Genesis 11:1-9 Unity & Diversity – A Living Commentary
B.
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World Language Groupings* Indo-European (Northern India/Europe)
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Others are more persistent. They believe there was one original language as the scripture teaches us. They believe that the above languages themselves are related to this one original language. They look for evidence of similarity.
One interesting theory is that Hebrew serves as this 'Mother Tongue' or 'Father language.' Isaac Mozeson, author of "The Word: The Dictionary that reveals the Hebrew roots of the English Language" is convinced of this. Below he writes,
"More impressive than the Hebrew motto of Yale College is the title of Harvard College's first dissertation: Hebrew Is the Mother Tongue. When Noah Webster's original dictionary traced many English words beyond German, French, Latin and Greek to their "Shemitic" origin, no one raised an eyebrow. Every learned person knew that Hebrew was the Mother Tongue.
The Oxford English Dictionary is so troubled by a biblical source for BABBLE (Babel), that it warns readers that "no direct connection with Babel can be traced" and declares the term to be of "unknown origin.""
Can we see the difference between those shaped with a biblical perspective and modern education represented by Oxford's English Dictionary. Contrary to their judgment, one can say that both percentage-wise and vocabularly-wise, English looks more like a dialect of Hebrew than of Latin, Greek or French.
B.
Tower of Babel Narrative: Diversity
We must ask, "Where did all our cultures come from? Where did all of our languages derive from?" The scriptures clearly explain the source of this diversity. We can note that the many ancient cultures preserve ancient stories like reflecting the flood or the Tower of Babel as the one below does.
Where did they originate from? It makes most sense that they have a common beginning. They are so different because they were then isolated for thousands of years. Up to the point of the Tower of Babel, all the ancient cultures and language groups would have had these basic common 'stories.' After they were divided, they formed their own version of the story.
'When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven; but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave everyone his peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon....After this they were dispersed abroad, on account of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land which they lighted upon, and unto which God led them; so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland and maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited the islands; and some of these nations do still retain the names which were given to them by their first founders; but some also have lost them...The Sybil (Josephus. Antiq. i. 5.) (From Bill Cooper's book).
Genesis 11:3-43 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. |
1) Man's Plan (Genesis 11:1-5)
• Man Observed
Man felt constrained to spread out over the earth. Genesis 11:4 says, "Lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth." They felt they would loose what advantage that they had if they spread out. They were right in one sense (11:6). We call it suburbianism! It used to be called exploring or settling. "Go where no man has gone!"
• Man Concluded
Man communicated this plan with one another and got approval.
Step #1: Ready the materials.
Step #2: Build a city and tower.
Purpose: Become famous - be an attracting point.
• Man Accomplished
They actually built the city and tower that reached far in the sky (11:5). But someone was watching. This was the God who made man. The LORD understood man and his capacity for evil. We see the same pattern as above.
| Genesis 11:5-6
5) "And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. |
2) God's Assessment (Genesis 11:5-9)
• The Lord Observed
Yahweh (LORD) came down to look at the city and tower which they had built. They really did build it. Obviously, their complex was sufficiently sophisticated to cause the LORD to take action.
• The Lord Concluded
The greatest problem was not this one tower but the means by which they built it. The Lord Himself concluded that their unified purpose combined with one language makes them able to do anything that they would now wish. Nothing would be impossible. The Lord took this as an evil omen.
Some might think that God didn't want any competition, but the fact is much more complicated. God wanted to bring good into the world but the intensity of evil would frustrate God's design. He instead created many smaller cultures that would be isolated from each other. They would have to then use their thoughts on defending themselves from the threats of each other.
• The Lord Accomplished
The LORD took two big steps. He confused their language and scattered them across the earth. By looking at the "Noah and Grandsons" chart we can see the way the different cultures ended up with different languages and features.
We will speak more on the importance of these cultures and the relationship they have with our so-called 'modern culture' in the next page. We should note that there seems to be a great reversal back to the stage of the Tower of Babel where man because of unity speech could now make plans. The United Nations or these great worldwide Christian speakers such as Billy Graham point to the great reversal.
Things are changing very fast now.
Conclusion
Man was confused before he was scattered. The language barrier not only made them drop their building plans but caused them to become isolated groups according to language. The confusion was selective though. People in the same groups could understand each other. People who spoke the same dialect would live together - just like America's Chinatowns! Isolated groups of people then formed their own cultures. This explains why cultures have slight but distorted memories of main biblical events such as the flood- they all experienced it in their early development.