Babelites

Sarah Powley, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Keywords

Cedarville, undergraduate, literary journal

Department/School of Contributor's Major

English, Literature, and Modern Languages

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Disciplines

Type of Work

Poetry

DOI

10.15385/jcr.2025.25.5

Contributor's Note

As a Linguistics major, I have been repeatedly struck by the immense amount of hubris that the people at Babel displayed and their utter undermining by God simply taking away their ability to speak with one another. When reading that passage in the Bible, I vividly imagined the increasing din that must have resulted from the confusion of languages, while also admiring the diversity of sounds and expressions that resulted from it. The goal of this piece, therefore, is to try to recreate the attitudes and bewilderment of those who lived at Babel, to showcase God’s sovereignty and make us reflect on our own attitudes towards human society. The last line, which is entirely not in English was made from translating each word of Genesis 11:6 into a different language through Google Translate, but it does not translate back into anything intelligible.

Disclaimer

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Recommended Citation

Powley, Sarah (2025) "Babelites," Cedarville Review: Vol. 25, Article 21.
DOI: 10.15385/jcr.2025.25.5
Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cedarvillereview/vol25/iss1/21