What has Pentecost to do with Babel?

by MARK KNIGHT

This past month we celebrated once again the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost. The story Acts 2 tells is not just about a set of individuals, but about a community. We hear that they “were all together in one place” (2.1) when the Spirit was poured out. It’s also story of being filled for the sake of others. The Spirit’s very first manifestation is mission and the sharing of faith through this community: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages … And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” (2.4;6)

This story parallels the story of the Tower of Babel in fascinating ways. In Genesis 11, people also gather together in one place – in the land of Shinar, where they begin to build a tower in order to ascend to the heights of God. Clearly this tower was intended to be a monument to this people’s greatness – they say to one another, “let us make a name for ourselves”. But that was not its sole purpose. The word babel means “gate of God” – and sure enough, this tower was also a temple, built “with its top in the heavens” (11.4), both to get God’s attention and to attract his favour. They succeeded in the former, but not in the latter. When God “comes down” to see this tower, he confuses their language and scatters the people, in judgment upon this arrogant attempt. No longer able to comprehend one another, each goes their own way, and the narrative of Genesis marches on.

What has Pentecost to do with Babel? Let’s briefly notice three parallels…

First, in Acts 2, the people who have gathered together have done so in response to a call to “wait and pray” (Acts 1.4). The major difference between the tower and the so-called “upper room” is that instead of ascending to God as they build, God descends upon them as they wait. As John Walton recognises, in this moment God descends in order to create in this community a true temple of his presence and gracious favour. We celebrated last Sunday that the Spirit still empowers us to be this temple today – again not just as individuals, but as a community. When Paul speaks in his letters of us being a “temple”, in all but one case he means not that each of our bodies are like little temples each filled with the Spirit, but rather that together as a community we are “a temple of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3.16). Together in Christ, we are called to be the true “gate of God” through which people may enter.

Secondly, in Acts 2, the Spirit empowers these disciples to speak in languages that are not their own, so that all the scattered people who have come together in Jerusalem can hear and respond to Jesus. Pentecost has sometimes been called the undoing or the reversal of Babel. But notice the text does not tell us that the earth will once again have “one language and the same words” – the idea is not, in fact, to turn the clock back all the way to Genesis 11.1. Rather than being reversed in this moment, Babel is being redeemed. Christ is proclaimed on the day of Pentecost in many different languages, and received by many different peoples, so that all may come, and so that in their distinctiveness all might reflect his likeness. In other words, what we have here is the beginning of the fulfilment of that great vision of John in Revelation 7.9: “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne”. As David Congdon observes, Babel is redeemed because in this moment diversity of language, culture and background is conceived no longer as a curse, or as a barrier separating us from God or one another, but rather as a blessing of diversity, interdependence and seeing more of God through one another. And together with that, the Gospel is conceived as a reality and a truth that is translatable into every context and every life story, without exception. Still today, the presence and the likeness of Christ is reflected in the lives of people from all places and all walks of life. There is no one and nowhere for whom he is not relevant, or whose life he cannot reach and transform.

And then finally, in Acts 2, the movement of the Spirit creates a boundary-crossing, rapidly expanding community of the redeemed as “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (2.47) Stanley Hauerwas detects not one, but two opposing human impulses in the story of Babel – the gathering with which it begins, and the scattering with which it ends. On the one hand, this is a story all about power and empire-building – something all too common today, not just in the world, but sadly sometimes within the church. And then on the other hand, it’s a story about tribalism – when God frustrates their plan and mutual understanding becomes difficult, they retreat into their own groups, and scatter, each to his own. Babel reminds us, then, that those who gather an empire – even in the name of building God’s temple – easily succumb to pride and superiority, forgetting their own limitations and their dependence upon others, and even upon God. But, Hauerwas notes, it also reminds us that those who scatter into tribes isolate themselves – often bitter because of a failed empire – leading to tunnel vision, fear of the other, and competition over collaboration. When the Spirit moves – on the day of Pentecost and still today – a community is created that overcomes and redeems both of these impulses. As Acts continues, we see a growing redemptive gathering of the Spirit that does not sieze power or people but rather invites and serves, advancing not its own empire, but the kingdom of God. As they gather for prayer, teaching and fellowship, this community are marked not by displays of human power but by the power of awe-inspiring “wonders and signs being done by the apostles” – and they are also radically generous with the resources they do have, holding things in common and meeting others’ needs (2.43). And then we also see a redemptive scattering of the Spirit – not as people retreat into vying tribes, but as people are sent out to continue to share the good news with every tribe and tongue: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (1.8)

At SPTC, we long to see the church living in the power of the Spirit, marked by all three of these things: by prayerful responsiveness to God; by diverse communities coming together in Christ; and by the mutual service and collaboration of the kingdom. Our prayer is that we would all know the power of this Spirit afresh in this season, and that all we do as a college would make a contribution to what the Lord is doing in our midst.