The Smithsonian Channel shows
in the first episode of its documentary series "Secrets" the
emergence of new "very compelling" evidence that the Tower of Babel,
as mentioned in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, actually existed.
"Biblical scholars have long debated whether the Tower of Babel really existed. Now, a remarkable stone tablet never before shown on film appears to settle that question," the Smithsonian magazine says, featuring the video on its website.
"Biblical scholars have long debated whether the Tower of Babel really existed. Now, a remarkable stone tablet never before shown on film appears to settle that question," the Smithsonian magazine says, featuring the video on its website.
The tablet, which dates to
about 600 B.C., is from the private collection of Norwegian businessman Martin
Schøyen, and it includes the clearest image ever found of the Great Ziggurat of
Babylon, according to Andrew George, professor of Babylonian history at the
University of London, who also says in the video that it carries an
illustration which looks like a pyramid-like structure, with a depiction of
King Nebuchadnezzar II, the ruler of Babylon from 605-562 B.C.
Genesis 11:4 says,
"Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the
Earth."
The following verses state:
"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were
building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not
understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from there over all the
Earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —
because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the
Lord scattered them over the face of the whole Earth."
