Tower of Babel
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
The story of the Tower of Babel is important to creation science because it provides a key piece of information that helps explain why humans exist as multiple distinct races today. According to Genesis 11 , all humans spoke the same language immediately following the flood of Noah. Those who migrated to the west and settled in the land of Shinar decided to build a city and a great tower out of baked bricks to make a name for themselves. Because there is no archaeological evidence of buildings from antediluvial civilizations, we can probably conclude the Tower of Babel was the first major monument ever built.
God intentionally scattered mankind to retard their technological advancement by confusing their speech. The origin of the various root languages is presumably linked to this event. God apparently created several unique languages to scatter humans throughout the world. This action effectively speciated humans into several groups allowing physical differences to develop. All human ancestry traces back to Noah and his family only 4500 years ago, and then even further back to Adam and Eve. We are all close relatives, and the differences that distinguish the human races should be considered superficial at best.
Genesis 11 - The Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and few words. 2 And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 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." 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. 6 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. 7 Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Ba'bel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Feasibility
On the face of it, the biblical story presents difficulties. The total world population cannot have been large, yet the text refers to a city and seems to assume a much more extensive society than can yet have existed.
First, the word "city", according to Strongs means: a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post). In this context, a city does not have to be bigger than what we would call a small town.
Second, there would have been time for quite a large population to develop. The date of the confusion of languages is likely to be about 200 years after the flood, in the lifetime of Peleg, in whose time "the earth was divided". He lived from 1758 to 1997 AM or 101 to 340 years after the flood.
At 200 years after the flood, the likely population would have been around 100,000. People were still long-lived and genetically quite healthy. Five generations descended from the sons of Noah, averaging six to eight sons per family at 40 years per generation, with few deaths gives an approximate maximum population of 196,000. Peleg is born in the fourth generation and lived into the eighth.
| Generation | Name | Year after flood | Families (6) | Total number (6) | Max population (6) | Families (8) | Total number (8) | Max population (8) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -1 | Noah | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 0 | Shem | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| 1 | Arphaxad | 0 | 18 | 36 | 44 | 24 | 48 | 56 |
| 2 | Shelah | 40 | 108 | 216 | 260 | 192 | 384 | 440 |
| 3 | Eber | 80 | 648 | 1296 | 1556 | 1336 | 3072 | 3512 |
| 4 | Peleg | 120 | 3888 | 7776 | 9332 | 10688 | 21376 | 24888 |
| 5 | Reu | 160 | 23328 | 46656 | 55988 | 85504 | 171008 | 195896 |
At this stage, all the knowledge that Noah and his sons had from before the flood, and had been able to preserve in the ark, would still have been available, including any technology that they had been able to preserve. (Later generations would have lost knowledge because of the confusion of languages.)
A population of 50,000-150,000 living in a fertile area with no external competition and a good grasp of technology would easily be able to support the workers needed to build such a ziggurat as the Tower of Babel would most likely have been.
Related References:
- Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel?
- Is there any reference to the confusion of languages at Babel in early Mesopotamian literature?
- The Tower of Babel – Legend or History?
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