They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
—New International
* * *
I’ve never been one to read the Bible much though now and again I dip in. Perhaps not surprisingly, I favor the poetic yet blunt expressiveness of the King James version, which I include below. But I thought the most recent accepted version would be better for simple clarity. This is the Tower of Babel story as theologians understand it in today’s terms. I thought of it recently and how much it resonates with our present historical moment. Here we are, as a species, verging on the capability of building our own heaven, yet we are divided by speaking different languages (of the heart, not the tongue). When I looked up the story, I found myself confronted again with my problem of particularly Old Testament stories—this character, “the Lord.”
I’m sure there are answers to my questions a kindly biblical scholar might supply. The first time I noticed this type of interpretive puzzle was the first time I attempted Genesis as an adult, back in the last century. I was mystified by the Cain and Abel story as it’s never properly explained there what it was Cain did that was so bad. The behavior of “the Lord” seemed arbitrary and capricious to me, petty and jealous. Was it the knowledge that surpasseth all understanding, or something? I mentioned my confusion in a lighthearted way to an avowed Christian one New Year’s Eve and she assured me it was all explained in some later section of the Bible. Fair enough, I guess. It has never made much sense to me as a matter of organization but I’m willing to entertain the idea the Bible might be coherent. I’m just suspicious that study sessions that look too much like indoctrination to me are the key to unlocking these mysteries.
Here we find the whole of humanity, reputedly created by “the Lord” in the image of “the Lord,” working in harmony toward a greater goal. What’s the problem? Apparently “the Lord” sees only hubris and thinks we need to be cut down to size. Certainly hubris is there, though I would prefer to call it “confidence” or even “high self-esteem” in this case, in the service of a worthy goal. The whole thing reminds me of sending a person to the moon and bringing them back safely with 1960s technology as compared to the popgun bottle-rocket joyrides of billionaires. Humanity seems to do better when there are more of us working together.
This project of unity and harmony turns out to be something which “the Lord” cannot approve. Why? The hubris? He should talk! Maybe the explanation is covered in another part of the Bible, maybe the one about the knowledge of good and evil or something. It is apparently very bad for humanity to work together toward a greater goal. I’m inclined to go along with this when we think of historical examples of fascism providing the goals and values. The death machines of fascism past were mighty and terrible things. Contemplate how much worse it’s going to be with programmed robots doing the police work.
To “the Lord,” apparently, diversity is not just a curse, but the curse. You were too good at focusing and working together on a task, seems to be the implication—namely building a tower to heaven—therefore thousands of different languages to wreck the project will be your punishment. Thanks, “the Lord”! Of course, most obviously, the story is chiefly an ass-backward approach to understanding the fact of this bewildering array of human language. We understand better now it’s more a function of evolution and adaptation across unimaginable spans of time. We see separate languages evolve from a common tongue across the ages when populations are divided geographically, that’s all. Have you ever tried to read Chaucer? Good luck. I even have problems with Shakespeare.
Nearly as obvious, in a way, the story is speaking metaphorically. American fascists and actual American originalists (who among other things embrace immigration and have moderate views on “2A” based on what it says) both speak American English. But their values are mirror images of one another. We look to each other like death cults claiming to be pro-life—demons, no less. It’s really quite a quandary and here we are stuck here. It appears that might be what “the Lord” intended all along, certainly if you ask the Supreme Court, but to me most of our problems still look like self-fulling prophecies of the fearful and narrow-minded. Is there any way out of this? Stay tuned. Meanwhile, here’s the Tower of Babel tale in its best telling:
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 mortar.
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.
—King James
I’m sure there are answers to my questions a kindly biblical scholar might supply. The first time I noticed this type of interpretive puzzle was the first time I attempted Genesis as an adult, back in the last century. I was mystified by the Cain and Abel story as it’s never properly explained there what it was Cain did that was so bad. The behavior of “the Lord” seemed arbitrary and capricious to me, petty and jealous. Was it the knowledge that surpasseth all understanding, or something? I mentioned my confusion in a lighthearted way to an avowed Christian one New Year’s Eve and she assured me it was all explained in some later section of the Bible. Fair enough, I guess. It has never made much sense to me as a matter of organization but I’m willing to entertain the idea the Bible might be coherent. I’m just suspicious that study sessions that look too much like indoctrination to me are the key to unlocking these mysteries.
Here we find the whole of humanity, reputedly created by “the Lord” in the image of “the Lord,” working in harmony toward a greater goal. What’s the problem? Apparently “the Lord” sees only hubris and thinks we need to be cut down to size. Certainly hubris is there, though I would prefer to call it “confidence” or even “high self-esteem” in this case, in the service of a worthy goal. The whole thing reminds me of sending a person to the moon and bringing them back safely with 1960s technology as compared to the popgun bottle-rocket joyrides of billionaires. Humanity seems to do better when there are more of us working together.
This project of unity and harmony turns out to be something which “the Lord” cannot approve. Why? The hubris? He should talk! Maybe the explanation is covered in another part of the Bible, maybe the one about the knowledge of good and evil or something. It is apparently very bad for humanity to work together toward a greater goal. I’m inclined to go along with this when we think of historical examples of fascism providing the goals and values. The death machines of fascism past were mighty and terrible things. Contemplate how much worse it’s going to be with programmed robots doing the police work.
To “the Lord,” apparently, diversity is not just a curse, but the curse. You were too good at focusing and working together on a task, seems to be the implication—namely building a tower to heaven—therefore thousands of different languages to wreck the project will be your punishment. Thanks, “the Lord”! Of course, most obviously, the story is chiefly an ass-backward approach to understanding the fact of this bewildering array of human language. We understand better now it’s more a function of evolution and adaptation across unimaginable spans of time. We see separate languages evolve from a common tongue across the ages when populations are divided geographically, that’s all. Have you ever tried to read Chaucer? Good luck. I even have problems with Shakespeare.
Nearly as obvious, in a way, the story is speaking metaphorically. American fascists and actual American originalists (who among other things embrace immigration and have moderate views on “2A” based on what it says) both speak American English. But their values are mirror images of one another. We look to each other like death cults claiming to be pro-life—demons, no less. It’s really quite a quandary and here we are stuck here. It appears that might be what “the Lord” intended all along, certainly if you ask the Supreme Court, but to me most of our problems still look like self-fulling prophecies of the fearful and narrow-minded. Is there any way out of this? Stay tuned. Meanwhile, here’s the Tower of Babel tale in its best telling:
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 mortar.
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.
—King James
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