![]() The names of some known ziggurats illustrate this concept. Linguistic studies have demonstrated that the purpose of ziggurats was to create a link between earth and heaven. The earliest known ziggurats date to around 3200 BC (Walden 2008). At the top lay a small shrine dedicated to a particular deity. They were constructed in a stair-step fashion, with each tier smaller than the one below it. Ziggurats were ancient Mesopotamian temple-towers. There is wide agreement among scholars that the Tower of Babel was a ziggurat (Garrett 2010, 20 Walden 2008 Taylor 1973, 135 Price 2017, 70–71). On the other hand, if an exiled Jew wrote Genesis, he or she would have been familiar with Babylon due to the passage of time, it is unlikely the author could produce accurate details about such an early event. Moses, who grew up in Egypt, would not have been familiar with Mesopotamian culture. Regardless of the author, it is certain that Genesis was written long after the Tower of Babel event occurred. This lessens the probability of it containing an accurate record of events. However, if the events recorded in Genesis prove to be archaeological accurate, as I hope to prove below, this late-date authorship theory becomes even less plausible. ![]() Thus, if the author recorded a true event, it had first passed down through many, many generations. This theory widens the gap between the Tower of Babel and the writing of the book of Genesis. This is a popular theory among biblical scholars, but it ignores some key biblical and archaeological data. ![]() Did Someone Else Write Genesis?Īnother school of thought places the authorship of Genesis much later, during or after the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BC. If Moses recorded a true account of a real event, either the story passed down from generation to generation until it reached Moses or God inspired Moses to write it without receiving any human knowledge of the event. He lived hundreds, and possibly over 1,000, years after the Tower of Babel event. Mark 12:26) cite Moses as the author of the Book of the Law, which likely refers to the first five books of the Bible. 2 Chronicles 34:14) and the New Testament (eg. Moses is the traditional author of Genesis. He thinks the biblical writer invented it to help explain the origins of the Hebrew people. ![]() For example, Frederick (2012) suggests that the Tower of Babel is a mythological story. Others, however, view the scriptures more critically. For those who believe in the Bible as an accurate historical document, that is enough to prove that it really happened. The Bible presents the Tower of Babel fiasco as a real historical event. It will also address the confusion of the languages. Its goal is to examine the historicity of the Tower, as well as the structure type, location, and timeframe. This article will analyze the historical and archaeological data related to the Tower of Babel. It is possible to compare specific details in the biblical account of the Tower with historical and archaeological research. This forced them to scatter across the globe – the very thing that they were trying to avoid. ![]() For this reason, He confused their language so that they couldn’t understand each other. The passage goes on to say that the Lord came down and, seeing the city and its tower, stated that these people would be unstoppable if they all had the same language. This was a direct contradiction to God’s command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Their goal was to make a name for themselves so they wouldn’t be scattered over the face of the earth. There, they decided to build a city and a tower that would rise into the heavens. As people moved westward, presumably from the Ark’s landing site, they came to a plain in the land of Shinar. Genesis 11:1–9 speaks of a time when all the people on the earth spoke the same language. ![]()
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