Babel: History, Mythology, and Meaning

Episode 2. Babel: History, Mythology, and Meaning
The Tower of Babel story in Genesis: what is its true meaning? How does the city-building theme found in Mesopotamian texts like the Sumerian King List and Enuma Elish inform our understanding of it? And was there a real Tower of Babel? If so, who built it? Let's analyze the text of Genesis 11 and find out what today's scholars say.

Hashtags: #TowerOfBabel, #Genesis, #Mythology, #AncientBabylon, #Etemenanki

Contents:
00:00 Logo
00:04 Prologue
00:51 Just what is “Babel” anyway?
01:33 The Mesopotamian fascination with cities
03:29 Analyzing the story
11:47 Etemenanki, the “historical” tower of Babel
14:17 From Babylon to Israel
17:00 Credits

Related blog post:
⦾ The Tower of Babel: Did It Exist, and What Does the Story Mean?
https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.co...

Transcript:
⦾ https://isthatinthebible.files.wordpr...

Academic works cited in this video:
⦾ Thomas L. Thompson, The Mythic Past, 2000
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/2TCfwb4
⦾ Edwin M. Good, Genesis 1–11: Tales of the Earliest World, 2011
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3dCENc4
⦾ Patrick D. Miller, Jr., “Eridu, Dunnu, and Babel: A Study in Comparative Mythology”, in Biblical and other Studies in memory of Shelmo Dov Goitein (Hebrew Annual Review 9), 1985
⦾ Karel van der Toorn and Pieter Willem van der Horst, “Nimrod Before and After the Bible”, Harvard Theological Review 83/01 (Jan 1990)
⦾ E.A. Speiser, “Word Plays on the Creation Epic’s Version of the Founding of Babylon”, Orientalia 25/4 (1956)
⦾ Ellen van Wolde, “The Tower of Babel as Lookout over Genesis”, in Words Become Worlds: Semantic Studies of Genesis 1–11, 1994
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3dH8j0m
⦾ Philip Michael Sherman, Babel’s Tower Translated: Genesis 11 and Ancient Jewish Interpretation, 2013
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3hwBGU7
⦾ Theodore Hiebert, “The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World’s Cultures, Journal of Biblical Literature 125/1 (Spring 2007)
⦾ Ronald Hendel, “Genesis 1–11 and Its Mesopotamian Problem”, in Cultural Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity, 2005
⦾ Arie van der Kooij, “The City of Babel and Assyrian Imperialism”, Congress Volume Leiden 2004, 2006
Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3ArudOT

(Books purchased through Amazon affiliate links pay me a small commission in store credit.)

Music:
1. Beyond the Stars (www.FesliyanStudios.com)
2. Cold Isolation (www.FesliyanStudios.com)
3. Beyond These Walls (Scott Buckley, www.scottbuckley.com.au)
4. Chronicle (Scott Buckley, www.scottbuckley.com.au)
5. Tranquility (www.FesliyanStudios.com)