The Worth of Words

Abstract

“The Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9 is so rich in associations that one could mine it a good while before exhausting its lode …. Did the tale-bearer intend the pun inherent in the peoples' desire to ‘make a name for themselves’? … At any rate, such was the early writer's explanation for the confusion of tongues he found about him. And the result of the breakdown of communication was, predictably, the dissolution of human society. A more concise, graphic explanation for the state of human affairs could scarcely be imagined. What more is there to say except to document the same phenomenon in our own age?”