BEMA Episode Link: 6: A Tale of a Tower
Episode Length: 19:42
Published Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2016 01:00:00 -0700
Session 1
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings talk about the tower of Babel and some of the observations we can take away from the story.

Discussion Video for BEMA 6

Transcript for BEMA 6

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

  • Genesis 10:32 - 11:9
  • Problems:
    • We see the people trying to become more Eastern and G-d says no which seems to go against everything we’ve been talking about.
      • Westerners don’t notice this but so far, we read about people heading east (Adam and Eve go East when leaving the garden; Cain and his family heads East) but when we get to Noah and the flood, G-d brings them back West. When they leave the ark, they head East. People continue to move farther and farther away from where G-d has intended for them to be.
    • People are worried about being scattered before G-d actually scatters them.
    • How does everyone speak a single language?
  • Chiasm
    • Center: 11:4 “scattered all over the earth”
      • Beginning 10:32 compare end 11:8-9
      • It’s difficult to see in the English but it’s there
    • The Hebrew consonants are very repetitive in this story: n b l h
      • These consonant appear in the same order and then halfway through the story they reverse.
    • There is language at scattering at the beginning, end, and the middle.
  • Story parallels:
    • Noah and the flood parallels the creation story
    • Noah and the curse parallels Adam and Eve
    • The Tower of Babel should parallel Cain and Abel
      • Cain’s curse was to wander the earth.
      • Cain’s worry was about making a name for himself and aquiring.
        • In this story, they desire to “make a name for [themselves]” and aquiring “a tower that reaches to the heavens”.
      • The people are caused to scatter and wander.
      • Does the center of this chiasm mean G-d wants his people to wander and not to settle, or be in a fixed state, away from his will, or we might say “East”.
        • Are the allusions to the Garden of Eden where G-d doesn’t want his people to settle until they are at home, West?
        • Some concerns: Why is G-d threatened by their technological advancements (the brick)? Don’t we read later that G-d wants use to be able to do anything?
          • Is it more about trusting in G-d’s story and knowing when to say enough?
          • G-d won’t let them setting so he scatters mankind.
  • When a story mentions “and then he said” there is an interruption in the story, that is, a time has passed.
    • I have questions about the following statements that Marty makes about how “and then he/they said” here.
    • Marty says that G-d is silent about the creation of the brick and only speaks up when it begins to be used improperly.
    • The phrase used in the NIV is 11:6 “The Lord said…” rather than “And then he said”. I was previously under the impression that these would not have both meant an interruption in dialog.
  • Fohrman teaches that G-d disrupts their language because of the following:

    It’s interesting to note that in order for humanity to progress as a whole, they will need to learn the language of others. You cannot learn the language of another culture or a people without learning something about their perspective. Learning the diversity of perspectives always provides one with a sense of pause and consideration. It requires a sense of learning how to control one’s desires in order to reach a common goal together. In the confusion of Babel, G-d has not so much slapped our hands as he has given us a new redemptive project that will cause us to be the people that grows into the kind of humanity that bears his image, a humanity that knows when to say enough; a people that trusts the story, a people that just might find a place of rest.

    • When G-d confuses the people, what he says is if you want to succeed, you’re going to have to learn how to work together.
      • “A selfless group of people who knows how to put other ahead of self”
      • This is a story about G-d setting his people up for success.
  • G-d will end up finding someone who is willing to go West and partner with G-d.

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