The biblical writer wastes no time in linking this act to the earlier divine transgression of Genesis 6:1–4. That passage sought to portray the giant quasi-divine Babylonian culture heroes (the apkallus) who survived the flood as “men of renown” or, more literally, “men of the name [shem].” Those who built the tower of Babel wanted to do so to “make a name [shem]” for themselves. The building of the tower of Babel meant perpetuating Babylonian religious knowledge and substituting the rule of Babel’s gods for rule by Yahweh.
