The key concept for understanding the Tower of Babel story of Genesis 11:1-9 appears in the verse about the purpose of those who wanted to build the tower (11:4), in God’s reaction (11:8), and in the conclusion of the story (11:9). That is the concept scatter (the Hebrew word “pus”). The purpose of building the tower was “to not be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (11:4). God’s reaction was to “scatter them from there to all over the earth” (11:8) which is also the conclusion of the story when “the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth” (11:9). The background for interpreting the Tower of Babel story through the key concept of scatter is not only the blessing, sanctioning and will of God in the last verse of the previous chapter, namely that all nations be “spread out over the earth after the flood” (10:32), but also God’s original plan and mandate for creation, namely to “fill the earth” (1:28).
In this context it is clear that, contrary to many popular interpretations, “scattering” is not negative and also not an issue of punishment. Those who wanted to build the Tower of Babel resisted God’s purpose for creation to Fill the earth” because they feared to be scattered all over the earth. They wanted to stay in the safe mode of unity, because they thought that would enable them to do the impossible (11:6). What God prevented was exactly their unity for the sake of replacing themselves with God, and what God empowered was to scatter them all over the earth for the sake of His purposes for creation.
This may sound strange to those who always thought that unity is the ideal and that scattering is bad. Walter Brueggemann explains it well with this paragraph: “The subtle point suggests that there are two kinds of unity. On the one hand, God wills a unity which permits and encourages scattering. The unity willed by God is that all of humankind shall be in covenant with him (9:8-11) and with him only, responding to his purposes, relying on his life-giving power. The scattering God wills is that life should be peopled everywhere by his regents, who are attentive to all parts of creation, working in his image to enhance the whole creation, to bring “each in its kind” to full fruition and productivity. This unity-scattered dialectic does not presume that different families, tongues, lands, and nations are bad or disobedient. They are a part of his will. And the reason God allows for that kind of differential is that all parts of humankind look to and respond to God in unity.”
Therefore, unity for the sake of human power in which diversity is a threat rather than a gift to embrace, is problematic from a theological perspective (because then God is replaced by humankind). But unity for the sake of God’s purposes in which diversity will distract from obeying God’s call is equally problematic from a theological perspective (because then humankind misses their calling from God).
Genesis Journal 