Babel(Bab il)
“Confusion, from balal (to confound); originally Bab-il meaning 'gate of god'”
Summary
The city in the plain of Shinar where mankind built a tower reaching toward heaven, resulting in the divine confusion of languages and the scattering of peoples across the earth.
☩The Building Project
After the Flood, mankind remained unified with one language and settled together in the land of Shinar. Using burned brick and bitumen for mortar, they began constructing a city and a tower 'whose top may reach unto heaven.' Their stated purpose was to make a name for themselves and prevent being scattered abroad upon the face of the earth—in direct opposition to God's command to fill the earth.
☩Divine Judgment
God observed their united enterprise and declared that with one language nothing would be restrained from them. To counteract their self-exalting ambition, God confused their speech so they could no longer understand one another, and scattered them abroad over all the earth. They consequently abandoned the city, which took its name 'Babel' (meaning 'confusion') from this event, though the original Babylonian name 'Bab-il' meant 'gate of god.'
☩Ancient Traditions
The Chaldaeans themselves preserved a tradition that the first men built a tower reaching toward heaven at Babylon, but the gods sent winds to destroy it, and afterward men were made to differ in their speech. Similar accounts appear in other ancient sources, with Josephus recording a sibylline oracle describing how the gods overthrew the tower and gave every nation its peculiar language.
☩Spiritual Significance
Babel represents the first attempt at a universal empire built on human pride rather than divine blessing. The builders sought to 'make themselves a name' rather than glorifying God, and to create an artificial unity to replace the spiritual bond they had lost. The confusion of tongues awaits its reversal when God turns to the people 'a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.'
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Babel," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Babel, Babylon (1)," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.George Morrish, "Babel," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Babel," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).