The Tower of Babel

[tampasteve]

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[SuperCow]

I always found that the story of the tower of babel is such a poor fit with the rest of the Bible. It's obviously just an ancient creation myth that sought to explain the origin of language, just like Genesis 1 and 2 sought to explain the origin of the world and mankind, the story of cain and abel depicts the first murder and the first punishment for murder, the end of human sacrifice and so on.

But in the tower of babel, god is so out of character. He feels _threatened_ by man and has to personally sow confusion to ensure that they don't finish their work.

I think the real lesson is that if mankind would ever unite and understand each other, nothing really would be impossible for it. Of course, every time steps are taken in that direction many religious people cry about NWO, the mark of the beast and the antichrist. Propably because of the same ancient terror that is portrayed in this story.

I don't read it as though God is threatened. (In the Bible or Jasher) A good portion of mankind united against God. (Under king Nimrod, who united them through conquest or fear.) They wanted to control all of mankind from this city, and build this tower as a symbol of shock and awe. God punished them by permanently dividing them so that they would not have the resources to control the world. Nationalism was born as a punishment, and man is still living under that punishment today. It would also punish Nimrod as whatever kingdom he controlled would be decimated by division.

Nations would be too busy fighting each other rather than looking for the few remnants of Shem and Japheth's descendants who might be still loyal to God. Regarding the languages, science doesn't really have a good explanation for how many we have; however, they have broken down 7000+ languages into linguistic families, and believe they can trace them back to about 147 language isolates. (Languages constructs that cannot be shown to derive from any other language group.) Genesis 10, depending on how you interpret the name list would indicate that you should be able to trace them back to about 70 with enough information, if it is accurate.

 

[Jipsah]

How tall would such a structure need to be for such to be possible?

Almost as tall as that story.

 

[d taylor]

New Jerusalem is 1500 miles high. So this tower could have easily been 500 miles high.

 

[Jipsah]

I think the real lesson is that if mankind would ever unite and understand each other, nothing really would be impossible for it.

And if a frog had a clutch he wouldn't have to hop. The only thing that prevents humanity from uniting and ushering in its own millennium is human nature. Wherever two or more are gathered, then everyone in the gathering will set about making damn sure They Get Theirs, and devil take everyone else. That's the reality that has rendered idiotic every utopian scheme ever contrived. Some are inevitably more equal than others. Scoff if you will at the idea of original sin or total depravity, but they're as much laws of the universe as the laws of Physics. Eliminating human sinfulness is as easy as creating a perpetual motion machine.

Of course, every time steps are taken in that direction many religious people cry about NWO, the mark of the beast and the antichrist. Propably because of the same ancient terror that is portrayed in this story.

From my reading of history it appears that every time steps are taken in the direction of uniting humanity, the result turns out to be Maximum Leaders, inhuman totalitarian regimes, grisly warfare, and the mass slaughter of innocents. The monsters of the 20th century all began with a beatific vision which quickly degenerated into an infernal vision. They set out to create an earthly heaven, and instead created an earthly hell.

Lord Acton was right, power corrupts, as witness how many "good people" in history have become sanguinary fiends when given the power to kill with impunity. May God deliver us from the hands of those striving toward an earthly paradise!

 

[Jipsah]

New Jerusalem is 1500 miles high. So this tower could have easily been 500 miles high.

Gonna bang into that dome of yours way before then. Above 5 miles you run out of breathing air, and dead folks don't typically lay many bricks.

 

[d taylor]

Gonna bang into that dome of yours way before then. Above 5 miles you run out of breathing air, and dead folks don't typically lay many bricks.

looks like you are viewing this from our time, when we really do not know what was or what will be.