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A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.



6 (1.5 min.)

Babel ['beIbl] Babylon ['bWbIlRn] divine [dI'vaIn] theologians [LYi:R'lRudGRn] Magellan [mR'gelRn]   vaccine ['vWksi:n] diaspora [daI'WspRrR] Noah’s Ark ['nRuRz'Q:k]

Jonas Salk ['dGRunRs'sO:k] – a US scientist who produced the first successful vaccine against polio.

'maverick– an independent person who has ideas and behaviour that are very different from other people’s.

The Epic of Gilgamesh– originally written before 1900 B.C., it is probably the oldest written story in the world describing the Sumerian [su'mIRrIRn] King Gilgamesh of Uruk in Babylonia.

power broker – a person or country that has a lot of influence and uses it to control other people or countries.

 

Return to Babel

It is one of the grandest epics of the Bible, a story shrouded in such mystery that thousands of years later archaeologists, historians, theologians and linguists are only beginning to understand its true significance.

In ancient Babylon (modern-day Iraq), the scientific and theological elite of that day gathered together to put the finishing touches on the Empire State Building or the Space Shuttle of that era – the legendary Tower of Babel.

Though their faces may have been colored black, white, brown, yellow and red, these engineers, astronomers and spiritualists were of one mind. They had channeled their social energy into constructing “a tower that would reach unto heaven.”

Yet due to divine intervention, their plans would not succeed: God struck the legions with a sudden jolt from the blue. In an instant the masses were unable to understand or communicate with one another in a single language. The construction of the Tower – most likely an astrological observatory – came to an abrupt halt.

In due course all of the world’s population then began to scatter to the four corners of the earth. And the global language of Babel was diffused into ten thousand different tongues; most of them never developed an alphabet.

Linguists today can trace all of the world’s languages back to three major branches. This is known as the “language tree.” Evidence of an ancient universal language is not difficult to find. Examples of linguistic similarities in diverse languages and cultures are legion.

Culturally, the story of Noah’s Ark can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Greek writings and in both American Indian and Aboriginal folklore. How did these scattered and isolated cultures all develop the Ark legend unless all mankind at Babel once shared in them?

Despite God’s intervention at Babel, mankind seems to be able to do anything. The Pyramids, voyages of Columbus and Magellan, vaccines of Jonas Salk have given way to cloning, genetic engineering, organ transplants, space flight and perhaps colonization of other planets.

Fueling these bold and maverick initiatives is the use of English as a global language. It is no small accident that this transformation is occurring in this present age. The study and use of English is channeling the diverse thoughts, talents and energies of the world’s population into a single language and worldview – just as a single language did in the ancient days of Babel.

The total number of languages spoken in the world today is just over 6,000 – down from 10,000 at the height of the Babel Diaspora. By A.D. 2100 that number will have shrunk to 3,000 – most of them minor tongues spoken by a relative handful of tribes and peoples. As the global drive to learn English eats up those remaining languages it will also consume many or all of the aspects of those cultures.

Today English is increasingly being used as a force for the linguistic and cultural colonization of the world by the transnational power brokers.

(After Anthony C. LoBaido)







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