Audacity within walls

If walls could talk and narrate some of the most famous of stories which have ever been told. Then lend me your ears for just one moment, this story I will tell while I have magically found myself a voice.

The phrase "Tower of Babel" does not appear in the Bible; it is always referred to as "the city and the tower". The Tower of Babel was located in the plain of Shinar which is most likely in present-day Iraq. In Hebrew, Shinar means the “country of two rivers” which refers to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that flow through Iraq.

There is a story of a people long. long ago, a myth narrative in Genesis 11 (Bible). An origin myth meant to explain why the entire world's peoples learned a harsh lesson. A lesson which explains why you were all made to speak so many different languages.

Legend has it that this story began when a united human race speaking a single language and migrating eastward, came to the land of Shinar. There they agreed to build a city and a tower with its top in the sky. They perhaps sought to reach into Heaven, or as close to it as possible.

"Now the whole earth had one language and used the same words. As they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. (Bitumen is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. In the U.S., it is commonly referred to as asphalt).

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top that reaches to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

Hanging Gardens of Babylon with the Tower in the background.

The Tower of Babel was a very tall structure and it is believed that it was about 4000 feet tall. The Tower was built with brick and mortar and it had a staircase that went all the top.

Yahweh (God, The Creator, The Maker), after observing their city and tower, and noting the depth and audacity of the lowly human race, decided to teach them a life lesson.

The LORD (God) came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech."

A state of utter confusion ensued. My walls were deserted, left undone. Nobody understood the simplest of instructions anymore.

"Joshua bring thou me the bricks, please." John asked.

Poor Joshua scratched his head, completely perplexed as to why he no longer understood what his brother, who only a few minutes ago was speaking with such clarity, was now speaking differently, saying what now seemed like gibberish to his ears.

"What art thou saying Joshua, what is wrong with thee. Art thee all right?"

Both were now absolutely confounded. Certain groups understood each other, others did not. For days they tried to sort things out, but everything turned to utter confusion and eventually, some people who understood each other formed groups and started to leave.

So, the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore, it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused (balal) the language of all the earth, and from there the people travelled east, west, north and south over all the lands.

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.

So as walls, we question the futility of mortal Man/Woman/People kind, being in competition with immortal Gods who are supposedly all powerful. How does simple humanity compete with Gods.

I applaud the invention of such technology as The Internet, man's ability to again connect as one. Encompassing the entire world again in one language. You have superseded, overridden, supplanted and solved the riddle of speaking again in one voice despite the barrier of languages. Making you Gods in your own right.

Conversely, does contraindication of your purpose put humanity in danger of enraging the Gods or God. Do you not fear the eventual intervention of God or Gods, even in myth, that there will be another situation as the scattering, or worse, of an audacious and overly curious people.

Personally, I cheer you on. Go ahead I say. Build your Tower of Babel. You have the choice of the hypothetical, the physical and the literal. You may all be encased within a Matrix or you may really have the option of free will as has always been said.

Impressed are we walls by your progress humans. Make your history, reach for the places beyond the stars and sky. Soon you may surpass the limits of the skies and find your immortality.

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n.b. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and vines, resembling a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks. It was said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq.