All right, so check it out. You know how we talk
about all the weird stuff, they sneak into our
food, our air, or even our clothes? Yeah. It
turns out most shirts are basically made of plastic.
You're sweating in chemicals, man. That's why
I switched to Hypronatural. It's wild. They make
their fabric from jade stone and crab shells.
Yeah, you heard me right. Jade and crab shells.
The jade keeps you naturally cool, like literally
drops your skin temp down a few degrees. And
the crab shell fibers, they fight odor and help
your skin stay fresh all day long. So you can
wear it longer, wash it less. and not smell like
a dirty old gym tap. They use a fancy caught
mother of pearl buttons and zero junk. No polyester,
no chemical dyes, and none of that synthetic
garbage. It's clean, it's sustainable, and honestly,
it's just cool gear. You can wear it anywhere.
The gym, the range, whatever. And it looks legit.
Go to hypernatural .com and use my code is zero
signal at checkout and you'll get yourself 20
% off. And get yourself the cleanest, most comfortable
shirt you've ever worn. That's hypernatural.
Nature. Engineered. For comfort. Tonight, we're
going to talk about a king who barely gets a
line in the Bible and a tower of people have
been arguing about for 3 ,000 years, Nimrod,
the Tower of Babel, big names, bigger questions.
Yeah, a tiny resume, a mighty hunter before the
Lord, then the epic backstory explosion, empires,
a adultery, a furnace, and the first conspiracy
board meeting, Benidon, who tells me? Yeah, man.
Well, unpacked scripture, the rabbinic frameworks,
the archaeologists who point to ziggurats, and
the internet detectives who swear Nimrod started
the Illuminati. Spoiler, the Bible is a bit short
on some of these details. The Illuminati, which,
you know, makes the extra so interesting. Midrash
turns a two -line genealogy into high drama.
A rebel king, a city that tries to reach heaven,
and a god who hits the reset button on human
speech. It's a warning about pride and power
and what happens when people try to make a name
for themselves. Yeah, man. Imagine a plane in
ancient Mesopotamia, mud brick and the smell
of baked clay. People chanting in one language,
hauling bricks up tall step towers, met to touch
the sky. It's a literal engineering project.
a symbolic warning, a political critique, or
a gateway to heaven. And a lot of people ask,
where does Nimrod fit in? Biblical geography
puts his kingdom in Shinar, right in the Babel
neighborhood. Later writers made him the architect,
the tyrant, the inventor of idolatry, and sometimes
the foil to Abraham. It's like the origin story
for, don't trust the centralized power. Yeah,
and we'll look at all those versions. We'll check
out some of the text, and we'll ask some good
modern questions. Which parts are ancient Pulmic,
and which parts echo real Mesopotamian? an architecture
like Edmund Nanky, and how did a footnote become
a symbol for an empire in rebellion? Plus bonus
round, why does Nimrod keep turning up in conspiracy
lore? From Victorian pulmic to late night forums,
he's been recast as everything from proto -Mason
to a cult kingpin. We'll separate the entertaining
stories from the credible claims. Yeah, so tonight,
primary texts and tall tales, clay bricks and
power plays, myth -making and modern myth -hunting.
If you like history with a side of mystery, you're
in the right place. So we're gonna talk. a little
bit about Nimrod's genealogy. So, fun fact, he
is the great -grandson of Noah. His grandfather
was Ham and his father was Cush. So, this place
is Nimrod post -flood. He is from the Hamite
branch through Cush, later associated with kingdoms
in the south and east. You're looking at Africa,
Arabia, and Mesopotamia, depending on interpretations.
So, look at a quick biblical description of Nimrod.
He was the first mighty one on earth after the
flood. He was known as a mighty hunter before
the Lord, and he is largely considered the founder
of the first cities and kingdoms. Looking at
some of the Hebrew words assigned to him, so
the word gibor in Hebrew translates to mighty
one, and the meaning of that is warrior, champion,
hero, strong man, and powerful ruler. But there's
also another interesting kind of caveat to that,
is that the word giborin, which is plural, is
associated with giants, and we can delve into
that a little bit deeper into the episode because
there's some debate whether or not he was in
fact a giant that could have come from his mother's
genetic line, which I shy away from. But there's
some interesting conspiracies where he may have
transformed into a giant later in his role. It's
interesting. The stories always come back to
these giants, these fallen angels that procreated
with women on earth and really established themselves.
When we look at Nimrod from a Christian lens,
it really starts in Genesis 10, sometimes called
the Table of Nations. Out of that geology, a
name really stands up, and that's Nimrod. Scripture
calls him a mighty hunter before the Lord, and
credits him with the first sinners of a real
empire, Babel, Urek, Akkad, and Kelanah, in the
land of Shiner. Then the text says, from the
land he went to Assyria, and built Nadiya, Rehoboth,
Kaula, and Rezin. In other words, Nimrod is not
a campfire legend. He's the kind of leader who
blends wilderness into city grids, who organizes
labor, who sets stones and laws, and sends tax
collectors into motion. Christians, through the
centuries, have noticed the ambiguity of, baked
really into those lines, mighty hunter before
the Lord, can simply mean the Lord's sight, a
man of renown. Some rabbis and church fathers,
though, hear a grimmer nuance. Before, as in,
in the face of, or in defiance of, a hunter of
men, a consolidator who uses unity for control.
The text doesn't gossip. It just gives you his
portfolio and lets Babel supply the morale. That's
pretty wise. Scripture often introduces power
without varnish and then it shows what it does
when tested by God's purpose. Here's why Nimrod
matters for us here today. He's the archetype
of the audacious founder. He gathers his people.
He standardizes tools. He points at the horizon
and says, there, charisma plus coordination equals
Skyla. And that combination can bless or break.
communities, really depending upon the aim. Dominion.
what was found in Genesis 1 calling to a steward
of creation can easily slide into domination.
Nimrod's story invites us to ask sharper questions
about every modern builder, the CEO, the mayor,
the platform architect, the influencer, who can
rally millions. What are they hunting? Who do
their cities serve? And do their plans align
with God's design to fill the earth with life,
or to really compress it into one tower, one
brand, and one name? Yeah, it's also interesting
to see characters throughout other cultures who
have a story that's very similar to Nimrod. You
mentioned the city of Uruk and that is associated
with Gilgamesh. So historians kind of date this
writing right around the time that they associated
the writing of Nimrod. So it's roughly 2700 to
2500 BC. Gilgamesh is a semi -mythic king. I
think many of us, many of our listeners have
heard of Epic of Gilgamesh. I think it's the
oldest known written myth out there. So the kind
to frame it in a bit. So Gilgamesh is also labeled
as a legendary hunter and warrior. He had superhuman
strength. He was a city builder. And according
to them, he was two thirds divine, one third
human. So again, you look at maybe a parallel,
maybe a hint to this mighty man, possibly a giant.
And he was the king of Yorick, which is one of
Nimrod's named cities. And he had similar accomplishments.
He built massive fortified walls. He was a central
figure in the oldest epic ever recorded. And
he's a monster. He apparently slayed Kumbaba.
He travels the world seeking immortality. And
we'll get into some of the other stories about
how Nimrod may have died, may not have died.
There's that one floating out there. It's interesting.
We'll touch on that a bit. And the city of Uruk
had colossal ziggurats and ziggurats are step
pyramids. They're not your typical pyramids that
you may see in Egypt and maybe some other places.
But like in South America, they had the step
pyramids as well. And they had these temple complexes
dedicated to the little G. gods Anu and Inanna.
So that's interesting. In the epic of Gilgamesh,
he's searching for immortality and he dies a
hero, but he ultimately accepts his human limitation
and passes on. There's also a story of Sargon
the Great. Sounds like a character from the Lord
of the Rings, but he is the king of the city
of Akkad. And again, this story is placed between
2300 BC. give or take. And it's according to
the scholars, it's a fully historical narrative.
So he was the first empire builder in human history.
He rose from humble origins. And I would think
back in that time, if we're looking at post -flood
world with just a handful of people getting off
the ark, I bet you could argue that the first
few generations, everybody's coming from humble
origins. And he is credited for unifying countless
nations under one language administration. He
mirrors the first mighty king archetype. Again,
Gilgamesh, he founded the Akkadian empire. He
conquered from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean
Sea. He created the world's first standing army
and he standardized the Imperial role. And again,
he promoted temple and ziggurat construction
across his empire. And in their story, he eventually
dies of natural causes as well. And his empire
ultimately fractures after him. What's interesting
is after Genesis, Nimrod become something of
a legend. Later in Jewish and Christian writings
really flesh him out. as the symbol of empire,
the man who took human unity and kind of turned
it into that dominion. Some traditions describe
him as the first world ruler, a tyrant who weaponized
unity to consolidate power and lead rebellion
against God. Others cast him as a brilliant civilized,
bringing cities, laws, and organizations to chaos.
The Bible doesn't give us much biographical detail,
but these stories all kind of pivot around the
same question. What happens when leadership forgets
lordship? In Jewish midrash and later Christian
commentary, Nimrod is often linked with Babel,
the one rallying the people with the promise
of strength and permanence. Least we be scattered
is a famous saying. Some traditions even put
him in direct opposition to Abraham, representing
two worldviews, the kingdom of man and the kingdom
of God. Whether or not those connections are
literal, I do think they carry spiritual weight.
To me, it's fascinating that Nimrod's name, once
associated with might and success, later became
a synonym for folly. The linguistics twist feels
like poetry and justice, human greatness that
ends with irony. For us, Nimrod becomes like
that mirror. When we admire a builder or a leader,
what exactly are we admiring? Vision and courage
are good gifts, right? But detached from humility,
they kind of drift into adultery. So when you
see a headline about a billionaire promising
to change the world or a government aiming to
build back better, I think we remember Nimrod.
Ambition itself isn't evil, but in scripture,
ambition without surrender becomes rebellion
dressed up as progress. That first empire was
built on that trade -offs where we've been rebuilding
ever since. Yeah, you brought up the Hebrew Midrash
and there's an interesting story from the book
of Jasher. In the Hebrew recounting of these
tales, Esau, his story is intimately woven with
Nimrod. If you look at it from the biblical point
of view, the book of Jasher is apocryphal or
extra canonical. In the Bible, there's really
no correlation between Esau and Nimrod. Nimrod,
he's mentioned very few times in the Bible. Most
people who read the Bible know the story of Esau.
Esau was the first born. Interesting kind of
visual here. When Esau was born, he was born
fully -haired and slightly red. So he was, can
you imagine having a baby that comes out and
it's red and hairy? What's been quite the - It
sounds like a Scottish person from like the medieval
times. Right. With the big axes. As the story
goes, Esau is out in the field. He comes back
and he trades his birthright for a bull - of
soup. And there's some people out there that
have some interesting theories and stories and
a lot of them relate back to the Midrash. So
according to the book of Jasher, after the death
of Abraham, Esau frequently hunts in the fields.
And he also was known as a great and mighty hunter.
So he shared the same title with Nimrod. And
you can draw the conclusion, they're probably
rivals. They probably know about each other.
And Nimrod grows jealous of Esau and ends up
watching him closely. And on a particular day,
both were out hunting in the wilderness. Nimrod
separated from his main group and walks with
two of his men and Esau hides and waits. So he
ambushes them. He draws his sword and beheads
Nimrod in a sneak attack. He ends up fighting
and killing his two guards as they cry out for
help. So that's how the Hebrews, according to
Midrash, how Nimrod is killed. And so as Nimrod's
mighty warriors hear these other guys crying
out for help, they rushed toward the scene and
Esau flees. He escapes with Nimrod's valuable
garments and these are special clothes bequeathed
by Nimrod's father. Kush, which, okay, so now
we're floating all around biblical history here.
According to Jewish Hebrew Midrash, when this
is going to get really deep, so just bear with
me here. And again, some of this is, I don't
want to call it extra theological. It's not in
the Bible, but there is some kind of foreshadowing.
You can see it in between the line. We've all
heard of the Joseph and his techno color dream
coat, right? So the legend or the Midrash states
that when the serpent, AKA Satan Lucifer, tempted
Eve, and when they sinned, like their eyes were
open and they were ashamed of their nakedness.
According to the Midrash, Satan was wearing a
garment that was given by God, and as one of
the punishments, God took this garment from Satan,
gave it to Adam, and this garment was passed
down the line all the way down to Joseph. And
that was the garment that Joseph was given to
by his father, and his brothers got jealous because
he was able to prophesy and talk to the animals
and pretty crazy story. The conclusion here is
that when Esau killed Nimrod, he took this garment
from him. So after this fight, obviously He was
exhausted. He was probably beat the heck and
back. And he runs home to his brother, Jacob,
declaring he's about to die and he sells his
birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. So I assume
at this point, he's just desperate. He's probably
beaten up. He probably thinks he's about to die
from his injuries or it's just a matter of time
until these guards find him. And he's quoted
as saying to his brother, what good is a birthright
if I'm dead? I can't even inherit it. So at the
age of according to the Hebrews, Nimrod was 215
years old when he died. And this kind of led
to the fragmentation. kingdom, which kind of
goes back to some of these other stories we hear
about from other cultures. Do you know upon his
death at the age of 215 when he was decapitated
by Esau, do you know if this was pre or post
the fall of Babel? So that's unknown. So as we
branch off later into the episode, at one point
in time in my life, I thought God destroyed the
Tower of Babel. But if you read the scripture,
he just confuses the languages. So people stop
building it. There are certain stories suggesting
that the tower was supposed to be like 5 ,300
feet in the air and I don't think they got near.
that height. As we look through the archaeological
record, the ziggurats during King Nebuchadnezzar's
second time that were 91 meters tall. So you're
looking at 200 plus or minus feet. So some of
the assumption is that he just built on top of
the ruins of the Tower of Babel. Other than him
being a credit with commissioning the temple
build, it's unknown if he died before the confusion
of the languages or after. But like I said, in
other tales, he dies of old age. Gotcha. Yeah.
Since we talked. a little bit about Babel and
it's one of the most famous stories in early
Christian literature. So maybe we'll touch on
it for a little bit for our audience that perhaps
don't follow the Christian faith or don't have
a deep understanding of it. But Nimrod's map
of cities points to one plane, one people, and
one project. Now the whole earth had one language
and the same words at that time. They settle
in Shiner and say, come let us make bricks and
burn them thoroughly. That's ancient text speed.
Uniform units fired hard, sealed with butanum
perfect for going vertical. Then comes the mission
statement. Let us build ourselves a city and
a tower with its tops in the heaven and let us
make a name for ourselves. Least we be scattered
over the face of the whole earth. I think we
pause there. Nothing that line says we want to
worship. The verbs are urban. technological and
repetitious. City, tower, name, control. And
the last clause, lest we be scattered, rings
against God's earlier blessing and command to
be fruitful and fill the earth. In other words,
the fear of scattering is a fear of mission.
Rather than trusting God with dispersion as blessing,
they pick consolidation as an insurance plan.
It's a unity as an idol. Then the holy irony,
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower.
The tallest things human could dream still requires
And what God says is pretty striking. This is
only the beginning. Nothing they propose to do
will now be impossible for them. Now, let's not
panic about human skill. It's a diagnosis about
the human heart. Power plus one language equals
limitless capacity to go towards the wrong at
scale. So God does two merciful things, really
surgical things. He confuses their speech and
he scatters them. Judgment, yes, but also protection.
The break against totalizing projects becomes
the gift of many tongues and of many places.
I think two quick notes of imagination held humbly,
not as like replacements for revelation. First,
the text material details line up with what we
know of Mesopotamia building, brick factories,
mitten mortar, stage towers we call ziggurats.
That doesn't prove every contour of our picture,
but it helps listeners visualize the world the
Bible is speaking about. Second, we have babbles.
Making a name is the thread that runs through
the whole Bible. God later says to Abram, I will
make your name great, but as a promise received,
not a monument achieved. Babel grabs. Abram trusts.
One hoards unity. The other receives blessings
to be a blessing. And I think for Christians,
there's a grace -filled book end in Babel. In
Acts two at Pentecost, the spirit doesn't erase
languages. He lets everyone hear the mighty works
of God in their own tongue. To me, this is not
a return to one language. It's a unity through
diversity, a foretaste of the redeemed humanity
gathered from every tribe and language around
the throne. Which means that the scatter of Genesis
11 is not the end of the story. It's a guardrail
that keeps us from worshiping our other towers
while God writes really a better ending to our
story. One city, the New Jerusalem, not built
behind bricks, but given by His mercy. So you
mentioned the Bible verse where God says nothing
will be impossible for them. I've thought about
that for a long time. What do you think He's
saying or what do you think He's suggesting?
Because I go back and forth on that because God
can just, He can do whatever He wants to do,
not... thousand years before, like he just wiped
out the world in the flood. So when he says that,
he's not saying that out of fear of man, of usurping
God. What do you think he is suggesting with
that statement? I'll give you my point of views
or what I, a couple of things of what I think,
but what do you make of that? It's a good question.
I think first God acknowledges his creation.
He created us to be architects here in this world,
to act like him, to create and to achieve things.
He also has a guided purpose and mission for
us to create a unique and diverse world of many
skin colors, of many races and ethnicities. And
he doesn't want us to be siloed into one place.
He wants us to spread out and become many within
that. I think it's just a kind of acknowledgement
that man is capable of, when I say man here,
man and female, is capable of many things. Because
God created us to be very powerful, to have dominion
over this world. But should our creation lead
a foul to God's design? Then I think we're in
trouble, man. And guys, when God steps in and
says, you know what? You guys aren't going to
speak the same tongue. I analyze that more from
a modern perspective than probably people did
back in the day. What's ironic, right? We're
talking about the Tower of Babel. And when you
look at, you know, what some people say actually
how tall it was. When I used to dream about the
Tower of Babel and you think it would be like
reaching the space and the heavens and all that.
And many people say it was only about 25 stories
tall. Like it was tall, but it wasn't like crazy
tall in modern comparison. Now you look at all
the things that we have today, artificial intelligence,
the internet, many of these things are reunite
in our language because they can translate in
real time. And it makes me think like maybe he
was trying to stop that from happening back then.
Perhaps he was referencing that from back then.
Cause look how much evil has come by uniting
our tongues. A lot of evil stuff, false tongues,
lying. prostitution, pornography, any kind of
the crazy stuff that you could think of today
is done online and done on the dark web. All
this evil is coming about. So I wonder if it
was a future acknowledgement of what would happen
as you march more towards revelations instead
of genesis of destruction of the world for a
second time. So perhaps he was trying to eliminate
that tying the whole world narrative that we
have together today. Yeah. I'm on the same page
with you. I think when he says there's nothing
would be impossible for them, he's not saying
that out of fear of somehow. I was getting into
heaven taking it over. I think he's referencing,
I think you have to look at it, you know, post
-flood and then... end of days. I'm sorry, pre
-flood and end of days. So pre -flood, I am convinced
that everyone spoke the same language. And I
think you can make the inference here that after
everyone got off the arc and started to procreate
again, everyone spoke the same dialect. Why else
would he have to confuse the languages if they
didn't? So I think what he was doing was he was
watching and knowing that if he didn't... confused
the languages. Then you're going to go back under
into that immediate one world government. You
have Nimrod here trying to create an empire.
He's a mighty hunter and a mighty man, and he's
doing it out of pure physical prowessness. I
think God's thinking, like, I, this can't happen
yet. I don't want this to happen yet. And if
I allow it, then we're just going to go right
back into what existed before. One world government,
one language. So by confusing the languages,
it made people kind of branch off into Africa,
Asia, Europe. And it's interesting how each part
of the world has its own ethnicity. You have
like black people in Africa, you have Asian people
out in Asia, you have the whites in Europe, and
then you have the Native Americans out in North
America and South America. And it's interesting,
it seems like they... broke off and then through
natural selection and the climates that they
lived in, they expressed certain genes and certain
pigmentation. But I agree with you. I think it
was to keep this whole one world type government
and one person from oppressing everyone. And
by splitting us up, he allowed culture and diversity
to thrive. And we saw later in the Bible, after
Babel, we saw Sodom and Gomorrah. And this was
another large and mighty cities that existed
that got eventually destroyed. And the reason
why he destroyed it was because so many people
were together and they were doing some really
evil, bad stuff within that city. And it was
detestable to God. So it seems like when we started
getting a lot of collective of people together
that speak the same language, they start serving
different masters versus serving God. And that
seems to always build up problems. Like God's,
if you continue down this pathway where you're
surrounded by all these evil works and all these
evil deeds, you're going to run right into the
grave and then eventually make your way into
hell. We see it. the kind of story repeating
and the warning coming along as well. Yeah. It's
also interesting that the Hebrew Midrash, one
of his reasons for building the Tower of Babel
was to quote unquote, make a name and to avoid
the scattering. So after everyone got off the
flood and they started repopulating, God said,
go out and settle, like get away from each other
and make your own cultures. And it almost seemed
like Nimrod wanted everyone to stick around to
avoid that kind of separation. And it's also
interesting because According to certain rabbis,
the stories, and these stories are all over the
place. It's just not in Hebrew or Middle Eastern
culture, but even the Irish have them. And to
a certain extent, Asians and even, oh yeah, here
in the Americas. But there's suggestions that
giants or Nephilim descendants help make these
ziggurats or the pyramids. by moving the bricks
that were made and in holding. So ultimately
what happens is the construction of Babel just
completely stops and then nobody can talk to
each other. So nobody can get together and make
sense of what to do anymore. Like the leadership
structure is just destroyed because of the lack
of communication. It's also, I heard this other
guy, I don't know, a couple of years ago, I wish
I remembered his name. I don't believe it, but
he suggests that pre Babel, everybody could communicate
telepathically. I don't believe that. per se.
And he suggests when God confused the languages,
he took that ability to communicate telepathically
and people were forced to branch off and create
their own languages in order to survive and communicate
and work together. That's interesting. I've heard
that before. I don't know that there's much evidence
to say that was true, but it is interesting.
I think when you look at the local Mesopotamia
worldview, a ziggurat wasn't an act of rebellion.
It was like an act of order. They called these
towers stairways for of the gods, this literal
bridge between heaven and earth. This city of
Babylon, like others in the era, the era in Iraq,
were mapped around the ideal, a sacred center
where the divine could come down and bless the
land. Ritual processions wound through the streets
towards the base of these towers and priest ascended
ramps carrying offerings, believing they were
keeping the world aligned with heaven. At the
summit set a small temple. It was elevated and
very quiet, Mitnafer crowd. but really for the
presence, a symbolic dwelling place of a god.
To Mesopotamian eyes, this was harmony and hubris.
There weren't storming heaven in their theology.
They were creating cosmic order through architecture.
Now, that's what makes the biblical critique
so profound. The same structure that one culture
saw as aligning earth with heaven, scripture
portrays as mankind's attempt to take heaven
by strategy rather than by grace, and the tower
becomes a monument, not to worship, but to control.
In other words, building different theology.
As Christians, we can see God's wisdom in that
contrast. It's a reminder of the heart motive
matters more than the blueprint. And then I think
in human unity can really glorify God or glorify
yourself. And that tension, that pull between
coordination and control, between reverence and
self praise, it shows up in every modern project
from mega cities to mega servers. I don't think
that question has changed, are we building a
bridge for God's glory or a platform for our
own name? And that's what I really see with Nimrod's
story from, obviously I study a lot from the
Christian biblical lens, but it seems like Nimrod
was out to make a name for himself and not to
make a name for God. And usually when you do
that, you're led afoul. Yeah. I want to kind
of circle back to this Gilgamesh and Nimrod parallel.
And we touched on the confrontation between Esau
and Nimrod, but the epic of Gilgamesh has something
very similar. So obviously the hero in that epic
is Gilgamesh, but he also has an ally, a friend
named Enkidu and they team up with each other.
Enkidu is described as all things, a hairy nature
of tune figure who's very reminiscent of Esau's
hairy description in Genesis. And they set out
to slay Humbaba. Humbaba is a giant guardian
of the cedar forest appointed by the gods. And
again, it's an ambush that happens in the remote
wilderness. They end up beheading this Humbaba
and the subsequent divine consequence is Enkidu's
death. So this is a direct mirroring of Esau's
hidden attack on Nimrod during the hunt, leading
to Esau getting exhausted and giving up his birthright.
So both stories involve challenging a powerful
type being and acquiring a symbol of power. So
in the story of Gilgamesh, it's cedar treasure
versus Adam's garments. So that's interesting
that two close cultures share a similar story.
It's interesting because it would make sense
for one side to say, my guy won, and the other
side to say, the other guy died. That's, what
do they say, the victor's right history. this
epic of Gilgamesh and they claim Enkidu dies
and not Nimrod. There's also the story of Hercules
and the Nemen lion. So Hercules, divine hero
and skilled hunter, slays the invincible lion
in an ambush and then skins it to where it's
hide is invincible armor. So this kind of parallels
Esau's theft of Nimrod's valuable garments. grant
dominion over animals and his strength. So Hercules'
labors are imposed by the king at the time. I'm
not even going to try to say his name because
he's Greek and I didn't practice it before I
started this podcast. Here again, we have a tyrannical
ruler that he has an indirect rivalry with. He's
echoing Nimrod as this despotic, slain king killed
by a rival hunter. These are all interesting.
There's also set in Osiris in Egyptian mythology.
So we're going to just talk about the parallel
elements here in the key. differences. So Set,
he's a chaotic desert god associated with hunting
and red hair. Similar to Esau. And he murders
his brother Osiris. And Osiris is the fertile
king and ruler akin to Nimrod's empire building.
He does this out of jealousy and wilderness setting.
And so he disassembles him and scatters his parts,
not unlike being beheaded. There's also other
Jewish midrashes that suggest that Esau cut Nimrod
into 12 pieces and spread them around. Once Set
kills Osiris, he temporarily gains power but
is ultimately defeated by Horus, Osiris' son.
Again, this is rivalry over kingship or street
cred, and the inheritance parallels Esau slain
in Nimrod with motifs of ambush and the transfer
of divine authority. all interesting that you
see this again, this underlying thread weaving
all these things together. Yeah. To go back a
little bit, you talked a little bit about it,
about Gilgamesh and Nimrod. I think one of the
more intriguing theories floating around that
I saw on the alternative history forums and prophecy
blogs is the claim that Nimrod and Gilgamesh
were actually the same man. The reasoning goes
something like this. Nimrod's cities include
Erek. That's the Hebrew form. of Uruk, the great
Sumerian city -state. Meanwhile, the epic of
Gilgamesh held its hero as the mighty king of
Uruk, two -thirds divine and one -third man.
Both figures are described as legendary builders,
hunters, and rollers who pushed human limits
and really challenged heaven itself. Early Assyrianologists
working in the 1800s before the cuneiform was
fully understood noticed this similarity. When
George Smith and others first translated the
tablets of the epic Gilgamesh, They misread one
title as Isdumar and for a while speculated that
this could be the biblical form of Nimrod. It
was an understandable leap. Both names were wrapped
in mystery, both towered over early Mesopotamian
lore, and both embodied the restless human kind
of drive for glory. Modern scholarship though
tells A bit of a different story. Excavations
and linguistic studies summarized in resources
like the Maidan Project show that Gilgamesh is
a composite mythic hero stitched together from
memories of several Sumerian kings who ruled
around 2700 BC. There he is part legend, part
morality, representing humanity's struggle with
morality and these divine limits. Nimrod, on
the other hand, stands in scripture as a real
post -flood figure. presented within Israel's
genealogies and moral history. His life isn't
a myth, it's a message. And I think that overlap
between them is something about identity. It's
about the arch type. Every culture remembers
a mighty builder who tried to rise above the
gods and every culture tells how that story ends.
And that's where the parallel becomes spiritually
powerful. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero
searches for immortality and then he fails. He
learns that no wall, no city, no achievement
can make him live forever. And in Genesis 11,
Nimrod's tower stands as humanity's collective
attempt to achieve the same thing, to make the
name that cannot die. Both stories pulse with
the same heartbeat, the human hunger for eternal
meeting without kind of this eternal grace. But
scripture ultimately completes the story, the
myths only begin. Where Gilgamesh fails and Nimrod
falls, Christ succeeds. He offers that immortality
they sought, not by climbing a tower to heaven,
but by by bringing heaven down to us. The Tower's
builder story ends in confusion and the Redeemer's
story ends in resurrection. And I think that's
the final contrast about these two characters
is where both of these mighty men, perhaps they
existed in different forms failed, Christ succeeded
and he brought heaven on earth to us because
he lives within us and we embody him if we are
sanctified and saved. But I thought it was interesting
that some people thought, as you mentioned a
little bit earlier, that these two people could
perhaps be the same man. just kind of revisit
some of the multicultural renditions of Nimrod's
death. So Islam has one as well. The story is
Nimrod, again, a tyrannical king who claimed
divinity and persecuted Abraham. I'll touch on
that story here after I run through this. But
Nimrod defies God by building the tower to reach
heaven and even shooting arrows at the sky. And
in response, in Islamic tradition, Allah sends
his form of mosquitoes, or particularly a single
mosquito, to enter Nimrod's nostril and burrow
into his brain. In a tormentsome for a year,
some say 40, some say 400 driving him mad and
he gets so bad to the point he begs for death
and he strikes his own head with a hammer and
ultimately perishes from I guess the hammer strike
so again multiple renditions of Nimrod, Gilgamesh,
what have you, Sargon, and it ranges from being
beheaded to having a mosquito burrow into your
brain to hitting yourself with a hammer to old
age. So you have all these stories and I wonder
how many of them could be Nimrod and how many
of them could be say his sons that maybe took
control or some sort of extended family member
that maybe was over a certain city and they're
all being conflated to Nimrod. I don't think
they all can be Nimrod. lean toward the Hebrew
Midrash version, though we will get into something
when we start touching on the conspiracy side.
There is a, you ever hear of Gilgamesh's resurrection
chamber? God, I don't even want to know. We'll
save it from the end of the episode when we get
to the conspiracy part. But yeah, I've personally
leaned toward the Hebrew Midrash, where again,
it's not in the canonical Bible, but there is
Apocryphal, Pseudopigrapha, that there were books
that were written sometime before Christ. interesting
rabbitical texts in from the Babylonian Talmud
is one of the most famous midrashim, often called
Abraham in the idol shop, depicts young Abraham
challenging his father's idolatry. So, Tara owns
a shop selling statues of Ur of the Chaldeans.
So, he's left in charge, Abraham smashes all
but the largest idol with an axe, then places
the axe in the remaining idol's hand. Tara returns
and questions him. Abraham claims the idols fall
over an offering, exposing their lifelessness.
Furious, Tara brings Abraham before Nimrod for
judgment. Abraham debates the king. He rejects
the worship of the sun, moon, and idols in favor
of the one true creator god. This kind of illustrates
Abraham's early iconoclasm and logical rejection
of polytheism, and showing how he discovers God
through reason and observation to the world.
Building upon the idol -smashing incident, Nimrod,
who claims again to be divine himself, condemns
Abraham to death in a massive fiery furnace,
whereas we heard this, we heard this in Babylon,
and it's like history is repeating itself here,
and this furnace is located in Ur on the valley
of Dura. So Abraham's brother, Haran, is also
implicated, and in some version, Haran wavers
from his faith and is consumed by the flames
when he jumps in after seeing Abraham unharmed.
But anyway, either way, God intervenes, Nimrod
puts Abraham into this furnace, and when Abraham
steps in, it turns into a blooming garden and
sending angels to fan him. So this allows for
him to emerge unscathed after days of being in
this blaze, and this miracle kind of converts
all lurkers and humiliates Nimrod, who briefly
acknowledges God, the one true God. But again,
like Pharaoh, he relapses. So another story of
face triumph over persecution. And we've seen
this story of Daniel. in Daniel 3, where the
three prophets are sent into the bull's belly
furnace and they don't burn. Yeah, that's a good
one. What I think is always interesting, right?
Some people are going to say, I don't care what
you're saying, Jay. You're just a crazy Christian
and I don't believe any of that mumbo jumbo.
But I think what's really spectacular is the
story of Babel doesn't only live in text, it
lives in artifacts that have traveled the world
for the past two centuries. Since the 1800s,
explorers and archaeologists have been digging
through the plan - of Mesopotamia, pulling up
tablets, seals, and inscribed bricks from ancient
Babylon. These objects were scattered far and
wide, some in museums, other in private collections,
and a few even in the black market trade. What
I saw was in recent years, this is really come
full circle. Thousands of stolen or looted pieces,
tablets, scrolls, and monumental fragments have
been returned to Iraq, including the famous Gilgamesh
dream tablet, which once sat in a private collection
in the U .S. before being returned. Publications
like the State Magazine have really covered these
returns, which shine a light on the ongoing struggle
over Providence and the paper trail of where
artifacts come from and who rightfully owns them.
There's something really poetic about the world's
records of human pride and power being shuffled
back to the rightful home and history kind of
gets scattered and gathered. These recovered
tablets aren't just museum pieces, they're confessions
carved in clay. Reminders that empires rise and
fall, but truth ultimately endures. And for us,
that's more than archaeology. It's a quiet affirmation
that God still knows where every fragment lies.
So I just find it interesting. There's a lot
of archaeological digs and I want to get into
couple of the stories of people that tried to
rebuild the tower itself. But I find it fascinating.
So if you're a naysayer and you don't believe
in Christianity, that's okay. There's still evidence
that it existed. Yeah. So there's a interesting
fellow by the name of Dr. Judd Burton. So this
is a little bit of a backstory as to his profession.
He's a historian, anthropologist, archaeologist,
and the director of the Institute of Biblical
Anthropology. So he's presented several alternative
theories on the Tower of Babel in various podcasts
and in his recent book. So he challenges the
traditional placement of the Tower of Babel being
in lower Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq
and associated with Babylon. Instead, he thinks
it's in the heart of Turkey, specifically tying
it to the ancient. archaeological site of Gloubaki
Tepe. So this proposal draws on biblical, apocryphal,
and archaeological interpretations framing Gloubaki
Tepe not as just the world's oldest known temple
complex, but also post -flood hub for spiritual
rebellion, ancestor deification, and possible
influence from the Watchers, which are the fallen
angels from Enoch. Burton suggests that the biblical
land of Shinar in Genesis 11 refers to part of
modern Turkey. So he suggests that this aligns
with post -flood migration patterns from Mount
Ararat also in Turkey, which makes sense if you
think about it. If the ark did land on the top
of Mount Ararat, you would think that civilization
would have branched out from Turkey, not from
Babylonia or Iraq, though they obviously made
it there. So he sees Gulbek -i -Tepi dated to
around 9 ,600 BC, shortly after the end of the
last ice age. And he thinks this fits the timeline
for early post -flood human activity, predating
known misceitamian cigarettes by a couple thousand
years. So he also draws the connections with
the Watchers from apocryphal texts like the Book
of Enoch. Burton suggests Gulbek -i -Tepi was
influenced by the Watchers who taught for knowledge
to humanity. He links this to Nimrod as the mighty
hunter and Babel's builder. So he portrays the
site as a center for occult practices aimed at
defying God, similar to the tower's goal of reaching
the heavens. So the site's burial, intentionally
filled in around 8 ,000 BC, could symbolize divine
intervention akin to the confusion of languages.
It's also interesting to note that in the Midrash's,
they say, I think, I could be wrong, I'm going
off my memory, a third of the was destroyed by
fire a third was left above ground and I can't
remember what happened to the other third but
this would line up with this midrash a bit he
suggests that rather than mere communal site
for worship or a hunting shrine, Burton interprets
the site as a place for deifying the ancestors
and to achieve immortality. The iconic kind of
T -shaped pillars are seen as representations
of deified figures like Adam, a link to the bull
god Anu, and Eve tied to the fertility goddess.
Animal carvings such as foxes and boars symbolize
cosmic regeneration and resurrection rituals,
reflecting humanity's attempt to regenerate the
dead gods and to transcend mortality. paralleling
Babel's theme of unified ambition against the
divine order. That's a wild one. Yeah. So archeologically
the site has massive stones circle, terrazo types
floors, and has the use of early concrete, which
are like essentially synthetic bricks and it
matches Genesis. 11 .3's description of baked
bricks and bitumen. So its age and complexity
suggests advanced organization by hunter -gatherers,
possibly inspired by supernatural knowledge.
We go back to this influence of fallen angels
and forbidden knowledge. What I think is interesting
is people continue to seek it out before Christ
and then even more towards modern times. Even
Alexander the Great, at the height of his empire,
he really couldn't resist the allure of Babylon's
tower. He arrived there in 331 BC. Ancient sources
say he was struck by the ruin of the great ziggurat.
Its steps crumbled, its shrine long abandoned.
And in true Alexander fashion, he ordered the
whole thing demolished and rebuilt on a grander
scale. Workers were set to clear the site of
bricks by brick for reconstruction. But then
Alexander fell ill and died before the project
could actually begin. The dream of re -raising
that tower died with him at that time. But if
we fast forward a little bit. In the 1980s and
1990s, Iraq's ruler Saddam Hussein launched one
of the most controversial heritage programs of
the modern Middle East, the reconstruction of
ancient Babylon. What began as an archaeological
restoration really turned into a political performance,
a modern empire builder attempting to graft his
image onto the legacy of the world's first. Saddam
poured millions of dollars into rebuilding the
ancient city walls, parts of Ishtar gate and
even a palace overlooking the ruins in a deliberate
echo of Nebuchadnezzar II. He ordered new bricks
to be stamped with his own name, each reading,
in the error of the victorious Saddam Hussein,
the president of the Republic. May God preserve
him. The great city of Babylon was rebuilt. That
symbolism wasn't subtle. He cast himself as the
new King of Kings, heir to Nebuchadnezzar's throne
and reviver of the cradle of civilization. Archaeologists
who later studied That site described the work
as half restoration and half propaganda. The
reconstruction blurred the line between conservation
and invention, often layering fresh concrete
and mortar brick directly over these fragile
ancient foundations. Some ancient walls were
rebuilt several feet higher than their original
height, and Saddam's modern palace, nicknamed
Sodom Hill, was placed directly atop archaeological
remains. To professionals, this was Van Middleism
dressed up as patriotism. To Saddam, it was legacy
building, a way to inscribe his reign into the
same timeline as the Babylon's former glories.
And yet, I think the irony runs deep. While scholars
call his methods problematic, the project also
rekindled global attention on Babylon. After
decades of neglect, tourists, journalists, and
documentary crews, they returned, and Babylon
was back in the headlines. And for many Iraqis,
it became a source of cultural pride, however,
politicized. The city that symbolized human arrogance
in scripture became, for time, a monument to
modern ambition. Proof that the impulse to rebuild
Babel never truly fades. Spiritually speaking,
Saddam's Babylon stands as this kind of vivid
parable for our age. A ruler used architecture
to chase immortality, just as Nebuchadnezzar
did. And Daniel 4 declaring, it is not the great
Babylon which I have built my mighty power and
for the glory of my magic. I think history repeated
itself, almost war, for the moral remains unchanged
no matter how many bricks barrel rollers name.
It is God who writes the final. inscription and
we saw things didn't work out great for Saddam
just a few years later when he was hung by his
own people. So the Kings did fall there as well.
And he had, he met a horrific end, but I thought
it was interesting that he was trying to resurrect
that. And we saw it with great people in the
past, like Alexander, who also too tried to take
over that and also too resulted in his death.
Yeah, man. It seems like Babylon's curse. They
seem to draw these big, larger than life. figures,
and they all end up dying in strange, rather
sudden ways. It's also interesting because Nebuchadnezzar
II, the Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible that took
the Jews into captivity, he built on top of the
– a lot of archaeologists think that Edom and
Connie is the Tower of Babel. which again was
unfinished once God confused the languages but
Nebuchadnezzar took the credit for building it
and there it's much like Saddam he put his stamps
on the base of this temple as well which is interesting
and I think there was one brick that suggests
that though he took credit for building the whole
thing one brick they found somewhere suggests
that it was built on top of the ancient ruins
of the Tower of Babel so it wasn't five thousand
plus feet tall, but it came out to about 300
feet tall, which back then would be a pretty
dang tall building. Yeah. That's impressive.
So we talked a lot about the history. Do we want
to get into some of the conspiracies surrounding?
Yes, I would love to. Have you ever heard of
the Hillary Clinton emails? I haven't. No, I'd
love to hear about it. So there's this conspiracy
theory. And so there was like a WikiLeaks leak
of 30 ,000 Hillary Clinton emails. And one of
them suggested that she, again, this could be
complete conspiracy. It's hard to find any sort
of truth. It was a big conspiracy a couple of
years ago, especially when all these emails first
came out. But like with anything in the internet,
it can get scrubbed. But there was this supposed
email about her asking like one of the generals
or someone out in the Middle East during this
war, asking questions about resurrection. chamber
of Gilgamesh, which as you've heard in this episode,
we think or deduce that Gilgamesh and Nimrod
are the same person. And it was interesting because
the conspiracy was that this email came out and
the Iraq war started three or four months later.
So a big claim is we didn't invade Iraq for freedom
or for terrorists or for oil. We invaded it for
the buried ancient technology in Babylon. So
it was an interesting, do I believe it? I don't.
now. There was a freedom of information requests
underneath the name escapes me. It wasn't underneath
Hillary Clinton. It doesn't mean that she didn't
tell someone to do it, but it was a request for
the schematics or all the information about Gilgamesh's
resurrection chamber. And I don't know if you've
seen them or not. You can look on TikTok, type
it in, and there's these videos that are purported
to be somebody recording Gilgamesh laying inside
of a tomb and he looks like he hasn't. age today.
His skin looks funky probably because it's a
mannequin and it's completely fake, but it's
still fun to think about. But he's got this big
robust beard. He looks like a jack guy. Apparently
he's eight to 13 feet tall and apparently he's
waiting to be resurrected. That's one of the
reasons they claim that we actually went to war.
And in fact, there was a U .S. base built on
top of some of the ruins of the ancient city
of Babylon. I just thought that was a fun one
to toss in there and let the audience think and
ponder on for a minute. It's fun to think of.
about how true is it? I don't know. It's interesting,
it's thought provoking, but what do you make
of it, man? Wait, did they say why she was interested
in it? No, they didn't. Of course, like with
any conspiracy people, read between the lines
and make up their own narratives. But I think
if I had to put an angle on it, it was try to
find lost ancient technology. And another spin
is that some... Christian theologians, both mostly
French, think that Nimrod is actually the Antichrist,
just waiting to be brought back at the right
time to hit the scene again. That's interesting.
Yeah. So I've heard a similar theory about the
Iraq War. It's called the Babylonian Stargate
and the CERN portal conspiracies. Now, if you
ever wandered through late night YouTube or prophecy
forums, you've probably seen these stories. They
claim that the Iraq War was secretly about...
ancient interdimensional gateway buried beneath
Babylon or that CERN's large hydron collider
in Switzerland isn't a particle accelerator at
all, but a modern tower of Babel reopening doorways
humanity was never meant to touch. I think the
production value is pretty slick. Swirling graphics,
ancient symbols, and dramatic music that make
the wildest theories feel most plausible. But
I think when you look past the editing and the
evidence turns out it's mostly vibes and clear
video cuts. But I thought it was interesting
to do a call back to our last episode. Some people
thought the Babylonian Stargate and the CERN
portal were somehow connected. And there is a
fall of the world end of times motif sprinkled
into the CERN portal as well. Yeah. I know some
conspiracy theories think that the Tyre of Babel
what they're actually trying. to make was an
actual stargate. And the thought, and I don't
know who would think that this would work, but
they thought they would build a super high tower,
put a stargate on top, and then transport their
armies in the heaven to overthrow God. Ridiculous
sediment, ridiculous theory. But some conspiracy
theorists think that Nimrod was actually trying
to break in the heaven and take heaven over,
and that the Tower of Babel just wasn't a tower
trying to profane God, but a tower to actually
invade heaven i guess if you wanted to dig into
that a little more that has a lot to do with
the nephilim and the fallen angels trying to
get back there and using humanity as their the
kind of catalyst to help build this tower and
make false promises about sharing power once
they overthrow God. Wow. That's pretty interesting.
I can't imagine the pride you must have to think
you can overthrow God, but yeah, he's literally
just flooded the world a couple thousand years
before you're like walking it. Another, this
isn't conspiracy. This is more from the archeological
or written evidence from the time. One of the
reasons I think it's in the Midrash and I think
in some Islamic texts, I could be wrong about
its location, but according to them, he did build
a tower of Babel to be flood proof and he was.
trying to defy God by saying, I'm going to make
a tower so large that if you flood the world
again, guess what? You're not going to kill me
because I'm going to be on top of it. And whoever
I want with me will be on top of it. So I'm going
to defy you and say, you can't do something that
you already did. It was, it was a big, like a
front to God in his own way. A completely logical
conclusion, if that's true. Obviously not a well
read man either, because in the Bible it states,
I'll never again destroy the world by water.
Exactly. I missed that. If you think about it,
it's pretty weird that humanity fell back into
its old practices so soon after getting off the
Ark. It was only, what, that was the fourth generation
after the Ark. You already have this hubris and
this ego, and I think it's in all of us to some
extent. We have big egos, our smallest accomplishments
we want to make into these big, fantastical things.
And man and woman can really think a whole lot
about themselves with very little achievements
just because you might look good or you might
be big, you might be strong, or people might
like you, or you can push the little guy around.
Yeah. Being humble is very hard and sinning is
very easy. And the things we're not supposed
to do seem to sometimes come quicker than the
things that we are supposed to do, because it's
the easy way out, it's the lazy way out, or it's
the prideful way out. And we see the fall of
mankind come quick. We saw it when Jesus walked
the earth, man still fell. They saw the Lord
and Savior and they fell. They saw people that
actually talked to God. You think they talked
to God, they heard from God, they got scriptures
down from the mountain. They know he exists,
it's clear as day, but yeah, for Mojas could
return, they're already worshipped. in a bowl.
Like it shows how quickly we fall and how ultimately
stupid, even if we think we're wise, we are.
Yeah. One of the other fringe and alternative
theories is, it roots back to this whole ancient
aliens and anarchy extraterrestrial intervention.
Some theorists claim the tower was a launch pad,
a spaceship or an energy device built with alien
assistance and God or gods were extraterrestrial
who intervened to prevent humanity from accessing
advanced. So you have that whole ancient alien
spin with it. In one variant, aliens are sent
by God to scatter people into confused languages.
Another one kind of ties it to the sons of God
from Genesis, quote unquote, as fallen angels
or alien hybridizing with humans, with the tower
as a gateway for the return. We can be critical
of this and probably chop it up pretty quick,
but it's interesting and fun to think about,
but it seems far fetched. I'd be more inclined
to believe that it was... a place to maybe summon
a deity, maybe a portal to allow fallen angels
to come through. Again, post -flood, four generations
after the fact, there has to be pretty concise
stories about what happened pre -flood with the
giants and the fallen angels. It couldn't have
been washed out that fast in four generations,
especially with these people living hundreds
of years. You could almost reference someone
that had gotten off the Ark, your grandfather
in his case, with being Ham. I would think Ham
would still be alive around them. I'm not entirely
sure, but at least your father would have these
stories. His grandfather, Noah, or his father,
Ham. And I just don't know why you want to open
that door back up knowing what it did in the
first place. Yeah. He had even had kids that
could pass down the stories for greater generations.
A lot of the times you mentioned aliens in that
narrative. And a lot of times I think people...
see stuff that they don't know how to explain
and they attach alien to it. When you look at
the Bible, especially when you look at the higher
levels of heaven, they really have some fantastical
beings up there. I remember a clock. with eyes
and like they talk about all these different
types of spirits that worship God and it's not
always in human form. And I wonder if some people
throughout the history of time have been visited
by different angels that did not take on human
form. And the only way they explained it was
that it was an alien. It must be from outer space.
In reality, it is coming from the heavens, perhaps
not outer space, but it is coming from the heavens.
So I don't know. You can hear that a lot with
the Anunnaki. Like Anunnaki or I think this story
goes that they were like a ancient alien breed
likes on some planet X like way out in outer
space. But many people actually connected to
fallen angels. So I always just wonder if there's
some confusion there of seeing aliens, it's actually
something spiritual, but they don't know how
to quantify it. Technically fallen angels would
be considered aliens, right? They're extraterrestrials.
Like their minion was not earth. To fall in line
with the thought that aliens and or UFOs or what
we're seeing as a UFO are not. people from other
galaxies or in a land far away. I think they're
interdimensional beings phasing in out of our
reality. I'm with you there. I think most people,
when they think of aliens, they think of the
little green guy, maybe not the green guy, but
just like another thing that's like humans, it
just happens to be on a different planet. And
then they don't want to connect it spiritually,
but I do think there is that connected tissue.
Yeah. So to get onto other, like a couple other
conspiracies here, another theory is that this
structure was a temple to create a unified hive
mind, stripping every one of their individuality
and setting up like perfect harmony under Nimrod.
So essentially what it's suggesting is that he
was creating a tower to essentially control everybody
to do what he wanted to do, to be the leader
of this Borg, quote unquote. Yeah, that's a good
one. Have you heard of the oath of Nimrod connected
to a Freemasons? I haven't. I have heard that
a lot of Freemasonry uses Nimrod and a lot of
their writings. What do you tell me? Yeah. So
of all those hidden links that really swirl around
Nimrod's name, the one tied to Freemasons is
among the oldest and I think most persistent.
The ideal surfaces in a set of medieval Messianic
manuscripts known as the Old Charges, which was
guild records copied and recopied from roughly
the 14th and 18th centuries. A few of these lists
of legendary founders mentioned Nimrod as a patron
of builders or a mighty master of masons. In
their original Conatex, these stories were part
of the craft's folklore, a way for stonemasons
to root their trade in biblical antiquity and
really to present their work as divinely honorable.
They never claimed that Nimrod created a secret
order. He was simply another name in a mythic
genealogy of builders stretching from Adam's
sons through Noah to... Solomon's temple. However,
especially those outside the fraternity took
the tiny reference and built a myth around it.
By the 1700s and the 1800s, anti -Maceonic writers
began to recast Nimrod not as a craftsman hero,
but as the original rebel, a forerunner of the
mystery religions of Babylon. In that retelling,
the oath of Nimrod supposedly bound Masons to
preserve forbidden knowledge passed down from
Babylon. 20th century conspiracy books ran even
further with the ideal, linking Freemasons, the
Illuminati, and global politics into one vast
continuity of defiance against God. You know,
it's an exciting story, but one I think that
is mostly built on the imagination rather than
evidence. The surviving manuscripts archived
and analyzed in collections such as the Phoenix
Masonry say nothing about world dominion, only
about geometry, wages, and moral duty. But the
manuscripts are real and The grand conspiracy
perhaps is not, but it is interesting as we trace
back the history that Nimrod's name is in the
Freemason culture and the Freemasons are connected
to a lot of stuff. So I don't know if people
later twist the tale or it started from there.
It's really hard to make those determinations.
Perhaps the old charge has something that's secret.
Perhaps they have some knowledge that was passed
down and you start to see those things on everything.
It's even on our currency. Yeah. Interesting
stuff. He seems to be tied up with the. caught
pretty heavily and this I wouldn't even. categorize
this as a conspiracy, but I guess the last thing
I wanted to point out was that the Tower of Babel
was a Luciferian symbol for apotheosis. So it
represented the serpent's lie, that humans can
become gods and the tower was commissioned by
Nimrod for self -deification, embodying the cult
doctrines of ascension without divine aid. I
think ultimately that's probably what it was.
I think he thought so highly of himself and had
so much power and had done at least in his lifetime.
He did stuff that you never saw cities, you never
saw empires, and he was post -flood the first
one to do that, and it probably got to his head.
There is a lot of fascinating things about this.
One of the ones that I thought was pretty interesting
was Nimrod and what was called the Two Babylon's.
It all traces back to the 19th century, this
Scottish minister named Alexander Hislop, who
published a book in 1853 called the Two Babylon's,
Papatry and Adultery. His thesis was sensational.
He claimed that virtually every pagan religion
on earth, from ancient Egypt to classical Rome,
descended from a single primal cult founded by
Nimrod and his supposed queen. According to Hislop,
this Babylonian mystery of religion survived
the flood of time and quietly infiltrated later
civilizations, even blending into Christian traditions
under new names. It's a powerful story. And if
true, I could see why you want to confuse some
tongues when it came to babble because a lot
of crazy cults have populated their earth since
that time. So I thought that one was interesting.
And then the last one I wanted to touch on was
the conspiracy that involves the EU parliament.
It's called the Babel building. I think here's
one of the internet's most viral architectural
legends. It claims that the European union parliament
building in France was deliberately designed
to mimic Peter Brewell's and elders 16th century
painting, the tower of Babel. And you've probably
seen the side -by -side. images, burglars spinning,
a half -finished tower next to the parliament,
curved glass and steel exterior. The story usually
comes with a sinister twist, screenshots of supposed
EU posters that reads, many tongues, one voice.
For some, it's proof that the modern European
project is a consistent revival of the Babel's
rebellion. I think it's a gripping narrative
and the visual similarities are real. The parliament
weese building does feature an open, unfinished
looking up ring, a design choice that immediately
recalls Bruegel's painting. I think when you
dig into the records and interviews, the resemblance
turns out to be more coincidental. Yeah, man.
Interesting episode. There's a lot of information
out there. So what's your take on Nimrod and
Tower of Babel? I think the Tower of Babel isn't
anti -city, anti -technology, or anti -progress.
I think it's anti -self -exhaustion. The problem
wasn't ambition. It was direction. Humanity wanted
permanence, not purpose. Identity without obedience.
I think Babel reminds us that when we build only
to make a name, God resists. When we build to
serve, to heal, to bless, God partners. I think
every generation has its towers, skyscrapers,
networks, economies, algorithms. None of them
are inherently evil by nature. All of them carry
moral weight. I think the question is timeless.
Whose name is on the cornerstone? When our towers
serve the common good, when they lift others
up rather than our ourselves, our buildings become
worship. But when our towers exist only to glorify
the builder, they crumble into dust, just like
the ziggurats on the plains of Shinar. The real
message of battle isn't that God feared our strength,
that he loved us too much to let our pride destroy
us. The confusion was mercy. The scattering was
grace. Every tower since then is an invitation.
Build boldly, but build humbly. And remember,
no matter how high our walls reach, heaven always
comes down by invitation, not construction. Yeah,
man. I think Nimrod was a real person. I think
lots of cultures talk about him and they just
call him by different names. The stories line
up. There are some discrepancies, but a lot of
the underlying themes are similar. And I think
the Tower of Babel was, I don't know, I struggle
with that one because I lean toward a little
bit toward the conspiratorial side. I think he
was definitely trying to deify himself. I definitely
think he was trying to make himself God on earth.
And was there some sort of hand behind him pushing
him to do this either aware or unaware? I don't
know. That's an interesting one. I'm going to
have more time to think about that before I draw
my final conclusion. But either way, I think
there's plenty of historical archaeological and
linguistic evidence to suggest that all of our
languages root back to one and around four or
5 ,000 years ago. They all scattered almost seemingly
instantaneously and hundreds, if not thousands,
branched out pretty quickly. Interesting story,
interesting episode and lots of interesting research
involved in this. But like usual, Jesus loves
you. We love you and I love you, brother. We
love you. Love you, brother. Until next time,
we are Zero Signal. Oh, one more thing. Email
is zerosignaltruthatgmail .com and we're out.
We've hit the zero hour. That's a wrap on this
week's transmission. New episodes drop weekly,
so stay tuned and don't miss the next Signal.
Follow, subscribe, and spread the word. You've
been listening to Zero Signal. We're out.