The final symptom of the malady of the world is the Tower of Babel. This is a sly dig at Israel’s neighbours in Mesopotamia, who boasted that their temple towers reached into heaven. Genesis is suggesting that, far from being a source of pride and a symbol of religious potency, these towers are sinful and destructive. In the Genesis scheme of things, the tower and the city are selfish and self-aggrandising: human beings are meant to be spreading out over the whole earth to be stewards and guardians of God’s creation, not huddling together in a self-serving, inward-looking circle. Their instructions, when they are created in chapter one, is to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”, and this blueprint is repeated after the flood. The words have a slightly sinister ring to us, but in the context of Genesis, this is how human beings co-operate with God in the world.<\/p>\n
It is very striking how Genesis sees the tragedy that has befallen creation as all-encompassing. Because human beings were made “in the image” of God, they have a real capacity to affect creation, and so their destructiveness does not just impact on them.<\/p>\n