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Tower of Babel
What
Did It Look Like?
William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
An astounding event at
the Tower of Babel over 4,000 years ago made language
translation necessary today.
The History
Book of the Universe records a remarkable series of events.
Noah’s family disembarked
from the Ark after the Great Flood (Genesis 6:1-9:19) around
2500 BC.
God
clearly instructed Noah and his sons to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth.” (Genesis 9:1,7)
Did Noah’s descendants
listen to God? No, the clan settled on the plain of Shinar.
They made no attempt to
spread out and fill the earth. On the contrary, they stuck together to build a
Tower, defying God’s order to re-populate the earth.
Yahweh therefore confused
the language of the Tower builders to force them to scatter across the face of
the earth (Genesis 11:1-9).
What Did the Tower of Babel
Look Like?
This detailed etching of
the Tower of Babel appeared in Athanasius Kircher’s 1679 Latin book Turris
Babel.
It was drawn by Lieven
Cruyl and etched by Coenraet Decker. Notice the artists’ names on the wall in
the right foreground.
The illustration is
replete with tiny interesting details. Click the picture to enlarge it and
explore them.
Notice the extensive use
of decorative supporting arches all over the massive structure. Encircling the
Tower are smoking, igloo-shaped kilns used for firing bricks (Genesis 11:3).
Look at the parade of
tiny people and animals, including camels, heading toward the main entrance at
the bottom.
Notice how the Tower
rises above even the clouds. Lower ramps appear as wide as a four-lane highway.
This depiction of the
Tower of Babel conveys some sense of how imposing the Tower
must have been.
The
colossal scale of the structure in the etching is consistent with the Biblical
description of “a tower whose top will reach into heaven,” a tower that
merited God’s attentive inspection, a tower whose fame has persisted globally
for four millennia.
Notice the houses built
along the upper ramps spiraling up the Tower.
Were these penthouses for
the ultra-rich? Look at the scaffolding at the top. It indicates that this
gigantic structure will soar still further skyward.
Behind the Tower on both
sides are harbors with numerous sailing ships. Some have dragon heads on their
prows!
This imaginative picture
gives a vivid impression of how enormous the Tower was compared to everything
else.
Scattered in the
background are towers, pyramids (usually the most imposing structures around),
and large municipal complexes. But everything is dwarfed by
the Tower of Babel.
Even mountains in the
distance are dwarfed by the Tower.
The Tower of Babel was a
spectacular and impressive architectural feat. It was so huge that it attracted
the Creator’s attention in an unprecedented way.
God is
omniscient; He always sees all things everywhere. Yet to convey how remarkable
this project was, Scripture explicitly states, “The Lord came down to see
the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” (Genesis 11:5).
Genesis does not say what
the Tower of Babel looked like, but archaeological ruins provide clues. Ancient
ziggurats or pyramids exist all over the world.
Ziggurats are stepped,
tiered, or terraced pyramids that usually have a shrine on top.
Ruins of these exist in
almost 30 different countries including Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Sudan, Iraq,
Iran, India, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Peru,
and Mexico.
Why are there so many
similar structures spread around the globe?
The Greek historian
Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC) reported seeing in Babylon what he believed were the
remains of the Tower.
According to his
description, what was left had eight levels and stood 20 stories high.
The great pyramids of
Egypt and the Mayan pyramids in Central America were probably feeble imitations
of the original Tower of Babel.
Some of the Mayan
pyramids were originally much taller than the structures which remain today.
The Great Pyramid of Cholula in southern
Mexico is the largest pyramid in the world volume-wise, although it’s not as
tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza in
Egypt (also called the Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops).
See Pyramids of Mesoamerica for photos and
information about pyramids in Central and South America.
Both the Egyptian and
Mayan pyramids were likely built by people groups who migrated from Babel.
Nobody today knows the techniques these ancient peoples used to build these
gargantuan structures.
When Yahweh scattered
mankind across the earth, many people groups likely took with them
sophisticated skills and knowledge of how to build towers. Many undoubtedly
rebuilt where they settled.
Herodotus probably saw
Etemenanki, the ziggurat that Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt.
Etemenanki means “temple
of the foundation of heaven and earth” or “house of the platform between heaven
and earth.” It’s believed to have been originally constructed around the middle
of the second millennium BC.
The geographical range
and cultural diversity of these ziggurats and pyramids suggest they were all
patterned after an original — the Tower of Babel.
The inspiration for the
stepped pyramids that cultures built all over the world was the basic memory of
the original Tower of Babel.
They preserved their
memories of the Tower in architecture, whereas the Hebrews preserved theirs in
written documents.
These towers also
re-enacted the rebellious drive to try reaching heaven physically, with an
enormous building, rather than approaching God spiritually, seeking inner
righteousness as He commands.
Working backwards from
the apparent copies to the original, it’s reasonable to think that the Tower of
Babel was built on a rectangular base with successive levels of receding tiers.
Even though most artistic
renderings of the Tower represent it as round, that is unlikely. It’s more
difficult to build a round tower than a square one.
No one
knows how tall the Tower of Babel was. The builders’ stated plan was to build “a
tower whose top will reach into heaven.” (Genesis 11:4)
It was extraordinarily
tall and imposing – so phenomenal that the Almighty wanted to take a personal
look at it (Genesis 11:5) – but
Genesis does not record its precise height.
The Book of Jubilees, part
of the Old Testament Apocrypha, describes the Tower as having a rectangular
base 7,800 ft by 18,000 ft (via conversion, 1 stade = 600 ft, per Herodotus).
It says the height was
8,150 ft (via conversion, 1 cubit – 1.5 ft). (See The Book of Jubilees, chapter 10, vs
19-27, R.H. Charles translation)
This sounds fantastically
immense — it’s certainly impossible with today’s technology.
But we usually
underestimate ancient man. He was smarter, stronger, and probably bigger than
men today. Less genetic deterioration had accumulated in these men than in men
today.
Moreover, the tower
builders at Babel still possessed much of the vigor of early man.
For example, the average
lifespan of the patriarchs from Shem to Peleg was 435 years. These patriarchs
were contemporary with those who built the Tower of Babel.
So maybe Jubilees is
correct. I don’t dismiss it just because it’s beyond today’s capabilities.
The Tower of Babel was a
mammoth edifice. It was the site of a pivotal event of world history.
Its consequences cascade
down through the centuries to our own day.
Have you ever struggled
to learn another language, or to understand someone with a heavy foreign
accent?
Have you ever felt
confused or bewildered in a place with an unfamiliar language? You can credit
your rebellious ancestors at the Tower of Babel for causing your troubles.
Soli Deo Gloria.
William
T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
The Bible-Science Guy
The Bible-Science Guy
I’m a
mathematician who has spent over 45 years researching Bible-Science topics.
I have taught many classes on these issues, and have repeatedly debated
evolutionist professors in university forums.
I
specialize in explaining scientific issues from a Biblical base. I wrote a
monthly newspaper column on Bible-Science topics for the The
Woodside News for seven years from July 2005 through July 2012.
I have a
Ph.D. in mathematics. Major career positions include
• University mathematics professor teaching undergraduate and graduate math courses at several universities.
• Software developer and analyst for a Fortune 100 company. Responsibilities included analyzing computer systems and developing CAD/CAM software to mathematically model automotive parts and design dies.
• VP of Consulting for a technology company
• University mathematics professor teaching undergraduate and graduate math courses at several universities.
• Software developer and analyst for a Fortune 100 company. Responsibilities included analyzing computer systems and developing CAD/CAM software to mathematically model automotive parts and design dies.
• VP of Consulting for a technology company
The Translation
Page which prompted this series offers automatic translations of
the Bible-Science Guy Blog into over 60 languages!
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Genesis 11:1-9 English Standard
Version (ESV)
The Tower of Babel
“11 Now the
whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as
people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar
and settled there.
“3 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.
“4 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 dispersed over the
face of the whole earth.’
“5 And the Lord came down to see the city and
the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 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. 7 Come, let
us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand
one another's speech.’
”8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over
the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore
its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth.
And from there the Lord dispersed
them over the face of all the earth.”
Footnotes:
a.
Genesis 11:9 Babel sounds like
the Hebrew for confused
 |
| Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico |
|
Tower
of Babel
“a tower whose top will reach into heaven” (Genesis 11:4) |
 |
Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
|
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