Tower of Babel

[Johnson]

Gen 11:1 And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.
Gen 11:2 And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.
Gen 11:3 And each one said to his neighbour: Come let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar:
Gen 11:4 And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.
Gen 11:5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building.
Gen 11:6 And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed.
Gen 11:7 Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Gen 11:8 And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city.
Gen 11:9 And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.


What of skyscrapers and space shuttles today? Surely they reach higher than a mud brick tower in Mesopotamia could ever have.

Clearly God was frightened that they were going to reach heaven.


Gen 11:6 And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed.


So that raises the question: can you reach heaven? Can a space shuttle go there? How about a big ladder ala South Park?

[jcs]

And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.
This is why the Lord stopped the builders: they sought to reach Heaven through their own actions, denying the necessity of God's grace. God wasn't afraid that they'd reach Heaven; if anything, He scattered the people, rendering this failure of an attempt at Heaven impossible, that men might know how to approach Heaven in a way that they might enter it.

[seanbam]

Firstly I have found versions of the Tower of Babel story in many ancient cultures around the world incl: bible, Hittite, Sumerian, Samoan, Maori, Mesoamerican, Tanzanian, Chinese, Indian, [British Columbian?], Celt, Greek, Arab, etc.
Secondly it was not that God was so stupid to think that man could literally reach heaven with the tower, it must have been a sort of occult work (perhaps compare being banned from accessing the Tree of Life in fallen state). A good picture is perhaps the version of the Tower of Babel we have been seeing on TV recently: Stargate! (note 7/8 stages, see my numeric symbolism in myth topic/thread). In fact in original language "and he came down to see the Tower" is in a humourous sense.
Also, according to Campbell quoted by Michael Walker (The Scorpion) the Tower was not just built to raise men up to the god(s) (sound familiar?) but also to bring the gods/watchers down to earth.
A possible parallel is the Titanic.