- The Tower of Babel is a story from The Bible explaining the origin of all the world’s languages.
- The Tower was built by the Babylonians and designed to reach into heaven.
The Story
- In the first Book of the Bible, Genesis, Chapter 11, verses 1-9, tells the story of the Tower of Babel.
- After The Flood, the descendants of the survivors migrated to ‘Shinar’ meaning Mesopotamia.
- Here they decided to build a city with a tower that would reach into heaven.
- However, God did not approve of their project. He sent them into confusion, so that they were unable to understand each other, and were scattered over the Earth.
Possible Location based on Etymology
- The Great Ziggurat of Babylon has been suggested as the Tower of Babel. It was dedicated to Marduk, the Lord of all the Gods in Babylon.
- The Bible does not refer to a ‘Tower of Babel’. The narrative states that the people set out to build ‘a city and a tower…and that it was called Babel’. In Hebrew, the city of Babylon was called ‘Babel’ because it meant ‘to confuse’.
- Books 1-11 of Genesis are considered to have been written during the Babylonian Exile (587-538 BCE).
- The Great Ziggurat of Babylon had already been built around 610 BCE, and therefore, the Ziggurat may have influenced the authors of Genesis.
Babylon