The parable of the houses built on rock and on sand has been previously covered.

This page looks at the tower of Babel.

• The tower is being built by people organized as a house as in the "House of David" or "House of Windsor".
• The tower is being built using man-made adaptations of materials based on sand (clay).

Babel is first mentioned in Genesis 10:10. The Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages is in Genesis 11:

Ham was one of the sons of Noah.

We skip to verse 6 for the sons of Ham.

We skip to verse 8 for the sons of Cush.

In the land of Shinar will be started the tower of Babel.

The account of this starts in Genesis 11.

The story then continues with the building of the tower, the confusion of languages, etc.

We skip the rest of the story and concentrate on the construction materials.

• "brick" for "stone"
• "slime" for "mortar"

The "brick" is the modern Greek word "πλίνθος" (PLEEN-thos) ≈ "brick" and is a dried clay.

Instead of building their "house" on "rock" or "stone", they used a man-made dried clay from of brick. This might sound like a "half-baked" idea, but it is assumed that they did bake the bricks thoroughly.

The idea of "bricks" appears again in the story of the Israelites in bondage in Egypt being forced to make "bricks".

In Isaiah, the "bricks" are replaced with "stone".

The KJV (King James Version) says that they had "slime" for "mortar". Here, the modern Greek word for "slime" is the modern Greek word "άσφαλτος" (A-sfal-tos) ≈ "asphalt" and is the source of the English word "asphalt".

Joke: A man walks into a bar with a piece of asphalt under his arm and orders a beer and "one for the road". This word for "asphalt" appears 4 times in the LXX (Septuagint).

• Once for the ark of Noah for the flood.
• Once at the tower of Babel (above).
• Once in the valley of Siddim where the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled.
• Once for the ark for baby Moses in the Nile.

Hebrew here uses two words for tar and pitch, but Greek uses one word for "smeared" pitch or "asphalt". The term "tar" is that of "pitch" as in the "Tar heels" as the mascot of the University of North Carolina, the "tar heel" state.

What the KJV calls "mortar" is the ancient Greek word "πηλός" ≈ "clay, mud".

They used "asphalt" or "slime" for "mortar" or "clay".

In the GNT (Greek New Testament) we do find someone who actually uses "clay" instead of "asphalt", recorded 4 times in John.

The Old English word "restedaig" ≈ "rest day, sabbath".

The Old English word "fenn" ≈ "mud, marsh" and is the source of the English word "fen" as marsh or bog of mire.

The Latin word "lutum" ≈ "soil, dirt, mud".

As Paul states in Romans, the "potter" has power over the "clay".

A song based in this idea is the following.

• Song: Have thine own way Lord

At the tower of Babel, an "asphalt" substitute was used.

The ancient Greek word "κεραμευς" ≈ "potter" and is the source of the English word "ceramic".

The modern Greek word "κεραμικός" (keh-ra-mee-KOS) ≈ "ceramic".

In the analogy of the tower of Babel as a house built using sand-based materials, the following might be noted in analogy to the parable of the houses built on the rock and on sand from Matthew 7.

• The sand-based bricks in the desert would not last long in any rain or water, such as from a river.
• In Acts 2, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, in the form of wind or a breath, brings back the unity of languages lost at the tower of Babel. For more information, see the following:A big breath from a wind bag.
• If the "wind" or "breath" from Acts 2 is similar, in reverse, at the tower of Babel, then that tower did not handle the "wind" very well. Think of Ross Perot in the 1992 Presidential election talking about the big "sucking" sound (i.e., reverse breath) of jobs leaving the United States and going to Mexico if the NAFTA agreement went through.

Babel, or Babylon, is mentioned in Revelation as a code word that appears to represent something other than the city of Babel. This is left as a future topic.

Babel is mentioned in Jeremiah as the code word "Sheshach". For more information, see the following: Jeremiah: 25, 51 An ancient cipher code called atbash.

So it appears that at the tower of Babel, a human organization or house of clay or sand (representing people) was used to build a physical house or tower of clay or sand instead of using stone or rock.

This project failed in both aspects.

• The tower as a physical house was never completed as envisioned.
• The confusion of languages dispersed the house of people.