How tall was Babel

[TheTurkey]

The infamous tower of Babel, the origin of different tongues.

We have some tall buildings today but never one so tall as to have a second occurance of a babel incident. So was the tower taller then all modern structures? Or is it perhaps the intent that went into the building that caused the fiasco?

Whats everyones opinion on this

(If you're not a Christian assume the story is real >.>)

[OnceConvinced]

Maybe twice as high as one of the great pyramids? Either way, it seems ludicrous for God to go so berzerk here. Those people were ignorant, thinking that God was up in the sky and that was the only way to reach him. They were as irrational as God was when he punished them. (although really they knew no better).

Really this is just another one of those "just so" stories from the OT. No reason to believe it really happened. Really, why would God make such a big deal about it?

[todd_vetter33]

How large is the Christian world?

Depends on the version of the bible and who published it. The bible is a world wide book that changes the language so much between versions that it causes the Christians to become confused and divided. Hence the many denominations with docternal differences all claiming to follow the same person. Unable to accomplish thier mission of taking the gospel to the world because each Christian falls short of the spirit of God which teaches them truth and allows them to bear good fruit. The spirit of god inside you is the gospel and resurrection of the son of man, yet they belive it to be 4 written half truths found in an ever changing book.

The bible is Babel. The word of God comes from heaven and not in a book. Though you search the book for in it you think you have eternal life and the book can testify of God. You must still come to God to have life!

[McCulloch]

For reference, here is the story:

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Now, from Genesis 1:

Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."
God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven.
And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. [...]
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

It would seem to me that the infamous tower must have been tall enough to reach the sun, moon and stars which are located below the level of atmospheric water.

Note that the sun is approximately 149.6 million kilometers from earth, the moon is about is 378,032 kilometers from the surface of the earth, visible stars are about 4.1 × 10^13 kilometers away. Atmospheric water occurs below 85 kilometers. So then the tower, had it been built would have been at least 378,000 kilometers but less than 85 kilometers.

[Scotracer]

For reference, here is the story:

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Now, from Genesis 1:

Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."
God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven.
And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. [...]
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

It would seem to me that the infamous tower must have been tall enough to reach the sun, moon and stars which are located below the level of atmospheric water.

Note that the sun is approximately 149.6 million kilometers from earth, the moon is about is 378,032 kilometers from the surface of the earth, visible stars are about 4.1 × 10^13 kilometers away. Atmospheric water occurs below 85 kilometers. So then the tower, had it been built would have been at least 378,000 kilometers but less than 85 kilometers.

I seriously hope they had elevators back then...

I cannot believe this story doesn't get more Christians going "WTF?" when they realise that God is punishing them because he knew they'd actually reach heaven...by building a tower. If one ever wanted the best example of human story-telling in the bible that is now taken as god-inspired, here it is.

[Cathar1950]

For reference, here is the story:

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Now, from Genesis 1:

Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."
God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven.
And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. [...]
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

It would seem to me that the infamous tower must have been tall enough to reach the sun, moon and stars which are located below the level of atmospheric water.

Note that the sun is approximately 149.6 million kilometers from earth, the moon is about is 378,032 kilometers from the surface of the earth, visible stars are about 4.1 × 10^13 kilometers away. Atmospheric water occurs below 85 kilometers. So then the tower, had it been built would have been at least 378,000 kilometers but less than 85 kilometers.

I seriously hope they had elevators back then...

I cannot believe this story doesn't get more Christians going "WTF?" when they realise that God is punishing them because he knew they'd actually reach heaven...by building a tower. If one ever wanted the best example of human story-telling in the bible that is now taken as god-inspired, here it is.

It is odd that because they might try anything they needed to have their languages confused. Of course that isn't where and why we have languages but it is hard to think the gods would be so afraid of some people that had so much about the universe wrong.
Looking at this, older myths and the garden myth it seems the gods not only found us bothersome but also competition.

[Defender of Truth]

I cannot believe this story doesn't get more Christians going "WTF?" when they realise that God is punishing them because he knew they'd actually reach heaven...by building a tower.

I think the reason you're so surprised more Christian's aren't scratching their heads is because most Christian's don't hold the view you hold. They don't believe that men were going to build a tower that reached God's dwelling place. Most of them think they're talking about the expanse. Furthermore, they don't think men were going to literally build it that high, but that it was a phrase signifying how large they were going to make it. It's very similar to other idioms.

Again, I would say another reason they're not scratching their heads is because they know God didn't punish them because he knew they'd actually reach heaven by building a tower.

And now answering the OP, I would say it probably wasn't very large, because the LORD God stopped its construction before it could get as tall as the comcast building most likely.

[Scotracer]

I cannot believe this story doesn't get more Christians going "WTF?" when they realise that God is punishing them because he knew they'd actually reach heaven...by building a tower.

I think the reason you're so surprised more Christian's aren't scratching their heads is because most Christian's don't hold the view you hold. They don't believe that men were going to build a tower that reached God's dwelling place. Most of them think they're talking about the expanse. Furthermore, they don't think men were going to literally build it that high, but that it was a phrase signifying how large they were going to make it. It's very similar to other idioms.

Again, I would say another reason they're not scratching their heads is because they know God didn't punish them because he knew they'd actually reach heaven by building a tower.

And now answering the OP, I would say it probably wasn't very large, because the LORD God stopped its construction before it could get as tall as the comcast building most likely.

So why did this god fellow feel the need to stop them? Other than he, according to the bible, believed they would reach up where "he" was?

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. - Genesis 11:1-9

Erm...

[Defender of Truth]

Well, for starters they were disobey his commandment given in Genesis 1

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it...

For continuers they had an air of rebellion against God. They were making a name for themselves, showing everyone who was boss and more importantly, that they didn't need God.

[Scotracer]

I'd say building an awesome city was being fruitful, in a less kinky sense. Seems like another case of lop-sided punishment for a "crime".

I still stand by a sense of fear from Yahweh - the implications on them completing the task are more important than the intent, by the wording of Genesis 11.