The Old Testament reading for this past Sunday, the Day of Pentecost,
is Genesis 11:1-9, which is the story of the building of the Tower of Babel. As Old Testament reading for the day, it is background for the linguistic miracle
at Pentecost. As God confused the
language of people in the primeval stories so God unifies people as those in
Jerusalem hear the gospel proclamation “each one heard them speaking in the
native language of each.” (Acts 2:6)
I have always been curious about the proper name – Babel – in this
story from a chicken-or-egg perspective.
Did the Hebrew word come into the English language as a cognate, or did
English scholarship impose a term on its translation? Or is it an interesting (and confusing)
accident?
Turns out that there was a Babylonian tower temple north of the Marduk
temple, which in Babylonian was called Bab-ilu (“Gate of God”). The Hebrew form is Babel, or Bavel. The
similarity in pronunciation of Babel and balal (“to confuse”) led to the play
on words in Genesis 11:9. This is according to The Encyclopedia Britannica.
So, problem solved.
I still marvel at the way scripture comments on itself. One of the oldest tales in scripture finds
its reflection in a work that dates to the aftermath of the destruction of the
Second Temple. In like fashion, as the
Acts 2 narrative progresses it interprets Joel 2, that some scholars date to
the eighth century BCE. These are long
periods of separation to be sure. But
sometimes the work of scripture takes a long time to percolate.
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