The Book of Genesis, Chapter 11

Genesis 11:1-32

Summary

At this point in time, every human being on earth shared the same language. So the people got together in a place called Shinar, and decided to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. They want to do this to avoid being scattered on the earth. Somehow this threatens God, as God sees that the humans can do whatever they want. God's reaction is to confuse the languages of all the people working on this structure and scatter them across the earth, further proving God's sense of irony. After this lovely story, we have a genealogy of Shem's descendents.

Commentary

I really want to like Old Testament God. I really do. But sometimes it's very hard. I've often heard this story used to represent God punishing the hubris of humanity, but reading this actual text I have to at least sympathise with the humans. Their stated aim is,

"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; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen 11:4).

The people fear the fleeting nature of their existence and want to make a monument so that people will have some common ground, rather than splintering into their own tiny little groups. I see this as a relatively natural response to the great calamity that went before this story. God, on the other hand, has different plans.

The language the Lord uses in the passage is not the language someone offended by the pride of another would use. It is the language of fear. God doesn't remark on the presumptiveness of these people, no, he says,

"‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." (Gen 11:6)

Evidently God has some issues with humans being able to achieve so much by working together, and God continues in this way:

"Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech." (Gen 11:7)

Is it really crazy to suggest that the language used here implies that God is afraid of what humans can do? Rather than celebrate the success of his creation, God shatters the interactions of the humans and scatters them across the globe.

This story functions as an explanation of why there are many different languages and people around the world. The narrative, from the story of Noah onwards, requires a story of this nature in order for the world we live in, and the world they lived in, to make sense. It's unfortunate that one of the underlying messages in this story is that we shouldn't reach too high, that if we work together, God's going to put a stop to it.

The genealogy that follows is very dry and formulaic, you can read it if you like, but the form goes something like this:

"When [So and So] had lived for [X] years, he became the father of [Somebody or Other]; and [So and So] lived after the birth of [Somebody or Other] for [Y] years, and had other sons and daughters." (Gen 11:12-27)

The last five verses of the chapter refer to a couple very important characters, but first I'm going to list the names leading up to them:

Shem
Arpachshad
Shelah
Eber
Peleg
Reu
Serug
Nahor
Terah

Whew! Each name is the father of the one below it and the son of the one above it. Now, Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. So, counting backwards, Abram is the great⁸ grandson of Noah. Just so we have an idea of the number of generations here.

A very sad story is flirted with, for a moment, here. It says that

"Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans." (Gen 11:28)

I know that at the time, a child dying before his parents was more commonplace, but it still hits me a little to see that happen. The bible doesn't elaborate, but I can imagine that this wasn't a happy time for Terah.

Abram's wife was Sarai, and Nahor's wife was Milcah, who was Haran's daughter. That sounds very weird, but if Haran died, it's very possible that Nahor married his niece to protect her and ensure she had a place in his family. Sarai was barren at this point, and didn't have any children.

The whole dysfunctional family sets out to travel to the land of Canaan, but instead they end up settling in Haran. It's confusing, but from what I can gather Haran is both a guy's name and the name of a place.

While in Haran, Terah finally dies, much younger than the 900+ years people were living earlier, but still at a great age of 250.