Empowered by the Spirit of God, the first Christians were able “to speak in other tongues” (Acts 2:4), and the people who heard them “were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language” (Acts 2:6). Soon after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples, and we celebrate this event every year on the day of Pentecost. Sure, it’s not a direct role, but one of the first stories the Bible tells about the early Church contains some important echoes of this famous event. If we fast forward a few eons to the New Testament, we’ll find that Babel actually plays a key role in the birth of the Church as well.
After that, God began to raise us up little by little, starting with Abraham and his family.īut the importance of this story doesn’t end there. This downward spiral began when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it continued with Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, and then after a few more generations of sin and rebellion against God, the human race reached its low point at Babel. The very next story is the call of Abraham, the beginning of God’s plan of salvation, so the Tower of Babel is the culmination of mankind’s descent into sin. It’s a nice little story, but why is it in Scripture? Is it just meant to warn us against becoming too arrogant, or is there more to it than meets the eye? Well, if we read it in the context of the entire Bible, it’s actually pretty important.įor starters, it comes at a key point in the book of Genesis. As a result, they all went their different ways, and that’s how humanity became divided into different nations (Genesis 11:1-9). In response, God taught them a bit of humility by making them all speak different languages, so they were no longer able to communicate with one another.
They learn that way back in Genesis, the entire human race spoke a single language, and when these people started to let their pride get the best of them, they decided to build a huge tower to make a name for themselves apart from God. Most Catholics kids learn the story of the Tower of Babel at some point in their religious education.
0 kommentar(er)
