世界小史 第47期:巴比倫
But that isn't all the Bible has to say about ancient Babylon.
但是這不是《圣經(jīng)》所講述的有關(guān)巴比倫的唯一的一件事。
Do you know the story of the Tower of Babel,
你知道得巴別塔的故事嗎？
when the people of a great city tried to build a tower that would reach up to heaven,
當(dāng)一個大城市的人們試圖造一座通向天空的塔時，
and God was angry at their pride and stopped them building any higher by making them all speak different languages so that they could no longer understand one another?
上帝對他們的自滿非常生氣，為了阻止他們，上帝使他們說不同的語言，這樣他們就不再能明白對方說什么。
Well, Babel is Babylon.
巴別就是巴比倫。
So now you will be able to understand the story better.
你現(xiàn)在能夠更好的理解這個故事了。
For, as you know, the Babylonians really did build gigantic towers "the top of which reached even to the heavens",
你知道，巴比倫人確實(shí)曾建造過巨大的塔，“塔尖直聳天空”，
and they built them so as to be nearer to the sun, the moon and the stars.
他們建造它們是為了離太陽、月亮和眾星辰更近些。
The story of Noah and the Flood is also set in Mesopotamia.
諾亞和大洪水的故事也發(fā)生在美索不達(dá)米亞。
A number of clay tablets have been dug up, inscribed1 with cuneiform script telling a story very similar to the one in the Bible.
人們在那里也多次挖掘出有楔形文字的泥板，它們所講述的故事跟《圣經(jīng)》里的故事十分相似。
One of Abraham of Ur's descendants (the Bible tells us) was Joseph,
烏爾城的亞伯拉罕的一個后裔（我們在《圣經(jīng)》中這樣讀到）是約瑟，
son of Jacob, whose brothers took him to Egypt and sold him, despite which he became a counselor2 and minister to the pharaoh.",
雅各的兒子，被他的兄長們賣到埃及，后來在埃及當(dāng)了法老的顧問和大臣。
