Lesson 13 – The Rest of the Story
Genesis 10:1 – 11:9
Preparing for Lesson 13
We are coming to the end of the first natural division of Genesis as described in Lesson 1: Introduction to the Book of Genesis. Since beginning this journey, we have learned about creation and perfection, the fall and corruption, death and new life, complete destruction and a new beginning.
Two final events are included in the first division of Genesis, and those are the building of the Tower of Babel and the confusion of language.
Most commentators agree that the building of the Tower of Babel occurred only about 100 years after the Flood, and it was apparently the first major rebellion against God since the Flood. We will discuss what motivated the people to build the tower and what God did to thwart their efforts.
The confusion of language resulted in the first major dispersion of the people after the flood and Chapter 10 is often referred to as the Table of Nations. It describes the vast migration of people groups throughout the world.
In preparation for today’s lesson, please read Genesis Chapters 10 and 11.
LESSON 13 – THE REST OF THE STORY
Genesis 10:1 – 11:9
Introduction
The tenth chapter of Genesis is known as the Table of Nations and nearly all scholars agree that it is a remarkably accurate document.
The biblical text reads like a family record maintained by a respected patriarch, and according to Henry Morris, Shem was the most logical person to have kept such a record as he was the oldest of Noah’s sons and the one most pertinent to God’s promise of a coming seed. He says, “Shem lived for 502 years after the Flood, which would have encompassed the entire period included in the Table of Nations. It is significant that the sons of Ham and Japheth are given only to the third generation after the Flood, whereas Shem’s descendants extend to the sixth, indicating perhaps that he lost touch with the other branches of the family after the Dispersion.”
The most important thing to mention at this point is that Genesis Chapters 10 and 11, are not in chronological order. The events described in Genesis 10 occur after the confusion of language at Babel. We know this because verses 10:20 and 10:31 both state that the descendants of Ham and Shem are presented “according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.” They could not have been divided by their languages while there was still only one language in the world.
It is believed that Moses separated the events in a way that would place special significance on the descendants of Peleg, the second son of Eber, and the brother of Joktan. Genesis 10:25 tells us that it was in the days of Peleg that the earth was divided; that is, the people were divided by their language. And that is not the only notable thing about Peleg: he was also the ancestor of Abraham.
We will study the events in chronological order by discussing the Tower of Babel first, and then coming back to the Table of Nations in Chapter 10.
The Tower of Babel
Nimrod was a descendant of Ham through Cush, and the great-grandson of Noah. He is described as the first of the “mighty men” to appear on earth after the great flood, and was the founder of Babel, among other cities, in the land of Shinar. He was apparently among those who traveled from the east and came to the land of Shinar, where he convinced the people to build a tower in order to make a name for themselves.
Think About This: R. Kent Hughes says, “The mention that they moved “from the east” indicates trouble because in Genesis, “east” or “from the east” suggests movement away from God. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, cherubim guarded the entry at the “east of the garden of Eden” (3:24). When Lot left Abraham, he traveled “eastward” where he met disaster in Sodom and Gomorrah (13:10-12). Abraham’s sons by his concubine Keturah were sent “away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country” (25:6). Jacob fled his homeland to “the land of the people of the east” (29:1). Here in the tower story the people’s eastern migration depicts universal rebellion and movement away from God’s blessings.”
The Bible tells us that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord (10:8-9). According to Vernon McGee, these verses do not mean Nimrod was hunting for wild game: it meant he was a hunter of men’s souls.
Think About This: Nimrod has quite an interesting story which can be found in secular history. In 1857, Alexander Hislop wrote a book called The Two Babylons, with the subtitle, Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife. The style in which the book is written makes it a difficult read, but it provides some interesting evidence that links the pagan worship of ancient Babylon to the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, Nimrod and his mother (who was also his wife) played a prominent role in the establishment of the pagan religion. If you choose to read the book, just remember that since this information is not contained in the Bible, there is no assurance of its validity.
Other than being driven along by Nimrod, why did the people want to build a tower that reached to heaven? Some have said it was so they could escape the destruction of any future floods. Others have suggested that the Tower was to serve as a sort of beacon, like a lighthouse, to show the way to the city.
But the truth is that the people were in rebellion against God. God had told them to “multiply and fill the earth” and they didn’t want to do that. They wanted to live in close proximity to one another, preferring city dwelling to the nomadic life. After all, there is safety in numbers. It seems the thing they feared the most was being scattered around the globe, thus being separated from one another. Instead, they said, “Let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4). But God will have His way and with a word, He confused the language and the people were separated. “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.” (Genesis 11:8).
The Confusion of Languages
Something we probably don’t think about on a daily basis is the importance of simple communication. We are able to converse with and understand our co-workers at the office, the clerks at the grocery store, and our family at home. But imagine walking into our usual grocery store and finding that all of the clerks are speaking a language we cannot understand. That would make for a difficult shopping experience and we would most likely try to find a store where the clerks spoke a language we could understand.
Such was the case for the people working on building the Tower of Babel. We don’t know whether the “confusion” came during the work day, or whether the people woke up one morning with a new vocabulary. No matter how it came to pass, one thing was certain: when the workers lost the ability to communicate with one another, the work on the Tower came to a screeching halt. There was nothing left to do but to honor God’s commandment, albeit unwillingly, to “fill the earth.”
Genesis Chapter 10 identifies the families based on the sons of Noah: 14 families of Japheth, 30 families of Ham and 26 families of Shem. This is a total of 70 families. In 10:31, we are told, “These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations, and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.”
In his book, The Beginning of the World, Henry Morris points out something about the Dispersion that is easy to miss. He says, “One remarkable feature of the Table of Nations should be noted. There are exactly 70 “families of the sons of Noah” mentioned and “by these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood”. This is the same as the number of the Children of Israel which came into Egypt from Canaan (Genesis 46:27).”
The number “70” has ever since been identified with the nation of Israel:
“Seventy weeks were determined upon thy people.” (Daniel 9:24)
Israel was led by 70 elders. (Numbers 11:16, 25)
There were 70 members of the Jewish Sanhedrin.
Seventy scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek.
Moses wrote that man’s allotted lifespan was 70 years. (Ps. 90:10)
The Babylonian captivity of Israel lasted 70 years.
Also, while there are almost 200 countries on the map today, Jewish tradition refers to global humanity as the “70 nations.”
But where did the people go? Let’s now look at Chapter 10 to see if we can answer that question.
Table of Nations
The basic framework for the information shown below was presented by R. Kent Hughes in his book, Preaching the Word-Genesis, with some additions from J. Vernon McGee and Henry Morris:
The Japhethites made up the outer fringes of the known world. Japheth had seven sons and they lived mostly to the north and east of Canaan and spoke the Indo-European languages. Gomer dwelt north of the Caspian Sea. Tubal and Meshech settled around the southern shores of the Black Sea. Magog lived south of the Black Sea, while Tiras lived west of the Black Sea in Thrace. Madai occupied the area south of the Caspian in what became Media. And Javan populated Ionia, the southern part of Greece. The sons of Javan spread around the northern Mediterranean Sea as far west as Tarshish or southern Spain.
Ham had four sons. His son Egypt settled in northeast Africa. One commentator said that no one knew where Put was put, but most maps indicate that he settled near Egypt on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Cush populated the territory of the upper Nile south of Egypt, while Canaan settled in what was later called Palestine, after the Philistines.
Shem had five sons and they represent the Semitic peoples. Elam’s descendants lived between the Medes to the north and the Persian Gulf to the south. Asshur’s descendants were the Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia. Arpachshad was the father of the Chaldeans in southern Mesopotamia. Lud’s descendants were the Lydians of Asia Minor. And Aram’s descendants, the Arabians, dwelled in what is known today as Syria.
Summary
So there it is: the first division of the book of Genesis, from 1:1 through 11:9. Looking back, you can see that this first division covered events, whereas the remaining chapters in Genesis are centered on people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. It is also noteworthy that Chapter 11 is the final chapter in Genesis that deals with the nations in general, as distinct from the chosen nation, Israel.
In our next lesson, we will begin our study of Abraham, the Father of Three Religions.
Think About It, Talk About It
What motivated the people to build the Tower of Babel? Why was God displeased with them?
Why do scholars believe Shem might have been the keeper of the family record of Noah’s sons?
What does the Table of Nations tell us about the relationship between all peoples of the earth?
SOURCES
Baker, Matt: The Biblical Family Tree-Adam to David,
(www.youtube.com, Useful Charts)
Baker, Matt: Historical Evidence for 37 Old Testament Characters (www.youtube.com)
Deffinbaugh, Bob: The Confusion of Language at Babel (www.bible.org)
DeWitt, Dr. David A.: What Color was Adam? (www.answersingenesis.org/genetics)
Diop, Cheikh Anta: The African Origin of Civilization, edited and translated by Mercer Cook, (Lawrence Hill Books, 1974)
Frolla, Michelle: The Intrepid Guide, Language Learning for Travelers and Heritage Learners (www.theintrepidguide.com)
Hislop, Alexander: The Two Babylons, (originally published in 1857, reprinted in 2017 by CrossReach Publications)
Hughes, R. Kent: Preaching the Word – Genesis, Crossway Books, 2004)
McGee, J. Vernon: Through the Bible, Volume 1 (Thomas Nelson Publishing)
Morris, Henry: The Beginning of the World (Master Books, 1977)
National Geographic Society Video: The Children of Adam (www.youtube.com)
Osterholm, Tim: The Table of Nations (Genealogy of Mankind) and the Origin of Races (www.soundchristian.com/man)
Robinson, Jerry: Random Notes on the Table of Nations (www.truerichesradio.com)
Rosenzweig, Debbie: Israel and 70 Nations of the World (www.israelforever.org)
Sullivan, Will: DNA Suggests Modern Humans Emerged From Several Groups in Africa, Not One (www.smithsonianmag.com)