What if the Tower of Babel isn’t about a skyscraper at all, or trying to ‘reach God,’ but about language, thought and power? We begin our series with the strange little story - consisting of only nine verses- situated between the Noah episode and the great patriarch Abraham — and why it might be one of the few (if any) political passages in the Bible.

In the series, we’ll be taking a deep dive into Genesis 11 (1-9) the Babel story to open up its valuable teaching. We’ll discover the Bible’s take on free speech, freedom, and human flourishing. We’ll encounter God in sarcastic mode, and we’ll consider whether or not the people in the story were actually punished or not. We will consider how the story speaks so clearly to us today – with some surprising conclusions about the way we live and the choices we make. And the danger we are in.

In this episode, we consider (amongst other things), who actually builds Babel? No names. No faces. Just a mass of anonymised labour. Is this new technological invention of harder burnt bricks a sign of progress? Is it what we would even call progressive? The Bible quietly asks whether progress can hide a new kind of oppression or even slavery. We can see Links with the Exodus story, in terms of both the language used and the identifiable themes. Consider these words which begin the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

God is not simply rescuing Israel from one wicked ruler.

He is rescuing them from a type of society. One that often begins in the city. The development of new building materials leads to the building of cities. The Ten commandments then become instructions for how not to rebuild Babel.

Dr Caroline Kaye (The Sideways Thinker) presents this series aimed at non believers and believers alike exploring the West’s foundational texts - in order to see them anew. Dr Kaye holds graduate and post graduate qualifications in Religions and Theology from the University of Wales Trinity St. David and the University of Manchester She also holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Art History with Biblical themes from the Manchester Metropolitan University.

Images are AI adaptations of the author’s own sketches and drawings, in addition to adaptations from Breugel’s renowned paintings of the Tower of Babel.

Music is Stars and Laurels by Shane Ivers for Silverman Sounds.

https://www.silvermansound.com

Books mentioned in this episode:

Judy Klitsner, Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other, Philadelphia, JPS, 2009.

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