Babels Tower Translated: Genesis 11 and Ancient Jewish Interpretation (Biblical Interpretation)
Phillip Michael Sherman
Language: English
Pages: 378
ISBN: 9004205098
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In "Babel's Tower Translated," Phillip Sherman explores the narrative of Genesis 11 and its reception and interpretation in several Second Temple and Early Rabbinic texts (e.g., Jubilees, Philo, Genesis Rabbah). The account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is famously ambiguous. The meaning of the narrative and the actions of both the human characters and the Israelite deity defy any easy explanation. This work explores how changing historical and hermeneutical realities altered and shifted the meaning of the text in Jewish antiquity.
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Babel and Diversity (Chicago: McCormick Theological Seminary, 2004). 8 Hiebert, “The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World’s Cultures,” 31. 9 His attempt to dethrone the dominant reading of the narrative has elicited a number of rejoinders. As will be clear below (chapter one), I agree with much of Hiebert’s thesis concerning the meaning of the narrative of Babel. At the same time, the bulk of this work seeks to demonstrate that the negative reading of the Babelites and their building
(Gen 1–Exod 12). The work was originally composed in Hebrew, although the text as a whole has been preserved only in Ethiopic.4 Fragmentary evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls indicates “as far as can be ascertained, the published Hebrew fragments show that the Ethiopic translation is a rather faithful one.”5 VanderKam has surveyed the various genre labels suggested for the work: 1 Sukanta Chaudhuri, Translation and Understanding (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 10. 2 George Steiner,
generic ‘Gentile’ designation to a more specific one. He reads Jospehus’ works, including the Antiquities, as a product of an author working under the constraints—both literary and political—of Flavian Rome. Mason notes that Josephus’ literary career took place entirely within the city of Rome. Scholars have failed to take this particular context with the seriousness it deserves. To the extent that literary parallels are adduced they are often to Greek literature (such as Thucydides). Reading
the whole question of author vs. authors is irrelevant for this study as I am primarily concerned with the readers of Babel. 11 Gunkel, Genesis, 94–102. 12 Christoph Uehlinger, Weltreich und “eine Rede”: Eine neue Deutung der sogenannten Turmbauerzahlung (Gen 11, 1–9) (OBO 101; Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990), 293–584. Uehlinger suggests that the current narrative went through four separate redactions. His approach to the narrative has largely been
defensive one. If the deity attempts to flood the earth again, the people will be prepared. They will construct, not an ark, but a tower. This initial motive for building the tower certainly speaks to the people’s sense of self-preservation. In this instance, however, rather than simply refusing a divine command to colonize, the people are engaged in actual rebellion against the divine through the fortification of their city on the plain. Nimrod goes further, however. The tower is not only to be