Tower of Babel
From Zeugma
The Tower of Babel appears in Chapter 11 in the book of Genesis. The story goes as follows: Early on in Man's existence, before the people had separated and diversified their languages and customs, mankind gathered in the city of Babel/Babilu (Babylon) after the Flood. To celebrate their accomplishments in humanity, they built a great tower that could reach the heavens. God saw the hubris of man and made it so that man spoke different languages (The Confusion of Languages) and could not understand one another. Then He cast mankind all over the earth as an additional consequence.
The obvious parallel in C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength comes in the form of the N.I.C.E. building. It is a monument to humanity and all secular achievements. Once again, Man has neglected to give credit to God in this work and some impending doom comes about.
Interestingly enough, the tower (which was restored by Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BC) suffered because it was made from mud-baked bricks. Rain eroded the bricks easily and by the time Xerxes conquered Babylon in 478 BC, the Tower was in a deteriorating state. So the tower began and ended with rain.
-ER
A dark metal band of the U.S. with no record label and a few EPs done... but there's still hope for them!! I mean hell Brown Jenkins released a wonderful EP before his debut album... yet to be released April 4th, 2008. More information on this band can be found at... *pauses and stares* WHAT THE HELL!!! THEY REMOVED THE PAGE??? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY FORD WHY???
Well it seems that they're going to have to remain a mystery for now...
<img title="Tower of Babel" src="http://static.metal-archives.com/images/1/4/6/3/14636_logo.jpg" alt="Tower of Babel" />
-CM
<img title="The Tower of Babel" src="http://www.bible-history.com/past/images/tower_of_babel_painting_close.jpg" alt="The Tower of Babel" width="447" height="452" />
(Image from <a href="http://www.bible-history.com">www.bible-history.com</a>)
Tower of Babel: the biblical account
Genesis 11:1-9
(1) Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. (2) As men moed eastward they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. (3) They said to eachother "come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. (4) then they said "come let us build ourselves a city, wih 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. (5) But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men 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 eachother." (8) So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it is called Babel because the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
The story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible is interesting to note that it is essentially the point in time at which different languages and cultures were established. According to this passage, before the building of the tower everyone spoke the same language. It wasn't until after, that God mixed up the languages so they spoke different tongues, and scattered the different people and languages throughout the world.
-(J.S.)
The Tower of Babel is the center piece in a story from The Bible that serves to explain the different nations of the world and their languages. The Tower of Bable was built in Babylon, the first city built after the great flood, and the city of King Nimrod. The tower was built so that the greatest city would have a tower that would touch heaven, but the great tower was built for false religion. God then punished the single language speaking great people of Babylon by confusing the language into many and sending the people to separate nations. This is connected to C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength by the modern Tower of Bable that was built (N.I.C.E.).
-S.Todd
The Tower of Babel is a biblical reference to the tower built by the city of Babylon in an attempt to reach heaven. It's ultimate and inevitable faliure came as the result of a universally known G-d punishing the people of Babylon for embracing a man made religion by making communication amongst them impossible during the tower's erection. The Babylonians were unable to effectively communicate because they all spoke different languages and didn't understand eachother's. Ironic is the fact that the term babel often refers to mumbled, jumbled language that is impossible to understand (which is exactly what occurred during the building of this stairway to heaven).
M. Suponitsky
