![]() ![]() The tradition that the tower was a ziggurat (a stepped pyramid usually built of fired brick) is not supported by the Biblical text, but if true could also be used to date the tower. Its location near Babylon was not inhabited until around 5000 BCE, but its construction out of baked bricks and asphalt (tar) can be compared with our knowledge of archaeology and architectural history to date it no earlier than 3000 BCE (the approximate origin of baked bricks), far too late to be the origin of the world's languages. (There may well be much older language families that never evolved a writing system and for which we have no evidence.)Įven if we reject the Biblical chronology and consider what the Bible says about the tower's construction, we arrive at an approximate date far too late for proto-Afroasiatic. Spoken language long precedes writing, and the oldest known language family appears to be Afroasiatic, which according to most linguists originated around 12,000-18,000 years ago (10,000 to 16,000 BCE), based on the earliest attested texts in its descendants (Akkadian and Egyptian) and what we know about the rates of change of languages. 2400 BCE, while the Harappan or Indus Script, as yet undeciphered but possibly Dravidian, is dated by some as early as 3500 BCE. 2690 BCE, Sumerian is recorded in the 26th century BCE, and Canaanite, Eblanite, and Akkadian all c. ![]() This puts it perhaps in the 23rd century BCE other Young Earth Creationist calculations are similar. If we accept (for sake of argument) James Ussher's dating of the Flood to 2349 BC, the Tower must be later, allowing time for the birth of enough people to build it and a sophisticated society to feed and organise them. The Bible puts the tower shortly after the Great Flood, although the chronological relationship isn't obvious: it's not tied in with the surrounding story, almost as if it was a myth from elsewhere dropped in to break up Genesis's tedious genealogies. There are various alternative ways of dating when the tower was allegedly built, but none supports the myth of the tower as the origin of linguistic diversity: it is far too late. The story appears to have parallels with the ancient Sumerian text Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, composed around the 21st century BCE hence the Biblical account may be derived from the Sumerian myth, or they may both have a common source. ![]() In any event, even if a common origin could be found, this would not support any particular language origin myth and we can conclude that linguistics provides no evidence for the Tower of Babel.ĭespite the absence of any evidence in the text, traditional sources often identify the minor Old Testament figure Nimrod as the architect of the Tower of Babel. While some linguists and anthropologists theorize a common original language, others suggest many independently-created languages. However, there is no evidence for a common origin of language, because writing originated much later than speech and individual languages change at too high a rate for common features to be preserved (there are attempts to find a common language via comparative linguistics, but such procedures often veer into pseudolinguistics). Some Christians attempt to justify it on the basis that a few fringe linguists have posited that all human languages are related. This is a plausible basis for the physical description of the tower, but modern linguistics has rendered supernatural explanations of linguistic diversity unnecessary, much as modern biology has eliminated the need for a supernatural explanation for the origin of species. Some biblical scholars believe that the tower myth was based on the ziggurats found in Mesopotamia, as seen in artistic impressions of the tower. The Tower of Babel as an explanation for the origins of languages is considered absurd by everyone except biblical literalists. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 9 That is why it was called Babel-because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."ġ1:8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 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. 4 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."ġ1:5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. “ ” 11:3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ![]()
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