Table of Contents
Babel means “gateway of the power” or “power gate”
Tower of Babel 8,800–8,600 BCE
Translation
1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime bitumen had they for morter.
4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5And the יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh · Strong’s H 3068The personal name of the God of Israel, often read as Yahweh; KJV prints it as LORD.Read more came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of humans builded.
Note: If God (the Lord) was omnipresent, it didn't need to come down, so it's more likely this refers to an intermediate. Answer: YHWH
6And the יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh · Strong’s H 3068The personal name of the God of Israel, often read as Yahweh; KJV prints it as LORD.Read more 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.
Note: the second mention of humans speaking one language Atlantis
7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Note: God is plural here – let us go down
When I put verses 6 and 7 next to each other, they do not read like one speaker. In verse 6 one god looks at the people and sees one people with one language, and that nothing they plan will be held back from them. In verse 7 the voice is suddenly plural: “let us go down, and there confound their language”. One sees the problem, and a group goes down to break up the language. Genesis 1:26 has the same plural in “let us make man”. To me this sounds like a council of gods, where one of them reports and the others act, more than one god talking to himself. I follow that many-gods reading on The Gods in the Bible and Elohim.
8So the יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh · Strong’s H 3068The personal name of the God of Israel, often read as Yahweh; KJV prints it as LORD.Read more scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD Elohim YHWH scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Babel means “gateway of the power” or “power gate”
Paul A. Wallis reads the Tower of Babel in a different way. In the usual telling, God punishes people for a tower that is too tall and splits their language. Wallis says this reading is not complete. To him, Babel was a “stargate”, a portal or technology for fast access to outer space. The word Babel means “gateway of the power” or “power gate”.
He sets the story next to the Sumerian Enuma Elish, where advanced beings and their technology play the main role. In his view, Babel was a space project that other powerful beings shut down by force. The loss of one language was less a punishment and more an attack on how people communicate, and a society fell apart because of it. I find this reading fits the plural “let us go down” in verse 7 very well.
I put the full talk and my notes on it on its own page: Paul Wallis on the Tower of Babel as a stargate.
Genealogy
10These are the generations of Shem: Shem was 100 years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
11And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
13And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah 403 years, and begat sons and daughters.
14And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
15And Salah lived after he begat Eber 403 years, and begat sons and daughters.
16And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
17And Eber lived after he begat Peleg 430 years, and begat sons and daughters.
18And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
19And Peleg lived after he begat Reu 209 years, and begat sons and daughters.
20And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
21And Reu lived after he begat Serug 207 years, and begat sons and daughters.
22And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
23And Serug lived after he begat Nahor 200 years, and begat sons and daughters.
24And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
25And Nahor lived after he begat Terah 119 years, and begat sons and daughters.
26And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Abram and Sarai
29And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
30But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
32And the days of Terah were 205 years: and Terah died in Haran.
The genealogy from Arphaxad to Terah
Arphaxad
- Age when he became a father: 35 years old (Genesis 11:12)
- Age at death: 438 years old (Genesis 11:13)
- Location: Not specified
Shelah
- Age when he became a father: 30 years old (Genesis 11:14)
- Age at death: Not specified
- Location: Not specified
Eber
- Age when he became a father: 34 years old (Genesis 11:16)
- Age at death: Not specified
- Location: Not specified
Peleg
- Age when he became a father: 30 years old (Genesis 11:18)
- Age at death: 239 years old (Genesis 11:19)
- Location: Not specified
Reu
- Age when he became a father: 32 years old (Genesis 11:20)
- Age at death: 239 years old (Genesis 11:21)
- Location: Not specified
Serug
- Age when he became a father: 30 years old (Genesis 11:22)
- Age at death: 230 years old (Genesis 11:23)
- Location: Not specified
Nahor
- Age when he became a father: 29 years old (Genesis 11:24)
- Age at death: 148 years old (Genesis 11:25)
- Location: Nahor settled in the city of Haran (Genesis 11:31).
Terah
- Age when he became a father: Not specified
- Age at death: 205 years old (Genesis 11:32)
- Location: Terah lived in Ur of the Chaldeans and later settled in Haran, where he died (Genesis 11:28, 11:31).
