There Tower of Babel is mentioned in Bible in the book of Genesis (11, 1-9). It would have been a structure built of bricks by men, who in this way wanted to erect a building destined to reach the sky. In the midst of the works, to punish men for their pride in wanting to build such a tall building, God descended to earth and confused the language they spoke (one and only, according to the biblical story). In this way people would no longer be able to understand each other and the work would be interrupted. In the Genesis thus we find the Jewish (and then Christian) explanation of why the human race speaks different languages. But what is true in the story? According to some of the most recent studies, this story could have its origins in a structure that actually existed Babylonthe Ziggurat Etemenanki.
First of all, let’s clarify the biblical name. Despite the assonance between the word “Babel” and the city of Babylon, the two things have nothing to do with each other. In the original text in Jewish the tower is defined as בבל, bavèlfrom the verb balalwhat does it mean “confuse“, in reference to confusion of languages of men caused by God to prevent the construction of the building. The association with the Mesopotamian city of Babylon would only come later.
In fact, despite the story of the Genesis traditionally be attributed to the time of Mosesthat is, a mid-2nd millennium BCmost of the philologists believes today that the first book of the Bible was composed in his version definitive much later, between the 6th and 5th centuries. B.Cstarting from attributable material at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCthat is, the period of the formation of theancient kingdom of Israel.
Consequently, the definitive version of the text that we know was the result of several transformations And integrations which were distributed over a period of at least half a millennium. Among other things, the definitive formulation of the Genesis (like much of the biblical text) would coincide with the period of Jewish history known as “Babylonian captivity“, a phase crucial for the development of Judaism, between the 7th and 5th centuries. B.C
In fact, in this period the Jews came deported in Mesopotamia by their conquerors, the Assyrians hey Babyloniansfollowing the fall of the two Jewish kingdoms of the Iron Age, viz the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. In response to trauma of exile and deportationthe Jewish people formalized much of his identityand many of the elements of current Jewish culture they originated precisely in this period. Among these also the definitive versions of many books of theOld Testament. The story of the Tower of Babel was also included in the book of Genesis probably during the Babylonian captivity. It was then in fact that the Jews saw the great one ziggurat Etemenanki of Babylon.
The Etemenanki was there main ziggurat of the city, described by many ancient authors as gigantic in size. It was built in several stages and by several sovereigns in the second half of the 2nd millennium BCin fired and glazed bricks, with a large number of decorations. Although not much remains of the structure today, scholars believe it reached 66 meters in heightdeveloped on several steps, notable dimensions for a building of that period. Most likely, the size and beauty of the Etemenanki they inspired the writers of Genesis in formulating the story of the Tower of Babel.
The Greek historian Herodotus saw and described in the fifth century. B.C the stepped ziggurat, giving us a not very distant idea of what the Jews saw just a century earlier:
In the middle of the enclosure there was a tower of solid masonry, a stadium long and wide (about 200 metres), on which a second tower had been raised, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The climb to the top is outside, via a path that winds through all the towers. About halfway, there is a resting place with seats, where people can sit for a while before continuing up the hill. At the top there is a large temple, inside which there is a sofa of unusual dimensions, next to which there is a golden table. There is no statue, and no one spends the night there, except a single woman, who, as the Babylonian priests say, is chosen by the god from among all the women of this country.
Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. C. ordered the ziggurat to be demolished for rebuild itbut the death of the sovereign definitively blocked the works. The Etemenanki then fell into oblivion.
