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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the
Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity in order to
reach the heavens. To prevent the project from succeeding, God
confused their languages so that each spoke a different language and
the work could not proceed. After that time, people moved away to
different parts of Earth. The story is used to explain the existence
of many different languages and races.

2.1 History
2.2 Jewish literature

From the Hebrew scriptures

The Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9, KJV)

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it
came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to
another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they
had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go
to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto
heaven; and let us make us a name, 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 children of men builded. And the LORD said,
Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this
they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which
they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound
their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So
the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of
it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of
all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon
the face of all the earth.
[edit]

Judeo-Christian analysis

The story is found in Genesis xi. 1-9 as follows: The whole human race
spoke the same language, and formed one community. This community
settled in the land of Shinar, not far from the Euphrates River. Here
they built a city and a tower of such materials as a great river-basin
would afford and the genius of man could manufacture. This was done to
make a great center about which they might gather, and to obtain for
themselves a name. God came down to investigate the purpose of all
this unusual enterprise. The self-confidence and unity of the people
were everywhere prominent. Fearful that the accomplishment of this
project might embolden them to still more independent movements, God
said, "Let us go down, and there confound their language."
Consequently they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the
earth; "and they left off to build the city." The name of it was
therefore called "Babel," because there YHWH confounded the one
language of Earth.

The name "Babylon" is from Akkadian Bab-ilu, which means, "Gate of
God". Its Hebrew version however, "Babel", sounds similar to a word
for "confusion".

It has become a potent symbol of overambitious projects destined to
end in confusion. Images of unfinished buildings reaching towards the
sky can be found in religious art (see example above).
[edit]

Extra-Biblical accounts

History

In 440 BC Herodotus wrote, Babylon's outer wall is the main defence of
the city. There is, however, a second inner wall, of less thickness
than the first, but very little inferior to it in strength. The center
of each division of the town was occupied by a fortress. In the one
stood the palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength
and size: in the other was the sacred precinct of Jupiter Belus, a
square enclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass;
which was also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct
there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth,
upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on
up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which
winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds a
resting-place and seats, where persons are wont to sit some time on
their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious
temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly
adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any
kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber occupied of nights by any
one but a single native woman, who, as the Chaldaeans, the priests of
this god, affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the
women of the land.

This, "Tower of Jupiter Belus" (the latinized spelling of Akkadian
Bel), possibly corresponding to the Etemenanki ziggurat to Marduk is
thought to have inspired the story of the Tower of Babel.

In c. 670 BC Nebuchadnezzar wrote, A former king built [the Temple of
the Seven Lights of the Earth ], but he did not complete its head.
Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing
their words. Since that time earthquakes and lightning had dispersed
its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had split, and the earth
of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great lord,
excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site,
nor did I take away the foundation stone ? as it had been in former
times. so I founded it, I made it; as it had been in ancient days, I
so exalted the summit.

There is a similar story in Chaldean mythology called Enmerkar and the
Lord of Aratta where two gods, Enki and Enlil, have a rivalry and end
up confusing the tongues of all humankind.