Revisiting the City and the Tower from the Bible and Quran

Can someone tell me more about this story of the "Tower of babel" The phrase "the Tower of Babel" does not actually appear in the Bible; it is always, "the city and its tower" (אֶת-הָעִיר וְאֶת-הַמִּגְדָּל) or just "the city" (הָעִיר). Originally the city receives the name "Babel", from the word from ancient Hebrew, "balal", meaning to jumble.

The story is found in Genesis 11:1-9˄, and appears in the King James Version as follows: 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children built. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Clarey God can come to the Earth freely and see everyone from his point of view. For some reason God and others confused the Children languages. What is the difference from then and now? There is a similar story.

There is a Sumerian myth similar to that of the Tower of Babel, called Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, where Enmerkar of Uruk is building a massive ziggurat in Eridu and demands a tribute of precious materials from Aratta for its construction, at one point reciting an incantation imploring the god Enki to restore (or in Kramer's translation, to disrupt) the linguistic unity of the inhabited regions — named as Shubur, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (Akkad), and the Martu land, "the whole universe, the well-guarded people — may they all address Enlil together in a single language.

Here are sources from the Quran.

Though not mentioned by name, the Qur'an has a story with similarities to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, though set in the Egypt of Moses. In Suras 28:38 and 40:36-37, Pharaoh asks Haman to build him a stone, or clay tower so that he can mount up to heaven and confront the God of Moses. Another story in Sura 2:102 mentions the name of Babil, but tells of when the two angels Haroot and Maroot taught the people of Babylon the tricks of magic and warned them that magic is a sin and that their teaching them magic is a test of faith. A tale about Babil appears more fully in the writings of Yaqut (i, 448 f.) and the Lisan el-'Arab (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by winds into the plain that was afterward called "Babil", where they were assigned their separate languages by God, and were then scattered again in the same way. In the History of the Prophets and Kings by the 9th century Muslim theologian al-Tabari, a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, God destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly Syriac, is then confused into 72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, Abu al-Fida relates the same story, adding that the patriarch Eber (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, Hebrew in this case, because he would not partake in the building. Though variations of the stories similar to the Judeo-Christian narrative of the tower of babel exist within Islamic traditions, the central theme of God separating humankind on the basis of language is alien to Islam according to author Yahya Emmerick. In Islamic belief God created nations to know each other and not to be separated.

Even the Irish have a similar story.

Irish texts such as Lebor Gabála Érenn and Auraicept na n-Éces claim that the legendary king Fenius Farsa chose the best features of all the confused languages and fused them together to create Goidelic, the forerunner of the Irish language.

Now I personally believe something happened in the past. These stories are only pieces of the puzzle describing the past. I would love to see us finding this building or what's left of it.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


you shoulda checked book of jubilees...lost book of the bible like enoch and the 5 books of moses!

www.sacred-texts.com...

18. And in the three and thirtieth jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg took to himself a wife, whose name was Lômnâ the daughter of Sînâ’ar, and she bare him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name Reu; 2 for he said: "Behold the children of men have become evil 3 through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shinar." 19. For they departed from the land of Ararat eastward to Shinar; for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying, "Go to, let us ascend thereby into heaven." 4 20. And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay 5 with which they cemented them together was asphalt which cometh out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar.

21. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height (of a brick) was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of one wall was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades). 22. And the Lord our God said unto us: "Behold, they are one people, and (this) they begin to do, and now nothing will be withholden from them. Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech, 1 and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer abide with them till the day of judgment." 23. And the Lord descended, and we descended with Him to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built.

24. And He confounded their language, and they no longer understood one another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower. 25. For this reason the whole land of Shinar is called Babel, because the Lord did there confound all the language of the children of men, and from thence they were dispersed 2 into their cities, each according to his language and his nation. 3 26. And the Lord sent a mighty wind 4 against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth, and behold it was between Asshur and Babylon in the land of Shinar, and they called its name 1688 A.M.
"Overthrow." 5 27. In the fourth week in the first year in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee, were they dispersed from the land of Shinar.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


but what i think is marduk who was the ruler of the age of the ram which was the time of babalon b/c marduk wanted a space station which was orginally at the navel of the earth under enlil's command..and enlil was enraged and stoped marduk from gaining anything..

abraham did all kinds of moving for the lord(enlil) to protect space station and certain other things from being under marduk's control b/c enlil knew that the age of the bull "taurus" his time was coming to an end and the age of the ram was marduk's/ra

The Tower of Babel is a symbol for the two-horned consciousness of the 'thinker' --that speaks with the voice of the "dragon"--in Revelations 13:11.

And, in the following video:

www.youtube.com...

Maleficent represents the consciousness of the 'thinker' from time segment 2:03-2:30; then transforming herself into a counter-clockwise spinning fire (symbolizing the "self"--see the opening passages of the Second Meditation of Descartes) and then into the "dragon": "And now shall you deal with me, oh prince, and all the powers of hell!!

(The flames breathed by the "dragon" are yellow--for fear (the Third Church in the Revelation of John, "...where Satan is enthroned")--and green, for greed, envy, ambition, jealousy, the lust for power, etc.)

But this is only after the prince, wielding the sword of Truth, has chopped his way through the thorns, which symbolize the thoughts of the 'thinker'-theologians, around Sleeping Beauty, which also symbolizes Truth.

That "dragon" and "serpent" and "Satan" is the duality itself which originates in the 'movement' of self-reflection.

There is no escape.

Even the fairy tales on this planet validate the Revelations in the Revelation of John and Genesis.

Michael Cecil

[edit on 18-7-2010 by Michael Cecil]

reply to post by metalholic


Just wondering...something in that last part confused me. You said the space station was at the navel of the earth? Why wasn't it in space? You know, being a space station and all...

reply to post by Chamberf=6


what i meant was a space center...cape canveral seemed like it used ot be called a space station until the space station...but anyway marduk/ra wanted his own center and enlil wasnt having it the tower of babel wasnt exactly a giant building more like a space center with ships...thats why it talks about ascending into the heavens

reply to post by metalholic


Ah. Thanks for that. It makes a lot more sense to me now.

I now see how that relates to the tower too.