"Christianity: Myths and Legends" excerpt

Because of the topic, I didn't want to come off as some stuffy academic.  I, therefore, tried to come off sounding more like a discussion.  While I did use evidence in my case, I didn't give pages and pages of documentation that would make peoples' eyes glaze over.  For instance, i had someone tell me "you mentioned Pangaea, but you did't spend the time explaining the whole theory."  But I did say what Pangaea was.  I didn't see how a six page discussion of the theory would improve on the discussion.  So, here is the excerpt, for good or bad...

MYTH #6: THE TOWER OF BABEL

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of 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 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime they had for mortar.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, 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.

 There is a slight problem here that most people will not pick up on. I’ll explain it here, but you can pick up a Bible and read chapter ten of Genesis to confirm this. In chapter ten of Genesis, we are given the generations of Noah’s sons. When speaking of descendants, it says, “After their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.” This means they had their own languages, or why would it be mentioned? So either the whole earth was not of one language, or the previous chapter is incorrect, because it says they all had their own languages.
 Where was the city of Babel? This is the location of the city of Babylon. Even biblical scholars will admit so; therefore, this is not in debate. But there is a discrepancy here, because the Bible says that Babel was settled and built by a great grandson of Noah, Nimrod. The problem is that biblical theology places the date of the flood about 2150 BCE; however, Babylon dates back to about 2400 BCE, well before the flood and long before Nimrod would have been born.
 According to classical writers, Babylon’s outer wall circumference was about forty-two miles, making the interior area at about two hundred square miles. The city was said to have contained a number of ziggurats. Ziggurats were temples built round, square, or rectangle. They were built of seven-stepped tiers and said to be gateways for the gods to come to earth. One intact ziggurat is two hundred and ninety-seven feet square at the base, and two hundred and thirty feet tall.
 The Tower of Babel would have been one of these ziggurats, especially since the definitions that exist about the Tower of Babel are identical to ziggurats. And while the Bible does not specify, other sources claim the Tower of Babel was anywhere from seven to eight stories, which is consistent with ziggurats, to as much as eight miles high. Of course, there is no way anyone can convince me that the Tower of Babel was eight miles high, since that would make it significantly taller than the world’s tallest mountain which is only five miles tall.
 According to the Bible, the people were trying to build a tower to reach to heaven. And this is when God decides to confound the people, thus being the reason for different languages, though we showed earlier that the Bible said people already spoke different languages. It is more likely that the story of Babel was borrowed from the Sumerians. Of course, the story is slightly different. The Sumerians had workers from many areas who each spoke their own tongues; therefore, they were trying to build a tower that would restore the common language to the inhabited areas. Further, the ziggurats of Babylon were gateways for the gods. This would reinforce the idea that the story of the Tower of Babel was borrowed.
 It is not all bad though. At least Judaism made an attempt to explain why everyone had their own languages, especially since everyone was supposed to descend from Adam and Eve; therefore, it would be presumed everyone would have the same language. It is obvious that it is not a good explanation; however, considering the time frame, I would say it was the best they could come up with.