The Biblical Significance of the Tower of Babel (original) (raw)
The Destruction and Reconstruction of the Tower of Babel
Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, 2011
After the Flood, as is said in the Bible, 1 the descendents of Noah were forced to disperse over the face of the earth. 'And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.' Instead of each one going his own way, people stuck together and founded a city in which they started building a tower 'whose top may reach unto heaven'. However, the Lord was not pleased with their efforts to 'make a name' for themselves. He seemed to fear the power of one people united by one language: 'Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.' Therefore, he decided to 'confound their language', so 'that they may not understand one another's speech'. The people stopped building the tower, left the city and spread all over the earth. The city was named, as is commonly known, 'Babel' (which originally meant freedom, but after its breakdown it signified confusion). It became a symbol of human arrogance or hybris, although opinions differ on the exact nature of the sins committed by man. 2 Teubner's plea for a 'common law constitution' 3 can be read as a way of dealing with the world after Babel. Our world has fallen apart into many different languages, and each language constitutes a foreign language to the other. How could this happen? Teubner discerns two phases in the downfall of man. The first phase * The author thanks the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and the editor Lyana Francot-Timmermans for her advice and support. 1 The following quotations are taken from Genesis 11:1-9 in the translation of the King James Bible. 2 In Oakeshott's reading of the myth, for instance, the Tower of Babel represents the vain effort to turn the state into an enterprise by compelling people to pursue one and the same goal. See Michael Oakeshott, "The Tower of Babel," in: On History and Other Essays (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1999), 179-210. According to Jacques Derrida, "From 'Des Tours de Babel'," in: A Derrida Reader. Between the Blinds, ed. Peggy Kamuf (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 243-53, its destruction put an end to the imperialistic aspirations of the Semitic family to establish its empire and spread its language (see also note 36). Michel Foucault, Les mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines (Paris: Gallimard 1966), 51, points out that as a result the original unity between words and things was destroyed. However, he does not give any explanation for this divine punishment. 3 This notion is taken from Hurrell and is cited approvingly in Gunther Teubner, "Transnational Fundamental Rights: Horizontal Effect?", in this volume, 198. 230 Rechtsfilosofie & Rechtstheorie 2011 (40) 3 This article from Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy is published by Eleven international publishing and made available to anonieme bezoeker The Destruction and Reconstruction of the Tower of Babel is located in the paradisiacal state of nature, before Babel so to speak, in which man and nature were one. It marks the transition from a communication-free world to a world of communication: 'The original Fall of Man happens at the Tree of Knowledge: the meaning-producing force of communication, with its ability to distinguish good and evil, destroys the original unity of man and nature, makes man god-like and leads to the loss of Paradise. The origin of alienation lies in the very first communication.' 4 The second phase takes place many years after Babel, in our age of modernity, and is characterised by 'the autonomisation of a multiplicity of separate communicative worlds'. 5 Originally, people shared a mode of communication which made it possible to pass moral judgements, but after the 'second Fall' 6 the world became fragmented into separate social systems each with a code of its own and no prospect of a meaningful exchange between them.
Issues of Historiography Concerning the Tower of Babel
2020
ISSUES OF HISTORIOGRAPHY CONCERNING THE TOWER OF BABEL Alex Mirza Nawidjaja Hukom, ThM The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2019 Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peter J. Gentry The historicity of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) has raised considerable debate among Old Testament scholars. Several scholars believe that there are some reasonable arguments to support the possibility of its historicity, as related in Genesis 11:1–9, while some other scholars disagree. This thesis starts with the assumption that the narrative of the Tower of Babel happened in the context of the time of Noah and his three generations of descendants. With that assumption, this thesis tried to analyze the possibility of the argument of the historicity of the Tower of Babel based on the archaeological discoveries, ancient sources, and the biblical argument, in particular, the toledot argument.
The Still-Standing Tower of Babel
This is Chapter 2 of Before The Exodus: How Math and Science Align the Bible to History. Before the Exodus is a scientific thinker’s analysis of the Pentateuch not as inspired scripture, but as a centuries long record of ancient Near East history that has been wrongly dismissed as non-historical due to the admixture of supernatural claims. The supernatural can be excised, leaving the plausibly historical intact. As in this chapter, the analysis considers non-canonical variants of the Pentateuch and records by early historians who made claims about the Hebrew patriarchs beyond what is recorded in the Bible. I’ve found that these sources, generally dismissed by biblical scholars and secular historians alike, actually include details absent from the Bible that frequently match the biblical narrative to known history. Attempts to place the Exodus within Egyptian history without considering clues from non-biblical sources are especially common and not surprisingly, there is little consensus. Though no ancient text is perfect, a comparison of multiple sources makes it possible to weed out errors and weave together a coherent picture of when the Hebrew patriarchs lived and why they were remembered, even by non-biblical authors.
Sermon Outline: The Tower Of Babel
This sermon outline explores the story of the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The word “babel” in Hebrew means “to confound or confuse.” If you have grown up in the church or have read Genesis, you might be familiar with these nine short Bible verses. Hopefully this outline helps you walk away with a fresh perspective.
The story begins with a reminder of "the whole world" -a recurring phrase, grounding this story as part of a collection of tales of the ancient world. National identity, tribal loyalties, or family of origin are irrelevant coming on the heels of the survival of Noah and his family. We
The Yearning for Unity and the Eternal Return of the Tower of Babel
2007
International lawyers frequently aspire to affirm the existence of international community and the presence of authority to speak on its behalf. However by forcing a hierarchical representation of legal values upon nations, which have not accepted them, international lawyers, and the politicians whom they advise, risk unleashing a whirlwind of violence. The myth or the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, is a millenniums old warning of the presumption which can lie behind an apparently reasonable desire for global unity and harmony. I take as a welcome task assigned to me by the coordinator of this issue of the journal, to demonstrate that those who support the idea of international community fail to address the horizontal inter-state fragmentation of international society.
Interpretations of the Tower of Babel Narrative in the African Context
Biblical scholarship from the African context provides possible new and creative perspectives for the interpretation of the Tower of Babel narrative because of uniquely African questions that structure the interpretative process. These unique questions relate to the cultures of African people, the injustice of colonialism, apartheid and so forth. The problem is that some of these new perspectives are influenced by rationalism that may result in reductionist interpretations of the Tower of Babel narrative. This is clear in the African cultural hermeneutics of Solomon Avotri and Black African hermeneutics of emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu. The contemporary move among some biblical scholars from the African context that focus on the interaction between scholarly and non-scholarly interpreters of the Bible is an attempt to address the problems associated with rationalism. The art of Azaria Mbatha will be used to illustrate the potential of this contemporary move.
Fifth Prasasti International Seminar on Linguistics (PRASASTI 2019), 2019
A tablet from the 6th century BC succeeded in revealing the giant six-level Ziggurat which became known as the Tower of Babel. According to the biblical text narrative in Genesis 11: 1-9, the construction of the Ziggurat was successful because the perpetrators were in one Babylonian language. If this theory is correct, then the concept of one language can be implemented in various lines of life so that all who are planned to succeed in its implementation with the involvement of all group members. To discuss, test these assumptions, and analyze the phenomenon of one language, research in the form of literature studies is carried out through this paper. The research aims to reveal the power of one language behind the success of the development, and at the same time, the irony of the destruction of the Babylonian Ziggurat. The Group Communication Theory and Critical Discourse are using analysis scissors. The results of the study show that one language can create unity and convergence for any purpose and design in a group or community. Even the unity of language builds internal filters within each person who is part of the community to distinguish good and bad information, which builds or breaks down positive or negative information because the unity of language plays a role in decision making and the formation of actions.
After decades of optimism, interreligious dialogue is now confronted with a considerable amount of scepticism. In theology, this scepticism is primarily being fed by the cultural-linguistic theory of religion. This theory seems to be in keeping with what the Babel narrative has always said: people belonging to different "language" communities can do no more than babble at one another. The author asks, fi rst of all, whether the story of Babel indeed affi rms the culturallinguistic argument for the end of interreligious dialogue. After showing that there are theological and exegetical reasons to doubt the classical interpretation of the Babel narrative, the author demonstrates how a renewed hermeneutics of this story actually challenges the cultural-linguistic discourse concerning the incommensurability of religions. Indeed, she argues, ultimately, the Babel story is not a narrative about the end of communication, but about its beginning.
The story of the Tower of Babel in Gn 11:1-9 gave rise to a rich literary tradition, in which the topos of the primeval language emerged. Whereas the interpretative tradition originating among the Jewish commentators upheld that the original language was Hebrew, in the heart of the Eastern Christian communities some authors supported this theory, but others stated it to be Aramaic. The aim of the present article is to show how a celebrated chronicler like Michael the Syrian (12 th c. CE) composed his version of the account narrated in Gn 11:1-9 by echoing different textual sources, but at the same time by combining both translation and narrative techniques in composing his text.
Reconciling the Tower of Babel Story in Gen 11.1-9 with the Table of Nations Genealogy in Gen 10
In this paper we discuss the issue of how the tower of Babel story in Gen 11.1-9 relates to the table of nations genealogy in Gen 10. Specifically, we discuss the question of when did the Babel confusion of languages event occur with respect to the table of nations genealogy? It could not have happened after all the nations were formed (e.g., Gen 10.32) as they are each differentiated by their own language, and it could not have happened before the nations were formed (e.g., Gen 10.1-2) as then there would only have been Noah and his family. It is proposed that firstly the tower of Babel story and the table of nations genealogy have different sources. The first has a J source and the second has a P source. They are separate accounts independent of each other. Secondly, it is proposed that the author follows the de novo creation logic of the biblical text which requires us to know how we went from the single language of Adam and Eve to the multiple languages of the nations. The tower of Babel story fulfils that requirement. In the end it does not matter that juxtaposing the table of nations genealogy with the tower of Babel story makes for a contradictory account. Nor does it matter that the biblical account of the origins of the world's languages does not agree with the archaeological and linguistic research into these origins. The author of Gen 10 and 11 has achieved his purpose of accounting for how things went from a single world language to a multilingual world.
Genesis 10 Table of Nations and The Tower of Babel Era 2368 2338
Genesis 10 Table of Nations and The Tower of Babel Era - 2368-2338, 2023
Noah's family established eight cities in Sumer and Akkad, including Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Umma, Nippur, Kish, and Sippar. The story of Noah's overthrow is found in the Marduk Epic and the Hurrian myth of Alalu and Anu. The Marduk Epic focuses on the Anship and Uralo-Altaic people, while the Hurrian myth of Alalu and Anu reveals the social stratification during Ur Nanshe's reign. Noah's decision to prioritize working in the northwest direction over seniority led to a misinterpretation of the Anship and Enkiship, which are essential for the Abzu temple. The initial proposal advocated for a system that incorporated both seniority and mother-son sequences, rather than strict seniority. The cities of Ur and Uruk were constructed sequentially, with the last two cities being founded by Noah. The story of Noah and Shem and their progenitors is believed to have served as the progenitors of the Egyptian deity Osiris, the Indian god Shiva, and the Hellenic god Dionysus. The Hamites, who exhibited the least extensive dispersion, were the builders of the Tower of Babel. The myth surrounding the resurrection of Osiris and the Zed pole serves as evidence of the symbolic association between the sun and resurrection glory. The Tower of Babel judgment in 2340 led to widespread dispersion of humanity, highlighting the importance of diversity and competing cultures for ethical oversight.