Could you help me understand the story of the Tower of Babel?

Question

Humans were building a very tall tower. Everyone cooperating, getting along. In order to stop it, god "confused the languages" so they could no longer understand one another and they stopped building the thing - thus explaining the origins of language!

Why did God stop the tower? Not because they were cooperating, because he would like people to cooperate. Is it because they seriously threatened him with a building? He's god!

Answer 1

My guess is that it's one of those "just so" stories, like so many other tribes came up with back in the day. This one was to explain the founding of Babylon, the nemesis of the people who were doing the writing at the time. (Remember, Genesis was put together post-Babylonian captivity.)

This is why there are many Talmudic accounts of the builder of the tower being Nimrod, who plays a much larger role in the surrounding mythology than he does in the Bible itself. He built the tower and then went on to pester Abraham, though Abraham (who turns out to be a somewhat magical superhero) always defeats him, once by summoning a swarm of gnats to drive him away.

Nimrod is a pretty cool character and one of the great early villains. He might have been based on some Babylonian god or hero.


Basically, the whole Babel story is a mythological account of the beginning of the "rivalry" between the Jews (and their ancestors, since only part of the split kingdom was left for the Babylonians to plunder) and the Babylonians, only in the mythological version, Babylon doesn't win.




Note that like the Noah's Ark story, the Tower of Babel has precedent in Babylonian mythology. There is a story about Enmerkar and Enki and linguistic homogeneity and a giant ziggurat in the region. This was likely the inspiration for the biblical Babel story, though the biblical version reads more as a polemic.

Answer 2

The Tower of Babel

New Page -- 18 September 2003

The Tower of Babel refers to an event and a physical structure in Genesis, and not to the more recent sessions of the U. S. Supreme Court. In Genesis, the event transformed a huge building project into a confusion of languages -- much like today when there are serious disagreements between management and labor. It's simply another example of differing views not speaking the same language.

In the Tower of Babel, however, there appears to be much more in play than a simple management (God) versus Labor (humans) dispute. In fact, one assumes that the humans -- without obtaining prior permission from management -- were hard at work on an ambitious building project when they were discovered. So as not to trouble Himself too much, God simply divided and conquered.

But precisely why was the Tower a problem? Was this another case of "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever; Therefore the LORD God, sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."? [Genesis 3:22-23] What would man have accomplished by completing the tower?

There are, of course, many possibilities. Some of these are explored in the following essay on the Tower of Babel. Entitled, “The Beginning of Babylon”, the article illustrates the underlying significance of the event and/or story, and for that reason is included below in its entirely. The article is well researched, but may be slightly off the mark in identifying the Anunnaki ("those who from heaven to earth came”) as the “fallen angels” of heaven. This assumption, for example, eliminates the possibility of the Anunnaki being flesh and blood extraterrestrials.

Obviously, a “fallen angel” may be construed to be an extraterrestrial (just not necessarily a flesh and blood one). Furthermore, those who came down for a visit to earth may have been deemed as having "fallen". In the case of the Anunnaki -- also known as the Nephilim, giants, and/or the sons of God -- they "saw the daughters of men that there were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose." (Genesis 6:2) This might be equivalent to saying that the sailors rushing into a liberty port were "fallen sailors".

In any case, a combining of the Biblical account with a host of other sources of ancient knowledge provides us with a different interpretation of exactly what was going on at the Tower of Babel.

It might also be noted that, being from the Christian Media Network, there is an obvious perspective of the article. Nevertheless, there is much fruit to be plucked here -- pardon the old garden variety pun -- and with only an occasional comment included below [in brackets and colored green] the article is otherwise presented as received.

Answer 3

I think it is probably an allegory. But of course it could be historically true. The whole idea about how humans got language, not to mention various ones, some non-similar blows my mind. And indeed, how much of history as we know it actually happened just that way for those reasons? Even now, when several people see the same event, they often do not and cannot tell that event the same. And over time, they tell their story differently. 1 Corinthians 13:12 King James Version (KJV. There are many other versions!) 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. I just look to that story for what it teaches me about God and humans. Certainly, the behavior seems typical of humans. It happened on some level: realistically or allegorically or psychologically. The meaning is still there. The meaning, c'est tout.

Answer 4

ok. My interpretation

Very beautiful text, somewhat allegoric.

"And they said, Come, let us make a town, and a tower whose top will go up as high as heaven; and let us make a great name for ourselves, so that we may not be wanderers over the face of the earth." Genesis 11:4.

Ok, God had said men were suposed to spread over the face of the earth [argh, cant remember where], by building the tower they were disobeing God. Also it has a lot to do with human pride and arrogance.

To counter any possible " God is cruel" argument, i'd say that he is our father in heaven, and fathers usually have to straighten their children. If God didn't, well than hed be more like a grandfather.

I have no doubt he did it out of love.

Again, i don't know if its allegoric. Still, im sure if you read it carfully there is a lot in there to be learned. Its a very rich, very beautiful text

Paz de Cristo

Answer 5

God told Adam to have children and fill the eart.
After the flood, God told Noah to have children and fill the earth. Genesis 9:1.
About a generation, or 2, later, a fellow named Nimrod thought it was a better idea to keep people together ....so he could rule over them.
He was behind the idea of a tower ....a rallying point.
So, we have God on one hand saying fill the earth and Nimrod on the other hand saying nay! nay!
May God's will be done.

Answer 6

No, it's because they weren't doing what he told them to do, which was to spread out over the earth. Instead of doing that they were staying in one place.
Genesis 11:4 says "They now said: “Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may be scattered over all the surface of the earth.”
So they weren't building this tower as a monument to God, but as a monument to themselves, and they planned to stay right where they were.

Answer 7

Tower of Babel mythology apologetics has to do with the notion that the human was trying to "be god", similar to eating the apple in genesis 3.


skeptics annotated bible is interesting with this it refers to this as god "confuseing" the human race,

the mythological god didn't confuse, people aren't stupid, we figure out how to translate

does that mean we can get going again on that tower

Answer 8

From what I've read so far, in the answers above, it would seem that some people, in the name of God, destroyed a city. Possibly the first Jihad.

Answer 9

it was they wanted a name for themselves and to reach heaven without God.


Gen 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Answer 10

Not only is it the whole pride/greed thing but think about how wasteful and pointless it would be. It would be a horrible waste of time, resources, and labor. People would probably die trying to construct it and it would be absolutely futile in the end. I don't know if this is why God stopped it, but that's why I'd stop it if I was God.