TOWER OF BABEL
ZIGGURAT
A little Background
The
term “Tower of Babel Shinar Babylon
Balal, the city’s name in
Akkadian means the “Gate of God”.
It’s
been about 100 years since the flood of Noah and about 30,000 people
participated in this project, practically the whole human race. - They were
driven with an intense desire to perpetuate their name; to “Make a name for
themselves”.
The
irony is, that they thought their temple was a huge, massive sky scraper;
But
God saw it as so small that He had to come down just to get a glimpse of it.
Ps 127:1 – Their efforts
were apart from God
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders
labor in vain. NIV
Gen 11:5 – Where is this
tiny thing.
5 The LORD came down to see the city and
the tower that the men were building NIV
Nimrod
- Noah had a son named Ham, who for an indecent
act, his descendents were cursed by Noah.
One of Ham’s descendents was Nimrod
who was known as a mighty hunter, but he was against the Lord; a hunter of
men. He wanted to set himself up as
the universal monarch.
- Noah worshiped God,
but Nimrod didn’t see it that way – He thought of himself as a god.
Gen 6:10 – Noah had a son
named Ham
10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and
Japheth. NIV
Gen 10:6 – Ham had a son
named Cush
6 The sons of Ham: Cush Canaan . NIV
Gen 10:8-10 – Cush Babylon
8 Cush
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is
why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD."
10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar
Rebellion – Stay
together - Make a name for ourselves
- The descendents of
Noah began to spread abroad, but stopped in the plain of Shinar (summer) and decided this was a good place to
settle and build a city.
- Nimrod wanted to be the universal
monarch, which was God’s prerogative alone. He wanted to be a powerful leader and
didn’t need the help of God. - He
was self sufficient.
- God had commanded man
to increase in number and to FILL the earth – However they wanted to
settle down in one place and stay together and make a name for them selves. To establish their “importance” in the sight of man and God.
- The tower was a token
of their oneness of purpose, but also a symbol of defiance of God.
Gen 1:28 – Commanded to fill the earth.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. NIV
Gen 11:1-2 – Spread
abroad, but stopped in Shinar
1 Now the whole world had one language and a
common speech.
2 Men moved eastward, and found a plain in Shinar
Gen 11:4 – Let’s not be
scattered but make a name for ourselves
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build
ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we
may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the
whole earth."
Let’s build a city
- Their plans not only
included building a city, but also a tower, and not just an ordinary tower,
but one that would stagger the mind and bring them notoriety. – This was
not only a defiance of God, but was a rivalship with Him. – It was a
monument to their pride, ambition, energy, daring genius, and resources; but
eventually it was a monument to their folly.
- In their arrogant and
proud ways they thought they could get themselves to heaven with a tower.
– The Babylonian national god was called Marduk – But just to be sure they had all their bases covered,
they also worshiped Ea;
the god of wisdom, spells and incantations, - Sin; the moon god, - Shamash; the sun god and god of justice, - Ishtar the goddess of love
and war, - Adad; the god
of wind storm and flood and of course there was Murduk’s son Nabu who was the scribe and
herald of the gods. – There were seven major gods.
- Their temple services
were held in open courts with sacrifices of burnt offerings.
- Note: They had deliberately excluded the God
of Noah, which Abraham would reinstate.
Course Corrector – Sin leads to punishment
- The sin was not building
the city or the tower; the sin came with the purpose of making a name for
them selves and not filling the earth. – God manifestly intervenes
in the situation.
- God REJECTED their
nation and their efforts; they deserved death, but God in His mercy
only confused their language. - They were incapacitated, leaving off building
the city and the tower because they could no longer communicate with each
other.
- Their spirits were
dampened and they saw the “Hand of God” had come against them.
- They departed in companies
according to their family and tongue and resettled in far off countries
- Balal, the city’s name in Akkadian meant the “Gate of God”, but in Hebrew
it was called
- Make no mistake this
was not total gibberish, this was the sudden and immediate institution of the
multiplicity of the languages of the world. - What was the original language? - Various
claimants have come forward claming to be the original tongue, but this
one great primordial language was broken and lost in the catastrophe at
- The
Tower of Babel became the SYMBOL of the “Pride of Man” and his inevitable fall. – It was a MONUMENT
not to their ingenuity, but to their Sin.
Gen 11:8-9 – God rejected
their plans and scattered them
8 So the LORD scattered them from there
over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel
Reversal
- Ironically – On the day of
Pentecost the language barrier that divided men and nations was removed in
order to provide the “Good News” message to everyone in their own
language.
Acts 2:4 – Spoke in
everyone’s language
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. NIV
Construction
- In the Akkad language the tower is called
a “Ziggurratu” - Progressive
terraces – Many of these towers had the inscription “E-dur-an-ki; “- The
house of the bond between heaven and earth”.
- Webster:
Ziggurat
– A high massive temple
tower of the ancient Babylonians in the form of a terraced pyramid with
each story smaller than the one below it.
- With pride, arrogance,
and self glorification, they wanted to build a tower that was so tall that
it would reach up into the heavens – The Hebrew word for heavens; “shamayim”
simply means
- Archaeologists have
discovered a massive ziggurat in
- Access was by ramps
and stairways with a cubic temple on the summit.
- Most ziggurats were seven
stories tall with each story smaller than the one below it creating a
stair step appearance. – Each outside level was painted a different color.
– The First level belonging to Saturn
was black – Second level
Jupiter was orange – Third that of Mars
was Red – fourth, which
was the sun was Golden – Fifth was Venus which was white – Sixth was Mercury which was blue – Seventh, was the moon and it was silvery green.
- Greek writings
indicate this one was eight stories tall including a sanctuary. –
That would make each story 37.5 feet tall, but it certainly could also have
had
- The inside walls were
carved with reliefs of their culture with plastered sections of various
color designs.
- Some Ziggurats were
“cone shaped” with ramps and stairs that wound around them. It was
referred to as “the winding road”. (I think the Beetles sang about this long and
winding road)
- Their soil was very
fertile with very little stone, so their construction material was not
stone as the Egyptian pyramids were made of, but with one foot square flat bricks of sun dried as well as
fire baked clay hardened
in charcoal-fired kilns. - For mortar they used bitumen, a petroleum tar like “asphalt” substance that oozed and bubbled up from the
ground. – After about a week the asphalt, also called slime, would harden
forming a tight resilient bond. - Bitumen is the same substance used by
Noah in the construction of the
- According to the
document “Babylonian Epic of Creation”, they “molded bricks” for one year
before they even started construction.
- The Bible does not
tell us how far along they were in the construction of the city and the tower. - Scripture just says that they stopped
building the “city” leading the student to believe the tower could
have been finished.
Gen 11:3 – Made bricks
from mud and tar that oozed up.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make
bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of
stone, and tar for mortar.
11:4 – A tower that
reaches the sky
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build
ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens (sky), so that we may make a name
for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Purpose and Use
- They studied the movement
of stars which gave them the ability to make precise calendars.
- This Tower in
- The Tower was a place
for worship of their gods; a place where the gods would come down and have
intercourse with man. – The seven levels corresponded to their seven
major gods.
- They had secret and mysterious rites used in
idol worship with priests who practiced the sprinkling of holy water. They
had an order of temple “virgins” dedicated to religious prostitution.
- The Babylonians also
worshiped, Dagon the fish god, a cult whose priest wore crowns with the
inscription “Keeper of the
Bridge”. The bridge between
man and Satan. “The bridge” is used
in the New Age movement today.
- Nimrod had many names due
to the confusing of the languages by God, one of which was Baal who they also
worshiped. God saw Nimrod as a hunter and murderer of his people.
- The word
- The reference to
Here’s where we are
- God commanded the descendents
of Noah to fill the earth, but in defiance they settled in the plain of
Shinar, wanting to make a name for them selves. - Understand this
principal; “where God leads, He provides”; but they did not trust
God for His provision nor His protection.
- While it is true,
that these guys were star gazers, astrologers and worshipped every pagan
god they could think of; that was not why God confused their language.
- Their sin against God
was not the building of the city of
- The writer of Genius,
in humor made fun of their “brick instead of stone” and went on to
say the tower was so small that God had to come down to earth to
just get a glimpse of it.
- God separated the
people by families and language; and without being able to communicate
they left off building the city. – The city and the tower were completed,
but much later.
- They were a smart
creative people; they developed accurate calendars and the art of kiln
fired furnaces to harden brick.
They used a sharp tool to inscribe in clay, documenting their
culture – These fire baked tablets left in the dry sand lasted for
thousands of years.
- Their contribution of
the ziggurat was duplicated in many cultures - Some were cone shaped
- The families were
dispersed through out the earth with their language becoming the barrier
between the nations. – The original language was lost forever in the
catastrophe at
- On the Day of
Pentecost this barrier was removed and each man heard in their own
language the Good News message
of Jesus Christ. – That message is still true today in any language.
In the multitude of counselors,
there is wisdom.
Prov 11:14
I am grateful for those that went before me providing concepts, ideas, historical information, and scripture verses. Because of them I can stand on their shoulders and see further than I otherwise ever could have.
A Commentary; Critical, Experimental and Practical
- Eerdmans
Baker Commentary on the Bible – Walter A. Elwell
Bible Almanac; The – Packer-Tenny- White
Bible Commentary – F.B. Meyer
Customs and Folkways of Jewish Life – Theodor H. Gaster
Complete Book of Bible Knowledge; The – Mark D. Taylor
Expositor’s Bible Commentary; The – Frank E. Gaebelein
Exposition of Genesis – H.C. Leupold
Harper’s bible Dictionary – Harper & Row
Illustrated Bible Dictionary – Nelson’s
Illustrated Bible Dictionary; The - Tyndale
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts – Packer-Tenney-White Illustrated
Manners and Customs of the Bible –
Packer-Tenney
International Dictionary of the Bible; The New – Douglas-Tenney
Matthew Henry’s Commentary - Zondervan
Mysteries of the Bible – Readers Digest
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible - Guidepost
Victory Journey through the Bible; The – Beers
Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament – Mac Donald
Who’s Who in the Bible – Paul D. Gardner
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Wycliffe Bible Commentary; The – Pfeiffer-Harrison
Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of he Bible; The
- Zondervan
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