Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/332



hæc perpetua mundi dementia est, neglecto cœlo immortalitatem quærere in terra, ubi nihil est non caducum et evanidum (Calv.).

3. Parallels.—No Babylonian version of the story has been discovered; and for the reason given above (p. 226) it is extremely unlikely that anything resembling the biblical form of it will ever be found there. In Greek mythology there are dim traces of a legend ascribing the diversities of language to an act of the gods, whether as a punishment on the creatures for demanding the gift of immortality (Philo, De Conf. ling.), or without ethical motive, as in the 143rd fable of Hyginus. But while these myths are no doubt independent of Jewish influence, their resemblance to the Genesis narrative is too slight to suggest a common origin. It is only in the literature of the Hellenistic period that we find real parallels to the story of the Tower of Babel; and these agree so closely with the biblical account that it is extremely doubtful if they embody any separate tradition. The difference to which most importance is attached is naturally the polytheistic phraseology ('the gods') employed by some of the writers named (Polyhistor, Abyd.); but the polytheism is only in the language, and is probably nothing more than conscious or unconscious Hellenising of the scriptural narrative. Other differences—such as the identification of the tower-builders with the race of giants (the Nephîlîm of 6$2$?), and the destruction of the tower by a storm—are easily explicable as accretions to the legend of Genesis. The remarkable Mexican legend of the pyramid of Cholula, cited by Jeremias from von Humboldt, has a special interest on account of the unmistakable resemblance between the Mexican pyramids and the Babylonian zikkurats. If this fact could be accepted)