Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-turmbau-babel.htm |
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The
Tower of Babel The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the
land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden
them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower
with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise
we shall be scattered all over the earth." LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built. Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people, all
speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later
stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down and
there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another
says." Thus the LORD scattered them from there all
over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called
Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was
from that place that he scattered them all over the earth. |
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Critique
of the text according to current scientific knowledge Gen 11,1-9 |
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1 |
The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. |
It is
not true, that
there was a time of salvation at the beginning when people all spoke the same
language. |
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2 |
While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the
land of Shinar and settled there. |
It is
not true, that
humans were already a solid community at the beginning of human development. |
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3 |
They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. |
It is
not true, that people built cities at the very beginning of human
development. At
first, they were hunters and gatherers, then wandering shepherds and lived in
tents and caves, only then did they settle down as farmers and build simple
huts and houses. |
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4 |
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower
with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise
we shall be scattered all over the earth." |
It
is a mistake to think that shared fame guarantees cohesion. On
the contrary, when fame becomes the meaning of life, there is soon envy,
jealousy and ruthless competition. But
even today there is a longing for togetherness, for being noticed and for
recognition. |
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5 |
LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built. |
It is
not true that
God is "above" and looks at us humans from above or meets us from
above (Cf. the "Incarnation of God" in Jesus:
God is with us: "Immanuel") |
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6 |
Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people, all
speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later
stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. |
It's
not true that
God does begrudge people the development of their technical and mental
abilities and wants to prevent it. Cf. Second Vatican Council (GS): text below È |
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7 |
Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will
not understand what another says." |
It is
not true that
God caused the multiplicity and diversity of languages through deliberate
intervention. It is
not true that
the "non-understanding" of people is God's will. It's
not true that
the burden of the multilingualism of peoples is a punishment from God
(because he supposedly does begrudge people their skills and technical
achievements). It is
not true that the multilingualism of humanity is only a negative thing. |
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8 |
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all
over the earth, and they stopped building the city. |
It is
not true that
God has scattered people across the earth and thrown them back to a more
primitive level of civilization. |
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9 |
That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the
speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all
over the earth. |
This
explanation of the name is not correct. For a long time, the scientific explanation of the word Babel was translated as "Gate of God". But this explanation is not certain either. |
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The spiritual truth of this history
remains valid: It is true that arrogance and honor-seeking turn
people against each other, that excessive competitiveness leads to a loss of
the language of the heart, the language of understanding, of appreciation and
benevolence and instead
misunderstandings, intrigues, mendacity and coldness of heart arise: People sometimes don't understand each other even if
they speak the same language. |
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The
Tower of Babel A story of how
the tale of the "Tower of Babel" might have come about By
Manfred Hanglberger (www.hanglberger-manfred.de) Around 3000 years ago, many people
in Israel still lived as wandering shepherds in tents. There were also small
villages. The few towns that existed were not as big as a large village in
our country today. At that time, traders and merchants
also came to Israel. Some of them were from the land in the east, beyond the
great desert, to offer beautiful fabrics and valuable tools and weapons for
sale. And they told of huge cities that
existed there, of cities with magnificent palaces and towers so large that
they were said to reach up to heaven. And people can walk up
stairs and see almost the whole earth. And there are so many houses
and streets in a city that it takes you three days to get from one side of
the city to the other. And for their gods, who gave them
these abilities, they built enormous temples with huge
gilded statues of gods. Then the Israelites felt small and
insignificant in their tents and simple houses. And they also considered their god,
whom they worshipped, to be insignificant, because he had not given them the
same great abilities as those gods of the eastern peoples had evidently done.
And so they developed feelings of inferiority and
considered themselves and their religion to be quite small and retarded. But there was a wise priest among
them who saw the spiritual needs and doubts of the people and thought about
how he could free them from them. Then he told them the story of the
“Tower of Babel". |
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Then
the people of Israel realized: Such
mighty structures are built by people who are conceited and think that pride
and grandiosity can create cohesion among themselves. But
the Israelites should know that
true cohesion is created through justice and helpfulness, by
helping the poor among the people, e.g. widows and orphans. Genuine
cohesion arises when people respect each other and do not scold and mock each
other. Genuine
cohesion is created by good laws and by good rulers and governments who
ensure that the laws are observed and do not abuse their power to do so, to
build great palaces and monuments and oppress ordinary people. Compare
this with the message of Pentecost in the New Testament: You
can understand each other, even if you speak different languages, even
if you belong to different peoples and religions: if you
treat each other with kindness, interest and respect. But
there was still a problem: Later
Christians believed that God did not want people to achieve great things
technically. They
were afraid that they would be punished for it, and therefore Christians have often made little effort to make
their lives easier through technological progress. Some
church leaders feared that people would no longer be interested in faith if
technological progress made their lives more beautiful, longer and safer. Thus,
even in church circles, technical progress and increasing prosperity were
understood and demonized as arrogance against God. This
is why, for example, Pope Leo XII (1823-1829) is said to have forbidden
Christians to be vaccinated against smallpox. In
contrast, the Second Vatican Council said: Quote:
"Gaudium et Spes", from chapter 34: “Throughout the course of the centuries, men have
labored to better the circumstances of their lives through a monumental
amount of individual and collective effort. To believers, this point is
settled: considered in itself, this human activity
accords with God's will. … Thus, far from thinking that works produced by man's
own talent and energy are in opposition to God's power, and that the rational
creature exists as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are convinced
that the triumphs of the human race are a sign of
God's grace and the flowering of His own mysterious design. For the greater man's power becomes, the farther his
individual and community responsibility extends. Hence it is clear that men
are not deterred by the Christian message from building up the world, or
impelled to neglect the welfare of their fellows, but that they are rather
more stringently bound to do these very things.” The complete text of „Gaudium et Spes” >>> A
problem also in our time: But
there is indeed the problem that people believe that wealth and power can
satisfy all their essential needs and are thus in danger of overlooking and
neglecting their spiritual needs and values. In addition, these people are in
danger of despising other people who are not as successful as they are. They
believe that through honor and fame they find the meaning of their lives. This
leads them to a senseless and destructive
competition with those who are as rich and powerful as they are, or even surpassed by them. (See our world today!) => This biblical story is an
etiology: An
outdated mythological legend to explain, why
there are many different languages among people and
why mankind is divided into different peoples and cultures. => A problematic, outdated idea: The
Bible explains everything that is painful and burdensome in people's lives as
God's punishment for their disobedience, self-will and arrogance. Here,
the burdensome problem of multilingualism, which leads to many
misunderstandings, foreignness and fear of foreigners, is presented as God's
punishment. (Cf.
Genesis chapter 3: God's punishments are: the labor pains of a woman
at the birth of a child, death, the toil of working in the fields, the growth
of thorns and thistles, ... ) => This story should perhaps
also diminish the importance of the huge buildings of the mighty nations, so
as not to give rise to envy and feelings of inferiority in the small nation
of Israel. => It was intended to make
clear the greatness and majesty of their own god compared to the other gods: He has to descend from the sky to see the
tower, which is supposedly so massive: So a ridiculous minuscule compared to the greatness of
God. The wealth, power, scientific and technical achievements of a culture are no proof of the
truth of its religion! Manfred
Hanglberger (www.hanglberger-manfred.de) Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-turmbau-babel.htm |
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How
the story of „The testing of Abraham“ (Gen 22) might
have come about: >>>
How
the story of „Cain and Abel“ (Gen 4) might have come
about >>>
A
Contemporary Understanding of the Bible >>>