The Tower of Babel

[Vicki Q]

I built this using the knowledge of the ancients, I did it through the night so no one would see me moving each stone by hand levitation, it only took me one night.

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That makes me want to go to Legoland again.


(To the OP)

Genesis 11:1-9 is an origin myth attempting to explain the diversity in languages. The problem was not with the tower as such, or the attempts to build it 'to the heavens' (even if that translation were correct), but with the city. The tower was probably a come-live-here feature of the city.

The city/tower was explicitly designed (v4) with the aim of preventing the dispersion of humanity around the earth. This was a direct challenge to the recently issued command in Genesis 9:1 “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.”. (Also Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.' ”)

In the myth, a diversity of languages was the mechanism used for ending the project, and getting humanity on the move around the world (v8,9).

The Pentecost speaking in tongues thing may be intended as a kind of reversal of Genesis 11.