Toto

Evidence for Temple of Solomon

On the other hand, a Jewish Temple and a King named Solomon are not as inherently ahistorical and mythological as a legendary attempt to build a tower that reached to heaven, followed by sudden linguistic confusion due to God's wrath. So in that sense, the two are not comparable, even though there is no extra-biblical evidence for Solomon's Temple.

linwood

I think it is the teacher.

I was a bit misinformed about the nature of the school.
It is not a private voucher school but a charter school which means it is indeed publicly financed.
It`s a bit like sub contracting education to private enterprise.
It has a reputation as an excellent school.

My friend is going to bring in his sons history book to let me have a look as it`s speaking of the Ancient egyptian civilization as roughly 4000 years old and a few other things that just don`t sound right to me.
There is no menton of the Tower iof babel in it which is why my friend chose it because all research on the subject must be independent of any textbook and the boy cannot be faulted with a bad grade merely for not following his textbook.

My friend mentioned that this history teacher believes they have discovered the remains of Noahs Ark on Arafat and that it has been emprically documented .
He gathered this info at the open house at the beginning of the school year.
A quick but subtle kick to the shin from my friends wife kept him from pursuing this Noahs Ark debate at the open house as she didn`t want to start any trouble at a new school but my friend is really having a hard time with this.

I really think someone should do something to bring this crap to the attention of the school head or even eventually the school board.

rob117

Any high school history textbook can tell you that the ziggurats were built as temples to the Mesopotamian gods. The one I used in high school didn't even bother trying to connect them to the Tower of Babel.

As for the assignment mentioning the tower of Babel "having been found"- this is probably an intentionally unclear (perhaps misinformed) reference to the theory that the biblical story was based on the Etemenanki ziggurat to Marduk, which was built, at the latest, by Hammurabi (1728-1686 BC), and is said to have had an unfinished look to it. The theory is that the Hebrews saw this ziggurat and developed a legend about how it was built, which became the Tower of Babel story.

Aspirin99

I would have him compare a traditional Ussher timeline showing the Tower of Babel, then show the ziggurats in actually history, and then show how this was the misguided understanding of language dispersion by showing the development of the Chinese language (which can be documented well enough by 4000 BCE).

Toto

This explains everything. You might need to get the ACLU or AU in on this.

I would not trust someone who believed this to either teach history or give a fair grade on a paper.

funinspace

I don't know of any good internet sources. These are 2 good general archeology books on the Sumerians. They go over the gods, the culture, the development of writing, city states, the legends, etc. One should be able to find something along these lines at most libraries. Though they will be pretty dry to an 8th grader.
The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Kramer
The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C. by Nissen, Hans
ROTFL…Unless one is looking for a fight, I would stay away from this YECer. A comparitive look at the myths, staying very neutral might work. But I would even ask before that. Otherwise, this kid should go for the Mayans.

funinspace

That is absolute crap. Their written history goes solidly back 5,000 years. There are obvious archeological remains that show the Egyptians and Sumerians were evolving their civilization for a 1,000+ years beyond their beginnings of writing. Yes, it was very simple circa 3,000 BCE, but it was there.

linwood

I just thought I`d give an update.

My friend and hios son did this report on The Tower of Babel.

Suffice to say the conclusion of the 3 page report was that there is no evidence to support the Biblical story.
He got an "A" with alot of hand written exclamations about how courageous it was to choose the Tower as the subject and that it was well researched an so on.

My friend said it was a good report but he didn`t think it worthy of the "A".

Makes ya wonder.

Toto

Are you wondering if the teacher overcompensated for her dislike of the conclusion?

linwood

Yes I am but that may be nothing more than my atheistic bias showing.