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⚔ Divine Council Series — Part II

The Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1–9 — Why so many religions?

People atop the ziggurat of Babel, axes hurled toward the heavens

The summit of Babel — reaching for heaven

In 1971 Led Zeppelin released a famous classic rock song called “Stairway to Heaven.” Do you know it? In your opinion, does it deserve its classic reputation — or is it overrated?

Read Together
Genesis 11:1–9 — World English Bible
1The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
2As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.
3They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
4They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
5Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
6Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.
7Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.
9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.

Footnote: 11:2 — LXX reads “from the east.”

In the Old Testament, there’s only one all-powerful creator — that’s God. But there are other spirits around. Sometimes the Bible calls them gods (note the lowercase “g”). They have freedom of choice and they’re corruptible just like people.

When the Bible talks about other gods, these weren’t all imaginary beings. Some of them may have been real spirits — roughly what we call angels and demons today.

Discussion

Questions

1 Let’s have some fun! There are many possible explanations for why the people tried to build the Tower of Babel. Guess which reasons are likely True or False — hint: there are multiple true answers.

Select True or False for each, then tap “Check Answers” to see how you did.

A. The people wanted to become famous.

See verse 4 — “let’s make a name for ourselves.”

B. The people wanted to break into heaven and fight God.

This is a real idea some later rabbis imagined, but it originates from the medieval period and was never taken seriously by scholars.

C. The tower was a giant support beam installed to hold up the sky.

This is a real theory from a later rabbi, but other rabbis didn’t take it seriously.

D. Nimrod wanted the tower built as an escape plan in case God sent another flood.

Maybe?? Unconfirmed, but recorded by the famous ancient Jewish historian Josephus (a). We’re counting this one either way.

E. To create an artificial Eden — a manmade sacred mountain.

The top of the ziggurat resembled a manmade mountain. People believed the gods lived atop mountains, so building one meant getting closer to them.

F. To attract lightning and create an ancient power source.

We made this one up. :)

G. To invite the gods to descend to the earth.

While the tower is often associated with a stairway to heaven, it was actually more like a stairway from heaven — the gods were thought to come down to inhabit it.

H. To barter and trade with the gods.

The tower was shaped like a triangular staircase. People thought the gods would descend the stairs to inhabit the temple or city — and commerce would follow.

I. To house the mutant Apocalypse.

X-Men aren’t real. (Presumably.)

J. Traumatized by the flood, people wanted to chop holes in the sky to drain heaven’s water and prevent future floods.

This idea really was recorded by Jews in Babylon — but the other rabbis got a good laugh out of it (c).
2 Which explanation from that list surprised you most? Why?
Your Notes
Workers building the Tower of Babel while God reaches down from the heavens

Yahweh came down to see what the children of men had built — Genesis 11:5

3 At first the people look ambitious, but they were actually driven by fear of being scattered and becoming insignificant. How can you tell if your own ambitions are healthy or fear-driven?
Context

Being scattered would have been frightening — people would have less security and fewer shared resources. Their unity was rooted in shared anxiety, not shared purpose.

Your Notes
4 Most scholars think the Tower of Babel was actually a type of temple called a ziggurat. Knowing this, what do you think the people were really trying to accomplish by building it?
Translation Note

Verse 4 can be translated “a tower with its head in the heavens.” The tower is both a temple and a conceptual bridge between worlds — you could also think of it as a “vacation home” for other gods.

Your Notes
5 At the beginning of the Biblical story, God asked people to spread out and populate the Earth. But here, the people united around the fear of being scattered. We tend to think of unity as a good thing — but here it’s depicted negatively. Under what conditions can unity keep us from realizing our own purpose?
Your Notes
6 The writer made a funny little jab at the tower. Verse 3 says “They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.” What do you think this means?
Context

They’re substituting cheap bricks for real stone, and tar for proper mortar (b). A grand temple to the gods… built from budget materials. The author seems to find this quietly amusing.

Your Notes
7 The tower was big enough to have its “head in the heavens” — yet verse 5 says God had to come down to see it. What is funny or sarcastic about that description? What does it communicate about the tower — and about God?
The Joke

The tower was supposed to be massive — a bridge to the heavens. But it apparently wasn’t even visible from where God was. The author is gently mocking the tower’s pretensions while making a point about God’s transcendence.

Your Notes
8 The scattering of the people didn’t just introduce new languages. God was letting people who wanted to worship other spirits go their own way. Ancient Israelites saw the scattering as the reason so many different religions emerged in the world. Is linguistic and cultural diversity a punishment, a protection, or perhaps both? What can you learn from this?
Your Notes
★ Bonus Question

Who is God talking to when he says, “Come, let us go down”?

It’s not fully clear. The oldest ancient text to comment on this (Jubilees) says God was talking to the angels. This fits the idea that God was speaking to His council of angels — the Divine Council. Others will say it’s the Trinity.

✦
Why It Matters

The Reason God Chose Israel

When you read the Old Testament and wonder why God is primarily working through Abraham and Israel, Babel is the answer. Initially, God was pursuing a relationship with all people — but it seems most of humanity didn’t reciprocate. We can see that clearly when we realize the tower was a temple to another god.

So God honored humanity’s decision and let people go their own way, scattering the nations. Ancient Jews believed this scattering was the reason so many different religions emerged in the ancient world.

It’s no coincidence that right after this, God chose Abraham’s family to form a nation. Their purpose was to “bless all of the families on earth” (Genesis 12:3) — which tells us that God never truly abandoned the other nations. Israel was formed to serve as a lighthouse that would guide the other nations back to God.

A person standing at the edge of heaven, looking toward a stairway of light

A stairway from heaven — the invitation God never withdrew

Sources
  1. (a) Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.4.2 — penelope.uchicago.edu
  2. (b) Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1–15. Word Books, 1987. Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 1.
  3. (c) Sanhedrin 109a — chabad.org
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