Part 1 of this series introduced us to the story of the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis. We read of how a unified, as well as disobedient and prideful, humanity settled down in Shinar, southern Mesopotamia, where the people started constructing a tower reaching into the heavens. This was an affront to God, whose punishment of the people was to confuse their single language. This caused the construction to cease and for the people to be scattered across the world.

Part 1: Introduction to the Tower of Babel
Part 3: Locating and Dating the Tower of Babel

For many readers of the Old Testament today, the question of historicity is important and, for some, of even primary importance. The Tower of Babel story, alongside others in Genesis, has found no exemption from such interests. In academia, given the described location and biblical descriptions, the story has captured the attention of scholars studying the ancient Near East. Questions pertaining to the story’s historicity have been asked, and most now conclude that it is a myth rather than an objectivist historical account of actual world events (Levenson 2004, 11; Leeming 2005, 1706–1707; Perrings 2007; Engelmann 2010; Patai and Graves 2014, 123; Placial 2018; Yaguello 2023).

A Common Myth

Myths about humans trying to reach the heavens, the location of the gods, find parallels in many cultures around the world, including those without genetic connection.

Myth, in the most general sense, is an ancient, pre-scientific account and description of events. As Old Testament scholar Peter Enns remarks, this is “to understand the simple fact that the stories in Genesis had a context within which they were first understood. And that context was not a modern scientific one but an ancient mythic one” (2015, 87). Enns refers particularly to the creation myth of Genesis 1, but I believe one may also apply it historiographically, which is to say that the critical-historical methods used by contemporary historians were certainly unknown and therefore left unutilized by the ancient Jewish author(s) of Genesis.

One may perhaps draw, as Enns does when discussing the biblical exodus (2021, 14–15), a distinction between “mythicized history” and “historicized myth” when thinking about history in Genesis. The former is a mythological description of events that has some grounding in objective history, whereas the latter is akin to what many in popular culture consider myth to be, namely an account that is unhistorical or invented but given a historical feel.

In terms of the Tower of Babel narrative, one could use the biblical textual evidence to contend that we are dealing with mythicized history rather than pure invention under the guise of history. Although the view that the story might have some grounding in history is possibly true, my view is that it matters little if our approach is a theological one. It is further possible to argue that historicized myth is of greater value than mythicized history or purely objectivist reconstructions and interpretations of ancient sources and the events therein described. A separate series will be dedicated to the role and significance of myth.

In the Tower of Babel story of Genesis 11, we have the hallmarks of myth: a pre-scientific description of the origin of language diversity and how humans came to settle across the world, the invasive role of supernatural forces (e.g., the supreme “Lord” and other spiritual forces [the “us” of verse 7 indicating plurality, which coheres with the ancient Jewish monolatric worldview; c.f. Genesis 1:26]) influencing events and human affairs in the real world from heavenly and transcendent places.

Many versions of these mythological stories exist, providing “a variation on a more general theme, viz., that of the impious attempt to scale heaven in order to challenge the authority of the supreme god or of other supernal powers” (Gaster 1969, 135). The folklorist Stith Thompson (1885–1976) titled this theme “Tabu: building too high a tower” and identified Indian, Indo-Chinese, Mayan, and Ashanti, among other, versions (1932, 478), including Hittite ones (Gaster 1969, 135).

To cite several, among the Lifou of the Pacific, there is a belief that their forefathers erected scaffolding up to the clouds by binding sticks with vines. Their efforts failed as when they reached the clouds, the ground-posts rotted, causing the structure to collapse. The construction of the Great Pyramid of Cholula (modern-day Mexico), begun by the giant Xelhua, angered the gods. The tower rose high, threatening to reach heaven, so the gods sent down fire that put an end to the project. The American Brantz Mayer (1809–1879), a researcher and historian who had spent time in Mexico, explained this myth:

“Before the great inundation which took place 4,800 years after the erection of the world, the country of Anahuac was inhabited by giants, all of whom either perished in the inundation or were transformed into fishes, save seven who fled into caverns. When the waters subsided, one of the giants, called Xelhua, surnamed the ‘Architect,’ went to Cholula, where, as a memorial of the Tlaloc which had served for an asylum to himself and his six brethren, he built an artificial hill in the form of a pyramid. He ordered bricks to be made in the province of Tlalmanalco, at the foot of the Sierra of Cecotl, and in order to convey them to Cholula he placed a file of men who passed them from hand to hand. The gods beheld, with wrath, an edifice the top of which was to reach the clouds. Irritated at the daring attempt of Xelhua, they hurled fire on the pyramid. Numbers of the workmen perished. The work was discontinued, and the monument was afterwards dedicated to Quetzalcoatl” (1844, 28).

In another myth from South Asia, demons or asuras piled up a fire altar in order to reach the heavenly realm, but the disguised sky-god Indra pulled out a brick, causing it to tumble down. Stories of unsuccessful attempts to build upward to heaven in Africa are found among the Luyi (Upper Zambezi), the Bambala of Congo, the Mkulwe of Tanzania, and the Ashanti of Ghana.

References

Engelmann, Till. 2010. “Babel, Tower of.” In Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, edited by Hans-Josef Klauck, Dale C. Allison (Jr.), Volker Leppin, Choon-Leong Seow, Hermann Spieckermann, Christine Helmer, Barry Walfish, Eric Ziolkowski, Steven L. McKenzie, Constance M. Furey, and Thomas Römer, 237–254. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter.

Enns, Peter. 2015. Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Ada, Michigan, United States: Baker Academic. (Scribd ebook format).

Enns, Peter. 2021. Exodus for Normal People: A Guide to the Story-And History-of the Second Book of the Bible. Lansdale, Pennsylvania, United States: The Bible for Normal People.

Frahm, Eckart. 2011. Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries: Origins of Interpretation. Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record 5. Münster, Germany: Ugarit-Verlag.

Gaster, Theodor H. 1969. Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament: A Comparative Study with Chapters from Sir James Frazer’s Folklore in the Old Testament. New York, New York State, United States: Harper and Row.

Leeming, David. 2005. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford, England, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. (ePub pagination).

Levenson, Jon D. 2004. “Genesis: Introduction and Annotations.” In The Jewish Study Bible, edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, 8–46. Oxford, England, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Mayer, Brantz. 1844. Mexico as it was and as it is. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States: G. B. Zieber & Company.

Patai, Raphael., and Graves, Robert. 2014. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. Maleny, Queensland, Australia: RosettaBooks.

Perrings, Laura. 2007. “The Tower of Babel.” Denison Journal of Religion 7(2):1–11.

Placial, Claire. 2018. “Biblical myths.” In A History of Modern Translation Knowledge, edited by Lieven D’Hulst and Yves Gambier, 45–56. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Thompson, Stith. 1932. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

Yaguello, Marina. 2023. “The Role of Myth in Language: From Lingua Adamica to Babel.” The MIT Reader. Available.