Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Tower of Babel, Memories of Forgotten Things

+Nimrod Commands the Building
of the Tower of Babel

From Weltchronik
German (Regensburg), c. 1355-1365
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 769, fol.28v



“The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
While the people were migrating in the east,
they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another,
"Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire."
They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth."

The LORD came down to see the city and the tower
that they had built.
Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people,
all speaking the same language,
they have started to do this,
nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.
Let us then go down and there confuse their language,
so that one will not understand what another says."
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel,
because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world.
It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.”

Genesis 11:1-9, Reading for February 17, 2017, Weekday Readings Cycle 1

During this month of February in Weekday Cycle 1, which is being read at all the weekday Masses this year, we are presented with readings from the first book of the Old Testament, the book of Genesis. 

One of the stories about the beginnings of human awareness of God is the story of the Tower of Babel.  We are told that “once upon a time” all the people living on earth spoke one language.  This is actually probably true, since at one time, the human population of the earth was tiny and all its members probably did make the same sounds to signify the same things.  Recent scientific research has concluded that all of us are the children of a small group of African primates and that there really was a biological Adam and a biological Eve whose DNA every human being alive still carries.  In 2011 a flurry of scientific publications posited that there was also evidence for an original language common to all humans at one point in time in Africa that was the “mother language” for all modern languages. 1  
 
Jan Collaert after Jan Snellinck, Nimrod and the People Laying Out the Site for the Tower of Babel
From Thesaurus sacrarum historiarum veteris testamenti
Flemish, c.1579
London, Trustees of the British Museum
 
So, it would seem that, like the story of Creation, the story of the Tower of Babel represents an intuitive, divinely inspired, understanding of the real evolutionary process that resulted in the world as we know it.  Mixed in with this intuition is the memory, probably by word of mouth, of the great structures that were erected in the ancient Near East for the purposes of worship of the primitive gods.  The two strains combine in the story of the Tower of Babel to provide an explanation of why there are so many different human languages.


Frederik van Valckenborgh I, The Building of the Tower of Babel
Dutch, End of the 16th-Beginning of the 17th Centuries
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
The idea of the building of such a tower probably comes from memories of the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers, in which Abraham was living when first called by God to move west into Canaan.  
 
Reconstruction of a Sumerian Ziggurat

All of the earliest known urban civilizations, with the exception of Egypt, arose in this area:  Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and others and they built ziggurats.  A ziggurat was a sort of pyramidal shaped building, made of brick, with terraces that defined each of the levels as it ascended, somewhat like a square wedding cake.  The different levels were connected by exterior stairs, resulting in a zig-zag pattern.  At the top archaeologists believe that there was probably a shrine to the local gods, though none of these has survived. 

In the Biblical narrative, it is said that “while the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there”, which is a rather remarkable statement.  It is believed by evolutionary anthropologists that modern humans migrated out of Africa in several waves, including one that went toward the lands of Mesopotamia.  The text would seem to be a retained record of an eastward migration at a very early time.  Shinar is the Biblical name for “the land of ancient Babylonia, embracing Sumer and Akkad, present-day southern Iraq”2 ruled at the time of the building of the tower by Nimrud, a mighty hunter, according to Genesis 10:8-12.  3 

Leandro Bassano, The Building of the Tower of Babel
Italian, c. 1600
London, National Gallery

The Biblical account is, among other interpretations, a way of explaining how the land of Babylon got its name.  The notes on this chapter in the New American Bible explain that Babel is “the Hebrew form of the name “Babylon”; the Babylonians interpreted their name for the city, Bab-ili, as “gate of god.” The Hebrew word balal, “he confused,” has a similar sound.”  Accordingly, the Biblical account says that when the people had settled in the land of Shinar they decided to build a city and a great tower, which caused concern to God.  


+The Master of Margaret of York and Workshop, The Destruction
of the Tower of Babel

From a La Bouquechardiere by Jean de Courcy
Flemish (Bruges), 1473
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 66, fol. 5r


Why God should be so upset by this tower is not stated.  But, what is stated seems to suggest that, by wishing to create this tower and city, the people appear to be colluding in setting themselves up to rival God, “to be like gods” as the snake had tempted Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:5).  In addition, by wishing to concentrate in the city they are refusing to move out to populate the earth, as God had instructed at the end of the Flood “Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1 and 7).  Furthermore, it demonstrated an astonishing level of human pride, especially as it came shortly after the great Flood and showed the continuing force of Original Sin.   So, to discourage them from further aggrandizing efforts and to achieve His commandment, He caused them to begin to speak differing languages, which resulted in their not being able to complete the building and into dispersing in different language groups all over the earth.5 

The Tower of Babel has been a subject that has fascinated artists as they attempted to imagine what this tower would be like.  

But where did European artists find the models for their idea of what this tower should look like, since there were no ziggurats in Europe at any time and knowledge of them, if it ever existed in Europe, had been forgotten?

Models of the Tower
Artists in Europe would have had three structures readily available to them that could be models for such a tower:  the castle tower, the church bell tower and the city gate tower.  And, not surprisingly, these are what we see during the middle ages and early portion of the Renaissance. 

Ivory Relief, The Drunkeness of Noah and the Building the Tower of Babel
Italian, 11th Century
Salerno, Museo Diocesano San Matteo



Mosaic of the Building of the Tower of Babel
Italian, c. 1140-1170
Palermo, Cappella Palatina




Mosaic of the Building of the Tower of Babel
Italian, c. 1180s
Monreale, Cathedral



We are also shown, through these images, some of the building techniques by which the great achievements of medieval and Renaissance architecture were created.



Building the Tower of Babel
From The Huntingfield Psalter
Anglo-Norman (Oxford), c. 1212-1220_
New York, Pierpoint Morgan Library
MS M 43, fol. 9v




Building the Tower of Babel
From Old Testament Miniatures
French (Paris), c. 1244-1254
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 638, fol.3r

+Building the Tower of Babel
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1300-1325
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 160, fol. 17v




Building the Tower of Babel
From Roman de toute chevalerie by Thomas of Kent
English (London), c. 1308-1312
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 24364, fol. 79




The Master of the Roman de Fauvel, Building the Tower of Babel
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1320-1340
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliothek
MS KB 71 A 23, fol. 16r





Building the Tower of Babel
From The Golden Haggadah. Haggadah for Passover
Spanish (Catalonia), c. 1325-1350
London, British Library
MS Additional 27210, fol. 3



Michiel van der Borch, Building the Tower of Babel
From a Rhimebible by Jacob van Maerlant
Dutch (Utrecht), 1332
The Hague, Museum Meermano
MS MMW 10 B 21, fol. 9v


+ The Master of the Roman de Fauvel, Building the Tower of Babel
From a Specululm historiale by Vincent of Beauvais
French (Paris), c. 1333-1334
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 316, fol. 49v




The Egerton Master, Building the Tower of Babel
From Egerton Genesis Picture Book
English (Norwich or Durham), c. 1350-1375
London, British Library
MS Egerton 1894, fol. 5v




Building the Tower of Babel
From an Histoire ancienne jusqu'a Cesar
French (Paris), c. 1375-1400
London, British Library
MS Additional 25884, fol. 80v



+Building the Tower of Babel
From a De Civitate Dei by Augustine of Hippo
French (Paris), c. 1400
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 21, fol. 87



+ The Rohan Master and Workshop, Building the Tower of Babel
From a De Casibus by Boccaccio
French (Paris), c. 1400-1425
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 226, fol. 8v




Building the Tower of Babel
From a Weltchronik
German (Regensburg), c. 1400-1410
Los Angelse, J. Paul Gerry Museum
MS 33, fol. 13




Attributed to Bartolomeo di Fruosino. Building the Tower of Babel
From Il Tesoro by the Pseudo-Aristotle (Brunetto Latini)
Italian (Florence), 1425
London, British Library
MS Yates Thompson 28, fol. 51



Building the Towr of Babel
From a De Casibus by Boccaccio
French (Western France), c. 1425-1450
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 232, fol. 5r



+ The Master of the Dunois Hours and Workshop, Building the Tower of Babel
From a La Bouquechardiere by Jean de Courcy
French (Paris), c. 1450-1475
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 63, fol. 2v





Building the Tower of Babel
From a Genealogical and Chronicle Roll
French (North), c. 1470-1480
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1157, fol. 15


+Building the Tower of Babel and Other Stories from The Book of Genesis
From a Compilation des chroniques et histoires de Bretagne
French (Brittany), c. 1480-1482
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 8266, fol. 7r



Building the Tower of Babel
Belgian (Bruges), c. 1490
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum





Hieronymus Bosch, The Tower of Babel
Right Wing of the Triptych of the Haywain
Dutch, c. 1500-1502
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado





The Leaning Tower of Pisa
From the mid-fourteenth century it is probably safe to say that we begin to see traces of one of the most famous of all church bell towers, the one then being completed at Pisa, now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Its colonnaded tiers can be traced in many of the illustrations of the story of the Tower of Babel in the coming years.



+Nimrod Oversees the Building of the Tower of Babel
From a De Civitate Dei by St. Augustine of Hippo
French (Paris), c. 1400
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 23, fol. 119v


Master of Jacques d'Armagnac, Building the Tower of Babel
from La Bouquechardiere by Jean de Courcy
French (Rouen), Before 1476
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 A 17, fol. 184r



+Building the Tower of Babel
From a Chroniques universelles
Franch (Paris), End of the 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 250, fol. 19r



Another Model, the Pharos, the Most Famous Lighthouse of Antiquity
As the Renaissance matured, another model became more popular as interest in antiquity increased.  This was the famous Pharos, the lighthouse of Alexandria, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  Memories of the Seven Wonders were not lost during the middle ages.  Indeed, the Pharos stood throughout much of the middle ages, well into the fourteenth century.  However, Egypt had been cut off from Europe by the Arab conquest in the mid-seventh century.  Nevertheless, some Europeans may have seen it during the several Crusades that attempted to take the Holy Land by landing in Egypt first. 

Some of the images used as models were drawn from remnants of Greek and Roman art, which were being surveyed with fresh eyes at this time, some were completely fanciful.  Even today there is little agreement about exactly what the famous lighthouse looked like in antiquity.


Coin of  Emperor Commodus Showing the Pharos Lighthouse
Roman Provincial (Alexandria), c. 180-192
London, Trustees of the British Museum



Mosaic of Pharos of Alexandria from Olbia, Libya
Provincial Roman, c. 4th Century
Libya, Qasr Libya Museum




Ali ben Mahmud Rudbari, Pharos of Alexandria
from Mudjmal al-Tavarih
Iranian, 1410
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Persan 62, fol. 326



+ The Master of Coetivy, The Flight of Cesear and Cleopatra
From Faits des romains
French (Paris), c. 1460-1465
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 64, fol. 401




Mosaic of St. Mark arriving in Alexandria
Italian, c. 1503-1515
Venice, Basilica di San Marco, Zen Chapel



Phillips Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck,  The Pharos
Plate #2 of The Eight Wonders of the World
Dutch, 1572
London, British Museum



So, around the beginning of the fourteenth century some references to the Pharos begin to appear in the pictures of the building of the Tower of Babel.  We begin to see the tower assume shapes that are neither square nor circular and we begin to see an attempt to suggest the terraced elevation of the Pharos, which harkens back to the shape of the ziggurat.  



Tower of Babel (Explicacio de turri babel)
from Chronologia magna by Paulinus of Venice
Italy (Naples), after 1329
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale
MS Lain 4939, fol. 12v




Gregorio Dati, Torre Babel
Italian (Florence), 1450-1499
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M721, fol.17r



+Nimrod in front of the Tower of Babel (bottom left)
Uomini Famosi from Chronica Figurata
Italian (Rome or Naples), c. 1450-1550
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9673, fol. 4




Other Models Appear
At the same time that interest in the Pharos was increasing, artists were also trying to recapture what the world of antiquity might have looked like in its own time.  From about 1500 on there was a flurry of this kind of "archaeological" fantasy painting.  It attracted the attention of one of the greatest Northern painters of the age, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and became virtually a family business for the various members of the van Valckenborgh family of Flemish painters who were active around the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries.


Gerard Horenbout, Building the Tower of Babel
From The Grimani Breviary
Flemish, c. 1510-1520
Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
MS Lat. I 99, fol. 206r



Giulio Clovio, The Tower of Babel
From The Farnese Hours
Italian, 1546
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 69, fol.104v




Lucas van Valckenborgh, Tower of Babel
Flemish, c. 1550
Paris, Musee du Louvre



Lucas van Valckenborgh, Tower of Babel
Flemish, c. 1550
Private Collection



Probably from the Workshop of Guido Durantino
Building of the Tower of Babel
Italian (Urbino), c. 1550-1560
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



Etienne Delaune, Building of the Tower of Babel
French, c. 1560-1568
Philadelphia, Museum of Art



Hendrick van Cleve III, The Tower of Babel
Flemish, c. 1560
Private Collection 



Hendrick van Cleve, The Tower of Babel
Flemish, 1560-1589
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle


Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Tower of Babel
Flemish, 1563
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum


Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The "Little" Tower of Babel
Flemish, c. 1564
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen



Marten van Valckenborgh, The Tower of Babel
Flemish, c. 1570-1600
Burnley, UK, Townley Hall Art Gallery and Museum



Anonymous, The Tower of Babel
French, 17th Century
Paris, Musee du Louvre



Anonymous. The Tower of Babel
Flemish School, 17th Century
Cambridgeshire UK, Anglesey Abbey 



Jan Christianenszoon Micker. The Tower of Babel
Dutch, c. 1650
UK Government Art Collection



The Tower of Babel
Swiss (Zurich), 1631
London, Victoria and Albert Museum



Mattia Bortoloni, The Construction of the Tower of Babel
Italian, c. 1717-1718
Piombino Dese, Villa Cornaro 

Johann Ferdinand Schor, Nimrod and the Building of the Tower of Babel
Austrian, c. 1720
Prague, Villa Amerika


Most of their conjectures were fanciful, though they were drawn from reading the ancient texts that were becoming increasingly available through the growing use of the printing press.  Views of the wonders of the world, such as those drawn by Maarten van Heemskerck and engraved by many other hands for well over a century, were popular and served as guides for other artists.


Phillips Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, The Mausoleum of Hallicarnassus
Plate #6 of The Eight Wonders of the World
Dutch, 1572
London, Trustees of the British Museum



Phillips Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, The Colosseum
Plate #8 of The Eight Wonders of the World
Dutch, 1572
London, Trustees of the British Museum



However, the only monuments of the ancient world that remained fairly easily viewable to most European artists at this time were the Colosseum and the Pantheon, both in Rome.  The other great monuments still standing were the pyramids and they were in Egypt, which was doubly distanced from European artists by its location and the enmity of its Muslim rulers.  Consequently, the images of the pyramids that were available in Europe were largely flights of fancy (although there were two small pyramids that were visible in Rome at the time, the pyramid of Gaius Cestius, which still stands and another pyramid located between the Vatican and the Castel Sant’Angelo, which was dismantled in the early 16th century 6).


Phillips Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, The Pyramids of Giza
Plate #1 of The Eight Wonders of the World
Dutch, 1572
London, Trustees of the British Museum



Into the Modern World
Even though the ancient world became more familiar to both artists and the public during the 19th and 20th centuries, through the work of archaeologists working in both the Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern fields, the image of the tower of Babel has remained somewhat fluid.


James Gillray. Overthrow of the Republican Babel
English, 1809
London, Trustees of the British Museum
A political satire that uses the destruction of the Tower to represent the events of the day.




Edward Burne-Jones, Design for a Window
English, 1857
London, The Victoria and Albert Museum




James Tissot, Building the Tower of Babel
French, c. 1896-1902
New York, The Jewish Museum


Most works of the 20th century do bear some resemblance to the ziggurat shape, if only in the emphasis on terraced levels, but the Tower still seems a construct of the mind, rather than an archaeological document.


M. C. Escher, The Tower of Babel
Dutch, 1928
London, Trustees of the British Museum



Wendy Hodge, Tower of Babel, Docklands
English, 1989
London, British Council Collection
Ms. Hodge uses the Biblical title as a commentary on the 
wave of building that swept through London as the 20th century
ended.



Walid Siti, Tower of Babel
Iraqi (Kurdish), 2001
London, Trustees of the British Museum



Confusion and Dissolution versus Reconciliation and Unity
One further thing needs to be said.  The raison d’etre of the story of the Tower of Babel is to demonstrate how the divisions of humanity, for which the amazing variety of languages is a symptom, was the result of mankind’s overwhelming pride in undertaking so great a worldly project.


Jean Bondol and Others, God Gives Instructions for the Destruction of the Tower of Babel
From a Bible historiale by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1371-1372
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS MMW 10 B 23, fol. 19r 



The Bedford Master, Destruction of the Tower of Babel
From The Bedford Hours
French (Paris), c. 1410-1430
London, British Library
MS Additional 18850, fol. 17v


The three images below show how the artists of one studio responded to different commissions for the same material.  They reused and adapted compositions and figures, altering the pose and size of the figures and modifying details.


The Master of the l'Echevinage and Workshop,  Angels Attacking the Tower of Babel
From a De Civitate Dei by Saint Augustine of Hippo
French (Rouen), c. 1450-1475
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 27, fol. 122r


The Master of the Echevinage, Angels Attacking the
Tower of Babel
From a Chronique de la Bouquechardiere by Jean de Courcy
French, (Rouen), c. 1450-1475
London, British Library
MS Harley 4376, fol. 206v



The Maitre de l'Echevinage, Angels Attacking the
Tower of Babel
From a La Bouquechardiere by Jean de Courcy
French (Rouen), c. 1460
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 20124, fol. 202r


Master Francois, The Confusion of Tongues Begins
From a De Civitate Dei by Saint Augustine of Hippo
French (Paris), c. 1469-1473
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 19, fol. 81v
(No angels attack the tower in this image, but banners proclaim the words of God and of Nimrod.  Where the banner of God's speech has fallen, a fight has already broken out between workers in the background.)

However, the high middle ages and the Renaissance also looked for Biblical “types” whereby the stories of the Old Testament served as foreshadowings of events in the New Testament.  And so it was for the Tower of Babel.  From the fourteenth century on it became paired with a New Testament event, the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at Pentecost.


+The Destruction of the Tower of Babel and Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles
From a Bible moralisee
Italian (Naples), c. 1350
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 9561, fol. 14v



+ The Descent of the Holy Spirit and Building of the Tower of Babel
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Italian (Bologna), c. 1350
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Arsenal 593 [ff.1-42], fol. 8r



+ The Descent of the Holy Spirit and God Watching the Building of the Tower of Babel
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
French (Alsace), c. 1370-1380
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 511, fol. 34v



One important result of the Descent of the Holy Spirit was that the Apostles “were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2:4).  So, whereas the creation of different languages at the Tower of Babel began the estrangement of human groups, one from another, the descent of the Spirit, with its gift of different languages became a unifying element, drawing all peoples into the salvation of the world through Christ and the Church.



Descent of the Holy Spirit and God Watching the Building of the Tower of Babel
from Speculum humanae salvationis
Swiss (Basle), 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de Frnce
MS Latin 512, fol. 35v




For this reason, numerous examples exist in which the image of the confusion of the Tower of Babel sits side by side in works like the Speculum humanae salvationis (The Mirror of Human Salvation), a popular book of piety directed at the laity, andin  Books of Hours, the popular prayer books used mainly by the laity.


The Descent of the Holy Spirit
From the Rothschild Book of Hours
Flemish (Ghent), c. 1500-1505
London, British Library
MS Additional 35313, fol 33v


Building the Tower of Babel
From the Rothschild Book of Hours
Flemish (Ghent), c. 1500-1505
London, British Library
MS Additional 35313, fol 34r

Possibly Simon Bening, The
Descent of the Holy Spirit
From The Grimani Breviary
Belgian, c. 1510-1520
Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale
Marciana
MS Lat. I 99, fol. 205v

Gerard Horenbout, Building the
Tower of Babel
From The Grimani Breviary
Belgian, c. 1510-1520
Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale
Marciana
MS Lat. I 99, fol. 206r


























Giulio Clovio, The Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Building of the Tower of Babel
From The Farnese Hours
Italian (Rome), 1546
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 69, fols.106v-107r
 

As with the side by side comparisons beloved in art history lectures, the readers were trusted to understand the relationship from the juxtaposition. 


© M. Duffy, 2017.  Selected images refreshed 2025.
+ Indicates a refreshed image.
_____________________________________________________ 
  

  1. Quentin D. Atkinson, “Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa”, Science, New Series, Vol. 332, No. 6027 (15 April 2011), American Association for the Advancement of Science, pp. 346-349.  Also, W. Tecumseh Fitch, “Unity and diversity in human language”, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 366, No. 1563, Evolution and human behavioural diversity, (12 February 2011), The Royal Society, pp. 376-388. 
  2. Notes on Genesis 10 at http://www.usccb.org/bible/gn/10:10#01010008-
  3. Nimrod may be the Biblical name for a real person, “possibly Tukulti-Ninurta I (thirteenth century B.C.), the first Assyrian conqueror of Babylonia and a famous city-builder at home”.  See note on Genesis 10:8-12 at http://www.usccb.org/bible/gn/10:10#01010008-1.  
  4. See notes on Genesis 11 at  http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/11 
  5. For different interpretations of this story see Brent A. Strawn, “Holes in the Tower of Babel”, Oxford Biblical Studies Online at https://global.oup.com/obso/focus/focus_on_towerbabel/, Maria Cintorino “The Tower of Babel and the Struggle to Be Like God”, Crisis Magazine, November 7, 2016 at http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/tower-babel-struggle-like-god and “Tower of Babel”, the Jewish Virtual Library at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tower-of-babel
  6. For the pyramids of Rome see:  http://archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/archaeological-site/pyramid-caius-cestius and http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pyramid-of-cestius


Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.