The Tower of Babel

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

-- Genesis 11: 8-9 (KJV)

Interesting parallels and amateur wordplay aside, the word "babble" does not derive from the Tower of Babel, a biblical emblem for the folly of human ambition.

True, cacaphony and confusion did arise from that abandoned project, as God purportedly split a universal language into mutually incomprehensible families. But the English "babble" is related more to babies than to Babylon, the tower's namesake. "Ba ba" (or "pa pa"), along with "ma ma," is an exclamation common to infants of almost every culture. Thus the French babiller and the Italian babbolare, "to act like a baby" -- clear analogues of the English "babble." And thus, incidentally, the appearance of "papa" and "mama" in so many languages.

As for the legend of the Tower, it is peculiar to the older of the two strands of primeval history. P tells us that the sons of Noah begat all the tribes of man, who then dispersed across the earth and developed independent languages. But J tells us differently. "The whole world," he begins (11: 1), "had the same language and the same words." Mankind is still gathered together in the same place, where the more enterprising begin concocting ambitious projects. Among these is the Tower of Babel (Babylon), intended by its builders to "make a name" for themselves, which they somehow figure will prevent their being "scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (11: 4).

The logic of this supposition escapes me, and the plan predictably backfires. Yahweh sees in Babylon the concrete form of human hubris, yet another attempt, parallel to Adam and Eve's, to become more godlike -- symbolized by the intent to build a tower "whose top may reach unto heaven" (verse 4).

To the Lord's thinking, this tower is just the beginning. United and monolingual, men could achieve whatever they wished, presumably without consulting him first. To put a stop to this, Yahweh comes down to Babylon to "confound [men's] language" and to scatter them across the face of the earth -- precisely the fate they initiated the project to prevent.

"Therefore," goes J's punchline, "is the name of [the city] called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth" (verse 9). J is punning in Hebrew on the word balal, "mixed, confused," which actually has nothing to do with the name "Babel" (Bavel in Hebrew, from the Akkadian for "gate of the gods"). The English translation is, as we have seen, equally a false etymology, but false or true it would go on to influence the usage of "babble."

If you think about it, though, the pun doesn't really make sense. While God does sow confusion, he doesn't make the tower's architects "babble" (chatter incoherently or foolishly) -- he just makes them unable to understand each other's attempts to speak clearly. And another thing: contrary to popular depictions, God doesn't destroy the tower by heaving a thunderbolt. He simply scatters the architects, who "left off to build the city" (11: 8). If the tower ever existed, its ruin would have been more likely due to gradual erosion than to an "act of God."

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!