TOWER OF BABEL

In this traditional expression the Hebrew word, bābel, for the city of babylon, is retained. The story of the Tower of Babel is told in Gn 11.1–9. This article will consider the literary structure of this story, its Mesopotamian coloring, and its significance in the book of genesis.

Literary Structure. The story begins abruptly with only a vague reference to what has gone before. It does not fit smoothly after the Table of the Nations (ch. 10), which supposes a distribution of mankind over the earth and even mentions historical Babel or Babylon (10.10). The tower incident could not have come immediately after the story of the flood (ch. 6–9) and before the Table of the Nations because a greater number of men are involved than were in the ark with noah. And if a period of time were supposed to have elapsed, with a consequent increase in population, the ranging of all nations under Noah's three sons would have lost its meaning. In itself the account is a well-knit unit, but it betrays evidence of two formerly separate strands. There are two distinct invitations to begin the work (v.3, v.4). There are two building operations: one of a city that men build in order not to be scattered; the other of a tower that they erect in order to make a name for themselves. In opposition to the former purpose Yahweh scatters them over the earth; to frustrate the latter purpose Yahweh confuses their speech.

The story is an etiology, offering a reason for mankind's dispersion over the earth and the great differences in human languages. It also provides a popular, though erroneous, etymology of the name of Babylon. In Akkadian the name of this city, bāb-ili, means "the Gate of God." But the corresponding Hebrew word, bābel, is taken to mean "mixture, confusion," as if from the root bll (v.9). While the present story retains these various strands, it subordinates them to the comprehensive theme of the primeval age in the bible (see discussion below).

Local Color. The Mesopotamian origin of the story can be seen in its local coloring. The event is said to have taken place in "a valley [Hebrew biq'â, low-lying plain] in the land of Sennaar [Hebrew Šin‘ār ]" (v. 2). This is ancient Sumeria, extending from slightly north of modern Baghdad to slightly south of Nasiriyeh (cf. Gn 10.10; 14.1, 9). The use of baked clay bricks for large buildings, while strange in Palestine, was normal in the alluvial plain of Mesopotamia, where stone was scarce. The author emphasized the material chosen, since his audience would have considered it particularly ill-suited for a large and permanent structure.

The tower can refer only to one of the huge stepped towers or ziggurats (to use the ancient term) associated with the various sanctuaries of ancient Mesopotamia. The towers may have been stylized "mountains of god" or stairways to heaven (cf. Gn 28.12). The ziggurat of Marduk, in Babylon, the é-temen-an-ki, "House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth," more than 297 feet high, was one of the most famous of these towers (see mesopotamia, ancient). The Biblical narrative probably is connected with this or some other ziggurat that was temporarily in ruins. But the story as such is not one a native Mesopotamian would be likely to tell about the most imposing monuments of his land. In the eyes of the Israelites these gigantic structures and the cities whose culture produced them were signs of a human resourcefulness and pride that ill prepared men to acknowledge the supreme sovereignty of God in all their affairs.

Significance of the Story in Genesis. Driven by ambition and by the need for security and permanence on the earth, men began to use their ingenuity and pooled their resources to do together what they could never accomplish singly. While the city and its lofty tower were to be admirable accomplishments, there is no indication that they were planned as an assault on heaven. The story may once have contained a motif of divine jealousy in the face of human accomplishments, but there is no sure trace of that now. In fact, the reason for Yahweh's action in dispersing the men and confusing their tongues is obscure and unsatisfying. The suggestion of prevention (v. 6–7) does not imply that Yahweh was afraid of what man might later do to Him. The present dispersion of men and their inability to communicate easily with one another because of language barriers are indeed attributed to divine action rather than to natural causes, but the precise reason for the action is not given.

Within the wider context of the primeval history of Genesis, however, the divine preventive action makes more sense. According to Genesis, ch. 1 to 11, every advance in civilization has been accompanied by a corresponding increase of human sin. The divine intervention on the plain of Sennaar, then, is a preventive measure designed to obviate a further increase in sin once the city and tower were finished.

Taken together with the Table of Nations, which the author has deliberately juxtaposed, the Tower of Babel incident contributes to a rounded understanding of man's life in the world of cities and nations. The separation of mankind into different nations and peoples is something natural and good, the result of normal human life (ch. 10). At the same time, the disharmony and lack of understanding among peoples is not so natural. It has been willed by God, but because of man's sinful nature. It is both a punishment on man for the sins of his forebears and a striking reminder of his human limitations and of his need for divine guidance and aid.

Finally, the narrative in Gn 11.1–9 draws the primeval history of the yahwist to a close on a note of divine punishment and human need. The peoples of the earth are scattered, cut off from one another and from God. The answer to their need is found in salvation history, the account of God's special acts of grace in human time. The first of these is His choice of abraham, one man out of the scattered peoples, in whom all the families of the earth would eventually be blessed (12.1–3). From this time on, the divine activity would be manifest in various ways, reaching its perfect expression in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Bibliography: b. vawter, A Path Through Genesis (New York 1956). g. von rad, Genesis: A Commentary, tr. j. h. marks (Philadelphia 1961). a. parrot, The Tower of Babel, tr. e. hudson (New York 1955).

[k. g. o'connell]