I think God decided that he liked it better when people were hacking each other to pieces so used the old confuse the lanquage option so that people could start hating each other again . Meanwhile he can say it's all mankinds fault we hate each other .
Can someone explain to me the story of the tower of Babel?
by tippysock 80 Replies latest watchtower bible
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MelbaToast
Sorry I just had to add this - Straight from the WT's mouth.....Solomin Islands Pidjin, in case you never seen it before:
. Jesus stap long heven olsem wanfala spirit bifor hem kam long earth. Hem nao first samting wea God workim, and dastawe Bible kolem hem ?firstborn? Son bilong God. (Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14) Jesus nomoa only Son wea God seleva workim. Jehovah iusim Jesus bifor hem kam long earth olsem ?nambawan workman? bilong hem for workim evri otherfala samting long heven and earth. (Proverbs 8:22-31; Colossians 1:16, 17) God iusim hem tu olsem main wan for toktok for Hem. Dastawe Jesus garem disfala nem ?Word.? ? John 1:1-3; Revelation 19:13.
I the internet. Heehee.
Melba
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myelaine
Funkyderek,
Surely everyone would believe in God after a miracle like that, especially as it came only a couple of generations after the flood?
You must be reading a different Bible to read that EVERYONE believed in God after a miracle like that.
Genesis 11:10 We are intruduced to the one "group" of people led by Abram, who, had a healthy fear of the Lord. A good portion of the same Bible follows this one "group" of people while admonishing the "everyone else" that were scattered abroad. These same "everyone else" ...... "groups" might have started all the other different "theologies" for all I know. God did choose this one group didn't He? To hell with the rest of them..... (in the beginning). They did not meet God's requirements, ESPECIALLY as it came only a couple of generations after the flood.
Having said that I have to admit that I don't even recall what statement I'm replying to.
OK, I guess yoiu must have been reading a different story. I don't see how anyone could take that from the Babel legend.
Oh, right....We are supposed to "take" something away from this story.....why is it there?.....hummm.... I was giving a reasonable explaination for it being there....I figure it is a way to explain how and why God chose the group that He did. I'm sure there are other explainations. So, lets let someone else give their explainaion. Is the story a "fore-glimmer" of a type of people? Is it prophectic?
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noko59
Well if that story is indeed a myth, then what other stories in the Bible are just myths? If the foundation faulters doesn't the building collapse? Is the Bible a collection of writtings truthfully representing God's interactions with mankind or is it just a fable? Is it partially true? Mostly true or what? Didn't Jesus read and quoted from the bible or the scriptures? Used them? As recorded by the Bible Jesus says "Before Abraham came into existence, I have been". John 8:58. So if the scriptures was really corrupted and a myth wouldn't Jesus know that and say so? That wasn't the case.
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Abaddon
The Papuan Bible verse which reads "Noah was a rightous man" reads "Noah him mighty fine bugger".
Well, to me it seems if it is a "true story", god, was rather peeved with humans in Eden because they did what they had been told not to do So he basically says, "Well then Mr. Fig-tree-pants, go and see if you can decide what to do and make a run of it, ha!" And to make the contest really fair, he makes humans mortal and invents labour pains, because women are apparently really bad, or something.
And then man gets his act together, to the extent of building a tower and talking big ("Hah! That'll tower I'll show him, and we've got dental plans and indoor plumbing and look at this nifty kilt, no more "Mr. Fig-tree-pants" for me). And he does it being mortal and with women having to do the male equivalent of giving birth to a grape-fruit through one's urethra (yes, that hole).
Does god say, "Well, there you go, I was wrong, well done, sorry about all that, one doesn't develop much in the way of social skills or 'being bale to play with others' after being alone for eons"? Does he my hairy arse.
He spits the dummy, confuses the languages, and throws the toys out of the pram.
This is why I firmly believe that story to be entirely fictitious and probably intended as some metaphor by its author, who probably smelled of goats and was as godly as you or me but knew how to tell a story.
If it isn't fictitious, then god is an enormous asshole, and no self-respecting sentient being should have anything to do with it.
If it is a metaphor, then with a little imagination it can mean almost anything you want it to. But it is pretty clear it's designed to make people behave; step out of line and get slapped is the message.
And, again, why would any self respecting sentient being have anything to do with a religious philosophy predicated on threat and fear?
I really should post when I am this stoned.... shouldn't I mean...
8-)-~
Of course, there's endless fun you can have if you assume there is a god and the Bible is his Haines Manual for mankind. There's no ends to the numbers of internally logical belief-systems you can come up with, but that doesn't mean the premis is anything other than wishful thinking.
Oh... yeah, the actual question.
The story of the Tower of Babel is an ancient folk-myth that explains why different people speak different languages. It also carries a strong message that god will punish those he disapproves of. It is a prototype of the 'weapons of mass destruction' type of propoganda designed to sway the audience it is directed at to back and, for their own safety, be beholden and obedient to those in positions of power.
Obviously if god slaps those that piss his gdness off, you need a special class of 'white-collar' worker who will tell you what to do to stop anything like that ever happening again (not that anything like that has EVER happened in living memory, but that shows you how good the Priests are!).
Oh, no... those things DO happen. An Earthquake, a Famine, a Plauge, a tidal wave, a volcanic eruption. Stands to reason it was god slapping bad people again. So the Priests are really good, but sometime the people let them down and bad things happen anyway.
Man, the guy who invented the job of Priest was clever. You don't have to actually do anything and nothing is even your fault.
Babel; it's propoganda. It really is quite horrifyingly simple.
Hmmm... politics, religion and atheism on a question of scriptual interpretation... more spliff less typing...
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noko59
So in your own words you judge God in the Bible as an Asshole if the Bible is true? Correct? I would dissagree with the message the Bible gives with your witnessing of it. Also didn't you put your own interpretations into what you read and then gave your belief of it? Like so many others that you claim do? Consider the Bible like a mirror reflecting back your heart, building bricks on top of another isn't the story at hand.
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hooberus
There is evidence of the historicity of this account from Native Americans. (Native Americans are descended from the sons of Noah, according to the Biblical worldview). The Choctaw Babel story below is particularily interesting:
http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-369.htm
Tower of Babel
". . . the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. . . . And they said, Go . . . let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven. . . . the Lord said. . . . let us go down, and there confound their language. . . . So the Lord scattered them abroad . . . and they [ceased] to build the city" (11:1,4,6-8).
Unlike the proliferation of flood legends, those concerning the confusion of tongues are mostly confined to the tribes of the southern states and Mexico. Most stories are only brief allusions, usually tacked on to the end of a flood legend, but some tribes, like the Choctaw of Louisiana, have preserved a detailed account:
"Many generations ago Aba, the good spirit above, created many men, all Choctaw, who spoke the language of the Choctaw, and understood one another. These came from the bosom of the earth, being formed of yellow clay, and no men had ever lived before them. One day all came together and, looking upward, wondered what the clouds and the blue expanse above might be. They continued to wonder and talk among themselves and at last determined to endeavor to reach the sky. So they brought many rocks and began building a mound that was to have touched the heavens. That night, however, the wind blew strong from above and the rocks fell from the mound. . . . The men were not killed, but when daylight came and they made their way from beneath the rocks and began to speak to one another, all were astounded as well as alarmed?they spoke various languages and could not understand one another. Some continued thenceforward to speak the original tongue, the language of the Choctaw, and from these sprung the Choctaw tribe. The others, who could not understand this language, began to fight among themselves. Finally they separated. The Choctaw remained the original people; the others scattered, some going north, some east, and others west, and formed various tribes. This explains why there are so many tribes throughout the country at the present time." 8
The Anahuac Indians of Mexico believe that after the flood, the survivors began building a vast pyramid of bricks to reach the heavens. This angered the gods, who destroyed the pyramid by sending down fire from heaven. 9
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gumby
Funny how none of the N.T. authors used this grand example of what happens to those who try and live independent from god......not one did.
Gumby
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myelaine
Noko59,
you said: Consider the Bible like a mirror reflecting back your heart, building bricks on top of another isn't the story at hand.
Would you like to share what truth about God you have found in this passage?
michelle
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noko59
Why sure, in short Nimrod was the founder of Babel or Babylon who's name means opposer to Jehovah. Those who follow him would also oppose Jehovah or be mislead into it. The city being built which I take was forced upon some of the people, since once the language was confused the work did stop and the different families did split to the far reaches of the earth, as in "lets get out of dodge while we can". In a way it was deliverance from pure slavery to Nimrod and allowed those who where with Jehovah to be left alone and to show their true heart and inclination.