Tag: Genesis 11

Furnaces of Babylon

Posted on by jovial_cynic

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Genesis 11:3 (NIV)

The sages highlighted the bricks of Babel and point us to the bricks of slavery in Egypt. They also point us to the furnaces of Babylon.

There is a rabbinical teaching: “There are no stones in Babylon.” The story of the Tower of Babel is much darker than it first appears.

Now, you might think that this is strange, but it turns out that the rabbis weren’t simply giving us a metaphor or esoteric teaching about stones. In fact, the region of Babylonia simply has such few rocks that even pebbles were considered precious.

From the Wikipedia article on Babylonian ancient art:

In addition, the want of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious and led to a high perfection of the art of gem-cutting.

So when Israel was told that they could only make altars from uncut stones (Exodus 20:25), this must have created an ache in the heart of God’s faithful during the Babylonian Exile: no temple, and no stones for altars.

All they had was the scriptures.

In land without stones, the Empire of Babylon grew from their invention of kiln-fired bricks – bricks that were “baked thoroughly,” according to Genesis. In Hebrew, they were “לִשְׂרֵפָ֑ה וְנִשְׂרְפָ֖ה.”

“Burned until burnt.” Totally engulfed with flames.

For the student of the scripture, this should make one’s ears perk up. It was meant to.

Where else have we heard about a furnace —in Babylon— with a fire so hot, the Hebrew word for “burning” is used multiple times to give emphasis?

It’s in Daniel. God’s faithful men were thrown into a giant Babylonian furnace for refusing to bow to the King’s statue.

A furnace meant to product the bricks of slavery. A furnace big enough to be fueled by humanity.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual.
Daniel 3:19 (NIV)

The Tower of Babel, which means “confusion,” provides us with a key to unlock understanding: the bricks of Egypt… the furnaces of Babylon… they both point to slavery. Captivity. And they both provide a starting point.

The darkness of the Egyptian empire. The darkness of the Babylonian empire.

But then God said, “Let there be Light.”

Not the light from the flames of humanity’s furnaces, fueled by our efforts, but the very Light of God, which comes to set His people free.

“There are no stones in Babylon.”

Without a temple and stones to build an altar, God’s people longed for deliverance.

When Abraham was first called away from his Babylonian home, God gave him a Promise, and there he built an altar. With stones.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 12:7 (NIV)

Friend, God calls us away from Babylon, from the place without stones of remembrance, away from reliance on Empire, and away from the furnaces built to consume you.

Abraham and his family departed “Ur of the Chaldeans.”

“Ur” means flames.

God is delivering you from this.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
Genesis 11:31 (NIV)

Shinar

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis 11 mentions Shinar, and it’s the second time we see it in the Scriptures. The first was in the previous chapter. Nimrod built great empires in the land of Shinar.

The writers want you to see something that isn’t plainly obvious in this story. It’s subtle.

As people moved eastward, they found a plain in [a] Shinar and settled there.
Genesis 11:2 (NIV)

The [a] footnote tells us that this is Babylonia.

Babylonia is Nimrod’s Empire:

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar.

Babylonia is the region that housed the great city of Babylon. This isn’t obvious in the text yet, but the translators want to preserve this understanding for you later. This would be the place that the Jews lived during the Babylonian exile.

Babylon is linked to wickedness, captivity, and darkness. It’s the place where Israel was held captive for about 70 years, and it was perhaps during this time that the Jewish sages began refining/organizing their scriptures.

One thing that stands out is how much anti-Babylonian messaging show up in the newly articulated scriptures, starting with “Shinar.”

The meaning of “Shinar” is unclear. It might mean “two Rivers,” or “the land between two rivers,” perhaps referring to the Tigris and Euphrates.

However, the root of Shinar is שער (s’r), which is associated with violence in various forms:

Noun שער (sa’r), means horror.
Verb שער (sa’ar) means to sweep or whirl away, like a storm.
Verb שער (sha’ar) means to break
Adjective שער (sho’ar) means horrid or disgusting

The sages of the Midrash include even more thoughts on this, saying that “Shinar” sounds like “she’ein ne’or,” which means “no one is awake” at night because they have no candles (Midrash HaMevo’ar)

It is a place of darkness.

At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim…
Genesis 14:1 (NIV)

Later, when Shinar is introduced to us again in Genesis 14, we’ll meet Amraphel, the King of Shinar.

Amraphel means “Speaker of Darkness.”

Shinar is the bad place.

The Lord Came Down

Posted on by jovial_cynic

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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.

There’s an amusing quip in Genesis 11 that may have been intentional.

The people of Babel began to build a tower as high as they possibly could, so high it could “reach to the heavens.”

But as high as human ambition can reach, God still has to look DOWN at it.

Adam’s Language

Posted on by jovial_cynic
If Genesis is meant to be read literally, this is a fun thought: Eber, great-grandson of Shem, son of Noah, refused to help with the Tower of Babel, so the Hebrew language didn’t get confused during God’s action on humanity’s languages. Therefore, Hebrew is the same language Adam spoke.

It doesn’t have to be true. But it’s fun!

From the Wikipedia article on the word/name “Eber:”

The 13th-century Muslim historian Abu al-Fida relates a story noting that the patriarch Eber, the great-grandson of Shem, refused to help with the building of the Tower of Babel. As a result, his language was not confused when the tower was abandoned. He and his family alone retained the original Adamic language, which he identified as Hebrew, a language named after ʿEber.

Blessings for All Y’all

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
Genesis 9:1 (NIV)

As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Genesis 9:7 (NIV)

Not only does Genesis 9 start with a blessing, the blessing is repeated in verse 7: “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth.”

Verse 1 says “them,” so it’s clear that it’s plural.

Verse 7 says “as for you,” but in Hebrew, this is the plural “you.” It’s “ya’ll.”

This is important, because Noah individually does *not* go and become fruitful or multiply (unless you’re seeing a pun, and think the grapes that follow are the multiplied fruit!)

God’s blessings are not merely for individuals. They are for community.

For folks who wish to bear children but can’t, this must feel like a curse. To be told “children are God’s blessing” and then not experience it personally must feel like a double-curse: missing out on the blessing and then experiencing the shame of failure.

In scripture, we see this barrenness: Sarai (Genesis 11:30), Rebekah (Genesis 25:21), Rachel (Genesis 29:31) – wives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They’re all barren at first, but God says they will be a great nation.

Why does it start this way? Perhaps this is an echo of Genesis 1:2.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:2 (NIV)

For reasons unknown, Noah does not have any more children with his wife, even though he is included in the “ya’ll” in Genesis 9:7.

Perhaps Noah failed to count the three blessings he already had. Perhaps the wine blurred his vision.

But he was blessed by God. Twice.

And God has blessed you as well, and God intends to make you fruitful and multiply you in ways you may not yet realize. This seems to be the nature of God: blessings and promises. Fruitfulness.

For all ya’ll.