The Tower of Babel

[lindbergh]

"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

Do you believe in what the Bible says? I do. In the old testament, there's this story about the people trying to build a tower that would reach out to the heavens. What happened? The tower was struck down and the people got divided.

What does this have to do with language you say? Well before they got divided, it was believed that the people only spoke one language before. What language could that be? Then when they got divided, they were divided into many different languages so that they could not understand each other. Do you believe in this tale?

[JoanMcWench]

Is there not a similar story about how we are separated into so many religions? I can't recall but the idea was similar. Humans have a way of speaking without even knowing a language. There seems to be a need for our species to be social. Without it we get weird. Look at the news as of late!

[sidney]

I think the Lord disapproved of the people's plan to build a tower that would reach up to the heavens that's why He made the people not understand each other by giving them different languages. It's hard to determine what language was spoken though before that happened.

[SirTenenbaum]

Well, historically and linguistically there's nothing that would support the Tower of Babel tale from the Bible. A civilization developed enough to construct a tower of such height could only have existed within the last several thousand years. Several thousand years ago, people were all over the entire planet speaking thousands of different languages (just like we do today). It is linguistically impossible that every homo sapiens in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania spoke the same language within the past several thousand years. Language naturally changes all the time, and there is nothing that can stop it. For example if you think back to just 1,000 years ago (around the year 1000), nobody spoke anything close to modern English. A mere 2,000 years ago, none of the romance languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese) existed at all because Latin (from which the romance languages developed) was still spoken throughout Europe along with probably hundreds of languages from "barbarian" European tribes.

The Tower of Babel story can't be based on fact if you examine history and linguistics.

[katara]

I do consider myself religious, but to be honest I don't believe every single thing I read in the Bible. There is no archeological proof of a common universal language. I can't imagine how people living in Middle East spoke the same language with people living in America for example.

[True2marie]

As a child, I was told that the biblical tale of The Tower of Babel was the reason why the world was full of so many different languages. As an adult, I do question this analysis. 

What if the 'one language' referred to these peoples ability to agree on their project (building the tower)? 

[Rosa]

I totally believe every word in the bible. God was from the beginning of time and the word was God. If you don't have a spiritual enlightenment then you can't understand the mystery of Godliness and therefore won't accept everything in the bible. With that being said, the people tried to build a tower that would reach the heavens but God was disapproved of it and so he confounded their language. They had to stop  building because they could not understand each other.

[Trellum]

I'm not a christian, and even if I was I'd not believe everything the bible or any other religious book says.  I take everything with a grain of salt, yes, even the things that are said in my own religious book.  They say we shouldn't take things so literally, specially when it comes to the bible.  I see most stories in the bible and other religious books were meant to teach us lessons, but shouldn't be taken literally.  With that said, I must admit I highly doubt that tower ever existed.

[justusforus]

I appreciate the thread and all of the responses.  Regardless of any individual beliefs, it is fascinating to contemplate this in the context of the evolution of languages.

[fredkawig]

I totally believe it because I'm also a Bible based Christian and this is not simply a tale or a story. Due to the People's wickedness and wanted to become higher than God, God really intended for us to be a family with one culture but ever since all of us were scattered and had different languages. Right now, the world is again rebuilding the tower of babel as they venture into knowledge and the thinking that we can be like God. Pretty soon God will judge again. We can see the reality of English becoming a universal language once again which would unite all nations and create a perfect society and act like God once more.

[lizbeth19hph]

Yes, I do believe and know about this ancient story of the Tower of Babel that has to do with people building a tower so they could reach the heavens and then God destroyed the tower with the people falling from it after which they started speaking in different languages. That's the origin of the different languages different nations have now and also the disparity and misunderstandings of people.

[mikka254]

Anything that is written in the Bible should be respected. I will not argue with any of you over this topic. I will simply ask you to keep you views to yourself and keep the forum on topic. The Bible is not a book that requires review and neither is it a novel or comic book to joke about.

[Denis Hard]

Let's not jump into conclusions. Let's make the assumption that different civilizations developed languages at different times, in different place [something which, logically, would account for there being so many languages, right?]

If we take that as our baseline then it means the language structures and usage have to be different. Yeah?

So let's examine closely similarities between languages. I, for example speak three languages fluently and if I've noticed that some euphemistic words are similar. The most common word is snake or eel [in it's many different forms] used in a reference to brutus/wee-wee [no offense intended]. Did that happen by chance or were the  minds of these people telepathically linked? That among other things tells us that in the distant past, a universal language existed.

p.s

[Daimashin]

It's kind of hard to believe that story. I mean there has been numerous prove that people originated from different regions. Not to deny anything from the Bible but it just seems highly unlikely even though there is chance of it being true.

[Denis Hard]

It might be highly unlikely to most people who believe in Darwin's theories but we have to draw a line somewhere. It's just one story among many? So if that story is false then everything else has to be fabricated with intent to deceive, right?

The Bible has proven to be more historically  and archaeologically accurate than

any other ancient book.

Well? It may not prove the veracity of the story about babel but it does show that the writings contained therein are mostly 

historically  and archaeologically accurate

That means. . .

[lllllllllllllllllllllllll]

This is an interesting topic. Taking religion into consideration will only lead to subjective opinion, so I will be more objective and think logically about this matter. Having a universal language that just about everyone can understand will unite people from all over the world. But then again, human beings, by nature, have different ideas and opinions, which makes every individual unique. I doubt everyone would just agree to the idea. There might even be oppositions to this. If anything, this is probably another Great Wall of China or Pyramid of Giza story with an ambitious tyrant using brute force as an excuse to achieve his ambition.

[Bonyi]

I believe this scripture absolutely. The word of God is truth and you cannot deny truth. John 17:17

Sanctify them through thy truth:thy word is truth.

So if the word of God says it, I believe it without questioning.