11/13/2023 0 Comments Modern tower of babel![]() Python is great for that - slap something together, extract repeated operations or clean tasks into functions, etc.Īnother personal preference is to not re-invent the wheel. If you can solve something useful and later incrementally add functionality, you can then gate the time you sink into coding versus value (to yourself, your organization, versus having a life, etc.). One of the factors I’m acutely aware of is right-sizing what I tackle. I happen to love coding and have been working with various API’s, getting some small but real problems solved. Keener in the New Testament.This blog describes some of the snags in modern coding / automation, and what might be done about them.Īutomation is great. God scattered them, not because it was wrong for them to be together, but because their desire to retain continuity was causing them to launch flawed strategies.ĭrawn from the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, with notes from Dr. Though some have considered this desire not to scatter as disobedience to the blessing in 1:28, it must be recognized that the blessing does not relate to scattering, only to filling - far different issues. Descendants who move away (as Abraham does in chapter 12) cut the ties of continuity between the past and the present. Remembrance takes place in the vicinity of the burial ground. The fear of scattering is directly related (both syntactically and conceptually) to the previously stated desire to make a name. While there is nothing inherently evil or sinful in the desire to be remembered (e.g., God promises to “make your name great” for Abraham in Genesis 12:2 and David in 2 Samuel 7:9), this desire may become obsessive or motivate evil or sinful behavior. The more people who remember one's name, the more secure is one's existence in the afterlife. The important point here is that the desire to make a name in the ancient world is common to all. The building of monuments could also contribute to the desirable end result, as could achievements and adventures of various sorts. There is continued life and vitality as long as one is remembered. The details often involved memorial meals and various regular mortuary rites, but more important for this passage, they provided opportunity for the name of the deceased to be spoken. In some cultures a person's continued comfort in the afterlife was dependent on care from descendants in the land of the living. ![]() The ancient world placed immense value on the sense of continuity from one generation to another. The wording of these omens understood in the context of the omen series is essentially about exceeding natural boundaries to the effect that a city can overreach itself to rival sacred structures and thus bring about its own destruction. Yet Mesopotamian cities were regularly built on high ground, with the temple on the highest ground. In keeping with the negative results of the project here, the reader of Genesis will find a few of the omens in the Shumma Alu series remarkable: “If a city lifts its head to the midst of heaven, that city will be abandoned” (1.15), and “If a city rises like a mountain peak to the midst of heaven, that city will be turned to a ruin” (1.16). This would have been transparent to the ancient reader. It is this language, along with the indication that God “came down” ( verse 5), that gives textual confirmation that the tower is a ziggurat. Throughout Mesopotamian literature, almost every occurrence of the expression describing a building “with its head in the heavens” refers to a temple with a ziggurat. Consequently, the city was, in effect, a temple complex. Instead, it was comprised of the public buildings, such as administrative buildings, and granaries, which were mostly connected with the temple. In the earliest stage of urbanization, the city was not designed for the private sector. ![]() One single architectural feature dominated the landscape of early Mesopotamian cities: towers known as ziggurats. Genesis 11:4 comes to life as we understand the deeper cultural context for the original readers and hearers of the Bible.Ī city, with a tower. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. For Students Pursue a deeper knowledge of God through self-paced college- and seminary-level online courses in Old and New Testament studies, theology, biblical Greek, and more.For Instructors and School Administrators Enhance your school’s traditional and online education programs by easily integrating online courses developed from the scholars and textbooks you trust.
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