mark9950

We will know in 20 years when the Chinese will bring it back or tell us that is is not there.

Maybe the chinese will meet God?

CX

Additionally if one is interested in the development of Indo-European language which illustrates somewhat the implausibility of the TOB myth I'd recommend the essay at the beginning of the "American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots".

HaysooChreesto!

Is the Tower of Babel story supposed to be taken as an historical event or is it supposed to be an allegory of sorts? Either way it stinks on ice in that even if it is allegorical it basically says that humanity should do nothing to improve itself and that if it does we will be smitten with various horrors. No?

mike_decock

I think a person of faith would interpet it to mean that man shouldn't attempt to elevate himself to the level of God. That reaching for Heaven should be a spiritual quest, not a physical quest.

-Mike...

rlogan

Hey Mike - welcome aboard as a moderator!

Anyway, that is one possible interpretation. From my KJV we have this reasoning:

"6": And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

From this I gather that God does not want us to accomplish too much. I can see a kind of reverse reasoning going on here. We have to explain why there are different languages. Their existence confounds joint work. Therefore that must have been God's purpose...

In the opening post it was asked whether there is evidence of other languages, pre-Babel. The evidence is that there were inhabitants of the Americas 12,000 years ago - and they weren't speaking semitic languages.

mike_decock

Thanks.

Somewhat along the lines of God evicting Adam and Eve "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" In Gen 3:22.

Yup. The languages of Australian Aborigines probably trace back some 50,000 years.

-Mike...