Babel, Tower Of

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BABEL, TOWER OF.—See Tower of Babel.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

(See BABEL; BABYLON.) Bochart (Phaleg, 1:9) records the Jews' tradition that fire from heaven split it through to its foundation. It is curious that the Birs is so rent; hence perhaps arose the Jews' tradition. Alexander Polyhistor said that the four winds blew it down. The Birs Nimrud was probably its site, and gives an idea of its construction, being the best specimen of a Babylonian temple tower. It is an oblong pyramid, in seven receding and successively lessening stages. Lowest is a platform of crude brick, three feet high. The angles face the cardinal points, N.S.E.W. This implies that the temple towers were used as astronomical observatories; which Diodorus expressly states of the temple of Belus. In the third were found two terra cotta cylinders, now in the British Museum, stating that having fallen into decay since it was erected it was repaired by Nebuchadnezzar.
The great pyramid was much higher, being 480 ft. The temple at Warka is of ruder style than the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). The bricks are sun-dried, and of different sizes and shapes. The cement is mud; whereas in the tower of Babel they" burnt them thoroughly," and had bitumen ("slime") "for mortar." The Mugheir temple is exactly such in materials. The writing found in it is assigned to 2300 B.C. The tower of Babel was probably synchronous with Peleg (Gen_10:25) when the earth was divided, somewhat earlier than 2300 B.C. The phrase "whose top (may reach) unto heaven" is a figure for great height (compare Deu_1:28). Abydenus in Eusebius' Praep. Evan. 9:14-15, preserves the Babylonian tradition. "Not long after the flood men were so puffed up with their strength and stature that they began to despise the gods, and labored to erect the tower now called Babylon, intending thereby to settle heaven. But when the winds approached the sky, lo, the gods called in the aid of the winds and overturned the tower.
The ruin is still called Babel, because until this time all men had used the same speech, but now there was sent on them a confusion of diverse tongues." The Greek myth of the giants' war with the gods, and attempt to scale heaven by piling one mountain upon another, is another corrupted form of the same truth. The character of the language in the earliest Babylonian monuments, as far back as 2800 B.C., is remarkably mixed: Turanian in structure, Ethiopian (Cushite) mainly in vocabulary, with Semitic and Aryan elements, conformably with the Bible account that Babel was the scene of the confusion of tongues. Turano Cushite themselves, they adopted several terms from the Aryan and Semitic races, of whom some must have remained at Babel after the migration of the majority. This mixed character is not so observable in other early languages.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

This expression does not occur in the Old Testament, but is used popularly for the tower מגדּל, mighdōl built by the inhabitants of the world who, traveling in the East, built a city on the Plain of Shinar, with a tower ?whose top may reach unto heaven? - an expression which is regarded as meaning ?a very high tower.?
1. General Form of Babylonian Temple-Towers
There was a great difference, however, between a Canaanite mighdōl or watchtower, and the great Tower at Babylon. The watchtower was simply a high structure, probably without any special shape or form, which depended upon the will of the architect and the nature of the ground upon which it was erected. The Tower of Babel or Babylon, however, was a structure peculiar to Babylonia and Assyria. According to all accounts, and judging from the ruins of the various erections extant in those countries, Babylonian towers were always rectangular, built in stages, and provided with an inclined ascent continued along each side to the top. As religious ceremonies were performed thereon, they were generally surmounted by a chapel in which sacred objects or images were kept.
2. Their Babylonian Name
These erections had, with the Babylonians, a special name: ziqqurātu, meaning, apparently, ?peak,? or the highest point of a mountain, this word being applied to the mountain-height upon which Ut-napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, offered sacrifices on coming forth from the ark (or ship) when the waters of the great Flood had sufficiently subsided. It has also been thought that they were used as observatories when the Babylonians studied the starry heavens. This is probable, but as these structures were of no great height, it is possible that, in the clear atmosphere of the Babylonian plains, there was no real necessity to go above the surface of the earth when making their observations.
3. Whereabouts of the Tower of Babel
There has been much difference of opinion as to the geographical position of the Tower of Babel. Most writers upon the subject, following the tradition handed down by the Jews and Arabs, have identified it with the great Temple of Nebo in the city of Borsippa, now called the Birs-Nimroud (explained as a corruption of Birj Nimroud, ?Tower of Nimrod?). This building, however, notwithstanding its importance, was to all appearance never regarded by the Babylonians as the Tower of Babel, for the very good reason that it was not situated in Babylon, but in Borsippa, which, though called, in later times, ?the second Babylon,? was naturally not the original city of that name. The erection regarded by the Babylonians as the great Tower of their ancient city was Ê-temen-ana-ki, ?the Temple of the foundation of heaven and earth,? called by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar ziqqurat Bâbı̂li, ?the Tower of Babylon? - the world-renowned temple dedicated to Merodach and his consort Zēr-panı̂tum, Babylon's chief deities.
4. Its Position at Babylon
This structure was situated in the southern portion of the city, not far from the right bank of the Euphrates, and according to Weissbach, is now represented by a depression within which is the original rectangular core of unbaked brick. From its shape, the Arabs have made this site Sahan, ?the dish.? These remains of the great temple-tower of Babylon, within the memory of men not so very old, towered, even in its ruined state, high above the surrounding plain. The burnt bricks of the ancient Babylonians, however, who ?had brick for stone, and slime (bitumen) for mortar? (Gen_11:3), are still good and have a commercial value, so they were all cleared out, with whatever precious material in the way of antiquities they may have contained, to repair, it is said, the banks of the Hindiyeh Canal. Certain records in the shape of conical ?cylinders,? however, came into the market, and were acquired by the museums of Europe and America. As these refer to the restoration of the building by Nabopolassar, and the part taken by his sons Nebuchadrezzar and Nabû-šum-lı̂šir in the ceremonies attending the rebuilding, it is very probable that they formed part of the spoils acquired.
5. A Babylonian Description of the Tower
Ê-temen-ana-ki, to give the Babylonian (Sumerian) name, consisted of six stages built upon a platform, and provided with a sanctuary at the top. A tablet seemingly giving a detailed description of this building was for a time in the hands of the late George Smith in the year 1876. Unfortunately he had not time to give a translation of the document, or to publish the text, but his detailed account of it (Athenaeum, February 12, 1876) is exceedingly interesting.
First there was the outer court called the ?grand court,? measuring, according to G. Smith's estimate, 1,156 ft. by 900 ft., and a smaller one, called ?the court of Ishtar and Zagaga,? 1,056 ft. by 450 ft. Round the court were six gates admitting to the temples: (1) The grand gate; (2) The gate of the rising sun (east); (3) The great gate; (4) The gate of the colossi; (5) The gate of the canal; and (6) The gate of the tower-view.
6. The Platform
After this came a space or platform apparently walled - a ki-gallu square in form, and measuring 3 ku each way. Its size is doubtful, as the value of the ku is unknown. The sides of this enclosure faced the cardinal points. In its walls were four gates, one on each side, and named from the points toward which they looked. Within this enclosure stood a large building measuring 10 gar (Smith: 200 ft.) each way. Unfortunately, the name of this erection was damaged, so that its nature and use are uncertain.
7. The Chapels and Shrines
Round the base of the Tower were small temples or chapels dedicated to the various gods of the Babylonians. On the East were 16 shrines, the principal of them being dedicated to Nebo and Tašmêtu, his spouse; on thee North were two temples dedicated to Êa. (Aê) and Nusku respectively; on the South was a single temple to the two great gods, Anu and Bel (Enlil?). It was on the West, however, that the principal buildings lay - a double house with a court between the wings 35 cubits (Smith: 58 ft.) wide. These two wings were not alike in dimensions, the erection on one side being 100 cubits by 20 (166 ft. by 34 ft.) and on the other 100 cubits by 65 (166 ft. by 108 ft.). In these western chambers stood the couch of the god, and the golden throne mentioned by Herodotus, with other objects of great value. The couch was stated to have measured 9 cubits by 4 (15 ft. by 6 feet 8 inches).
8. The Tower in Its First Stage
In the center of these groups of buildings stood the great Tower in stages, called by the Babylonians ?the Tower of Babel? (ziqqurat Bâbı̂li). The stages decreased from the lowest upward, but each was square in plan. The first or foundation-stage was 15 gar each way by 5 1/2 gar high (300 ft. by 110 ft. high), and seems to have been decorated with the usual double recesses which are a characteristic of Assyr-Bab architecture.
9. The Remaining Stages
The second stage was 13 gar square and 3 gar high (260 ft. by 60 ft.). A term was applied to it which G. Smith did not understand, but he notes that it probably had sloping sides. The stages from the 3rd to the 5th were all of equal height, namely, 1 gar (20 ft.), and were respectively 10 gar (200 ft.), 8 1/3 gar (170 ft.) and 7 gar (140 ft.) square. The dimensions of the 6th stage were omitted, but may be restored in accordance with the others, namely, 5 1/2 gar square (110 ft.) by 1 gar (20 ft.) high.
10. The Chapel at the Top
On this was raised what Smith calls the 7th stage, namely, the upper temple or sanctuary of the god Bel-Merodach, 4 gar long, 3 1/2 gar broad and 2 1/2 gar high (80 ft., 60 ft., and 50 ft., respectively). He does not mention the statue of the god, but it may be supposed that it was set up in this topmost erection. The total height of the tower above its foundation was therefore 15 gar (300 ft.), the same as the breadth of its base. It cannot be said that it was by any means a beautiful erection, but there was probably some symbolism in its measurements, and in appearance it probably resembled (except the decoration) the temple tower of Calah as restored in the frontispiece to Layard's Monuments of Nineveh, 1st series, in which a step-pyramid with a similarly highbasement stage is shown.
11. Herodotus' Description
With this detailed description, which is quite what would be expected in a Babylonian account of such a celebrated temple, the description in Herodotus (i.181ff) agrees. He states that it was a temple square in form, two furlongs (1, 213 ft.) each way, in the midst of which was built a solid tower a furlong square (nearly 607 ft.). This, however, must have been the platform, which, with the six stages and the chapel on the top, would make up the total of eight stages of which Herodotus speaks. The ascent by which the top was reached he describes as running ?outside round about all the towers? - wording which suggests, though not necessarily, that it was spiral - i.e. one had to walk round the structure 7 times to reach the top. Representations on Babylonian boundary-stones suggest that this view would be correct, though a symmetrical arrangement of inclined paths might have been constructed which would have greatly improved the design. At the middle of the ascent, Herodotus says, there was a stopping-place with seats to rest upon, which rather favors this idea. At the top of the last tower there was a large cell, and in the cell a large couch was laid, well covered; and by it a golden table. There was no image there, nor did any human being spend the night there, except only a woman of the natives of the place chosen by the god, ?as say the Chaldeans who are the priests of this god.? These men told Herodotus that the god often came to the cell, and rested upon the couch, ?but,? he adds, ?I do not believe them.? After mentioning parallels to this at Egyptian Thebes and Patam in Lycia, he goes on to speak of another cell below (that referred to in G. Smith's tablet) wherein was a great image of Zeus (Bel-Merodach) sitting, with a footstool and a large table, all of gold, and weighing no less than 800 talents. Outside of this cell was an altar to the god, made of gold; and also another altar, whereon full-grown animals were sacrificed, the golden altar being for sucklings only. The Chaldeans also told him that there was, in the precincts of the building, a statue 12 cubits high, and of solid gold. Darius Hystaspis desired to take possession of this valuable object, but did not venture. His son Xerxes, however, was not so considerate of the feelings of the people and the priesthood, for he also killed the priest when he forbade him to meddle with it.
12. The Builders of the Tower
The Bible record does not state who the people were who journeyed in the East and built the city and the Tower. The indefinite ?they? might be taken to mean whatever people were there at the time the record was written, and probably presupposes that the reader would certainly know. As the Tower of Babel bears, in the native inscriptions, a Sumero-Akkadian name, it may be supposed that the builders referred to belonged to that race.
13. Traditions Concerning Its Destruction
It is noteworthy that nothing is said in Gen concerning the stoppage of the erection, though they ceased to build the city. Bochart records a Jewish tradition which makes the tower to have been split through to its foundation by fire which fell from heaven - suggested probably by the condition of the tower at ?the second Babylon,? i.e. the Birs Nimroud. Another tradition, recorded by Eusebius (Prep. Evang., ix; Chronicon, 13; Syncel. Chron., 44) makes it to have been blown down by the winds; ?but when it approached the heavens, the winds assisted the gods, and overturned the work upon its contrivers: and the gods introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who, until that time, had all spoken the same language.?
14. The Meaning of ?Babel?
The place where they built the Tower was called Babylon, on account of the confusion of languages. Here we have again the statement as in Gen that the meaning of Babel is ?confusion.? This, as is well known, is based upon the purely Hebrew etymological law, which makes bālal, ?to confuse,? or ?mingle,? assume a reduplicate form; but as far as the cuneiform inscriptions, which are now very numerous, give us information, Babel, from balālu, ?to mingle? (the root in question), was an impossibility. But on the Babylonian side, that the rendering of the name as Bâb-ı̂li (-ı̂lāni), ?gate of god? (?of the gods?) was a folk-etymology, is undoubted, notwithstanding that the Sumero-Akkadian form Ka-dingira, with the same meaning, is far from rare. It is noteworthy, however, that one of the forms used by Nebuchadrezzar is Babilam, with the mimmation or ?emming,? which is a characteristic of the Babylonian language; moreover, a place-name Babalam also occurs, which may be a still earlier, and perhaps the original, form. Notwithstanding that one would like to see in Babalam, ?the place of bringing together,? and in Babilam, ?the bringer together,? the termination -am would seem to be an insurmountable difficulty.
15. The Ultimate Destruction of the Tower
That the building of the city would have been stopped when the confusion of tongues took place is natural - the departure of the greater part of the inhabitants made this inevitable. When the population increased again, the building of the city was continued, with the result that Babylon ultimately became the greatest city of then known world. The Tower, notwithstanding what had been said as to its destruction, remained, and when, as happened from time to time, its condition became ruinous, some energetic Babylonian king would restore it. Alexander and Philip of Macedon began clearing away the rubbish to rebuild the great temple of bclus (Bel-Merodach) connected with it and there is hardly any doubt that the Tower would have been restored likewise, but the untimely death of the former, and the deficient mental caliber of the latter for the ruling of a great empire, put an end to the work. The Tower therefore remained unrepaired - ?The tower was exceedingly tall. The third part of it sank down into the ground, a second third was burned down, and the remaining third was standing until the time of the destruction of Babylon? (Rabbi Yēḥānān, Ṣanhedhrı̄n, 109, 1).
16. No Idea of Reaching Heaven
Concerning the reputed intention of the builders of the Tower, to carry it as high as the heavens, that, notwithstanding the Talmud and other writings, may be dismissed at once. The intention was to build a very high tower, and that is all that is implied by the words employed. That the Babylonians would have liked their tower to reach heaven may be conceded, and the idea may be taken as symbolical of Babylon's pride, the more especially as they regarded it as ?the house of the foundation of heaven and earth.? Though at present brought lower than the other temple-towers of Babylonia, its renown remains as one of the great glories of that renowned capital. Dedicated as it was to the gods whom they worshipped, and chiefly to the glory of Merodach, the representative of Babylonian monotheism, the Babylonians' descendants, the native Christians, have no reason to remember this erection of their forefathers with shame, but rather with pride. The rallyingpoint of nations, Babylon, while it existed, was always a great commercial center, and many are the languages which have resounded in the Tower's vicinity. The confusion of tongues led to the Jewish fiction that the air of Babylon and Borsippa caused forgetfulness, and was therefore injurious to students of the Law, causing them to forget it as the builders of the Tower had of old forgotten their speech (Rashi, Ṣanhedhrı̄n, 109, 1). This, however, did not prevent the rabbis of Babylon from being more celebrated than those of the Holy Land, and even of Jerusalem itself. See also ASTRONOMY.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Ba?bel, Tower of. From the account given in Gen_11:1-9, it appears that the primitive fathers of mankind having, from the time of the Deluge, wandered without fixed abode, settled at length in the land of Shinar, where they took up a permanent residence. As yet they had remained together without experiencing those vicissitudes and changes in their outward lot which encourage the formation of different modes of speech, and were, therefore, of one language. Arrived however in the land of Shinar, and finding materials suitable for the construction of edifices, they proceeded to make and burn bricks, and using the bitumen, in which parts of the country abound, for cement, they built a city and a tower of great elevation. A divine interference, however, is related to have taken place. In consequence, the language of the builders was confounded, so that they were no longer able to understand each other. They therefore 'left off to build the city,' and were scattered 'abroad upon the face of all the earth.' The narrative adds that the place took its name of Babel (confusion) from this confusion of tongues. That the work was subsequently resumed, and in process of time completed, is known on the best historical vouchers.
The sacred narrative (Gen_11:4) assigns as the reason which prompted men to the undertaking, a desire to possess a building so large and high as might be a mark and rallying point in the vast plains where they had settled, in order to prevent their being scattered abroad, and thus the ties of kindred be rudely sundered, individuals be involved in peril, and their numbers be prematurely thinned at a time when population was weak and insufficient. Such an attempt agrees with the circumstances in which the sons of Noah were placed, and is in itself of a commendable nature. But that some ambitious and unworthy motives were blended with these feelings is clearly implied in the sacred record.
After the lapse of so many centuries, and the occurrence in 'the land of Shinar' of so many revolutions, it is not to be expected that the identification of the Tower of Babel with any actual ruin should be easy, or lead to any very certain result. The majority of opinions, however, among the learned, make it the same as the temple of Belus described by Herodotus, which is found in the dilapidated remains of Birs Nimrud.

Fig. 79?Birs Nimrud
From the Holy Scriptures it appears that when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and leveled most of the city with the ground, 'he brought away the treasures of the temple, and the treasures of the king's house, and put them all into the temple of Bel at Babylon.' The brazen and other vessels which Solomon had caused to be made for the service of Jehovah are said to have been broken up by order of the Assyrian monarch, and formed into the famous gates of brass which so long adorned the superb entrances into the great area of the temple of Belus. The purposes to which this splendid edifice was appropriated varied in some degree with the changes in opinions and manners which successive ages brought. Consecrated at the first, as it probably was, to the immoderate ambition of the monotheistic children of the Deluge, it passed to the Sabian religion, and thus falling one degree from purity of worship, became a temple of the sun and the rest of the host of heaven, till, in the natural progress of corruption, it sank into gross idolatry; and was polluted by the vices which generally accompanied the observances of heathen superstition. In one purpose it undoubtedly proved of service to mankind. The Babylonians were given to the study of astronomy. This ennobling pursuit was one of the peculiar functions of the learned men, denominated by Herodotus, Chaldeans, the priests of Belus; and the temple was crowned by an astronomical observatory, from the elevation of which the starry heavens could be most advantageously studied over plains so open and wide, and in an atmosphere so clear and bright, as those of Babylonia.
The present appearance of the tower as preserved in the Birs Nimrud is deeply impressive, rising suddenly as it does out of a wide desert plain, with its rent, fragmentary, and fire-blasted pile, masses of vitrified matter lying around, and the whole hill itself on which it stands caked and hardened out of the materials with which the temple had been built. A very considerable space round the tower, forming a vast court or area, is covered with ruins, affording abundant vestiges of former buildings; exhibiting uneven heaps of various sizes, covered with masses of broken brick, tiles, and vitrified fragments?all bespeaking some signal overthrow in former days. The towerlike ruin on the summit is a solid mass 28 feet broad, constructed of the most beautiful brick masonry. It is rent from the top nearly halfway to the bottom. It is perforated in ranges of square openings. At its base lie several immense unshapen masses of fine brickwork?some changed to a state of the hardest vitrification, affording evidence of the action of fire which seems to have been the lightning of heaven. The base of the tower, at present, measures 2082 feet in circumference. Hardly half of its former altitude remains. From its summit, the view in the distance presents to the south an arid desert plain; to the west the same trackless waste; towards the north-east marks of buried ruins are visible to a vast distance.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

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