Discussing Corroborating Babel

In my blog entry Corroborating Babel, I noted my discovery of how Insight on the Scriptures was updated under Archeology, Babylonia. The original text was inherited from Insight’s predecessor, Aid to Bible Understanding. The original entry read:

One fragment found north of Marduk temple in Babylon related the fall of such a ziggurat in these words: “The building of this temple offended the gods. In a night they threw down what had been built. They scattered them abroad, and made strange their speech. The progress they impeded.” The ziggurat located at Uruk (Biblical Erech) was found to be built with clay, bricks and asphalt.—Compare Genesis 11:1-9.

And the original text from Insight on the Scriptures was:

One fragment found N of the temple of Marduk in Babylon related the fall of such a ziggurat in these words: “The building of this temple offended the gods. In a night they threw down what had been built. They scattered them abroad, and made strange their speech. The progress they impeded.” (Bible and Spade, by S. L. Caiger, 1938, p. 29) The ziggurat located at Uruk (Biblical Erech) was found to be built with clay, bricks, and asphalt.—Compare Ge 11:1-9.

This abbreviated “north” to “N” and added the citation “(Bible and Spade, by S. L. Caiger, 1938, p. 29)”. This citation gave a footnote “G. Smith, Chaldaean Account of Genesis (1880).” But this paragraph was updated to:

One clay fragment found N of the temple of Marduk in Babylon may relate to the fall of such a tower and the confusion of language, though it does not specifically mention a ziggurat. (The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Adam Smith, revised and corrected [with additions] by A. H. Sayce, 1880, p. 164) The ziggurat located at Uruk (Biblical Erech) was found to be built with clay, bricks, and asphalt.—Compare Ge 11:1-9.

As noted above, the reference the Aid and Insight books quoted from, Bible and Spade, gave the footnote “G. Smith, Chaldaean Account of Genesis (1880).” This citation is the same in the updated entry and was expanded to “(The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Adam Smith, revised and corrected [with additions] by A. H. Sayce, 1880, p. 164)”. The reference to the clay fragment being ‘found north of the Marduk temple in Babylon’ refers to the ziggurat at Etemenanki which is north of Esagila, or temple of Marduk. Esagila is Sumerian for “temple whose top is lofty” and “was a temple dedicated to Marduk, the protector god of Babylon. It lay south of the ziggurat Etemenanki.” (Wikipedia, Esagila)

In summary, the entry in the Aid and Insight books was revisited and modified to be more cautious and accurate, and employed the reference in the footnote in Bible and Spade.

Supporting files:

• Bible and Spade p. 29 with the footnote
• The Chaldean Account of Genesis p. 164
• A map of Babylon with Etemenanki and Esagila identified

Link: Corroborating Babel
jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2014/02/corroborating-babel-whole-earth-had.html


(Introductory image made using AI Arta.)