2007-02-27 16:02:10 · 6 answers · asked by biggate2000 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It basically means that if we can all get back to just one language, we'll be awesome.
2007-02-27 16:06:50 · answer #1 · answered by kipster968 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity to reach the heavens. God, observing the unity of humanity in the construction, resolves to destroy the tower and confuse the previously uniform language of humanity, thereby preventing any such future efforts. The destruction is not described in Genesis, but is mentioned in the Book of Jubilees, and elsewhere . An interpretive account of the story explains the tower's destruction in terms of humankind's deficiency in comparison to God: within a Judeo-Christian framework, humankind is considered to be an inherently flawed creation dependent on a perfect being for its existence, and thus the construction of the tower is a potentially hubristic act of defiance towards the God who created them. As a result, this story is sometimes used within a Judeo-Christian context to explain the existence of many different languages and races
2007-02-28 00:27:56 · answer #2 · answered by musafir 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nimrod, a man who "displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah"(Genesis 10:9), was a wicked ruler in Babel.
Nimrod's kingdom included the cities of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, all of those in the land of Shinar. (Genesis 10:10) So it was likely under his direction that the building of the tower of Babel bean. They wanted to build a religious tower "with its top in the heavens." (Genesis 11:4) It was constructed not for true worship, but was instead dedicated to false man-made religion. The motive was to make a "celebrated name" for the builders, not to praise God.
At that time, stones were not available for construction, so they made great deposits of clay. They made bricks. (Genesis 11:3)
Since Nimrod and those helping him had a wicked motive in building this tower; to bring praise to themselves and draw away worship from the true God, Jehovah confused the language of all the earth. (Genesis 11:9) And their mission failed.
The name Babel is derived from the verb ba*lal' which means "confuse". Ba'bel, which means Confusion, was one of the first cities to be built after the Flood of Noah's day.
2007-02-28 00:06:57 · answer #3 · answered by Kally 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
That humans of that time had become technologically (relatively) advanced, and were arrogant, thinking themselves to be Gods. They were so focused on their work, they forgot everything else, so God mixed up their languages so that they would have to actually make effort to communicate with each other, so that they would have to care about each other as individuals. The work was abandoned when the workers could no longer easily communicate.
2007-02-28 00:09:40 · answer #4 · answered by Smiley 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So I like to think it's not about the arrogance of man, but his ability to succeed and God's jealousy.
He recognized that "speaking as one," meaning that we had the same purpose, we could accomplish anything and there would be no need for a God. To continue to reign, He divided mankind (probably leading to the problems we have today). Divide and conquer has always been around it seems.
2007-02-28 00:36:41 · answer #5 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is *my* interpretation:
God destroys the unity of mankind because if they are completely united they can accomplish any deed they wish no matter how evil. You understand that a monopoly is not a healthy thing, right? A power monopoly can exclude righteousness from taking place in a judicial system.
2007-02-28 00:10:01 · answer #6 · answered by Chiaro 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋