"First, were these Mesopotamians who descended from Noah’s family actually attempting to build “a tower whose top [would] reach into heaven” (Genesis 11:4)? The clear answer is “No!” The NASB puts the words “will reach” in italics, which means that they are not in the original Hebrew
text, but were added in an effort to make sense out of the wording. (The KJV italicizes “may reach”.)
But what happens when the Hebrew wording is translated literally? We then have “a tower whose top [is] into heaven.” (cf. NKJV). And this is exactly what ancient Mesopotamian ziggurat temple-towers were for! The top compartment represented heaven. The inner walls, in all probability, were decorated with blue glazed tile, with the sun, the moon, and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) lined up along the plane of the zodiac. In the center of the room would be their “god” seated upon a throne!
Nebuchadnezzar later rebuilt such a tower in Babylon, which the Sumerians had called E-TEMEN-AN-KI (‘the building of the foundation-platform of heaven and earth’). The pyramids of Egypt and, much later, the great Mayan temples of Central America, reflected the design of the original Tower of Babel.
This was not an innocent, scientifically naive, primitive effort to reach the highest heavens! It was, instead, a brilliant but blasphemous effort to dismiss forever the God who had commanded Noah and his three sons after the Flood to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). Instead of honoring His name (i.e. His character and attributes), they said, “Let us build for ourselves a city … and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4).
The entire enterprise simply reeked with human pride and arrogance. Satan almost succeeded in completely dominating mankind again, as he had done at the fall of Adam and Eve, and as he had done before the Flood."
AIG
But what happens when the Hebrew wording is translated literally? We then have “a tower whose top [is] into heaven.” (cf. NKJV). And this is exactly what ancient Mesopotamian ziggurat temple-towers were for! The top compartment represented heaven. The inner walls, in all probability, were decorated with blue glazed tile, with the sun, the moon, and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) lined up along the plane of the zodiac. In the center of the room would be their “god” seated upon a throne!
Nebuchadnezzar later rebuilt such a tower in Babylon, which the Sumerians had called E-TEMEN-AN-KI (‘the building of the foundation-platform of heaven and earth’). The pyramids of Egypt and, much later, the great Mayan temples of Central America, reflected the design of the original Tower of Babel.
This was not an innocent, scientifically naive, primitive effort to reach the highest heavens! It was, instead, a brilliant but blasphemous effort to dismiss forever the God who had commanded Noah and his three sons after the Flood to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). Instead of honoring His name (i.e. His character and attributes), they said, “Let us build for ourselves a city … and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4).
The entire enterprise simply reeked with human pride and arrogance. Satan almost succeeded in completely dominating mankind again, as he had done at the fall of Adam and Eve, and as he had done before the Flood."
AIG
