The first story that the book of Genesis tells immediately after the story of the Flood is the story of the construction of the Tower of Babel. The sons of Noah became the progenitors of the new humanity, and we talked about this in the last article - which means that humanity was, in fact, one family. This is how the book of Genesis describes it. People understood each other, and could act together, could create something glorious and great.

Then they decided to build a city with a tower up to heaven in order to "make a name for themselves" - in other words, to ascend to heaven with their own efforts, to immortalize their name. The eternal desire of a person - to create or make something that will remain for centuries, will be noticeable even from heaven (by the way, the only people who could do this is the Chinese, their Great Wall is really visible to astronauts).

But, as the book of Genesis ironically narrates, God had to "descend" to see their grand construction. The scale is too different: what seems like a mountain to an ant looks like a small bump to an elephant, and God cannot even see the greatest building of the then humanity from afar. Seeing this great construction, God decided to stop it. Why? Maybe he did not want people to climb to heaven themselves? Or was the construction accompanied by something that had to be stopped? An ancient Jewish legend says: at this construction site, when a brick fell from the upper tier of scaffolding, the builders grieve, because it was difficult to raise a new one to such a height. And when a person fell off the scaffolding, no one worried: the new one would rise up on his own.

This, of course, is a legend, and it does not find any confirmation in the Bible itself, but isn't this what all the great construction projects of all the great totalitarian states look like? It is important to hand over the object on time, glorify your name, and people are consumables ... Even if this legend is inaccurate, it serves as a kind of prediction about totalitarian regimes twentieth century.

Be that as it may, God confused the languages ​​of the builders, and they, having ceased to understand each other, were scattered throughout the earth. After all, this is also the fate of all cruel regimes: they collapse not under the pressure of an external enemy (such pressure, on the contrary, can unite and strengthen them), but as a result of a lack of mutual understanding. One says "give me the solution", and the other thinks that he was told "get out of here." And great construction turns into great absurdity...

You can often hear that the Bible connects the emergence of different languages ​​​​with the Tower of Babel, but this is not entirely true. Just before the story about her, there is a list of the descendants of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth, and already there it is indicated that they became the ancestors different peoples who lived in different countries and speaking in different languages. Although, of course, these references can also be understood in such a way that the diversity of languages ​​arose later, but for some reason it seems to me that it was not connected with the construction of the Tower of Babel and did not serve as a punishment from God. Wouldn't it be nice if there was only one language on the whole earth? This would greatly impoverish mankind.

What then did people lose in the story of the Tower of Babel? Understanding. The Bible says that at that time there was "one language" on the whole earth - perhaps not the only one, but simply commonly understood, like Russian in the USSR or like English in modern international life. It's not bad that we speak different languages ​​(we live in different countries, wear different clothes, hold different views). It is bad when, despite all that, we cannot understand each other. And the greatness of the intentions greatly contributes to this. When people talk about their simple needs, everyone understands everything: everyone wants happiness and well-being for their loved ones. And if we build something grandiose, our tastes and views diverge. Some like an Orthodox autocratic empire, others like a democratic republic, and others like a labor commune. Let's start building - we won't find a common language.

The Bible places this building in the largest political, religious and economic center ancient world- in Babylon. In the language of its inhabitants (Akkadian) it bore the proud name bab-ilu, i.e. "gate of god", but the Bible associates it with the Hebrew verb balal, "to mix". The city, which aspired to be the center of the universe and the gates of the heavenly world, which built huge temples-ziggurats (stepped towers, climbing which the priests seemed to actually ascend to heaven) turned out to be in fact a great mixture of tribes, languages ​​and religions. By the beginning of our era, it fell into complete disrepair, and soon people completely forgot about it, and, until the archaeological excavations of the 19th century, no one knew where this great capital once was.

In the New Testament, the image of Babylon, the great harlot, appears in the last book - the Revelation of John the Theologian. It is often associated with Rome, which at that time became the capital great empire, but it must be said that in world history, more than one city has tried to build another tower to heaven in order to “make a name for itself” (let us recall, for example, the project of the Palace of Soviets with a statue of Lenin on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow). Tellingly, the result has always been about the same. Repeating the words about a single family of peoples, the builders of empires more than once created for this family something that hardly resembled family comfort. But the very idea that humanity was originally one family and may one day become one again, we meet for the first time precisely in the Bible - in the story of Noah, which we talked about in the last article.

The project failed, but the relationship remained.

The Tower of Babel is one of the most prominent structures of Ancient Babylon. It was built more than four thousand years ago, but even today its name is a symbol of confusion and disorder.

The Tower of Babel is dedicated to the biblical tradition, which says that initially there was one language throughout the Earth, people succeeded in their development and learned how to make bricks from baked clay. They decided to build a tower as high as the sky. And when the Lord saw such a tower, towering very high above earth's surface, decided to mix the languages ​​so that the construction would no longer move.

Historians have proven that the biblical legend was about a real structure. The Tower of Babel, called the ziggurat, was actually built in the 2nd millennium BC. e., then it was destroyed many times, and it was rebuilt again. According to modern data, this building was equal in height to a 30-story skyscraper.

The Tower of Babel was a pyramid lined with baked bricks. Each of its tiers had its own specific color. At the top was the sanctuary of the god Marduk, the patron saint of the city. In the corners it was decorated with golden horns - a symbol of fertility. Inside the ziggurat, in the sanctuary on the lower tier, there was a golden statue of Zeus, as well as a golden table and throne. Religious processions ascended the tiers along wide staircases.

The tower rose on the left bank of the Euphrates. It was surrounded by the houses of priests, numerous temple buildings and special buildings for pilgrims who rushed here from all over Babylonia. Herodotus left the only written evidence of a European eyewitness. According to his description, the tower had eight tiers, with the lower one 180 meters wide. However, this statement diverges from modern archeological data.

The ruins and foundation of the tower in Babylon were discovered by the German scientist Robert Koldewey during excavations in 1897-1898. The researcher calls the tower seven-tiered, and the width of the lower tier, in his opinion, is 90 meters. Such discrepancies with Herodotus can be explained by the difference in the 24th century. The tower was rebuilt many times, destroyed and restored. Everyone had their own ziggurat Big City Babylonia, but none of them could compete with the Tower of Babel.

This grandiose building was a shrine not only for the city, but for the entire people who worshiped the deity Marduk. The tower was built under several generations of rulers and required enormous labor and material costs. So, it is known that about 85 thousand bricks were required for its construction. The ziggurat in Babylon has not survived to this day. But the fact that the Tower of Babel described in the Bible really existed on earth is undeniable today.

The descendants of Noah descend to the plain. After the flood, all people spoke the same language, since they were the descendants of Noah alone. Over time, they decided to look for a land more suitable for life and descended from the mountains to a flat plain, which they called Shinar (the meaning of this ancient word scientists have not been able to find out. Shinar is located in the south of Mesopotamia - a country through which two great rivers flow south and flow into the Persian Gulf, the swift Tigris with steep banks and smoothly carrying its muddy waters Euphrates. The ancient Greeks called this country Mesopotamia. [from the words "meso" - between, and "potamos" - a river, hence our words Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia come from, and it is more correct to use the term "Mesopotamia", because we mean here not only the country between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but also adjacent to these rivers from the west and east of the territory].

People are building the first city on earth and a tower. There was no stone in Mesopotamia, and people built their dwellings from clay. The fortress walls and other structures and structures were made of clay, dishes were made of clay, special tablets for writing were made of clay, which replaced books and notebooks for the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia.

Bricks made of clay and air-dried were used for construction. [such a brick is called raw]. But somehow they noticed that a brick that fell into the fire acquires the strength of a stone. The Bible tells how people, having learned how to make baked bricks, decided to build the first city on earth, and in it - a huge tower (pillar), which with its top would reach the sky [let's not forget that the creators of the Bible considered the sky to be solid]. The tower was supposed to glorify the name of the builders and serve as a guide for travelers.

The builders got together, and the work began to boil: some sculpted bricks, others fired them, others brought bricks to the construction site, the fourth built the floors of the tower, which rose higher and higher. Natural asphalt, which in the Bible is called earthen tar, was used to fasten the bricks together. [whole asphalt lakes were in the south of Mesopotamia in those places where oil came to the surface of the earth].

God is mixing people's languages. Seeing a huge tower under construction, God was alarmed that people would really climb into heaven and do something in his own dwelling. He said to himself: “Here is one people, and one language for all; and this is what they began to do, and they will not lag behind what they have decided to do.”

God came down and confused the languages ​​of the people - they stopped understanding each other's speech. Construction could not continue, the tower was abandoned unfinished, and people dispersed from there all over the earth. The city where the tower was built was called Babylon (“mixing”), since God mixed the languages ​​\u200b\u200bthere ...

Once a year, God spends the night in his temple.

Tradition says that once all people spoke the same language. Once they dared to build a tower as high as the heavens, and were punished. The Lord mixed the languages ​​so that people could no longer understand each other. As a result, the tower collapsed.

Archaeologists have found the first evidence of the existence of the Tower of Babel, the first material evidence of the existence of the Tower of Babel has been discovered - an ancient tablet dating back to the 6th century BC. The plate depicts the tower itself and the ruler of Mesopotamia, Nebuchadnezzar II.

The memorial plaque was found almost 100 years ago, but only now scientists have begun to study it. The find became an important proof of the existence of the tower, which, according to biblical history, caused the appearance of different languages ​​on earth.

Scientists suggest that the construction of the biblical tower was started near Nabopolassar during the reign of King Hammural (about 1792-1750 BC). However, the construction was completed only 43 years later, during the time of Nebuchadnezzar (604-562 BC).

Scientists report that the content of the ancient tablet largely coincides with the biblical story. In this regard, the question arose - if the tower actually existed, then how true is the story of the wrath of God, which deprived people of a common language.

Perhaps someday an answer will be found to this question.
Inside the legendary city of Babylon in present-day Iraq are the remains of a huge structure, and ancient records suggest it was the Tower of Babel. For scholars, the tablet offers further evidence that the Tower of Babel was not just a work of fiction. It was a real building in antiquity.

Biblical legend of the Tower of Babel

The biblical legend about how people wanted to build a tower to heaven, and for this they were punished in the form of a division of languages, is better to read in the biblical original:

1. The whole earth had one language and one dialect.
2 Moving out from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 And they said to one another, Let us make bricks and burn them with fire. And they became bricks instead of stones, and earthen tar instead of lime.
4 And they said, Let us build ourselves a city and a tower as high as the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, before we are scattered over the face of all the earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men were building.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not lag behind what they have planned to do;
7 Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other.
8 And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city [and the tower].
9 Therefore a name was given to her: Babylon, for there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over all the earth.

History, construction and description of the Etemenanki ziggurat

Babylon is known for many of its structures. One of the main personalities in the exaltation of this glorious ancient city— Nebuchadnezzar II. It was in his time that the walls of Babylon were built, hanging gardens Semiramis, Ishtar Gate and Procession Road. But this is just the tip of the iceberg - throughout the forty years of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar was engaged in the construction, restoration and decoration of Babylon. He left behind a large text about his work done. We will not dwell on all the points, but it is here that there is a mention of a ziggurat in the city.
This Tower of Babel, which, according to legend, could not be completed due to the fact that the builders began to speak different languages, has another name - Etemenanki, which means the House of the cornerstone of heaven and earth. Archaeologists during excavations were able to find a huge foundation of this building. It turned out to be a ziggurat typical of Mesopotamia (we can also read about the ziggurat in Ur), located at the main temple of Babylon Esagila.

For all the time, the tower was demolished and restored several times. For the first time, a ziggurat was built on this site before Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), but before him it had already been dismantled. The legendary building itself appeared under King Nabupalassar, and his successor Nebuchadnezzar took over the final construction of the peak.

The huge ziggurat was built under the direction of the Assyrian architect Aradahdeshu. It consisted of seven tiers with a total height of about 100 meters. The diameter of the structure was about 90 meters.

At the top of the ziggurat was a shrine covered with traditional Babylonian glazed bricks. The sanctuary was dedicated to the main deity of Babylon - Marduk, and it was for him that a gilded bed and a table were installed here, and gilded horns were fixed at the top of the sanctuary.

At the base of the Tower of Babel in the Lower Temple was a statue of Marduk himself made of pure gold with a total weight of 2.5 tons. About 85 million bricks were used to build the Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon. The tower stood out among all the buildings of the city and created the impression of power and grandeur. The inhabitants of this city sincerely believed in the descent of Marduk to their place on earth and even spoke about this to the famous Herodotus, who visited here in 458 BC (a century and a half after construction).
Image

From the top of the Tower of Babel, another from the neighboring city, Euryminanki in Barsippa, was visible. It is the ruins of this tower for a long time classified as biblical. When Alexander the Great lived in the city, he offered to rebuild the majestic building anew, but his death in 323 BC left the building forever dismantled. In 275, Esagila was restored, but Etemenanki was not rebuilt. Only its foundation and the immortal mention in the texts remained a reminder of the former great building.

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In European painting, the most famous painting on this subject is Pieter Brueghel the Elder's "Babylon Pandemic" (1563). A more stylized geometric structure was depicted by M. Escher in an engraving in 1928.

Literature

The plot of the Tower of Babel has been widely understood in European literature:

  • Franz Kafka wrote a parable on this subject called "The coat of arms of the city" (Emblem of the city)
  • Clive Lewis, The Foulest Might novel
  • Victor Pelevin, novel "Generation P"
  • Neil Stevenson in The Avalanche gives an interesting version of the construction and meaning of the Tower of Babel.

Music

It should be noted that many of the above songs contain the word Babylon in the title, but they do not mention the Tower of Babel.

Theater

Categories:

  • ancient babylon
  • Non-embodied ultra-tall structures
  • Plots of the Old Testament
  • Concepts and terms in the Bible
  • Ziggurat
  • tower of babel
  • Genesis
  • Jewish mythology

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See what the "Tower of Babel" is in other dictionaries:

    And the confusion of languages, two legends about Ancient Babylon (combined in the canonical text of the Bible into a single story): 1) about the construction of the city and the confusion of languages, and 2) about the construction of the tower and the scattering of people. These legends are dated to the "beginning of history" ... ... Encyclopedia of mythology

    TOWER OF BABYLON. Painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. a building that, according to biblical tradition (Genesis 11:1-9), the descendants of Noah erected in the land of Shinar (Babylonia) in order to reach heaven. God, angered by the plan and actions of the builders, ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

    In the Bible, there is a legend dated to the beginning of the history of mankind (after the flood), when they built a city and a tower to heaven (the first great construction of people). If the city was built by settled residents who knew how to burn bricks, then the tower was built by nomads from the East; ... ... Historical dictionary

    TOWER OF BABYLON- the most important episode from the story of ancient mankind in the book. Genesis (11.19). According to the biblical story, the descendants of Noah spoke the same language and settled in the valley of Shinar. Here they began the construction of a city and a tower "as high as the heavens... Orthodox Encyclopedia

    tower of babel- Babylonian pandemonium. Tower of Babel. Painting by P. Brueghel the Elder. 1563. Museum of the History of Art. Vein. Babel. Tower of Babel. Painting by P. Brueghel the Elder. 1563. Museum of the History of Art. Vein. Tower of Babel in ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary"The World History"

    Babel Tower- the most important episode from the story of ancient mankind in the book of Genesis (see Gen. 11, 1-9). According to the biblical story, the descendants of Noah spoke the same language and settled in the valley of Shinar. Here they began the construction of the city and the tower, ... ... Orthodoxy. Dictionary-reference

    tower of babel- Book. About a very tall building, structure. On that day, the ocean gave people a real massacre ... The ether was full of messages about the emergency condition of the ships of many countries. Under the blows, the "Tower of Babel" of our days collapsed, a cyclopean structure, ... ... Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language