Hebrew Word Study – Lips – Saphah שפה  Sine Pei Hei  

Genesis 11:4: “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Most of us are familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel. As it is taught in Sunday School that right after the flood the people of earth banded together and refused to spread across the land like God commanded. They wanted to remain one people with one language. So, they built this tower to symbolize this unity and God had to mess up their language in order to get them to disperse throughout the earth. Yeah, I know, that is a lot to swallow.  Most seminaries teach that this story is a myth or at best an allegory. A sudden change in a language wrecks the whole concept of linguistics.  On top of that you have to contend with a verse in the previous chapter which suggest that languages were already different and the people already scattered: Genesis 10:5: “From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.”  Ok, that is easily explained by pointing out that the Bible does not follow a strict chronological order as we like to do in the Western world.  It follows an order of importance rather than chronology.  That is why you have a seeming difference in chronology  between Genesis 1 and 2. Then also there is a different word used for language but that is another study.

Still, was the purpose of this story really meant to explain why we have different languages or was the purely regional and had a much deeper message.  We Christians are so Western in our thinking that we must have one and only one explanation. Then that one explanation can only be right, any other is wrong and not the truth. The thing about studying the works of Judaism is that I don’t have to live under that pressure of only one explanation.  Jews have no problem with many possible interpretations. Even though some rabbis feel they have the correct interpretation, they do respect those who have differing views and even welcome these differing views to challenge and possibly change their own view. 

I read some of these interesting and conflicting views on the Tower of Babel in the Talmud in Sanhedrin 109a. I will not go over every viewpoint.  I will in my All Access Class this weekend which will be recorded and posted on our all Access site. Many of these views and insights are very interesting, some are really way out there with the little green men from Mars, some are really metaphoric and some are quite traditional.  Needless to say, you have many options to pick and choose.  I would like to share with you one thought that really started me to think.

The one that caught my attention was from the School of Rabbi Shila which taught that the tower was built with the intention of piercing the heavens. Note in the Hebrew the word for heaven is hashamyim which is in the plural form.  Unlike I learned in Sunday School the people in the land of Shinear were not that stupid to think they could build a tower to heaven itself.  The word hashamyim was not intended to mean our heavenly home, but the sky where the clouds dwell. A tower to reach the clouds.  Now the School of Shila taught that the intention was to pierce the heavens with axes to drain all the water held within it and thereby making it impossible for God to bring another flood should they push Him too far again. These were brilliant men in the School of Rabbi Shila so they obvious were speaking metaphorically.  What they were saying is that their science and creative ability had advanced to such a degree that they arrogantly thought they could match God in the air. That they were better than God.  God even said in verse 6 “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!” NLT.  This is a nice commentary on the power of unity. If we Christians were so unified, even half as unified as those who oppose Christianity our power would be unlimited.  That is why the enemy works very hard to create division in the church and even in the family.  

Are people actually foolish enough to believe that they can be more powerful that God?  Well, they have succeeded in removing the Bible from our public schools, removing our Christian symbols from public places. Do they not thump their chest on the high mountain and say: “We have defeated God!”   They even think they are more moral than God.  “Those Christians who oppose abortion, why they have no concern for the rights of women.  They, on the other hand, care about women and their rights, They are more moral than those Christians who want to take away their right to use their bodies as they please. So they think they are more moral than God.” 

This is what happened in the land of Shinear and God had to mess up their language Just as many will say: “Those Christians who refuse to take the Covid vax and say they have a right to their own bodies do not care about others.  We do care and they have not right to use their bodies as they wish.  We believe we have a right to force them to take the vax because we are more caring and loving than they are, we care about other people dying.  We are more moral than Christians, we are more moral than God.”  

You see the Bible does not call it the Tower of Babel. It is really the Tower of Shinear.  Babel merely means confusion. We call it the Tower of Babel because of verse 7: “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” The word language in Hebrew is saphah which is really the word for the outer end of a bank or garment, what we call the fringe. It is also the lips, the edge of the mouth.  A modern linguistical word, since we are dealing with linguistics is the word nuance.  God may not have changed the actually language or even dialect: “Why you drop my hammer!” “Why you talk so funny.” “I no talk funny, you talk funny, I beat you on head with hammer.”  God may actually do what He is doing today at the arrogance of people demanding we follow the science and that is to change the nuance of language to make it sound confusing, ridiculous  and contradictory to everyone but the ones who hate God. 

There is more to this which is found on our All Access subscription site. Here’s a link to check our All-Access and all its lessons. The first month is free and you can always cancel. https://www.hebrewwordstudy.com

Hi there! Thank you for reading this Daily Word Study. Can I ask a favor? Share this Daily Word Study with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking one of the icons below.

Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!