God talk and Babel

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Francis Gonsalves [1]

The “tower of Babel” story — often interpreted as God’s curse on humankind — stands tall in the Biblical book of Genesis (11:1-9). The story tells of a time when the whole world had only one language. Thereafter, people schemed “to build a tower with its top in the heavens”. Like the “flood stories” in religious mythology, there are also “tower stories” in African mythology and in ancient Babylonian mythology where, for instance, it was held that temples had their foundations in the underworld, with their tops touching heaven. Genesis rubbishes this idea.
The purpose of building the tower is clear. The people say: “Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the whole earth”. The story continues: “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which mortals had built”. Later, there’s again mention of God’s decision to “go down”. Like the avatars, God’s coming down implies divine intervention.
Bible stories often portray God in down-to-earth terms. God sees, considers and decides: “Let’s confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech”. With God’s decision to scatter the people, the story concludes: “Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth”.
The literal meaning of “Babel” is “gate of God” (see Genesis 28:17); that is, in Babel one is closer to God than anywhere else in the world. However, there’s a play on the words “Babel” and the Hebrew “balal”, meaning, “to confuse”. Interestingly, that’s how we got the word “babble”. And, ironically, the very name that people seek to make for themselves becomes cause for confusion. Striving to reach God’s gate (Babel), they end up scattered and confused (balal). Babel’s confusion seemingly persists in thinkers today who interpret the story diversely.
One way of interpreting the story is to see in it the unrealistic human desire to “be god”. The “name” that people seek is equivalent to “fame”. The human quest to break out of God-imposed limits brings disaster. In Genesis, this is seen at the individual level in Adam and Eve (3:5) and in Babel at the community level. The danger of hubris is very real today, as evidenced in religious chauvinism and militant nationalisms.
The Babel story is confusing because of the ambivalent view of unity and diversity. On the one hand, the scattering abroad seems perfectly consonant with God’s creational intent of filling the earth with people; on the other, such scattering seems to be God’s punishment. Stressing the latter, some thinkers hold that religions use such widely differing terms that they are incommensurable and untranslatable. In other words, interfaith dialogue is impossible.
Another group of thinkers explain that, rather than seeing Babel as signalling the end of communication, it truly heralds its beginning. Put differently, given the fact that God created human beings to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1), God’s intervention at Babel must be seen as “re-creation in separation”. Post-Babel, human beings must remember that they’re not created to go upwards in homogenous, arrogant, self-enclosed “ivory tower” isolation, but to go outwards to encounter the other(s) whom God has created delightfully different.
Babel teaches us that our boast about Hebrew or Latin or Sanskrit being God’s own language is rubbish. Such theories are peddled by priests and pujaris who seek special rights in religious rites. God speaks, and understands, all languages. Thus, Babel discloses that interfaith dialogue flourishes not only through consensus but also by dissensus — meaning, we can evolve God talk in the margins between and among diverse religions.
Babel invites us to be linguistically and religiously hospitable — to welcome apparent “outsiders” into our own linguistic, religious enclaves, and to embark upon encountering others in what could seem “strange” to us. Therein lies the challenge to speak, to reflect, to dialogue and to construct neither another tower of Babel nor tall babble about God, but new worlds where the diversity of languages and religions will unify, not divide.
Anticipating this new world, after Jesus’ resurrection, “All his disciples were filled with God’s Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:4). Then, no one was interested in constructing towers but in creating communities of love. Remember, while towers can be targeted due to adharma, today, true dharma will see us dialoguing with love not only with one another, but also with God — whose loveliest language is love!

— Francis Gonsalves is the principal of the Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. He is involved in interfaith dialogue and peoples’ initiatives for fostering justice, harmony and peace. He can be contacted at fragons@gmail.com [2]