of Jerusalem belong to the age of the Romans. Tomb of Helena of Adiabene .—There was one
other very famous tomb at Jerusalem, which cannot he passed over in silence, though not one
vestige of it exists—the supposed tomb of Helena. We are told that “she with her brother was buried
in the pyramids which she had ordered to be constructed at a distance of three stadia from Jerusalem.”
Joseph. Ant. xx. 4,3. This is confirmed by Pelusanias. viii. 16. The tomb was situated outside the
third wall near a gate between the tower Psephinus and the Royal Caverns. B.J. v. 22 and v. 4,2.
The people still cling to their ancient cemeteries in the valley of Jehoshaphat with a tenacity
singularly characteristic of the east. [Burial, Sepulchres]
Tongues, Confusion Of
The unity of the human race is most clearly implied, if not positively asserted, in the Mosaic
writings. Unity of language is assumed by the sacred historian apparently as a corollary of the unity
of race. (This statement is confirmed by philologists.) No explanation is given of the origin of
speech, but its exercise is evidently regarded as coeval with the creation of man. The original unity
of speech was restored in Noah. Disturbing causes were, however, early at work to dissolve this
twofold union of community and speech. The human family endeavored b check the tendency to
separation by the establishment of a great central edifice and a city which should serve as the
metropolis of the whole world. The project was defeated by the interposition of Jehovah, who
determined to “confound their language, so that they might not understand one another’s speech.”
Contemporaneously with, and perhaps as the result of, this confusion of tongues, the people were
scattered abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and the memory of the great event was
preserved in the name Babel. [Babel. Tower OF] Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar .—In the Borsippa
inscription of Nebuchadnezzar there is an allusion to the confusion of tongues. “We say for the
other, that is, this edifice, the house of the Seven Lights of the Earth, the most ancient monument
of Borsippa, a former king built it [they reckon forty-two ages], but he did not complete its head.
Since a remote time people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that
time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had
been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps.” It is unnecessary to assume
that the judgment inflicted on the builders of Babel amounted to a loss, or even a suspension of
articulate speech. The desired object would be equally attained by a miraculous forestallment of
those dialectical differences of language which are constantly in process of production. The elements
of the one original language may have remained, but so disguised by variations of pronunciation
and by the introduction of new combinations as to be practically obliterated. The confusion of
tongues and the dispersion of nations are spoken of in the Bible as contemporaneous events. The
divergence of the various families into distinct tribes and nations ran parallel with the divergence
of speech into dialects and languages, and thus the tenth chapter of Genesis is posterior in historical
sequence to the events recorded in the eleventh chapter.
Tongues, Gift Of
I. glotta, or glossa, the word employed throughout the New Testament for the gift now under
consideration, is used— (1) for the bodily organ of speech; (2) for a foreign word imported and
half-naturalized in Greek; (3) in Hellenistic Greek, for “speech” or “language.” The received
traditional view, which starts from the third meaning, and sees in the gift of tongues a distinctly
linguistic power, is the more correct one. II. The chief passages from which we have to draw our
conclusion as to the nature and purpose of the gift in question are—
•(Mark 16:17)
frankie
(Frankie)
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