4, 
ure Number of your work, to lay before 
your readers a plan for confining the bu- 
“Gnefs of propagation entirely to the vir- 
tuous part.of the community. I fhall 
point out the means fer difcriminating 
and feleéting thefe from the mafs of man- 
kind, and forming men intoa body, under 
the title of the Propaganda—by thefe 
means we may expect the’ magnus ordo 
jeculorum of virtue to be reftored, and 
prevent the numberlefs evils that arife 
from the cohabitation of the depraved and 
wicked, Iam, your’s &c. 
PHILAMEDES. 
& 
eS 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
A nel? ETYMOLOGY of the WORD BABEL} 
or, PROOFS thai BABEL does not fignify 
CONFUSION. ; ‘ 
T has been hitherto the univerfal opi- 
 nion, that Babel fignifes Confufion. 
This opinion was founded on the words 
which we read in the bodk of Genefis, 
where it is faid that the pofterity of Noah 
did build a city called Babel, becaufe the 
Lord - did confound their language*. 
‘Thence -it was inferred, that Babel figni- 
fied Confufion ; and, indeed, boih facred 
and profane writers, as well Chriftians as 
Jews, from the remotett times, have made 
no difficulty to fay, that the Hebrew word 
Babel imports Confufion. ‘This is not to 
be wondered at, if we confider the blind 
attachment of the Jews to whatever is 
faid by Mofes, and the fupreme ignorance 
of the Chriftians relative to whatever is 
derived from the Hebrew. Among thefe, I 
fhall eniy quote St. Auguftin,who,although 
one of the moft learned of the fathers, and 
a mafier of the Punic language, which 
was 4 dialect of the Hebrew, and_his ver- 
nacular. idiom was, neverthelefs, fo in- 
attentive as to neglect the knowledge of 
a dialef&t highly neceflary for the explana- 
tion of the Scriptures. One cannot fee 
without aftonifament, fays Bafnage, that 
among fuch a great number of priefis and 
bifhops, of which the clergy was com- 
pofed during fo many centuries, the 
number of thofe who underiiood the He- 
brew, and who were able to read the Old’ 
‘Tefiament, or the commentaries of the 
Jews, in the original, was fo {mail}. Nay, 
even thofe among the fathers, fays Mid- 
Gleton, who pretended to have received 
the gift of expounding the feripture, 
proved very oftén the contrary, from the 
* Gen. chap. 2. ; 
+ Bafnage, Hitt, des Juifs, liv. iii chap, 6. 
A New Etymolocy of thé Word Babel. 
[Feb. 1, 
‘ignorance of the Hebrew language whicli 
they difplayed. Thus, St. Juftin, a fa- 
ther of the fecond century, explaining ‘the 
word Satanas, {ays that it is compofed 
from Sata, an apoffate, and denotes. a 
juake, although every Hebrew ftudent 
now knows, that it is derived from Szataz, 
which in Hebrew fignifies an enemy, a foe, 
an adverfary*. . 
The fame obfcurity has prevailed with 
regard to the word Babel. Either from 
ignorance or negleét, it fo happens, that 
to this day the fame interpretation has 
been repeated from one to another, with- 
out either attending to the forced deriva- 
tion of fuch a meaning, if taken from the 
Hebrew, or to the plain and natural one, 
if derived, from the Chaldaic. The faé& 
is, that Babel was the name of the ancient 
capital of Chaldea, and that to confound 
fignifies in Hebrew not Babel or Babalt+, 
but Balal. Now from Balal, according 
to the rules of the Hebrew Grammar, no 
fuch word as Babel can defcend ; and, 
therefore, if Gonfu/ion be derived literally 
‘from Balal, it muit found either Mebilab 
or Zebilah; Balal being one of thofe He- 
brew verbs which double the fecond radi- 
cal letter; thus from galal defcends megi- 
lah, from palal, tepbilah, &ct. 
Of this difficulty, Aben Ezra, one of 
the moft learned of the Jewith rabbins, 
feems to have been well aware. He there- 
fore endeavours to derive the word Babel 
from ba, to come, and from Bel, which he 
tranflates Cozfu/ion||. But, although the 
third radical of Balal might be thus fyn- 
copated, as in feveral other Hebrew 
words to which 6a muft be added, in or- 
der to make it complete; yet there is 
-really no oceafion for fuch a forced deri- 
vation, when we have a much plainer, 
and more natural one in the Chaldaic 
idiom which was the native language of 
Babel, or, according tothe Greek pronun- 
ciation, Babylon, a derivation agreeing 
with all the ancient hiftorians who treat 
of that country, and who, inftead of refer- 
ring to a confufion of languages, about 
which they are totally filent, all concur 
* Middleton’s Enguiry into the Miracu- 
lous Powers of the Primitive Church. 
+ Taylor, Buxtorf, and all other Hebrew 
lexicographers. 
£.See David Kimchi’s Miklol, and. all 
the grammiarians. 
|| Aben Ezra’s Commentar. in Genes. 
cap. 11. 
in 
