the city and tower; the latter served for the granary
as well as the stronghold of the new city.
Abraham was born about this time. His father Terah was then in the
service of King Nimrod, in Babylon. Owing to the idolatry and the
wickedness of the people, Abraham left the country with his wife and
nephew, and settled in the land of Canaan. When Joseph was a child he
must have heard from his father the story of those eventful times, when
Abraham dwelt in the country wherein he was born. In due time he
availed himself of the knowledge thus imparted to him in his early days.
Modern travellers have found many remains of Pyramids in the ancient
kingdom of Babylonia. There was, therefore, nothing new or wonderful in
the fact of Joseph erecting granaries throughout Egypt when a severe
famine was expected. These granaries or Pyramids began in the Delta,
which was most fertile and yielded the largest amount of corn. The
Pyramids here are the finest as well as the largest; the rest are
erected along the western shore of the Nile as far as Ethiopia, which
was a province of Egypt. This province revolted in the lifetime of
Moses. He went there as commander of the Egyptian forces and suppressed
the rebellion. The ruins in Meroë and Axum, and other places in
Ethiopia, attest the truth of this statement.
Egyptologists have spent much time and labour in pursuit of their
science, but, very unfortunately, their researches have been directed
by misleading guides.
The authorities they took for their guidance were the Greek and Roman
writers, who knew nothing about the events that took place before Egypt
became a province of Alexander the Great and of the emperors of Rome.
The oldest and best records of Egypt and the ancient world were written
by the inspired historian Moses, and these records, or a small portion
of them, were translated from the Hebrew into the Greek language by
seventy Jewish elders for the King Ptolemy Philadelphus in the year 284
B.C.; so that before this time the outer or the Gentile world was in
utter ignorance regarding the history of Egypt, as well as that of the
Jews. The authors held in veneration by Egyptologists are Manetho and
Herodotus. Manetho’s ignorance as to the history of his own country is
shown by Flavius Josephus; and Herodotus wrote his account of the
Pyramids from hearsay. The priests who related the anecdotes concerning
the kings Cheops and his brother Chephren, and the shepherd Philition,
knew nothing themselves as to the real truth, for the whole account is
in confusion, worse confounded by their stupendous ignorance.
The writings of these two authors have misled every Egyptologist. Had
the Bible, the Jewish records called the Talmud, and Flavius Josephus
been studied instead, Egyptologists would have learnt the truth, and
nothing but the truth, and their time and labour would have been
rewarded most satisfactorily. The reader of this work will find
extracts in the later portion of it, which will repay the trouble of
perusal.
The testimony of recent travellers proves the reality of the existence
of granaries in Babylon, and the indisputable fact that the Pyramids
were built in imitation of them. The following is an instance:—[21]
“On the 9th December 1811 Mr. Rich made an expedition to the
Birs-i-Nimrúd. He found vestiges of mounds all round it to a
considerable extent, and the country traversed by canals in every
direction. The soil round it is sandy. Close to the Birs, or at about a
hundred yards from it, and parallel with its southern front, is a high
mound, almost equal in size to that of the Kasr.
“‘The Birs,’ says he, ‘is an enormous mound. At the north end it rises,
and there is an immense brick wall, thirty-seven feet high and
twenty-eight in breadth, upon it. This wall is not in the centre of the
north summit of the mound, but appears to have formed the southern face
of it. The other parts of the summit are covered by huge fragments of
brickwork, tumbled confusedly together; and what is most extraordinary
is that they are partly converted into a solid vitrified mass. The
layers are in many parts perfectly distinguishable; but the whole of
these lumps seem to have undergone the action of fire. Several lumps of
the same matter have rolled down, and remain partly on the side of the
mound and partly in the plain. The large wall on the southern face of
the summit is built of burnt bricks, with writing on them, and so close
together that no cement is discoverable between the layers. Small
square apertures are left, which go quite through the building, and are
arranged in a kind of quincunx form. Down the face of the wall the
bricks have been separated, leaving a large crack. On the side towards
the mound of Ibrahím Khalil, the mound slopes gradually down, and up
nearly half its height is a flat road running round this part of it,
twenty of my paces broad.
“‘From this the mound slopes more gradually to the plain or valley
between it and the mound of Ibrahím Khalil, and is worn into deep
ravines or furrows, like the Mujelibé. On the other or north face of
this pile it slopes down more abruptly at once into the plain, with
only hollows or paths round it, the road before mentioned, which from
that part appears to surround the building, losing itself before it
reaches this. On the north-west face, where it also slopes down into
the plain, are vestiges of building in the side, exactly similar in
appearance and construction to the wall on the top, with the holes or
apertures which are mentioned in the description of that. At foot of
all is, seemingly, a flat base of greater extent, but very little
raised above the level of the plain. The whole sides of the mound are
covered with pieces of brick, both burnt and unburnt, bitumen, pebbles,
spar, black stone, the same sand or limestone which covers the canal at
the Kasr, and even fragments of white marble. No reeds were to be seen
in any part of the building, though I saw one or two specimens of burnt
bricks which evidently had reeds in their composition, and some had the
impression of reeds on their cement. I saw also several bricks which
were thickly coated with bitumen on their lower face. In the lowest
part of the mound opposite Ibrahím Khalil, the mounds are most
evidently composed of unburnt bricks, the layers being in great measure
visible. This would lead one to suppose that it was not originally part
of the great pile, were not specimens of this kind of bricks found in
it also.
“‘The circumference of the base—not the low one—is 762 yards. The
whole height of it, from this measured base to the summit of the tower
or wall, is 235 feet; but there can be no doubt that it was much
higher. The form is more oblong than square. I found the longest side
to be 248 of my paces. Fortunately for the preservation of the ruin, it
is too far from the Euphrates for the Arabs to think it worth their
while to excavate for bricks; while they are so closely joined
together, that it is impossible to procure them quite unbroken.’
“Mr. Rich will not admit this tower to be that of Belus, because,
according to his view, it is on the wrong side of the river.
“The whole height of the Birs-i-Nimrúd above the plain to the summit of
the brick wall is 235 feet. The brick wall itself, which stands on the
edge of the summit, and was undoubtedly the face of another stage, is
37 feet high. In the side of the pile, a little below its summit, is
very clearly to be seen part of another brick wall, precisely
resembling the fragment which crowns the summit, and still encasing and
supporting its part of the mound. This is clearly indicative of another
stage of greater extent.
“Without forming any conjecture as to what might have been its original
construction, the impression made by the sight of it is, that it was a
solid pile, composed in the interior of unburnt brick, and perhaps
earth or rubbish; that it was constructed in receding stages, and faced
with kiln-burnt bricks having inscriptions on them, laid in a very thin
layer of lime cement; and that it was reduced by violence to its
present ruinous condition. The upper stones have been forcibly broken
down, and fire has been employed as an implement of destruction, though
it is not easy to say how or why. The facing of fine bricks has been
partly removed and partly covered by the falling down of the mass which
it supported and kept together.
“A still later traveller, Mr. Buckingham, is of opinion that the traces
of four stages are clearly discernible.
“As to Major Rennell’s doubt whether the ruin was artificial, Mr. Rich
observes that, ‘so indisputably evident is the fact of the whole mass
being from top to bottom artificial, that he should as soon have
thought of writing a dissertation to prove that the Pyramids are the
work of human hands as of dwelling upon this point. The Birs-i-Nimrúd,’
he adds, ‘is, in all likelihood, at present nearly in the state in
which Alexander saw it, if we give any credit to the report that ten
thousand men could only remove the rubbish, preparatory to repairing
it, in two months. If, indeed, it required one half of that number to
disencumber it, the state of dilapidation must have been complete.
“‘The immense masses of vitrified brick which are seen on the top of
the mound appear to have marked its summit since the time of its
destruction. The rubbish about its base was probably in much greater
quantities, the weather having dissipated much of it in the course of
so many revolving ages; and possibly portions of the interior facing of
fine brick may have disappeared at different periods.’”