After the Flood killed all the wicked people on earth, Noah's ship came to rest in the Middle East, and there his descendants multiplied. They built cities and kingdoms and tilled the soil, and everybody spoke the same language. They prospered and became rich, but most of them became wicked and worshipped idols. A man named Nimrod, a great-grandson of Noah, founded the kingdom of Babel.
Sources:
• Choate, Jane McBride. “Scriptural Giants: The Brother of Jared Saw the Finger of God”. Friend Magazine of the LDS Church. November 1988.
• Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel, (1980), 50–59
• Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual, (2014), Lesson 18: Genesis 10–11
• Valletta, Thomas R. “I Have a Question” Ensign: The Magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, March 1998.
• Parry, Donald W. “The Flood and the Tower of Babel” Ensign: The Magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, January 1998.
The Babylonians were not members of the Church, but they had some understanding of the need for temples. Satan inspired them to build a temple high enough that they could reach heaven. A temple that allowed people to climb to such a great height may also have been an attempt to survive another flood if God should attempt to destroy the people again.
Jesus became angry at the wicked people and their attempt to build a counterfeit temple to their false gods. So he cursed the people, humbling them with a confusion of tongues so that they no longer all had the same language. Now no one could understand each other, so they could no longer work together on the tower they were building.
Sources:
• Book of Mormon Stories, (1997), 143–44
• Parry, Donald W. “The Flood and the Tower of Babel” Ensign: The Magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, January 1998
• Old Testament Stories, (1980), 26–29
• Valletta, Thomas R. “I Have a Question” Ensign: The Magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, March 1998.
The curse also caused the people to become scattered across the face of the earth, and their pagan temple—a pale imitation of Zion—was left uncompleted. Some people in our modern world doubt the historicity of the Tower of Babel story, but the Latter-day Saints accept the story as it is told in the Bible. And the Book of Mormon stands as a second witness to its veracity.
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