To whom was the tower of Babel built? The project described in Genesis 11 involved the construction of both a tower as well as a city. Likewise, two distinct words for speech are used in Genesis 11 which map onto these two categories: there is the lip as well as the language (Genesis 11:1). The word used here literally refers to the “lip” and it is also used to refer to the “seashore” (Exodus 14:30) of the Red Sea, the “bank” (Exodus 7:15) of the Nile, and the “edge” (Exodus 28:26) of the Breastplate of the High Priest. When used in the context of human speech, it refers to the swearing of oaths (Leviticus 5:4, Numbers 30:6) and that by which one calls upon one’s god (Psalm 16:4, Zephaniah 3:9). It is at the altar that one swears an oath before heaven and earth, before God and man. Yet it is crucial to read Genesis 11 with close attention to the stated purpose of the builders of the tower: “let us make a Name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). In Genesis 12:2, God promises to make Abram’s “Name great” and in Genesis 12:8, Abram “calls upon the Name of the LORD.” The name upon which one calls is the god to whom one calls. It is also the principle of a thing’s existence. This is why immediately after we are told that the lineage of Seth liturgically “called on the Name of the LORD” (Genesis 4:26), we are given a genealogy of Seth’s line which begins with the creation of Man, whom God made male and female and “named them Man” (Genesis 5:1-2).
All idolatry is fundamentally self-worship. It is service rendered to the creature rather than the Creator- life sought for its own sake rather than with reference to God. This was the sin at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil- to seek rule over the creation apart from sharing in the life of the Creator. And when read in context, this seems to lie under the surface of Genesis 6:1-4 as well. There are three falls in Genesis 3-6- Adam, Cain, and the Nephilim. Adam failed to “guard” his bride from the wiles of the serpent, despite being “with her” for the duration of the conversation (Genesis 3:6). Likewise, Cain fails to “guard” his brother, with Genesis 4:9 using the same word (“am I my brother’s keeper?”) as Genesis 2:15 (“to work and keep [the garden]). This suggests that the third rebellion has a similar dimension to it. In Genesis 12, we are told that Pharaoh’s princes “saw” that Abram’s wife was beautiful and “took” her into the house. A similar construction is used in Genesis 6:1-4, where the “sons of God saw that the daughters of Man were good” and took “as many as they chose.” Yet in Genesis 12 Abram attempts to protect Sarai from Pharaoh’s lust- in Genesis 6 this alliance appears to be freely entered into. We also see that the subject of the fall of Genesis 6 is not primarily that of the sons of God. Rather, observe the beginning of the passage: “When Man began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them…” (Genesis 6:1). The daughters are born in the house of their father, but are freely given up to the predatory beings on the heavenly council.
We see an analogy between this and the commandment in Leviticus 18:21- “You shall not give any of your seed to offer them to Molech, and so profane the Name of your God.” In Genesis 3, Man was expelled from the place in which he had access to the court of God- and immortality. It is through immortality that one’s name is rendered perpetual. Human pride is cut off by the inescapable presence of death.
Thus, we might hypothesize that a key dimension of the rebellion described in Genesis 6 was that Man sought a back-way into access of the Tree of Life. God and His servants would not offer them the fruit- but there were other powers in heaven with whom one might consort. And so, in a desperate bid to acquire immortality without God, the children of Adam gave up their daughters in marriage to the sons of God. All of this will be developed further, in more detail, in other posts and videos on the subject of Genesis 6. With the recognition that Genesis 11 is the third slot of a three-fall pattern in Genesis 9-11 that parallels Genesis 3-6, we can make some inferences about the nature of the tower. Just as Genesis 6 describes an illicit union between heaven and earth in an effort to render eternal the “name” with which man was created, so also does Genesis 11. The tower is meant to breach the heavens and so secure Man (or more accurately- a specific man) a place in eternity. As always is the case, rebellious mankind seeks self-exaltation, and satan presents his collaboration as unto the benefit of mankind. Outright diabolical religion is rare. More typically, diabolism presents as a crude self-worship.
This provides what I believe to be crucial insight into the origin of the pantheons of antiquity (I owe a great deal of debt to Kenneth Griffith for alerting me to many of these threads). In his Histories (I.13.1), Diodorus gives an account derived from priestly documents in the temples of Egypt. He identifies the major deities of the cross-cultural pantheon as having begun as mortals- ruling over the nations for a period of time and founding temples to their name. We read in the Book of Enoch that the rebels among the heavenly powers were the first to instruct mankind in the occult. And the Egyptians were famous for the complex network of occultic rituals designed to facilitate the immortality of one enclosed within a temple complex. Some of the early pioneers of this practice were Nimrod and his relatives- the ringleaders of the Babel project. Genesis 10:8-12 tells us that Nimrod took up the kingship of Assyria after the dispersion from Babylon. And we see in this text the names of cities famous in the early history of Mesopotamian antiquity: Babylon, Uruk, Akkad.
Nimrod’s Babel project launched the history of the world after the flood in earnest. The fragments of his original empire were consecrated to self-worship, and even after his body was reduced to dust, his name endured within the temples that he had established to himself. But the devils never follow through on their covenants. Nimrod went down to Sheol, but the devils who had inspired him went to live in his temples. The worship that he had intended for himself went instead to them. The sacrificial energy he wished to feed his spirit in the eternities instead fed them. He became dust, and the serpent ate his dust. We will consider the meaning of Biblical and ancient history further in future posts, and we will see the role that the Assyrian state and Babylon played in the days following their establishment by Nimrod.
According to the pagan sources quoted by Eusebius, the tower was built by giants, of whom Nimrod was one.
It is also connected with the attempt to take over the role of the firstborn, Shem. Wordplay on Shem's name is all throughout the chapter. Shem, the priest-king later with the throne name of Melchizedek, adores the true God. But they will make their own shem. They reject his leadership.