History moves in spurts. There are events that take a few years, and much scholarship is devoted to it. The American Civil War, for instance, has hundreds if not thousands of volumes written on it, whereas very little is known and written about the Dark Ages in Europe, a period lasting some five centuries. We do not have even the sources or the resources to know about it.
The Torah also moves in that fashion. The ten generations from Noah to Abraham lasted about 450 years. The previous ten generations, from Adam until Noah, took about 1,500 years. That is a lot of history to squeeze into a few chapters. However, the Torah�s point is not to serve as a history book, but rather as a teaching book � a book that teaches us how to live. The events it discusses in the almost 2,000 year period from Adam to Abraham represent major lessons about life, human nature, the human condition and God�s role in it all. The history from it is an added bonus, so to speak.
The End of Chaos
The Jewish sages describe the 2,000 years from Adam until Abraham as �chaos� � tohu va-vohu (based on Genesis 1:2). The next 2,000 years, from Abraham until the end of the editing of the Mishnah by Rabbi Judah the Prince, are called the �Years of Torah.� The next 2,000 years, which we are now a part of, are called the years of the �Messianic Era,� in which the process of redemption and perfecting the world somehow is advancing.
Consequently, when we talk about Abraham we are talking about the end of the period of the �Years of Chaos.� Even though this era contained many good people, nevertheless civilization generally had no form, no basis of morality; it did not coalesce. When it did, it did so in a negative fashion rather than positively.
The Birth of Tyranny
Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Although they were not pagans, paganism began to dominate the world after the Flood.
Paganism was more than just an ideology. It was the method of tyranny. It was the way by which people controlled other people.
Throughout history, totalitarian governments made the leader of the government a god. In the ancient world, they made him a literal god. Jewish tradition, for instance, relates that Pharaoh claimed he never had to go to the bathroom. That is why Moses always went to see him in the Nile in the morning, because that was when he relieved himself.
There is a book called The Denial of Death by Ernst Becker, a famous Jewish psychiatrist. He explains that the elimination of human waste is God�s constant reminder to us that we are not gods, that we are not immortal.
Paganism was a vehicle for tyranny because by transforming a human being into a god it justified tyranny.
In modern times, too, tyrannies work this way. For instance, Stalin and Lenin were made into gods, in essence. Everywhere you went there were statues and pictures of �Our beloved father.� Hitler, too, of course was god-like in the way the Germans worshiped him. Today, in North Korea, millions of people view Kim Jong II as a god. It runs throughout human history.
The way the Jewish people neutralized this phenomenon was through the institution of the prophets. Jewish kings always had a prophet who stood at their side (and over their shoulder), whispering in their ears, �You know, you may not be right?� The prophet reminded the king that he was responsible to God.
Technology
Today, the word technology brings to mind the latest electronic gadget or advanced weapon system. However, in its essence technology is something more and reflects the long-standing, deep-seated human need to manipulate his environment. There is a curiosity, a drive within us, to improve, invent and create. The human imagination knows no limits.
Who invented technology? Who was the first human being to understand he could manipulate the environment? Jewish tradition offers a marvelous insight. Commenting on the verse that says God made clothes for Adam and Eve, the Midrash says He �clothed� them with the first ideas of technology, i.e. how to create and tame the world. That was the �clothing� that He gave them.
Tradition, for instance, teaches that Adam was the first to make fire. If you can make fire, you can make tools. If you can make tools, you can make other things. The sages say (Avos 5:6) that one of the things that was created before the Sabbath was the first tool.
God equipped human beings with the imagination and creativity to tame the world and make life more physically comfortable.
When Einstein was 12 years old, he imagined what it would be like to ride a beam of light. �If I could ride a beam of light to the end, what would it be like?� he asked himself. And that piece of imagination, he said, sparked in his mind the connection between light and gravity, the Theory of Relativity, etc. That�s imagination a work!
There was a young man in yeshiva who would always say, �Rabbi, if you explain the first line to me, I�ll be able to do the rest myself. I just can�t get past the first line!�
That is how God arranged technology for the human being. He taught us the first line. He gave us the first push and then let human ingenuity take over.
Human beings learn from trial and error, but also from the divine inspiration that lies within us, which is alluded to in the �clothing� God gave to Adam. He gave him the ability to imagine.
That spark is what drove the pursuit of ever-greater technology in the 450 year period after the Flood. Humanity experienced technological breakthroughs unheard of before. They learned how to make bricks and used them to invent ways to build taller buildings. It was a new industry and created new technological opportunities. The Tower of Babel became symbolic of this drive for bigger and better technology � to the point that the people of the time believed that they were challenging God (Genesis 11:4).
Nimrod, the First Tyrant
Together with the explosion of technological advancement in the early generations was the introduction of an idea no less influential upon future civilization: the idea of imperialism � the idea that certain groups have the innate right to conquer and dominate other groups. That idea was first brought to civilization by the great king, Nimrod.
The name Nimrod contains within it the Hebrew word mered, which means �rebellion.� He rebelled against all moral constraints. He not only said that he himself was a god, but that he was the only god.
This Tower of Babel that was built in his time was meant to symbolize his dominance over all civilization. To use a bad pun, the Tower of Babel is a watershed of human history, because with it human history took a different turn. It became a world of individuals seeking empires, a world of people wanting to dominate others. There�s an old, bad joke about the German who ate at a Chinese restaurant and left hungry for power.
That was Nimrod. The Torah describes him as a great hunter. �A great hunter� doesn�t only mean that he hunted animals. He hunted people. He hunted others that he felt were weaker than he. Nimrod was a fearsome warrior, and in his tyranny he brooked no opposition.
Therefore, he was the one that took Abraham and threw him in a furnace, because Abraham was the antithesis of everything that Nimrod stood for. Abraham said that no human being was a god. Abraham said that you had to be caring and hospitable to all people � not domineering. Abraham rejected everything Nimrod represented. Nimrod had no choice but to kill him.
That has always been the method of tyrants: deal with opposition through police truncheons and concentration camps. The miracle of Abraham�s survival is the miracle of the human spirit, of ideas that cannot be crushed.
There is a well-known story about a man named Merle Miller, who wrote a biography of Harry Truman emphasizing how he was basically a moral person (though you don�t get to be President of the United States by reciting 150 psalms a day). A senator from Ohio, Senator Taft, approached him at the beginning of the Cold War, right after the conclusion of the Second World War, when Russia began to expand into Eastern Europe. At that time, the United States was the sole possessor of the atomic bomb. Taft half-jokingly said to Truman, �Mr. President, why don�t you drop a bomb on Moscow now and prevent this long struggle that we�re going to have to be engaged in?�
Truman answered, �If I would not have to meet my Maker, I would accept your advice.�
There is a moral restraint that holds good people back. That is what Abraham represents. Can you imagine if Hitler would have had the atomic bomb? It�s unthinkable. Part of fear over places like Iran and North Korea having nuclear weapons is that there is no moral restraint there. People are not really afraid that India has a bomb.
Nimrod had no moral restraints. At the same time, he wielded the atomic bomb of his day: the new technology. Nimrod possessed the garments of Adam, of the original man, which represent the human spark of imagination and ingenuity that leads to great advances in technology.
The world Abraham was born into, much like our world, was corrupt and on the verge of self-implosion. The 450 year period from Noah to Abraham set the stage for the turning point of civilization, embodied in the person of Abraham, for without him the world would have continued down the path of the unrestrained paganism, technology and imperialism. The moral restraint, which is necessary for humanity to exist, will be legacy provided by Abraham.
The tower of babel (confusion) made of man made bricks prophesying of man trying to get to heaven his way with each speaking in their own tongue, is unfortunately alive and well today as seen in the over 25,000 different Christian denominations
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel (Confusion) because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
It does not say God destroyed the city or the tower in those verses. Does it say it somewhere else?
It also says "and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." which would include putting a man on the moon and ROV's on other planets. "
Let's consider today what was Babylon and its Tower.
What was Babylon?
Babylon was at first a small town which had sprung up by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The Chaldeans were people who lived in southern Babylonia which would be the southern part of Iraq today. The land of the Chaldeans was the southern portion of Babylon or Mesopotamia. It was generally thought to be an area about 400 miles long and 100 miles wide alongside of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The Chaldeans are mentioned multiple times in the Bible in both contexts. For example Abraham?s father Terah was from the city ?Ur of the Chaldeans.? What was the ethnicity of Abraham? The Holy Torah said that He was a Jew. God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans so that Abraham would follow God to the land that God had promised to him and his descendants. This land is the Promised Land/the Holy Land Palestine/Israel. So, according to God?s words/laws, Palestinian territory belongs to Jews.
God used Babylon as His agent of judgment against Israel for their sins of idolatry and rebellion against Him. As prophesied in Scripture, the Jewish people would be allowed to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile. That prophecy was fulfilled in 537 BC, and the Jews were allowed by the Persian King Cyrus to return to Israel and begin rebuilding the Jewish Temple. God had promised through the prophet Jeremiah that He would judge the Babylonians for their sins. And the Babylonian Empire fell to the armies of Persia in 539 BC, once again proving God?s promises to be true. So, the Jews were again allowed to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity just had been prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah. The seventy-year period of the Babylonian captivity is a very important part of Israel?s history. It demonstrates God?s faithfulness to His people Israel and His judgment for sin, and the surety of His promises to SAVE Israel.
What was the Tower of Babel in Babylon?
What happened at the Tower of Babel?
God judged the wicked nations by death during the Flood. After the Flood, God commanded humanity to ?increase in number and fill the earth?. Humanity decided to violate God?s word/laws again and to do the exact opposite, ?Then they said, ?Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth?? Genesis 11:4.
Let? read about it in the Holy Torah:
Genesis 11:1-9
The Tower of Babel
1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
3 Then they said to one another, ?Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.? They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, ?Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.?
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6 And the LORD said, ?Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from 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 ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, 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.
God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel to enforce His command for humanity to spread throughout the entire world. May be during that time God created the different races of humanity at the Tower of Babel causing the changes in their DNA. In actuality, there is only one race-the human race. It is possible that God made genetic changes to humanity to better enable people to survive in different ecologies, such as the darker skin of Africans being better equipped genetically to survive the excessive heat in Africa. Closer inbreeding took place in the different groups of people and in time certain features were emphasized in these different groups.
John, was what the "mother-language"? What do you think?
It is possible that God made genetic changes to humanity to better enable people to survive in different ecologies, such as the darker skin of Africans being better equipped genetically to survive the excessive heat in Africa. :peace: How? This is what we call evolution/adaptation.... Closer inbreeding took place in the different groups of people and in time certain features were emphasized in these different groups.
