Is God the author of confusion, when he confused the languages at Babel?

The passages use different words for different things. In 1 Corinthians 14:33 Paul’s word is akatastasia (G0181), ‘disorder’ or ‘unrest’: the word for the “commotions” of Luke 21:9 and the “confusion” that James says comes with envy and strife (James 3:16). The setting is a church meeting in which several people spoke in tongues or prophesied at once. Paul’s point is that such disorder cannot be blamed on God’s Spirit, since “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” and can wait their turn (14:30–32). He ends the chapter, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (14:40). Paul is speaking of God’s character as it should be seen in worship; he is not denying that God ever brings human plans to nothing.

Babel was such a case, and it was a judgment, not disorder for its own sake. The builders wanted to “make us a name” and to avoid being “scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4), against God’s command to Noah’s family to fill the earth (9:1). The Hebrew balal (H1101) means to mix or confuse. God mixed their speech so that they could no longer work together on their project, and so brought about the very thing they had tried to prevent: they were scattered. The result was not chaos but nations, each with its own land and language, as Genesis 10 has already listed them ‘after their tongues’ (10:20, 31).

1 Corinthians 1:27 uses another word again: kataischunō (G2617), ‘to put to shame’, which is how the WEB and BSB translate it. God chose the weak and lowly so that the proud would be shamed and no one could boast before him (1:29). The KJV’s ‘confound’ there means ‘put to shame’, not ‘throw into disorder’. So God is not the source of disorder among his people, though he does bring human pride to nothing, at Babel as at the cross.

Pentecost and Babel

From the early church on, many Christians have seen Pentecost as God’s answer to Babel. There the Spirit enabled the apostles to be understood by Jews “out of every nation under heaven”, each in his own language (Acts 2:5–8). What God divided in judgment at Babel he began to gather in grace.