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{{Short description|Mythical structure in the Hebrew Bible}}
{{About|the biblical myth}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox building
| name             = Tower of Babel
| native_name      = מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל
| native_name_lang = heb
| height           = See {{section link||Height}}
| image            = Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel (Vienna) - Google Art Project - edited.jpg
| building_type    = [[Tower]]
| caption          = ''[[The Tower of Babel (Bruegel)|The Tower of Babel]]'' by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]] (1563)
| location         = [[Babylon]], [[Iraq]]
}}
The '''Tower of Babel'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|'|b|ei|b|@l}} {{respell|BAY|bəl}}; {{langx|he|מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל|Miḡdal Bāḇel}}; {{langx|grc|Πύργος τῆς Βαβέλ|Pýrgos tês Babél}}; {{langx|la|Turris Babel}}.}} is an [[origin myth]] and [[parable]] in the [[Book of Genesis]] (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of [[Language|different languages]] and cultures.<ref>11:1–9</ref><ref name="Metzger2004">{{Cite book |last1=Metzger |first1=Bruce Manning |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amlXOOaSuLMC |title=The Oxford Guide To People And Places of the Bible |last2=Coogan |first2=Michael D. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-195-17610-0 |page=28 |access-date=22 December 2012}}</ref><ref name="Levenson">{{Cite book |last=Levenson |first=Jon D. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195297515 |title=The Jewish Study Bible |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-195-29751-5 |editor-last=Berlin |editor-first=Adele |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195297515/page/n60 29] |chapter=Genesis: Introduction and Annotations |editor-last2=Brettler |editor-first2=Marc Zvi |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Graves |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4sqWAwAAQBAJ&q=Hebrew+Myths:+The+Book+of+Genesis.+Random+House |title=Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis |last2=Patai |first2=Raphael |publisher=Random House |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-795-33715-4 |page=315}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Schwartz |first1=Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=60iVk1p8Y9IC&q=Tree+of+Souls+%3A+The+Mythology+of+Judaism%3A+The+Mythology+of+Judaism |title=Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism |last2=Loebel-Fried |first2=Caren |last3=Ginsburg |first3=Elliot K. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-195-35870-4 |page=704}}</ref>

According to the story, a united [[Human|human race]] speaking a single language migrates to [[Shinar]] ([[Lower Mesopotamia]]),{{efn|{{langx|he|שִׁנְעָר|Šinʿār|links=no}}; {{langx|grc|Σενναάρ|Sennaár|links=no}}}} where they agree to build a great city with a tower that would reach the sky. [[Yahweh]], observing these efforts and remarking on humanity's power in unity, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other and scatters them around the world, leaving the city unfinished.

Some modern scholars have associated the Tower of Babel with known historical structures and accounts, particularly from ancient Mesopotamia. The most widely attributed inspiration is [[Etemenanki]], a [[ziggurat]] dedicated to the god [[Marduk]] in [[Babylon]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tower of Babel {{!}} Story, Summary, Meaning, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tower-of-Babel |access-date=2024-09-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> which in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] was called ''Babel''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Tower of Babel {{!}} Story, Summary, Meaning, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tower-of-Babel |access-date=2024-09-05 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> A similar story is also found in the ancient [[Sumer]]ian legend, ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]'', which describes events and locations in southern Mesopotamia.<ref name="kramer2">{{Cite news |last=Kramer |first=Samuel Noah |year=1968 |title=The 'Babel of Tongues': A Sumerian Version |work=Journal of the American Oriental Society |pages=108–111 |volume=88 |issue=1}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The phrase "Tower of Babel" does not appear in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] nor elsewhere in the [[Bible]]; it is always "the city and the tower"{{efn|{{langx|he|אֶת הָעִיר וְאֶת הַמִּגְדָּל|ʾeṯ hā-ʿîr wəʾeṯ ha-mmiḡdāl|label=none}}}} or just "the city".{{efn|{{langx|he|הָעִיר|hāʿîr|label=none}}}} The original derivation of the name Babel, which is the Hebrew name for [[Babylon]], is uncertain. The native [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] name of the city was {{tlit|akk|Bāb-ilim}}, meaning 'gate of God'. However, that form and interpretation itself are now usually thought to derive from Akkadian [[folk etymology]] applied to an earlier form of the name, {{tlit|akk|Babilla}}, of unknown meaning and probably non-[[Semitic languages|Semitic]] origin.<ref name="Day2014">{{cite book|first=John|last=Day|title=From Creation to Babel: Studies in Genesis 1–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtveBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA180|date=2014|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-0-567-37030-3|pages=179–180}}</ref><ref>Dietz Otto Edzard: ''Geschichte Mesopotamiens. Von den Sumerern bis zu Alexander dem Großen'', Beck, München 2004, p. 121.</ref>

Per the story in Genesis, the city received the name "Babel" from the Hebrew verb {{Transliteration|he|bālal}},{{efn|{{lang|he|בָּלַל}}}} meaning to jumble or to confuse, after Yahweh distorted the common language of humankind.<ref name="Mckenzie1995">{{cite book|author=John L. Mckenzie|title=The Dictionary of the Bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aE7EyQ_HQAMC&pg=PA73|date=1995|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-684-81913-6|page=73}}</ref> According to ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', this reflects [[word play]] due to the Hebrew terms for Babylon and "to confuse" having similar pronunciation.<ref name=":0" />

== Analysis ==
[[File:Meister der Weltenchronik 001.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Late medieval German depiction of the Tower being constructed, from a manuscript of [[Rudolf von Ems]]' ''{{lang|de|Weltchronik}}'', cgm 5 fol. 29r ({{c.|1370s}})]]

=== Genre ===
The Tower of Babel is a type of myth known as an [[Origin myth|etiology]], which is intended to explain the origin of a custom, ritual, geographical feature, name, or other phenomenon—namely the origins of the multiplicity of languages.<ref name="coogan">{{cite book |last1=Coogan |first1=Michael D. |title=A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: the Hebrew Bible in its Context |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195332728}}</ref>{{rp|426}} The confusion of tongues ({{langx|la|confusio linguarum}}) resulting from the construction of the Tower of Babel accounts for the fragmentation of human languages: God was concerned that humans had blasphemed by building the tower to avoid a second flood and so God brought into existence multiple languages, rendering humanity unable to understand each other.{{r|coogan|page1=51}}

Prior to this event, humanity was stated to speak a single language, although the preceding Genesis 10:5 states that the descendants of [[Japheth]], [[Gomer]], and [[Javan]] dispersed "with their own tongues".<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|10:5|HE}}</ref> [[Augustine of Hippo]] explained this apparent contradiction by arguing that the story "without mentioning it, goes back to tell how it came about that the one language common to all men was broken up into many tongues".<ref name="Louth et al">{{cite book |last1=Louth |first1=Andrew |title=Genesis 1–11; Volume 1 |last2=Oden |first2=Thomas C. |last3=Conti |first3=Marco |date=2001 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=1579582206 |page=164}}</ref> Modern scholarship has traditionally held that the two chapters were written by different sources, the former by the [[Priestly source]] and the latter by the [[Jahwist]]. However, that theory has been debated among scholars in recent years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hiebert |first=Theodore |date=Spring 2007 |title=The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World's Cultures |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |volume=126 |issue=1 |pages=31–32 |doi=10.2307/27638419 |jstor=27638419}}</ref>

=== Themes ===
The story's theme of competition between God and humans appears elsewhere in Genesis, in the story of [[Adam and Eve]] in the [[Garden of Eden]].<ref name="Harris">{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Stephen L.|author-link1=Stephen L. Harris|title=Understanding the Bible: A Reader's Introduction|date=1985|publisher=Mayfield|location=Palo Alto|isbn=9780874846966}}</ref> The first century Jewish interpretation found in [[Flavius Josephus]] explains the construction of the tower as a [[hubris]]tic act of defiance against God ordered by the arrogant tyrant [[Nimrod]].

There have been some contemporary challenges to this classical interpretation, with emphasis placed on the explicit motive of cultural and linguistic homogeneity mentioned in the narrative (11:1, 4, 6); this reading of the text sees God's actions not as a punishment for pride, but as an etiology of [[cultural differences]], presenting Babel as the [[cradle of civilization]].<ref name="hiebert">{{cite journal|last1=Hiebert|first1=Theodore|title=The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World's Cultures|journal=Journal of Biblical Literature|date=2007|volume=126|issue=1|pages=29–58|doi=10.2307/27638419 |jstor=27638419}}</ref>

=== Height ===
The Book of Genesis does not specify the tower's height; the phrase "its top in the sky" (11:4) was an idiom for impressive height, rather than implying arrogance.{{r|hiebert|page1=37}} The [[Book of Jubilees]] 10:21 mentions the tower's height as being 5,433 cubits and 2 palms ({{cvt|2484|m|feet mi|sigfig=3|disp=semicolon}}), about three times the height of [[Burj Khalifa]].

The [[apocrypha]]l [[3 Baruch|Third Apocalypse of Baruch]] mentions that the "tower of strife" reached a height of 463 cubits ({{cvt|211.8|m|ft|sigfig=3|disp=semicolon}}), taller than any structure built [[Timeline of three tallest structures in the world|in human history]] until the construction of the [[Eiffel Tower]] in 1889, which is {{convert|324|m|ft|sigfig=3}} in height.

[[Gregory of Tours]] writing {{circa|594}}, quotes the earlier historian [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]] ({{circa|417}}) as saying the tower was "laid out foursquare on a very level plain. Its wall, made of baked brick cemented with pitch" is 50 cubits in width by 200 cubits in length ({{cvt|23|by|91.5|m|ft|disp=semicolon}}), and 470 [[stadia (length)|stades]] ({{cvt|82.72|km|mi|disp=semicolon}}) in [[circumference]]. A ''stade'' was an ancient Greek unit of length, based on the circumference of a typical sports stadium of the time which was about {{convert|176|m|feet}}.<ref name="engels">Donald Engels (1985). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/295030 The Length of Eratosthenes' Stade]. ''American Journal of Philology'' '''106''' (3): 298–311. {{subscription required}}.</ref> The description continues, "Twenty-five [[gate]]s are situated on each side, which make in all one hundred. The doors of these gates, which are of wonderful size, are cast in bronze. The same historian tells many other tales of this city, and says: 'Although such was the glory of its building still it was conquered and destroyed.{{'"}}<ref>Gregory of Tours, ''History of the Franks'', from the 1916 translation by Earnest Brehaut, Book I, chapter 6. Available online in [http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gregory-hist.asp#book3 abridged form].</ref>

A typical medieval account is given by [[Giovanni Villani]] (1300): He relates that "it measured eighty miles [130&nbsp;km] round, and it was already 4,000 [[paces]] high [{{cvt|5.92|km|mi|2|disp=semicolon}}] and 1,000 paces thick, and each pace is three of our feet."<ref>[http://www.elfinspell.com/VillaniBook1a.html#sect2 Selections from Giovanni's ''Chronicle'' in English].</ref> The 14th-century traveler [[John Mandeville]] also included an account of the tower and reported that its height had been 64 [[furlong]]s ({{cvt|13|km|mi|0|disp=semicolon}}, according to the local inhabitants.

The 17th-century historian [[Verstegan]] provides yet another figure{{snd}}quoting Isidore, he says that the tower was 5,164 paces high ({{cvt|7.6|km|mi|1|disp=semicolon}}), and quoting Josephus that the tower was wider than it was high, more like a mountain than a tower. He also quotes unnamed authors who say that the spiral path was so wide that it contained lodgings for workers and animals, and other authors who claim that the path was wide enough to have fields for growing [[grain]] for the animals used in the construction.

In his book, ''Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down'', [[J. E. Gordon]] considers the height of the Tower of Babel. He wrote, "brick and stone weigh about 120&nbsp;lb per [[cubic foot]] (2,000&nbsp;kg per cubic metre) and the crushing strength of these materials is generally rather better than 6,000&nbsp;lbs per square inch or 40 mega-pascals. Elementary arithmetic shows that a tower with parallel walls could have been built to a height of {{cvt|2.1|km|mi|1}} before the bricks at the bottom were crushed. However, by making the walls taper towards the top they ... could well have been built to a height where the men of Shinnar would run short of oxygen and had difficulty in breathing before the brick walls crushed beneath their own dead weight."

==Composition==
[[File:Hanging Gardens of Babylon.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Hanging Gardens of Babylon]]'' (19th-century illustration), depicts the Tower of Babel in the background.]]

=== Authorship ===
Jewish and Christian tradition attributes the composition of the whole [[Pentateuch]], which includes the story of the Tower of Babel, to [[Moses]]. Modern biblical scholarship rejects Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch but is divided on the question of its authorship. Many scholars subscribe to some form of the [[documentary hypothesis]], which argues that the Pentateuch is composed of multiple "sources" that were later merged. Scholars who favor this hypothesis, such as [[Richard Elliot Friedman]], tend to see Genesis 11:1–9 as being composed by the [[Jahwist|J or Jahwist/Yahwist source]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Richard Elliot |title=Who Wrote the Bible? |date=1997 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-06-063035-3 |page=247}}</ref>

[[Michael Coogan]] suggests that the intentional word play regarding the city of Babel, and the noise of the people's "babbling" is found in the Hebrew words as easily as in English, is considered typical of the Yahwist source.{{r|coogan|page1=51}} [[John Van Seters]], who has put forth substantial modifications to the hypothesis, suggests that these verses are part of what he calls a "Pre-Yahwistic stage".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Van Seters |first1=John |title=Abraham in History and Tradition |date=1975 |publisher=Echo Point Books & Media |isbn=978-1-62654-006-4 |page=313}}</ref> Other scholars reject the documentary hypothesis altogether. The "[[Biblical minimalism|minimalist]]" scholars tend to see the books of Genesis through 2 Kings as written by a single, anonymous author during the [[Hellenistic period#Judea|Hellenistic period]].

=== Historicity ===
Biblical scholars see the Book of Genesis as [[Mythology|mythological]] and not as an historical account of events.<ref>{{harvnb|Levenson|2004|p=11}} "How much history lies behind the story of Genesis? Because the action of the primeval story is not represented as taking place on the plane of ordinary human history and has so many affinities with ancient mythology, it is very far-fetched to speak of its narratives as historical at all."</ref> Genesis is described as beginning with historicized myth and ending with mythicized history.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moye |first1=Richard H. |date=1990 |title=In the Beginning: Myth and History in Genesis and Exodus |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=109 |issue=4 |page=580 |doi=10.2307/3267364 |jstor=3267364}}</ref> Nevertheless, the story of Babel can be interpreted in terms of its context: Elsewhere in Genesis, it is stated that Babel ([[LXX]]: Βαβυλών) formed part of [[Nimrod (king)|Nimrod]]'s kingdom, which is located in Lower Mesopotamia.<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|10:10|HE}}</ref> The Bible does not specifically mention that Nimrod ordered the building of the tower, but many other sources have associated its construction with him.<ref name="JE" /> Genesis 11:9 attributes the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] version of the name, ''Babel'', to the verb ''balal'', which means ''to confuse or confound'' in Hebrew.<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|11:9|HE}}</ref> The first century Roman-Jewish author Flavius Josephus similarly explained that the name was derived from the Hebrew word ''Babel (בבל)'', meaning "confusion".<ref>Josephus, ''Antiquities'', 1.4.3</ref>

== Possible origins ==

=== Etemenanki ===
{{Main|Etemenanki}}
[[File:Etemenanki drawing.gif|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[Etemenanki]]]]

Etemenanki ([[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]: "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth") was the name of a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk in the city of Babylon. It was famously rebuilt by the 6th-century BCE Neo-Babylonian rulers [[Nabopolassar]] and [[Nebuchadnezzar II]], but had fallen into disrepair by the time of [[Alexander the Great]]'s conquests. He managed to move the tiles of the tower to another location, but his death stopped the reconstruction, and it was demolished during the reign of his successor [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochus Soter]]. Greek historian [[Herodotus]] ({{circa|484|425&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}) wrote an account of the ziggurat in his ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', which he called the "Temple of [[Belus (Babylonian)|Zeus Belus]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=Herodotus, the Histories, Book 1, chapter 179 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D179}}</ref>

According to modern scholars, the biblical story of the Tower of Babel was likely influenced by Etemenanki. [[Stephen L. Harris]] proposed this occurred during the [[Babylonian captivity]].<ref name="Harris 2002 50–51">{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Stephen L. |author-link=Stephen L. Harris |title=Understanding the Bible |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7674-2916-0 |pages=50–51}}</ref> [[Isaac Asimov]] speculated that the authors of Genesis 11:1–9<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|11:1-9|HE}}</ref> were inspired by the existence of an apparently incomplete ziggurat at Babylon, and by the phonological similarity between Babylonian ''Bab-ilu'', meaning "gate of God", and the Hebrew word {{tlit|he|balal}}, meaning "mixed", "confused", or "confounded".<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac Asimov |title=Asimov's Guide to the Bible, vol.1: The Old Testament |publisher=[[Avon Books]] |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-380-01032-5 |pages=54–55}}</ref>

=== Mesopotamian analogues ===
There are similar stories to the Tower of Babel. In the [[Mesopotamian religion|Sumerian myth]] ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]'',<ref name="kramer2"/> [[Enmerkar]] of [[Uruk]] is building a massive [[ziggurat]] in [[Eridu]] and demands a tribute of precious materials from [[Aratta]] for its construction, at one point reciting an incantation imploring the god [[Enki]] to restore (or in Kramer's translation, to disrupt) the linguistic unity of the inhabited regions—named as [[Subartu|Shubur]], [[Hamazi]], Sumer, [[Akkadian Empire|Uri-ki]] (Akkad), and the [[Amorites|Martu]] land, "the whole universe, the well-guarded people—may they all address Enlil together in a single language."<ref>"Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta: composite text." ''Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.'' Line [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/c1823.htm#line134 145f.]: an-ki ningin<sub>2</sub>-na ung<sub>3</sub> sang sig<sub>10</sub>-ga den-lil<sub>2</sub>-ra eme 1-am<sub>3</sub> he<sub>2</sub>-en-na-da-ab-dug<sub>4</sub>.</ref>

The [[Eridu Genesis]], an ancient Sumerian [[flood myth]], includes a passage about the unity of human speech before the gods intervened. During the [[Neo-Assyrian period]], a fragmentary text found in [[Nineveh]], from the [[library of Ashurbanipal]] (r. 668–627 BCE), which contains parts of the Eridu Genesis, along with the general interest Ashurbanipal's library had in preserving older traditions, suggest that these stories of language confusion and divine intervention were still relevant during this period.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lambert |first=W. G. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctv18r6rfr |title=Babylonian Creation Myths |date=2013 |publisher=Penn State University Press |isbn=978-1-57506-247-1 |doi=10.5325/j.ctv18r6rfr |jstor=10.5325/j.ctv18r6rfr }}</ref>

This is further evidenced by the Neo-Assyrian divine punishment motif often found in royal inscriptions, which describe the gods punishing nations for their arrogance, particularly through destruction, scattering, or confusion—a theme seen in the Tower of Babel story.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The annals of Sennacherib, by Daniel David Luckenbill ... |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/s2vkr0tw6ph&seq=12 |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Sennacherib's Annals|annals]] of the Neo-Assyrian king [[Sennacherib]] (r. 705–681 BCE), he describes how the gods "confused the plans" of his enemies and scattered their forces, resulting in his victory and the [[Siege of Babylon|destruction of Babylon]] in 689 BCE. These events may have influenced later biblical writers during the [[Babylonian captivity|period of Babylonian captivity]], who viewed the city’s fall as a divine act, reinforcing the idea that Babylon’s pride led to its downfall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frame |first=Grant |title=Babylonia 689-627 B.C: a political history |date=1992 |publisher=Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul |isbn=978-90-6258-069-9 |series=Uitgaven van het Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te İstanbul |location=Istanbul}}</ref>

== Later literature ==
=== Book of Jubilees ===
The [[Book of Jubilees]] contains one of the most detailed accounts found anywhere of the Tower.
{{Blockquote|text=And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height [of a brick] was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 [[cubit]]s and 2 palms, and [the extent of one wall was] thirteen [[Stadion (unit of length)|stades]] [and of the other thirty stades].|source=Jubilees 10:20–21, Charles' 1913 translation}}

=== Pseudo-Philo ===
In [[Pseudo-Philo]], the direction for the building is ascribed not only to Nimrod, who is made prince of the [[Hamites]], but also to [[Joktan]], as prince of the [[Semites]], and to Phenech son of [[Dodanim]], as prince of the [[Japhetite]]s. Twelve men are arrested for refusing to bring bricks, including [[Abraham]], [[Lot (Bible)|Lot]], [[Nahor, son of Terah|Nahor]], and several sons of Joktan. However, Joktan finally saves the twelve from the wrath of the other two princes.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/bap/bap22.htm |title=The Biblical Antiquities of Philo |publisher=SPCK |location=London |date=1917 |translator-first=M. R. |translator-last=James |translator-link=M. R. James| pages=90–94}}</ref>

=== Josephus' ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ===
[[File:Tour de babel.jpeg|thumb|''Tower of Babel'', by [[Lucas van Valckenborch]], 1594, [[Louvre Museum]]]]

The Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, in his ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'' ({{circa|94&nbsp;CE}}), recounted history as found in the [[Hebrew Bible]] and mentioned the Tower of Babel. He wrote that it was Nimrod who had the tower built and that Nimrod was a tyrant who tried to turn the people away from God. In this account, God confused the people rather than destroying them because annihilation with a Flood had not taught them to be godly.<blockquote>
Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into [[tyranny]], seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power... Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of [[bitumen]], that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners <nowiki>[in the Flood]</nowiki>; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion. The [[Sibyl]] also makes mention of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus:—"When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven; but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave everyone a peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon."</blockquote>

=== Greek Apocalypse of Baruch ===
[[Third Apocalypse of Baruch]] (or 3 Baruch, c. 2nd century), one of the [[pseudepigrapha]], describes the just rewards of sinners and the righteous in the afterlife.<ref name="Harris" /> Among the sinners are those who instigated the Tower of Babel. In the account, Baruch is first taken (in a vision) to see the resting place of the souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them." Next he is shown another place, and there, occupying the form of dogs,
{{Blockquote|text=Those who gave counsel to build the tower, for they whom thou seest drove forth multitudes of both men and women, to make bricks; among whom, a woman making bricks was not allowed to be released in the hour of child-birth, but brought forth while she was making bricks, and carried her child in her apron, and continued to make bricks. And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-three cubits. And they took a [[Gimlet (tool)|gimlet]], and sought to pierce the heavens, saying, "Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron." When God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness and confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest.|source=Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, 3:5–8}}

=== Midrash ===
[[Rabbinic literature]] offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its builders. According to one midrash the builders of the Tower, called "the generation of secession" in the Jewish sources, said: "God has no right to choose the upper world for Himself, and to leave the lower world to us; therefore we will build us a tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so that it may appear as if it intended to war with God" ([[Genesis Rabbah|Gen. R.]] [https://archive.org/stream/RabbaGenesis/midrashrabbahgen027557mbp#page/n353/mode/2up xxxviii. 7]; Tan., ed. Buber, Noah, xxvii. et seq.).

The building of the Tower was meant to bid defiance not only to God, but also to Abraham, who exhorted the builders to reverence. The passage mentions that the builders spoke sharp words against God, saying that once every 1,656 years, heaven tottered so that the water poured down upon the earth, therefore they would support it by columns that there might not be another deluge (Gen. R. l.c.; Tan. l.c.; similarly Josephus, "Ant." i. 4, § 2).

Some among that generation even wanted to war against God in heaven (Talmud Sanhedrin 109a). They were encouraged in this undertaking by the notion that arrows that they shot into the sky fell back dripping with blood, so that the people really believed that they could wage war against the inhabitants of the heavens ([[Sefer haYashar (midrash)|Sefer ha-Yashar]], Chapter 9:12–36). According to Josephus and Midrash Pirke R. El. xxiv., it was mainly Nimrod who persuaded his contemporaries to build the Tower, while other rabbinical sources assert, on the contrary, that Nimrod separated from the builders.<ref name="JE" />

According to another midrashic account, one third of the Tower builders were punished by being transformed into semi-demonic creatures and banished into three parallel dimensions, inhabited now by their descendants.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lginzberg/bl-lginzberg-legends-1-4l.htm |title=Legends of the Jews, Volume 1 |first=Louis |last=Ginzberg |author-link=Louis Ginzberg|location=New York |date=1909  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001053501/http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lginzberg/bl-lginzberg-legends-1-4l.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref>

=== Islamic tradition ===
[[File:Turris Babel by Athanasius Kircher.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.9|''[[Turris Babel]]'' from [[Athanasius Kircher]]]]

The [[Quran]] has no story about the Tower of Babel. However, similar stories appear in the [[Qisas al-Anbiya]]. Although variations similar to the biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel exist within Islamic tradition, the central theme of God separating humankind on the basis of language is alien to Islam according to the author [[Yahiya Emerick]]. In Islamic belief, he argues, God created nations to know each other and not to be separated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Emerick |first1=Yahiya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T9OkFB--ScEC&pg=PA108 |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam |date=2002 |publisher=Alpha |isbn=9780028642338 |location=Indianapolis |page=108}}</ref>

In the ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings (book)|History of the Prophets and Kings]]'' by the 9th-century Muslim theologian [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|al-Tabari]], a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, God destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly [[Syriac language|Syriac]], is then confused into 72 languages. A tale about Babel appears more fully in the writings of [[Yaqut al-Hamawi|Yaqut]] (i, 448 f.) and the ''{{Interlanguage link|Lisān al-ʿArab|ar|3=لسان العرب}}'' (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by winds into the plain that was afterward called "Babil", where they were assigned their separate languages by God, and were then scattered again in the same way.  Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, [[Abu al-Fida]] relates the same story, adding that the patriarch [[Eber]] (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in this case, because he would not partake in the building.<ref name="JE">{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Morris |last1=Jastrow |author-link1=Morris Jastrow |first2=Ira Maurice |last2=Price |first3=Marcus |last3=Jastrow |author-link3=Marcus Jastrow |first4=Louis |last4=Ginzberg |author-link4=Louis Ginzberg |author-link5=Duncan Black MacDonald|first5=Duncan B. |last5=MacDonald |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2279-babel-tower-of |title=Babel, Tower of |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |location=New York |date=1906|pages=395–398}}</ref>

===Book of Mormon===
In the [[Book of Mormon]], a man named [[Jared (Book of Mormon)|Jared]] and his family ask God that their language not be confounded at the time of the "great tower". Because of their prayers, God preserves their language and leads them to the [[Valley of Nimrod]]. From there, they travel across the sea to the Americas.<ref>[[Book of Ether|Ether]] {{lds||ether|1|33|38}}</ref>

Despite no mention of the Tower of Babel in the original text of the Book of Mormon, some leaders in [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) assert that the "great tower" was indeed the Tower of Babel – as in the 1981 introduction to the Book of Mormon – despite the chronology of the [[Book of Ether]] aligning more closely with the 21st century BC Sumerian tower temple myth of [[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]] to the goddess [[Innana]].<ref>[[Daniel H. Ludlow]], ''A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon'' p. 117, quoted in [[Church Educational System]] (1996, rev. ed.). [http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/bm-in-sm1996/manualindex.asp ''Book of Mormon Student Manual''] (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), ch. 6.</ref> Church apologists have also supported this connection and argue the reality of the Tower of Babel: "Although there are many in our day who consider the accounts of the Flood and tower of Babel to be fiction, Latter-day Saints affirm their reality."<ref>{{citation |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1998/01/the-flood-and-the-tower-of-babel?lang=eng |title= The Flood and the Tower of Babel |last= Parry |first= Donald W. |author-link= Donald W. Parry |journal= [[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]] |date= January 1998 }}</ref> In either case, the church firmly believes in the factual nature of at least one "great tower" built in the region of ancient Sumer/Assyria/Babylonia.

===Gnosticism===
In [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] tradition recorded in the [[Paraphrase of Shem]], a tower, interpreted as the Tower of Babel, is brought by demons along with the [[Flood myth|great flood]]:

{{blockquote|And he caused the flood, and he destroyed your (Shem's) race, to take the light and to take away from faith. But I proclaimed quickly by the mouth of the demon that a tower come up to be up to the particle of light, which was left in the demons and their race – which was water – that the demon might be protected from the turbulent chaos. And the womb planned these things according to my will, that she might pour forth completely. A tower came to be through the demons. The darkness was disturbed by his loss. He loosened the muscles of the womb. And the demon who was going to enter the tower was protected so that the races might continue to acquire coherence through him.<ref>{{cite book|author1=[[Marvin Meyer]]|author2=[[Willis Barnstone]]|title=The Gnostic Bible|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications|Shambhala]]|chapter=The Paraphrase of Shem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1SEFmwEACAAJ|date= 2009|isbn=9781590306314 |access-date=2022-02-14}}</ref>}}[[File:Confusion of Tongues.png|thumb|upright=.9|''The Confusion of Tongues'' by [[Gustave Doré]], an [[engraving]] depicting the Tower of Babel]]

== Linguistics ==
{{Further|Origin of language|Mythical origins of language}}
For a long time, [[historical linguistics]] wrestled with the idea of a [[Origin of language|single original language]]. In the Middle Ages and down to the 17th century, attempts were made to identify a living descendant of the Adamic language.

===Multiplication of languages===
[[File:Endre Rozsda - La tour de Babel (1958).jpg|thumb|Tower of Babel by [[Endre Rozsda]] (1958)]]

The literal belief that the world's linguistic variety originated with the tower of Babel is [[pseudoscience|pseudolinguistics]] and is contrary to the known facts about the origin and [[History of linguistics|history]] of [[language]]s.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert T. |last=Pennock |title=Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism |publisher=Bradford Books |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aC1OccYnX0sC&q=Tower+of+Babel:+The+Evidence+Against+the+New+Creationism|isbn=9780262661652 }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}}

In the biblical introduction of the Tower of Babel account, in Genesis 11:1,<ref>{{Bibleverse||Genesis|11:1|HE}}</ref> it is said that everyone on Earth spoke the same language, but this is inconsistent with the biblical description of the post-Noahic world described in Genesis 10:5,<ref>{{Bibleverse||Genesis|10:5|HE}}</ref> where it is said that the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth gave rise to different nations, each with their own language.<ref name="Levenson" />{{rp|26}}

There have also been a number of traditions around the world that describe a divine confusion of the one original language into several, albeit without any tower. Aside from the Ancient Greek myth that [[Hermes]] confused the languages, causing [[Zeus]] to give his throne to [[Phoroneus]], Frazer specifically mentions such accounts among the Wasania of [[Kenya]], the Kacha [[Naga people]] of Assam, the inhabitants of [[Encounter Bay]] in Australia, the [[Maidu]] of California, the [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]] of Alaska, and the [[K'iche' people|K'iche' Maya]] of Guatemala.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frazer|first1=James George|author-link1=James George Frazer|title=Folk-lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law|date=1919|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|page=384|url=https://archive.org/stream/folkloreinoldte00frazgoog#page/n402/mode/2up}}</ref>

The [[Estonia]]n myth of "the Cooking of Languages"<ref>Kohl, ''Reisen in die 'Ostseeprovinzen'', ii. 251–255</ref> has also been compared.

During the Middle Ages, the [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew language]] was widely considered the language used by God to address [[Adam]] in [[Paradise]], and by Adam as lawgiver (the [[Adamic language]]) by various Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholastics.

[[Dante Alighieri]] addresses the topic in his ''[[De vulgari eloquentia]]'' (1302–1305). He argues that the Adamic language is of divine origin and therefore unchangeable.<ref name="Mazzocco2">{{cite book |last1=Mazzocco |first1=Angelo |title=Linguistic Theories in Dante and the Humanists |publisher=Brill |year=1993 |isbn=978-90-04-09702-5 |pages=159–181}}</ref>

In his ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' (c. 1308–1320), however, Dante changes his view to another that treats the Adamic language as the product of Adam.<ref name="Mazzocco2" /> This had the consequence that it could no longer be regarded as immutable, and hence Hebrew could not be regarded as identical with the language of Paradise. Dante concludes (''Paradiso'' XXVI) that Hebrew is a derivative of the language of Adam. In particular, the chief Hebrew name for God in scholastic tradition, ''[[El (god)|El]]'', must be derived of a different Adamic name for God, which Dante gives as ''[[Close front unrounded vowel|I]]''.<ref name="Mazzocco2" />

Before the acceptance of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] [[language family]], these languages were considered to be "[[Japhetic|Japhetite]]" by some authors (e.g., [[Rasmus Rask]] in 1815; see [[Indo-European studies]]). Beginning in Renaissance Europe, priority over Hebrew was claimed for the alleged Japhetic languages, which were supposedly never corrupted because their speakers had not participated in the construction of the Tower of Babel. Among the candidates for a living descendant of the Adamic language were: [[Goidelic languages|Gaelic]] (see ''[[Auraicept na n-Éces]]''); [[Tuscan language|Tuscan]] ([[Giovanni Battista Gelli]], 1542, [[Pier Francesco Giambullari]], 1564); [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ([[Goropius Becanus]], 1569, [[Abraham Mylius]], 1612); [[Swedish language|Swedish]] ([[Olaus Rudbeck]], 1675); [[German language|German]] ([[Georg Philipp Harsdorffer|Georg Philipp Harsdörffer]], 1641, [[Justus Georg Schottel|Schottel]], 1641). The Swedish physician [[Andreas Kempe]] wrote a satirical tract in 1688, where he made fun of the contest between the European nationalists to claim their native tongue as the Adamic language. Caricaturing the attempts by the Swede Olaus Rudbeck to pronounce Swedish the original language of mankind, Kempe wrote a scathing [[parody]] where Adam spoke [[Danish language|Danish]], God spoke Swedish, and the serpent [[French language|French]].<ref>[[Maurice Olender|Olender, Maurice]] (1992). ''The Languages of Paradise: Race, Religion, and Philology in the Nineteenth Century''. Trans. [[Arthur Goldhammer]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0-674-51052-6}}.</ref>

The primacy of Hebrew was still defended by some authors until the emergence of modern linguistics in the second half of the 18th century, e.g. by {{Interlanguage link|Pierre Besnier|fr}} (1648–1705) in ''A philosophicall essay for the reunion of the languages, or, the art of knowing all by the mastery of one'' (1675) and by Gottfried Hensel (1687–1767) in his ''[[Synopsis Universae Philologiae]]'' (1741).

===Enumeration of scattered languages===
There are several mediaeval historiographic accounts that attempt to make an enumeration of the languages scattered at the Tower of Babel. Because a count of all the [[sons of Noah|descendants of Noah]] listed by name in chapter 10 of Genesis ([[Septuagint|LXX]]) provides 15 names for Japheth's descendants, 30 for Ham's, and 27 for Shem's, these figures became established as the 72 languages resulting from the confusion at Babel—although the exact listing of these languages changed over time. (The LXX Bible has two additional names, Elisa and Cainan, not found in the Masoretic text of this chapter, so early rabbinic traditions, such as the ''Mishna'', speak instead of "70 languages".) Some of the earliest sources for 72 (sometimes 73) languages are the 2nd-century Christian writers [[Clement of Alexandria]] (''[[Stromata]]'' I, 21) and [[Hippolytus of Rome]] (''On the Psalms'' 9); it is repeated in the [[Syriac language|Syriac]] book ''[[Cave of Treasures]]'' ({{circa|350&nbsp;CE}}), [[Epiphanius of Salamis]]' ''[[Panarion]]'' ({{circa|375}}) and [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]]'s ''[[City of God (book)|The City of God]]'' 16.6 ({{circa|410}}). The chronicles attributed to Hippolytus ({{circa|234}}) contain one of the first attempts to list each of the 72 peoples who were believed to have spoken these languages.

[[Isidore of Seville]] in his ''[[Etymologiae]]'' ({{circa|600}}) mentions the number of 72; however, his list of names from the Bible drops the sons of Joktan and substitutes the sons of Abraham and Lot, resulting in only about 56 names total; he then appends a list of some of the nations known in his own day, such as the [[Longobards]] and the [[Franks]]. This listing was to prove quite influential on later accounts that made the Lombards and Franks themselves into descendants of eponymous grandsons of Japheth, e.g. the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' ({{circa|833}}), ''[[The Meadows of Gold]]'' by [[Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī|al Masudi]] ({{circa|947}}) and ''[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (al-Bakrī)|Book of Roads and Kingdoms]]'' by [[al-Bakri]] (1068), the 11th-century ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'', and the midrashic compilations ''[[Yosippon]]'' ({{circa|950}}), ''[[Chronicles of Jerahmeel]]'', and ''[[Sefer haYashar (midrash)|Sefer haYashar]]''.

Other sources that mention 72 (or 70) languages scattered from Babel are the [[Old Irish]] poem ''Cu cen mathair'' by [[Luccreth moccu Chiara]] ({{circa|600}}); the Irish monastic work ''[[Auraicept na n-Éces]]''; ''[[History of the Prophets and Kings]]'' by the Persian historian [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari]] ({{circa|915}}); the Anglo-Saxon dialogue ''[[Solomon and Saturn]]''; the Russian ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' ({{circa|1113}}); the Jewish [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] work ''[[Bahir]]'' (1174); the ''[[Prose Edda]]'' of [[Snorri Sturluson]] ({{circa|1200}}); the [[Syriac language|Syriac]] ''[[Book of the Bee]]'' ({{circa|1221}}); the ''[[Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum]]'' ({{circa|1284}}; mentions 22 for Shem, 31 for Ham and 17 for Japheth for a total of 70); [[Giovanni Villani|Villani]]'s 1300 account; and the rabbinic ''[[Midrash ha-Gadol]]'' (14th century). Villani adds that it "was begun 700 years after the Flood, and there were 2,354 years from the beginning of the world to the confusion of the Tower of Babel. And we find that they were 107 years working at it; and men lived long in those times". According to the ''Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum'', however, the project was begun only 200 years following the Deluge.

The tradition of 72 languages persisted into later times. Both [[José de Acosta]] in his 1576 treatise ''De procuranda indorum salute'', and [[António Vieira]] a century later in his ''Sermão da Epifania'', expressed amazement at how much this 'number of tongues' could be surpassed, there being hundreds of mutually unintelligible languages indigenous only to Peru and Brazil.

==Comparable myths==
{{See also|Comparative mythology|Mythical origins of language}}

=== Greco-Roman parallel ===
[[File:Foster Bible Pictures 0005-1.jpg|thumb|Building of Babel]]
In [[Greek mythology]], much of which was adopted by the [[Roman mythology|Romans]], there is a myth referred to as the [[Giants (Greek mythology)#The Gigantomachy|Gigantomachy]], the battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. In [[Ovid]]'s telling of the myth, the Giants attempt to reach the gods in heaven by stacking mountains, but are repelled by [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]'s thunderbolts. A.S. Kline translates Ovid's ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 1.151–155 as:<ref>{{cite web |title=Metamorphoses (Kline) 1, the Ovid Collection, Univ. Of Virginia E-Text Center |url=https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph.htm#488381096}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=Rendering the heights of heaven no safer than the earth, they say the giants attempted to take the Celestial kingdom, piling mountains up to the distant stars. Then the all-powerful father of the gods hurled his bolt of lightning, fractured Olympus and threw Mount Pelion down from Ossa below.}}

=== Mexico ===
Various traditions similar to that of the tower of Babel are found in Latin America. Some writers{{Who|date=October 2017}} connected the [[Great Pyramid of Cholula]] to the Tower of Babel. The [[Dominican friar]] [[Diego Durán]] (1537–1588) reported hearing an account about the pyramid from a hundred-year-old priest at Cholula, shortly after the [[conquest of the Aztec Empire]]. He wrote that he was told when the light of the Sun first appeared upon the land, giants appeared and set off in search of the Sun. Not finding it, they built a tower to reach the sky. An angered God of the Heavens called upon the inhabitants of the sky, who destroyed the tower and scattered its inhabitants. The story was not related to either a flood or the confusion of languages, although Frazer connects its construction and the scattering of the giants with the Tower of Babel.<ref name="Frazer, 1918 p. 5">{{cite book |last1=Frazer |first1=James George |author-link1=James George Frazer |url=https://archive.org/stream/folkloreinoldte00frazgoog#page/n380/mode/2up |title=Folk-lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law |date=1919 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |pages=362–387}}</ref>

Another story, attributed by the native historian [[Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl]] (c. 1565–1648) to the ancient [[Toltecs]], states that after men had multiplied following a great deluge, they erected a tall ''zacuali'' or tower, to preserve themselves in the event of a second deluge. However, their languages were confounded and they went to separate parts of the Earth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl |url=http://letras-uruguay.espaciolatino.com/aaa/cervantes_javier/fernando_de_alva.htm#_ftnref4 |access-date=2018-10-24 |website=letras-uruguay.espaciolatino.com}}</ref>

===Arizona===
Still another story, attributed to the [[Tohono O'odham people]], holds that [[Montezuma (mythology)|Montezuma]] escaped a great flood, then became wicked and attempted to build a house reaching to heaven, but the Great Spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts.<ref>[[Hubert Howe Bancroft|Bancroft]], vol. 3, p.&nbsp;76.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Farish |first=Thomas Edwin |url=http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/hav7/body.1_div.17.html |title=History of Arizona, Volume VII |date=1918 |location=Phoenix |pages=309–310 |access-date=5 March 2014}}</ref>

===Nepal===
Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been reported among the [[Tharu people|Tharu]] of [[Nepal]] and northern [[India]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beverley |first1=H. |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.94529/2015.94529.Report-On-The-Census-Of-Bengal1872#page/n207/mode/2up |title=Report on the Census of Bengal |date=1872 |publisher=Bengal Secretariat Press |location=Calcutta |page=160}}</ref>{{explain|date=March 2020}}

===Botswana===
According to [[David Livingstone]], the people he met living near [[Lake Ngami]] in 1849 had such a tradition, but with the builders' heads getting "cracked by the fall of the scaffolding".<ref name="Livingstone1858">{{cite book |author=David Livingstone |url=https://archive.org/details/missionarytrave01livigoog |title=Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa |publisher=Harper & Brothers |year=1858 |page=[https://archive.org/details/missionarytrave01livigoog/page/n601 567]}}</ref>

===Other traditions===
In his 1918 book, ''[[Folklore in the Old Testament Studies in Comparative Religion Legend and Law|Folklore in the Old Testament]]'', Scottish social anthropologist Sir [[James George Frazer]] documented similarities between Old Testament stories, such as the Flood, and indigenous legends around the world. He identified Livingston's account with a tale found in [[Lozi mythology]], wherein the wicked men build a tower of masts to pursue the Creator-God, Nyambe, who has fled to Heaven on a spider-web, but the men perish when the masts collapse. He further relates similar tales of the [[Ashanti people|Ashanti]] that substitute a pile of porridge pestles for the masts. Frazer moreover cites such legends found among the [[Kongo people]], as well as in [[Tanzania]], where the men stack poles or trees in a failed attempt to reach the Moon.<ref name="Frazer, 1918 p. 5" /> He further cited the [[Karbi people|Karbi]] and [[Kuki people]] of [[Assam]] as having a similar story. The traditions of the [[Karen people]] of [[Myanmar]], which Frazer considered to show clear 'Abrahamic' influence, also relate that their ancestors migrated there following the abandonment of a great [[pagoda]] in the land of the [[Karenni people|Karenni]] 30 generations from Adam, when the languages were confused and the Karen separated from the Karenni. He notes yet another version current in the [[Admiralty Islands]], where mankind's languages are confused following a failed attempt to build houses reaching to heaven.

==In popular culture==
* The "Babel fish" is a fictional fish in [[Douglas Adams]]' novel [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel)|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]], which can be placed in someone's ear for them to instantly understand anything said to them in any form of language. [[Yahoo!|Yahoo]] used this as a base for their "[[Babel Fish (website)|Yahoo! Babel Fish]]" online translation service.
* [[Pieter Brueghel the Elder|Pieter Brueghel]]'s influential portrayal is based on the [[Colosseum]] in Rome, while later conical depictions of the tower (as depicted in Doré's illustration) resemble much later Muslim towers observed by 19th-century explorers in the area, notably the [[Great Mosque of Samarra|Minaret of Samarra]]. [[M.C. Escher]] depicts a more stylized geometrical structure in [[Tower of Babel (M. C. Escher)|his woodcut]] representing the story.
* The composer [[Anton Rubinstein]] wrote an opera based on the story ''[[Der Thurm zu Babel]]''.
* American choreographer [[Adam Darius]] staged a multilingual theatrical interpretation of ''The Tower of Babel'' in 1993 at the [[Institute of Contemporary Arts|ICA]] in London.
* [[Fritz Lang]]'s 1927 film ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', in a flashback, plays upon themes of lack of communication between the designers of the tower and the workers who are constructing it. The short scene states how the words used to glorify the tower's construction by its designers took on totally different, oppressive meanings to the workers. This led to its destruction as they rose up against the designers because of the insufferable working conditions. The appearance of the tower was modeled after [[The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)|Brueghel's 1563 painting]].<ref name="Bukatman">{{cite book |last=Bukatman |first=Scott |title=Blade Runner |url=https://archive.org/details/bladerunnerbfimo00buka |url-access=limited |location=London |publisher=British Film Institute |date=1997 |isbn= 0-85170-623-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bladerunnerbfimo00buka/page/n35 62]–63}}</ref>
*The Tower's story is replicated in the 1966 [[epic film]] ''[[The Bible: In the Beginning...]]''.
* The political philosopher [[Michael Oakeshott]] surveyed historic variations of the Tower of Babel in different cultures<ref name="Worthington 2016 p. 121">{{cite book |last=Worthington |first=G. |title=Religious and Poetic Experience in the Thought of Michael Oakeshott |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |series=British Idealist Studies 1: Oakeshott |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-84540-594-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMk0DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT121 |page=121f}}</ref> and produced a modern retelling of his own in his 1983 book, ''On History''.<ref>Reprinted as {{cite book |last=Oakeshott |first=Michael |chapter=The tower of Babel |editor-last=Clarke |editor-first=S.G. |editor-last2=Simpson |editor-first2=E. |title=Anti-Theory in Ethics and Moral Conservatism |publisher=State University of New York Press |series=SUNY Series in Ethical Theory |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-88706-912-3 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xnOMf9Yr0kgC&pg=PA185 |access-date=25 May 2018 |page=185ff |url=https://archive.org/details/antitheoryinethi0000unse |url-access=registration }}</ref> In his retelling, Oakeshott expresses disdain for human willingness to sacrifice individuality, culture, and quality of life for grand collective projects. He attributes this behavior to fascination with novelty, persistent dissatisfaction, greed, and lack of self-reflection.<ref name="Corey 2006 p. 130">{{cite book |last=Corey |first=E. C. |title=Michael Oakeshott on Religion, Aesthetics, and Politics |publisher=University of Missouri Press |series=Eric Voegelin Institute series in political philosophy |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8262-6517-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/michaeloakeshott00core_0 |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/michaeloakeshott00core_0/page/n146 129]–131}}</ref>
* [[A. S. Byatt]]'s novel ''Babel Tower'' (1996) is about the question "whether language can be shared, or, if that turns out to be illusory, how individuals, in talking to each other, fail to understand each other".<ref>{{cite news |first=Andreas |last=Dorschel |title=Ach, Sie waren nicht in Oxford? Antonia S. Byatts Roman "Der Turm zu Babel" |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]] 274|date=25 November 2004 |page=16 |language=de}}</ref>
* Science fiction writer [[Ted Chiang]] wrote a story called "[[Tower of Babylon (story)|Tower of Babylon]]" that imagined a miner's climbing the tower all the way to the top where he meets the vault of heaven.<ref>Joshua Rothman, [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/ted-chiangs-soulful-science-fiction "Ted Chiang's Soulful Science Fiction"], ''The New Yorker'', 2017</ref>
* This biblical episode is dramatized in the Indian television series ''[[Bible Ki Kahaniyan]]'', which aired on [[DD National]] from 1992.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Menon |first1=Ramesh |author-link=Ramesh Menon |title=Bible ki Kahaniyan: Another religious saga on the small screen |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/story/19891115-bible-ki-kahaniyan-another-religious-saga-on-the-small-screen-816711-1989-11-15 |website=[[India Today]] |language=en |date=15 November 1989}}</ref>
* [[Chris Huelsbeck]] has created an orchestral piece titled "Tower of Babel" which appears in ''[[Turrican II: The Final Fight]]''.
* The Tower of Babel appears in the 47th episode of the anime series ''[[Arabian Nights: Sinbad's Adventures]]''.
* In the 1990 Japanese television anime ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]]'', the Tower of Babel is used by the Atlanteans as an interstellar communication device.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thesecretofbluewater.com/note7-i.htm|title=Nadia & Reality |date=13 June 2019|website=Tamaro Forever presents The Secret of Blue Water|access-date=13 June 2019}}</ref> Later in the series, the Neo Atlanteans rebuild the Tower of Babel and use its communication beam as a weapon of mass destruction. Both the original and the rebuilt tower resembles the painting ''Tower of Babel'' by artist [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]].
* Argentinian novelist [[Jorge Luis Borges]] wrote a story called "[[The Library of Babel]]".
* 2017 comic book ''La tour de Bab-El-Oued'' (''The tower of Bab-El-Oued'') from [[Joann Sfar|Sfar]]'s ''[[The Rabbi's Cat (comics)|The Rabbi's Cat]]'' series refers to the Tower of Babel in a context of intercultural conflict and cooperation (Jews and Muslims during the French colonization in Algeria).<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.benzinemag.net/2017/12/15/chat-rabbin-tome-7-tour-de-bab-el-oued-joann-sfar/|title=Le chat du rabbin Tome 7 : La tour de Bab-El-Oued – Joann Sfar|date=15 December 2017|last=Debarnot|first=Eric|magazine=Benzine|language=French}}</ref>
* In the video game ''[[Doshin the Giant]]'', the final monument the island inhabitants can create is called the Tower of Babel,<ref name="KD1">{{ cite book | title=Kyojin no Doshin 1: Koushiki Gaidobukku (Doshin the Giant 1: Official Guide book) for 64DD version | date=2000 | publisher=Nintendo Co., Ltd. | isbn=4-575-16201-9}}</ref> which begins to sink the island. The titular Doshin the Giant then sacrifices himself to save the island.
* The 2023 video game ''[[Chants of Sennaar]]'' is largely inspired by the Tower of Babel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eurogamer.net/chants-of-sennaar-review|title=''Chants of Sennaar'' review – a puzzling linguistic marvel|last=Donlan|first=Christopher|work=[[Eurogamer]]|date=2023-09-12|accessdate=2023-09-13}}</ref>
* The 2006 film ''[[Babel (film)|Babel]]'' interweaves the unfortunate circumstances of a Moroccan, an American, a Mexican, and a Japanese family through a series of miscommunications.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Bible|Judaism|Islam}}
{{Div col}}<!--New inks in alphabetical order please-->
* [[Babylonian astronomy]]
* [[Borsippa]]
* [[Enuma Anu Enlil]]
* [[Eridu]]
* [[Evolutionary linguistics]]
* [[List of tallest structures]]
* [[Minar (Firuzabad)]]
* [[Origin of speech]]
* [[Generations of Noah]]
{{Div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite EB9 |mode=cs2 |last = Sayce |first = Archibald Henry |author-link = Archibald Henry Sayce |wstitle=Babel |volume=3 |ref = {{harvid|''EB'', "Babel"|1878}} |page=178 }}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Babel |volume=3 |ref = {{harvid|''EB'', "Babel"|1911}} |page=91 }}
* {{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia |wstitle=Tower of Babel |volume=15 |first=Anthony John  |last=Maas}}
* {{cite book|chapter=[[s:A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture/VIII. The Tower of Babel|The Tower of Babel]]|title=A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture|year=1910|publisher=B. Herder|first=Friedrich Justus|last=Knecht}}
* {{Citation | author = Pr. Diego Duran | title = Historia Antiqua de la Nueva Espana (Madrid, 1585)}}.
* Ixtilxochitl, Don Ferdinand d'Alva, ''Historia Chichimeca'', 1658
* Lord Kingsborough, ''Antiquities of Mexico, vol. 9''
* H.H. Bancroft, ''Native Races of the Pacific States'' (New York, 1874)
* Klaus Seybold, "Der Turmbau zu Babel: Zur Entstehung von Genesis XI 1–9," ''[[Vetus Testamentum]]'' (1976).
* Samuel Noah Kramer, ''The "Babel of Tongues": A Sumerian Version'', Journal of the American Oriental Society (1968).
* Kyle Dugdale: ''Babel's Present.'' Ed. by Reto Geiser and Tilo Richter, Standpunkte, Basel 2016, {{ISBN|978-3-9523540-8-7}} (''Standpunkte Dokumente'' No. 5).

== External links ==
{{sister project links |wikt=Tower of Babel|commons=Category:Tower of Babel|b=no|n=no|q=Tower of Babel|s=no|v=no|species=no}}
* [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/47421/Tower-of-Babel "Tower of Babel."] Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
* [http://www.towerofbabel.com/sections/tome/babelinbiblia/ Babel In Biblia: The Tower in Ancient Literature by Jim Rovira] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225175424/http://www.towerofbabel.com/sections/tome/babelinbiblia/ |date=25 February 2021 }}
* [http://azure.org.il/article.php?id=536 "The Tower of Babel and the Birth of Nationhood"] by Daniel Gordis at ''Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation''
* [[SkyscraperPage]] – [http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=9362 Tower of Babel], [http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=47329 Tower of Babel – Baruch]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328091916/http://herbarium-art.ru/3/gh-5eng.htm HERBARIUM Art Project. Anatomy of the Tower of Babel. 2010]
* The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor – 1915 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20111007052238/http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
* Easton's Bible Dictionary, M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20111007052238/http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
* Nave Topical Bible, Orville J. Nave, AM., D.D., LL.D. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20111007052238/http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])
* Smith's Bible Dictionary (1896) ([https://web.archive.org/web/20111007052238/http://www.thecorner-stone.org/Bible-Study-Resources/Dictionary/Bible-Word-Compendium/b/Ba/babel-tower-of.php online])

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{{Book of Genesis}}
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