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The Pyramids were, without doubt, copied from and built after the model of the Tower of Babel. At the time that Joseph was entrusted by Pharaoh with the task of making provision against the approaching famine that he predicted would take place, the building of the City and Tower of Babel by Nimrod the son of Cush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, and the confusion of tongues that followed, were of comparatively recent date. Abraham's father Terah was in the service of King Nimrod during their erection.
We are told in the Scriptures that "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."[19]
In this description the motive assigned for the building of the above-mentioned city and tower is that the people over whom Nimrod reigned might be preserved together with renown. They found a plain by the river Euphrates that suited their purpose, resembling the plain of Egypt by the river Nile. In Shinar there was no stone, so brick was used in its stead. This plain was fertile and produced much corn. The settlers anticipated another Deluge, and on that account they provided themselves with the means of subsistence when that calamity might recur on the earth. The precaution they took for this event was to build a place of safety, with a granary that would hold a sufficient amount of corn to last during the whole period of the visitation. They built a gigantic granary resembling the great Pyramid of Jeezeh, which they filled with corn. Joseph imitated this example in Egypt.
The same event is thus recorded in the Talmud:-"Cush, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah, married in his old age a young wife, and begat a son, whom he called Nimrod, because in those days the people were beginning to rebel again against the Lord's command, and Nimrod signifies 'Rebellion.' Now Nimrod grew up, and his father loved him exceedingly, because he was the child of his old age. When Nimrod was forty years old his brethren, the sons of Ham, quarrelled with the sons of Japhet. And Nimrod assembled the tribe of Cush, and went forth to battle with the sons of Japhet. And he addressed his army, saying, 'Be not dismayed, and banish fear from your hearts. Our enemies shall surely be your booty, and ye shall do with them as ye please.' Nimrod was victorious, and the opposing armies became his subjects. And when he and his soldiers returned home rejoicing, the people gathered around and made him king, and placed a crown upon his head. And he appointed counsellors, judges, chiefs, generals, and captains. He established a national government, and he made Therach, the son of Nahor, his chief officer. When Nimrod had thus established his power he decided to build a city, a walled town, which should be the capital of his country. And he selected a certain plain and built a large city thereon, and called it Shinar. And Nimrod dwelt in Shinar in safety, and gradually became ruler over all the world; and at that time all the people of the earth were of one language and of one speech. Nimrod in his prosperity did not regard the Lord. He made gods of wood and stone, and the people copied his doings. His son Mordan served idols also, from which we have, even to this day, the proverb, 'From the wicked wickedness comes forth.'
"And it came to pass about this time that the officers of Nimrod and the descendants of Phut, Mitzrayim, Cush, and Canaan took counsel together, and they said to one another, 'Let us build a city, and also in its midst a tall tower for a stronghold, a tower the top of which shall reach even to the heavens. Then shall we truly make for ourselves a great and mighty name, before which all our enemies shall tremble. None will then be able to harm us, and no wars may disperse our ranks.' And they spoke these words to the King, and he approved of their design. Therefore these families gathered together and selected a suitable spot for their city and its tower on a plain towards the east in the land of Shinar.
"And while they were building rebellion budded in their hearts, rebellion against God, and they imagined that they could scale the heavens and war with Him. They divided into three parties. The first party said, 'We will ascend to heaven and place there our gods and worship them.' The second party said, 'We will pour into the heavens of the Lord and match our strength with His.' And the third party said, 'Yea, we will smite Him with arrow and with spear.'
"And God watched their evil enterprise and knew their thoughts, yet they builded on. If one of the stones which they had raised to its height fell, they were sad at heart, and even wept; yet when any of their brethren fell from the building and were killed, none took account of the life thus lost. Thus they continued for a space of years, till God said, 'We will confuse their language.' Then the people forgot their language, and they spoke to one another in a strange tongue. And they quarrelled and fought on account of the many misunderstandings occasioned by this confusion of language, and many were destroyed in these quarrels, till at last they were compelled to cease building.
"The tower was exceedingly tall. The third part of it sank down into the ground, a second third was burned down, but the remaining third was standing until the time of the destruction of Babylon. Thus were the people dispersed over the globe, and divided into nations."[20]
In this narrative the object of these wicked idolaters was to ascend and carry war into heaven against God. To accomplish this object or design they built the city and tower; the latter served for the granary as well as the stronghold of the new city.
Abraham was born about this time. His father Terah was then in the service of King Nimrod, in Babylon. Owing to the idolatry and the wickedness of the people, Abraham left the country with his wife and nephew, and settled in the land of Canaan. When Joseph was a child he must have heard from his father the story of those eventful times, when Abraham dwelt in the country wherein he was born. In due time he availed himself of the knowledge thus imparted to him in his early days.
Modern travellers have found many remains of Pyramids in the ancient kingdom of Babylonia. There was, therefore, nothing new or wonderful in the fact of Joseph erecting granaries throughout Egypt when a severe famine was expected. These granaries or Pyramids began in the Delta, which was most fertile and yielded the largest amount of corn. The Pyramids here are the finest as well as the largest; the rest are erected along the western shore of the Nile as far as Ethiopia, which was a province of Egypt. This province revolted in the lifetime of Moses. He went there as commander of the Egyptian forces and suppressed the rebellion. The ruins in Mero? and Axum, and other places in Ethiopia, attest the truth of this statement.
Egyptologists have spent much time and labour in pursuit of their science, but, very unfortunately, their researches have been directed by misleading guides.
The authorities they took for their guidance were the Greek and Roman writers, who knew nothing about the events that took place before Egypt became a province of Alexander the Great and of the emperors of Rome.
The oldest and best records of Egypt and the ancient world were written by the inspired historian Moses, and these records, or a small portion of them, were translated from the Hebrew into the Greek language by seventy Jewish elders for the King Ptolemy Philadelphus in the year 284 B.C.; so that before this time the outer or the Gentile world was in utter ignorance regarding the history of Egypt, as well as that of the Jews. The authors held in veneration by Egyptologists are Manetho and Herodotus. Manetho's ignorance as to the history of his own country is shown by Flavius Josephus; and Herodotus wrote his account of the Pyramids from hearsay. The priests who related the anecdotes concerning the kings Cheops and his brother Chephren, and the shepherd Philition, knew nothing themselves as to the real truth, for the whole account is in confusion, worse confounded by their stupendous ignorance.
The writings of these two authors have misled every Egyptologist. Had the Bible, the Jewish records called the Talmud, and Flavius Josephus been studied instead, Egyptologists would have learnt the truth, and nothing but the truth, and their time and labour would have been rewarded most satisfactorily. The reader of this work will find extracts in the later portion of it, which will repay the trouble of perusal.
The testimony of recent travellers proves the reality of the existence of granaries in Babylon, and the indisputable fact that the Pyramids were built in imitation of them. The following is an instance:-[21]
"On the 9th December 1811 Mr. Rich made an expedition to the Birs-i-Nimrúd. He found vestiges of mounds all round it to a considerable extent, and the country traversed by canals in every direction. The soil round it is sandy. Close to the Birs, or at about a hundred yards from it, and parallel with its southern front, is a high mound, almost equal in size to that of the Kasr.
"'The Birs,' says he, 'is an enormous mound. At the north end it rises, and there is an immense brick wall, thirty-seven feet high and twenty-eight in breadth, upon it. This wall is not in the centre of the north summit of the mound, but appears to have formed the southern face of it. The other parts of the summit are covered by huge fragments of brickwork, tumbled confusedly together; and what is most extraordinary is that they are partly converted into a solid vitrified mass. The layers are in many parts perfectly distinguishable; but the whole of these lumps seem to have undergone the action of fire. Several lumps of the same matter have rolled down, and remain partly on the side of the mound and partly in the plain. The large wall on the southern face of the summit is built of burnt bricks, with writing on them, and so close together that no cement is discoverable between the layers. Small square apertures are left, which go quite through the building, and are arranged in a kind of quincunx form. Down the face of the wall the bricks have been separated, leaving a large crack. On the side towards the mound of Ibrahím Khalil, the mound slopes gradually down, and up nearly half its height is a flat road running round this part of it, twenty of my paces broad.
"'From this the mound slopes more gradually to the plain or valley between it and the mound of Ibrahím Khalil, and is worn into deep ravines or furrows, like the Mujelibé. On the other or north face of this pile it slopes down more abruptly at once into the plain, with only hollows or paths round it, the road before mentioned, which from that part appears to surround the building, losing itself before it reaches this. On the north-west face, where it also slopes down into the plain, are vestiges of building in the side, exactly similar in appearance and construction to the wall on the top, with the holes or apertures which are mentioned in the description of that. At foot of all is, seemingly, a flat base of greater extent, but very little raised above the level of the plain. The whole sides of the mound are covered with pieces of brick, both burnt and unburnt, bitumen, pebbles, spar, black stone, the same sand or limestone which covers the canal at the Kasr, and even fragments of white marble. No reeds were to be seen in any part of the building, though I saw one or two specimens of burnt bricks which evidently had reeds in their composition, and some had the impression of reeds on their cement. I saw also several bricks which were thickly coated with bitumen on their lower face. In the lowest part of the mound opposite Ibrahím Khalil, the mounds are most evidently composed of unburnt bricks, the layers being in great measure visible. This would lead one to suppose that it was not originally part of the great pile, were not specimens of this kind of bricks found in it also.
"'The circumference of the base-not the low one-is 762 yards. The whole height of it, from this measured base to the summit of the tower or wall, is 235 feet; but there can be no doubt that it was much higher. The form is more oblong than square. I found the longest side to be 248 of my paces. Fortunately for the preservation of the ruin, it is too far from the Euphrates for the Arabs to think it worth their while to excavate for bricks; while they are so closely joined together, that it is impossible to procure them quite unbroken.'
"Mr. Rich will not admit this tower to be that of Belus, because, according to his view, it is on the wrong side of the river.
"The whole height of the Birs-i-Nimrúd above the plain to the summit of the brick wall is 235 feet. The brick wall itself, which stands on the edge of the summit, and was undoubtedly the face of another stage, is 37 feet high. In the side of the pile, a little below its summit, is very clearly to be seen part of another brick wall, precisely resembling the fragment which crowns the summit, and still encasing and supporting its part of the mound. This is clearly indicative of another stage of greater extent.
"Without forming any conjecture as to what might have been its original construction, the impression made by the sight of it is, that it was a solid pile, composed in the interior of unburnt brick, and perhaps earth or rubbish; that it was constructed in receding stages, and faced with kiln-burnt bricks having inscriptions on them, laid in a very thin layer of lime cement; and that it was reduced by violence to its present ruinous condition. The upper stones have been forcibly broken down, and fire has been employed as an implement of destruction, though it is not easy to say how or why. The facing of fine bricks has been partly removed and partly covered by the falling down of the mass which it supported and kept together.
"A still later traveller, Mr. Buckingham, is of opinion that the traces of four stages are clearly discernible.
"As to Major Rennell's doubt whether the ruin was artificial, Mr. Rich observes that, 'so indisputably evident is the fact of the whole mass being from top to bottom artificial, that he should as soon have thought of writing a dissertation to prove that the Pyramids are the work of human hands as of dwelling upon this point. The Birs-i-Nimrúd,' he adds, 'is, in all likelihood, at present nearly in the state in which Alexander saw it, if we give any credit to the report that ten thousand men could only remove the rubbish, preparatory to repairing it, in two months. If, indeed, it required one half of that number to disencumber it, the state of dilapidation must have been complete.
"'The immense masses of vitrified brick which are seen on the top of the mound appear to have marked its summit since the time of its destruction. The rubbish about its base was probably in much greater quantities, the weather having dissipated much of it in the course of so many revolving ages; and possibly portions of the interior facing of fine brick may have disappeared at different periods.'"