“... Many scholars understand Acts 2 as a reversal of the Babel story and believe that Luke patterned his narrative after it; some ancient commentators made the same connection. Such an approach would certainly fit Luke’s theme of mission transcending cultural and linguistic barriers. [...] If we surmise that the table of nations in Gen 10 informs Luke’s list of nations (as it did most Jewish lists of nations), an allusion to Babel in Gen 11:1–9 in the same context seems likely. This suggestion becomes more likely when we consider that Babel represents the only scattering of languages in the OT and hence the only potential background for Luke’s story shared by all his ideal audience. [...] In Genesis, God descended and scattered tongues to prevent unity; in Acts, the Spirit descends and scatters tongues to create multicultural unity (1:14; 2:1, 42, 44–46). Luke employs the verb συνεχύθη for the crowd’s response in 2:6; although this is not Luke’s sole use of συγχέω (9:22; 19:32; 21:27, 31), it is likely an allusion to the Babel narrative, which employs the cognate noun σύγχυσις, “confusion,” as a Greek translation for “Babel” (Gen 11:9; the noun’s other three LXX uses all appear in 1 Samuel, two in the same passage). ...”