Miscellanies Christian and Judaical, Chapter 28
CAP. XXVIII. Of the Confusion of Tongues.
THat the world from Babel was scattered into diuerse tongues, we need not other proofe, then as Diogenes proued that there is motion, by walking: so we may see the confusion of languages by our confused speaking. Once all the Earth was of one tongue, one speech, and one consent, for they all spake in the holy tongue wherein the world was created in the beginning (to vse the very words of the Chaldee Paraphrast and Targ. Ierusal. vponupon Gen. 11.1.) But pro peccato dis…entionis humanae (as saith Saint Austen) for the sin of men disagreeing not onelyonly different dispositions, but also different languages came into the world. They came to Babel with a disagreeing agreement, & they come away punished with a speechles speech. They disagree among themselues, cum quisque principatum ad se rapit, while eueryevery one striues for dominion (as the same Austen) They agree against God in their Nagnauad lan Siguda, &c. We will make our selues a Rendevouz for Idolatrie (as the same Ieruselamy.) But they come away speaking each to other, but not vnderstood of each other, and so speake to no more purpose, then if they spake not at all. This punishment of theirs at Babel, is like Adams corruption, hereditary to vsus, for we neuer come vnderunder the rod at Grammar schoole, but we smart for our Ancestors rebellion at Babel.
Into how many countries and *One in Epi…hanius saith, this is easie to find, but he doth little towards it. Epiph cont. Haeres. tom. 2 l. b. 6.tongues those Shinaar rebells were scattered is no lesse confused worke to find out, then was theirs at the tower. So diuerse is the speech of men, about the diuersitie of speech, that it makes the confusion more confused. *foreign &c. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.Euphorus and many other Historians say, that the nations and tongues are 75. listening to the voice of Moses, which saith, all the soules that came into Egypt out of Iacob were 75. But in truth the naturall Dialects (of speech) appeare to be 72. as our Scriptures hauehave deliuered. Thus saith Clemens Alexandrinus: of whose conceit herein I must for my part say, as Saint Ambrose saith of Aaron about the golden calfe. Tantum Sacerdotem, &c. So great a scholler as Clemens I dare not censure, though I dare not beleeue him. The Iewes with one consent maintaine, that there are iust 70. nations & so many tongues. So confident they are of this, that they dare say, that the 70. soules that went with Iacob into Egypt were as much as all the 70. nations of the world. Ierusalems schooles rang with this Doctrine, and the children learned to high-prize themselues from their fathers. A stately claime was this to Israel, but the keeping of it dangerous. Men of the 70. nations would not be so vnderualued by one people. Therefore when Israel wanted strength to keepe this challenge, they do it by sleight. And so it is the thrice-learned Master Broughtons opinion, that the Septuagint when they were to translate the Bible, and were to speake of the seuenty soules of Iacobs house, they durst not put downe the iust number of seuenty, least tales should hauehave beene told out of their schooles (concerning their scornefull doctrine) and when the rumour and the number should both come to the King of Egypt, the meet number might maintaine the truth of the rumour, and by both they might incurre danger, therefore they added fiue more, to spoile the roundnesse of the summe,So in Gē. 10. the Septuag. put in 2. Cainans: and so spoile the roundnes of that 70 and Saint Steuen followes their translation: Then Ioseph sent and called his father Iacob, to him and all his kinred, euen 75. soules. Act. 7.14.
As the Iewes seeke to retaine this their assumed dignity ouer the seuenty nations by this sleight, so doe they maintaine their tenent of iust seuenty nations by a double reason. First, they count polls in the plaine of Shinaar, as Moses did in the wildernesse, and they find in the tenth of Genesis iust seuenty men, and therefore by necessarie consequence, iust seuenty nations. The Chaldee vponupon these words of God, Gen. 11.5. Come let vsus go downe: *Iulian the Heretick bo…h denies the Trinity to be meant in this place, and saith God alone was vnable for this work Cyril. tom. 3. l 4.looses the sweet mysterie of the Trinitie, but finds I know not how many strange fancies: for thus he descants. The Lord said vntounto the seuenty Angells that are before him, come now let vsus go downe, and confound there their tongue, that a man shall not vnderstand his fellow. And a little after he saith, And with him (that is, with God) were seuenty Angells according to the seuenty nations. I doubt not but the tenth chapter was his ground for so many men, but I know not where he should find so many Angels. Seuenty men are indeed named in the tenth chapter, but were all those at Babel? And if they were, must those seuenty needs speake seuenty tongues? A whole dozen of them, Canaan and his eleuen sonnes sit down close together, in, or (at least) not farre out of the small compasse of Canaan: where they all differed not, (if any at all did) in language, being seated so nigh together. That Edomites, Moabites, Amalekites, and Ammonites spake not Hebrew, is *Quaest. 60. on Gen.Theodorets opinion, but that all these, and Canaan differed in maternall tongues, before Israel planted it, I cannot conceiue. Nay, that Canaan spake Hebrew before Ioshua came there, I could be perswaded to beleeue for three reasons.
First: the old names of Canaan townes are significant in Hebrew: Iebus, troden downe, by Heathens then, as it is now by the Turkes, Kirjatharbang, the City of arbang: Iosh. 14.15. Iericho, he shall smell it, the City of Palme-trees. The sinfull City Zeboim hath in the text a faire Hebrew name, Zebhiim, that is, the Roes, a name too good for so bad a towne, therefore the margin giues it another name, Zebhojim. Infinite it is to trace all Hebrew-Canaanitish names, who will may trie at pleasure and leasure.
S…condly: Sure I am, that one chief towne in Canaan (if not then also as afterward the chiefest) that is Ierusalem, was Hebrew when it was gouerned by Melchizedek or Sem: who were all one, as the *See the Targums on Gen. 10.Chaldees, *Vid. Mr Brough…ons Melchiz.Iewes, and most Christians do hold. Then did Sem make Canaan a seruant [Gen. 9.26.] vnderunder his rule, and I doubt not but vnderunder his tongue also.
Thirdly. I see that a woman Rahab, vnderstands the Hebrewes at the first sight, and speakes to them (for ought wee finde) without interpreter.
I find the Amorites and Sidonians differing in the name of Hermon, one calling it Sirion, and the other Shenir, Deut. 3.9. But I see not, but both the Hebrewes, and some Canaanites agree in the name Hermon. This groundworke then of seuenty mens being named in the tenth of Genesis to import necessarily seuenty tongues in the eleuenth chapter, I cannot entertaine: yet referre my selfe to better iudgement.
The second reason …or seuenty tongues they fetch out of Moses: Deut. 32.8. from these words: when the most high diuided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sonnes of Adam, he set the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Israel. What all Iewes thought and gathered from that place, let two speake for the rest: Those be Ionathan ben Vzziel, and Rasi. Ionathan reades the verse in Chaldee thus, when the highest gaue possession of the world to the people that descended of the sonnes of Noah: when he deuided letters and tongues to the sons of men, in the age of the diuision, &c. at that time he sets the bounds of the nations, according to the number of the soules of Israel that went downe into Egypt. Thus the Chaldee. Rasi comments to the same purpose in these words: when the holy-blessed-he gaue to those that prouoked him, the portion of their inheritance, he ouerwhelmed and drowned them. When he scattered the generation of the diuision, it was in his power to hauehave passed them out of the world, yet did he not so, but sets borders of the people. He reserues them, and does not destroy them. (According to the number) for the number of the children of Israel, which were to come of the sons of Sem, and according to the number of the seuenty soules, of the sonnes of Israel that went downe into Egypt: (Hee set bounds of the People) Seuenty tongues. Thus farre the Rabbin: Who is so confident of this number of seuenty languages, that he saith, there were men of the seuenty nations in the ship with Ionah, Ionah 1. Thus is the Iewes current for seuenty, the *Clem. Alex. Epiphanius Comestor. &c.Greekes for seuenty two, vponupon what ground I know not, vnlesse the two Cainans in Gen. 10. in the Greeke Bible, make vp this number to them. Some linguists hauehave summed vp the vsuall tongues and Dialects, but seuenty or seuenty two maternalls I neuer saw. Moderne tongues are like the old ship Argo, patched vp with so many peeces, that it is hard to tell which is a peece of old Argo.