Genesis 11:1-9 - Babel
Baked bricks were the invention of the Babylonian Empire. Until then, bricks were made of clay left to dry in the sun. Babylonians baked them hard in ovens, greatly increasing their ability to build grand architecture. The context and language of the story of the tower of Babel describes a ziggurat, a piece of architecture built by the Babylonians as part of their polytheistic temple worship. A huge, solid building went straight up on all sides, packed with mud on the inside, and held in by brick on the exterior. Ziggurats were built to honour gods. Most cities had a few, with the largest main one representing the patron saint of the city.
Ziggurats were described as reaching to the heavens.
The top of the ziggurat had a bed and a table laid. The temple was usually next to the ziggurat, or sometimes built into the structure itself. The ziggurat had a stairway around it or a ladder up it for the god to climb to move between heaven and earth. The word for this stairway is the same one used for Jacob's ladder.
Beautiful gardens would often adorn the edges of the ziggurat. These may have sometimes been the temple gardens where the priests of the temple tended the place of preparation and the food used for sacrifice. Ruins of the ziggurats can still be seen today in Iraq. These gardens are called one of the eight wonders of the ancient world.
Ziggurats were used as a method of gaining the favour of the deities. The bed and food was prepared to meet their carnal needs, and the ladder allowed them to easily come down to the earth and be among the people. Sacrifices of food and ritual cultic temple prostitution fulfilled the basic needs of the gods, as basic as the animalistic needs of the people who served them. Serving in the ziggurat or temple was to serve the god in their base of operations. Since the people were feeding the gods, fulfilling the gods sexually, and offering them hospitality, they were seen as indebted to the people. They had to hear the people’s prayers and answer them. In essence, this elevated the people to the power of gods, and gods to selfish impish creatures that could be manipulated to the people’s every whim.
In verse four the people declare that by their own power they will make their own names great, and be established in the land. This echoes the words of Gilgamesh almost exactly. In the ancient Babylonian Epic, Gilgamesh King of Uruk demands that he and his friend Enkidu go and kill a monster in the forest so that they will make names for themselves. Though Enkidu and all the gods oppose him, he goes and kills the monster anyway. As a consequence, Enkidu must die.
The offense of Babel is the final example of offense after the fall. The offense before this one was the sons of god incident, where leadership was corrupted. In Babel it is their view of God that has been corrupted. They believe that God is many gods, and that he is just like a human. If their view of a good and holy single God becomes corrupted, there is nothing that will stop them from becoming utterly depraved. Making gods into scoundrels gives humanity no excuse to be anything more.
Psalm 50:7-15
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,
10 for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Romans 1:21-25
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Babel is the last straw. The story of the tower is the final stage of the fullness of the consequences of the fall. Sin has corrupted mankind utterly, and all of mankind has become perverse. All of creation is bent from God's original plan. Creation needs rescuing by its Creator. This is the turning point of the book. We need a Saviour. We need a covenant. For the rest of the book, God establishes his covenant with his people in order to save his creation.
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Genesis 11:10-32
Humans are being fruitful and multiplying as God commanded.
Every aspect of every genealogy up until this point has amplified fruitfulness and virility. Everyone is multiplying. To point out Sarah's barrenness is a break in pattern, and significant.
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