Archeologist Doug Petrovich explains why he thinks he has identified the site of the Tower of Babel based on a variety of evidences from the Ancient Near East.
𝘐𝘴 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺? features over a dozen scientists and scholars explaining how the world intersects with the history recorded in Genesis. From rock layers to fossils, from lions to stars, from the Bible to artifacts, this fascinating film will change the way you see the world. The film’s goal is to provide a reasonable case for Creation in six normal days, a real Adam and Eve, an actual fall, a global flood, and a tower of Babel. Dr. Del Tackett, creator of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵, serves as your guide—hiking through canyons, climbing up mountains, and diving below the sea—in an exploration of two competing views…one compelling truth.
Saddam Hussein was obsessed with this history, as this article shows.
The Greek historian, Herodotus, about 500 B.C., described the structure, which then consisted of a series of eight ascending towers, each one recessed in turn, with a spiral roadway running around it as a means of climbing to the top.
Babylonian legend (of which we’ll get to) asserted that it had originally been built by Nimrod, which coincides with the Biblical record. In fact, the region, about ten miles southwest of Babylon’s center is still called Birs Nimroud. The structure as Herodotus described it was more than seven hundred feet tall, of which three hundred feet remain to this day.
The descendants of Noah built this tower. The list of primeval nations in Genesis 10, “the Table of Nations”, is by far the most complete and accurate listing of the tribes and nations of antiquity. One of the world’s greatest archaeologists, William F. Albright, called it “an astonishingly accurate document.” It lists the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (the three sons of Noah) and indicates what regions they settled. (For an excellent book that is free online in its entirety, I recommend: After the Flood.) Many historical documents from many cultures trace back their ancestry to these three “sons of Noah.” The ziggurats, and pyramids, and bow & arrow, as well as boomerangs being used and built by every culture on every continent is a hint to mankind all living together at one time; and having common technology.
LANGUAGE
Many scientists who study the origin of languages, known as philologists, have concluded that it is probable that the thousands of dialects and languages can be traced back to an original language in man’s ancient past. Professor Alfredo Trombetti (Italian linguist) claims that he can prove the common origin of all languages. Max Mueller, one of the greatest oriental language scholars, declared that all human languages can be traced back to one single oriental language. Chinese is the most ancient (although probably not the original [root] language), fully recorded, still used, language around, going back to over 3,000 years ago.
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Scientific American notes the history of all languages coming from a single source when they note that languages “as diverse as English, Russian and Hindi can trace their roots back more than 8,000 years to Anatolia — now in modern-day Turkey.” Scientific American continues:
That’s the conclusion of a study that assessed 103 ancient and contemporary languages using a technique normally used to study the evolution and spread of disease. The researchers hope that their findings can settle a long-running debate about the origins of the Indo-European language group.
English, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Greek and Hindi might all sound very different, but there are many commonalities, such as the Dutch moeder, Spanish madre and Russian mat’, all of which mean “mother”. On this basis, researchers have concluded that more than a hundred languages across Europe and the Middle East, from Iceland to Sri Lanka, stem from a common ancestor.
TRUE ORIGINS, a site dedicated in-large-part to responding to Talk Origins, notes that many evolutionary theories/theorists postulate a single source for all our languages, in this case, language coming from about 2,000 people (video to the right):
Many evolutionary linguists believe that all human languages have descended from a single, primitive language, which itself evolved from the grunts and noises of the lower animals. The single most influential “hopeful monster” theory of the evolution of human language was proposed by the famous linguist from MIT, Noam Chomsky, and has since been echoed by numerous linguists, philosophers, anthropologists, and psychologists. Chomsky argued that the innate ability of children to acquire the grammar necessary for a language can be explained only if one assumes that all grammars are variations of a single, generic ‘universal grammar’, and that all human brains come “with a built-in language organ that contains this language blueprint.”
See a creationist take on this, here.
Ancient History 101
The French government sent Professor Oppert to report on the cuneiform inscriptions discovered in the ruins of Babylon. Oppert translated a long inscription by King Nebuchadnezzar in which the king referred to the tower in the Chaldean language as Barzipp, which means “Tongue-Power.” The Greeks used the word Borsippa, with the same meaning of Tongue-power, to describe the ruins of the Tower of Babel. This inscription of Nebuchadnezzar clearly identified the original tower of Borsippa with the Tower of Babel described by Moses in Genesis. King Nebuchadnezzar decided to rebuild the base of the ancient Tower of Babel, built over sixteen centuries earlier by Nimrod, the first King of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the city of Babylon in great magnificence with gold, silver, cedar, and fir, at great cost on top of a hard surface of baked clay bricks. These bricks were engraved with the seal of Nebuchadnezzar. At the base of the Tower of Babel is this inscription by King Nebuchadnezzar that, in his own words from thousands of years ago, confirm one of the most amazing events of the ancient past.
Biblical scholars have long debated whether the Tower of Babel really existed. Now, a remarkable stone tablet never before shown on film appears to settle that question.
Here is a picture (right) from a newly discovered find Discovery Channel notes in their “archaeology” section:
A team of scholars has discovered what might be the oldest representation of the Tower of Babel of Biblical fame, they report in a newly published book.
Carved on a black stone, which has already been dubbed the Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE.
It was found in the collection of Martin Schøyen, a businessman from Norway who owns the largest private manuscript assemblage formed in the 20th century.
Consisting of 13,717 manuscript items spanning over 5,000 years, the collection includes parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Buddhist manuscript rescued from the Taliban, and even cylcon symbols by Australia’s Aborigines which can be up to 20,000 years old.
The collection also includes a large number of pictographic and cuneiform tablets — which are some of the earliest known written documents — seals and royal inscription spanning most of the written history of Mesopotamia, an area near modern Iraq.
[….]
“Here we have for the first time an illustration contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar II’s restoring and enlargement of the Tower of Babel, and with a caption making the identity absolutely sure,” the Schøyen Collection stated on its website.
Take note even “bar-tabs” were discussed from the time.
THE INSCRIPTION
“The tower, the eternal house, which I founded and built. I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enameled bricks, fir and pine. The first which is the house of the earth’s base, the most ancient monument of Babylon; I built and finished it. I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper. We say for the other, that is, this edifice, the house of the seven lights of the earth the most ancient monument of Borsippa. A former king built it, (they reckon 42 ages) but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed the sun-dried clay. The bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great god, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site nor did I take away the foundation. In a fortunate month, in an auspicious day, I undertook to build porticoes around the crude brick masses, and the casing of burnt bricks. I adapted the ciruits, I put the inscription of my name in the Kitir of the portico. I set my hand to finish it. And to exalt its head. As it had been done in ancient days, so I exalted its summit.”
(See more at WIKI, and, Bible Probe)
This inscription was translated by Professor Oppert. In addition, Mr. William Loftus translated this fascinating inscription in his book, Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Sinai. This incredible inscription confirms the Biblical accuracy of one of the most fascinating stories in the Book of Genesis.
Wikipedia gets in on the action as well:
…The Tower of Babel has been associated with known structures according to some modern scholars, notably the Etemenanki, a ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk by Nabopolassar, king of Babylonia (c. 610 BCE). The Great Ziggurat of Babylon was 91 metres (300 ft) in height. Alexander the Great ordered it demolished circa 331 BCE in preparation for a reconstruction that his death forestalled. A Sumerian story with some similar elements is told in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta…
The pagan king Nebuchadnezzar confirms in his own words the incredible details that a “former king built it, but he did not complete its head,” confirming the truthfulness of the Genesis account that God stopped the original builders from completing the top of the Tower of Babel. Most significantly, King Nebuchadnezzar’s inscription declares that the reason the original king could not complete the tower was because, “Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words.” In other words, they lost the ability to control their language and communication!
Compare the statement of Nebuchadnezzar, “A former king built it, but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it,” with the words of Moses in Genesis 11:7; “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.” Even more startling is the phrase of the pagan king where he declared that the reason they could not complete the top of the “Tongue-tower” was that the “people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words.”
CONCLUSION
Non-God History Shows:
Tower of Babel a real place;
✦ Herodotus confirms;
✦ Alexander the Great’s historians confirm;
✦ Cuniform discoveries support as well (found in the collection of Martin Schøyen as one example).
DESTRUCTION
✦ Non-Biblical archaeology shows that there was an event dealing with its destruction.
LANGUAGES
✦ Non-Biblical archaeology shows that there was an event at the Tower dealing with language;
✦ Ancient Chinese history also support this idea.
LANGUAGES COME FROM A SINGLE SOURCE
✦ Linguists support this
✦ Science journals support this
This equals a pretty amazing “coincidence” in my book. Biblical History is wonderfully rich.