Such is the "Scripture" account of the origin of languages, which differs somewhat from the ideas of Prof. Max Müller and other philologists.
Bishop Colenso tells us that:
"The story of the dispensation of tongues is connected by the Jehovistic writer with the famous unfinished temple of Belus, of which probably some wonderful reports had reached him. . . . The derivation of the name Babel from the Hebrew word babal (confound) which seems to be the connecting point between the story and the tower of Babel, is altogether incorrect."[33:2]
The literal meaning of the word being house, or court, or gate of Bel, or gate of God.[34:1]
John Fiske confirms this statement by saying:
"The name 'Babel' is really 'Bab-il', or 'The Gate of God'; but the Hebrew writer erroneously derives the word from the root 'babal'—to confuse—and hence arises the mystical explanation, that Babel was a place where human speech became confused."[34:2]
The "wonderful reports" that reached the Jehovistic writer who inserted this tale into the Hebrew Scriptures, were from the Chaldean account of the confusion of tongues. It is related by Berosus as follows:
The first inhabitants of the earth, glorying in their strength and size,[34:3] and despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky, in the place where Babylon now stands. But when it approached the heavens, the winds assisted the gods, and overthrew the work of the contrivers, and also introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the same language. The ruins of this tower are said to be still in Babylon.[34:4]
Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that it was Nimrod who built the tower, that he was a very wicked man, and that the tower was built in case the Lord should have a mind to drown the world again. He continues his account by saying that when Nimrod proposed the building of this tower, the multitude were very ready to follow the proposition, as they could then avenge themselves on God for destroying their forefathers.