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You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's 5 minute Bible Babbling about Babel
the story of Genesis 11
is really striking and fun
try the exercise I did when I was first teaching this story, do a google search
for pictures of Babel
one of the ones I came up with was lovely
gorgeous photo of one of those traditional Rennaisance paintings of the
tower of Babel
with photos of Steed and Mrs Peel of The Avengers sitting on it
and Steed's umbrella stuck in the top like a decoration on the sand castle
don't know what it means but it was fun ;)
that's actually many people's reaction to this story
we don't know what it means but it's fun
and the story is a bit like that
a bit larger than life
this is one of those stories where point of view is very evident
the narrator's point of view is made quite clear unusually
verse 3
"They had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar." breaks the frame of the story, reminds us
that this is someone telling us the story of Babel
when the story itself is set at sometime in the distant past or far away
where they do things differently
and then we get the point of view of the
tower builders
in quotes from their speech
they are an organized lot: "Come let's make us bricks
and burn them thoroughly"
But they're also
people of ambition
"Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens
let's make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the
whole earth."
This is almost poetry
formal speech in the Bible often is almost poetry
but notice how they repeat Adam and Eve's mistake
a tower with its top in the heavens
and make a name for *ourselves*
those are their aims
these are not only
the grandiose centralizing dreams
of the average state
these up also another in that
series and progression
of stories that illustrate the fall of humanity
or humanities fallen state
just as Adam and Eve reached out their hands and took the fruit
dreaming of becoming like God
so too the people of Babel
dream of making a name for themselves
and of drawing everyone in
and just as in Genesis three
the results of their dreams
is ironically the opposite of their intentions
just as there
here too
human community created by God in broken into disunity
by God
as a response to human ambition
"Come let's make a name for ourselves" and all that stuff
let's become famous
so that we won't be scattered over the whole world
and after God has stooped down to have a look at this
magnificent project
presumably he can't see it from where he is
God gives us the gift of language
to confuse us
so the people have to stop building the city because the LORD confused their
language
the scattered them over all the earth
that's how the city of Babel got its name
confusion and babble
instead of unity
and pride
so
at one level at least this story forms a clear part of that sequence of stories
in Genesis one to eleven
that tell us how we got to be the way we are
or indeed tell us
make us really see the way we really are
just as we are Adam and Eve so we too are Babelites
we want to make a name for ourselves
we want to be known
well i do otherwise i would be doing these podcasts would I? ;)
think about it
but the more we want to make a name for ourselves
the more God will give us Babel
the gift of language
or at least of languages
language is fun
we humans find so many ways to say things
and so many ways to speak in ways that other humans can't quite understand
just think of all the teenage
languages that there are
each little tribe has its own collection of words and meanings
not only can't adults understand but other teenagers can't understand either
unless they belong to the same group
language is a basic part of being human
and it involves defining whose in and who's out
and so to the Greeks
barbarians
where anyone whose language was not Greek
the people who babbled
you see, Babel is about being in and out
what's hot, what's not
the only trouble is that God stepped in to Babel
what's hot is not
and speech becomes babble
bye bye, bless you, TTFN