Genesis 11.1-9

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Be Fruitful! Multiply! Fill the Earth Conquer it

• Genesis 11.1-9

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Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiments

• "Ultimately 65 of all of the "teachers" punished
  the "learners" to the maximum 450 volts. No
  subject stopped before reaching 300 volts!"
• 25 year period - 1961-1985

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Asch - Peer Pressure Experiments

• Asch asked his subjects which line was longer,
  while planted "confederates" would provide peer
  pressure.
• 99 picked the correct line when alone, but in a
  the group setting 76 chose wrongly following the
  plants.

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Genesis 11.1-2

• The whole earth had the same language and the
  same words.
• As they were migrating eastward, they found a
  plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled
  there.

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Shinar
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Genesis 11.3-4

• Each said to his friend, "Come, let us make
  bricks, burning them hard!" - Now bricks for
  stone and bitumen for mortar.
• They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city
  and a tower with its top in the sky, so that we
  make a name for ourselves or else we shall be
  scattered all over the whole earth."

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Genesis 11.5

• And Yahweh came down to see the city and the
  tower which the humans had built.

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Genesis 11.6-7

• Yahweh said, "(hen) One people, One language
  for all of them and this is the beginning of
  their doings. Now nothing will be withheld from
  them from which they purpose to do."
• "Come, let us go down and confuse their
  language there, so that each will not hear his
  friend's speech!"

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Genesis 11.8-9

• So Yahweh scattered them from there over the
  whole earth and they stopped building the city.
• Therefore its name was called Babel, because
  there, Yahweh confused the language of all the
  earth and from there Yahweh scattered them over
  the whole earth.

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Genesis 1-12 A Bird's-Eye View

• Gen 1 God creates by commanding and blessing
  all that God made.
• Gen 2 Humankind's creation is recapitulated.
• Gen 3, 4, 6-9 A Series of failures on the part
  of humankind argues that "sin" is pervasive.
• Gen 12 Abram is called by God so that all
  nations will be blessed via him.

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Genesis 10 11.1-9

• The "Table of Nations" focuses on human diversity
  ethnic, linguistic, territorial. (Sarna)?
• Note especially 10.5, 20, 31 ". . . in their
  lands, each with his own language, their families
  and their nations."
• Gen 10.10 has Nimrod ruling over Babel, etc. in
  Shinar!

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Genesis 10 11.1-9

• Some scholars have therefore argued that Gen
  11.1-9 is a "flashback," which sets the stage for
  the blessings of the nations via Abraham in Gen
  12. (Rogerson Gowan)?

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Traditional Christian Interpretation

• Focusing on phrases like "head in the heavens" or
  "make a name for ourselves" as indications of
  human sin "will to power"
• Focusing on the scattering as judgment from
  Yahweh
• A message of the futility of human works!

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Traditional Jewish Interpretation

• Focusing on phrases like "one language," "one
  people and one language" and "Yahweh confused the
  language"
• The message of the story is the origins of
  multiple languages in the world.

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Negatively Speaking . . . .

• 1. No Sin Mentioned
• In Genesis 3, 4, 6-9 the sin is clearly indicated
  and the "punishment" is meant to be appropriate
  to the "crime."
• Usually a pre- post- discussion occurs

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Positively Speaking . . . .

• 2. Language, Speech Naming are positive
• God creates by verbal command.
• Humankind as created in the "image of God" are
  invited to "name" the animals, all in the context
  of the problem of being "alone." Gen 2.18ff.

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Man gave names to all the Animals!

• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, in the beginning.
• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, long time ago.
• He saw an animal that liked to growl,
• Big furry paws and he liked to howl,
• Great big furry back and furry hair.
• "Ah, think I'll call it a bear."

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Man gave names to all the Animals!

• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, in the beginning.
• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, long time ago.
• He saw an animal up on a hill
• Chewing up so much grass until she was filled.
• He saw milk comin' out but he didn't know how.
• "Ah, think I'll call it a cow."

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Man gave names to all the Animals!

• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, in the beginning.
• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, long time ago.
• He saw an animal that liked to snort,
• Horns on his head and they weren't too short.
• It looked like there wasn't nothin' that he
  couldn't pull.
• "Ah, think I'll call it a bull."

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Man gave names to all the Animals!

• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, in the beginning.
• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, long time ago.
• He saw an animal leavin' a muddy trail,
• Real dirty face and a curly tail.
• He wasn't too small and he wasn't too big.
• "Ah, think I'll call it a pig."

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Man gave names to all the Animals!

• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, in the beginning.
• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, long time ago.
• Next animal that he did meet
• Had wool on his back and hooves on his feet,
• Eating grass on a mountainside so steep.
• "Ah, think I'll call it a sheep."

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Man gave names to all the Animals!

• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, in the beginning.
• Man gave names to all the animals
• In the beginning, long time ago.
• He saw an animal as smooth as glass
• Slithering his way through the grass.
• Saw him disappear by a tree near a lake . . .

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Negatively Speaking . . . .

• 3. As Positive as it was to "name" the animals,
  making "a name for ourselves" smells negative
• God is the one that "changes" the names of Abram,
  Sarai, Jacob, etc.
• "Doing" for others as primary

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Negatively Speaking . . . .

• 4. Cities, nations, people in unity are not
  generally viewed as negative.
• Violence and those things that separate people
  are, with few exceptions, viewed as bad.
• However, "fear" or "anxiety" is depicted in "lest
  we be scattered

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Positively Speaking . . . .

• 5. Scattering as God's Blessing
• God's words/language that created and blessed the
  creation implies that being fruitful,
  multiplying, filling the earth and conquering it
  implies being scattered throughout the "whole
  earth."

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Be Fruitful! Multiply! Fill the Earth Conquer it