The Tower of Babel: How Tall Was It?

And was it about going up to God or bringing God down?

The Bible doesn't tell us how tall the tower was but two other ancient writings mention it.  In the Book of Jubilees, it says it was 5433 cubits and 2 palms. There are different types of cubits that vary slightly but if we assume the Babylonian long cubit (19.8 in), that would put the tower at about 8,964 feet (if I did my math right). That's over a mile and a half high! For comparison, the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) is 1,729 feet. 3 Baruch(c 2nd century) puts is at a much smaller 463 cubits (roughly 763 feet).

Most assume the purpose of the tower was to go up to God but ancient history suggests a different answer. John H. Walton writes:

At the top of the ziggurat was the gate of the gods, the entrance into their heavenly abode. At the bottom was the temple, where hopefully the god would descend to receive the gifts and worship of his people. A similar mentality can be seen among the people of the American West, who picked up their towns and moved them into proximity with the newly laid railroad tracks, then erected a train station so that the train would stop there and bring economic benefits.

In summary, the project is a temple complex featuring a ziggurat, which was designed to make it convenient for the god to come down to his temple, receive their worship, and bless his people. The key for this passage is to realize that the tower was not built so that people could ascend to heaven, but so that deity could descend to earth.

and again:

Such background information may help give us alternatives for understanding the offense of the tower, for the building of it assumes certain concepts of God—that he wants to be provided a means for coming down into a temple to be worshiped. Likely the worship would also have had certain pagan elements to it (e.g., worship by providing for the deity’s needs—a common ancient concept). More than anything else, it is an attempt by the people to procure God’s presence in their midst—a benefit that had been lost when Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden.

You can read the rest of the article here.