Catholic Commentary on Genesis 11

"Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." (Genesis 11:7)

Babel and the Call of Abram

The whole world had one language and one common speech. The people journeyed east and found a plain in Shinar. They said to one another: come, let us build a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. The Babel project is the fullest expression of the autonomy that began in the garden: humanity organising itself around human glory, building upward toward a heaven they will claim on their own terms. God comes down to see the city and the tower and responds: if as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. The Catechism identifies Babel as the ultimate consequence of original sin in its social dimension: the fragmentation of humanity's unity through the pride that substitutes the human name for the divine name (CCC 57).

But the second half of the chapter pivots entirely. The genealogy of Shem leads to Terah, whose son Abram lives in Ur of the Chaldeans. Terah sets out with Abram and Sarai and Lot toward Canaan. They stop at Haran. Terah dies there at 205 years. And the next chapter begins a new movement in the story of God and humanity. From the rubble of Babel, from a family that stops short of Canaan, God is already preparing the call that will begin the answer to the world's fragmentation.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Pentecost is the reversal of Babel. When the Spirit fell and the disciples spoke in tongues and every person heard in their own language the wonders of God, the fragmentation of Genesis 11 began to be undone. The Church, gathered from every language and nation into one Body, is the ongoing reversal of Babel. Every act of unity across cultural and linguistic difference in the Body of Christ is a small Pentecost, a sign that the Spirit has more power than sin's scattering.

Prayer

Lord God, at Babel you scattered the nations and confused their languages. At Pentecost you began to gather them again in the Spirit. Continue the reversal in your Church. Let the diversity of languages become the one praise of the one God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

11
The Tower of Babel
(Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 2:1–13)
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech. 2 And as people journeyed eastward,* 11:2 Or from the east or in the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar † 11:2 That is, Babylonia and settled there.
 
3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.
 
4 “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
 
5 Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. 6 And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. 7 Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
 
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it is called Babel,‡ 11:9 Or Babylon; the Hebrew word for Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused. for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.
Genealogy from Shem to Abram
(1 Chronicles 1:17–27)
 
10 This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11 And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
12 When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.§ 11:13 Hebrew; LXX (see also Luke 3:35–36) 12 When Arphaxad was 135 years old, he became the father of Cainan. 13 And after he had become the father of Cainan, Arphaxad lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters, and then he died. When Cainan had lived 130 years, he became the father of Shelah. And after he had become the father of Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and had other sons and daughters. Note that LXX also adds 100 years to the ages of Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, and Nahor in this genealogy.
 
14 When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
16 When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
18 When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
20 When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
22 When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
24 When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
 
26 When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah’s Descendants
 
27 This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
 
29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
 
31 And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

*11:2 11:2 Or from the east or in the east

†11:2 11:2 That is, Babylonia

‡11:9 11:9 Or Babylon; the Hebrew word for Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.

§11:13 11:13 Hebrew; LXX (see also Luke 3:35–36) 12 When Arphaxad was 135 years old, he became the father of Cainan. 13 And after he had become the father of Cainan, Arphaxad lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters, and then he died. When Cainan had lived 130 years, he became the father of Shelah. And after he had become the father of Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and had other sons and daughters. Note that LXX also adds 100 years to the ages of Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, and Nahor in this genealogy.

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