Tower of Babel and the Many Languages of Pentecost

The Bible is all about language. Many stories are about misunderstandings and whether people can understand each other. The Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11 is at once a very old story and a story we can understand. Who hasn't been confused when someone is speaking a different language than us? I tell the story of a Korean man that I know who said that the story is not a negative story like we think it is. Instead it is a story about diversity and how we are all human beings with a common origin without being exactly the same. The Tower of Babel is closely connected with the story of Pentecost in Acts 2.  Again the meaning is not so simple. The coming of the Holy Spirit meant that people could speak in each other's languages and understand each other. We don't know if that means that they miraculously spoke in each other's languages or that this was a symbol for having a common purpose and understanding in the Holy Spirit. Either way it is a vision of peace and unity that is possible when we understand each other. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the Real Bible Rob teamcast, and today I'll talk about language and how important that is, and how much language and understanding each other in the Bible is. And it comes in a couple of different stories that we'll talk about today. The first one is the Tower of Babel. Now you may have heard of this because it's a popular story, and it has a very ancient background. We don't know where it comes from exactly, but um it seems to have come into the Bible maybe um later than it was. It may have been a story that was very old back in Babylon, where Babel comes from, and uh that that word, and uh, but it didn't come into the Bible until somewhat later. This is like uh the story of Noah. The story of Noah, which is just before this, is a very ancient story, was written uh down long before the Bible, maybe even as far as a thousand years before the Bible was put together, uh, and then it came in. And uh that story basically told us about the faithfulness to God. And Babel tells us about something different. It's kind of an origin story, it tells us where things come from and um and why we have these different languages. So I'm gonna tell you uh two sides to that story because sometimes people, when they hear about the Tower of Babel, they think of it very negatively, like God's punishing the people. And um, I listened to uh a man who talked about this who's a Korean man and who lives in the United States. So English is not his first language, and he was talking about the story in a little bit different way, maybe a little more positive way, uh, maybe a little makes you feel a little bit better about being a person. And then um the most important uh connection you can make to Babel is the story of Pentecost. This is the coming of the Holy Spirit uh thousands of years later, and that uh suddenly instead of having all these different languages, which we still have, people could start understanding each other because they had the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna connect those two together for you, and then um you can see sort of this big story, and that it probably has a lot less to do about uh the language themselves and more about understanding each other. And maybe that's the real message that comes from both of these stories is how people work together and how they use language, and then how they understand each other if they have a common spirit. So that's really super important, isn't it? So let's start with the Tower of Babel. Uh it in Genesis, this is from Genesis 11. And like I said, it just uh the story just kind of sticks in there. It you wonder why it's why it's there. It looks like it was a very ancient story um that came from Babylon before the Bible was written, but probably came into the Bible. Um, it could have been like in what's called the Persian period, uh, a little bit later. Uh, it came into the Bible as a story to kind of tell uh how we got different languages and how people uh reacted to that. So um, starting with verse one, it says, all people on the earth had one language in the same words. When they traveled to the east, they found a valley uh in the land of Shinnar and they settled there. I think what they meant is somewhere in uh in Persia, which isn't uh Persia is modern-day Iran. So uh if you uh uh a little bit to the east of um uh of Israel, anyway, said they said to each other, come on, let's make a let's make bricks and make and bake them hard, and we'll use these bricks for stones, and and we'll we'll put them together, and then we'll build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top up in the sky. Let's make a name for ourselves so that we won't be dispersed all over the earth. And then the Lord came down and uh to see that the city and the tower um that the humans had built. And the Lord said, Hmm, there is now one people and they all have one language, and this is what they've begun to do. Now, all that they plan to do will be possible for them. Come, let us go down, uh presumably to the other uh beings, uh heavenly beings cease talking. Let's go down and um and mix up their languages so they won't understand each other. Then the Lord dispersed them, maybe scattered them from there to all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore, it is named Babel, because there it was there that the Lord mixed up the languages of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them all over the earth. So this is a really interesting story. Well, first of all, why is the Lord so mean? You know, they were they're building this tower. There's probably a lot of meaning behind it. Um, there's not, we don't think that there was probably really one language in in that one spot. You can say, oh, well, it literally happened this way, but um, this is probably more a story about alliance, you know, when people come together and um that there was this uh, and probably like I said, about the Persian Empire, which was the greatest, the largest uh empire in all of the earth when it came around uh in that early time, and um about um you know many hundreds of years before Jesus, uh in uh 500 BCE, um BC, 600 BC, and so forth. And they put this Persian Empire had a lot of influence on the Israelites. So, and they got the Israelites got a lot of their stories from them, and some of these stories made in the Bible. So we think that that's probably what happened with this, and then it became a story about explaining why the earth is so scattered with different languages. So you could take like this real story that happened, or this um, you know, the building of a city and these people working together, and then maybe became a story to kind of explain how languages came to the earth. So, you know, like I said, we don't we don't know for sure, but the the thing that's so interesting about this are a couple things. One is that um they by having a common language, they were very powerful. So this was probably the idea that this Persian Empire was very, very powerful, and um, and that it was kind of a dangerous thing. So God is saying and talking to the other heavenly beings, uh, so maybe angels, who knows what this means. It's such an ancient story, we don't know what they thought about God back then. And he said, you know, we need to disperse them. Now, I was telling you about this Korean man that I heard talking, because we usually, most Christians think of this quite negatively. Like we said, you know, the people were being very arrogant and that they were being really uh challenging God, and God didn't want to be challenged, so that's why he confused everybody with languages. What this man said is something I think interesting. He said, it's it, you know, yes, you can look at it that way, but you can also look at it as God spreading the people around the world, and that this idea is that we are different, and that instead of just being under one authority, one group of people, that we are different people. And it was maybe like an encouragement to go out and scatter around the world, to not just be under one king, for example. So this is the way that was uh interpreted, and saying that, you know, if if you you can get up, you know, or a people can get up, and they don't have to all do the same thing. They can go to a new place and they can uh have uh a new idea, they can have a different language, they can be a diverse group of people all around. So um that would be a different way to look at it, maybe not quite so negative, you know, that um God was being challenged, more about that God dispersed the people and he makes people of every color, of every language, of every culture. So that's the idea of behind Babel. But part of that making people of different colors and different uh um cultures and different languages is that it becomes harder to understand each other and it becomes harder to cooperate. So this story is very timeless, isn't it? Because um we uh, you know, we don't understand our neighbor necessarily, or when people have uh come from different cultures with different languages and they come to uh where you live or where I live, and I live in America. So people I don't understand people who speak different languages, so we have to learn how to learn their language, or they have to learn to learn uh our language in order to be able to communicate. So we have to make that effort, we do have to do that work in order to be able to get together. It doesn't happen naturally, so that's really uh was his idea um because he was Korean and he moved to the United States, he had to learn a new language and he had to become part of a different culture. So he had a very strong feeling inside about what that means, and so that's how he looks at this story about the Tower of Babel. Isn't that interesting? You can look at the same story, and you depending on what happened to you and where you come from, you can have a different view of it. So, one of the most interesting things about the Tower of Babel is that um when we get to the New Testament, we you know, with uh very multicultural in the New Testament. We have Jewish people, we have people we have people called Gentiles, which are the people from the other parts of the Mediterranean there. So that we have you know people from Greece, and we have people from Egypt, and we have people from Babylon and and uh um and and other places like that, and they're trying to get along, and they have a hard time getting along, just like today. Sometimes we have a you know, there are wars, there are people who um you know are threatening each other and they don't get along very well. Well, how do you get people to cooperate? So Pentecost is um, so this is after Jesus has has risen, and then Jesus uh was on earth for a few uh for uh 40 days, they say. So he uh you know was witnessed by a lot of people, and and people didn't want him to go. They go, well, wait a minute, why are you going? Well, I'm gonna leave you with the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit had already been around. The Holy Spirit has been around uh since the very beginning. Uh, we're told in Genesis chapter one, two, the water the wind was over the waters. Well, that wind is the same word for spirit, and the Holy Spirit is there. The difference is that uh in Acts, Jesus is saying that the day will come when the Holy Spirit can be uh will come to you and guide you. So let's uh in Acts chapter 2, verse 1, it says, when the day of Pentecost, Pentecost means the coming of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost uh in Greek means 50 days. So 50 days uh uh um after Jesus was resurrected, uh then they all came together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven, like the howling of a fierce wind, filled the entire house where they were sitting, and they saw what seemed to be flames on everyone's heads. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak. That's very important, as the Spirit enabled them to speak. They there were pious Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. When they heard the sound, a clout, a crowd gathered. They were mystified when they heard them speaking in their native tongue, in their own tongue. So they heard their own language in this these groups of people, and they were surprised and amazed. And they said, Look, aren't all these people uh who are talking, aren't they just from Galilee, the the people that were with Jesus, every one of them? How could they each be speaking our language? Isn't that amazing? So, of course, most people uh you know think think this as a miraculous moment that they miraculously started uh speaking each other's languages. And um, and that that's that could be true, that could be the way it is, but what's the symbol behind it? Why is it important that they speak each other's languages? So I had a teacher, a professor, who um was a real expert in the Greek language that this is written in, and uh, and he said there's a couple of clues here that yes, um, it is a miraculous event, but then people just start speaking in each other's languages like they speak in tongues today. So you may have heard of that. In some kinds of churches, uh, people speak in tongues, and that means that they speak kind of a heavenly language, and um, and they're speaking the language of the Holy Spirit. Well, um this uh teacher of mine said, you know, yeah, that's fine, but that may not be exactly what happened here, because the language that they speak isn't the language just of the Holy Spirit um that other people can't quite understand. No, they're actual languages. So they're speaking, uh, you know, somebody is speaking Japanese to a Japanese person, they're they're speaking Arabic to a person who knows Arabic, that kind of thing. And he says that in the language, you can kind of see, is this um did this happen miraculously, you know, uh just in that moment, or was it because these people quickly learned and quickly understood each other because they made the effort, they worked hard in the Holy Spirit in order to understand each other. So either way, either if it happened very like an instant in just one moment of time, like a miracle, or even if it took a little bit of time for them to learn each other's languages, the symbol is the same. The idea is that they take the effort to learn each other's language and uh and then understand each other and work together. So this is like the Tower of Babel almost in reverse. So and that's the way a lot of people look at it. They'll say that the the confusion caused at the Tower of Babel back in all the way back in Genesis 11, you know, a thousand, two thousand, whatever years before this, that confusion was undone by the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two. So, what does that mean symbolically? Because I think that's the most important thing for us. The thing that's most important for us, and that the lesson that we can get from this is that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, gives us a common understanding. And this um common understanding is talked about in a lot of parts of the Bible. So even with different cultures, and I've told you about Paul, you know, about the apostle who went to all these different places, like Greece and Turkey and Rome and all these different places, he was a Jewish man and he was speaking to them in Greek. And Greek was like kind of like English is today. You know, you can, as an English speaker, you can go almost anywhere in the world, and you can find somebody who speaks English, because we have that that special language that a lot of people know, right? Well, Greek was that way in this time. That um many people could speak Greek all over um in Paul's world there, where in that part of uh the Mediterranean, uh where um, you know, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, um, Israel, uh, even in Persia, uh, and they can all speak Greek. So that there was kind of a new common language already kind of happening. But what Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit or what Acts is saying is that the Holy Spirit at Pentecost gave them a common purpose in the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit made it so that people would care enough to learn each other's language and care enough to work together in the common purpose of um of being for Jesus. And that this was a vision of how the kingdom of God and how the future can be, and that we do that. So, what does that mean for us? It means for us that it's important in this spirit of unity, this Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, that no matter who we're working with, no matter what culture we're working with, it's important for us to learn who they are. So learn their language may it might be really hard to learn, you know, Arabic or French or Russian or Korean or whatever. That might not be possible for everyone to do, but everyone can make the effort to try to learn their culture, who they are, and try to communicate as fellow human beings, that we can come together. Isn't it interesting? I think it's very interesting here that Pentecost didn't make them all have one language. In other words, in back in Babylon in the story of Tower of Babel, they had a language and then it went to many languages. But in Acts, it's not like then all of a sudden everybody spoke the same language. No, it's that people spoke each other's languages, they treated each other with enough respect in order to be able to learn this. Isn't that an important message? Isn't that a message for us? One of the great things about um our culture and our society today is that we have more chance of being able to do that than ever before. So even with all of the um um war and hate and all the terrible things that we deal with, which is true, we have more chance of reaching across and being able to speak each other's language or have a common spirit than we've ever had before. We're able to do that because of technology, because of we can travel to each other, but also I think it's because people have tried and they've worked really hard to do this. So anybody who's trying to bring peace and trying to be cult cultural. One of the things that makes me most happy when I'm talking to young people is when they say, you know, I really would like to travel someday to another country, or I'd like to live abroad, you know, live in another country for a few years, or a few months, or a few years, go on a trip, um, to learn more about them. And, you know, and uh say I want to, I want to live in Spain for a little while and I want to learn Spanish. To me, that makes me so happy because what that's saying is that that young person understands the importance of doing this, understands the importance of um understanding other people and their culture, not to make one culture, not to say you must be like me or I must be like you, but instead respecting each other's cultures and saying we're different, but we come together because we have a common spirit, we have a common purpose. Isn't that interesting? So I would like uh for you to think about that. If you are um thinking, instead of uh you know, staying staying back and saying, well, those people are different, and I don't want to be like those people, or those people are bad because they aren't like me, they aren't my culture, they aren't in America, or they they're one of the ways that we can bring more peace and we can bring about a better world is to be like Pentecost, is that we reach out to other people in a spirit of kindness and goodness, what the Holy Spirit is, a spirit of truth, and that we want to do that. So um, you know, anybody who studies um international relations or uh, you know, even you don't have to go across the country or or uh across the ocean, you can do it by just knowing people in your own community that are very different than you, too, or learning Spanish, or learning uh um other languages, or even just being with people that are like that. So to me, that's a really important thing. And that's something I hope you get from these stories. So instead of thinking about them about God punishing people, or uh about um uh that, you know, because I don't see the miracles of tongues or something like that, um, or feeling ashamed about that. I don't, I can't speak in tongues. Some people do, and some people can, but don't be ashamed of that at all, because the invitation is not for you to speak tongues, the invitation is for you to understand the language of another person, of a different culture. And what that means is that could be the actual language, or maybe you're just speaking English to each other, but you're understanding the where the way they're thinking, if they're from a different culture, if they're a different kind of people, or maybe they speak English to you, or maybe they whatever. That's the most important message in these two stories that are connected. So I hope you get a chance to look at that. And um, I just love uh speaking to you, talking about the Bible. It's one of the happiest things I I do because there's just so much in here. So I'm really grateful that you decided to um to listen to me today and to listen to this podcast. Um, spread it around, tell your friends about it, and um and hopefully uh you can you'll listen to another episode of of this. So, with that, I say thank you and God bless you.