Tower of Babel: fact or fiction?

What happens when you combine the Tower of Babel with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The whole world speaks Italian with a Mesopotamian accent. Why? God only knows.

The Tower of Babel is one of those allegorical tales in the Bible’s Old Testament that defies explanation. The earliest version could be found among the Sumerians when one day someone was vexed that a newly bought slave couldn’t understand a word his master was saying. Or maybe it was a mercenary soldier unable to follow strange sounds that were orders. Kings needed answers and there was always a court philosopher to provide one.

And so the story of the Tower of Babel emerges. By the time it makes it into the Holy Book of the Hebrews it reflects God’s anger at the hubris of humans trying to build a “stairway ro paradise” disturbing His peace and quiet. There are other Biblical stories, like Adam and Eve, when humans are punished for aspiring to the Godhead. And so God visits on them a plethora of different languages so they cannot cooperate in such ventures.

There are five words that resound across all languages without much change: coffee, tea, pineapple, taxi, and banana. But I remember from my university philology class that there were modern words that were similar to ancient words; one such was “mother.” And there were a few more that I cannot remember but are preserved in the tattered notes of that starch-collared professor.

Human ability to speak is a unique combination of brain function and physical structures capable of making and mimicking sounds - plus a dire need to communicate as in hunting or shouting an alarm about a boulder about to fall on a mate’s head or an infant edging closer to danger. Although the academic assumption is that language evolve differently across culture. However, who’s to say that language devolved from a common dominant tongue. Such a theory satisfies the beliefs of those who say aliens taught humans the math and techniques for building pyramids, making astronomical observations, and using language.

To continue the metaphor of God’s intervention at Babel, it seems that humans were not intellectually advanced enough to handle the empowerment of a common language. Also the different languages enabled cognitive development in the process of understanding each other, while at the same time permitting a cultural diversity that enriched lives. There finally came a time when the technological ability for humanity to advance civilization was limited. How convenient for Google Translate, AI, and other platforms to emerge enabling communication across languages.

Gods gift to us was the challenge to restore our communicative ability when we need it most. This presages the emergence of a new world where humanity controls its own destiny. And thus the metaphor comes full circle.

How priests and rabbis will explain this reversal of the Babel phenomenon remains to be seen. But I am sure it will be positive … unless some darker vision emerges of a devilish plot to frustrate God’s intentions.

Thanks again to my friend Fred Epstein who wondered about the Babel story as related to contemporary developments and challenged me to respond.

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