What was the sin of the Tower of Babel?

A Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture

On Genesis 11:1-9, A Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture explains that the city's people began a great stage-tower (ziggurat) and could not complete it; its massive remains recalled a failed attempt that tradition linked with discord and migration. The writer does not name the sin, but, convinced that God governs the world, he understood the attempt as displeasing to God, and the narrative suggests overweening human pride and self-sufficiency.

The story is often read as God miraculously creating languages, but the commentary notes that Genesis 10 already records various languages among the peoples, using the Hebrew lason, "languages," while this passage uses sapah, "lip" or "utterance." The natural sense is that a people once "saying the same thing" fell into disagreement and, through discord, migrated. St. Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century was emphatic that God did not miraculously impose different languages.

The Jerome Commentary

The Jerome Biblical Commentary says the evil lay in their desire to "make a name" for themselves, rather than in building a tower reaching the heavens. The Lord's "descent" stresses human smallness, not divine weakness; the punishment was foreshadowed in their own words; and the name Babel is linked to the Hebrew root for "confound," so the great city and its defeat stand for man's revolt against God and its consequences.