Common Grace, 1.41-42

Last updated on: March 10, 2020 at 8:00 am by Coyle Neal

Common Grace, 1.41-42 2020-03-02T15:25:49-07:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This post is part of a series walking through the first volume of Abraham Kuyper’s Common Grace.

Just how did Noah’s three sons become all the races of man? Obviously three families can have multiple varieties of descendants–especially if their wives were of varied ethnicities…

However, we have to look at Babel. It seems that the nations after the Flood migrated as a whole people under organized leadership (some form of council of patriarchs?). The implication seems to be that they wanted to stay together and stay organized, so they built a city and a tower together to act as a beacon. This, however, was a sin, rebelling against God’s command to fill the earth. (Genesis 1:28, 9:1)

God’s words and their goals suggest that their plan for history was set against God’s:

“In God’s plan all powers and gifts with which he had endowed our race would gradually be brought to light to the glory of his name. But according to this selfish plan for building the tower at Babel, all this would have been smothered and destroyed. According to the plan of God, the overflowing measure full of kernels of wheat is scattered over the wide field, and soon the fields will shimmer with the golden waves of grain. But according to the plan of Shinar, the seed grain would be locked up in a musty cellar to suffocate and molder there.” (362)

If the response of God in Genesis 11:6-8 is odd to us, Kuyper thinks that’s because God is speaking with “anthropomorphic garb” (363), in contrast to the pagan stories about giants or titans storming the heavens.

This contrast is especially strong when we see God’s response: it is one that is filled with a “silent majesty that achieves the greatest goals with seemingly the most insignificant means.” (364) So far as we’re told, God doesn’t knock over a single brick. “God appears to do nothing.” (364)

Nevertheless, this confusion of language was a supernatural event that involved judgment on the whole generation of people then living, including God’s chosen people (whoever they were) at the time. If the line of evil men had gained ascendancy prior to the Flood, it seems at Babel that once again the rebels against God had gained ascendancy. Rather than again destroying mankind, this time God confused the languages and paved the way for a separating out of God’s people that would come with Abraham.

The Babel narrative further compels us to think about language itself–something we can’t do well without bringing Babel into the discussion. Specifically, we see that language is fixed, regular, and full of exceptions. We also see how earlier languages were related to each other yet are still mysteriously varied– a circumstance explicable only through the Scripture narrative.

Kuyper ends Chapter 42 with a reflection on two points. First, he notes that the principle of irregularity and “particularization” is inherent to language. Languages fragment over time, so we have lots of languages and dialects. Though mass media and the internet are taking their toll on the diversity of languages in our own day, we can still understand this principle even within the English-speaking world. Someone from Northern England sounds very different from someone from North Dakota, who sounds different yet again from someone from South Africa, etc.

Second, this fragmentation of languages is not the confusion of Babel. That was a division between groups of people (not necessarily between all people). It may even be that the major language divisions were based on the lines of Noah’s three children. More importantly, this confusion was neither external nor mechanical. Language is an organic part of us that falls under our reason. So different languages reflect different peoples–which is what God created here. Our organic physical and spiritual inner and outer unity was broken, which is only restored at Pentecost. Kuyper even speculates in a footnote that the language spoken on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was the original language that was confused at Babel. The later “tongues” of 1 Corinthians 14, he argues “is a phenomenon that is weakened, an after-flowering that finally fades away.” (373) Hence the need for interpreters.

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO

Previous Post

March 6, 2020

Three Theology Books for Children

Next Post

March 13, 2020 Why More Money Doesn't Make you Healthy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Esther's cousin and guardian?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nehemiah Ezra Haman Mordecai