|
by
Doug Ward |
The eleventh chapter of Genesis tells of some ancient Mesopotamians who join
together to build a city and a tower-the infamous Tower of Babel. God sees that
their plan will have negative consequences, and he stops the builders by making
it impossible for them to understand each other's speech (Ge 11:1-9).
Genesis
does not say explicitly what was wrong with this construction project. One
possibility is that the tower was a rebellious attempt to challenge God's
authority by invading his heavenly domain. Like the king of Babylon later
described by Isaiah, the builders may have been saying, Ï will ascend to
heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high" (Isa 14:13).
If this was their intention, they fell far short of their goal. God had to
"come down" to view the results of their feeble effort (Ge 11:5-7).
A
second explanation takes advantage of what we now know about the Ancient Near
Eastern background of Genesis 11. In ancient Mesopotamian cities, the central
building was a temple. Next to the temple was a ziggurat, a pyramid-like
structure with a stairway on its side. The stairway was meant to link heaven
and earth and encourage a god to descend the staircase. The god then would
enter the temple and presumably bless the people who came to worship there.1
If
the Tower of Babel was a ziggurat, as scholars now believe, we can see why God
put a stop to the project. Ziggurats represented a false conception of deity,
where a god was a human-like entity who could be manipulated by people. Such a
conception would not promote a right relationship with the true God.
|
Coerced
Uniformity |
A third explanation can be found in the close parallels between the Babel story
and Exodus 1, where the Egyptian Pharaoh decides to enslave the children of
Israel who are sojourning in his territory. Wary of the growing Israelite
population, Pharaoh warns his people, "Come, let us deal shrewdly with
them, lest they multiply..."(verse 10).
Pharaoh's
statement is very similar to Genesis 11:4, where the group at Babel says,
"Come, let us build ourselves a city and ...make a name for ourselves,
lest we be dispersed..." In fact, these are the only two sentences in the
Bible that have the form, "Come let us do x, lest y occur."2
There
is a second parallel between these two episodes. Pharaoh sets the enslaved
Israelites to work making bricks and building cities (Exodus 1:11-14), just as
the group at Babel sets out to make bricks and build a city (Genesis 11:3-4).
These
parallels suggest that the builders at Babel may have been slaves. There are
other hints in Genesis 11 pointing in this direction. One is the statement in
verse 1 that this group shared not only a common language but "the same
words." Another is the fact that while the group sought to make a
collective name for itself, no names of individuals in the group are mentioned.
These
hints point to the idea that the Babel group was subject to a kind of
groupthink, an enforced uniformity that discouraged individual expression. I am
reminded of the Borg Collective from the Star Trek of the 1980s. Such a
group can accomplish a great deal (see verse 6) at the expense of suppressing all
individual identity.
An
ancient Jewish midrash, recorded in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer, is in accord with this picture. According
to the midrash, if a person fell off the tower and died while carrying bricks
to the top, no one paid any attention. However, if a brick fell to the ground
and broke, there was mourning over the loss of the brick. The collective effort
was seen as more important than individual human lives.
If
the builders at Babel were indeed enslaved, we can see why God stopped the
project by dispersing the group. Since God created humans in his image, each
individual life is precious. God's purpose is for us to freely choose to follow
him, and to express ourselves as unique individuals in a wonderful variety of
cultures and languages. The Babel Collective was thwarting that purpose,
subjugating individuals for the sake of a false god-the building project.
|
Unity
in the Spirit |
Note that the three explanations I have described for the problem at Babel are
not mutually exclusive; more than one of them may be correct. The third one,
with the workers at Babel as slaves, presents a striking contrast to the
Pentecost account of Acts 2.
The
events described in Acts 2 are often seen as reversal of Babel. There is an
interesting verbal link between Acts 2 and Genesis 11. In Acts 2:6, the people
assembled at the Temple from around the Mediterranean world are
"bewildered" to hear Galileans praising God in their various
languages. The Greek word for "bewildered" is the same one used in
the Greek Septuagint translation when the languages are "confused" in
Genesis 11:9.
At
Babel the workers suffered under an enforced uniformity, and God broke up their
toxic collective by confusing their languages. At Pentecost, people from many
languages and nations were enabled to communicate and praise God together. They
enjoyed a beautiful unity, joined together by the Holy Spirit.
The
apostle Paul wrote about this kind of unity in 1 Corinthians 12:5-7. "Now
there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of
service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is
the same God who empowers them all in everyone." Let us strive to promote
and nurture this kind of unity.
1See for example John
H. Walton, Genesis (The NIV Application Commentary), Kindle Edition, p.
374, Zondervan Academic, 2011.
2This
is pointed out by Judy Klitsner in Chapter 2 of Subversive Sequels in the
Bible, Jewish Publication Society, 2009.
File
translated from TEX by TTH,
version 3.66.
On 12 Aug 2024, 14:15.
