When studying any ancient text, the Bible included, it is important to keep in mind that ancient authors did not write the way we do. They did not think the way we do about narrative. Narrative story telling, involving a plot that consistently moves forward through time, is relatively new in the great scheme of things. The novel is as recent as the European Renaissance. Simply put, the writings of Moses were never meant to stand up to the literary criticism of our time.
The Tower of Babel is first mention in Genesis 11. This lesson covers chapters 10 and 11; why? Because the events are not recorded chronologically, not the way we think about chronology. Also remember that Moses did not have chapters and verses; those are artificial divisions added thousands of years later.
Genesis 10 accounts the descendants of Noah. Different nations and languages are specifically mentioned. This is important, because when we get to chapter 11 we find that all people of the world spoke a common language. Does the Bible contradict itself? You should know how I will answer that. For the first few verses of chapter 11, we are given the narrative account of what happened. Chapter 10, and the rest of chapter 11, are like a catalogue or a census. The beginning of 11 tells us how and why there are languages and nations; the rest of both chapters chronicle who those nations are and where they settled.
Geographically, these events take place in Mesopotamia (land between the rivers). On the subject of Mesopotamia, creationists and evolutionists usually agree: this is where civilization arose. Mesopotamia is also known as the Tigris Euphrates River Valley, the Euphrates being mentioned in the Garden of Eden account. Abraham lived in Ur, which has been identified and excavated by archaeologists. If you were to peruse a World History textbook, you would likely find a diagram or recreation of a ziggurat. To understand ziggurats, let’s talk about ancient cities.
All ancient cities had walls. You can see this in the Bible. As civilization began to develop, it didn’t happen to everyone all at once. The first city builders erected walls to keep themselves safe from those still lacking civilization. Otherwise as they built homes and planted crops, hunting gathering nomads would just take what they wanted. The first city-builders erected walls around their cities, with gates that were open for trade and such during the day.
The center of city life, religious and economic, was the ziggurat. Each of these early city-states had a priest king. He was often worshipped as being a deity himself. He not only represented the spoken will of the gods, but directed city business and economic activity. The ziggurat was akin to a pyramid, with steps leading to the top, on which the priest king could deliver decrees from on high. It is thought by many today, and I believe with good reason, that the Tower of Babel may have been one such ziggurat.
The Babel story explains some things about nations and language, but may also stand in contrast to some ancient Mesopotamian mythology. Their gods wanted them to stay in one place; the God of Abraham wanted people to spread out and populate the earth. It has always been the Hebrews’ way to be “different” from everybody else. The Babel story in Genesis 10 and 11 not only offers explanation for how and why different languages and nations arose, as well as how people spread and re-populated after the flood, but also fits well with the geography and culture of the location. I don’t believe in forcing the Bible to prove that it’s true, but in this case it would be quite easy to do so.
Next time: Abraham, First Man of Faith
