The Captivity of Innocence: Babel and the Yahwist

In this study-the third panel of a trilogy on Js tales about evil and innocence in the primeval era-the author turns to Genesis 11:1-9 another parable this time on the so-called Tower of Babel. The Captivity of Innocence analyzes a systemic robotization of society as a way of keeping innocence behind bars contending that innocence never fails to offend never fails to stir envy and hate. Here evil is not wrought by an individual like Cain or Lamech but by all the earth so that the summit of evil is now reached before Abrahams breakthrough in Genesis following chapter. The present analysis uses a variety of techniques to interpret the biblical text including historical-critical literary sociopolitical psychoanalytic and deconstructive approaches. The inescapable conclusion is that Babel is the Kafkaesque image of our world and is a powerful paradigm of our hubristic contrivances and constructions-Des Tours de Babel says Derrida-in order to deny our finiteness. Then innocence is trampled upon but it is not overcome: Babel/Babylons fate is to crumble down and to bring up from her ashes the Knight of Faith. Breaking free from the compartmentalized exegesis of traditional commentaries LaCocque suggests some lively diverse and somehow splintered leads of interpretation for Babel. Giving up the illusion of producing the meaning of the text juxtaposing instead various approaches and ways to translate and understand it he echoes the teaching of this moral tale: mens calling is to understand each other without denying their differences without submitting to any unifying tyrant. --Hubert Bost Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris-Sorbonne) There are few scholars in the world today who can combine expertise in Hebrew and biblical scholarship with intimate familiarity with leading figures in theory and philosophy. The range of disciplinary languages brought together in this new Babel is deeply impressive; the conversation is genuine rich and insightful. --Yvonne Sherwood Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies University of Glasgow Andre LaCocque is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Trial of Innocence and Onslaught against Innocence (Cascade Books); The Feminine Unconventional; Romance She Wrote; Esther Regina; and a commentary on Ruth. He is also the coauthor (with Paul Ricoeur) of Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies.