Babel:History Or Not?

[thoughtful (Valerie (non-scientist))]

Yes, I think the tower would be similar to a ziggurat.

Some things about Babel I think are interesting - this of course is my own conjecture:

@thoughtful

So the text of Genesis mentions the first city of Nimrod’s kingdom as Babel, and I had found a source that said “He (Sargon) dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Agade” - I believe this sentence is actually referring to later when he had power and was trying to build a tower or temple. He had already had a place near Agade/Accad that he called Babel or Babylon. But of course I’m guessing based on the biblical text. Biblical scholars never know whether to translate this Babel or Babylon. It’s really both. Again guessing - I think he liked the idea of the tower and its accomplishments and no one stopped him. (bad idea)

I also recently listened to this podcast - it connects the Tower of Babel and other passages in ways I never thought of before, and ends up explaining a lot about the text of Genesis 11. I definitely recommend their podcast because every one I’ve listened to I’ve learned something new and fascinating about the OT and connecting it to Jesus.

https://youtu.be/wBL4l7FX630

You can google for tower of Babel myths - like flood myths, many cultures have a tower or confusion of language myth. Yes, I do believe it’s history. On a YEC timeline, it also matches the introduction of writing in the ME and lots of languages in that area. Of course, I’m not expecting many here will agree with me.