The tower of Babel- full of holes?

by highdose 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Sulla
    Sulla

    Leolaia, I haven't come across the idea that the story was post-exile. Do you have a source?

  • darth frosty
  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Sulla....The view that the Jahwist is exilic or contains exilic material (as expressed by Hermann Vorlander, John Van Seters, Christoph Levin, and others) is becoming much more commonly expressed nowadays, or a notion of an exilic Pentateuchal History replacing the Jahwist (see Rainer Albertz' Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E., 2003). This is one of a multiplicity of views on the date of the Pentateuchal materials. But as an example of this reading, John Rogerson writes that "the story of the Tower of Babel can be said to fit best into the period when the Israelites were in exile in Babylon. In that case, the story would be a condemnation of the greatness of Babylon, and a declaration of its nothingness compared with the might of the God of Israel" (Genesis 1-11, 2004, p. 77).

  • Sulla
    Sulla

    Very interesting. Thanks.

  • FaithfulBrother
    FaithfulBrother

    Some people speculate that since these people knew about the great flood, they were trying to build a tower that would reach higher than the surface of the water if another flood came about, thus defying God. Maybe God knew this this couldn't save them from a flood, but the people were all coming together in rebellion to God rather than filling the earth like he had commanded. So the best way to force people to spread out was to confuse their languages.

  • Disillusioned Lost-Lamb
    Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

    You can take this fable at face value or look for other meanings but it exposes a bigger problem; if God's right of sovereignty is to be justifiably answered man must be left alone and he CANNOT intervene, however he did, thus altering the unified message of the Bible.

    I believe the contemporary Bible does have a good message, but I don’t believe it is a comprehensive compilation of all God inspired writings. The story of the tower of Babel is a prime example; it’s ambiguity does not fit an all encompassing all knowing God who completely opens everything to his followers as the modern cannon states.

    This leads me to ask: When the Catholic Church assembled the Bible cannon, why did they choose the books we know today? What other inspired writings were there? What else were they considering? Where did those writings go? Why weren’t they included?

    What is modern Christianity trying to hide!?

  • I Want to Believe
    I Want to Believe

    "if God's right of sovereignty is to be justifiably answered man must be left alone and he CANNOT intervene, however he did, thus altering the unified message of the Bible."

    This is true since the beginning, God "stacking the deck" in His favor -- why else curse the ground so that mankind has to spend so much effort just to get food? Why confuse their languages because they were capable of doing anything they set their mind too, just 200 years into a new civilization? Why say the end is coming (according to JWs) any day now, when humanity is progressively advancing faster than ever?

  • mP
    mP

    if you read the tower of babel story just the chapter before we have a discussuon about descendants and how they speak different languages. if one does the math we can see man already spoje diff langs before babel...

    gen 11:1 and 10:5

  • simon17
    simon17

    "Why say the end is coming (according to JWs) any day now, when humanity is progressively advancing faster than ever?"

    Stupidhead, don't you know that now is the worst time in human history, that there is more anarchy and sickness and evil in the world now than every before? That every day is worse than the last? That society is rapidly decaying into the darkest oblivion of misery ever even imagined?

  • shepherd
    shepherd

    "This literally happened. Babylon is an actual place--check with your favorite archaeologist on that or go to the library." - Larsinger58

    I almost split my sides laughing at this. Thank you for that.

    Sherlock Holmes was a real detective! Just look on a map of London and you can see Baker Street!

    There really was a worldwide global flood because I have even seen a rainbow myself, so that proves the Bible account is real........

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