Genesis: 11: Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel (The King James Version)

[LostCause]

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 and it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3. And they said one to another, Go to let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, left we be scattered abroad upon the face ofthe whole earth.

5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restraind from them, which they have imagined to do.

"and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" That sounds good... I have a feeling this is about to backlash.

7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand on another's speech.

Heh. Someone is speaking in the 1st person. Strange... Who is this person talking? Is it god? The god that supposedly wrote this book in the third person?

8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Alright. I thought they'd already scattered... But, now they've scattered more, I suppose and what is "the city"?

9. Therefore is the name of it called Nanel, because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LOD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

10. There are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

11. And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

Didn't he say earlier no man was to live longer than 130 years after some point? After Methuselah?

12. And Arphaxas lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah.

13. And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

14. And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

15. And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

16. And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:

17. And Eber lived after he begat Peled four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

18. And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu.

19. And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

20. And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:

21. And Reu lived after he begat Seruf two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

22. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

23. And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

24. And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

25. And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

26. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Norah, and Haran.

27. Now these are the generations of Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

28. And Haran died before his father Terah, in the land of his nativity, Ur of the Chaldees.

29. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abrams wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milach, and the father of Iscah.



11::29 is a complicated qoute...

30. But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31. And Terah took Abrah, his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abrah,'s wife: and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldess, to go into the land of CanaanL and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

32. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Cheers,

Lost

[Viraljimmy]

A recurrent theme in most, if not all

religions:

Men should not try to do or know

anything beyond their mundane lives,

with the exception that the rulers

(gods) will it to be.

Only god (the rulers) were supposed

to have the secret knowledge.

[Useful idea when maintaining control.]

Then there is the tradition that

kings are descended or otherwise

ordained by the gods, so must be obeyed.

It's all really transparent today;

our political control schemes are much

subtler and more sophisticated now.

Just my (biased ignorant) opinion.

[Hexadecimal]

quote:Originally posted by Viraljimmy:

A recurrent theme in most, if not all

religions:

Men should not try to do or know

anything beyond their mundane lives,

with the exception that the rulers

(gods) will it to be.

Only god (the rulers) were supposed

to have the secret knowledge.

[Useful idea when maintaining control.]

Then there is the tradition that

kings are descended or otherwise

ordained by the gods, so must be obeyed.

It's all really transparent today;

our political control schemes are much

subtler and more sophisticated now.

Just my (biased ignorant) opinion.

Paranoia and such are only bad when it leads to either murder or suicide...extreme skepticism is better than falling in to any possible cults that spring up, eh?

[LostCause]

This chapter confuses me, I think mostly because I know the bible story of the Tower of Babel and I don't see anything that describes that kind of scenario. Not that the story is a very good one, anyways.

Also it's worded very strangely. Does anyone have a more enlightened response to this chapter?

Cheers,

Lost

[ArgonPlasma2000]

I encountered several grammatical errors, not to mention spelling errors. I suppose you compare the text on your computer to the text in the real book.

[LostCause]

Actually, I'm literally copying it out of the book word for word. There may be the occassional spelling/grammatical error on my part, but I type 73wpm with a 1% error rate, so I'm pretty confident there aren't too many errors on my part. However, there seem to be a lot of spelling and grammatical errors in the book itself.

Not surprising considering it was written some 5,000 years ago in another language...

Cheers,

Lost

[ArgonPlasma2000]

Strange, mine doesnt have those errors. I say errors because i have read bunches of them and they dont say Nanel. They say Babel...

[Digital_Savior]

Lost, you can try using http:../../www.gospelcom.net/default.htm instead.

I haven't seen a single grammatical error, and you can pretty much get the Bible in any language you want. *lol*

Keep it in English, though...for the sake of the rest of us baffoons.

[Digital_Savior]

Argon, do you have a point ?