Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Genesis

[I lisp]

If God wants us to love one another, why would he intentionally sow division among us by making us all speak different languages (Gen. 11:1-9)?

[jimwalton]

The different languages didn't prevent them from loving each other, they just prevented the continuation of this particular large-scale construction project.

Ziggurats in the ancient world were built to support the stairway that was believed to be used by the gods to travel down to their temple and into the town and bring blessing. It was a convenience, so to speak, that the people provided for their gods. But you can read in verse 6 that their intent was less than noble. They wanted to make a name for themselves instead of making a name for God. Their motivation was not to honor God but to bring prosperity and honor to themselves.

What most likely happened here is that "the united cultures of the Sumerians are invaded by the Babylonians (Semitic language segment) and dispersed, heightening an existing clash of languages, creating a disintegration and mixing of language as the Sumerian civilization collapsed and people groups were mixed by the permeation of foreign languages" (Paul Penley). By doing so, God shut the project down. Cooperation and progress were impossible. It's not a story describing the origin of all languages, but a localized confusion of a major language in Mesopotamia.

Their offense is the ziggurat, representing the religious system in which the gods were recast with human natures. People were no longer trying to be like God, but more insidiously, were trying to bring God down to the level of fallen humanity. The fall of Sumer was a fall of the religious system there.

The date of this event is somewhere in about 3000-2000 BC. According to Sumerian chronology, the Sumerian dynasty at Ur III in about 2110-2000 BC (±50) saw its demise and transition to the first Babylonian dynasty right in this exact time frame. The Ur III period was one of great prosperity, with a booming economy allowing great construction programs. Archaeologically speaking, the most significant feature of the Ur III period is the magnificent monumental architecture.

God's action was not to cause hatred or bigotry between the various language groups, but to bring an end to the cooperative effort that led to this building project. Dr. John Walton says, "This remedial action didn't eliminate the problem (which continued in the Mesopotamian religious system), but it registered God's displeasure and paved the way for his decision to work through one nation and one language group (ch. 12ff.)."

Walton, again, says, "Why does the Lord take such drastic action? ... It is beyond mere idolatry; it degraded the nature of God by portraying him as having needs. It is no longer humanity that is being corrupted, but God who is being distorted and corrupted—twisted beyond recognition.

"Of course, pagan polytheism in the ancient world is not unique to Babylon. It is the heritage of all of Israel's neighbors. This is exactly the point: this diluted view of God became ubiquitous. At the core of this view is the belief that the gods have needs. Worship and human response to the gods in general are directed toward meeting those needs. The gods need to be fed, clothed, and housed. They are pampered, patronized, and manipulated. The heart of paganism is not found in the perversity of rituals but in the degradation of deity. This trend continued into Greece and Rome, and was addressed by Paul in Rom. 1.21-32. In contrast, YHWH, the God is Israel, gave extensive revelation of what he expected, and it was in line with his own character. He made it clear that he had no needs (Ps. 50.7-15) and could not be manipulated."

[I lisp]

Really? You don't think that the fact that (for example) most Christians in the U.S. speak English and most Muslims in the Middle East speak Arabic is one of the contributing factors to the antipathy between those two groups?

[jimwalton]

No, I don't. Really. I don't have antipathy towards people who speak Spanish, French, Russian, or Swahili because they speak a different language. As I've traveled around the world, language creates a communication barrier but not an obstacle between us as humans. It's not the language that creates the barrier of friendship, but the hostility (murderous violence) of (some) Muslims toward Christians. I have plenty of friends who are Muslim, but when you blow up a parade, an office party, or drive a bus into a crowd, that's when I feel antipathy. At the university there are plenty of different languages—it's like the United Nations! The hostility derives from aggressive hostile actions, much like the liberal supremacists are doing now on campuses like Middlebury College and Berkeley. For years (decades) liberals and conservatives, though they disagreed, lived in general harmony with each other. Now some have decided to get hostile and violent, and that's what creates the divide. By the same token, for years the US and Islamic nations in the Middle East were allies and partners. It is the violence of ISIS, not the separate languages, that has created a divide.