View source for Tower of Babel

{{About|the Biblical story}}
[[File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel (Vienna) - Google Art Project - edited.jpg|thumb|''[[The Tower of Babel (Bruegel)|The Tower of Babel]]'' by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]] (1563)]]
[[File:Confusion of Tongues.png|thumb|Engraving ''The Confusion of Tongues'' by [[Gustave Doré]] (1865)]]

The '''Tower of Babel''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|æ|b|ə|l}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|eɪ|b|ə|l}}; {{lang-he|{{Hebrew|מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל}}}}, ''Migddal Bāḇēl'') is a story told in the [[Book of Genesis]] of the Tanakh (also referred to as the Hebrew Bible) meant to explain [[Origin myth|the origin]] of different languages. According to the story, a united [[human race|humanity]] of the generations following the [[Genesis flood narrative|Great Flood]], speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of [[Shinar]] ({{lang-he|שנער}}). As the King James version of the Bible puts it:

{{quote|4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 

6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 

7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 

9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.|Genesis 11:4–9<ref>[[wikisource:Bible (King James)/Genesis#11:5|Genesis 11:4–9]]</ref>}}

The Tower of Babel has been associated with known structures according to some modern scholars, notably the [[Etemenanki]], a [[ziggurat]] dedicated to the [[Mesopotamian]] god [[Marduk]] by [[Nabopolassar]], king of [[Babylonia]] (c. 610 BC).<ref name="Harris 2002 50–51">{{cite book|title=Understanding the Bible |first=Stephen L. |last=Harris |authorlink=Stephen L. Harris |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]] |year=2002 |pages=50–51 |isbn=9780767429160 |url=}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Die Stadt, an deren Freuden man nicht satt wird |first=Michael P. |last=Streck |journal=[[Damals]] |volume=Special volume |year=2006 |pages=11–28 |language=German}}</ref> The Great Ziggurat of Babylon's was {{Convert|91|m|ft|-1}} in height. [[Alexander the Great]] ordered it demolished circa 331 BCE in preparation for a reconstruction that his death forestalled.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], 2.9.9; [[Strabo]], ''Geography'', 16.1.5.</ref><ref>R.J. van der Spek, "Darius III, Alexander the Great and Babylonian scholarship" in: Achaemenid History XIII (Leiden 2003), 289-346.</ref> A [[Sumer]]ian story with some similar elements is told in ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]''.

== Story ==
[[File:Meister der Weltenchronik 001.jpg|thumb|German Late Medieval (c. 1370s) depiction of the construction of the tower.]]

The story of the city of Babel is recorded in {{Bibleverse||Genesis|11:1-9|HE}}. Everyone on earth spoke the same language. As people migrated from the east, they settled in the land of Shinar. People there sought to make bricks and build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for themselves, so that they not be scattered over the world. God came down to look at the city and tower, and remarked that as one people with one language, nothing that they sought would be out of their reach. God went down and confounded their speech, so that they could not understand each other, and scattered them over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. Thus the city was called [[Babylon|Babel]].

==Etymology==
The phrase "Tower of Babel" does not appear in the [[Bible]]; it is always "the city and its tower" ({{Hebrew|אֶת-הָעִיר וְאֶת-הַמִּגְדָּל}}) or just "the city" ({{Hebrew|הָעִיר}}). "Babel" means the "Gate of God", from [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''bab-ilu'' ({{cuneiform|𒁀𒀊 𒅋𒌋}}), "Gate of God" (from ''[[Bab (gateway)|bab]]'' "gate" + ''[[Ilah|ilu]]'' "god")."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Babel&allowed_in_frame=0 |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=Etymonline.com |date= |accessdate=2013-11-07}}</ref> According to the Bible, the city received the name "[[Babylon|Babel]]" from the Hebrew word ''balal'', meaning to jumble.<ref>Book of Genesis, 11:9</ref>

== Composition ==

=== Themes ===
The story explains the [[confusion of tongues]]: variation in human language. The story's theme of competition between God and humans appears elsewhere in Genesis, in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.<ref name="Harris">[[Stephen L. Harris|Harris, Stephen L.]], Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.</ref> The 1st-century Jewish interpretation found in [[Flavius Josephus]] explains the construction of the tower as a [[hubris]]tic act of defiance against God ordered by the arrogant tyrant [[Nimrod (Bible)|Nimrod]]. There have, however, been some contemporary challenges to this classical interpretation, with emphasis placed on the explicit motive of cultural and linguistic homogeneity mentioned in the narrative (v. 1, 4, 6).<ref>Theodore Hiebert, 'The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World's Cultures', Journal of Biblical Literature 126 (2007), pp.29-58</ref> This reading of the text sees God's actions not as a punishment for pride, but as an [[etiology]] of [[cultural differences]], presenting Babel as the [[cradle of civilization]].

=== Genre ===
The narrative of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11.1-9) is an [[Myth of origins|etiology]] or explanation of a phenomenon. Etiologies are narratives that explain the origin of a custom, ritual, geographical feature, name, or other phenomenon.<ref>Coogan, M. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context. (Oxford University Press: Oxford 2009). p426</ref> The story of the tower of Babel explains the origins of the multiplicity of languages. God was concerned that humans had too much freedom to do as they wished, so God brought into existence multiple languages.<ref name="Coogan">Coogan, M. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context. (Oxford University Press: Oxford 2009). p51</ref> Thus, humans were divided into linguistic groups, unable to understand one another.

===Authorship and source criticism===
Tradition attributes the whole of the [[Pentateuch]] to Moses; however, in the late 19th century, the [[documentary hypothesis]] was proposed by [[Julius Wellhausen]].<ref>Benkinsopp, Joseph. "Introduction to the Pentateuch" in ''General and Old Testament Articles'' Vol 1 of ''The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary,'' edited by Leander E. Keck et al. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, Nashville 1994). p310</ref> This hypothesis proposes four sources: [[Jahwist|J]], [[Elohist|E]], [[Priestly source|P]] and [[Deuteronomist|D]]. Of these hypothetical sources, proponents suggest that this narrative comes from the J or "Yahwist source". The etiological nature of the narrative (see Genre above) is considered typical of J. In addition, the intentional word play regarding the city of Babel, and the noise of the people's "babbling" is found in the Hebrew words as easily as in English, and is considered typical of the "Yahwist source."<ref name="Coogan" />

== Historical context ==
[[File:Hanging Gardens of Babylon.jpg|left|thumb|''[[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]]'' (19th century), depicts the Tower of Babel in the background.]]

Genesis 10:10 states that Babel ([[LXX]]: Βαβυλών) formed part of [[Nimrod (king)|Nimrod]]'s kingdom. The Bible does not specifically mention that Nimrod ordered the building of the tower, but many other sources have associated its construction with Nimrod.

Genesis 11:9 attributes the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] version of the name, ''Babel'', to the verb ''balal'', which means ''to confuse or confound'' in Hebrew. The first century Roman-Jewish author [[Flavius Josephus]] similarly explained that the name was derived from the Hebrew word ''Babel (βαβὲλ)'', meaning "confusion".<ref>Josephus, ''Antiquities'', 1.4.3</ref> 
The Greek form of the name in the [[Septuagint]], [[Babylon]] (Βαβυλὼν), is ultimately from the native [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''Bāb-ilim'', "Gate of the gods", in reference to the great temple-towers (the [[ziggurat]]s) of ancient [[Sumer]] (Biblical [[Shinar]]). The ruins of the city of Babylon stand near [[Hillah]], [[Babil Governorate]], [[Iraq]].

Genesis 11:8-9 implies that Yahweh scattered the descendants of Noah listed in Chapter 10 of Genesis (the [[Table of Nations]]) over the face of the earth from Shinar only after the abandonment of the city. Some see an internal [[Inconsistencies in the Bible|contradiction]] between the earlier mention in Genesis 10:5 that "From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with his own language" and the subsequent Babel story, which begins "Now the entire earth was of one language and uniform words" (Genesis 11:1).<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/babel.html |title=How many languages were there before the Tower of Babel was built? |publisher=Skepticsannotatedbible.com |date= |accessdate=2011-06-18}}
</ref> However, this view presupposes a rigid chronological sequence of 10:5 and 11:1, whereas the traditional Judeo-Christian interpretation holds that 10:5 refers to the same later scattering as mentioned more fully in 11:9. An alternative resolution to the apparent contradictory material of Genesis 10:5 and 11:8-9 comes with the [[documentary hypothesis]], which suggests different sources for those verses. Biblical scholars holding to the hypothetical four-source origins of Genesis ([[Jahwist|J]], [[Elohist|E]], [[Priestly source|P]], [[Deuteronomist|D]]) regard 10:5 as coming from the [[Priestly source|Priestly]] (P) text source and 11:8-9 (and actually the entirety of the Babel narrative) as from the [[Jahwist]] source (J).

== In other sources ==

=== Destruction ===
The account in Genesis makes no mention of any destruction of the tower. The people whose languages are confounded simply stop building their city, and are scattered from there over the face of the Earth. However, in other sources, such as the [[Book of Jubilees]] (chapter 10 v.18-27), [[Cornelius Alexander]] (frag. 10), [[Abydenus]] (frags. 5 and 6), [[Josephus]] (''Antiquities'' 1.4.3), and the [[Sibylline Oracles]] (iii. 117-129), God overturns the tower with a great wind. In the [[Midrash]], it said that the top of the tower was burnt, the bottom was swallowed, and the middle was left standing to erode over time.

=== Etemenanki, the ziggurat at Babylon ===
[[File:Etemenanki drawing.gif|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[Etemenanki]], which was {{Convert|91|m|ft|-1}} in height.]]
{{Main|Etemenanki}}
Etemenanki (Sumerian: "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth") was the name of a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk in the city of Babylon. It was famously rebuilt by the 6th-century BC Neo-Babylonian dynasty rulers [[Nabopolassar]] and [[Nebuchadnezzar II]]. According to modern scholars, such as [[Stephen L. Harris]], the biblical story of the Tower of Babel was likely influenced by Etemenanki during the Babylonian captivity of the Hebrews.<ref name="Harris 2002 50–51"/>

Nebuchadnezzar wrote that the original tower had been built in antiquity: "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."

[[Isaac Asimov|Isaac Asimov's]] speculation<ref>{{cite book|title=Asimov's Guide to the Bible, vol.1 : The Old Testament |first=Isaac |last=Asimov |authorlink=Isaac Asimov |publisher=[[Avon Books]] |year=1971 |pages=54–55 |isbn=9780380010325 |url=}}</ref> in [[Asimov's Guide to the Bible]] was that the authors of the account in Genesis 11:1-9, were inspired by the existence of an apparently incomplete ziggurat at Babylon and by the (mistaken) etymological association whereby "the writers of Genesis derived 'Babel' from the Hebrew word ''balal'', meaning 'mixed', 'confused', or 'confounded.'"

Scholars have recently discovered in the [[Schoyen Collection]] the oldest known representation of the Etemenanki.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.discovery.com/history/tower-of-babel-111227.html |title=Ancient Texts Part of Earliest Known Documents |publisher=news.discovery.com |date= |accessdate=2011-12-28}}</ref> Carved on a black stone, ''The Tower of Babel Stele'' (as it is known) dates from 604-562 BC, the time of Nebuchadnezzar II.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.schoyencollection.com/historyBabylonian.html#2063 |title=Babylonian History |publisher=http://www.schoyencollection.com |date= |accessdate=2011-12-28}}</ref>

The Greek historian [[Herodotus]] (440 BC) later wrote of this ziggurat, which he called the "Temple of Zeus Belus", giving an account of its vast dimensions.

The already decayed Great Ziggurat of Babylon was finally destroyed by [[Alexander the Great]] in an attempt to rebuild it. He managed to move the tiles of the tower to another location, but his death stopped the reconstruction.

=== Book of Jubilees ===
The [[Book of Jubilees]] contains one of the most detailed accounts found anywhere of the Tower.

<blockquote>And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height [of a brick] was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 [[cubit]]s and 2 palms, and [the extent of one wall was] thirteen [[Stadion (unit of length)|stades]] [and of the other thirty stades]. (Jubilees 10:20-21, Charles' 1913 translation)</blockquote>

===Pseudo-Philo===
In [[Pseudo-Philo]], one of the earliest accounts (c. AD 70) though not thought to be by [[Philo]], the direction for the building is ascribed not only to Nimrod, who is made prince of the Hamites, but also to [[Joktan]], as prince of the Semites, and to Phenech son of [[Dodanim]], as prince of the [[Japhetite]]s. Twelve men are arrested for refusing to bring bricks, including [[Abraham]], [[Lot (Bible)|Lot]], [[Nahor]], and several sons of Joktan. However, Joktan finally saves the twelve from the wrath of the other two princes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/bap/bap22.htm |title=Pseudo Philo Chapter 6 |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |date= |accessdate=2011-06-18}}</ref>

=== Josephus' ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ===
[[File:Tour de babel.jpeg|thumb|''Tower of Babel'', by [[Lucas van Valckenborch]], 1594, [[Louvre Museum]]]]

The Jewish-Roman historian [[Flavius Josephus]], in his ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'' (c. AD 94), recounted history as found in the [[Hebrew Bible]] and mentioned the Tower of Babel. He wrote that it was Nimrod who had the tower built and that Nimrod was a tyrant who tried to turn the people away from God. In this account, God confused the people rather than destroying them because annihilation with a Flood hadn't taught them to be godly.<blockquote>Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into [[tyranny]], seeing no other way of turning men from the [[fear]] of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power... Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of [[bitumen]], that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners <nowiki>[in the Flood]</nowiki>; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called [[Babylon]], because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word [[Babylon|Babel]], confusion...</blockquote>

=== Greek Apocalypse of Baruch ===
''[[Third Apocalypse of Baruch]]'' (or 3 Baruch, c. 2nd century), one of the [[pseudepigrapha]], describes the just rewards of sinners and the righteous in the afterlife.<ref name="Harris" /> Among the sinners are those who instigated the Tower of Babel. In the account, Baruch is first taken (in a vision) to see the resting place of the souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them." Next he is shown another place, and there, occupying the form of dogs, 
<blockquote>Those who gave counsel to build the tower, for they whom thou seest drove forth multitudes of both men and women, to make bricks; among whom, a woman making bricks was not allowed to be released in the hour of child-birth, but brought forth while she was making bricks, and carried her child in her apron, and continued to make bricks. And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-three cubits. And they took a [[Gimlet (tool)|gimlet]], and sought to pierce the heavens, saying, Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron. When God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness and confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest.'' (Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, 3:5-8)</blockquote>

=== Midrash ===
[[Rabbinic literature]] offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of [[Babylon|Babel]], and of the intentions of its builders. According to one [[midrash]] the builders of the Tower, called "the generation of secession" in the Jewish sources, said: "God has no right to choose the upper world for Himself, and to leave the lower world to us; therefore we will build us a tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so that it may appear as if it intended to war with God" (Gen. R. xxxviii. 7; Tan., ed. Buber, Noah, xxvii. et seq.).

The building of the Tower was meant to bid defiance not only to God, but also to [[Abraham]], who exhorted the builders to reverence. The passage mentions that the builders spoke sharp words against God, not cited in the Bible, saying that once every 1,656 years, heaven tottered so that the water poured down upon the earth, therefore they would support it by columns that there might not be another deluge (Gen. R. l.c.; Tan. l.c.; similarly Josephus, "Ant." i. 4, § 2).

Some among that generation even wanted to war against God in heaven (Talmud Sanhedrin 109a). They were encouraged in this undertaking by the notion that arrows that they shot into the sky fell back dripping with blood, so that the people really believed that they could wage war against the inhabitants of the heavens ([[Sefer haYashar (midrash)|Sefer ha-Yashar]], Chapter 9:12-36). According to [[Josephus]] and Midrash Pirke R. El. xxiv., it was mainly [[Nimrod]] who persuaded his contemporaries to build the Tower, while other rabbinical sources assert, on the contrary, that Nimrod separated from the builders.

According to another midrashic account, one third of the Tower builders were punished by being transformed into semi-demonic creatures and banished into three parallel dimensions, inhabited now by their descendants.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lginzberg/bl-lginzberg-legends-1-4l.htm |title=The Inhabitants of the Seven Earths - Vol. 1 - Legends of the Jews - Louis Ginzberg |publisher=Classiclit.about.com |date=2011-03-25 |accessdate=2011-06-18}}</ref>

=== Islamic tradition ===
[[File:Turris Babel by Athanasius Kircher.jpg|thumb|left|''Turris Babel'' from [[Athanasius Kircher]]]]

Though not mentioned by name, the [[Qur'an]] has a story with similarities to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, though set in the Egypt of Moses: [[Pharaoh]] asks [[Haman (Islam)|Haman]] to build him a stone (or clay) tower so that he can mount up to heaven and confront the [[God]] of [[Moses]].<ref>Pickthal, M. "Quran" (in English), Suras 28:36 and 40:36-37. Amana Publishers, UK 1996</ref>

Another story in Sura 2:102 mentions the name of [[Babil]], but tells of when the two angels [[Harut and Marut]] taught magic to some people in Babylon and warned them that magic is a sin and that their teaching them magic is a test of faith.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://quran.com/2/102 |title=Surat Al-Baqarah [2:102&#93; - The Noble Qur'an - القرآن الكريم |publisher=Quran.com |date= |accessdate=2013-11-07}}</ref>
A tale about Babil appears more fully in the writings of [[Yaqut]] (i, 448 f.) and the ''{{Ill|ar|Lisān al-ʿArab|لسان العرب}}'' (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by winds into the plain that was afterward called "Babil", where they were assigned their separate languages by God, and were then scattered again in the same way. In the ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings (book)|History of the Prophets and Kings]]'' by the 9th-century Muslim theologian [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|al-Tabari]], a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, God destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly [[Syriac]], is then confused into 72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, [[Abu al-Fida]] relates the same story, adding that the patriarch [[Eber]] (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, [[Hebrew]] in this case, because he would not partake in the building.<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia'' "Babel, Tower of"</ref>

Though variations similar to the Judeo-Christian narrative of the Tower of Babel exist within Islamic tradition, the central theme of God separating humankind on the basis of language is alien to Islam according to the author [[Yahiya Emerick]]. In Islamic belief, he argues, God created nations to know each other and not to be separated.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c4N4GwhuXYUC&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=yahiya+emerick+the+idiot%27s+guide+to+Islam+tower+of+babel#v=onepage&q=&f=false |title=The complete idiot's guide to ... - Google Books |publisher=Books.google.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2011-06-18}}</ref>

===Book of Mormon===
In the [[Book of Mormon]], a man named [[Jared (Book of Mormon)|Jared]] and his family ask God that their language not be confounded at the time of the Tower of Babel. Because of their prayers, God preserves their language and leads them to the [[Valley of Nimrod]]. From there, they travel across the sea to the Americas.<ref>[[Book of Ether|Ether]] {{lds||ether|1|33|38}}</ref>

Members of [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] are taught that the Tower of Babel story is more than myth or allegory and is historical fact. "Although there are many in our day who consider the accounts of the Flood and tower of Babel to be fiction, Latter-day Saints affirm their reality."<ref>{{citation |url= https://www.lds.org/ensign/1998/01/the-flood-and-the-tower-of-babel?lang=eng |title= The Flood and the Tower of Babel |last= Parry |first= Donald W. |authorlink= Donald W. Parry |journal= [[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]] |date= January 1998 }}</ref>

===Irish folklore===

Irish texts, such as ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'' and ''[[Auraicept na n-Éces]]'', claim that the legendary king [[Fenius Farsa]] chose the best features of all the confused languages and fused them to create [[Goidelic]], the forerunner of the [[Irish language]].

=== Western culture ===
{{Further|confusion of tongues|origin of language}}
[[Historical linguistics]] has long wrestled with the idea of a [[Origin of language|single original language]]. In the Middle Ages, and down to the 17th century, attempts were made to identify a living descendant of the [[Adamic language]].

[[Pieter Brueghel the Elder|Pieter Brueghel]]'s influential portrayal is based on the [[Colosseum]] in Rome, while later conical depictions of the tower (as depicted in Doré's illustration) resemble much later Muslim towers observed by 19th-century explorers in the area, notably the [[Great Mosque of Samarra|Minaret of Samarra]]. [[M. C. Escher]] depicts a more stylized geometrical structure in [[Tower of Babel (M. C. Escher)|his woodcut]] representing the story.

The composer [[Anton Rubinstein]] wrote an [[opera]] based on the story, ''[[Der Thurm zu Babel]]''.

American choreographer [[Adam Darius]] staged a multilingual theatrical interpretation of ''The Tower of Babel'' in 1993 at the [[Institute of Contemporary Arts|ICA]] in London.

[[Fritz Lang]]'s 1927 film ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', in a flashback, plays upon themes of lack of communication between the designers of the tower and the workers who are constructing it. The short scene states how the words used to glorify the tower's construction by its designers took on totally different, oppressive meanings to the workers. This led to its destruction as they rose up against the designers because of the insufferable working conditions.

[[A. S. Byatt]]'s novel ''Babel Tower'' (1996) is about the question "whether language can be shared, or, if that turns out to be illusory, how individuals, in talking to each other, fail to understand each other".<ref>Andreas Dorschel, 'Ach, Sie waren nicht in Oxford? Antonia S. Byatts Roman "Der Turm zu Babel"', in: ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]'' Nr. 274 (25 November 2004), p. 16.</ref>

==Comparable myths==
{{See also|Comparative mythology}}

=== Sumerian parallel ===
There is a [[Mesopotamian religion|Sumerian myth]] similar to that of the Tower of Babel, called ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]'', where 
[[Enmerkar]] of [[Uruk]] is building a massive ziggurat in [[Eridu]] and demands a tribute of precious materials from [[Aratta]] for its construction, at one point reciting an incantation imploring the god [[Enki]] to restore (or in Kramer's translation, to disrupt) the linguistic unity of the inhabited regions &mdash; named as [[Subartu|Shubur]], [[Hamazi]], Sumer, [[Akkadian Empire|Uri-ki]] (Akkad), and the [[Amorites|Martu]] land, "the whole universe, the well-guarded people &mdash; may they all address Enlil together in a single language."<ref>[http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/c1823.htm#line134 145f.]: an-ki ningin<sub>2</sub>-na ung<sub>3</sub> sang sig<sub>10</sub>-ga den-lil<sub>2</sub>-ra eme 1-am<sub>3</sub> he<sub>2</sub>-en-na-da-ab-dug<sub>4</sub>.</ref>

One recent theory first advanced by [[David Rohl]] associates Nimrod, the hunter, builder of Erech and Babel, with Enmerkar (i.e., Enmer the Hunter) king of [[Uruk]], also said to have been the first builder of the [[Eridu]] temple. ([[Amar-Sin]] (c. 2046 – 2037 BC), third monarch of the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]], later attempted to complete the Eridu ziggurat.) This theory proposes that the remains of the historical building that, via Mesopotamian legend, inspired the story of the Tower of Babel are the ruins of the ziggurat of [[Eridu]], just south of [[Ur]]. Among the reasons for this association are the larger size of the ruins, the older age of the ruins, and the fact that one title of Eridu was {{lang|sux|NUN.KI}} ("mighty place"), which later became a title of Babylon.<ref>Rohl, David. ''Legend: The Genesis of Civilization'', 1998.</ref> Both cities also had temples called the [[Esagilla|E-Sagila]].

===Towers===
Various traditions similar to that of the tower of Babel are found in [[Central America]]. Some writers connected the [[Great Pyramid of Cholula]] to the Tower of Babel; others did not. The [[Dominican friar]] [[Diego Duran]] (1537–1588) reported hearing an account about the pyramid from a hundred-year-old priest at Cholula, shortly after the conquest of Mexico. He wrote that he was told when the light of the sun first appeared upon the land, giants appeared and set off in search of the sun. Not finding it, they built a tower to reach the sky. An angered Lord of the Heavens called upon the inhabitants of the sky, who destroyed the tower and scattered its inhabitants. The story was not related to either a flood or the confusion of languages, although Frazer connect its construction and the scattering of the giants with the Tower of Babel.<ref name="Frazer, 1918 p. 5">Frazer, ''Folk-Lore in the Old Testament''(1918), chap. 5.</ref>

Another story, attributed by the native historian [[Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl]] (c. 1565 - 1648) to the ancient [[Toltecs]], states that after men had multiplied following a great deluge, they erected a tall ''zacuali'' or tower, to preserve themselves in the event of a second deluge. However, their languages were confounded and they went to separate parts of the earth.

Still another story, attributed to the [[Tohono O'odham people]], holds that [[Montezuma (mythology)|Montezuma]] escaped a great flood, then became wicked and attempted to build a house reaching to heaven, but the Great Spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts. ([[Hubert Howe Bancroft|Bancroft]], vol. 3, p.&nbsp;76; also in "History of Arizona".)<ref>{{cite web|author=Thomas Edwin Farish, Arizona Historian |url=http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/hav7/body.1_div.17.html |title=Chapter Xvii. Papago And Sobaipuri |publisher=Southwest.library.arizona.edu |date= |accessdate=2014-03-05}}</ref>

According to [[David Livingstone]], the [[Africa]]ns whom he met living near [[Lake Ngami]] in 1849 had such a tradition, but with the builders' heads getting "cracked by the fall of the scaffolding" (''Missionary Travels, chap. 26'').

In his 1918 book, [[Folklore in the Old Testament Studies in Comparative Religion Legend and Law|Folklore in the Old Testament]], Scottish social anthropologist Sir [[James George Frazer]] documented similarities between Old Testament stories, such as the Flood, and indigenous legends around the world. He identified Livingston's account with a tale found in [[Lozi mythology]], wherein the wicked men build a tower of masts to pursue the Creator-God, Nyambe, who has fled to Heaven on a spider-web, but the men perish when the masts collapse. He further relates similar tales of the [[The Ashanti|Ashanti]] that substitute a pile of porridge pestles for the masts. Frazer moreover cites such legends found among the [[Kongo people]], as well as in [[Tanzania]], where the men stack poles or trees in a failed attempt to reach the moon.<ref name="Frazer, 1918 p. 5"/> He further cited the [[Karbi people|Karbi]] and [[Kuki people]] of [[Assam]] as having a similar story. The traditions of the [[Karen people]] of [[Myanmar]], which Frazer considered to show clear 'Abrahamic' influence, also relate that their ancestors migrated there following the abandonment of a great [[pagoda]] in the land of the [[Karenni]] 30 generations from Adam, when the languages were confused and the Karen separated from the Karenni. He notes yet another version current in the [[Admiralty Islands]], where mankind's languages are confused following a failed attempt to build houses reaching to heaven.

Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been reported among the [[Tharu people|Tharu]] of [[Nepal]] and northern [[India]] (''Report of the Census of Bengal'', 1872, p.&nbsp;160).

===Multiplication of languages===
There have also been a number of traditions around the world that describe a divine confusion of the one original language into several, albeit without any tower. Aside from the Ancient Greek myth that [[Hermes]] confused the languages, causing Zeus to give his throne to [[Phoroneus]], Frazer specifically mentions such accounts among the Wasania of [[Kenya]], the Kacha [[Naga people]] of Assam, the inhabitants of [[Encounter Bay]] in Australia, the [[Maidu]] of California, the [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]] of Alaska, and the [[K'iche' people|K'iche' Maya]] of Guatemala.<ref>
 ''Folk-lore in the Old Testament'' by James George Frazer, p. 384 ff.</ref> (See also: [[Mythical origins of language]])

The [[Estonia]]n myth of "the Cooking of Languages"<ref>Kohl, ''Reisen in die 'Ostseeprovinzen'', ii. 251-255</ref> has also been compared.

==Height of the tower==
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[File:Metropolis-new-tower-of-babel.png|thumb|The Tower of Babel as depicted in ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' was modeled after [[The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)|Brueghel's 1563 painting]]<ref name="Bukatman">Bukatman, Scott. ''Blade Runner''. BFI modern classics. London: British Film Institute, 1997. ISBN 0-85170-623-1. p. 62-63.</ref>]] -->

The Book of Genesis does not mention how tall the tower was. The phrase used to describe the tower, “its top in the sky” (v.4), was an idiom for impressive height; rather than implying arrogance this was simply a cliché for height.<ref>T. Hiebert, 'The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World's Cultures', Journal of Biblical Literature 126 (2007), p.37</ref> The tower's height is discussed in various extra-canonical sources.

The ''Book of Jubilees'' mentions the tower's height as being 5,433 [[cubit]]s and 2 palms, or {{Convert|2,484|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}, about three times the height of [[Burj Khalifa]], or roughly 1.6 miles high. The ''Third Apocalypse of Baruch'' mentions that the 'tower of strife' reached a height of 463 cubits, or {{Convert|211.8|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}, taller than any structure built [[Timeline of three tallest structures in the world|in human history]] until the construction of the [[Eiffel Tower]] in 1889, which is {{Convert|324|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} in height.

[[Gregory of Tours]] (I, 6) writing c. 594, quotes the earlier historian [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]] (c. 417) as saying the tower was "laid out foursquare on a very level plain. Its wall, made of baked brick cemented with pitch, is fifty [[cubits]] wide, two hundred high, and four hundred and seventy [[stadia (length)|stades]] in [[circumference]]. A stade contains five [[Agripennia|agripennes]]. Twenty-five [[gate]]s are situated on each side, which make in all one hundred. The doors of these gates, which are of wonderful size, are cast in bronze. The same historian [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]] tells many other tales of this city, and says: 'Although such was the glory of its building still it was conquered and destroyed.'"

A typical medieval account is given by [[Giovanni Villani]] (1300): He relates that "it measured eighty miles round, and it was already 4,000 [[paces]] high, or {{Convert|5.92|km|mi|2|abbr=on}} and 1,000 paces thick, and each pace is three of our feet."<ref>[http://www.elfinspell.com/VillaniBook1a.html#sect2 Selections from Giovanni's ''Chronicle'' in English].</ref> The 14th-century traveler [[John Mandeville]] also included an account of the tower and reported that its height had been 64 [[furlong]]s, or {{Convert|13|km|mi|0|abbr=on}}, according to the local inhabitants.

The 17th-century historian [[Verstegan]] provides yet another figure - quoting Isidore, he says that the tower was 5,164 paces high, or {{Convert|7.6|km|mi|1|abbr=on}}, and quoting Josephus that the tower was wider than it was high, more like a mountain than a tower. He also quotes unnamed authors who say that the spiral path was so wide that it contained lodgings for workers and animals, and other authors who claim that the path was wide enough to have fields for growing [[grain]] for the animals used in the construction.

In his book, ''Structures or why things don't fall down'' (Pelican 1978–1984), Professor [[J.E. Gordon]] considers the height of the Tower of Babel. He wrote, 'brick and stone weigh about 120&nbsp;lb per [[cubic foot]] (2,000&nbsp;kg per cubic metre) and the crushing strength of these materials is generally rather better than 6,000&nbsp;lbf per square inch or 40 megapascals. Elementary arithmetic shows that a tower with parallel walls could have been built to a height of {{Convert|2.1|km|mi|1|abbr=on}} before the bricks at the bottom were crushed. However by making the walls taper towards the top they ... could well have been built to a height where the men of Shinnar would run short of oxygen and had difficulty in breathing before the brick walls crushed beneath their own dead weight."

==Enumeration of scattered languages==
There are several mediaeval historiographic accounts that attempt to make an enumeration of the languages scattered at the Tower of Babel. Because a count of all the [[sons of Noah|descendants of Noah]] listed by name in chapter 10 of Genesis ([[Septuagint|LXX]]) provides 15 names for Japheth's descendants, 30 for Ham's, and 27 for Shem's, these figures became established as the 72 languages resulting from the confusion at Babel &mdash; although the exact listing of these languages tended to vary over time. (The LXX Bible has two additional names, Elisa and Cainan, not found in the Masoretic text of this chapter, so early rabbinic traditions, such as the ''Mishna'', speak instead of "70 languages".) Some of the earliest sources for 72 (sometimes 73) languages are the 2nd-century Christian writers [[Clement of Alexandria]] (''[[Stromata]]'' I, 21) and [[Hippolytus of Rome]] (''On the Psalms'' 9); it is repeated in the [[Syriac]] book ''[[Cave of Treasures]]'' (c. AD 350), [[Epiphanius of Salamis]]' ''[[Panarion]]'' (c. 375) and [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]]'s ''[[City of God (book)|The City of God]]'' 16.6 (c. 410). The chronicles attributed to Hippolytus (c. 234) contain one of the first attempts to list each of the 72 peoples who were believed to have spoken these languages.

[[Isidore of Seville]] in his ''[[Etymologiae]]'' (c. 600) mentions the number of 72; however, his list of names from the Bible drops the sons of Joktan and substitutes the sons of Abraham and Lot, resulting in only about 56 names total; he then appends a list of some of the nations known in his own day, such as the [[Longobards]] and the [[Franks]]. This listing was to prove quite influential on later accounts that made the Lombards and Franks themselves into descendants of eponymous grandsons of Japheth, e.g. the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' (c. 833), ''[[The Meadows of Gold]]'' by [[Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī|al Masudi]] (c. 947) and ''[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (al-Bakrī)|Book of Roads and Kingdoms]]'' by [[al-Bakri]] (1068), the 11th-century ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'', and the midrashic compilations ''[[Yosippon]]'' (c. 950), ''[[Chronicles of Jerahmeel]]'', and ''[[Sefer haYashar (midrash)|Sefer haYashar]]''.

Other sources that mention 72 (or 70) languages scattered from Babel are the [[Old Irish]] poem ''Cu cen mathair'' by [[Luccreth moccu Chiara]] (c. 600); the Irish monastic work ''[[Auraicept na n-Éces]]''; ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings]]'' by the Persian historian [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari]] (c. 915); the Anglo-Saxon dialogue ''[[Solomon and Saturn]]''; the Russian ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' (c. 1113); the Jewish [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] work ''[[Bahir]]'' (1174); the ''[[Prose Edda]]'' of [[Snorri Sturluson]] (c. 1200); the [[Syriac]] ''[[Book of the Bee]]'' (c. 1221); the ''[[Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum]]'' (c. 1284; mentions 22 for Shem, 31 for Ham and 17 for Japheth for a total of 70); [[Giovanni Villani|Villani]]'s 1300 account; and the rabbinic ''[[Midrash ha-Gadol]]'' (14th century). Villani adds that it "was begun 700 years after the Flood, and there were 2,354 years from the beginning of the world to the confusion of the Tower of Babel. And we find that they were 107 years working at it; and men lived long in those times". According to the ''Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum'', however, the project was begun only 200 years following the Deluge.

The tradition of 72 languages persisted into later times. Both [[José de Acosta]] in his 1576 treatise ''De procuranda indorum salute'', and [[António Vieira]] a century later in his ''Sermão da Epifania'', expressed amazement at how much this 'number of tongues' could be surpassed, there being hundreds of mutually unintelligible languages indigenous only to Peru and Brazil.

==Usage in conlanging==
[[File:Conlangflag.svg|thumb|alt=Flag of the Language Creation Society|The flag of the [[Language Creation Society]] has a picture of the Tower of Babel at its center]]
The text of the Tower of Babel is commonly used today by people who devise [[conlangs|constructed languages]] (conlangs) as an example translated text.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://conlang.org/flag.php |title=Conlang Flag &#124; Language Creation Society |publisher=Conlang.org |date= |accessdate=2012-11-08}}</ref> It is used because of its dealing with the creation of many languages from one, and because it serves as a useful comparison between different conlangs due to its array of sentence structures, verbs, nouns, etc.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.langmaker.com/babel/babel.htm |title=Temporarily Disabled |publisher=Langmaker.com |date=2008-07-10 |accessdate=2012-11-08}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Bible|Book of Mormon|Quran}}
{{div col|cols=2}}
* [[Babel fish (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)|Babel fish]]
* [[Babylonia]]
* [[Babylonian astronomy]]
* [[Borsippa]]
* [[Diana Al-Hadid]]
* [[Enuma Anu Enlil]]
* [[Evolutionary linguistics]]
* [[Historical linguistics]]
* [[List of world's tallest structures]]
* [[Origin of language]]
* [[Origin of speech]]
* [[Sons of Noah]]
* [[The Tower (Tarot card)]]
* [[The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)|''The Tower of Babel'' (Brueghel)]]
* [[Tower of Babel (M. C. Escher)|''Tower of Babel'' (M. C. Escher)]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Babel}}
* Pr. Diego Duran, ''Historia Antiqua de la Nueva Espana (Madrid, 1585)
* Ixtilxochitl, Don Ferdinand d'Alva, ''Historia Chichimeca'', 1658
* Lord Kingsborough, ''Antiquities of Mexico, vol. 9
* H.H. Bancroft, ''Native Races of the Pacific States'' (New York, 1874)
*Klaus Seybold, "Der Turmbau zu Babel: Zur Entstehung von Genesis XI 1-9," ''[[Vetus Testamentum]]'' (1976).
*Samuel Noah Kramer, ''The "Babel of Tongues": A Sumerian Version'', Journal of the American Oriental Society (1968).

== External links ==
{{sister project links |wikt=Tower of Babel|commons=Category:Tower of Babel|b=no|n=no|q=no|s=no|v=no|species=no}}
*[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/47421/Tower-of-Babel "Tower of Babel."] Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
*[http://www.towerofbabel.com/sections/tome/babelinbiblia/ Babel In Biblia: The Tower in Ancient Literature by Jim Rovira]
*[http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246611/jewish/The-Tower-Of-Babel.htm Our People: A History of the Jews - The Tower of Babel]
*[http://www.livius.org/es-ez/etemenanki/etemenanki.html Livius.org: The tower of Babel]
*[http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0111.htm Book of Genesis, Chapter 11]
*[http://azure.org.il/article.php?id=536 "The Tower of Babel and the Birth of Nationhood"] by Daniel Gordis at ''Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation''
*[[SkyscraperPage]] - [http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=9362 Tower of Babel], [http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=47329 Tower of Babel - Baruch]
*[http://herbarium-art.ru/3/gh-5eng.htm HERBARIUM Art Project. Anatomy of the Tower of Babel. 2010]
*The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor - 1915 ([http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
*Easton's Bible Dictionary, M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. ([http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
*Hitchcock Bible Names Dictionary ([http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
*Nave Topical Bible, Orville J. Nave, AM., D.D., LL.D. ([http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
*Smith's Bible Dictionary (1896) ([http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])

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