Chapter Overview
Chapter 11 introduces the Tower of Babel and a time that all languages were supposedly the same. God decides that people working together is a bad thing, because they might accomplish something awesome, and he goes down to make everyone start speaking different languages.
Additional Thoughts
Genesis 10:5, 10:20, and 10:31 all specify that different languages (aka: tongues) exist. In all likelihood, this is a story that was brought in from another source and then given a tie-in with Noah to try make it seem authentic. Unfortunately, chapter 10 states that different languages already exist. Too many “if-s” have to be taken into account to give this a reason to exist in this text.
The Scientific/logic/sequence mistakes in this chapter
- Contradicts chapter 10 claiming that multiple languages exist (Genesis 11:1)
- Languages have evolved over time and can be traced back to see how related they are to one another. An event such as this would have no such indicators (Genesis 11:7-9)
- According to Genesis 6:3, 120 should be the max age (Genesis 11:12,13,15,16,19,21,23,24,32)
- Does not line up with other Genesis 10 genealogies (Genesis 11:13,15,17,18)
Chapter 11: The tower of babel
AKA: God introduces barriers to collaboration
- And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
- And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
- And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
- And they said, Go to, 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.
- And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
- And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
- Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
- So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
- Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
- These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
- And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
- And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
- And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
- And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
- And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
- And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
- And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
- And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
- And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
- Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
- And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
- And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
- But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
- And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
- And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
- A reading of chapter 10:5, 10:20, and 10:31 suggests otherwise
- Who? They? Who is they? Noah? Some of his sons?
- Is slime a good mortar? I really don’t know. I would suspect not though. Mortar needs something to harden, and random slime probably won’t cut it.
- I hope there aren’t any drastic consequences for actions of great hubris. <sarcasm>We’ve never seen anything like consequences for hubris in any other mythologies before. </sarcasm>
- He couldn’t just observe this from on high? Or just know that it’s been made? Again, no omniscience. That was fabricated later.
- Oh no, people can communicate effectively and this could enable them to accomplish things.
- Seems like a dick move to me.
the “us” seems to indicate that this was a polytheistic religion at the time. - Why are claims of languages evolving naturally over time met with less resistance than species evolution?
- So… god doesn’t want people working together and able to communicate in peace. Why is this a good thing? Thank goodness for google translate nowadays.
- Boring genealogy alert. Note the ages though. Genesis 6:3 says they should be 120 years max. 1 kiddo.
- How many? Nobody knows. Why? Because genealogies really don’t matter.
- Lines up with chapter 10 so far
- No. Read chapter 10. He had 1 kid: Salah. It’s almost like these genealogies were made up to support a tale or something.
- mmkay.
- No. Genesis 10:25 shows 2 sons. No daughters. Either one chapter is right, or both are wrong.
- He didn’t get the memo from Genesis 6:3 either.
- No. Chapter 10 shows 2 sons only. Maybe chapter 10 was worth reading after all, boring as it was.
- This child is new and isn’t in chapter 10
- 120 years as a maximum age anyone? Anyone? No?
- mmkay
- Plot demands that these people are able to live longer than the 120 year maximum. Buy why?
- next
- Older than 120 years again. Either god can’t enforce an age limit, or these people just said no to it.
- Below 120…. but only for this verse
- This would put him at 148. Still above 120 as a maximum age.
- We’re starting to see a few characters that will show up later now.
- Lot and Abram will show up later. Keep an eye on them.
- His daughter, brought up next verse, must not be important enough to the writer to record anywhere except as a wife.
- So… we have Nahor, who is Haran’s brother, marrying Haran’s daughter. Marrying your siblings children is A-OK according to this text. This can cause some genetic problems as we know today.
- 0 kiddos.
- Everyone gets to go on a field trip.
- Again…. 120 max age memo was missed.
Additional Notes
There is a VERY similar story from Sumeria that describes a “confusion of tongues” involving the construction of temples. Read about it on wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enmerkar_and_the_Lord_of_Aratta
Also, fun fact: There MIGHT be a VERY small kernel of truth to the story of the tower of babel, but not in the way that biblically-minded people might expect. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel#Etemenanki,_the_ziggurat_at_Babylon
To briefly explain, Babel, short for Babylon, started construction of a large tower in honor of the god Marduk. When King Nabopolassar started the tower, Babylon’s writing system (Cuneiform) was still in use. Schools taught children how to read and write it, and the ability to transfer information allowed Babylon to better manage itself as a civilization.
After Nebuchadnezzar’s death, the construction was halted and the civilization saw a decline in education, leading to the loss of knowledge of it’s writing system. This loss of knowledge kept anyone from being able to read the Cuneiform tablets, and after several generations, no one knew what Cuneiform was anymore. Thus, people couldn’t communicate as effectively anymore.