Nimrod's Tower: An Ancient Second Temple Speculation

Genesis never says Nimrod built the tower of Babel. Readers have assumed it for two thousand years, and the assumption has a traceable history.
Genesis 10 says Babel was the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom. Genesis 11 describes the tower at Babel. Ancient readers put the two together and concluded that the man who founded the city must have built the tower. A surviving fragment from the Second Temple period says exactly that, and Josephus supplies a motive - a tower high enough that no flood could reach it.
That is a reading, not a verse. The sources themselves call it an ancient haggadic speculation.
What Genesis does say is that Nimrod was a gibbor, the same word used of the mighty men of Genesis 6:4. That is the connection the text itself makes.
Scripture links:
- Genesis 10:8-10 - Nimrod, a gibbor, whose kingdom began at Babel.
- Genesis 11:1-9 - the tower, with no builder named.
The speculation is old and interesting. It is still speculation, and saying so is part of teaching honestly.