The General Location of Babel- It MUST Be Suitable

To most of us, picking a location for a city may sound like an easy task. But let's think about a few things. First of all, there were no supermarkets back then- when they chose their site, even BEFORE they began building, they had to first make arrangements for food. This meant planting crops that could be harvested as soon as the supplies they brought with them were used up. They also had to immediately find pasture for their animals and settle them into the land with shepherds. They had to build shelter to protect themselves from both the weather and the predatory animals. I imagine this took a little bit of time, perhaps a month, maybe more. So, we now know that the site of Babel had to have had plenty of pasture land, plenty of land to cultivate crops and of course, a water supply.

THEN, they could set about the business of building a city. To do this, they had to find natural resources. We already discussed the fact that there was certainly a supply of asphalt (bitumen) in the region with which to make mortar. They needed to also find sources for metals and to establish a metallurgical center. They needed to plan the site for their city and insure that it had an adequate water supply.

Is Ron's Location for Babel a "Suitable" Location?

Yes on all counts. It is still today a very fertile region, producing the same size cabbages that are found near Noah's Ark. There is an immense amount of land suitable for pasturing animals- it is level and well-watered. It is near the Euphrates. It still contains petroleum products 4,000 years after Babel which indicates that there was plenty of "slime" available for the mortar. And it is a plain- level. Perfect for building a city except for one thing. If they built the city on the alluvial soil of the plain along the river without going down to bedrock for the foundations, the structures could shift and sink, causing great damage and instability. I would think that this knowledge had been passed on to them, but perhaps it hadn't been. In fact, one legend states that after the languages were confounded and the people left Babel, God sent lightning which broke off the top 1/3 of the tower, while the lower 1/3 sank into the plain, leaving the middle 1/3 still intact and above ground. Of course, this is a legend. And there is certainly suitable land in the area for a city and a tower.

The Evidence of the Birth of All Languages

To comprehend events of the past, it helps to place ourselves in their "shoes". For a moment, let's consider a town where suddenly many, many different languages are being spoken. In the confusion, what would you do? First of all, everyone would find those who speak their own language. Then, decisions would have to be made about what to do next. If you've ever been to a foreign country where you don't speak the language, you'll realize that it would be almost impossible to live side by side and continue building, planting, harvesting, etc. with those whom you can't communicate with. Especially back then when there were no translators.

The first order of business would most likely be to find a separate place to live. You'd need room to raise crops: fields for your flocks; and room to begin to build a permanent settlement. Some language groups may set out and settle 25 miles from the original town while others would have to travel 100 or even more before they could find a suitable location. As time passed, the land nearby would already be taken and new groups would have to travel further and further away to find a suitable location. Some would perhaps be more ambitious and travel much, much further- perhaps 1,000 miles away. But as with all things, there would remain remnants of many, many of the original language groups in the general area.

And today, nowhere else on earth can you find so many different tongues being spoken in such a small area: "Many ancient races and tribes still inhabit the Caucasus [the mountains above Noah's Ark which form the northern barrier of the Araxes plain] and the Armenian plateau of eastern Anatolia. As many as fifty different languages and dialects are spoken in this vast and, in parts, inaccessible region." (LW, p. 137). " Strabo informs us (Book XI, 5), that no less than seventy Dialects were spoken in the country, which even then was called the Mountain of Languages" (LH, col. VIII, p. 6,743.) The further one travels from this area, the fewer languages we find being spoken in an area (with the exception of cases of immigration, such as in the US.) This evidence alone is sufficient to show where the languages began.

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