Babel, Assimilation, and Resistance

While often skipped past by newer readers of the Bible as incomprehensible stories and endless genealogies without meaning, the early chapters of Genesis lay an essential foundation for the rest of the Hebrew Bible and for its relevance today. Genesis 11-12 particularly addresses the predominantly critical view of centralization of state power, assimilation, and imperial domination, tying these dynamics to the story of the Fall of Humanity in Genesis 3, pronouncing God’s judgment against them, and introducing the story of God’s resistance plan.

The Imperial Context

First, the setting of the authors, compilers, and editors of this text gives important insight. While these texts likely developed from oral traditions over time, the primary work of compiling and editing into final narrative form most likely took place within the context of the exile of the cultural elite of Judah to Babylon, living under oppressive rule in a foreign land while their homeland was occupied and its wealth extracted during the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian imperial eras. Each of these empires pursued different strategies, but they and the Greeks after them often promoted cultural assimilation to more homogeneous imperial culture and centralized power and wealth in their own major cities, such as Babylon. (See Babylonian pressure on Daniel and his friends in the Book of Daniel for an example of this imperial pressure to assimiliate.)

The Text

As you read from chapters 11 and 12, consider, what would this story have to say to exiles in Babylon living under an empire? How do centralization and assimilation show up and how does God respond?

The text

The Imperial Project

In the story of the Tower of Babel, humanity concentrates itself at Babel, focused on a centralizing project of imperial pride, imagining that will bring them closer to God. They all have one assimilated language/culture and gather to a centralized place, building up the power of that imperial city. Babel is an appropriate setting for the story - a humorous (nonsense noise - “babble”, and the source of that word in English) reference to Babylon, center of the primary oppressive empire in the region for much of Israel’s history and home to the exiles compiling these Hebrew scriptures.

Babel engages in a huge construction project which would necessarily involve oppressive forced labor. The end result? A pyramidal ziggurat which itself models their hierarchical society. This project is emblematic of the means and meaning of empire.

Divine Inspection Time

God comes down to look at the situation (apparently it was not so grand as to reach God in the sky as they initially hoped, since God had to come down!). God’s response? God pushes back against all of this coercion, centralization, hierarchy, and assimilation into empire. God confuses their language, pushing the people into spreading out into the world with the wildness of a swarm of different languages (Remember creation?) and distinctiveness and variation among a plethora of cultures. Centralized and coercive empire that assimilates other cultures into one imperial monoculture is exploded into decentralized peoples free from that oppression, each with their own distinctive cultures.

God comes down on the side of decentralization against an all-powerful state, and on the side of localized variation and diversity in culture against assimilation under the coercive power of empire. God disrupts the pyramidal project of hierarchy and launches a divine resistance project in response.

God’s Resistance Project

The Tower of Babel culminates a section in chapters 4-11 that displays the consequences of humanity’s fall. The tower, with all of its imperial implications, is the pinnacle of humanity getting it wrong and turning from God’s way. In response, the end of chapter 11 and beginning of 12, show the launch of a project that echoes through the rest of scripture. God begins to work through a particular family. Instead of grand tower-building projects of impressive achievement, resource extraction, and assimilation, God begins quiet work in particular individuals and the relationships around them. God begins writing a story through a particular local community, a household migrating away from empire and into nomadic simplicity, with their own distinct culture, history, and language separated from Babel. Terah and his family, including Abram (later called Abraham), leave Ur of the Chaldeans (another Mesopotamian city like/near to Babylon), and God begins to relate to them directly and particularly. The remainder of the story of Genesis focuses on the ups and downs of God's committed relationship with this particular group of people, through whom God plans that “all of the families of the earth will be blessed”.

God’s way, unlike Babel, is to work through particular people and communities, planting small seeds in small places that bear slow fruit over time in distinctive ways shaped by the local context and human choices, but for end goal of the blessing of the wider world. The vision of the good result is therefore slow in coming, but free rather than coerced, and full of variation and cultural distinction instead of centralized assimilated monoculture.

Babel's Later Reversal

Centuries later, the story of Pentecost in the book of Acts, in which the Spirit of God comes down on the gathered beginning of the church like God coming down at Babel, reaffirms this dynamic. It displays a reversal of Babel, as the various gathered people begin to understand each other again, but unlike Babel, they do not all assimilate into one language and homogeneous people. Rather, they each maintain their own distinctive languages and cultures but are united with one another anyway, forming interdependent community of egalitarian mutual aid and scattering throughout the world to bring good news and that same community life to many other places.

Good News for Those in Exile

Imagine how these stories would be heard by the exiles of Judah living in Babylon. They would probably be wondering - does God endorse our oppression? Does empire have the final word? Should we give in to coercive pressure and assimilate to Babylonian culture?

These texts declare a resounding “No!” to each of these questions. Even amid their exile, God’s resistance project continues. God has come and will come down in judgment upon empire. God continues quietly stirring towards diverse variation, towards freedom and liberation, and against the projects of empire, in the day of Abraham, the days of exile, the life of Jesus, and even now.

Amid exiles and occupations, empires and extraction, and the powerful pull of assimilation into uniform monoculture of globalized capitalist consumerism, these stories of Genesis give a glimpse of God's viewpoint, a lifeline for cultural particularity, a prophetic word against centralizing and coercive forces of intertwined states and markets, and a reminder that God is working yet in the small and particular corners of the world, in unique families and communities that are growing slow fruit from seeds of hope and good news.

A Song!

Here’s a song we sang in our church this week which aligns well with this message and has been my favorite for years. It is drawn from Mary’s song in Luke 1.

Historical Heroes

I'll regularly highlight historical heroes, often in the week of their birth or death. Tuesday marks the anniversary of the birth of Queen Liliʻuokalani.

Liliʻuokalani of Hawai‘i (2 September 1838- 11 November 1917) was Queen of Hawai‘i. She was in the royal family and a Christian from childhood, attending Christian schools and Oʻahu College. She married an American who was secretary to the King and later was governor himself. She helped found a hospital and a female-led society devoted to the elderly and ill. Her brother was elected King when there was not a direct heir and she served as regent in his absence as well as a diplomat globally. She founded a bank for women and an educational society. After her brother's death she became Queen. Amid legislative gridlock she proposed constitutional changes and the negative reaction to them combined with actions of those like Sanford Dole wanting to see Hawai‘i annexed to the United States led to a coup that removed her from power and brought United States rule. She was imprisoned and abdicated her throne in exchange for release of her jailed supporters. She spent much of the remainder of her life protesting the United States' annexation and seeking reparation.

Learn more in this video on the impact of US occupation on Hawai‘i.

Read about the fight for sovereignty.

In the third and final segment of this podcast episode, listen to the story of the recovery of native wayfinding practices.

Babel + Hawai‘i?

In light of the earlier discussion of Babel, consider what the outlook of Genesis on US annexation of Hawai‘i as part of its early imperialism, continued occupation of Hawai‘i, as well as pressures on natives to assimilate to American culture and integrate with the mainland economic system.

Action Steps: Chicago Budget

If you are in Chicago, use this quick form to contact the Mayor and your alderperson about prioritizing public health and safety solutions instead of police dollars in the upcoming budget as the city works out how to deal with federal revenue cuts.