4 
7802.] 
in faying that Bel was the firft founder 
of Babel*. 
Thus Curtius, fpeaking of Babylon, 
{ays it was built by Semiramis, or, as it is 
the common opinion, by Bel, whofe court 
is ftill fhewnt; and Ammianus Marcelli- 
nus, reconciling both opinions, relates, 
that Semiramis built the walls of the 
city, and that the caftle had been built 
long before by Belt. 
Bel isa Chaldaic word, fignifying Lord, 
mafter, or God; and, according to the 
Seripture, Bel was the chief god of the 
Babylonians, and, according to profane 
writers, the founder of Babel; we may 
confequently fuppofe, that Babel was called 
thus from Bel. This may be proved a priori 
—Bel had a fon called Ninus or Nin, 
which in Hebrew fignifies'a fon; Ninus, 
about the fame time, built another town 
near Babylon, which he ordered to be 
called after his name, fays Diodorus Si- 
culus|], as the name of Nineveh itfelf 
clearly proves. For, as Nim fignifies a 
fon, fo Newvebh fignifies a place of abode or 
habitation (Taylor’s Sub. Concord.) ; 
confequently Nineveh fignifies the habita- 
tion of Nin, as Bochart has long ago ob- 
ferved§. If Nineveh was called after its 
founder, the fame might be the cafe with 
Babel, and confequently Babel might fig- 
nify the Court of Bel. Thus, indeed, Babbel 
fignifies, in the Hebrew (5222); and there- 
fore Profeffor Eichhorn, of Gottingen, in 
his enlarged edition of Simonis Hebrew 
Lexicon, not fatisfied with the ancient 
word Confufion, fuppofes Babel to be ex- 
tracted from** Bab, a door or court, and 
Bel, the god of the Babylonianst+. M. 
Beauchamp, a Frenchman, who, during 
his refidence at Bagdad, had applied him- 
felf to the ftudy of the Arabic, fpeaking 
* See Pezron. Orig. Babylon, Cap. 7. 
+ Semiramis eam condidit ; vel, ut ple- 
rique credidere, Belus, cujus regia oftenditur. 
Curtius de Rebus geff. Alex. M. lib. 5. 
t Babylon, cujus menia bitumine Semira- 
mis ftruxit; arcem enim antiquiffimus rex 
condidit Belus. Ammian. Marcell, lib. 23. 
‘|| Diod. Sic. Biblioth. Hitt. lib. 2, 
§ Bochart. Phaleg. 
*® Sed fortaffis contra€ta eft ex Bab-Bel, 
porta, feu aula Beli. Simen.—Lexic. Heb. 
Chald. Hale, 1793; voce Babel. 
++ Bab fignifies to this day, in Arabic, 
the daughter of the Hebrew, a door, a court 5 
in Perfian, der fignifies a door, and acourt; and 
thence alfo the Ottoman Porte is tantamount 
so the Ottoman Court. 
MontTHLY Mac. No, 84s 
‘A New Etymology of the Word Babel. 25 
of Babylon, whofe ruins he vifited, fays, 
A perfon {killed in theArabic will not ea- 
fily believe that the word Babel is deriv- 
ed (as commentators pretend) from the 
root bibbel, which in Arabic fignifies to 
confound*; for the fame irregularity takes 
place in deriving Bade/ either from Balal, 
or from Balbal, or from Belbel, and there- 
fore Golius, in his Arabic Dictionary, 
which is claffified after the roots, puts Ba- 
bel in a feparate place, as a word not be- 
longing to the verb dibbel, to confound, but 
as one having no root}. 
If Babel then does sot originally figni- 
fy confufion, the queftion now cccurs, 
why Moles, or Ezras, who has inferted 
different things in the Books of Mofts 
(fuch as, for inftance, his death, which 
could not be related by Mofes himfelf), 
thought proper to give to the famous Ba- 
bylon fuch a contemptible etymology and 
derivation. Whoever has attentively 
read Zimmermann’s excellent work on 
National Pride, will eafily conceive how 
the Jews would {peak with contempt of 
their neighbours, the Chaldeans, as well 
as their gods. What Juvenal relates of 
Egypt, that one town de(pifed the gods of 
the other, muft naturally have happened in 
Syria: 
Numina vicinorum © 
Odit utreque locus, cum folos credat habendos 
Effe Deos quos ipfe colit. Juv. Sat. 15. 
It is dangerous indeed to rely on the 
authority and teftimony of jealous neigh- 
bours ; and it would be equally dangerous 
if we were, for inftance, to rely on the au- 
.thority of Tacitus}, refpeGting the origin 
of the Jews; we fhould be told that they 
were driven out of Egypt, not by divine 
order, but on account of their being very 
much infected with the itch, fcab, or le- - 
profy : and we fhould learn from Plu- 
tarch, that they worfhipped affes, from 
their having been taught by an afs how 
to find water in the defart§. 
Be! was a foreign divinity ; now, it was 
commanded by the law of Mofes,to dettroy 
the name of the ftrange gods(Deut.xii.3.); 
at which place, Solomon Jarchi obferves, 
that this was by giving them a con- 
temptible name, as, for inltance, inftead 
of Beth-galia, which was an ho: ourable 
‘name, to change it into another, which 
PREIRU nD oe ro vance oy Wada acne St Seereewinn Coe 
# Journal des Scavans, December, 1799. 
+ Golii Lexic. Arab. 
{ Tacit. Annal. lib. 5. 
|| Plutarch, Sympos. lib, Ze 
E has 
