People Involved in Building Tower of Babel
The biblical account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 describes a collective human effort to construct a city and a tower "with its top in the heavens" [1]. The text does not specify individual names of the builders, but it indicates that "the whole earth had one language and the same words" [Genesis 11:1]. This implies a unified, post-Flood humanity engaged in the project.
Flavius Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews, attributes the instigation of the project to Nimrod, whom he describes as a "bold man, and of great strength of hand" [2]. According to Josephus, Nimrod persuaded the people not to attribute their prosperity to God but to their own valor. He urged them to build a tower so high that a second flood could not reach it, thereby taking revenge on God for the previous destruction [2]. The people were "very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod" and committed themselves to the work with great diligence, employing a "multitude of hands" that allowed the tower to grow rapidly [2].
The motivation behind the construction, as described in Genesis, was to "make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth" [Genesis 11:4]. Easton's Bible Dictionary suggests that the tower was intended as a "rallying-point" in the plain of Shinar to prevent their scattering [1]. However, God intervened, observing their unified effort and language, and declared, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them" [Genesis 11:6]. To thwart their plan, God "confused their language, so that they would not understand one another's speech" [Genesis 11:7]. This divine intervention led to the cessation of the building project and the dispersion of humanity across the earth, giving the city its name, Babel, meaning "confusion" [1, 5].
Rabbinic tradition, as found in the Babylonian Talmud, offers further interpretations of the builders' intentions. The school of Rabbi Sheila suggests that the builders aimed to ascend to heaven and strike it with axes to make its waters flow [4]. This interpretation was met with skepticism in Eretz Yisrael, questioning why they would build a tower on a plain rather than a mountain if that were their true objective [4]. This highlights differing views within Jewish thought regarding the specific blasphemous intent of the builders.
Patristic writings also touch upon the event. In The Shepherd of Hermas, a vision describes "six men, tall, and distinguished," who summoned a "multitude of men" to build a tower upon a rock [3]. While allegorical, this imagery reinforces the idea of a large, organized workforce directed by prominent figures.
The narrative emphasizes the collective nature of the endeavor rather than individual leadership, apart from Josephus's mention of Nimrod [2]. The focus is on the unified will of humanity against God's command to fill the earth. John Gill, commenting on Psalm 127:1, notes that "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it," a principle that can be applied to the Tower of Babel, where human effort without divine blessing ultimately fails [7]. Matthew Henry similarly observes that God "quashed the project of the Babel-builders" so that "God's counsel might stand in spite of them" [6]. The builders, despite their multitude and unified purpose, were ultimately unable to complete their project due to divine intervention, leading to their dispersion and the diversification of human languages.
Sources
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Babel, tower of — The name given to the tower which the primitive fathers of our race built in the land of Shinar after the Deluge (Gen. 11:1-9). Their object in building this tower was probably that it might be seen as a rallying-point in the extensive plain of Shinar, to which they had emigrated from the uplands of Armenia, and so prevent their being scattered abroad. But God interposed and defeated their design by condounding their language, and hence the name Babel, meaning "confusion." In the Babylonian tablets there is an account of this event, and also of the ”
- Project Gutenberg “Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, CHAPTER 4, section 2: very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made o”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. III.: I saw six men come, tall, and distinguished, and similar in appearance, and they summoned, a multitude of men. And they who came were also tall men, and handsome, and powerful; and the six men commanded them to build a tower[1] above the rock. And great was the noise of those men who came to build the tower, as they ran hither and thither around the gate. And the virgins who stood around the gate told the men to hasten to build the tower. Now the virgins had spread out their hands, as if about to receive so”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 109a.4: § The mishna teaches that the members of the generation of the dispersion have no share in the World-to-Come. The Gemara asks: What sin did they perform? Their sin is not explicitly delineated in the Torah. The school of Rabbi Sheila say that the builders of the Tower of Babel said: We will build a tower and ascend to heaven, and we will strike it with axes so that its waters will flow. They laughed at this explanation in the West, Eretz Yisrael, and asked: If that was their objective, let them build a tower on a mountain; why did they build it specifically”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 11:9: Therefore is the name of it called Babel,.... The name of the city mentioned, and the tower also, which signifies "confusion", as the Septuagint version renders it; and so Josephus (w) says the Hebrews call confusion "Babel": perhaps this name was given it by the sons of Eber, or it might be a common name preserved in all languages, as some are; and though the first builders desisted from going on with building it, yet it seems that afterwards Nimrod went on with it, and completed it, and made it the beginning of his kingdom, or his capital city; and perhaps he and h”
- Genesis (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Genesis 11:5: We have here the quashing of the project of the Babel-builders, and the turning of the counsel of those froward men headlong, that God's counsel might stand in spite of them. Here is, I. The cognizance God took of the design that was on foot: The Lord came down to see the city, Gen 11:5. It is an expression after the manner of men; he knew it as clearly and fully as men know that which they come to the place to view. Observe, 1. Before he gave judgment upon their cause, he enquired into it; for God is incontestably just and fair in all his proceedings against sin”
- Psalms (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Psalms 127:1: Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it,.... Whether it be understood literally of an artificial house, as Solomon's own house; or the house of the Lord, or any other: let a man be ever so bent upon building one, or have ever so much skill in drawing the plan of it, or be ever so well provided to go through the expense of it, or have ever so many hands employed in it, yet, if the Lord does not give success, it will all be in vain; the building will fall down, or be consumed by fire before it is finished; or by one providence or another he w”