So what’s wrong with building a high tower?

[First posted in 2012.  Commentary by S6K; translation: EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses—Admin 1.]

If we’re thinking post 9/11, any edifice that is touted to be the “tallest building in the world” probably obsesses some fanatic or lunatic to reduce it to smithereens. History is replete with examples of ambitious man-made projects that meet up with some counter-force that brings them to ruin or disaster, if not by simple neglect for lack of resources to sustain them:  Titanic, Hindenberg, Chernobyl, natural tsunamis that wipe out whole cities, hurricanes, flash floods, killer tornadoes, earthquakes, uncontrollable forest fires, volcanic eruptions that bury whole cities.

Does the tower of Babel belong to this list?

Strangely, for the first tower ever to be built with an important enough lesson to merit inclusion in the book of beginnings, it is neither nature nor humans that are involved in its downfall; rather Elohiym Himself frustrates the first united human effort to ‘elevate’ themselves and attempt to reach the heavenly heights. Why should God frustrate such a plan? What is wrong with it?

[EF] Genesis/Bereshith 11:1-8

First, some preliminary notes on the text’s placement or the literary context:

• These 8 lines about the first tower are sandwiched between two genealogies recording the repopulation of the earth from Noah’s family of 8;
  • Preceding: the genealogies of Noah’s three sons, Japheth, Ham, and Shem;
  • Following: the genealogy of Shem is repeated and further elaborated on.
• In the preceding genealogy, one particular descendant from Ham (Cush) gets special mention:

Just so the discussion doesn’t get derailed by the “let us” in the statement of Elohiym which Trinitarians jump on as a prooftext, please read  “Let US make man in OUR image”  for those who continue to have a problem with the recurrence of “us” in TNK. 

More than the “us,” the questions that need to be asked are:

• what is wrong with unity, harmony, working together, making a name for a people-group who want to build a tower?  
• Isn’t that what Elohiym required of the people he formed for generations out of three Patriarchs?  
• Did He not want them to be unified, harmoniously working with each other, to establish themselves in a land He had chosen for them?
•  If that divine agenda was alright for Israel, why the divine displeasure with the tower builders? 

Two perspectives:

•  [Christian] NASB Study Bible /Notes on Genesis 11:1-9:

 Chronologically earlier than ch. 10, this section provides the main reason for the scattering of the peoples listed there.  . . . The people’s plans were egotistical and proud.  The typical Mesopotamian temple-tower, known as a ziggurat, was square at the base and had sloping stepped sides that led upward to a small shrine at the top. . . meant to serve as staircases from earth to heaven . . . at Babel rebellious man undertook a united and godless effort to establish for himself by a titanic human enterprise, world renown by which he would dominate God’s creation. . .  If the whole human race remained united in the proud attempt to take its destiny into its own hands and, by its man-centered efforts, to seize the reins of history, there would be no limit to its unrestrained rebellion against God.  The kingdom of man would displace and exclude the kingdom of God. . . God dispersed the people because of their rebellious pride. Even the greatest of human powers cannot defy God and long survive.  Babel. That is Babylon. The word is of Akkadian origin and means “gateway to a god”.

• [Jewish}  The ArtScroll Tanach/Notes:

 The Tower of Babel and the Dispersion.  Ramban in Moreh Nevuchim states that a fundamental principle of the Torah is that the universe was created ex nihilo, and Adam was the forerunner of all people.  Since the human race was later dispersed over all the earth, and divided into different families speaking dissimilar languages, people might come to doubt that they could all have originated from one person.  Therefore the Torah records the genealogy of the nations, and explains why they were dispersed, and the reason God gave them different languages. . . . According to the Sages, Nimrod was the primary force behind this rebellion  The Midrashim explain his sinister motive.  He planned to build a tower ascending to Heaven and from it wage war against God.  

Perhaps the answer is the same as that reached in the previous articles about the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the bronze serpent; the problem is not the building of towers but the motives in men’s hearts. Israel built structures according to divine specifications: the tabernacle, the temple in Jerusalem symbolizing YHWH’s Presence among His people.  All other people-groups build structures according to their own agenda.  In the case of the tower, the post-flood generation wanted to remain in one place, build their city and make a name for themselves. This much we can deduce from the text and context.  And yet, to Noah and his sons, among other DOs:

[AST/Genesis 9:7] 

And you, be fruitful and multiply; teem on the earth and multiply on it.”

 “Teem on the earth,” not only on the plain of Shinar where the Babel population wanted to stay.  This is similar to our overcrowded urban centers where people flock, while there are vast uninhabited areas needing development.  Too many people in too little space cause problems.

The placement of the text right after tracing the line of Cush and introducing the presumptuous Nimrod—connects the Tower of Babel with his ambition to equal himself to God.   And so the self-serving plan of post-flood humankind was frustrated by God Himself.

Did that stop men from being even more ambitious, out-towering every next attempt to land on Guinness World Records? The Twin Towers are gone from the skyline of lower Manhattan but look at the list of 100 tallest structures, courtesy of http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001338.html 

World’s Tallest Buildings¹

NSB@S6K

logo art by BBB@S6K