“Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Gen. xi, 7).
The origin of the various languages of men is here attributed to a miraculous confusion of tongues. Science shows that languages had no such origin. Renan says:
“Far from placing unity at the beginning of language, it is necessary to look at such a unity as the slow and tardy result of an advanced civilization. In the beginning there were as many dialects as families.”
This Bible account of the confusion of tongues is contradicted by the preceding chapter of Genesis (x, 5, 20, 31), which, referring to the children of Japheth, Ham, and Shem, says they were divided “every one after his tongue,” “after their families, after their tongues.”
Physiology.
“And the ark rested in the seventh month ... upon the mountains of Ararat” (Gen. viii, 4).
“And in the second month [of the following year] was the earth dried” (viii, 14).
Here on the top of Ararat, three miles above the surrounding country, and three thousand feet above the region of perpetual snow, for months, the respiratory organs of man and all the animals of earth performed their functions without difficulty!
“Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” (Matt. ix, 4).