Sabaism
is renewed by
Ham.
and it appears elsewhere from Scripture that Sabaism was
liable to judicial punishment in the time of Job.1 But from
the existence of a city (Sipparah) dedicated to the Sun, as
well as from the first of Noah’s precepts “ forbidding strange
worship,” it would appear that this and other kinds of idolatry
must have existed previously.
Sanchoniatho attributes Sabaism to Genus and Genea (Cain
and his wife), who stretched forth their hands towards the Sun,
as the only Lord of Heaven, adding that the first men worshipped
those things on which they themselves lived f it is also-
stated by Maimonides, from tradition, that in the time of Enos
the children of Adam began to sin greatly. They built
temples, and made images to represent the heavenly bodies
which they worshipped, saying that God had created the stars
to govern the world and had given them honour by setting
them on high.3 Moreover it is presumed that idolatrous
images of some kind were in use, even in Noah’s family; for in
a modern version of the Book of Genesis we read that Ham,
the father of Canaan, exposed the religious symbols of his
father, which he declared to his brethren without; that is, he
strove to overturn the worship of God; and for this purpose
he endeavoured to place the unclean things, or idolatrous
images, within the tabernacle of the true worship, as he had
already done in the tabernacles of his son Canaan.4 It is
added that when Noah had ended his wine-offering (for he
knew that his younger son had offered for himself), he declared
the divine command regarding Ham’s posterity.5’
Now, assuming this to be the more correct reading, it follows
that Ham’s sin regarded the cherubim, and the religious
ceremonies confided by Noah to Shem, who had been chosen
high priest, to the exclusion of his ambitious brother. The
latter, instead however of submitting, was induced to set up his
own laws, and it is supposed that the previous or antediluvian
idolatry on which they were based was in consequence renewed.
1 Ch. X X X I ., v. 26, 27, 28.
2 Cory’s Ancient Fragments, pp. 5, 6.
8 Vide Hottinger, Smegma Orient., p. 322.
4 Gen., chap. IX ., v. 22. Note by Bellamy.
5 Ibid., y. 24. Bellamy’s Translation.
This, as will be presently seen, appears to have speedily taken
a more settled form in Syria, from whence it was spread over
Greece by the issue of Japhet, whilst it prevailed amongst the
descendants of Shem in Arabia, and likewise in Babylonia,
where it is understood that Seruch (Serug) afterwards introduced
the use of painting as part of the rites and ceremonies
of idol-worship respecting persons who had been deified.1
In addition to the religious precepts he inculcated, Noah
j made such a distribution of the earth as would enable his descendants
to find space in different directions for their rapidly Trees and
1 i t i i i p i increasing members; and the knowledge ot the oildi worildi plants survive the flood,
which he must have possessed would have enabled him to allot
the most desirable tracts. Neither trees nor plants appear to
have formed a part of what was preserved in the ark, and as
we know that the olive and the vine survived the Deluge, it
may fairly be concluded that the surface of the earth did not
experience any great alteration, a circumstance which is in
some degree established by geological examinations.2
The position of Central Armenia greatly facilitated the immediate
extension of the postdiluvian people. The opening
between the Black and the Caspian Seas necessarily conducted '
one section towards the tracts lying in that direction. The Mankind
Mediterranean Sea conducted another portion towards Arabia sprea
and Africa, whilst the slopes of the Taurus would carry a
third eastward, and a part also westward of Mount Ararat.
The first region called Garbia, or the North, according to
’Abu-l-Faraj, fell to’ Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal,
Meshech, Tiras,3 and other branches hereafter to be noticed.
This in the sequel comprised Spain, France, and the
countries of the Greeks, Sclavonians, Bulgarians, Turks, and
Armenians; so that it included the whole of Asia north of th e into Europe,
Taurus, and probably also the tracts extending through Europe
to the Atlantic.4 To the children of the second son,% as the
1 From Epiphanius, see p. 54 of Cory’s Ancient Fragments.
8 Researches in Babylonia, Assyria, &c., by W. Francis Ainsworth, F.G.S.,
F.R.G.S., Geologist to the Euphrates Expedition. J . W . Parker, London,
1838. 8 Gen., chap. X., v. 2.
4 ’Abii-l-Faraj, Hist. Dynast., p. 8, compared with Boehart’s Phaleg,
chap. X IV ., and Muller's Sammlung Riissischer Geschichte. I I . Stuck, p. 3.
VOL. II. C