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The tower of Babel

Pride, the tower of Babel and different languages.
Contributed by Marian van der Kruijt
Story also available on our translated websites: Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, German
1
After the great flood in the time of Noah, everyone spoke the same language. As the population grew and spread eastward, a plain was discovered in the land of Babylon and many people came to live there. – Slide 1
2
The people who lived on the plain began to talk about building a great city, with a temple-tower reaching to the skies—a proud, monument to show how clever they were. – Slide 2
3
This city will keep us all together in one place,’ they said, ‘and stop us from scattering all over the world.’ So they made great piles of hard-burned brick, and collected bitumen tar to use as mortar. – Slide 3
4
They planned to build a great tower to show how important they were, rather than trust in God. They did not want to worship God but do as they pleased. – Slide 4
5
So work started on the tall tower that reached upwards towards heaven. But God came down to see the city and the tower that they had proudly built. – Slide 5
6
The Lord said, ‘The people are working as a team to be disobedient. They all speak one language. This is just the start of their pride and wickedness. Now they think they can do anything they want. – Slide 6
7
So God decided to make them start speaking in different languages. Suddenly they could not understand each other or work together. There was total confusion. – Slide 7
8
So they had to stop building the city and scattered around the world with others who spoke the same languages they did. – Slide 8
9
The city they left behind was called ‘Babel’ which means ‘confusion.’ This is why there are so many languages in the world and we find it hard to understand people who do not speak the same language as us. It is also why people are scattered all around the world, living in so many different countries. – Slide 9
10
Slide 10