What is the significance of the Tower of Babel?


What is the significance of the Tower of Babel? The story of the Tower of Babel explains the origins of the multiplicity of languages. God was concerned that humans had blasphemed by building the tower to avoid a second flood so God brought into existence multiple languages. Thus, humans were divided into linguistic groups, unable to understand one another.


Was the Tower of Babel built to reach heaven?

Babylon was where people sought to “make a name (shem) for themselves” by building a tower that reached to the heavens, the realm of the gods. The city is cast as the source of sinister activity and knowledge. Genesis 11:1–9 reads: “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.