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subject: The Tower Of Babel [print this page]

The Tower of Babel was an enormous one built in the city of Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon.

According to the biblical account, a united humanity, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, took

part in the building after the Great Flood.

The people decided their city should have a tower so immense that it would have its top in the heavens.

However, the Tower of Babel was not built for the worship and praise of God, but was dedicated to the glory of

man, with the motive of making a name for the builders. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city,

and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered

abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4). God, seeing what the people were doing, came down and

confounded their language. Unable to communicate with each other at the building site, the people gave up the

project and scattered to different lands. The remains of the city came to be known as Babel.

In Hebrew, the word Babel is version of the name Babylon, which meant the gate of God. Another Hebrew word,

baiabi, means confusion.

Thus, the image of the Tower of Babel is used to mean confusion and failure to communicate.

As Douglas Robinson suggests, according to this vision, the translator becomes the World Saviour who restores the

linguistic unity destroyed by the gods.

By building bridges across languages, translation thus becomes an act of subversion, defying even the hegemony of

goals.

The familiar story of the building of the Tower and City of Babel is found in Genesis 11:1-9.

From the initial setting given for the account, on the plain of Shinar, to the final lines where the city is

identified with Babel, it is clear that the events recorded took place in southern Mesopotamia.

by: Kavitha Chandrappa

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