Friend of StrangersEsimerkki

After Adam and Eve are displaced from the garden and Cain from the field, humanity begins to migrate and spread across the earth. When they reach the land of Shinar, things come to a halt. In a strange and vain attempt to avoid obeying God's command to fill the earth, mankind attempts to wall themselves into a city and build a tall tower that reaches heaven. Just as Adam and Eve sinned against God and Cain against his brother, these people sin against God by trying to be God and against their fellow man by building walls and excluding others.

God steps down, looks at the little tower, and He confuses the language of the people to prevent them from enclosing themselves behind walls and to encourage them to continue migrating and spreading across the earth.

But instead of being a monument to man's deification, the unfinished tower of Babel becomes a monument to man's foolish and failed attempts to stand up to its own Creator. The corruption of language becomes a constant reminder of man's pride, and it is a divine punishment only to be resolved on the Day of Pentecost. But if the confusion of languages at Babel led to the division of people, the miracle of language on Pentecost leads to its opposite, namely the uniting of different peoples into a new community.