Tower of Babel

The way the BIBLE explains the multitude of languages that human beings speak. According to Genesis 11, the inhabitants of the Earth decided to build a tower to reach to the HEAVENS. The kind of tower that the writer seems to have had in mind is the ziggurat. Ziggurats were huge pyramids, built in several steps or parallel layers. On top of them Mesopotamians placed temples to their gods (see MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGIONS). They were a typical form of religious ARCHITECTURE in ancient Mesopotamia. As Genesis tells the story, the god YHWH ("the Lord") was worried about what great things human beings might be able to accomplish. So he created the various languages. Because the builders could no longer communicate, they could not complete the tower. This disruption can be seen as GOD's punishment on people who want to overstep human limitations. Genesis derives the name Babel from the confusion of languages that resulted: the Hebrew verb meaning "to confuse" is balal (Genesis 11.9). Modern scholars are more inclined to see the name as referring to a region or place. Many suggest that it refers to the city of Babylon. Some have suggested that it refers to a temple within Babylon known as Bab-ilu, the "gateway of God."