The Tower of Babel story captures the insight that it’s language which is the pre-eminent human trait and has made us what we are.
The preface remarks on this, and draws parallels with the stories of Adam and Eve, and Prometheus - in each case, gods become anxious lest humans get above themselves. The preface also mentions that the Tower of Babel story exists in different versions, and draws attention to Babylon being situated in modern day Iraq.
Read the preface in full.
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Introduction
Why do human beings speak so many languages? Wouldn't it be better if everyone spoke the same language? Surely there must have been a time when there was indeed only one language? And when and how did all the different languages come about?
This are questions that people sometimes ask, and here is one of the answers that has been given.
The story is set long ago in the land which is today known as Iraq, but in those days used to be known as Mesopotamia, or The Land Between The Rivers.
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| The Tower of Babel by Peter Breugel the Elder 1563 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The story of the Tower of Babel
Many years ago, in The Land Between The Rivers, there was a mighty city called Babylon. In fact at that time, it was the only city in the whole world worthy of the name. The people were very proud of their city and their achievement in building it. Some said they were too proud.
Beyond the city walls lived farmers and shepherds. They thought the city dwellers of Babylon were much too cocky, and were not impressed by them.
Although, on second thoughts, I imagine it’s nearer the truth to say the country people were really just a little bit impressed, but tried not to admit it, perhaps not even to themselves. The farmers and shepherds used to enjoy telling stories that showed the people of the city up in a bad light.
Now if one thing delighted the Babylonians, it was building tall towers. They called them ziggurats.
There is no-one to compare with us, they used to say. We have the tallest ziggurats. In fact we have the only ziggurats. No-one on Earth can compare with us the people of Babylon. That’s what they used to say to each other. No, and not in heaven either, some of the Babylonians added. We have no equal anywhere.
There was some debate about this. Some said: No! Up in heaven there are gods. They are greater by far than us Babylonians. Well then, said the architect and builders of the tallest ziggurat, we'll build a ziggurat that goes all the way up to heaven; then we can chat to these gods; yes we'll chat to them, and see how great they really are.
That’s the kind of talk that went on in Babylon.
And so the architect and builders laid down the foundations for a new ziggurat. One that would be taller by far than anything yet built. So tall it would reach to heaven. So tall they could speak to the gods if there were any.
Not everyone in the city agreed with the project. Some said: You should show the gods some respect. This talk of chatting to them is dangerous. It will end badly, mark my words. The priests in particular made much of this. But the architect and builders said : Away with you! We will build the ziggurat.
Hundreds of workmen dug the foundations. Then they built up the scaffolding with timber and nails. Next they began to build up the walls, which were made of clay bricks.
I must tell you about how they stuck the bricks together. They used bitumen. This thick black goo, that today we only use for roads, used to seep up from a spring in the ground. Workmen collected the bitumen in buckets, which donkeys carried to Babylon, where the bitumen was used to stick the bricks of the ziggurat together.
And where did they get all the bricks from? The bricks for the ziggurat were made of clay baked in the sun. It was the women who shovelled the clay and baked the bricks. To bake those bricks, the women had to work from morning to night without a break. Among them was one woman who was near to giving birth, and they did not release her. She had to give birth as she worked, and took her cloak and wrapped the baby, and left her baby and baked bricks again. That’s how hard the women had to work on building the ziggurat.
As the work progressed it become more and more popular with the men of the city, who got jobs and high wages building the gigantic tower. I suppose it was less popular with the women.
The workmen called out to each other from different parts of the half-completed structure. More bitumen! shouted one. More bricks! shouted another. Bring me timber! Bring me nails! All day and all night there was fetching and carrying and hammering and shouting. All in all, the work on that ziggurat made one terrible din.
Until one day something strange happened, something strange and dreadful. Today we still live with the consequences of this strange and dreadful thing.
The workmen called to each other from different parts of the half-completed structure, called for more bitumen, more bricks, more timber. But they couldn't make themselves understood. Here a workman called for more timber, and another brought him bricks. There a workman called for nails, and another bought him bitumen. All was confusion. No work was done that day.
The architect and chief builders met together to find out the problem and decide what to do. But when they sat down to begin their discussion, they discovered they couldn't understand each other. Each thought the other was stupid for not understanding. So each spoke louder. Soon all were shouting and no-one was understanding.
They didn’t understand why they couldn't understand. The truth is, although they had no way of knowing this at the time, that they had all started to speak different languages.
The building work was halted, and never started again. For a while, workmen stood around in confused groups yelling and gesticulating at each other. But soon they began to melt away. They left the city and wandered to different parts of the Earth. For hundreds of years a monstrous, ugly, half-completed ziggurat stood in the middle of Babylon and served as a reminder of the dreadful day when languages came to the world. As the years went by, the half-built ziggurat became a ruin and began to crumble away.
The farmers and shepherds beyond the city walls scoffed. They called the ruin the Tower of Babylon, and after a time shortened this to the Tower of Babel.
This was all long, long ago, and after such a time it’s impossible to say whether the story really happened. Maybe the farmers and shepherds were jealous of the city dwellers and made the whole thing up.
In telling the story, the country people used to say that it was the gods in heaven who sent the curse of languages, in order to stop the ziggurat being built. Some said the gods were unable to sleep due the din of the building work. Others said the gods were anxious that if humans got as high as heaven, they would become as gods themselves.
Yet others said: There is only one God and he sent languages to punish the builders’ pride. This version is still popular today.
Whatever the reason, the story certainly gives an answer to the puzzle of why humans speak so many different languages.
