GENESIS: Week 2

It was two blogs for the price of one last week, and this week I’m covering two stories, which you could either consider half a blog each or another BOGOF bargain! 

In our readings this past week, we have left behind the Primeval History (see last week for more), and entered into phase two of the Genesis narrative. For the two stories to reflect on, we’ll take one from the end of phase one and one from the start of this next stage; the ‘Tower of Babel’ and the ‘Call of Abram’. 

Let’s remember what we covered last week as we approach these stories! We’re keeping a particular eye out for theological points, etiologies and identity formation.

The Tower of Babel

At only nine verses long, this short story packs in a lot! 

The brief overview is that people want to build a really tall tower, in order to ‘make a name for ourselves’ (11.4). God sees this ambition, and apparently teamwork, as a potential threat and so acts by confusing their language ‘so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ (11.7) 

To finish, God scatters the people all over the earth, so we end up with people all over the world, speaking different languages. 

If your Spidey senses are tingling, that’s because this really does come across as an etiology, an explanation for how things came to be the way they are. Communities crafted stories to explain, generation to generation, why things look as they do.  

Imagine how small the world would have felt in these ancient times. 

We take for granted the global perspective we can have now, with instant access to the far reaches of the Earth. I can go on my phone, download Duolingo and learn 43 different languages on my own! 

Without any of that, imagine encountering a different people group, who look like you, but talk a different language. It’s not hard to picture the short journey of thinking that goes from such encounters to questions about who these other people are and why they speak differently to us.  

You find this same sense of inquisitiveness in children who haven’t yet learned about the world. 

(There is also another possible etiology -there is a view among some scholars that the tower itself was based on a real place and a real project, the Ziggurat of Babylon- or Etemenanki. I won’t go into that here, but if you just google that and you’ll see clear comparisons to depictions of the Tower of Babel, particularly with Babel likely a form of Babylon.)

So, evidently this was a story seeking to make sense of linguistic diversity in the world as they encountered it. But, rest assured, there is more going on than just that. This is the beauty of Genesis, layered complexity in even a nine-verse story. 

The first thing to point out is the references to an earlier story. There are resonances between Genesis 11 and Genesis 3, with the removal of Adam and Eve from Eden.  

Genesis 3:23-24 says;  

“therefore the Lord God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken. 24 He drove out the humans, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.”

The guarding of the East of Eden suggests this was the direction they were sent out in. Genesis 11 concludes this journey with verse 2 talking about them having migrated ‘eastward’.

This isn’t the only connection. There is also a familiarity in the perspective and actions of God.  

Genesis 3:22 says 

Then the Lord God said, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”

Both stories convey a sense of concern from God around the repercussions of human actions, and the relative threat that poses to God – in Genesis 3 with humans living forever and then in Genesis 11 with ‘nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them’.  

More importantly, both stories are making the same point, which is theological and to do with identity formation.

God is God. People are not.

This story, along with Genesis 3, explores that notion of humanity trying to do things by themselves, without God. Each story emphasises God’s drawing of a clear boundary between the divine and the human.  

Reading our wider bible now, with outside perspective, we find an interesting counterpoint to Babel at Pentecost. People gathered and given, by God, a shared language in order to tell God’s story and, at the birth of the early church, bring people back into unity who otherwise had been separated. 

The story of the Tower of Babel bring us to the end of the Primeval History, and it leaves us with humanity as we recognise it in history, at the beginning of the next phase of this Genesis narrative. 

The Call of Abram

No sooner have we left Eden, Babylon and the rest behind, and we encounter a new protagonist in our story.  

This is the first of three divine speeches given by God to a ‘patriarch’ which includes travel directions and promises of blessings (the others are Gen 26:2-5 for Isaac and Gen 46:1-4 for Jacob).   

It is, at least, the first we come across as we read. My study bible informs me, helpfully, that due to the complexity of biblical composition, this command to Abram could have been modelled on Genesis 31:3, which says 

Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you.

It is thought that Genesis 31 was written first, and so Genesis 12 could have drawn upon that idea for it’s account of the call of Abram.  

There are a few other things to note. 

We are probably used to hearing ‘I will make of you a great nation’ (also, that promise is repeated in chapter 46 to Jacob), but the word nation isn’t just talking about a lot of people, but connotes a politically independent, social group. This is the foundation of the identity of the Israelites, who would become the Jewish people.  

We can also see a fun contrast between Genesis 11 and 12 – In Genesis 11, we are told the people wanted to make a name for themselves. In Genesis 12, God says ‘I will bless you, and make your name great...’. It is God who can elevate and glorify someone, not other people.  

Finally, for now, are two points about blessing. 

Abram is told that he will be a blessing, meaning that people who associate with him will experience a flourishing. We quickly see this come to fruition with Laban (Gen 30:27-30) and Potiphar (39:5) being blessed by associating with Abram/Abraham. 

Abram is also told ‘in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ This was later interpreted by Paul, in Galatians 3:8, as meaning that gentiles would even be blessed by Abraham. That said, my trusty study bible once more sheds light, suggesting that the closest analogies to this promise mean that an alternative translation of ‘by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves’ might be closer to the meaning of the Hebrew.  

This then says something like ‘the earth will see Abram/Abraham and think ’may we be like him’, and wish a similar blessing upon themselves.’ There are lots of examples which show why this makes sense, including Genesis 26:28 

“They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you, so we say, let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you “

That’s probably plenty for now, but it’s clear to see that even in these stories which are familiar, that we might have read dozens of times before, that there is lots going on in just a short space.

We see theology at work, we see explanations, we see identity formation and connections between stories.  

Not bad, Genesis, not bad...