Save

The Tower of Babel and Yahweh’s Heavenly Staircase

In: Horizons in Biblical Theology
Author:
Matthew Michael Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University South Africa Faculty of Arts, Nasarawa State University Nigeria rabbimikhail@yahoo.com

Search for other papers by Matthew Michael in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Download Citation Get Permissions

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login via Institution

Purchase

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00

The people of ancient societies and modern times have continually had an unusual fascination for tall structures. In the Hebrew Bible, however, gigantic structures rarely feature in the plotting of its stories. In contrast to this literary norm, the narrator of Genesis places two elevated structures at the center of his story, namely the tower of Babel (Gen 11) and the heavenly staircase at Bethel (Gen 28). In these two locations, the narrator appears to have situated the two structures above all the characters and the architectural landmarks of Genesis. Consequently, the paper engages the theological elevation of these two high-level spots in the creative mapping of Genesis’ subtle representations of human-divine tensions. While past studies have diachronically described the individual significance of these two vertical representations in Genesis, the present paper underscores the intertextual/theological importance of these two elevated structures in the narrative space of Genesis.

Content Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 1531 283 24
Full Text Views 421 10 0
PDF Views & Downloads 397 28 0