Talk:Babel

Untitled
The history/story of the tower of Babel is very relevant, since the building of the European Parliament in Strasbourg is constructed as an unfinished tower of Babylon/Babel. Only the story in Genesis can clarify the meaning behind this

''As this story is probably a myth-after all how can a tower reach heaven-neither of these versions of etymology may be true. Genesis is made up a great deal of stories passed down from generation to generation, though some stories may have some truth in them.''

Wikipedia articles shouldn't advocate positions. And commentary about the likelyhood of a tower reaching heaven seems rather unnecessary. :) --Stephen Gilbert

Merge
Should this be merged with Tower of Babel?
 * Done. --User talk:FDuffy 14:15, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry I didn't see what you were doing there until I'd undone your edit, there is already Babel (disambiguation) so this page should either redirect there or otherwise become what that disambiguation is. I'm not quite sure what the best solution is as we'll lose some inter-wiki language links if redirected, and if it's a disambig then the links become a poor fit. I'd like some more time and opinion to see if there's a better solution. --Alf melmac 14:36, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Computer Game
The recently-added last paragraph should be moved to a separate page, most likely Babel (computer game). (In addition, it should probably be rewritten, but that's another matter.) -DynSkeet

The text does not say that the builders would have been successful in building a tower to heaven unless God prevented them. What it says is that the people may have thought it was possible, yet it is likely that the people were merely exaggerating. It is likely that the intention of the people was to build a tower for worshiping celestial bodies. -Web Reader
 * 'Genesis 11:6: And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." I dunno; seems God was a bit worried for a bit about this ;) Hex4def6 05:35, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

scope
the scope of this article is the parts of the Hebrew Bible dealing with Babel. The Tower episode is only a small part of these, Babel is mentioned in Kings, Chronicles, Jeremiah, Ezekhiel, various minor prophets, and Daniel. dab (&#5839;) 10:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

It is as it reads.
The intent on building the tower was to glorify themselves instead of God, not to literally build a tower that reached the heavens, to worship other gods. To hold to this view is nonsense and requires a lot of presuppositions and false thinking. Their are idioms and ideas of these people that have to be understood. The kingdom of Babel, lead by Nimrod, were very proud of their achievements and the tower served as a monument that would "let us make for ourselves a name" Genesis 11:4. God noticed that this was their intent Genesis 11:6, and instead of filling the earth Genesis 9:1 as they (Noah and his sons) were instructed to do, they chose to make for themselves a city Genesis 11:4, and by doing so their hopes were to not be "scattered abroad all over the face of the earth." After realizing that these people could not be stopped from doing whatever they chose to do (which was a direct result of their "oneness" or being so united that no achievement was impossible, which stemmed from pride Gen 11:6), God confused their language in order to goad or prod this body of people into doing His will, which was to spread out and populate the earth. People dissect the Bible and take texts out of context to meet their needs (unwittingly or intentional, but mostly just natural), which is only a natural trait of the carnal heart.HumbleSeaker 04:35, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Literary references
I believe that there are many literary references to "babel" in connection with the power and significance of language. This deserves some attention in the Wiki article. (e.g. "Babel 17" by Samuel Delany, "babelfish", in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...I'm sure there are more.) Surely there is a connection to "babble" as well. Unfortunately, I do not have the literary background or time to provide the discussion.

Pronunciation
Given the difference between the British and American pronunciations of Babel, I think we need a sentence or two on this issue.--ukexpat 00:26, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Babylon=Babel?
This page claims that Babel is another name for Babylon, but I see no reason from the bible or anywhere else to think they were anything other than two places with similar names. References? Ace of Sevens 15:40, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * In English translations of the bible "Babel" is left untranslated and in consequence is looks like a meaningless place-name, but in fact it has a meaning: not Tower of Babel (place) but Tower of Confusion. Babylon is the English version (from Greek) of the Akkadian Bab-illu, meaning (probably) "Gate of God", refering either to the city gates, which are extremely large and impressive (they're still there, inside an American military base I believe), or to the tower (ziggurat) itself, which was the "gate" by which the ancient Babylonians communicated with their god. The author of Genesis seems to have thought that "Bab-illu" was the same as Hebrew "Babel", although of course no-one can really know what his thoughts were. PiCo 04:31, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Babylon is not considered to be Babel by some people
I had put this alternative theory in the article in the past, but the author decided to delete it, saying, more or less, that it is an abduction by aliens theory. Later on, he probably decided to delete the discussion referring to that, also. The same way, he has deleted almost anything else, anyone but himself has added. The same way, he is probably going to delete the latest discussion, too. Go figure...Nikos papadopoulos 11:01, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Strange history
Just in case anyone is looking at the history log and sees anything strange from before 14 April 2009, this article is a combination of two older articles "Babel" (which the name was taken from for this) and "Babel (disambuguation)" (which the content was taken from for this). Thanks to BD2412 for doing that. Ian.thomson (talk) 19:47, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Link to Wikipedia:Babel
Shouldn't this disambiguation page link to Babel as well? - Xerus2000 (talk) 19:10, 5 May 2020 (UTC)
 * It already does, via a hatnote at the very top. – Uanfala (talk) 20:09, 5 May 2020 (UTC)