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

[Joel Blazing Pants]

The Tower of Babel is a clear-cut case of Israelite mythology being written as fact, and that makes any literalistic interpretation of scripture, or at least the old testament, impossible.

I'm sure we all know the story of the Tower of Babel, people spoke the same language and wanted to build a big tower to reach Heaven, God didn't want them to do that so he mixed up the languages and that's where languages come from.

The problem is that not only do we now know that Heaven is not in the sky, that we now have many many many cities that would make anything ancient peoples could build look like an anthill, or even that translators between languages have existed for literally thousands of years or any other reason why it's clearly a fable that was designed to explain the concept of languages from an ancient people who haven't gotten etymology down.

It's that it's presented as a factual occurrence in scripture. In fact, in that same chapter right after it is a massive genealogy list that draws the line from Noah's son Shem to Abram. There is absolutely no way you can tell from scripture that it's meant to be a myth as opposed to any other part in scripture.

Why do people call it a myth, they know all the things the ancient Israelites didn't, so they don't have to fill in the blanks with stories. But that's entirely based on the knowledge and opinion of the reader, there's no definitive marker in scripture that would say it. It leaves the entire concept of interpretation of it down to whatever the reader wants to believe really happened.

[jimwalton]

The story of the Tower of Babel is true, not mythology. The context of Genesis 1-11 as a whole is to show the need for the covenant. Humanity is incapable of staying on the path of recognizing truth and worshipping the true God. The only path to reclaim humanity is for God to reveal himself over and over. This story show how necessary a program of revelation has become.

v. 1: "The world had a common speech." The reference is to the world of the Mesopotamian region. The Hebrew word translated "world" is *eretz*, and can also mean "land." (Genesis 10.5, 20, 31 already admit to different languages in the world.) In other words, they had the collective power to band together and seek significance apart from God, much the same as in the Garden of Eden passage. They were in rebellion as a united front. A Sumerian epic ("Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta") tells the same tale, speaking of a time when there was only harmony among the people: "The whole universe in unison spoke to Enlil in one tongue."

v. 2: "As man moved eastward." "East" for the ancients always meant "the land of the gods." They settled in Shinar. History records for us a migration into the region of southern Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium. This particular story is set in about 2100 BC, a period known as the Uruk phase that history tells us was just as the Bible describes it. It was a period of architectural and cultural advances, as well as the significant development of urban culture in the region, just as the Bible says. Again, we are speaking of a regional people group moving eastward, not global population movements.

v. 2 "in Shinar." The Sumerians (Tigris-Euphrates river basin) are an identifiable entity from approximately 3000-2000 BC. (Northern Shinar had not been settled before 5000 BC, and urbanism started in about 3500 BC.)

v. 3 tells of their construction techniques, and history confirms the accuracy. Mudbricks are first found in about 8-9th millennium BC. The practice was to use stone for foundations and kiln-baked mud bricks for the superstructure. This practice started towards the end of the 4th millennium. Bitumen tar was used for mortar, just as the Bible says. These building techniques were not used in Palestine, but only Mesopotamia, and they weren't used for common buildings (too expensive), but only for public and cultic buildings, just as the Bible says.

v. 4. They were constructing a ziggurat. Many have been found in the area dating to that era. The information is historically correct.
The sin was not building a cohesive civilizations, technological competence, or human progress. The sin was "so that we may make a name for ourselves." It is more to the point to think of them as desiring to make a name for themselves instead of making a name for God. This tower was connected to a temple, as such towers always were, and temples were designed to honor a deity. Their motivation was not to honor God but to bring prosperity and honor to themselves.

v. 4 "and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." God had told people to fill the earth, to enjoy all of what the planet had to offer, and to make the whole world sacred space. Their clumping together (to NOT be scattered over the face of the whole earth) to make a name for themselves was an act of rebellion against God. God scattered them later not because he did not want them to be together, but because their united efforts were causing mischief (like separating children who misbehave).

v. 5. The whole point of building a ziggurat was so that God would come down and dwell with them. The irony here is that the REAL God came down and was not pleased with what he saw, because they were in rebellion against him, not because they were building cities, using technology, cooperating, or experiencing human progress, but because they were trying to manipulate God to be what they wanted him to be rather than subscribing to the revelation of what God truly was.

v. 6. The problem with their unity, urbanization, and project is that they were using it for blasphemy and apostasy. The problem is deity falsely construed, not technological progress, understanding each other, cohesive societies, and human progress. You've misunderstood the entire story and come to an illegitimate conclusion based on false facts and distorted interpretations.

v. 7. Confusing their language would bring an end to the cooperative effort that led to this building project. His remedial action didn't eliminate the problem (which continued in the Mesopotamian religious system), but it certainly registered God's displeasure with their distortion of who He was and how He works, and it paved the way for His decision to work through one nation and one language group (ch. 12 and following).

v. 8. Their offense is a religious system in which the gods are made to be like humans (like accusing God of jerking people around). People were trying to bring God down to the level of fallen humanity. We must all be careful not to reduce God to being like humans with problems.
The scattering accords perfectly with what we know from history. At this time in history the united cultures of the Sumerians are invaded by the Babylonians (who spoke Semitic, not Sumerian) who dispersed the populations, effecting a disintegration of their society, a loss of their identity as a people, and mixing of languages.