It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.

As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.

Torah Portion Name and Readings-

Noach is the Hebrew name “Noah”, this is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Genesis starting in chapter 6 verse 9 and going through chapter 11 and verse 32.

Prophets and New Testament-

It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of Isaiah in chapter 66 verse 1 through verse 24.

The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Mark in chapter 9 with verses 40 through 50.

Torah Portion Overview-

In this Torah portion we cover the historical stories of Noah and the flood, the Tower of Babel, and the families of Shem and Abraham. Today I’d like to focus on the Tower of Babel.

As the Lexham Research Commentaries Genesis 11:1–32 by Lexham Press points out,

“The Tower of Babel is closely related to the Table of Nations (Gen 10:1–32). Some, like Waltke, argue that the Tower of Babel and the Table of Nations should be read together since they both deal with the division of humanity. Indeed, as Wenham points out, the two stories are linked by several key words and phrases. However, they have distinct, even contradictory, focuses. As noted in the previous chapter (see “Languages”), the Table of Nations portrays the division of the nations in a neutral or even positive light. The Tower of Babel, however, portrays it as a result of God’s judgment.”

I believe these stories should be read together although they approach the division of the nations from two different viewpoints, one focused on families and the other focused on the larger picture.

The story of the Tower of Babel is focused around the land of Shinar, which is the region around Babylon, possibly including, as the The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary explains in its entry for Shinar, “Babel (Babylon), Accad (Agade), Erech (Uruk), and possibly Calneh”. This is a story focused on shaming the Babylonians, who were a major opponent of Judah around the Judean exile (hint, hint). The focus of the story is to show that a mighty empire was not founded in glory but instead was one of the reasons for the chaos of humanity.

Next the writer of this story gives us a bit of irony.

Genesis 11:4 (ESV)

“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

The reason this is ironic, is that Genesis is taking a Mesopotamian omen and using it as a hint of the coming fate.

A Mesopotamian Omen

“If a city lifts its head to the heaven — that city will be abandoned.”

In my opinion, this omen was caused by the Tower of Babel! I find it very funny that Genesis is mocking Babylon with their own omens!

Using the baked bricks to build a tower hints at the probably type of structure, a Ziggurat. The tower would have been a temple complex to allow the “god” to come down from heaven. It seems that in Genesis 11:6 it implies that they would be successful. Is this a hint that they were trying to recreate the Genesis 6:1-4 event? We do not know for sure but it is interesting!

Either way this pride and arrogance led to God deciding to confuse the languages of humanity to break them up.

Those who study Ancient Near Eastern temple complexes, of which this is most likely one, would immediately think of the story of Eden. I want to explain this.

We can see from Ezekiel that the Garden of Eden was either on a mountain or, I would argue, to the east of a mountain.

Ezekiel 28:13a, 14a (ESV)

“You were in Eden, the garden of God… You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.”

Sacred mountains were places where heaven met earth, where man could ascend to come closer to his God (or gods). Temples were often built on mountains (Jerusalem) or on man made mountains (Ziggurats). From this mountain would flow a river that split into four parts or four rivers. This symbolized that it watered the four corners of the earth. This water would flow through a sacred garden. This is what we see in Genesis and I believe it may also be present, or would have been present in the Tower of Babel (if it had been finished). If this is true, the tower also represents something else, man’s attempt to recreate the garden of Eden but apart from Yahweh. It was, in essence, the first man made religious event.

This is the lesson I want to focus on here. The garden of Eden will be restored in the last day, but not by man.

Revelation 22:1-2 (NRSVue)

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.“

The garden was planted by God in the beginning (Genesis 2:8) and will be completed by God in the end. We cannot recreate the garden of Eden. But how often do we try to do this. We try to build our own ministries, with our ideas, and we do our will. Ministries are good and necessary, but often they are truly just man made and man driven. We are, in essence, trying to plant our own garden. Instead let us look to the will of the Father and His will and serve as He desires in His way.

Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-

• Genesis 6:9 Noah is blameless while the earth is corrupt

• Genesis 6:14 Noah commanded to build an ark

• Genesis 7:1 Noah goes into the ark with his family and the animals and the flood comes

• Genesis 8:1 The flood ends and Noah and the animals come out

• Genesis 8:20 God promises not to destroy every person or curse the ground

• Genesis 9:1 God makes a covenant with Noah

• Genesis 9:18 Noah, a farmer gets drunk and his son sins against him and Canaan is cursed

• Genesis 10:1 The descendants of Noah, the nations

• Genesis 11:1 The Ziggurat of Babel

• Genesis 11:10 The family of Shem

• Genesis 11:27 The family of Abraham

Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-

• Isaiah 66:1 Heaven is Yahweh’s throne and the Earth His temple, instead of a temple built with hands God desires humble and repentant people

• Isaiah 66:3 The sacrifices of sinners is an abomination

• Isaiah 66:5 Zion shall birth a son, He will bless Zion and reject idolaters and gather in the nations and scattered Jews

• Isaiah 66:22 New Heaven and New Earth and a restoration of Sabbath and New Moon

Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-

• Mark 9:40 Whoever is not against us is for us

• Mark 9:42 Do not cause a child to sin or harm them

• Mark 9:43 Remove temptation to sin from your life

Bibliography

• Douglas Mangum, Miles Custis, and Wendy Widder, Genesis 1–11, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Ge 11:1–32.

• James R. Davila, “Shinar (Place),” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 1220.

• Hallo, William W., and K. Lawson Younger. The Context of Scripture. Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–. Print.

To Watch an overview of this week’s Torah Portion CLICK HERE