From Babel to the New Jerusalem
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durable unity (34). In one word, the heavenly City is an image for the nuptial communion between God and Lamb on the one hand, and humanity on the other. Thus, the contrastive reversal between the dispersation of the population of Babel and the unification of all peoples in the New Jerusalem could not be more explicit and complete.
* * * Looking back over the above essay, we come to the conclusion that the actors in the story of the city/tower of Babel, God and humanity, are working to opposite purposes, and the name, i.e., reputation, they expect to achieve is entirely different from the name they do achieve, Babel, i.e. Confusion. What humanity does, God undoes. However, the image of the Heavenly City remedies the confusion by highlighting the eschatological coming of God to repatriate humanity. Therefore, the profiling of this City, we would argue, is more than a creative reinterpretation of the Ezekelian temple (Ezek 48,30-35), or of the Trito-Isaian vision of chapters 60–65 (see also Isa 1,8; Jer 4,31; 4 Ezra 9,3839, where the bride was seen as a prototype of the existing salvation community), or even of the anti-image of Babylon (Rev 17). At the close of our reflections it becomes clear that the New Jerusalem is the inversion of Babel: we might call it an inverse-archetypal relationship. A literary antithesis is accomplished between the city/tower of Babel and the New Jerusalem. In the latter the profuse apocalyptic imagery flows into one ultimate image, that of theanthropic oneness (35). The protological event of Babel finds its fulfilment in the eschatological City. Unification is achieved only by and in Christ who sends out His Spirit to unite peoples and languages on Pentecost (cf. Acts 2,5-12; Rev 7,9-10). Language used to promote a human agenda turns into language used to announce the “mighty works of God”, Acts 2,11. From Babel peoples are scattered in judgment; from Jerusalem they scatter to spread the good news, which would eventuate in worldwide unity. But we now have to add a further moment of unification: that of the Holy City. Thus, a thread runs through history from Babel (Gen 11) to the pentecostal Jerusalem (Acts 2), and from the fallen Babylon (Rev 17) to the eschatological Jerusalem (Rev 21). A closing thought: In an age of globalization, humanity is invited and urged by the stories of Babel and the Heavenly City to consider using the things that we have in common to glorify God rather than to make a name for ourselves! Human beings still fail to follow God’s command to fill the earth. Rather, they try to come together, challenge their earthly finitude, and approach God’s own dwelling. So after all this time humanity has not (34) Cf. G.P. HUGENBERGER, Marriage as Covenant. A Study of Biblical Law and Ethics Governing Marriage Developed from the Perspective of Malachi (VTSup 52; Leiden – New York – Köln 1994). (35) This dynamic passing from many symbols towards a single one, i.e., the Covenant, is underscored also by G. Borgonovo (La notte e il suo sole. Luce e tenebre nel Libro di Giobbe. Analisi simbolica [Roma 1995] 45).