Babel

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Babel

Babel [Heb.,=confused], in the Bible, place where Noah's descendants (who spoke one language) tried to build a tower reaching up to heaven to make a name for themselves. For this presumption the speech of the builders was confused, thus ending the project. The story was perhaps originally an etiological tale explaining the diversity of languages and cultures, but, due to Israel's experience of the exile, now contains significant polemic against the presumption of Babylon, which is Babel in Hebrew.

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Babel, Tower of

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Â© World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Babel, Tower of Tower begun on the plain of Shinar, in Babylonia, by the descendants of Noah as a means of reaching heaven (Genesis 11). God prevented its completion by confusing the speech of the people and scattering them throughout the world. The Genesis story was probably inspired by a ziggurat or staged temple-tower in Babylon, seven storeys high and with a shrine to the god Marduk on its top.

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Babel, Tower of

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Â© The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Babel, Tower of in the Bible, a tower built in an attempt to reach heaven, which God frustrated by confusing the languages of its builders so that they could not understand one another (Genesis 11:1–9). The story was probably inspired by the Babylonian ziggurat, and may be an attempt to explain the existence of different languages.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Babel, Tower of." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 8 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Babel, Tower of." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (November 8, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-BabelTowerof.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Babel, Tower of." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Retrieved November 08, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-BabelTowerof.html

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