Language and the Tower of Babel

please re-read what vacate wrote. you didn't answer or even address his point. you just repeated the same nonsense.why, if babel had no hopes of ever reaching heaven, would god be threatened enough to stop their work? if they could not reach heaven, because it was not a physical place just outside our atmosphere, couldn't god have just let them toil on in futility? what this has to do with the topic is completely lost on me. i cannot believe for a second that you are after reality or evidence. you aren't even seriously after a proper reading of the bible. you're after distorting reality and evidence and the bible to meet your particular hare-brained theory of the month. you have no respect for reality, or evidence, or the bible, and that much has been tirelessly demonstrated by you in your posting history here.i also strongly suspect you are after purposefully derailing every thread in which you participate. it's always the same topic you post about, and it's never has much to do with the original topic. and at every opportunity, you throw some curveball to misdirect people off in some other direction. please try to post with some real arguments. with content, and support. and, as a christian, try to pay some respect to faithfully representing what the bible means, at least on the surface.Edited by arachnophilia, : No reason given.Edited by arachnophilia, : typo

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i do believe we've already discussed this. as i recall it, you lost. rather spectacularly -- because unlike some other people, i am willing to read, analyze, think about, and perform basic arithmetic on the genealogies found in the book of genesis.the argument that lifespans suddenly got shorter around the time of peleg/babel just does not match what the bible says. but i see you still touting this particular point -- which means that you neither are willing to learn, nor actually read the bible.

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i would imagine it also varies depending on when the person went deaf (or if it was from birth) and the degree of hearing loss. from my ASL courses, i know that varies pretty widely. well, let's look at more coherent example: written chinese. there many different dialects spoken in china (2 main ones, but a lot of regional ones too), but a single written language, based around symbols: essentially pictographs. so it's entirely possible to have a written language that does not rely on sounds.it's also worthwhile to point out that the original written languages were ALL pictographic, and the construction of phonetic written languages were a later adaptation of the symbols.

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important enough for god to mess them up. i'm sorry, where was jesus mentioned in this text? i see nothing that says anything like that in genesis 11. and in any case, lots of people got to heaven on their own accord before jesus. why, i can think of two of the top of my head: enoch and elijah. or, don't you read the bible? check the math on that again. we don't know when the "120 years" proclaimation was, but it took noah 100 of those to build the ark. the best reading is that it was 120 years until the flood.the rest is just stuff you're making up. again. read it again. it takes noah 100 years to build the ark. after he's warned by god. which is after the "120 years" statement. ...that was actually a given. "peleg" means "division." he was named for the division at babel. the 120 years stuff is just not in reference to this event.

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i love how with you nothing is as it seems. so, everytime god does anything remotely physical, it's jesus? well, that's reading a whole lot into it. er, no, you have present evidence that the text actually means something it doesn't say instead of the rather obvious superficial reference.we know what you think. but you have yet to present any logic or reason that anyone else should think so too -- when the alternatives are make much more sense.

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Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said: 'My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.'

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Gensis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

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Genesis 6:10 And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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Genesis 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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Genesis 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

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a hundred years pass between the birth of shem and the flood. shem is born after the 120 years proclamation. for confirmation, check genesis 11:

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Genesis 11:10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arpachshad two years after the flood.

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shem was 98 when during the flood. shem was born after the proclamation. so it took noah roughly 100 years from when he found grace in god's eyes, until the flood. this also roughly matches the 120 years.it's the same 100 years, give or take a little where it's unspecified. i seriously fail to see how anyone could possibly read it otherwise.

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i'm sorry, you'll just have to READ genesis 6, where one event happens after the other. it's not too important, the numbers don't match exactly. it just gives an idea of the time frame, roughly 100 years. and in any case, as i pointed out to you last time we discuss this, peleg was born more than 200 years after the decree.

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it recaps it in the context of the story. genesis 5 is not in the story. but gives the age. the age of shem at the flood, and common sense confirm this. because the warning very obviously states that god means to destroy mankind. not make random changes in the laws of nature. destroy mankind. you realy have to pay attention to WHAT things say. since god subsequently destroys mankind and only a few verses later, it stands to reason that that's what he was talking about.

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yes, and chapter six which is about the flood puts that proclamation before noach has sons. chapter five is simply a genealogy and does not tell the events of noach's life. chapter six does. ...no, those are the same thing. it's 120 years until the flood. the 120 year statement refers to god destroying mankind. god destroys mankind (except noach) with the flood -- it's about the flood. get it?you are trying to connect this to something else that you've simply made up and are butchering a fairly obvious reference to mean something it cannot. WHAT it says is IMPORTANT. you cannot ignore the statement itself. i have been. it is you who is not paying attention to what things say.

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er, no. try to pay attention here. chapter 5 is a genealogy. it's like a family tree, or a birth certificate. chapter 6 is the story.why tell the story twice? why have shem born twice? were there two of him? you really have to work better at understanding the structure and the nature of the bible. it's not that hard. ok. let's look at the warning again:

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And the LORD said: 'My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.'

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"his days will be 120 years."do you not understand this expression?

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And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.

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"days" means someone's life. as in "his days are numbered." the expression comes from this. god is saying that mankind will only live for another 120 years.then noah finds favor in god's eyes. then god warns him of the plan that already existed to destroy mankind. it's the same thing -- you have to be completely blinded and preoccupied with some other crazy scheme to not see that.

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so now you agree that your red-herring of the 120-years verse has nothing to do with the topic of the tower of babel?

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others as in "everyone else."