NOTES for Gen 10:32-11:9
The historical basis of the parable of the Tower of Babel is obvious: Semitic tribes, among whom were the ancestors of the Hebrews, then still living a nomadic life, first saw stepped pyramidal temples--ziggurats--in Mesopotamia, where they first came around the middle of the third millennium BC. Meanwhile, the builders of the ziggurats themselves perceived them as a ladder linking heaven and earth. It is no surprise that in the historical memory of recent nomads, gradually settling on the land in Mesopotamia and joining the civilization of the Sumerians--the builders of sacred towers--traditions arose about builders of ladders leading to heaven.
But on the basis of these traditions, the sacred writer creates his own parable, in which he places his own emphases. First of all, he draws readers' attention to the fact that the builders of the tower want to become famous, "people of name," so that they will not be scattered over the earth. The same kind of "men with a name" as the pre-flood "giants." And in order to carry out the grandiose project, they create a strong state, so that all the builders became "one people" with "one language" (these Hebrew expressions are calques from Akkadian, the language of ancient Babylon, in which they denoted unity of power over a certain territory and over certain peoples).
Indeed, how else could fallen humanity assert itself on earth except through a demonstration of its own strength and significance? And for this, great projects carried out by great powers fit perfectly. Only, as we see, God has no need of either these projects or these powers. He "comes down," draws near to the builders, and from His nearness the great power collapses and the great project stops. When God is close, when He is near, those who feel His nearness no longer have time for imperial greatness or "great construction projects."
And meanwhile the story did not end in antiquity: even the contemporaries of the author of the parable, written in Babylon during the exile, could see the same tower. Ziggurats were built not only by the Sumerians, but also by the Babylonians. The history of fallen humanity continued. The history of collapsing great powers and unfinished great construction projects falling into desolation.