Saturday, June 1, 2019

Herodotus on Babel

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth:
and they left off to build the city.
Genesis 11:8

"Herodotus (who had said he had seen the old tower before it was torn down) said that
---there were seats about halfway up for people to rest.

---On the very top of the Tower was the special place. It likely held a little structure as the top or “head” of the Tower.
This was long gone by Nebuchadnezzar’s day (over 1,500 years later!). He wrote that the head was not “complete.”
But Jewish sources called the “Midrash” say
---the top had been burned. This makes sense because Nebuchadnezzar pointed out that lighting and earthquakes had done damage to the tower.
Lighting usually strikes the tallest structure in the area and often starts fires. So if that top structure was struck by lightning, it makes sense that it could have burned and was long gone 1,500 years later when Nebuchadnezzar mentioned it."
AIG