Such is the "Scripture" account of the origin of languages, which differs somewhat from the ideas of Prof. Max Müller and other philologists.
"The story of the dispensation of tongues is connected by the Jehovistic writer with the famous unfinished temple of _Belus_, of which probably some wonderful reports had reached him. . . . The derivation of the name _Babel_ from the Hebrew word _babal_ (confound) which seems to be the connecting point between the story and the tower of Babel, _is altogether incorrect_."[33:2]
The literal meaning of the word being _house_, or _court_, or _gate_ of Bel, or gate of God.[34:1]
John Fiske confirms this statement by saying:
"The name '_Babel_' is really '_Bab-il_', or '_The Gate of God_'; but the Hebrew writer _erroneously_ derives the word from the root '_babal_'--to confuse--and hence arises the _mystical explanation_, that Babel was a place where human speech became confused."[34:2]
The "wonderful reports" that reached the Jehovistic writer who inserted this tale into the Hebrew Scriptures, were from the Chaldean account of the confusion of tongues. It is related by _Berosus_ as follows:
The first inhabitants of the earth, glorying in their strength and size,[34:3] and despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky, in the place where Babylon now stands. But when it approached the heavens, the winds assisted the gods, and overthrew the work of the contrivers, and also introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the same language. The ruins of this tower are said to be still in Babylon.[34:4]
Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that it was _Nimrod_ who built the tower, that he was a very wicked man, and that the tower was built in case the Lord should have a mind to drown the world again. He continues his account by saying that when Nimrod proposed the building of this tower, the multitude were very ready to follow the proposition, as they could then avenge themselves on God for destroying their forefathers.
"And they built a tower, neither sparing any pains nor being in any degree negligent about the work. And by reason of the multitude of hands employed on it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect. . . . . It was built of burnt brick, cemented together, with mortar made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they had acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, _since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners_, but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them divers languages, and causing, that through the multitude of those languages they should not be able to understand one another. The place where they built the tower is now called Babylon."[34:5]