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THE TOWER OF BABEL
AND
THE CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES

by Lambert Dolphin

The building of the Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues
(languages) in ancient Babylon is mentioned rather briefly in Genesis
Chapters 10 and 11. Genesis 10 is the so-called "Table of Nations"--a
list of 70 names of Noah's descendants through Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The list is probably not complete, but we are given a good picture of
the division of our race into three branches each having been gifted
special giftedness and unique qualities by God, highlighting the
spiritual, intellectual and physical sides of man as he was created in
the image of God. Genesis 10:6-12 includes a parenthetical section on
one of the sons of grandsons Ham, Nimrod the son of Cush.

"The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush:
Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah:
Sheba and Dedan. Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first
on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the
LORD; therefore it is said, 'Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the
LORD.' The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad,
all of them in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into
Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen between
Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city...(Genesis 10:6-12)

Nimrod's name is from the verb "let us revolt." He is said to be a
mighty hunter (gibbor tsayidh) in the sight of the Lord, but the
language has a dark meaning. He becomes a tyrant or despot leading an
organized rebellion against the rule of Yahweh. He hunts not animals,
but rather the souls of men. Cain, a condemned murderer had started
the first cities before the Flood. Nimrod builds the first post-Flood
cities. The region he settles in is now mostly modern Iraq--unusual
for Ham--most of the sons of Ham went south to Africa or East to
China. The people of Shem stayed close-in to the region where the Ark
landed, the Japhethites headed mostly North and West. Genesis 10
continues with a list of the other descendants of Ham, then presents a
list of Shem's lineage. Chapter 11 resumes the account of Nimrod's
Babylon:

"Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men
migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar
and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make
bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone,
and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build
ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let
us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city
and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said,
'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and
this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that
they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go
down, and there confuse their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech.' So the LORD scattered them abroad
from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off
building the city.' Therefore its name was called Babel, because
there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from
there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the
earth." (Genesis 11:1-9)

"Babel" is composed of two words, "baa" meaning "gate" and "el,"
"god." Hence, "the gate of god." A related word in Hebrew, "balal"
means "confusion."

Nimrod probably began to build his cities within a hundred years of
the Flood. The confusion of tongues is usually thought to have
occurred during the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:25). The chronology one
derives from most English Bibles, which are translated from the
Masoretic Hebrew text, places the time of Peleg only about 100 years
after the Flood. This is probably incorrect. Barry Setterfield dates
Peleg as living 530 years after the Flood, using the Vorlage Text and
the Septuagint (LXX). See his Creation and Catastrophe Chronology. The
dates computed by Setterfield seem to be a much better fit to what we
know from archaeology and recorded history about the ancient
civilizations of Egypt and Fertile Crescent Region. The world
population at the time of the Dispersion at Babel may have been of the
order of tens of thousands of persons.

Babylon becomes, in history, the fountainhead of false religion in the
Post-Flood world. The city Babylon and Iraq figure in Biblical
prophecies connected with the end of the age. "Mystery Babylon" is an
even more theme in Bible prophecy. Revelation 17-18 depicts God's
final judgment of world religion plus world commerce and trade since
these man-made systems have sprung from the source rebellion of Nimrod
and Babel. See Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done... for a description
of the place of Babylon in Biblical eschatology.

Web Pages: http://ldolphin.org/