Saturday, July 14, 2018

2018-3 - The Tower of Babel


In my last blog I described the initial Bishop Nominating Committee retreat where I was allocated to the “Communications Sub-Committee”. Now was the time to “roll our sleeves up” and start working.
One of my tasks was to assist in defining what we needed to communicate, to whom, and how often. When thinking about this task I started to wonder why communication should be so difficult.
I prayed about this, and as I looked at scripture to help me understand why we do not communicate easily, I was guided to Genesis 11:1-9 - The Tower of Babel.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.  As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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.” But God came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. God 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So, God scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel — because there God confused the language of the whole world. From there God scattered them over the face of the whole earth
Even though the words "Tower of Babel", from the Hebrew word balal meaning to jumble or to confuse, do not appear in the Bible and is referred to only as a city and tower, it is now a phrase used to describe the confusion caused by multiple languages and miscommunication.

This story is an etiology, a narrative that explains the origin of a custom, ritual, name, or other phenomenon. It explains the origin of the multiple of languages and cultures.

God was concerned that by working closely together to build the tower the people were trying to determine their own destiny. God brought multiple languages into existence and as a result, humanity was divided into linguistic groups, unable to understand one another.

A first century Jewish interpretation explains this as a story of pride, an act of defiance against God, and resulting punishment.

Later interpretations proposed God's actions were not punishment but were motivated by the desire to expand humanity through multiple languages, multiple cultures and diversity across the entire world.

It is in these interpretations we see two different theological questions:
1.    Was it God’s punishment for the sin of pride?
2.    Or was it God’s gift of multiple languages and cultures, each with its own value?
In looking at God’s actions as a punishment I interpreted it as:
·         The people started with one language, 
·         They wanted a tower to reach the heavens, to make a name for themselves, and for nothing to be impossible for them,
·         They would no longer need to rely on God,
·         God recognized the sin of pride in their achievements and that they were moving away from their right relationship,
·         God punished them by scattering them all over the earth with multiple languages, so they would not work together and would need to rely on God’s benevolence.
In looking at God’s actions as the gift of grace to further develop the spirituality and culture of humanity, I interpreted the same words as:
·         The people started with one language,
·         God encouraged the people to reach for the heavens to make a name for themselves, so nothing would to be impossible for them,
·         God wanted to recognize their achievements, their belief, and wanted to expand their relationship,
·         God helped them expand across the world by giving them multiple languages and diverse cultures, so they would have to strive to work together and build relationships. 
When thinking of Genesis 11:1-9 as punishment I saw communication as a problem to be solved. Each message I developed would need a transliteration from my own Anglo Catholic viewpoint into multiple languages, irrespective of the culture of the people with whom I was communicating.

In thinking of Genesis 11:1-9 as God’s grace in building multiple and diverse cultures I saw communication as an opportunity to develop a neutral and meaningful message which could be translated considering both the language and the culture of the recipients.

Whilst working on the Communications Sub-Committee this thinking of multiple and diverse cultures as a gift from God provided me with the opportunity to put into practice what I learned in the School For Ministry (SFM) liturgy classes.

Our discussion on Vatican 2 taught us about the limiting aspects of transliterations versus the increased understanding through translation of liturgy into local languages which reflect both local language and culture.

By attending a few bilingual services, I have noticed there is a difference between reading Spanish without really understanding the message (or sacramental worship) versus taking a well-crafted, neutral message and delivering it into a Latino culture, translated using words which would be understood and relevant to the needs of the recipients.

In all my Communications Sub-Committee work I have taken the positive view it is the God’s grace which allowed the worldwide development of languages and diverse cultures. I try to ensure the message and information to be distributed is focused, factual, and does not contain my own cultural bias before sending it to be translated by someone who is a member of, and understands, the Latino culture we are communicating with.

Even with this understanding of communication, multiple languages, transliteration, translation, and multi culture there remains the theological questions; were God’s actions in Genesis 11:1-9 punishment for pride or the gift of grace to humanity?

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