What hope after Babel? Diversity and Community in Genesis 11, Exodus 1, Zephaniah 3, and Acts 2
Daivd I. Smith, Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College
Horizons in Biblical Theology
vol. 18:2, 1996

Summary

The story of of Babel in Genesis 11 is often interpreted in isolation from the context of Assyrian inscriptions of the era and resonant narratives elsewhere in the Bible. A reading of this story with a view to its historical and biblical context leads us to affirm linguistic diversity as a blessing from God.

Headings

1. Not forgetting the context
   
2. Babel and the babble of readings
   
3. The Imperial City revisited
   
4. Faith in the Future?
   
5. God Comes Down Once More
   
6. Concluding Observations

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Key Statements

• "The Babel narrative is not such an isolated story as is sometimes assumed, but rather introduces motifs which echo through the rest of the Bible."

• "At the very outset of the biblical narrative we are presented with a God who revels in diversity, in rich creativity."

• "In Assyrian royal inscriptions, the one speech motif represents a metaphor for the subjugation and assimilation of conquered peoples."

• "My case for a different reading will not be complete until later passages have been brought into relation to Genesis 11, but some clear indicators that there may be more going on than 'fierce condemnation' are to be found within the narrative itself. "

• "The linguistic virtuosity of the Hebrew narrative in Gen 11:1-9, with its careful structure and its puns, alliterations and plays on sounds, underscores the note of hope by its display of creativity."

• "The Babel narrative provides a model for Luke's story of Pentecost. Aside from the verbal correspondences between the Greek text of Acts 2:1-13 and the Septuagint's rendering of Gen 11:1-9, the shape of the narrative echoes Babel."

• "It is a glimpse of this kind of community, a redemptive work of God manifest in human responsiveness, which is given to us in Acts 2, a passage the implications of which have not always been grasped by the church."

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