In the Beginning

by Isaac Asimov

  361. A tower could also be a place of worship. Since it was common to worship sun-gods, sky-gods, and storm-gods, one would try to get closer to the homes of these gods in the sky, in order that the prayers, and the scent of the sacrifices, would have a better chance of reaching their target.

  In hilly regions, it would be reasonable to set up an altar on a hilltop. Perhaps the Sumerians did so in the hilly land in which they lived before they migrated to the Tigris-Euphrates. In the flat plain of that region, they may well have felt it necessary to build an artificial hill if they were to expect their religious rites to be noticed by the gods. It is for that reason they might build a tower, and in that sense they would hope that its “top may reach unto heaven.”

  362. If a tower were not built, it might follow that through inability to mount a strong defense (in the case of a military tower) or to mobilize divine forces (in the case of a religious tower), the people would not make “a name” for themselves; that is, become famous as successful warriors. In that case, they might be driven from the land and “scattered abroad.”

  5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, 363 which the children of men builded.

  363. We have here another primitive tale of the J-document in which God is pictured as though he had limited powers. He must come down to Earth to see the city and tower.

  6 And the Lord 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.364

  364. God seems to be described here as fearing the powers of united humanity. One gets the impression that God is angered by human presumption in daring to try to build something high enough to reach heaven (if the phrase is accepted literally, rather than metaphorically). If so, the tone of this verse is rather that of God fearing that humanity will attempt to storm heaven and conquer it and that he, God, must take measures quickly to prevent it.

  It is, of course, possible to interpret it otherwise—that God does not wish human beings to undertake foolish tasks beyond their capacity (and there would be many who would apply the lesson to the present time). But that requires interpretation. The literal words present a primitive picture of the Deity.

  7 Go to, let us 365 go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.366

  365. This would seem to be another remnant of an ancient polytheistic outlook that the Biblical editors could not, or did not, remove.

  366. By proceeding to “confound their language” (that is, have different people speak different languages), God destroys the unity of humanity, performing a kind of mental descent into Chaos equivalent to the physical descent of the Flood.

  8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.367

  367. In particular, one presumes, they were unable to continue building the tower.

  The Sumerians did build towers for religious purposes, and these were called ziggurats (their word for “pinnacle” or “mountain peak”). One of them was ordered begun gun by a Sumerian king and was left unfinished, perhaps as a result of the disorders involved in the wars of Sargon of Agade. For centuries, this ziggurat remained incomplete and perhaps gained fame because of its shortcoming (as does the Leaning Tower of Pisa or Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony). It may be that this unfinished ziggurat served as the model for the tale of the unfinished tower.

  9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: 368 and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

  368. The Biblical theory is that Babel was called that from the Hebrew word balal, meaning “to mix” or “to confuse.” This is a bit of folk-etymology that is flat wrong. “Babel” is the Hebrew version of the Babylonian Bab-ilu, meaning “the gate of God.”

  There was an unfinished ziggurat in Babel (Babylon) at that, though it may not have been the one that originally inspired the legend, which is probably quite an old one. It was, however, the one in Babylon that caused the writers of the P-document to place the legendary tower there, perhaps.

  The unfinished ziggurat in Babylon was called Etemenanki, meaning “house of the foundation of heaven and earth.” In the sixth century B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled Babylon at its peak of greatness, finished it (or perhaps rebuilt it). It was the largest ziggurat ever built. It was formed in seven diminishing stages (one for each of the planets). The bottommost stage was about 300 feet square, and the whole thing reared 325 feet into the air. Building it was a remarkable feat, considering the state of the art at the time; it was the largest structure of its day in southwestern Asia.

  Although there are many people who know of the unfinished “tower of Babel,” there are probably few who know that it was eventually finished.

  10 These are the generations of Shem: 369Shem was an hundred years old, 370 and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 371

  369. We now return to the P-document, which takes up the genealogy of Shem, carrying it down to the founding of the Israelite line.

  370. Noah was five hundred years old when his children were born, and Shem was his oldest son. Since the Flood came when Noah was six hundred years old, Shem was one hundred when the Flood began. The genealogy, in other words, begins with the Flood.

  371. The Flood lasted a year, according to the P-document, so Shem was 103 years old when Arphaxad was born.

  11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, 372 and begat sons and daughters.

  372. Shem died, in other words, at the age of 603. His lifetime was not quite two-thirds that of his father, Noah, and the ages now continue to grow steadily shorter.

  12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:

  13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

  14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

  15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

  16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: 373

  373. If we add up the ages of these “postdiluvian patriarchs” at the time they had their children, it will turn out that Peleg was born 102 years after the beginning of the Flood, or 1,758 years after the Creation; that is, in 2246 B.C. At that time, Noah was still alive, for he lived 350 years after the Flood.

  17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

  18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:

  19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, 374 and begat sons and daughters.

  374. Peleg died at the age of 239; that is, in 2007 B.C. Noah was still alive at that time, being 940 years old. He outlived Peleg by ten years, dying in 1998 B.C.

  If the statement in Genesis 10:25, that in Peleg’s time the earth was divided, refers to the Tower of Babel, then that would imply that the tower was in the process of being built sometime between 2247 and 2008 B.C. This period is in late Sumerian times, and that is a reasonable statement—for the building of the tower, though not for the confounding of the language.

  20 And Reu lived two and thirty years and begat Serug:

  21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

  22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

  23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

  24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

  25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

  26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, 375 Nahor, 376 and Haran.377

  375. Abram, later called Abraham, is the direct ancestor of the Israelites and some related tribes.

  By adding up the year
s in this chapter, it would seem that Abram was born in 2055 B.C., at which time Noah was still alive. In fact, Noah doesn’t die until Abram is fifty-seven years old. Shem is also still alive. Since Shem lived 502 years after the Flood, he outlived Abram by thirty-five years, dying in 1845 B.C. (Noah and Shem must have been painfully puzzled by the decreasing life-span of their descendants.)

  376. Nahor is mentioned because his daughter will marry Abraham’s son, and his granddaughter will marry Abraham’s grandson, so that he, too, is a direct ancestor of the Israelites. Nahor is exceptional in one respect. Most of the names in the Bible are unique, and there are few cases of two individuals bearing the same name. Nahor is an exception since he boars the name of his grandfather.

  377. Haran is named since his son will be involved with Abram in later chapters.

  27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.378

  378. Lot, Abram’s nephew, is the one who will be involved with him in later chapters and who will be de scribed as the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites, neighbors and enemies of the Israelites.

  28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur 379 of the Chaldees.380

  379. The J-document takes up the tale now.

  Ur was a Sumerian city, founded no later than 3500 b.c. and located on the right bank of the Euphrates River about 140 miles southeast of Babylon, right at what was then the coastline of the Persian Gulf.

  It was eclipsed by Lugal-zaggisi and Sargon of Agade, but after their empires were gone, Ur entered another period of commercial prosperity under its “third dynasty” between 2050 and 1950 B.C., and Abram was born just about at the beginning of this period.

  380. By the time the Bible reached its written form, Ur was a decayed and obscure village. It had to be defined as “Ur of the Chaldees” (or Chaldeans); that is “Ur, a city in the Chaldean territory.” The Chaldeans were an Arabian tribe who became dominant in what had once been Sumeria in 1150 B.C. Abram’s Ur flourished seven centuries before the Chaldeans arrived, but to the readers of the Bible when it was first reduced to writing, the land was Chaldean territory.

  29 And 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.

  30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

  31 And 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, 381 and dwelt there.

  381. The normal trade routes from Ur to Canaan followed a curve of fertile land, going first northwest and then southwest (the “fertile crescent”) thus skirting the Arabian desert. Haran, or Charan, was an important city on the northern peak of the fertile crescent. To the Greeks and Romans it was known as Carrhae. It is located on the eastern bank of the Balikh River, which flows south into the upper Euphrates, sixty miles away. It is in what is now southeastern Turkey, just north of the Syrian border.

  32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: 382 and Terah died in Haran.

  382. Terah is the last person in the Bible who is specifically said to have lived more than two hundred years. If we follow the figures of the P-document, he died in 1921 B.C., when Abram was 135 years old. Shem and Arphaxad were still alive at the death of Terah.

  With this, the Biblical account of primeval history comes to an end.

  Appendix

  Primeval History According to the P-Document

  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God’ said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.

  This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Ada
m, in the day when they were created.

  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: and all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

  And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: and Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

  And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: and Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

  And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: and Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

  And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: and Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

  And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

  And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

  And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

  And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son [Noah]: and Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.