caste, never exceeded 160,000 men. Why were the Jews so appalled by less
than a third of their own number? Must we suppose, with Kalisch, that
their bondage in Egypt had crushed all valor and manhood out of their
breasts? Josephus gives a different explanation. He says that the
day after Pharaoh's host was drowned in the Red Sea, "Moses gathered
together the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought to the camp
of the Hebrews by the current of the sea and the force of the wind
assisting it. And he conjectured that this also happened by Divine
Providence, that so they might not be destitute of weapons." But, as
Colenso observes, though body-armor _might_ have been obtained in this
way, swords, spears and shields _could not_ in any number. The Bible,
too, says nothing about such an occurrence. We must therefore assume
that 600,000 well-armed Jews were such utter cowards that they could not
strike a blow for their wives and children and their own liberty against
the smaller army of Pharaoh, but could only whimper and sigh after their
old bondage. Yet a month later they fought bravely with the Amalekites,
and ever afterwards they were as eager for battle as any Irishman at
Donnybrook: fair. How can this difference be accounted for? Could a
nation of hereditary cowards become stubborn warriors in the short space
of a month?
Let us now follow the Wandering Jews through the Desert, which they
should have crossed in a week or two, but which they travelled up and
down for forty years. People who want to make an expeditious journey had
better do without a divine guide.
Coming to Marah, they found only bitter water to drink, at which they
began to murmur. But the Lord showed Moses a certain tree, which when
cast into the water made it sweet. It must have been a wonderful tree to
sweeten water for two millions of people. Bitter water, also, quenches
thirst more readily than sweet, and it stimulates the appetite, which
would be highly desirable under a fierce relaxing sun.
A month after they left Egypt they came to the wilderness of Sin.
There they began to murmur again. Finding themselves without food, they
remembered "the flesh pots" of Egypt, and reproached Moses with having
brought them into the desert to die of hunger. Both Moses and the Lord
seem to have thought it unreasonable on their part to ask for something
to eat. Oliver Twist was stared at when he asked for more, but the Jews
surprised God by asking for something to begin with. Yet reflecting,
perhaps, that they were after all unable to live without food, the Lord
rained down manna from heaven. After the dew evaporated in the morning,
they found this heavenly diet lying on the ground. It was "like a
coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with
honey." No doubt the angels subsist on it in paradise. Moses preserved
a pot of it for the instruction of future generations. The pot has,
however, not been discovered up to the present day. Some future
explorers may light upon it "in the fulness of time," and so-help to
prove the historical character of the Pentateuch.
The manna, as might be expected, had some peculiarities. No matter how
much or how little he gathered, every man found on measuring that he had
exactly an omer of it. Although it fell regularly every week day, none
fell on Sunday. A double quantity had, therefore, to be gathered on
Saturday. It melted in the sun, but could nevertheless be baked and
seethed. Any of it left overnight stank in the morning and bred worms.
For forty years "the children of Israel did eat manna." But more than
once their gorge rose against it. Manna for breakfast, manna for lunch,
manna for dinner, manna for tea, and manna for supper, was a little more
than they could stand, The monotony of their diet became intolerable.
Accordingly, we read in the twenty-first chapter of _Numbers_, that
they complained of it and asked for a slight change in the bill of fare.
"There is no bread," said they, "neither is there any water; and our
soul loatheth this light food." This small request so incensed the Lord
that he sent a lot of fiery serpents among them, which bit them so
that "much people of Israel died." Like Oliver Twist, the Jews quickly
repented their presumption. They humbled themselves before Moses, and he
interceded with God for them. The prophet then made a brass serpent
and set it on a pole, and on looking at it all who had been bitten
recovered.
On another occasion, as we read in the eleventh of _Numbers_, they were
guilty of a similar offence. This time it was the more surprising, as
God had just burnt a lot of them up with raging fire for 'complaining.'
They remembered "the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the
cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the
garlick." "Now," said they, "there is nothing at all, besides this
manna, before our eyes-Who shall give us flesh to eat?" The Egyptian
bill of fare was certainly enough to make their mouths water, and it
proves that if Pharaoh made them work hard he did not starve them, as
Jehovah very nearly succeeded in doing. They were so affected by their
recollection of the luscious victuals they enjoyed in Egypt, that they
actually cried with sorrow at their loss. Moses heard them weeping,
"every man in the door of his tent." This put the Lord in a very bad
temper; and Moses, who seems to have been much less irascible than
Jehovah, "also was displeased." God determined to give them a surfeit.
"Ye shall," said he, "not eat flesh one day, nor two days, nor five
days, neither ten days nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until
it come out at your nostrils, and be loathsome unto you." Thereupon
the Lord sent a wind which brought quails from the sea. They were so
plentiful that they fell in heaps two cubits high for about twenty miles
around the camp. That worthy commentator, the Rev. Alexander Cruden,
says that the miracle of this occurrence consisted, not in the great
number of quails, but in their being "brought so seasonably" to the
Jewish camp. The quantity did not trouble his credulous mind. "Some
authors," says he, "affirm that in those eastern and southern countries,
quails are innumerable, so that in one part of Italy within the compass
of five miles, there were taken about an hundred thousand of them every
day for a month together; and that sometimes they fly so thick over the
sea, that being weary they fall into ships, sometimes in such numbers,
that they sink them with their weight." The good man's easy reliance
on 'some authors.' and his ready acceptance of such fables, show what
credulity is engendered by belief in the Bible.
The Jews gathered quails for two days and a night, and joyfully carried
them home. But "while the flesh was yet between their teeth," the Lord
smote them with a very great plague, so that multitudes of them died.
Poor devils! They were always in hot water.
How the sheep and cattle were provisioned the Bible does not inform us.
There was scarcely a nibble of grass to be had in the desert, and as
they could not very well have lived on sand and pebbles, they must
have been supported miraculously. Perhaps the authors of the Pentateuch
forgot all about this.
Not only were the Jews, like their flocks and herds, miraculously
supported; they were also miraculously found in clothes. For forty years
their garments and shoes did not wear out. How was this miracle wrought?
When matter rubs against matter, particles are lost by abrasion. Did the
Lord stop this process, or did he collect all the particles that were
worn off during the day and replace them by night, on the soles of
shoes, on the elbows of coats, and on the knees of pantaloons? If
the clothes never wore out, it is fair to suppose that they remained
absolutely unchanged. Imagine a toddling urchin, two years old at the
exodus from Egypt, wearing the same rig when he grew up to manhood!
Justin, however, says that the clothes grew with their growth. Some
Jewish rabbis hold that angels acted as tailors in the wilderness, and
so the garments were all kept straight. But Augustine, Chrysostom, and
other Fathers abide by the literal interpretation that, through the
blessing of God, the clothes and shoes never wore out, so that those
who grew to manhood were able to hand them over, as good as new, to the
rising generation. According to this theory, _everybody_ must have had
a poor fit, unless there was a transference of garments every twelve
months or so.
The history of the Wandering Jews is full of miracles and wonders. It
says that all the congregation of Israel, numbering over two millions,
assembled at the door of the Tabernacle. As the whole width of the
Tabernacle was eighteen feet, only nine men could have stood in front
of it; and therefore the warriors of Israel alone, to say nothing of the
rest of the population, if we allow eighteen inches between each rank of
nine men, would have formed a column nearly _twenty miles_ long! We
find also that Moses, and Joshua after him, addressed not only the whole
congregation of Israel, including men, women, and children, but the
"mixed multitude" of strangers as well. Their voices were distinctly
heard by a crowded mass of people as large as the entire population of
London. They must have had stentorian lungs, or the people must have had
a wonderful sense of hearing.
When the Jews were encamped, according to Scott's estimate, they lived
in a sort of "moveable city, _twelve miles square_," nearly as large as
London. The people had to go outside this vast camp every day to bring
in a supply of water and fuel, after cutting the latter down where they
could find it! All their rubbish had to be carried out in like manner,
for Jehovah used sometimes to take a walk among them, and he was highly
displeased at seeing dirt. Every man, woman, and child, including the
old, the sick, and the infirm, had to go outside the camp to attend
to the necessities of nature! All the refuse of their multitudinous.
sacrifices had to be lugged out of the camp by the three priests,
Aaron, Eleazer, and Itharnar. Colenso reckons that the sacrifices alone,
allowing less than three minutes for each, would have occupied them
incessantly during the whole twenty-four hours of every day. The pigeons
brought to them daily as sin offer-ings must have numbered about 264,
and as these had to be consumed by the three priests, each of them had
to eat 88 pigeons a day, besides heaps of roast beef and other victuals!
Soon after the first fall of manna, the Jews murmured again because they
had no water. Whereupon Moses smote a rock with his magical rod, and
water gushed from it. The precious fluid came just in time to refresh
them for their fight with the Amalekites. These people were very
obstinate foes, and it required a miracle to defeat them. Moses ascended
a hill and held up his hand. While he did so the Israelites prevailed,
but when he let down his hand the Amalekites prevailed. To ensure
victory, Aaron and Hur stood on either side of him, and held up his
hands until the sun set. By this means Joshua discomfited the Amalekites
with great slaughter. Moses built an altar to celebrate the event,
and God swore that he would "have war with Amelek from generation to
generation." As Jehovah's vengeance was so lasting, it is no wonder that
his worshipers carried on their wars ever afterwards on the most hellish
principles.
In the thirty-first chapter of Numbers we read that 12,000 Israelites
warred against Midian. The brag of the chronicler is evident in this
number or in those which follow. This little army polished off all the
kings of Midian, burnt all their cities and castles, slew 48,000 men,
and carried off 100,000 captives, besides, 675,000 sheep, 72,000 oxen,
and 61,000 asses. What prodigious spoil there was in those days! Of the
captives Moses ordered 48,000 women and 20,000 boys to be massacred in
cold blood; while the remaining 32,000 "women that had not known man
by lying with him" were reserved for another fate. The Lord's share of
these was thirty-two! They were of course handed over to the priests
as his representatives. Parsons, who rail against the immorality of
scepticism, say that this is all true.
These Midianites were a tough lot; for although they were _all killed_
on this occasion, and their cities and castles burnt, we find them a
powerful nation again in the sixth of _Judges_, and able to prevail
against the Jews for seven years.
Another people badly punished by the Jews were the inhabitants of Bashan.
All their cities were destroyed to the number of sixty. Their king, Og,
was a gigantic fellow, and slept on an iron bed twelve feet long. The
cities of Heshbon were destroyed in the same way. All the men, women,
and children, were slaughtered. Not one was spared.
We shall hereafter follow the Jews under Joshua. For the present we must
content ourselves with a last reference to their wanderings under Moses.
While they were encamped round Mount Sinai, their leader received an
invitation to go up and visit God who had been staying there for six
days. They had much to talk about, and the interview lasted forty days
and forty nights. At the end of it Moses descended, carrying with him
the Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God on two tables of
stone. In his absence the Wandering Jews had given him up as lost, and
had induced Aaron to make them a god, in the shape of a golden calf, to
go before them. This image they were worshipping as Moses approached the
camp, and his anger waxed so not that he threw down the tables and broke
all the Ten Commandments at once. He then burnt the calf in fire and
ground it to powder, mixed it with water and made them drink it. He also
sent the Levites among them, who put three thousand men to the edge of
the sword. God wanted to destroy them altogether, but Moses held him
back. "Let me alone," said the Lord. "No, no," said Moses, "just think
what the Egyptians will say; they'll laugh at you after all as a poor
sort of a god; and remember, too, that you are bound by an oath to
multiply your people and to let them inherit the land of promise." So
the Lord cooled down, and wrote out the Decalogue again on two fresh
tables of stone. This Decalogue is supposed to be the foundation of
morality. But long before the time of Moses moral laws were known and
observed in Egypt, in India, and among all the peoples that ever lived.
Moral laws are the permanent conditions of social health, and the
fundamental ones must be observed wherever any form of society exists.
Their ground and guarantee are to be found in human nature, and do not
depend on a fabulous episode in the history of the Wandering Jews.
THE TOWER OF BABEL.
BIBLE ROMANCES.--VIII.
By G. W. FOOTE.
The Bible, it is frequently asserted, was never meant to teach us
science, but to instruct us in religion and morality; and therefore
we must not look to it for a faithful account of what happened in
the external world, but only for a record of the inner experiences of
mankind. Astronomy will inform us how the heavenly bodies came into
existence, and by what laws their motions are governed; Geology will
acquaint us with the way in which the earth's crust was formed, and with
the length of time occupied by the various stages of the process; and
Biology will tell us all about the origin and development of living
things. God has given us reason, by exercising which we may gather
knowledge and establish sciences, so as to explain the past, illustrate
the present, and predict the future; and as reason is sufficient for all
this, there is no need of a divine revelation in such matters. But
as reason is insufficient to teach the will of God and the laws of
morality, a divine revelation of these is necessary, and the Bible
contains it.
This plausible contention cannot, however, be maintained. The Bible
is not silent with respect to astronomy, geology, or biology. It makes
frequent and precise statements concerning them, and in nearly every
instance it contradicts scientific truth as we have amply proved in
previous numbers of this series.
The eleventh chapter of Genesis gives an explanation of the diversity
of languages on the earth. It does this in the truest spirit of romance.
Philologists like Max Müller and Whitney must regard the story of the
Tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues, as a capital joke. A great
many parsons may still believe it, but they are not expected to know
much.
One fact alone is enough to put the philology of Genesis out of court.
The native languages of America are all closely related to each other,
but they have no affinity with any language of the Old World. It is
therefore clear that they could not have been imported into the New
World by emigrants from the plains of Central Asia. The Genesaic theory
is thus proved to be not of universal application, and consequently
invalid.
Let us come to the Bible story. Some time after the Flood, and before
the birth of Abraham, "the whole earth was of one language and one
speech;" or, as Colenso translates the original, "of one lip, and of one
language." This primitive tongue must have been Hebrew. God spoke it in
Eden when he conversed with our first parents, and probably it is spoken
in heaven to this day. For all we know it may be spoken in hell too. It
probably is, for the Devil and his angels lived in heaven before they
were turned into hell, and we may conclude that they took their native
language with them. It was spoken by Adam when he named his wife in
Paradise; by Eve, after the expulsion when she gave names to her sons,
Cain and Seth; by Lamech, shortly before the Flood, when he explained the
name of Noah; and indeed, as Colenso observes, "it is obvious that the
names of the whole series of Patriarchs from Adam to Noah, and from Noah
onwards, are in almost every instance pure Hebrew names." Delitzsch,
however, thinks it comparatively more probable that the Syriac or
Nabataan tongue, preserved after the dispersion at Babylon, was the one
originally spoken. Yet he dismisses the possibility of demonstrating it.
He supposes that the names of Adam and the other patriarchs have been
altered, but not so as to lose any of their original meaning; in other
words, that they have been, by God's grace, translated with perfect
accuracy from the primeval speech. But Colenso very justly remarks that
the original documents do not allude to a process of translation, and
that we have no right to assume it. He also adds that "if the authority
of Scripture is sufficient to prove the fact of a primeval language, it
must also prove that this language was Hebrew."
Yet the Bible is wrong, for Hebrew could not have been the primitive
speech. It is only a Semitic dialect, a branch of the Semitic stem.
Sanscrit is another stem, equally ancient; and according to Max Müller
and Bunsen, both are modifications of an earlier and simpler language.
Neither has the least affinity with Chinese, which again, like them,
differs radically from the native dialects of America. As Hosea Biglow
sings,
"John P. Robinson, he
Says they didn't know everything down in Judee."
And most certainly they did not know the true origin and development of
the various languages spoken by the nations of the earth.
The people who dwelt on the earth after the Deluge, and all spoke one
language, journeyed from the east, found a plain in, the land of Shinar,
and dwelt there. Shinar is another name for Babylon. After dwelling
there no one knows exactly how long, "they said one to another, Go
to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for
stone, and slime had they for morter." The writer of this story was very
fond of short cuts. It took men a long time to learn the art of making
bricks; and the idea of their suddenly saying to each other "let us make
brick," and at once proceeding to do so, is a wild absurdity.
Having made a lot of bricks, they naturally wished to do something with
them. So "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." How could making
a name, for the information of nobody but themselves, prevent their
dispersion? And how could they resolve to build a "city," when they had
never seen one, and had no knowledge of what it was like? Cities are not
built in this manner. "Rome wasn't built in a day" is a proverb which
applies to all other places as well. London, Paris, and Rome, are
the growth of centuries, and the same must have been true of ancient
capitals.
The reason assigned by Scripture for the work of these primitive
builders is plainly inadequate. A more probable reason is that they
mistrusted God's promise never again to destroy the earth with a flood,
and therefore determined to build a high tower, so that, if another
deluge came, they might ascend above the waters, or, if need be step
clean into heaven itself. Their lack of faith is not surprising. We find
the same characteristic on the part of believers in our own day. They
believe in God's promises only so far as it suits their interest and
convenience. Scripture says, "Whoso giveth unto the poor lendeth unto
the Lord." Yet there are thousands of rich Christians who seem to
mistrust the security.
How high did these primitive builders think heaven was? According to
Colenso, they said, "Come, let us build for us a city, and a tower _with
its head in heaven_." Did they really think they would ever succeed in
building so high? Perhaps they did, for their Natural Philosophy was
extremely limited. They doubtless imagined the blue vault of heaven as a
solid thing, in which were stuck the sun, moon, and stars, and no higher
than the sailing clouds.
Their simple ignorance is intelligible, but how can we explain the
ignorance of God? Their project alarmed him. He actually "came down to
see the city and the tower which the children of men builded." Heaven
was too distant for him to see from with accuracy, and telescopes
were not then invented. A close inspection led him to believe that his
ambitious children would succeed in their enterprise. They thought they
might build into heaven, and he thought so too. What was to be done? If
they once got into heaven, it might be very difficult to turn them
out again. It took several days' hard fighting to expel Satan and the
rebellious angels on a previous occasion, and these newcomers might be
still more obstinate. In this dangerous extremity, "the Lord said [unto
whom is unknown], 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
another's speech."
Why did the Lord resolve to take all this trouble? Had he forgotten the
law of gravitation and the principles of architecture? Was he, who made
the heaven and the earth, ignorant of the distance between them? He
had only to let the people go on building, and they would eventually
confound themselves; for, after reaching a certain height, the tower
would tumble about their ears. Gravitation would defeat the cohesion
of morter Why did not God leave them alone? Why did he take so much
unnecessary trouble? The answer is that this "Lord" was only "Jehovah"
of the Jews, a tribal god, who naturally knew no more about the facts
and laws of science than his worshippers who made him.
The Lord carried out his resolution. He "confounded their language," so
that no man could understand his neighbors. Probably this judgment was
executed in the night; and when they awoke in the morning, instead of
using the old familiar tongue, one man spoke Chinese, another Sanscrit,
another Coptic, another American, another Dutch, another Double Dutch,
and so on to the end of the chapter.
According to the Bible, this is the true philology. No language on
the earth is more than four thousand years old, and every one was
miraculously originated at Babel. Is there a single philologist living
who believes this? We do not know one.
The result of this confusion of tongues was that the people "left off
to build the city," and were "scattered, abroad on the face of all the
earth." But why did they disperse? Their common weakness should have
kept them together. Society is founded upon our wants. Our necessity,
and not our self-sufficience, causes association and mutual helpfulness.
Had these people kept company for a short time, they would have
understood each other again. A few common words would have come into
general use, and the building of the tower might have been resumed.