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 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.