Genesis 11:1-9 (NIV) - “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
Most scholars of the Bible view the book of Genesis as a mythological sharing of the events of history with sporadic places and people who truly existed.1 Much of the book contains people’s ideas about how the beginnings of the world and man came to be. The story of the Tower of Babel includes some of both - opinion and fact.
Today's verses begin by saying the “whole world had one language and a common speech.” The study and exploration of the origin of languages has so little evidence that some places have banned the study of them in the past.2 With modern technology and advanced forms of study, the origins have begun to be studied by linguists, archaeologists, and anthropologists once again. There is still no complete agreement on the subject, but many hypotheses have been presented.
The next part of the verses claims that the people settled in Shinar and began to build the Tower. Shinar is located in the area we also know as Babylon.3 Babylon is located in the area we know as Iraq.4 Those who have studied the origins of language have been able to agree on one thing - that language originated in Africa.5 Iraq is NOT in Africa.
There is a tower that some believe the Tower of Babel story was inspired by. Within the city of Babylon, a tower was built to honor the god of the Babylonians, Marduk. The name of the ziggurat is Etemenanki which means “temple of the foundation of heaven and earth.”6 The idea has been proposed that they were inspired by this tower during their captivity in Babylon.7 The Hebrew word Balal is similar to Babel and means “mixed” or “confounded.”
The Book of Jubilees gives the most detailed account of the Tower of Babel. It claims that the building of it took 43 years.8 It is unclear how long it took to build Etemenanki because it went through multiple times of construction, destruction from war, and reconstruction.9 The Book of Jubilees claims the Tower of Babel was 5433 cubits high (the equivalence of 8,150 ft). This height is so exaggerated, it’s likely untrue. Etemenanki is estimated to have been about 91 m tall (298 ft).10 The tallest building today is the Burj Khalifa standing at 2,717 ft.11
We’ve recently completed the study of God destroying the earth through a flood. The Jewish historian Josephus believes God chose to punish the people for their wickedness by confounding their language because he promised not to flood the earth again.12
God claims he will punish them for trying to build a tower up to the heavens by confusing “their language so they will not understand each other.” The development of languages seems to have taken a much slower progression than happening overnight.
Those who have studied the bodily changes in humans unearthed from the past have noticed changes within the vocal tract.13 The larynx and the hyoid have gradually descended creating a two-tube tract in place of an original single tract. This dual tract created the possibility for variety within human languages. The descent of the larynx and hyoid changed the shape of the tongue, making it more curved. Based on findings, it is believed the origin of language began with the species Homo Sapiens around 100,000 years ago.14
We learn from the passage above that after the languages were confused, the people scattered across the world and stopped building the Tower. Alexander the Great ordered the final demolition of Etemenanki in 323 BC. His plan had been to rebuild the tower, but he died before beginning the project.15 Antiochus I had similar ambitions to rebuild the tower, but got angry about tripping over some rubble when visiting the site and had it completely destroyed again. The tower is never mentioned again in history.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Obviously, my weekly email is a day late. If you’ve found me for the first time, please consider subscribing to my weekly lesson on working through and examining the evidence (or lack of evidence) for our faith.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel#:~
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