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The Tower of Babel, in rebellion to God, was man's attempt to determine his own destiny. God had revealed His plan of redemption through the Mazzaroth, His heavenly mnemonic. Man's perversion became the Zodiac.
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(Part 1) An expositional study taught by Harry Morgan
For those of you online post your comments or questions in the “comment section” on your screen. As time affords they may be read to the class.
4 great events recorded in Genesis 1–11: ➢ Creation of the universe ➢ Fall of man ➢ Flood ➢ Tower of Babel
“The whole earth had one language” (v 1) “there” (v. 2) “each other” (v 3) “Come, let us make bricks” (v 3) “let us build for ourselves” (v 4) “a city and a tower” “the Lord came down…” “the city and the tower” “which mankind had built” “come … let us mix up” (v 7) “each other’s language” “from there” (v 8) “the language of the whole earth” (v 9)
“He was called Phaleg, because he was born at the dispersion of the nations to their several countries; for Phaleg among the Hebrews signifies division.” Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Book 1, Chapter 6, Section 4
Bishop James Ussher estimated the date for the Tower of Babel to be 106 years after the Flood. He based this on the Genesis genealogies and on Egyptian historian Manetho’s statement (3rd century BC) that the confusion of language at Babel occurred in the fifth year of Peleg’s life.
➢ Human Arrogance (1–4) ➢ Heaven’s Awareness (5) ➢ Heaven’s Reversal (6–9)
1. List all the similarities you can find between the fall of Adam in Genesis 3 the judgment of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. ➢ Creation & Recreation ➢ Man’s Rebellion ➢ Divine Judgment ➢ Divine Redemption
1. List all the similarities you can find between the fall of Adam in Genesis 3 the judgment of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. Kathryn Griffin responded: #3 – Temptation, false wisdom. Adam and Eve were faced with the temptation to be like God if they ate from the tree of knowledge. The serpent’s words were subversive and crafty with the intent being to undermine God. #11 – The people were also tempted to be as God by building a city and a tower to make a name for themselves by giving themselves a uniqueness, prominence and superiority.
1. similarities between Genesis 3 & 11:1-9. #3 and #11 – Persuasion and cunning language. “You will be like God,” (eating the fruit and building a city & tower). The insinuation and jab against God is that something important has been withheld from them. #3 and #11 – Consequences. God gives consequences but more importantly, Adam and Eve and the people in #11 lose their chance to have a relationship with God and his blessings.
1. similarities between Genesis 3 & 11:1-9. #3 – Pride. Adam and Eve ate the fruit so as to be as wise as God and in all regard, Godlike. #11 – the people wanted to make a city (another name for their own form of government) and a tower to make a name for themselves, which would elevate them to heaven and enable them to be remembered forever, thereby never dying (Godlike).
1. similarities between Genesis 3 & 11:1-9. #3 – Pride. Eating the fruit was a willful act on the part of Adam and Eve and was without God’s consent, permission, guidance or wisdom. #11 – the people said to each other , “Come …” and began building a city and tower. Their action was without God’s consent, permission guidance or wisdom. #3 and #11 – Personification of God. God walks in the garden before speaking; and God views the city and tower before speaking. #3 and #11 – God uses the word “us” when speaking of Himself. See #3:22 and #11:7.
2. What is the significance of “the whole earth (having) the same language and vocabulary”? ( 1Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. “one language“ = one lip “one speech” = same vocabulary
3. Identify how the word “language” or “tongues” is used in the Bible. Explain the correlation between this passage and other references in the scriptures to “tongues”? Genesis 11 ➢ God had a message for the people (9:1,7) ➢ The people rejected God's message (11:4) ➢ God caused tongues to be heard as a sign of His judgment (11:9) ➢ God caused dispersion (11:8)
Deuteronomy 28 ➢ God had a message for the people (28:1) ➢ The People rejected God's message (28:15) ➢ God caused tongues to be heard a as sign of His judgment (28:49) ➢ God caused dispersion (28:64,65) Jeremiah 5 ➢ God had a message for the people (4:1) ➢ The People rejected God's message (5:3) ➢ God caused tongues to be heard as a sign of His judgment (5:15) ➢ God caused dispersion (5:19)
Isaiah 33 Note: This beautiful, refreshing passage describes Messiah's reign over Israel. The absence of foreign tongues will be an indication or a sign of God's abundant blessing upon His people, Israel. ➢ Verse 17 “Your eye shall see the King in His beauty.." ➢ Verse 19 “You shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech that you cannot perceive; of a stammering tongue, that you cannot understand."
Mark 16 17And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; Acts 2 ➢ God had a message for the People (Mt. 11:28 Cf. Jer. 4:1; Isa. 28:12) ➢ The People rejected God's message (Mt. 23:37) ➢ God caused tongues to be heard as a sign of His judgment (Mt. 3:38; 24:2; Acts 2:4-12; 10:44-47) ➢ God cause dispersion (Mt. 27:25)
Acts 10 Gentiles in the house of Cornelius received the message of the Gospel. This is the first time Gentiles are recorded to be saved during the Church Age. The authenticity of salvation among those Gentiles was verified by the gift of tongues to a prejudice, Hebrew-Christian named Peter and those with him. The incident is of such importance that Peter repeats the event with detail in Acts 11:15-17
Acts 19 "Certain disciples' do not refer to Christ's disciples but rather disciples of John the Baptist. For they had "not so much as even heard whether there is any Holy Spirit" having only the baptism of "John's baptism ... unto repentance" rather than the baptism of the spirit of God in to the Body of Christ in regeneration. The authenticating sign once again was tongues.
1 Corinthians 12-14 ➢ The sign of tongues was mentioned only to the church of Corinth. While it cannot be stated that tongues did not exist in other congregations, evidently, it was not as prominent as at the Corinthian Church. Why? Acts reveals that for several years the Corinthian church met in the house next door to a Jewish synagogue (Acts 18:7). Tongues authenticated the Christian testimony of that assembly. ➢ The gift of tongues is mentioned to the Church of Corinth because of the abusive practice of tongues speaking. Though divinely given this gift, as other, may be practiced with the wrong motive (I Cor. 13) or with the wrong method and manner (I Cor. 14).
4. What are the arguments for the current (April 2017) “English Language Unity Act” introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 997) and the U.S. Senate (S. 678)? Read Senator Hayakawa’s speech given in 1982 on this subject. https://www.usenglish.org/
1Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 9Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
God promised that one day the whole earth will again speak the same language. Zephaniah 3:9 “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one accord.
Was God’s promise fulfilled at Pentecost? Acts 2:4-13 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
5. In what ways is our modern age seeking for a single language?
➢ “English Language Unity Act” was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 997) on April 2017 and in the U.S. Senate (S. 678) ➢ Senator Hayakawa’s speech given in 1982 on this subject. https://www.usenglish.org/
6. Who were the people who “migrated from the east”? 2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. “they” anticedant = descendants of Japheth and Ham “migrated” (עַקָג) = to pull up, as in pulling up the stakes of a tent when a camp moves
6. Who were the people who “migrated from the east”? 2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east ➢ Cherubim guarded at the “east of the garden of Eden” (3:24) ➢ Lot left Abraham, traveling “eastward” (13:10–12) ➢ Abraham’s sons by Keturah were sent “away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country” (25:6) ➢ Jacob fled his homeland to “the land of the people of the east” (29:1)
7. Where is “the land of Shinar”? 2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. ➢ “plain” הָעְקִּב; not a valley between mountain ranges, but a broad flat valley ➢ “Shinar” = Sumer, the Sumerians were the predecessors of the Babylonians ➢ “settled” = “sit down”
8. Name the leader of the people who settled in Shinar? Nimrod was their leader, he descended from Ham (8-12) Peleg was born 101 years after the Flood ended and 191 years before Abraham’s birth (Gen. 11:10-26). Nimrod could easily have been 70 years old at this point and well- established as the world leader.
8. Name the leader of the people who settled in Shinar? This 8thcentury BC stone relief is identified as Gilgamesh, king of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia. His story is known in the poetic Gilgamesh Epic. He is described as part god and part man, a great builder and warrior, and a wise man in the story. Not mentioned in the Bible, Gilgamesh is possibly identified with Biblical Nimrod in Genesis 10:8-12.
Other names associated with Nimrod. Nimrod the Lord of heaven Baal Tammuz the son or Messiah Tammuz Bacchus Tammuz Hercules Dionysius Attis Krishna Yi Quetzalcoatl Semiramis queen of heaven Ashtoreth Astarte Rhea, Ishtar Beltis Aphrodite Cybele, Diana Isi, Devaki Heng-O Coattlicue Israelites Phoenicians El Babylon Assyria Greece Rome India China Mexico Belus Ninus Zeus Jupiter Vishnu Pan-Ku Teotl
9. How was this individual similar to Cain? (Gen. 4:12; 9:1) ➢ Both built cities ➢ Both were rebellious to the Lord because both were told to roam but did not
10. List all the plural personal pronouns (e.g. “we”, “us”) mentioned in verses 3 and 4. Why is this significant? 3Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
11. What was the reason for making “oven fired bricks”? 3Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
Are the Pyramids in Egypt made of similar composition as the Ziggurats in Babylon? Cecile B. DeMille’s 1956 film The Ten Commandments, while not specifically about the construction of the Great Pyramids, has contributed to the common image in many of our minds explaining the construction of the pyramids.
Are the Pyramids in Egypt made of similar composition as the Ziggurats in Babylon? "Maybe the ancient Egyptians didn't just leave us mysterious monuments and mummies. Maybe they invented concrete 2,000 years before the Romans started using it in their structures." Linn Hobbs, professor of materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Are the Pyramids in Egypt made of similar composition as the Ziggurats in Babylon? The idea that some pyramid blocks were cast of concrete-like material was aggressively advanced in the 1980s by the French chemical engineer Joseph Davidovits, who argued that the Giza builders had pulverized soft limestone and mixed it with water, pulverized soft limestone and mixed it with water, hardening the material with natural binders that the Egyptians are known to have used for their famous blue- glaze ornamental statues.
Are the Pyramids in Egypt made of similar composition as the Ziggurats in Babylon? In 2006, research by Michel Barsoum at Drexel University in Philadelphia found that samples of stone from parts of the Khufu Pyramid were "microstructurally" different from limestone blocks. Barsoum, a professor of materials engineering, said microscope, X-ray and chemical analysis of scraps of stone from the pyramids "suggest a small but significant percentage of blocks on the higher portions of the pyramids were cast" from concrete.
12. What is asphalt? Why is this significant? 3Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
13. List their intentions. What is the significance of the order of their mention? 4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
“Now we have some so-called reconstructionists in our midst… Does anyone understand that the only thing being reconstructed right now is The Tower of Babel?” Don Thomson
➢ Religious - Humanism ➢ Economic - Collectivism The Tale of Two Cities Babylon & Jerusalem
The Tower of Babel A Prototype for all Others
AFRICA Egypt
AFRICA Egypt
