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[Nice Noise]

The Tower of Babel could be themed, "God just likes to jerk humans around."

My position is that the story of the tower of Babel did not literally happen. However, there is still inspired metaphorical meaning in the story, or at least that's what you must believe as a Christian. So let's go with that and look at the metaphorical takeaways from the story.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Okay, so this means humans want to A) build a cohesive civilization and not become disparate societies, and B) achieve notable technological competence (a high tower). Perfectly respectable goals.

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
And now God, upon seeing this, doesn't like it, for some vague reason. "Nothing they do will be impossible for them". Okay? How is that bad? So God confuses the languages of humans in order to thwart their attempt to build a cohesive civilization.

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Not only does he confuse languages, but he somehow scatters people all over the earth, which further thwarts the humans' original goal of a cohesive civilization.

So the takeaway is:

1) God doesn't like human progress.

2) God doesn't like humans understanding each other.

3) God doesn't like humans forming a cohesive society.

4) God wants disparate societies that don't understand each other.

5) God doesn't like technological progress.

So even when the story is interpreted for its metaphorical value, the takeaway is that God likes to jerk humans around when they try to make progress. And to top it off:

For God is not the author of confusion - 1 Corinthians 14:33

The guy who wrote this either didn't read his Tanak or he had an incredible sense of irony.

[jimwalton]

You have totally misunderstood the Tower of Babel. Let me do some explaining, and then I'll address your statements.

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 riven 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.

To your comments:

"the story of the tower of Babel did not literally happen." The story is confirmably historical.

"so this means humans want to A) build a cohesive civilization and not become disparate societies, and B) achieve notable technological competence (a high tower)." While they were accomplishing these items, it wasn't these things that were the problem, as the text makes clear. What the problem was is "making a name for themselves."

"So God confuses the languages of humans in order to thwart their attempt to build a cohesive civilization." No. God confuses their language to thwart their drive to humanize God.

"So the takeaway is..."

All of your "takeaway" observations are incorrect. And your conclusion ("God likes to jerk people around") is exactly what the passage is about: Don't reduce God to a jerky human being.

> 1 Cor. 14.33

Interestingly, the phenomenon at the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2.3-6, especially v. 6) is a counteraction of Babel. In Genesis 11 God confused the languages of humankind so they could not multiply sin. At Pentecost the multiple languages problem and language barrier is not resolved, but the Good News overcomes the problem by being shared in all the various languages of the persons present there. While Pentecost doesn't reverse the effect of God's confusing the languages at Babel (since the multiplication of sin is still a possibility), it overcomes the problem for the sake of the salvation of the nations.

Your interpretation of 1 Cor. 14.33 is a twisting of the text. God is saying that our language should yield understanding, not create misunderstanding, peace instead of disturbance. It has no relation to the Tower of Babel story.