I always found the story of the Tower of Babel to be strange and I wanted to inquire what other thoughts about it might be. For quick reference, I'll post the whole little story right here:
Is there anything that Christians or Jews learn from this story? Is it just a story to explain where all the languages came from?
It seems to have negative connotations though. Is this the start of racism? I know that sounds bad, but the story clearly says that people were working together as one people. Afterwords they were scattered around the world and speaking different languages. Is that not the beginning of other races in the world? It's certainly more significant than different nations. If so, then is God (at this point in history, perhaps he changes things later) advocating racism because he doesn't want us to all work together?
And what is there to be concerned about when thinking of us all working together? Why would God want to be divisive in this manner? Here comes the speculating, as without any other evidence at hand I can only guess.
What God states is bad in this story is that, "nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them". And in Luke 1:37 it states that "nothing will be impossible with God". I know this isn't going to go over well, but how do I interpret this story other than God being worried that we won't be dependent on Him? Does this mean that if God hadn't done what he did at the Tower of Babel we wouldn't need Him? Why not just let people work together? Isn't that we're supposed to do now?
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
First I'll ask if it is mentioned elsewhere in The Bible. Is there more about the tower elsewhere with any other information at all?
Is there anything that Christians or Jews learn from this story? Is it just a story to explain where all the languages came from?
It seems to have negative connotations though. Is this the start of racism? I know that sounds bad, but the story clearly says that people were working together as one people. Afterwords they were scattered around the world and speaking different languages. Is that not the beginning of other races in the world? It's certainly more significant than different nations. If so, then is God (at this point in history, perhaps he changes things later) advocating racism because he doesn't want us to all work together?
And what is there to be concerned about when thinking of us all working together? Why would God want to be divisive in this manner? Here comes the speculating, as without any other evidence at hand I can only guess.
What God states is bad in this story is that, "nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them". And in Luke 1:37 it states that "nothing will be impossible with God". I know this isn't going to go over well, but how do I interpret this story other than God being worried that we won't be dependent on Him? Does this mean that if God hadn't done what he did at the Tower of Babel we wouldn't need Him? Why not just let people work together? Isn't that we're supposed to do now?