Re-visiting the Tower of Babel

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.