The Babylon connection, part nine

Previously: The Babylon connection, part eight

Now comes the most interesting part of this inquiry. We know what Scripture has said on the topic of the Great Flood, and the rebellion at the Tower of Babel. We know the details which support the Scriptural account, which Josephus brought to light. But is there any other evidence which confirms the rebellion at Babel, and the rise of paganism from that event, and the distortions which Nimrod introduced to the true worship of our Creator and ultimately our Savior, which may still linger in our culture today?

This was Bryant's great contribution. He reconstructed the history of the ancient world, beginning with Scripture as the starting point, and showed how the writings of the ancient world itself not only confirms the history told in Scipture, but supplies details which Scripture hints at, which make the narrative so much more clear to us who are 4000 years removed from the events. Now when Byrant wrote his book, like Ussher, he did not have the benefit of cuneiform, monuments, and inscriptions that we have today. The archaeological discoveries in Egypt and at Nineveh were yet to be made. But I was struck that the descriptions made by Rawlinson of the cuneiform and monuments uncovered by his day confirmed in every point what Bryant had unraveled, using nothing but the ancient world's own writings. I would love to reproduce Bryant's whole work, it is fascinating from beginning to end. But it is six volumes, each one nearly 400 pages in length. And it is rare and hard to find, even in university libraries. So I will summarize the best I can, and quote for confirmation the particularly relevant portions.

The family of Ham were the great adventurers and discoverers of the ancient world. They began an extensive commerce in very early times; made footholds in very many places in the earth, where they founded cities which were famous in their day. They raised pillars for sea-marks on headlands and promontories to guide the voyages of their clan. Everywhere they went they established the false religion which Nimrod taught them, often erecting towers and temples as instrumental in that worship. We can see how wide their original influence spread by the extent to which we find the exact same false religion practiced in many different places by many different people (Bryant, vol. 1, Preface and Radicals). Remember that Noah "cursed" the family of Canaan in Genesis, and this curse was mistakenly used by Europeans (descended from Japheth) to justify the enslavement of the Africans (descended from Ham, as was Canaan) for many centuries? One theory among Bible believers, as the true history of the ancient world comes once more to light, is that the "service" which the family of Ham rendered to the families of Japheth and Shem was the voyaging, mapping, discovering, trading, and inventing for which the Hamites where primarily responsible in ancient times (Defenders Study Bible, footnote to the above passage in Genesis).

To be continued ...

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Update: continued in part ten.