The Tower of Babel

From Jordan B. Peterson's Maps of Meaning Lecture 11:

Noah and the Flood

[you]

I've watched a lot of these videos. I've learned two things:
1. Jordan Peterson is a genius.
2. The chick in the hijab never skips class.

[JoshAlicea]

If you read the bible. The first sin is the eating of the fruit. But why they ate the fruit is because the serpent tempted them by telling them that "it will make them like God..." The Tower of Babel was when man tried to lift themselves up to God's level. By the Golden Calf in Exodus, man is trying to bring God down to man's level. By Christ, God willingly comes down to man's level in order to redeem man from when he fell in the garden. That is why Christ is referred to as the 2nd Adam. But by Christ's incarnation- the coming down to man's level- God teaches man how to be like God- which is humble. Just like how God became a man in Christ in order to redeem us, we are to humble ourselves by coming down to the level of the hurting, and to humble those who try to exalt themselves over others. We are all equals in both sin, and opportunity for salvation. Which one we choose is up to us.

[stain]

1st time in 34 years I couldnt get enough of a bible story...
He is so great..I feel sorry for all the crap they put him through
Sorry for him and for us

[MetalMachine]

This reminds me of the story of Icarus. You can only fly so high before the sun melts your wings and you fall.

[martiansurgery]

'Speaking the same language' CAN ALSO be interpreted as they all agree on the same 'social' ideas

[rickynomics]

I’d pay for the King James Bible on audio book read and commentated by Dr. Peterson.

[TTT]

To fully understand the concepts, and then be able to dumb them down and explain them in detail, is what makes this man such a fantastic teacher. Thank you Mr. Peterson

[lmerve]

Jordan Peterson articulates the universal language, defines all the things that have popped up in our minds.

[haydendouglas]

“Modern man does not see god because he does not look low enough.” - Carl Jung

[oliknowles]

It’s remarkable that he is able to teach a religious principle to students, that probably aren’t believers, and not be subject to complaints. Only a brilliant professor could achieve that.

[MaxMacmurray]

This means that Disney is a ticking time-bomb, and it's going to be glorious

[penthaughtz]

I love listening to JBP's crazy lectures.

[swinedad]

Thank you for this video. It helped me learn about the importance of the fundementals of person to person communication.

[drewk]

Jordan Peterson is such a savage about great story. If you study these myths and then just listen to him fill-in the gaps it's incredible how accurate he is. Legend.

[timbob]

I love listening to this guy, the tower of Babel story has always been one that has had me thinking about the true meaning of the tower reaching heaven and I think this explanation answers the question perfectly

[ginallightbody]

Jordon Peterson articulates so precisely what I have been thinking for a long time. Thank you so much for helping me to realise I am not alone. I sincerely appreciate all your videos, which I am working my way through and eating up.

[Demosophist]

The story of Babel, which purports to be about spoken language, is actually about the phase shift from ideographic writing based on visual metaphors to phonetic writing that represents sounds. If you have multiple Bronze Age cultures that each speak a different language but which have a couple of common visual languages the constraints of separate spoken languages can be easily overcome. There were two primary ideographic writing systems in the Middle and Near East: hieroglyphics and cuneiform. This made for a relatively "small world" around the Mediterranean essentially held together by a small culture of highly trained scribes. (Harold Innis distinguishes several periods, one when the scribes are part of the state, and another when they become a priesthood). This sanguinity collapses with the introduction of phonetic writing about 2000 BC and it's spread until the collapse in 1177 BC. This is partly because people who spoke different languages could no longer communicate in writing, but also partly because the structure of elites was broken by the relative ease of writing phonetically, which was a skill relatively easy to learn.

[Auceza]

This happens every time you seek for perfection in any way.

[Yotun-of-the-WWW]

look at the EU building in Brussels it looks like the Tower of Babel painted by Breugel

[bxbluesofficial]

Excellent side analysis of the Tower of Babel by Dr. Peterson. When the languages became confounded, the people were relegated to have to build on their rebellion but from MANY hierarchical structures instead of one. I would parallel much of this with the raging heathens in Psalm 2, only this time, it's now the nations who will rebel against God to no avail.