Latter Day Saints and the Tower of Babel

[_Maksutov]

LDS members are supposed to believe in the literal ToB because it's affirmed in the Book of Mormon as well as other scriptures. Of course modern scholarship has shown such a dispersion of languages to be mythical and the tower itself to be a legend. Why don't Mormon scholars demonstrate the truth of the Book of Mormon by giving us evidence of the Tower? Do we know which continent it was on? Or can this story be discarded as folklore and invention, as we can the Book of Mormon itself?

[Guest]

From what I understand, the line being taken by apologists is that...takes a breath...even though the Tower of Babel is a known legend now, the Nephites didn't know it was a legend and mistakenly related it in their history as a literal event.

But sadly for them, the Church disagrees.

For some in the modern world, the historicity of the tower of Babel story, as with the Flood, is often discounted. One modern school of thought considers the account to be nothing more than an “artful parable” and an “old tale.” 11 But Latter-day Saints accept the story as it is presented in Genesis. Further, we have the second witness of the Book of Mormon. The title page of the Book of Mormon explains that the book of Ether “is a record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven.” The book of Ether itself then tells of when “Jared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth” (Ether 1:33).

https://www.LDS.org/ensign/1998/01/the-flood-and-the-tower-of-babel?lang=eng

[_RockSlider]

I think they just got busy, daily climbing another tower, the rameumptom

[_Maksutov]

I think they just got busy, daily climbing another tower, the rameumptom

A Second Babel to go with the Second Cumorah. I like it! Has a definite chiasmus-y quality.

[_bomgeography]

The Tower of Babel has been associated with known structures according to some modern scholars, notably the Etemenanki, a ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk by Nabopolassar, king of Babylonia (c. 610 BCE).[5][6] The Great Ziggurat of Babylon was 91 metres (300 ft) in height. Alexander the Great ordered it demolished circa 331 BCE in preparation for a reconstruction that his death forestalled.[7][8] A Sumerian story with some similar elements is told in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.[9]

If Noah landed in Mesopotamia then it makes sense that the Tower of Babel is in mesopotamia

[_spotlight]

AronRa on the evolution of Genesis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLviKiEuj30

[_bomgeography]

The fact that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization and built tower off babel like structures is a definite plus. Its interesting because that would mean that Moah would have landed in that area and Mesopotamia has a Noah like flood in their legends. You can see one of two ways that the Bible was influenced by the Mesopotamia legends or Mesopotamia was influenced by Noah. I personally believe the later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat

[_spotlight]

The fact that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization and built tower off babel like structures is a definite plus. Its interesting because that would mean that Moah would have landed in that area and Mesopotamia has a Noah like flood in their legends. You can see one of two ways that the Bible was influenced by the Mesopotamia legends or Mesopotamia was influenced by Noah. I personally believe the later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat

To hold such a belief all one has to do is disregard physics, specifically the weak nuclear force that governs radioactive decay, to discount the implications that follow upon those facts. These people are referred to as cranks or crackpots.

[_tapirrider]

The fact that Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization and built tower off babel like structures is a definite plus. Its interesting because that would mean that Moah would have landed in that area and Mesopotamia has a Noah like flood in their legends. You can see one of two ways that the Bible was influenced by the Mesopotamia legends or Mesopotamia was influenced by Noah. I personally believe the later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat

Mesopotamia IS NOT the cradle of civilization. It is only one of several.
http://quickhistories.com/2016/07/08/do ... ilisation/

And structures were built in the Americas before the Egyptian were building pyramids.

A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years Before the Present
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/277/5 ... 6.abstract

Does North America Hold the Roots of Mesoamerican Civilization?
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6063/1620.summary

The accomplishments in the Americas were independent of anyone else, they were not influenced by or had any contact with anyone from the Middle East.

[_Themis]

The Tower of Babel has been associated with known structures according to some modern scholars, notably the Etemenanki, a ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk by Nabopolassar, king of Babylonia (c. 610 BCE).[5][6] The Great Ziggurat of Babylon was 91 metres (300 ft) in height. Alexander the Great ordered it demolished circa 331 BCE in preparation for a reconstruction that his death forestalled.[7][8] A Sumerian story with some similar elements is told in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.[9]

If Noah landed in Mesopotamia then it makes sense that the Tower of Babel is in mesopotamia

Amazing Noah missed Europe and Africa on the way. The real problem with the tower story is God getting upset they were building a tower to get to heaven where God lived in the sky, and the confounding of tongues. We know confounding of tongues did not happen, and we know people back then had the idea that God lived in the sky, explaining why God would be upset and want to stop them from getting to heaven this way. Joseph made the mistake of making this story literal with the Jaredites.