Genesis 11: Rambling Babel

Summary: The people build a tower to reach heaven. The Lord confuses their languages. Shem's genealogy follows. Abram's brother, Haran, dies, and Abram his wife, Sarai, and father leave Ur.

Personal Reflection: There are several interesting things to talk about in this chapter. First, we can talk about the tower of Babel. First of all, it is amazing how like a ziggurat this explanation is. I don't really believe that they were actually trying to build a ziggurat that was tall enough to reach to heaven, but I think that man believed that the ziggurat got him to heaven. The Ziggurat in Babylon was called "Etemenankia" which means "the house of the platform between heaven and earth" (see the ziggurat link above). What's really going on here, is that man is creating gods for himself that he can reach by building a tower. I have heard it said that what the builders of the tower were trying to do was to reach God and slay him; perhaps, but I think it more likely that they were building their own god that would be within their reach.

Also, I looked up the English word "babble" in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since my major is linguistics after all. It turns out that there is no identifiable connection between "babble" and "Babel," but the OED does say that the existence of "Babel" may have affected some of the ways in which we use the word today. It's kind of a cool coincidence though.

Second, Abram really appears for the first time in this chapter. There are two possible locations for Ur, where Abram comes from. It may either be in Mesopotamia or somewhere in present-day Turkey. I think the Ur in Mesopotamia is a better fit. Here's why: First, in Mesopotamia at the time Abram probably lived, it would have been around the third dynasty of Ur (Ur III). This is significant because during Ur III education would have been widely available, meaning that Abram would have been well-educated, and also, he would probably have lived near the end of Ur III. At the end of Ur III, many people were migrating away from Mesopotamia (because Mesopotamia was being attacked by various outsiders). It wouldn't be surprising, then, for Abram to be part of that mass exodus. Second, the entire first half of the chapter is talking about the tower of Babel, which almost definitely occurred in Mesopotamia; it makes a lot more sense for the author to be talking about Mesopotamia in the beginning of the chapter if they are preparing to talk about Abram coming from Mesopotamia than if they are preparing to talk about Abram coming from Turkey.

Finally, Abram and company end up in Haran at the end of this chapter. It seems a little too odd that Abram's brother would be named Haran and the place they move to after Haran died would be named Haran. I think the best way to deal with this is to assume that Abram's family named the place where they settled after Abram's brother.

Resources:
Map of the Biblical world
Explanation of Haran (the place)

Note: I didn't post on Monday (sorry), or on Thursday night so I'll be posting double for the next few days to make up for the time I didn't post while I was in Jordan. This post is Tuesday's post. Tonight, I'll post for Wednesday. I'll be caught up again by Monday.