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Oct 22, 2024 · Tower of Babel, in biblical literature, structure built in the land of Shinar (Babylonia) some time after the Deluge. The story of its construction, given in Genesis 11:1–9, appears to be an attempt to explain the existence of diverse human languages.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Tower of Babel is a type of myth known as an etiology, which is intended explain the origin of a custom, ritual, geographical feature, name, or other phenomenon —namely the origins of the multiplicity of languages.
If its name sounds unfamiliar to us now, except in connection with the biblical Tower of Babel story, that’s because we know it better under its Greek name, which was Babylon. Babylonia, the considerable region around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was named for Babylon, which was itself the Greek version of Babel.
- Historicity
- In Other Sources
- Height of The Tower
- Enumeration of Scattered Languages
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Historical and linguistic context
The Greek form of the name is from the native Akkadian Bāb-ilim, which means "Gate of the god." This correctly summarizes the religious purpose of the great temple towers (the ziggurats) of ancient Sumer (which many believe to be Biblical Shinar in modern southern Iraq). These huge, squared-off stepped temples were intended as gateways for the gods to come to earth, literal stairways to heaven. "Reaching heaven" is a common description in temple tower inscriptions. This is the type of structu...
Etemenanki: The ziggurat of Babylon
In 440 B.C.E. Herodotuswrote: This Tower of Jupiter Belus is believed to refer to the Akkadian god Bel, whose name has been hellenized by Herodotus to Zeus Belus. It is likely that it corresponds to the giant ziggurat to Marduk (Etemenanki), an ancient ziggurat which was abandoned, falling into ruin due to earthquakes and lightning damaging the clay. This huge ziggurat, and its downfall, is thought by many academics to have inspired the story of the Tower of Babel. However, it would also fit...
Destruction
It is not mentioned in the Genesis account that God directly destroyed the tower; however, the accounts in the Book of Jubilees, Cornelius Alexander (frag. 10), Abydenus (frags. 5 and 6), Josephus(Antiquities 1.4.3) and the Sibylline Oracles (iii. 117-129) do state the tradition that God overturned the tower with a great wind.
Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees, known to have been in use between at least 200 B.C.E. and 90 C.E., contains one of the most detailed accounts found anywhere of the Tower.
Midrash
Rabbinic literature offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of Babel and of the intentions of its builders. It was regarded in the Mishnah as a rebellion against God. Some later midrashrecord that the builders of the Tower, called "the generation of secession" in the Jewish sources, said: "God has no right to choose the upper world for Himself and to leave the lower world to us; therefore we will build us a tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so that...
The height of the tower is largely a matter of speculation, but since the tower symbolically can be considered a precursor to humankind's desire to build tall structures throughout history, its height is a significant aspect of it. The tower commissioned by Nebuchadnezzar in about 560 B.C.E., in the form of an eight-level ziggurat is believed by hi...
There are several medieval historiographic accounts that attempt to make an enumeration of the languages scattered at the Tower of Babel. Because a count of all the descendants of Noah listed by name in chapter 10 of Genesis (LXX) provides 15 names for Japheth's descendants, 30 for Ham's and 27 for Shem's, these figures became established as the 72...
Bancroft, H.H. Native Races of the Pacific States.New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1874.Cheever, John. The Stories of John Cheever. New York: Knopf, 1978. ISBN 9780394500874.Duran, Pr. Diego. Historia Antiqua de la Nueva Espana.Madrid: Antiqua Libreria de Andrade y Morales, 1585.Frazer, J.G. Folk-Lore in the Old Testament. New York: Macmillan, 1918.All links retrieved March 14, 2020. 1. Genesis 11 (KJV) 2. The Tower of Babelfrom the Brick Testament. 3. Babel In Biblia: The Tower in Ancient Literature by Jim Rovira 4. Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel?-Christian Source. 5. Tower of Babelenvisioned by science fiction artist Frank Wu.
Jun 13, 2021 · They designate its purpose and identity by naming it “the tower that reaches the heavens,” a name which the Jewish author avoids using himself because it is considered an offense to God and...
May 23, 2018 · The unfinished tower was called Babel, a name which was explained by its resemblance to the Hebrew verb bll ("to confuse"), since here the Lord "confounded the speech of the whole earth." Scholars agree that the edifice referred to in Genesis 11 is clearly a ziqqurat, or Mesopotamian temple tower.
The unfinished tower was called Babel, a name which was explained by its resemblance to the Hebrew verb bll ("to confuse"), since here the Lord "confounded the speech of the whole earth." Scholars agree that the edifice referred to in Genesis 11 is clearly a ziqqurat, or Mesopotamian temple tower.
