This series “The Tower of Babel” is part of the Section “God and Man Learning to Work Together – The Journey Begins” and consists of fourteen posts. The series proposes new explanations for why God destroyed the Tower of Babel.

Review of the previous post

The previous post, Number 4 of 14, was the first of seven posts presenting some possible explanations for the God’s destruction of the Tower of Babel.

Preview of this post

This post, Number 5 of 14, is the second of seven posts presenting some possible explanations for the God’s destruction of the Tower of Babel.

III. Explanations for the story

1. Discovery of ruins

The people had discovered the remains of a huge structure^[1] and sought an explanation of what it might have been. The Bible, being theocentric, used this discovery to explain the structure in terms that taught lessons. Perhaps there was no transgression at all, and the Bible simply was explaining the destruction of a large building in theocentered terms. After all, the passage gives no indication of God’s anger, only His fear that the people may overreach (“If as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. “)[2].

Another explanation seems to follow from the events detailed in verses 3 and 4 where the bricks are made before the decision to build a tower is made. This may imply that the people had discovered how to make the materials required to build a tower and wanted a reason to use those materials. The tower was a result of having the ability to build one rather than the other way around. The people had tools that they wanted to use and sought a means to use their newly-discovered skills and abilities. In this explanation, the Tower of Babel might even be considered an accident, or the result of some powerful lobbying by a building contractor, or a public works project to give people work, unifying people would be a cogent argument seeking funds and support from a government for a building project, rather than a deliberate challenge to God. This explanation would be consistent with the mild punishment handed down by God of merely destroying the Tower and putting things back to the way they were before the Tower was built. The transgression was an accident and the consequences were not foreseen or intended, thus the punishment was merely undoing what had been done. The tower may have simply been part of a larger building project taking place in the city of Babylon.

This explanation may be acceptable, but it does not provide any theocentric teaching for the reader. Therefore, while this explanation may be interesting, it appears to be an inadequate basis for including the story in the Bible.

Preview of the next post

The next post, Number 6 of 14, is the third of seven posts presenting some possible explanations for the God’s destruction of the Tower of Babel.

^[1] Eric H. Cline, in his book “From Eden to Exile” (Washington, DC, National Geographic Society, 2007) states that the description of the Tower in the Bible fits the archaeological remains of the second millennium BC religious structures that are known as ziggurats and which existed in Babylon, Uruk, Ur and elsewhere in Mesopotamia. He further states that the land of Shinar could have been in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the city of Babylon which had a ziggurat that was pyramid shaped and which was described as being so tall as to have its top in the heavens and which served a religious function.

[2] It may be that the destruction of the tower took place over many, many years. It may be that King Darius the Persian (522-485 B.C.E.) began work of destruction and his son, Xerxes, continued it.