THE TOWER OF BABEL—CHIASM

This 11th Post accompanies gospel doctrine lesson 6, Noah and the Ark.

See the chiasm in the account of The Tower of Babel.

The story of the Tower of Babel is found in Genesis 11.

Nimrod is mentioned in Genesis 10:8-9. Hugh Nibley discussed Nimrod at some length in his Teachings of the Book of Mormon lectures, which were given to a four semester Honors Book of Mormon class at BYU in 1988-1990. Here are some quotes from the FARMS transcripts.

"Notice that it doesn't say the Tower of Babel. That's very important. As a matter of fact, we learn from the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon that the name isn't Babel, but it's Nimrod, which is exactly what it was. Remember it went north in the valley of Nimrod. Now we know through tradition and everything else that the tower was called "Nimrod's Tower," because Babel didn't come in until later. That was [determined] from the philological events, etc. And so they came out from the tower. It's careful not to say the "Tower of Babel," which was later. But Nimrod's Tower was that one, and it tells us in the first verse of the second chapter of the book of Ether that they went up into the valley northward where there never had men been, and it was the valley of Nimrod." . . .

"Nimrod was the first person to establish kingship, fortifications, armies, and things like that. Nimrod was a very righteous king when he was young. He had great intelligence and great strength, and the Lord rewarded him for his service to the human race by giving him the bow. This [story] is universal—you find this everywhere. Men at that time were threatened by the beasts; they couldn't defend themselves against the wild animals that were large and ferocious. Cave bears, saber-tooth tigers, and creatures like that can be rather dangerous. Men weren't up to it, so God gave Nimrod the bow to protect the human race. But Nimrod very soon discovered that by using the bow he could put the human race at his disposal. So he turned it against them and made himself the first king who ruled everything. He was given this tool to help people, and he found out, "Boy, what a profit this will give me! How great I can become now that I have the bow." And he did. He used it and organized the first armies, the first empire, the first tyranny, and all that sort of thing. He misused the great gift God had given him." . . .

"Anyway God gave the bow and arrow to Nimrod to defend the human race, for protection against their enemies. It didn't take Nimrod long to discover that he could use these arrows to put the human race at his disposal. It was put at his disposal to defend the human race. Now he discovered that if he turned it against human beings they were at his disposal. He was the boss. This is the famous bow of Nimrod. In the end he went crazy and turned it against God. He challenged God to a fight because he was ruler of the empire. He said, "I'm the creator; I'm the god." He built the Tower of Babel and went up to the top of it so he could shoot arrows into the sky and kill God. The Angel Gabriel, playing a trick on him, held up a fish. The arrow hit the fish and came back to earth with blood. Then Nimrod went stark raving mad. He said, "See, I've killed God; there's blood on the arrow." " . . .

"There are various versions of the story. It is very old and circulates everywhere. So he went nuts. To get rid of him and show his utter contempt, God finally dispatched him with the weakest and smallest of creatures. He sent a little, tiny gnat. It crawled up the nose of Nimrod and started tickling his brain. Well, of course, it drove him absolutely crazy. He had two servants stand on each side of him with hammers and hit him on the head alternately so he wouldn't be tickled to death by it. If they hit him on the head, he went bonggggg, so that was better than putting up with this gnat. In the end that did away with Nimrod. He is supposed to have founded the first army and the first city. He got civilization going. This is class number two, Babylon. Nimrod was the founder of Babylon. All the old sources will tell you, wherever you get them, that Nimrod founded Babylon."

I started taking a class from Dr. Nibley when I was a BYU graduate student. I was carrying 21 units that semester, and a lot of my classes were in advanced math and engineering. So I was "time challenged". But I'd always wanted to take a class from this great man. I sat through two or three of his lectures, and he never said a word about tests or grading. So one day, after class, I went up to him to ask about those things. He looked at me over the top of his glasses and said, "well, your grade is based entirely on a paper of original research of some kind that you'll submit at the end of the semester. Attendance at my lectures is entirely optional." So I handed him my drop card to sign. And that was that.

What did you learn from the Book of Mormon today?