Genesis 11:5-8 - The Tower Babel - And the LORD Came Down… Twice
 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Jubilees 10 records it as follows…
22 - And the Lord our God said unto us: Behold, they are one people, and (this) they begin to do, and now nothing will be withheld from them. Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech, and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer abide with them till the day of judgment.’
23 - And the Lord descended, and we descended with him to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built.
24 - And he confounded their language, and they no longer understood one another’s speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower.
Have you ever noticed that God came down twice? First, he came down to see the city and the tower (v.5). He came down again to confuse their language (vv.7-8). As I write about in Jesus, the Father’s Proxy on Earth, God the Father never comes down to Earth. Or more specifically, when God is described as the Father, He is always in Heaven, leaving the Son and the Holy Spirit to come down to Earth. I have written of Jesus’ appearance in the Garden (Genesis 3 - The Fall of Man (Part 7)), His appearance to Abraham before Sodomon and Gomorrah (Jesus, the Father’s Proxy on Earth), and Jesus’ appearance to Moses (Jesus on Mount Sinai). It is in that vein that I believe that verse 5 is a statement about Jesus. It seems to me that Jesus “came down”, and physically walked among the people. By His observation, their sharing of a language was making their innovation and arrogance possible. I believe He reported this back to His Father in Heaven.
In verse 7, it says that God came down again. The first time was to observe; this time was to confuse the languages. But, why would He need to come down to do that? When Jesus noticed the evil in S&G, the Father destroyed it from Heaven. Wouldn’t He confuse Shinar’s languages from Heaven? The BoJ 10:22 may hold a clue in the word ‘us’: “And the Lord our God said unto us”. Who is ‘us’? According to BoJ 2:1, “And the angel of the presence spake to Moses according to the word of the Lord, saying: Write the complete history of the creation…” As the Angel continues, he eventually leads up to chapter 10 and the Tower of Babel. It would seem that “us” is the Angel of the Lord and his minions.
Now going back to the Sodom and Gomorrah example, that Christophony which appeared to Abraham consisted of a three-some… the Lord (i.e., Jesus) and two angels. Also, we have seen that Jesus appeared with the Holy Spirit for Moses at his tent, again with the Holy Spirit at Mount Sinai, and again in the New Testament on the Mount of Transfiguration. Therefore, we have record of both angels and the Holy Spirit coming to Earth both with and after Jesus. So, when verse 7 says, “Come, let us go down,” it is Jesus (notice the same spelling of LORD in verses 5 and 6?). Jesus has gone back to Heaven to report on His observations, and just as BoJ 10:22 echoes, Jesus is telling the Angels to come back to Earth with Him to confuse the languages throughout Shinar.
23 - And the Lord descended, and we descended with him to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built.
24 - And he confounded their language, and they no longer understood one another’s speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower.
 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
One of the interesting things here is that mankind of this era seems pretty much in agreement that this confusion of languages was of divine origin. Bible-believers are not the only ones!
I wrote about this in Genesis 10 - Noah’s Family Tree - Babylon. I led into the topic like this…
Just as Noah’s flood was recorded within Sumerian myth, it would seem that the Tower of Babel may be as well. According to Wikipedia, ”Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta is a legendary Sumerian account… composed in the Neo-Sumerian period (ca. 21st century BC). It is one of a series of accounts describing the conflicts between Enmerkar, king of Unug-Kulaba (Uruk), and the unnamed king of Aratta (probably somewhere in modern Iran or Armenia). It is also notable for its strong parallels to the Tower of Babel narrative of Genesis.”
I then quote a prayer of Enmarkar’s. Here is the key passage…
Enki, the lord of abundance and of steadfast decisions, the wise and knowing lord of the Land, the expert of the gods, chosen for wisdom, the lord of Eridug, shall change the speech in their mouths, as many as he had placed there, and so the speech of mankind is truly one.”
I also discussed the dating of the story. At the time, I was guessing the Tower of Babel occurred around 2700BC. I now have firmer evidence that it was much closer to 2500BC. Enmerkar appears to date to around 2600BC += 100 years. This puts him in the ballpark of either date. Given the amount of play I see in different people’s dating (a reflection of the 160 year variance possible with carbon dating no doubt), the entire scenario seems quite plausible to me. With Jesus and the Angels going all around Shinar to change people’s languages, I have no doubt that they they would remember this! And now, only the Bible remains as the only record of the event that is still read.
May 20th, 2011 at 6:45 am
An interesting link: http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/36_babel.html