The Hubris of Gen. 11

When we read the story of the Tower of Babel, we often speak about the pride that people exhibited in attempting to build a tower "that reaches to heaven." The story is often viewed as an attempt of humanity to storm the gates of heaven and to once again become like God. Indeed, the chiastic structure of the story would seem to support this:

11:1-4- Humanity gathers to build a tower to heaven
11:5- God "comes down" to see the city and the tower
11:6-9- The building up of the humans is ended

This is certainly one way to interpret the hubris exhibited in the story. However, there is also another way of reading the story. In this other interpretation, the hubris is not so much based on a vertical dimension, but rather on a horizontal dimension. In particular, we see in this story a denial of God's verdict to "fill the earth" (1:28; 8:17). In both stories of "creation" (the flood/Noah acts like a recreation story in many respects), God begins the new world with a command to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.

In the Babel story, though, people "found a plain in Shinar and settled there" (v. 1), built a city (v. 4), all with the intent that they would "not be scattered over the face of the whole earth" (v. 4). It is particularly interesting, especially given the chiastic structure, that the last claim humans make before God comes down is that they will avoid being scattered. Similarly, it is intriguing that God's solution really does not center around the tower. The closest we come to dealing with the tower in the second half of the story is God's statement that "nothing they plan will be impossible for them." Otherwise, God seems to be dealing with the problem of the people gathering instead of scattering and filling the earth. Indeed, twice, in verses 8 and 9, God's solution is to "scatter them over all the earth."

Given this interpretation, the story is not simply a tale about humanity's sinful desire to become like God. Rather, it highlights the sinful desire to reject God's commands when it proves more comfortable to do so. To the people of Babel, building a city made perfect sense. It could provide security and a better life, allowing them to "make a name" for themselves. Meanwhile, God's command to "fill the earth" was risky and forced them to face the unknown (similar to the call of Abram to go to an undefined land). Nonetheless, this story also stresses God's sovereignty. Despite human rejection of God's command, God's will shall be accomplished one way or another, in this case by the confusing of languages that forced humans to scatter and separate.