The Tower of Babel

Throughout the Mesopatamian region (region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq), there are dozens of brick built towers whose remains today look like large molehills, having been eroded with time. Many archeologists have investigated these mounds such as Wolley, Rawlinson, Layard, among others, and have found a wealth of information about the early culture of this most ancient of places. These towers are most commonly referred to as ziggurats or pyramids.

We believe the prototype for all the towers in this region, and around the world for that matter, is the Tower of Babel, mentioned in the book of Genesis, that was built in conjunction with a great rebellion by the worlds population shortly after the Flood. The remains of this tower are believed by some to be located in the region of Borsippa (included in the photo section), which is today called Birs Nimrud , identifying it with that rebel Nimrod whose kingdom began with the building of Babel and its infamous Tower. The name Borsippa means, “tongue-tower”, reminding us of the time when “the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9). Inscriptions unearthed there indicate that Nebuchadnezzar had rebuilt this tower whose structure appeared to be abandoned.

“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 circuits, 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 in ancient days, so I exalted its summit.” (King Nebuchadnezzar, c. 605 B.C.)

The original tower of Babel had its top dedicated unto heaven, and so Nebuchadnezzar, as we just read, exalted its summit as in ancient days. We believe it was at Babel where the post-Flood descendants of Noah rebelled and began to worship and serve the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). They unwittingly began to worship the fallen angels who were subtly behind, or in the guise of “the host of heaven” they so venerated ( See Appendix III ).

God then came down and judged those rebels, confusing their language, and from thence they were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:9), bringing with them their Babylonish religion. This religion then spread like cancer and metastasized into all kinds of idolatry, so that “every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places ... every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt” (2 Kings 17:29). In the course of time this original rebellion evolved into all the religions we see today that do not worship the one true God and Creator.

For a season, God “suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16), “And the times of this ignorance God winked at” (Acts 17:30), but during this time the nations reaped the wages of sin, suffering the corruption they sowed, which led them further and further into the depths of depravity.

Unfortunately, even Israel became susceptible to this form of rebellion. When they were led out of the land of Egypt, before they crossed over the Jordan, the Lord God told them to “Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest : But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee” (Deuteronomy 12:12-13).

There was only one God and Creator and not many as the heathen portrayed, therefore only one altar to bring their sacrifices. Israel's offerings were not to be offered in any place they wished, specifically the “high places” of the heathen, but were to be brought before the Lord in the place that He appointed. Those who refused to comply were to be cut off from among the people.

“What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people : To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the LORD” (Leviticus 17:3-5).

In fact, Israel was told, “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place” (Deuteronomy 12:2-3).

However, when they came into the land of Canaan, instead of destroying all their gods and the places of worship associated with them, they adopted them for their own worship and offered sacrifice in the “high places” which they built, the very thing that God forbade them.

“... and they built them high places in all their cities ... And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger” (2 Kings 17:11 See also 1 Kings 14:23 & 2 Kings 21:3).

But who were these Canaanites anyway? And where did they get this form of religion? These were the descendants of Noah's grandson Canaan, who was one of those original rebels at Babel. When God confused their language and scattered them abroad, Canaan and his clan migrated down to the region that in later years bore his name.

To that location they brought the abominable religion that originated at Babel, and in their new region of habitation they too built “high places” to worship the “host of heaven” . They kept their gods in the “houses (Hebrew: bayith, also translated temple) of the high places” (1 Kings 13:32, 2 Kings 17:29-32, 23:19-20) which they built atop these “towers”, and there they “burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven” (2 Kings 23:5). This form of religion they most certainly brought with them from Babel.

At Babel 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” (Genesis 11:4). And since that great rebellion, “every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places ... every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt” (2 Kings 17:29).

You may click on the Red Spots on the map at the top of the page to bring you to locations around the world, where we will find reproductions of that original tower built at Babel, whose remnants are still in existence today. These surely help our understanding to see how Babylon became “THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:5).