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Two notes about Babel:
1) What does it mean to construct a tower to heaven? Traditionally, this has been understood literally: They were trying to build a tower high enough to reach the sky. But were they really that naive? Surely they had climbed mountains and realized that the sky was much higher. If the tower was to be the temple center of the city (the acropolis), then a "tower reaching to heaven" may simply be a way of describing a building that forms a connection point of heaven and earth. Babel's tower is an anti-temple, a false portal to heaven.
2) This leads to the second observation. Babel is built by Shemites who assist Nimrod the hunter, a descendant of Ham, in building Babel (cf Genesis 10:9-10). Shemites throw themselves into a Hamite project. When the temple is built, the relation is reversed. Hiram of Tyre, a Hamite, pitches in to help Solomon. The temple is the anti-Babel, a Shemite project to which Hamites attach themselves.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 08:24 AM
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