Yes. The Babylonian culture that surrounded the Tower of Babel was once quite prominent. The roots of Mesopotamian astrology may go back to this period.
Yes, and there are connections with the later Greek model.
nl said:
Ancient astrology appears in cultures as diverse as India, China and the Mayans of Mexico and may provide evidence of a common ancestry.
All ancients everywhere in the world noticed the night sky and no matter where you are on Earth a solar day is the same, as is the length of a year, but beyond that there is no commonality between the Mayans and the Babylonians. The latter divided their year into 12 months, and later western cultures adopted this number; but the Mayan year is divided into 18 months and their week into 9 days. The Mayans had quite a few other departures from the Babylonian system. The Chinese system of astrology was also developed independently. Their weeks, for example were divided into 10 day periods, if I understand it correctly, and their astrological system was closely tied to the yin and yang which are not found in the Babylonian or the later Western system. There doesn’t appear to be a connection among these three groups.
nl said:
Yes, I believe that Noah and his party of eight all spoke the same language. At Babel, language became diverse.
The ancient Hebrews must have wondered how the different languages arose, and certainly this story provides an answer, but it is not necessary with our modern understanding of language. Linguists have been able to trace language development in considerable detail. Just consider how much English has changed in the last 1000 years. Below is an example of Old English:
The Lord's Prayer in Old English
Matthew 6:9-13
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum
Si þin nama gehalgod
to becume þin rice
gewurþe ðin willa
on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas
swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
ac alys us of yfele soþlice
nl said:
FYI, since 1611, the King James Bible has been an influence to maintain the high level of stability in the English language. Webster's 1828 Dictionary was another influence for the stability of the English language.
Yes, but for most of history there were no stabilizing mechanisms. Look at the different dialects in London, England, alone! Given the length of time the English have possessed a written language we can track the changes that have occurred. We can see how rapidly language naturally evolves. The Hebrews did not possess the luxury of this knowledge. They created a myth to account for this inexplicable occurrence. Like all ancient peoples they believed their own god had created them and that they were the progenitors of all people in the world. They needed to account for different languages.
When you stop to consider it, the account of the Tower of Babel describes a cooperative people for whom nothing would be out of their reach.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech....
“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
(Genesis 11:1-8)
Imagine, had God not done this we might all still speak the same language across the Earth and we might have entered the Space Age some 2000 years ago. The LORD said it, “Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Imagine the lost posibilites!
