The section of the Torah that we have read paints a rather depressing picture of humanity. It is almost as if mankind is on a never-ending slope, slipping or being pushed further and further from the path God seems to hope it would take. Chapter eleven of Genesis presents the story of the tower of Babel, an episode that in many ways reflects the previous deeds of humanity and provides insight into the relationship between god and people.
Briefly and in lieu of a bibliography, all translations are taken from The Torah: A Modern Commentary published in 1981 in New York by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Also, for ease of writing (which I may be placing ahead of ease of reading) I will occasionally refer to God as 'he.'
Genesis 11:4, "And they said, 'Come, let us build a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.', " has several possible interpretations and raises several questions. Why did the people want to make the tower? Why did God respond to their behavior? Why is this story contained in the Torah?
Throughout the first eleven chapters of Genesis there are allusions to the conflict between the shepherd and the farmer and city dwellers and nomadic tribesmen. God originally made Adam the caretaker of Eden, placing him in the garden "to till it and tend it." (Gen. 2:15) After a certain incident involving an apple and a snake, the farming became a labor and was not something to be enjoyed: "By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat." (Gen. 2:19) Then, in chapter 4, God accepts the cattle offering of Abel the shepherd but ignores the grain offering of Cain the farmer. After Cain kills Abel, he is cursed by god to wander forever. Yet despite this curse, Cain eventually settles and founds the first city. Perhaps it was the evil that pervaded the city that incited the flood. In any case, when Noah survives the flood, God is again pleased by animal sacrifices, although this time they are made by a "tiller of the soil" (Gen. 9:20).
In chapter ten of Genesis humanity spreads over the earth. Some of Noah's descendants built mighty cities, while the reader is left to assume that most were nomadic or lived in rural settlements. Yet in the beginning of chapter eleven, "All the earth had the same language and the same words." (Gen. 11:1) Regardless of whether or not this literally means they all spoke the same language, it is safe to assume that everyone was able to understand each other at least well enough to build the tower of Babel.
And why did they build the tower? The tower is not the focus of the project from the human point of view. The verse is translated "let us build a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves." Although the modern connotation of 'to make a name for ourselves' would be 'to make ourselves famous,' it seems to make more sense to interpret the phrase as an expression of the desire to unite and form a single human community. Building a great city is of primary importance, or else why would it even be mentioned or built? Humans are not portrayed as particularly wasteful creatures and it seems absurd to build a city if what is really desired is a tower. The tower is ancillary to the building a city in which all people can live together as one entity with one name, serving more as a beacon and sign to other people than as a battle wagon from which to assault the heavens.
This view is supported by verse five, in which God notices both the city and the tower. If the tower alone had garnered Gods attention then there would have been no mention of the city. The tower is part of Babel and can not be separated from it. But the opposite is not necessarily true. In verse eight they "stopped building the city." No mention is made of the tower at this point. This leaves two possibilities: either work continued on the tower or work stopped on the tower. If work continued on the tower and the tower was important, then there would be additional mention of the tower. As there are no more references to the tower, it must not be important. On the other hand, if work on the tower ceased when work on the city ceased and only the halting of work on the city is worthy of mention then there is little choice but to conclude that the tower is merely a part of the city and has no purpose in and of itself. So in either case, the evidence supports the idea that the issue of verses four through nine is not the tower, but the city.
So, the people wanted to build a city to unite themselves in order to avoid being "scattered all over the world." But, what's wrong with being scattered all over the world? Did God not direct man multiple times to abound on the earth and to go forth and multiply? It would appear that spreading all over the earth would be something good, yet mankind is going to great lengths to avoid it. And God, in verse eight, makes it clear that he will not tolerate such behavior. This is an interesting conflict that has developed and one that can be studied from several perspectives. Humanity's fear and avoidance of 'scattering' might be an expression of an innate human desire for companionship. Circuitously, that desire for companionship may spring from an urge to join together and form the complete being that was separated when god created woman from man. But to God, acting on such an urge might be considered an attempt to attain godliness.
In chapter two, verse eighteen, God acknowledges that "[i]t is not good for man to be alone" and therefore eventually creates woman. Thus the precedent is set of humans needing companionship. Throughout the rest of Genesis people congregate in cities, which are apparently a human creation as no mention of them being given to humanity by God exists. So perhaps there is just an innate human need to be around others. But chapter five, verses one and two, state "[w]hen God created man, He made him in the likeness of God; male and female He created them. And when they were created, He blessed them and called them Man." This strongly implies that man was originally a union of male and female, one form encompassing all aspects of humanity. But, just as God separated light from darkness, firmament from earth, and land from sea, god separated man from woman. So perhaps the building of Babel is an attempt to return to the original state where humanity was embodied in one form by uniting many peoples in one city.
Either one of those is a logical motivation for humanity, although neither really explains why mankind would defy gods commandment to populate the earth. Several rationales are feasible. The first imbues post-diluvian humanity with a certain amount of chutzpah by hypothesizing that intentionally defied god. Or perhaps they placed their needs ahead of gods commandments and decided it was more important that they be united than that they propagate the species. But these both ignore the interesting fact that there does not appear to be any direct contact between humans and god from the time of Noah until the time of the tower. What appears to have happened is that just as humanity lost touch with God after Eden and eventually became corrupt and evil, humanity has lost touch with god and become, in God's view, presumptuous and cocky.
How have they become presumptuous? They have verged on godly power, as it is written in verse six, "... [i]f, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach." Throughout Genesis, God is very protective of his domain, always maintaining a clear distinction between the divine and the human. Even when mankind is not aware that it may be threatening God, God acts to prevent human ascendancy to godliness. After Adam and Eve partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, God says "[n]ow that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Gen. 3:22) It is clear that Adam and Eve have not really thought about becoming like God, but God is aware that it is a possibility and therefore acts to prevent it. Later, in chapter six verse 3, God limits the life span of man to one hundred and twenty years, further ensuring that no man will attain the level of God. It is then possible that God views what the builders of Babel are doing as a usurpation of his authority and an assault on his dominion.
It is not the height of the tower that is dangerous, it is the union of humanity. For if humanity can live together and work together, then it has no need of god and has become, in a sense, godlike. By uniting in Babel, humans would be speaking with one voice and acting with one body. Previously, being a union of many but acting with one will was an attribute of God alone. This is the threat that God perceives.
So far, some people are working together to build the city of Babel, in which all of humanity will be united. The tower is merely either a signal to others of where the city is or a token of their ability. They wish to be united either because of an innate need for companionship or a desire to return to an Eden-like state. But in uniting and building the city, humanity is violating the commandment of God to Adam and Noah to go forth and multiply. However, God has not been in frequent contact with this generation, so perhaps they are not aware they are upsetting God. In any case, God perceives a threat to his uniqueness and thus decides to stop the Babel project.
The confounding of the builders' speech does not really appear to be a punishment. Instead, it seems more like a precaution. There is no mention of a curse being set upon the builders, or any divine retribution being exacted from their descendants, as is the case in several situations earlier in Genesis. This lends credence to the idea that humanity committed no true sin or violation of God's law and that God was merely practicing preventive medicine and safeguarding his dominion.
Another strut to support this creation is the use of the plural by God in reference to itself. Chapter eleven verse 7, "[l]et us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another's speech" hearkens back to chapter three verse twenty-two, "... [n]ow that man has become like one of us, ..." This use of the plural is fairly rare in Genesis and its presence in both of these stories seems to be more than a coincidence.
God's response to the Babel project is an interesting one. Because he acknowledges that mankind has an inherent urge to do evil in chapter eight verse twenty-one, it should really be no surprise that humanity has done something which displeases him. At various occasions God instituted prohibitions on murder, so it would seem that God intended for humans to cooperate. The fact that these people worked together so well is what threatens God. It is their ability to accomplish so much on their own that must be thwarted.
The introduction of a multitude of languages serves that purpose admirably. It brings a halt to the immediate project, the building of the city, and thus ends the threat that humanity may achieve a union. It also provides an obvious mark of difference. If at any point in the future humans wished to cooperate, they would not be able to speak with one voice, but would instead have to struggle to overcome the barrier of language. God further increases the unlikelihood of such a union by scattering humanity over the face of the earth, the very thing the builders of Babel hoped to avoid.
As a result of humanity's attempt to restore itself to an Eden-like state of wholeness and togetherness, it becomes divided into different nations speaking different languages with deep-seated ethnic hatreds.
If the first eleven chapters of Genesis are a universal history and a prelude to the story of the Jewish people, then the Babel episode is a fitting culmination. While the very language of the verses reminds the reader of verses earlier in Genesis, there are also many references and allusions to the events of the first ten chapters, several of which are mentioned above. In Genesis, God created man in Eden, punished man with expulsion, gave laws to man at various times, killed man with the flood, and then started the process over. Now, God is not even letting this 'second attempt' at humanity have the brief experience of blessed union that Adam had in Eden before Eve was separated from him. Instead, God separates mankind even further by introducing different languages and nations. Although this explains the amazing diversity among humans today, it also leads to the upsetting conclusion that God wants humanity to have problems cooperating because it reinforces our non-divine status and our need for God.
While this diversity furthers God's aim of denying humanity the ability to cooperate at the level that was previously possible, it also sets the stage for the reintroduction of God's law to mankind. And this time, instead of giving the law to all of humanity or to a predecessor of all humanity, which both failed, God will give it to one group of people and make it their duty to demonstrate its viability and importance.