The Tower Of Babel- An Etiological Myth - 2373 Words

1. The Tower of Babel- At the beginning of this story, all the people of the earth were united; they all spoke one language. Since they could all communicate with each other and happened to be skilled builders, the people decided to build a tower, one that would be tall enough to reach heaven. God heard of their plan, and knowing that they built this tower to further unite all the people and to have something to be proud of, so he stopped their plan. He confused their language, and scattered the people all throughout the globe. This story is an etiological myth; it explains how things in nature came to be. It is also important because it is a story that frowns upon arrogance; God punished the people because they were too focused on themselves and their own accomplishments instead of paying their praise to God. 2. Cain and Abel-After Adam and Eve had committed the first sin, God told them that they could make up for it by sacrificing a lamb to him. Later, Adam and Eve had their first sons. Cain, the older one, was a farmer, while Abel, the younger one was a shepherd. Adam and Eve told them about God’s request, and Abel reluctantly sacrificed his lamb. Cain thought it was silly to sacrifice a perfectly good lamb, so he decided to sacrifice some dry straw to God too. But when they set fire to both the lamb and the straw to be sacrifice, only the lamb caught fire. Cain became jealous of his brother since God took Abel’s sacrifice and not his, and eventually his jealousy overcame