The legend of the Tower of Babel is recorded in Chapter XI of Genesis. The Bible presents Noah’s descendants, long time after the flood, living in the town of Babilu (also known as Babylon) and extremely confident in their own strength.
They agreed to build a tower tall enough to reach heaven and become famous. That is why they were punished by God, who confounded their speech so that they could no longer understand each other and finish the tower. In fact, the word babel comes from the Akkadian word bab-ilim, which can be translated as Gate of God, as they wished for the tower to be a bridge to God. In time, the term babel also took on the meaning of confusion, amalgamation.
They say that God’s punishment that made them no longer understand each other is the moment people started speaking different languages, giving birth to multilingualism. The Bible then goes on to present how languages spread on Earth, each former inhabitant of the town of Babylon laying the foundations of new settlements in which their language was spoken.
Even though the Tower of Babel was never finished, its idea was embodied in the Parliament Building in Strasbourg, France. This is the current headquarters of the European Union, symbol al unity, peace and desire for cultural, political and financial communion of all European citizens.
A building very much resembling the Tower of Babel sends many signals to mankind, the strongest of which is that we are united again and, even though we speak different languages, we can easily understand each other and do great things together.
