Journey to Babel

One of the most famous stories in the Bible is also one of the shortest (surely). We learn that everyone on earth spoke the same language. Migrating from the east they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. (This constitutes an abrupt break after the end of chapter 10, in which Noah’s descendants multiplied into nations that covered the earth. The story of Babel clearly doesn’t follow – the compilers decided to insert it here.)

In Shinar the people decide to

build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

God comes down to see what they are up to, and finds it not good. With their “tower with its top in the heavens” the humans are once again trespassing on the divine, and making themselves guilty of hubris. Not only that, but apparently they have the potential to become very powerful, a great united force. God says:

Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.

With confusion reigning the humans stop building their city, and God scatters them to the winds. It is interesting that in this story humankind has potential so alarming that God has to step in to prevent it from being realised. It reminds one of how they were driven from Eden, since the possibility existed that they would eat from the tree of life, and become immortal. When they are within reach of what they should not have or achieve God acts to manoeuvre them away from it.

The story is obviously meant to illustrate how God puts in their proper place those who get too big for their breeches (and the origin of different languages). Its structure, as the Notes point out and I quote below, works to that effect. Maybe it’s the modern language (as opposed to the KJV’s), but I can’t help noticing how God seems to have to step in lest he loses control over his creatures. This God is not omnipotent, he is like the God of the Eden story, rather than the one of the first creation myth. Otherwise he could have prevented the situation from arising. But yes, I know, to approach the story from that angle involves not “speaking its language”, the language of myth.

The Babel story is constructed as follows (and I quote from the Notes):

“Forwards”	“Backwards”
the whole earth had one language	the language of all the earth (confused)
they said to one another	they will not understand one another’s speech
Come, let us make bricks	Come, let us go down, and confuse
let us build ourselves	which mortals had built
a city, and a tower	the city and the tower

The humans build, and God dismantles. It’s a powerful and economical way of telling the story; quite marvellous.

Babel is followed by a relook at/continuation of the Shem lineage. In this one ages are given for the patriarchs and, although God decided to limit the human lifespan to 120 years after the flood, these men live considerably longer. Not as long as the antediluvian patriarchs though: these ages range from Shem’s 500 to Abram’s 175. (Shem has his first child at a 100, but all the rest are said to have their first children at between 29 and 35 years of age.)

At the end of a list of descendants we get Terah, father to Abram (the tenth generation), Nahor and Haran; Haran became the father of Lot (he of the wife who made the mistake of looking back). All of these came from Ur, the land of the Chaldeans (in southern Mesopotamia). Haran never left it – he died there. Abram married barren Sarai, and Nahor Milcah. Terah intended to move Abram and his family, including Lot, to Canaan, but instead they all settled in the land of Haran “in the middle Euphrates region” (Notes).

And so the characters of the next great saga – that of Abram (Abraham) – have taken their places.

Notes:

• Shinar is southern Mesopotamia or Babylonia, “the ancient land of Sumer” (according to the Notes). The grand old civilisations of Sumer and Babylon (and Egypt) somehow don’t make much of an impression in the OT – so far at least. Since they were the enemy their grandeur and achievements are downplayed or ignored.
• Note that God is once again not alone – “let us go down”.
• Babel is “the place of balal, Hebrew, ‘confusion’”. (Notes)
• Abram means “the father is exalted”, and Sarai means “princess”. (Notes)
• Nahor became father of the Arameans, and his son Bethuel fathered Laban and Rebekah, who will take centre stage later in Genesis. (Notes)
• Lot became the father of the Moabites and Ammonites. (Notes)

Image: The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1520 – 1569)

~ by tamfuwing on May 13, 2008.