How important can one word be?
And how vital our view of it?

Let’s see…

When we were little we all learned about the tale of the Tower of Babel.

After the great flood “God” told the people to spread out over the earth but instead they gathered in Sumer and tried to build a tower to get to heaven and then “God” confused their languages to force them over the whole earth.

That’s the story we were told anyway…along with more or less embellishments depending on the person telling the story and their particular bias about it.

And when grown we discovered our Creator was never called “God” until the Christian missionaries attempted to convert the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th and 7th centuries adopting the pagan term those folk already used for their idols, and which became our own adopted terminology since about the 9th century.

So why are we so certain about other details we encounter in the Scripture when we have not yet checked into them?

Take for instance the word “tower”.

We know the rebellious people built a tower cuz that’s what the Bible says right? Right?…Well, actually, not exactly…and infact unlikely.

The Bible says that they built a Migdal which means a tall or elevated structure. A very generic term that does not specify the type of structure to be what we would think of when we say “tower” - a structure or part of a structure which is higher than it is wide and usually cylindrical.

So why do we specify tower instead of an unspecified “large structure” or “tall structure”. Two main reasons really…
Partly because in old English, the word “Tower” actually carried a general meaning similar to the notion of a tall structure, and partly because traditional interpretation requires (expects) it as the simple explanation and the default imagery. Plus it fits with the picture we already have of what was happening in the story and why.

Aelfric in the 10th century was supposedly the first recorded person to say “tor” in old English for what the Bible calls “migdal”. Tor being derived from Proto-Indo-European “tu” meaning “to swell, grow, or be strong.” Likely influenced by the Latin word “turris” found in the Latin vulgate it became “tor”. Turris was itself a translation of the word “purgos” used in the Greek Septuagint translation. Both turris and purgos imply a tall structure, usually also carrying the connotation of being defensible aswell.

Wycliffe’s translators in the 14th century wrote “tour” which later influences developed as “towr” and eventually standardized as “tower”.

Over enough time tower, meaning tall structure was narrowed down by medieval European culture to specifically imply a structure taller than it is wide.

So though the definition and understanding of the term changed, sadly the terminology stayed the same…leading to the misunderstanding in our time of what was taking place in the story when the renegade peoples were gathered together to build their “tower”.

All over the world there are pyramids. Built by the earliest known civilizations and all containing similarities of either form or function. Should we really assume that the cultures that spread out across the globe which all came from Babylon and all proceeded to construct different kinds of pyramids, were not formerly building a similar sort of structure in Babylon?

“Oh but it can’t be because the Bible says they were building the tower to climb to heaven!”

You sure about that? Or is that what your sundayschool teacher said? Are you certain that interpretation isn’t from your preacher telling you the people were trying to invade the dwelling place of “God” to overthrow Him like the devil tried to before?

Oh how deeply our cultural influences color our view of scripture.

Other than the fact no biblical passage says the devil ever fought a war in heaven, no part of the Bible ever says the rebellious people were trying to reach heaven.

The text simply states that the top of the migdal “b’Shamayim”.Heaven is euphemistically a term for the abode of the divine, but literally is just the old English word for “the sky”. Same with shamayim in Hebrew. It can mean the spiritual realm or it can mean the sky above. Either / or and context defines.

So considering their are pyramids all over the earth in each culture that came from Babylon and the Text tells us that the evil people were building an elevated or tall structure “whose top in the sky” or “into the sky” and that it says this in response to the divine command for them to spread out over all the earth, what should be our takeaway?

The people in their pride decided they were not going to spread out but were instead set upon building up. In their vainglory they were not going to scatter but gather. They were not going to be wandering travellers over all the earth, but they were going to settle down and together they were going to construct a monument to that hubris.

Rather than a random story with no basis in reality, in which ijits imagine they can invade the infinite dwelling places if they only push hard enough and build high enough, we instead encounter a people simply breaking the command to traverse the earth and claim their place in it. We see a people either building a monument to their own greatness and grandeur in defiance of the divine order or possibly reconstructing or recreating aspects of whatever societal structures preceded the great deluge which destroyed their forefathers.

What a difference a single word can make and our view of it based on historical viewpoint and our long view of history, or elsewise based on the traditional perspective of a foreign peoples nativizing the narrative of the tale.

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