![]() ![]() There have, however, been some contemporary challenges to this classical interpretation, with emphasis placed on the explicit motive of cultural and linguistic homogeneity mentioned in the narrative (v. The 1st-century Jewish interpretation found in Flavius Josephus explains the construction of the tower as a hubristic act of defiance against God ordered by the arrogant tyrant Nimrod. The story's theme of competition between God and humans appears elsewhere in Genesis, in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. : 51 Thus, humans were divided into linguistic groups, unable to understand one another. God was concerned that humans had blasphemed by building the tower to avoid a second flood so God brought into existence multiple languages. : 426 The story of the Tower of Babel explains the origins of the multiplicity of languages. Etiologies are narratives that explain the origin of a custom, ritual, geographical feature, name, or other phenomenon. The narrative of the tower of Babel is an etiology or explanation of a phenomenon. According to the Bible, the city received the name "Babel" from the Hebrew verb בָּלַל ( bālal), meaning to jumble or to confuse. However, that form and interpretation itself are now usually thought to be the result of an Akkadian folk etymology applied to an earlier form of the name, Babilla, of unknown meaning and probably non-Semitic origin. The native, Akkadian name of the city was Bāb-ilim, meaning "gate of God". The original derivation of the name Babel (also the Hebrew name for Babylon) is uncertain. The phrase "Tower of Babel" does not appear in the Bible it is always "the city and the tower" ( אֶת-הָעִיר וְאֶת-הַמִּגְדָּל) or just "the city" ( הָעִיר). 9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the L ORD confused ( balal) the language of all the earth, and from there the L ORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech." 8 So the L ORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 6 And the L ORD said, "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. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us 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." 5 The L ORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 1370s) depiction of the tower's constructionġ Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. A Sumerian story with some similar elements is told in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. While the archaeological record is incompatible with this identification, many scholars believe that the biblical story was inspired by Etemenanki. Some modern scholars have associated the Tower of Babel with known structures, notably Etemenanki, a ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk in Babylon. ![]() ![]() Yahweh, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world. There they agree to build a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Īccording to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar ( שִׁנְעָר). The Tower of Babel ( Hebrew: מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל, Mīgdal Bāḇel) narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth and parable meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563) ![]()
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