Tower of Babel

Text and Narrative

The story of the Tower of Babel appears in Genesis 11:1-9. After Noah's Flood, the people of the whole earth spoke one language. They settled on the plain of Shinar. Using baked brick in place of stone and bitumen (natural asphalt) in place of mortar, they set out to build a city and a tower. They said, "Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). The LORD came down to see, and he confounded their language so that they could not understand one another. He then scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. The text explains that the place was called Babel because there the LORD confounded the language.

Background

• Shinar: The name is understood to refer to the region of southern Mesopotamia. Genesis 10:10 records that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel in the land of Shinar. Babel is the same name as the later Babylon.
• Construction methods: In Mesopotamia, where stone was scarce, builders used mud brick and bitumen, and the text's description fits the architecture of the region. Many scholars associate the tower with a ziggurat (a stepped temple tower). Opinions differ on whether it can be identified with any particular archaeological site.
• The name: The text links "Babel" by sound to the Hebrew verb balal, meaning "to mix" or "to confound." In Akkadian (an ancient Mesopotamian language), the city's name is commonly interpreted as "gate of god." For this reason, many interpreters hold that Genesis gives the name an ironic twist, reading it as "confusion."

Significance within Scripture as a Whole

• Surrounding context: Genesis 10 records that the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth were divided by their languages, families, and nations. Chapter 11 presents that dispersion in narrative form. The genealogy of Shem that follows leads to Abraham. In chapter 12, God promises Abram, "I will... make thy name great" (Genesis 12:2). Accordingly, the passage is often read as a contrast between people who sought to make a name for themselves and the man to whom God gives a name.
• New Testament: At the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11), people from many regions each heard the disciples speaking in their own language. Many interpreters read this event as a scene in which the languages divided at Babel are once again bridged in the gospel. The New Testament, however, does not mention the Tower of Babel directly. In Revelation 17–18, "Babylon the great" serves as a symbol of worldly power that opposes God.

Interpretations and Issues

• The nature of the sin: A widespread interpretation sees it as pride—an attempt to make a name for themselves apart from God. Some also interpret the words "lest we be scattered" as a rejection of the command to "replenish the earth" (Genesis 9:1).
• Judgment or protection?: Some interpreters see the scattering solely as punishment. Others, citing "now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:6), also read it as a measure that prevented greater evil.
• "Let us go down" (Genesis 11:7): Some in the Christian tradition read this plural as a hint of the Trinity. Other interpreters see it as a reference to the heavenly council or as a plural of majesty.
• Historicity: Some read the account as an event that actually took place, while others read it as a theological narrative set against a Mesopotamian background. Views differ even within the same denomination.
• Extrabiblical traditions: Accounts that Nimrod built the tower, or that it was built high to escape another flood, appear in later traditions such as Antiquities of the Jews by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus. They are not found in the text of Genesis. Stories that the tower collapsed are also commonly told, but the text states only that they stopped building the city. The familiar image of a colossal tower rising in a spiral owes much to later art, such as the paintings of the sixteenth-century painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

In the Korean Church

In preaching, the Tower of Babel is frequently used as a text warning against human pride and the pursuit of success without God. The expression "Tower of Babel" is also used figuratively in criticism of church building projects or of competition for growth among churches. In Pentecost Sunday sermons, it is sometimes treated alongside the events of Pentecost. Outside the church as well, the phrase "building a Tower of Babel" is used in everyday Korean as an idiom for excessive ambition.