Taken from
Robert F. Smith, Egyptianisms
in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo, Utah: Deep Forest Green
Books, 2020), 92-93
In
its reference to the “Great Tower” story (Omni 22, Helaman 6:28, Ether 1:33),
the Book of Mormon never refers to “Babel,” which some biblical scholars
consider to be an Exilic or post-Exilic editorial insertion19 into the text at
Genesis 11:9. Instead, the “great tower” and “confusion of tongues” episode in
both Genesis 11:1-9 and Ether 1:33-37, recall the much earlier Sumerian “Golden
Age” passage in which “the whole universe, the people in unison, to Enlil in
one tongue (eme-aš-àm) gave praise,” followed shortly by the struggle between
Enlil and Enki, lord of Eridu, who “changed the speech in their mouths, put
contention into it, into the speech of man that (until then) had been
one.” [20] The “great tower” thus probably reflects a much earlier
Mesopotamian ziggurat / ziqquratu (U6.NIR), “temple-tower;
mountain-summit.”
[20] S. N. Kramer, Sumerian
Mythology, rev. ed. (Harper & Row, 1961/reprint Univ. of Penn. Press,
1972), xiv,107 n. 2; S. N. Kramer, “The ‘Babel of Tongues’: A Sumerian
Version,” in W. W. Hallo, ed., Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser, AOS 53
(New Haven, 1968):108-111 = JAOS, 88 (1968).
