BUILDING THE TOWER AT BABEL

GENESIS 10:1–11:9

In the early chapters of Genesis, a good start went bad (Genesis 1–3), and mutiny proved itself to be progressive. By the end of Genesis 4 we have witnessed a murder, as Cain kills Abel. And by the time we get to Genesis 6, the mutiny is so pervasive that God elects to destroy his creation, save one family. We have hope that the new beginning Noah and his family enjoy will take the world to a better place. Yet even after the flood, some of Noah’s descendants continued the mutiny as they attempted to replace the Lord’s legitimate authority with their own by building a city with a tower in order to make a name for themselves (Gen. 11:4). They sought to build the city of Babel where they did for a reason.

The descendants of Ham (Noah’s son) who initiated this building settled in a portion of the Fertile Crescent called the plain of Shinar (Gen. 10:8–10; 11:1–4). The Fertile Crescent is an arch of land that extends from the Nile River in Egypt northward through modern Israel, Lebanon, and coastal Syria before turning southeast as it follows the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers through Syria and Iraq toward the head of the Persian Gulf. A move north or south out of this arch moves into undesirable living circumstances. Moving north puts one into the Taurus, Kurdistan, and Zagros mountains. Moving south puts one into the forbidding Syrian Desert. Choosing to avoid mountains and deserts, Ham’s descendants wanted to live in the Fertile Crescent because it provided the necessary water and agricultural resources for those who wished to abandon a life of seasonal migration for a more settled, city life.6

Relief of Ashurbanipal’s garden party (Assyria, 645–635 BC). The Creator’s royal Garden of Eden is replaced by nations wishing to make a name for themselves.
© Dr. James C. Martin. The British Museum.

In order to get to the region of Shinar, Ham’s family traveled “eastward” (Gen. 11:2). This detail can easily escape our attention. But within the early chapters of Genesis, mention of travel direction has very important implications.7 When Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, they moved eastward (Gen. 3:24). When Cain went out from the Lord’s presence after murdering Abel, he too moved farther east (4:16). Each of these eastward moves is associated with negative circumstances. So when we read that Ham’s descendants moved “eastward,” we can expect things to get worse rather than better.

Model of a ziggurat at the Baghdad Archaeological Museum.

When humanity could no longer have the prosperity found within the Lord’s royal garden, they moved eastward and created their own garden where they had access to the water of the Tigris and the Euphrates and thus ample food supplies. Babel became a center representing their national prosperity. There the intentions of the builders were revealed in the structure they started to build. The building brick materials they chose (Gen. 11:3) and the term tower (Gen. 11:4) made their structure sound very much like the ziggurats found in that portion of the Fertile Crescent. The ziggurat was built using a combination of kiln-baked bricks and bitumen (tar). The foundation of just such a structure can still be seen in Babylon.

Brick inscriptions dedicating ziggurat temples to the various deified kings and idols have been discovered on their foundations throughout the region. It is no surprise that ziggurats were built in this region as symbols of prosperity as the nations attempted to “make a name for” themselves (Gen. 11:4) and create their own counterfeit Garden of Eden that they could control. Given the intentions behind the tower, it is no wonder that the true King of the Universe acted in a way so as to frustrate the construction of this building project and scatter the architects of this idolatrous tower over the face of the earth.

The partly restored ziggurat (temple tower) at Agur Quf, dating to about 1400 BC.
Courtesy of the British Museum

When humanity was removed from the Garden of Eden and traveled east to Babel, they did so for a reason. Their move to settle in the Fertile Crescent provided them with water from the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Here they could build towers in their own honor and create idols that they could manipulate. Here they could create their own pseudo-Eden.

Ham’s descendants move to the plain of Shinar: the land of the Tower at Babel