Irony?

[RAGGANDI]

In Genesis, the Lord sends the Holy Spirit to Babel to make everyone speak in a different tongue, then they are scattered across the Earth. Then in Acts, the Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles and they begin speaking in different languages to bring the news to all people of the Earth. I have always been fascinated by this irony. Anybody else? Any other thoughts?

 

[drafdog]

This is not ironical. The first event was the result of sin, the second an indication of forgiveness of sin. It’s all of a piece. We still have many languages but God speaks to us each in his own tongue.

Matthew

 

[brockmac]

A very dear friend of mine who happens to be a priest (presided at my wedding, baptised one of my children) gave an excellent homily on this one year on Pentecost Sunday.

He specifically contrasted the two events just as the OP in this thread did. He believes that this action on the part of God was done to deliberately contrast with what he had done during at Babel to demonstrate the grace that was being poured out on the Church.