Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/29

 TOUTTEE

TOWER

centuries; and "L'authoritc des miracles dans I'^glise" (no date), in which he expounds the opinion of St. Augustine. Tassin testifies that he wa.s zealous in his duties, modest, and sincerely religious.

Tassin, Eloge de Touslain in Nauveau traitt de diplomatique, II; Idem. Hisl. lilleraire de la congrigalion de Sl-Afnur. II (Brus- sels 1770); DE Lama, Bibliothcque des icrivains de la congregation de St-Maur (2nd ed., Munich-Paris, 1SS2), 174 sq.

Klemens Loffler.

TouttSe, Antoine-Atigustin, a French Benedic- tine of the IMauri.st Congregation, b. at Riom, De- partment of Puv-de-D6me, 13 Dec, 1677; d. at the Abbey of St-Gerraain-des-Pr&, 25 Dec, 171S. He studied the humanities with the Oratorians at Riom, made vows at the Abbey of Vendome, 29 Oct., 1698, and was ordained priest in December, 1702. He taught philosophy at Vendome from 1702 to 1704 and theol- ogy at St-Benoit-sur-Loire from 1704 to 1708 and at St- Denis from 1708 to 1712. He then withdrew to St-Ger- main-des-Pres to pre- pare a new Greek edition and Latin translation of the works of St. C>-Til of Jerusalem. This was issued after his death by Prudent Maran under the title: "S. Cyrilli Hiersolymit. opera quse extant omnia et ejus nomine circumferuntur; ml mss. eodd. castigatu " (Paris, 1720; also in P. G., XXXIII). ll is preceded by three learned dissertations on the life, writings, and doctrine of St. Cyril, and was at the time the standard edition.

Tassin, Hist, litteraire de la congrig. de Saint-Maur (Brussels and Paris, 1770), German tr. (Frankfort, 1773-4). s. v.; Le Cerf, Bihliothique historique et critique des auteurs de la congrig. de Saint-Maur (The Hague, 1720). s. v.

Michael Ott.

Tower of Babel is the name of the building men- tioned in Gen., xi, 1-9.

I. History of the Tower. — The descendants of Noe had migrated from the "east" (Armenia) first south- ward, along the course of the Tigris, then westward across the Tigris into "a plain in the land of Sennaar". As their growing number forced them to live in locali- ties more and more distant from their patriarchal homes, "they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof m,aj' reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands." The work was soon fairly under way; "and thej- had brick instead of stones, and sUme (asphalt) instead of mortar". But God con- founded their tongue, so that they did not under- stand one another's speech, and thus scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. This is the Bibhcal account of the Tower of Babel. Thus far no Babylonian document has been discovered which refers clearly to the sub- ject. Authorities hke George Smith, Chad Boscawen, and Sayce believed they had discovered a reference to the Tower of Babel; but Frd. Dehtzch pointed out that the translation of the precise words which de- termine the meaning of the text is mo.st uncertain (Smith-Dclitzsch, "Chaldai.sche Genesis", 1876, 120- 124; Anmerk., p. .310). Oppert finds an allusion to the Tower of Babel in a text of Nabuchodono.^or ; but this opinion is hardly more than a theory (cf. "The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia", I, pi. 38, col. 2, Une 62; pi. 41, col. 1, 1. 27, col. 2, 1.

15; Nikel, "Genesis und Keilschriftforschung", 188 sqq.; Bezold, "Ninive und Babylon", 128; Jeremias, "Das alte Testament im Lichte des ahcn Orients", 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1906, 286; Kaulen, "Ass>Tien und Babylonien", 89). A more probable reference to the Tower of Babel we find in the "History" of Berosus as it is handed down to us in two variations by Abydenus and Alexander Polyhistor respectively ("Histor. grsec. fragm.", ed. Didot, II, 512; IV, 282; Euseb., "Chron.", I, 18, in P. G., XIX, 123; "Pra-p. evang.", IX, 14, in P. G., XXI, 705). Special interest attaches to this reference, since Berosus is now supposed to have drawn his material from Babylonian sources.

II. Site of the Tower of Babel. — Both the inspired writer of Genesis and Berosus place the Tower of Babel somewhere in Babylon. But there are three principal opinions as to its precise position in the city. (1) Pietrodella Valle ("Viaggi des- critti", Rome, 1650) located the tower in the north of the city, on the left bank of the Euphrates, where now lie the ruins called Babil. Schra- der inclines to the same opinion in Riehm's "Handwor- terbuch des bibli- schen Altertums" (I, 138), while in "The Cuneiform Inscrip- tions" (I, 108) he leaves to his reader the choice between Babil and the temple France gf Borsippa. The

position of Babil within the limits of the ancient Baby- lon agrees with the Biblical location of the tower; the name Babil itself may be regarded as a traditional relic of the name Babel interpreted by the inspired writer as referring to the confusion of tongues. (2) Rawlinson (Smith-Say ce, "Chaldean account of the Genesis", 1880, pp. 74, 171) places the tower on the ruins of Tell-Amram, regarded by Oppert as the remnants of the hanging gardens. These ruins are situated on the same side of the Euphrates as those of the Babil, and also within the ancient city limits. The excavations of the German Orientgesellschaft have laid bare on this spot the ancient national sanctuary Esagila, sacred to Marduk-Bel, with the documentary testimony that the top of the building had been made to reach Heaven. This agrees with the description of the Tower of Babel as found in Gen., xi, 4: "the top whereof may reach to heaven". To this locality belongs also the tower Etemenanki, or house of the foundation of Heaven and earth, which is composed of six gigantic steps. (3) Sayce (Lectures on the Religion of the .\ncient Babylonians, pp. 112-3, 40.5-7), Oppert ("Expedition en Mtf'sopo- tamie", I, 200-16; "fitudes assyriennes", pp. 91- 1.32), and others follow the more common opinion which identifies the tower of Babel with the ruins of the Bir.s-Nimrud, in Borsippa, situated on the right side of the Euphrates, some seven or eight miles from the ruins of the city jjroper. They are the ruins of the temple Ezida, .s.acred to Xebo, which according to the above-cited inscriptitm of Xabucho- donosor, was repaired and completed by that king; for it had been left incomjjlete by a former ruler in far distant days. These data are too vague to form the basis of an apodictic argument. The Babylonian Talmud (Buxtorf, "Lexicon falmudicum", col. 313) connects Borsippa with the confusion of tongues; but a long period elapsed from the time of the composi-