What is the story of The tower of Babel about?

Answer 1

Many just say "it's about the confusion of languages" -- but it's a LOT more than that.

The very WORD "Babel" is important to understanding this story -- a story in which humorous (and mocking) wordplay plays a key role.

For starters, the name "BABEL" is actually just the Hebrew name for the city we call "Babylon".

In fact, in every biblical passage where this name appears, English Bibles translate it AS "Babylon", with the single exception of Genesis 11, in the story of the "Tower of Babel". (That is, the story could more accurately be called "the Tower of BABYLON".) But it seems that the name "Babel" was kept in this instance perhaps as a means of helping underline the point of the story.

The Hebrew name is simply an adaptation of the name the Babylonians themselves gave their own city. The ancient Babylonians along with the Assyrians spoke a Semitic language (that is, the same large language family that Hebrew belongs to ) which modern scholars usual call "Akkadian". In Akkadian the city's name was "Bab-ilu", which was said to mean "gate of the gods", that is, the place where heaven and earth met.

You can even see this theme in the Tower of Babel story. BUT the Hebrew story, in a very artful way, actually uses several wordplays --based on differences between Hebrew and Akkadian -- to mock the Babylonians and their lofty claims. (Note how the story mocks their efforts by showing us that the people do not reach their goal of 'reaching the heavens', since God has to "come DOWN" to take a look).

Now the FINAL wordplay of the story is that on the name of the city itself. In place of "gate of the gods", the writer suggests that the city's name means something like "Confusion". The Hebrew verb "balal" means "confuse" (the word used to refer to God "confusing" their tongues).

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The question that remains is -- is the story desribing a specific historical event, something that happened over a period of time, or is it simply a mythological story told for entertainment and/or to answer the question "where did languages come from?" The conservative view has often been the first one -- that 'all at once' (in a day?) the builders were suddenly speaking different languages. But when you see that the story is very intentionally spoofing the Babylonians and their own boasts (something a Hebrew listener could not possibly have missed), it is a reasonable conservative reading to suggest that the story is meant to describe something that took a bit longer -- perhaps to describe the PROCESS of the disintegration (under divine Providence) of proud attempts at empire for human glory (to 'make a name for ourselves'), as different groups (with their different languages) fragmented. . . .

The result of "scattering" is language used elsewhere in the Bible to tell stories of JUDGMENT or exile, where God drives people out from their native land (from the Garden of Eden, to the exile of the Jews to Babylon). . . yet it is also suggested that God intends to bring GOOD from this scattering, that it becomes a way of fulfilling his own original command to humanity (laid out in Genesis 1), "Be fruitful and multiply, FILL THE EARTH. . . "

The Babel story, as many about the prominent Old Testament empires in Babylonia and Egypt, is also taken as 'emlematic', that is, it is an EXAMPLE of how people in general --every "kingdom/city or man"-- attempt to act and the sort of results they get (SOME success, but God does not allow their worst purposes to bear full fruit). In fact, echoes of this story are found in the story of Pharaoh in Exodus... another book that draws a contrast between the proud plans of HUMAN rulers, and GOD's plans.

Keep in mind that this story was not told in isolation. Later in the same chapter and next chapter of Genesis the narrative turns from telling about the vain HUMAN attempt to 'make a name' apart from God to tell the story of how GOD himself calls someone (Abram/Abraham) our from the very region of Babylon, a man from the line of "Shem" (meaning "name"!), and promises to make his NAME a blessing to all the nations. (The good news is that God WILL bless the nations, but it will be by HIS plan, not a human one.)

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Christians see the Pentecost story of Acts 2 as depicting a "reversal" of this story. Just as Genesis gave a representative list of "SEVEN-ty nations" scattered throughout the earth after the Flood, in Acts 2 SEVEN groups of nations (which roughly cover the same area of the map as the nations of Genesis) gather together to Jerusalem, and by the work of God's Spirit, hear the good news preached "everyone in his OWN LANGUAGE".

Answer 2

The Tower of Babel was an ancient tower symbolizing human pride and rebellion. It was buit during the period of the Great Flood.
The narrative of the Tower of Babel apears in Genesis 11:1-9 as the climax to the account of early mankind found in Genesis 1-11. The geographicl setting is a plain in the land Shinar (Gen 11:2). In the light of information contained in Genesis 10:10, Shinar probably refers to Babylonia.

Answer 3

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 (see 'Destruction', below). 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.

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Answer 4

Here is the story from Chapter 11 of Genesis

"The Tower of Babel
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men 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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men 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."

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."

I think it's supposed to symbolize man's sin of pride in trying to make himself equal to God by trying to reach the heavens and how God prevents this.

Answer 5

Step out of line and God will kick your backside, because God was a vengeful God.

The people of Babel decided that they had advanced so far, that they were greater than God. At this time, everyone on Earth spoke the same language. God got hacked, an changed everyones language. Only small groups of people could understand each other, so they packed their bags and moved to different areas.

Answer 6

These people wanted to reach Heaven so the made a tower and when they got to a point God broke it down and made everyone talk in a different language so they couldn't communicate with each other. This is the short version. I don't know where exactly it is in the Bible.

Answer 7

It is about the ancient people after the flood but before abraham. They attempted to build a gigantic ziggurat so that they could reach heaven and have the wisdom of God. According to the Bible people of that time had only one language. God then caused them to have many different languages so that they would not be able to understand each other, since they had committed a great offense to him.

Answer 8

This is a biblical story about many ppl that spoke the same language, they spoke about building idols to gods, the creator heard and decided to put a stop to it and made them all speak different languages so they could not get together and do these things, this story is not clear, I haven't studied the bible in a long time, this is what I remember about it.

Answer 9

Basically people were building a tower to try to get to heaven. God got mad and made everyone start speaking different languages.