Genesis 11: Tower of Babel, Translating ancient truths
After people read the story of the Tower of Babel, they think they understood it because it was translated into their language, however more often than not, they do not understand it all. This is quite ironic because of the core meaning of this short story, which actually has little if anything to do with the origins of language.
Summary
We are all familiar with the story of the tower of Babel, but as always, I will give a brief summary.
All the people of the earth were in one place and spoke one language. They decided to try to make a name for themselves by building a tower tall enough to reach the heavens. God saw this tower and city, something He did not want them to make. So, God caused confusion in their language resulting in them dispersing around the earth.
Many people read this and think this is simply another myth for the origin of various languages, however this story is actually not at all about languages. Instead, we find there are much more profound truths within this short story.
There are many questions to be answered; what are the truths within this story? Where is the Tower of Babel? And how the heck is it not about languages???
From the East…
We begin reading Genesis 11 with:
“Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” (Genesis 11:1-2)
We see a reference to, the land of Shinar which resides in the land that was within Babylon. This gives us a location for the Tower of Babel which will be touched on later in this post.
A very significant verse is that these men migrated from the east. The direction of the east is commonly referred to as a holy direction, towards God. The Garden of Eden is “in the east” (Genesis 2:8). The Euphrates river, which flows from the Garden of Eden, the Garden being the presence of God, forms the eastern boundary for Israel, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants (see Genesis 15:18). The prophet Ezekiel was told that the east gate of Jerusalem “shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut” (Ezekiel 44:1-2). Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, entered into Jerusalem through the east gate (See Matthew 21:1-11).
When the Scriptures read that men migrated from the east, that means these men have left God. These men have migrated away from God and settled somewhere away from God. They have rejected God and His authority.
Come let us…
After migrating from the east, away from God, the men said:
“Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” …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, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:3-4)
These men are recorded as having spoken like God who said “Let us make man…” and “Come let us go down…” (see Genesis 1:26 and 11:7). When God speaks in this way, we see the communion of Persons that is the Holy Trinity, a union of Persons. When these men speak this way, we see they are trying to form a union, but without God. Without God, we as humans cannot form a union in any sort of semblance to the union of God. We as humans are only unified through the Trinity in Jesus Christ as a “holy nation” “who with one voice glorify God” (see 1 Pet 2:9 and Romans 15:6)1. By humbly and lovingly submitting to our Creator, we can be a unified people in and through God, however these men sought to be unified without God.
We also see these men were planning to build a “tower with its top in the heavens.” Many people today recognize this description as a ziggurat. Ziggurats were built in many places including Babylon which is the location for Shinar which was mentioned as the location for the Tower of Babel. These ziggurats were built as stepped temple tower in the shape of a pyramid as the steps grow smaller in size towards the top2.
Regarding religion, ziggurats served many purposes but we will focus on one in particular. The height of the temple was to elevate the high priest closer to the heavens, because they believed the gods lived high in the heavens. By being elevated higher, they were closer to the gods making it easier for the priest to draw the gods as close to them as possible. Once this was accomplished, the god was believed to spend time residing on earth in their statue through a form of hypostasis3. This hypostasis was accomplished by the priest utilizing magick to trap the god in the statue so the god would do what the people wanted4.
The ancient Hebrew people would have read this and understood this was about the people trying to elevate themselves to the height of God and then attempting to draw God down to them to use magick in order to trap Him in a statue to make God do their bidding. These people were trying to make a name for themselves by bringing God down to them, something referred to later on in Scripture. “It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”” (Deuteronomy 30:12). Saint Paul later wrote “But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)” (Romans 10:6).
The author of Deuteronomy and Saint Paul both speak about people who attempted to ascend to heaven to bring God down to them because that is what the people of Babel, Babylon, and other idolaters, did with their gods. We are not to attempt this with God. God cannot be brought down to us, however God does deign to us everyday out of love. There is no need for us to try to usurp God when we just need to approach God with love and humility.
These people wanted to be unified and make a name for themselves rather than turning to God and working with God to have a name made for themselves in and through Him to glorify God. These men were trying to trap God using magick. They were trying to be like God without God while working against God.
And the Lord came down…
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city (Genesis 11:5-8)
The men were unified while trying to raise themselves up to God to bring God to them and attempt to usurp God, however, these efforts were of no avail. God descended to see the city and the tower, meaning this tower which was to reach the heavens and make a name for the men was still far below God. Then the Lord descended even farther to the men to scatter them, showing that the men were lower than the tower they built, and that much lower than God, in spite of all their efforts to raise themselves up to bring God down. And despite them trying to bring God to them so they could trap Him, God descended to them and showed His might and authority by scattering them.
The city
We also see a city with this tower, something described earlier in the readings. The first unrepentant sinner, Cain, formed a city. God saw these men following the footsteps of Cain. They had “migrated from the east” to leave God and were now forming a city with a tower to reach the heavens in an attempt to bring God to them. God knows what comes of humans building a city rooted in sin. God was not worried that humans would rival Him or threaten His authority, instead God sees humans are going down the same destructive path that led to the Flood.
Scientific achievements within a city are not inherently evil, and God wants us to learn about His creation so we may work with His creation in harmony with both God and His creation, but when such achievements are done without God when people leave God, they become an even greater temptation to lead to even greater sin. God scattered the people out of mercy and love for His creation to save them from killing themselves, just as the descendants of Cain were on the path to kill themselves.
Some may contest that God violated their free will, however this is not the case. They still had their free will, but their abilities were restricted. This does not coerce them but instead limits their destructive capabilities to prevent them from killing themselves, just as keeping children in a safe environment does not inhibit their will but prevents them from harming themselves.
Babble and Babel
We see that God said “Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” This is where people suffer the misconception that this story is another myth about the origins of languages.
The word used for “language” in this passage differs from other passages. For example, in Genesis 10:5,20, and 31, the word used for “language” is lason which translates directly to language as a noun. Whereas in Genesis 11:7 that was quoted at the beginning of this paragraph, the original word in the text is sapah which translates more closely to “lip” which also signifies “utterance.” The implications of the word used in 11:7 are not about language and instead is about the consonance between the people in that they were all “saying the same thing” and after God stopped them, the people had a falling out of sorts which led to discord, possibly fighting, and migration5.
So, the biblical narrative of the story of the tower of Babel was not at all about language and instead was about the consonance between the people and their understanding. They were unable to understand each other not due to language barrier but because the consonance between them was disrupted and they were not able to be in synchronization with each other. By being unified in sin without God, the people were at serious risk of harming and destroying themselves by living without their Creator. Rather than causing them to spontaneously speak different languages, God disrupted the consonance between the people to save them from themselves.
Some may argue this begs the question, is God responsible for chaos and disunity among humans? No. The cause of chaos and disunity in humanity is due to ourselves and our sins. Our sins introduce disorder into our lives which ultimately leads to self-destructive behavior. God spared from this destruction and we are left with a certain level of chaos and disunity. We can overcome this chaos and disunity by joining the Mystical Body of Christ and becoming one in harmony with one another unified in and through Christ Jesus.
The meaning of “Babel”
We end the story reading:
Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confusedthe language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:9)
The word “Babel” can be interpreted in a few ways. Babel resembles the Hebrew word balal which means “he confused” but more closely translates to “gate of God”6. Reading Babel as “gate of God” we can understand that this land is not itself the gate of God but was where men tried to access the “gate of God” by building a tower to the heavens in an attempt to usurp, or overthrow God while trying to make themselves glorified by trapping God (“Come let us make a name for ourselves”) rather than glorifying God.
Where is the Tower of Babel?
The story of the Tower of Babel tells us exactly where the Tower would have been built. There are various beliefs about the existence of the tower with some believing there are remnants of the Tower of Babel and others completely disagreeing.
The land of Shinar is a real land that is in the former country of Babylon which had ziggurats. As I mentioned earlier, the common belief is this story is about a ziggurat, something ancient and modern people conclude from the story. However, the story wasn’t necessarily written as a literal recount of history. At the very least, we understand the story of the Tower of Babel has a lot of profound truths within the metaphors and images.
The reader or listener would have understood the region was in Babylon and the tower was a ziggurat, with ziggurats having been built as an attempt to reach the gods and pull them down to the level of humans so humans could do what they want with them. The reader or listener would have understood this story as describing an attempt for a group of people trying to ascend to God to pull the Lord God down to them for them to manipulate Him for their benefit, however our God cannot be controlled this way as shown by His response to them.
So, was there a literal tower? Possibly. Was there a group of people who left God and tried to be like God without God while thinking they can usurp His authority? Most definitely. And the inspired authors used a very relevant means to relay this message to the Hebrews, and that was to describe people in the region of Babylon as building a tower designed to capture gods in hypostasis with the intention of trying to capture the Lord Our God. This is another example of the inspired authors using imagery and symbolism relevant to the readers so they would understand the deeper truths of the story.
Conclusion
The truths contained within the story of the tower of Babel are more profound than a simple language myth. Men left God and tried to be like God without God. They tried to make a name for themselves by attempting to capture God and make Him their servant, however God is the one who gives names, names that are made for all to remember, such as Abraham and Israel (See Genesis 17:5 and 32:28). We should always remember, the name that is above all names is that of Christ Jesus. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10). Any attempt to make a name for ourselves whilst separated from God is done so purely out of the sin of pride.
God limited the harmony between people because we were unable to act well together in full unity without killing ourselves before the full revelation of Faith through Jesus Christ. We see the story of Babel reversed at Pentecost7. When the Holy Spirit had filled the apostles on the day of Pentecost, they “began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). As the apostles preached the Good News to the people, the listeners said among themselves “We hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God” (Acts 2:11). This is because “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).
Through Jesus Christ, we are all one. We are all in harmony through God in Him who’s name every knee bends. We need not make a name for ourselves when we can all be one through Our Lord Jesus Christ.
References
12008. The Orthodox Study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson., Pg16
2 Mark, Joshua J. 2022. “Ziggurat.” World History. October 13. Accessed November 25, 2025. https://www.worldhistory.org/ziggurat/.
3Ibid.
42022. “Fall of Man Part 3: The Gate to Heaven.” Ancient Faith Ministries. August 11. Accessed November 25, 2025. https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/lordofspirits/the_fall_of_man_part_3_the_gate_to_heaven/.
5 n.d. “What was the sin of the tower of Babel?” Catholic Answers. Accessed November 25, 2025. https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-was-the-sin-of-the-tower-of-babel.
62024. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press., Pg72
7 Beabout, Gregory R. 2007. “What Freedom Means in the New Babel.” Catholic Answers. November 1. Accessed November 25, 2025. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/what-freedom-means-in-the-new-babel.
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