The Genealogy of Noah

AND

The Tower of Babel

Genesis 10 – 11

10:1-5

"Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations."

Anthropologically and ethnologically, this is probably the most important document in man’s possession today because it outlines the earliest history of the human race. The scholar, H. S. Miller, tells us that 70 nations are found in this account that came from Noah’s three sons. I believe his three boys were triplets, Japheth being the first born (Gen. 10:21).

            1. Fourteen nations are found here in Japheth’s genealogy. They are as follows:

From Magog came the Scythians, Slavs, Russians, Bulgarians, Bohemians, Poles, Slovaks and Croatians.

From Madai came the Indian, Iranic, Mede, Persian, Afgan and Kurdish peoples.

From Javan came the Romance peoples, the Greeks, Romans, French, Spanish, Portuguese and others.

From Tiras came the Thracians, Teutons, Germans, Angles, Saxons and Anglo-Saxons.

In general, these peoples were the light skinned and European whose territories ranged from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

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10:6-20

"The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.’ And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim). Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations."

            2. Thirty nations are found here in the descendants of Ham.

These were dark skinned peoples, the majority of which were south of Palestine. Ham has been handed a bad rap by many. But, it should be noted that from him came two of the world’s early and greatest civilizations, namely the Egyptians and the Babylonians. Also, a great personality from that ancient world of Ham's descendants is found  here, namely this man, Nimrod. We are told he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. His reputation was so great that he became a legend among early mankind. They had a saying about him, “like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord”. He was also the founder of the cities of Babel and Ninevah which became the capital cities of both the Babylonian and Assyrian empires.

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10:21-32

"And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arphaxad begot Salah, and Salah begot Eber. To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. And their dwelling place was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations. These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood."

            3. Twenty-six nations can be found here in the descendants of Shem.

They comprise the Semitic, Oriental and Mongoloid peoples. Eber is thought to be the grandfather of Abraham. From Eber seems to have come the name Hebrew ("Eberooo").

Also, please take special note of this man, Peleg. The text says that in his days the earth was divided. Geologists tell us that at one time all the landmasses of Earth were one. In other words, there was just one continent, just as the creation account in Genesis 1, declares. But "millions of years ago", according to them, that single landmass broke apart and the continents drifted away from each other to their current locations. I agree, for the most part. I would only take exception to their time period. There is evidence here in Genesis 10, that this event actually occurred in relatively recent human history around 4500 years ago. I believe that this is the event spoken of here that took place during the lifetime of Peleg. It must have been quite an event when the earth was divided. One morning, when Peleg got out of bed, his world and the world of all the other humans on Earth was found to be drastically changing. I suspect that these early men actually observed this amazing pulling apart of Earth’s continents. It may  have been a traumatic event as well, being accompanied by enormous earthquakes and such like. They probably observed this phenomena until the gap between landmasses became too far across to see the other shore any longer. Take it for what it’s worth, but I believe this is what the Bible is recording here. Obviously, God had a purpose for this monumental change of the Earth's topography. It was his desire that man populate the earth. This event was certainly helpful in fulfilling that objective. It may also be the most plausible explanation for the similarities between, say, the Aztec pyramids and those of Egypt as well as a plethora of other similarities in the peoples and architectures found on the different continents. This important division of Earth's original continent set the stage for the various nations and empires that God had preordained would develop on the Earth in the future. For example, if this had not occurred, there would have been no discovery of the Americas by Cortez and no arrival on our continent by the Pilgrims and no United States of America.

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11:1-4

"Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’"

It is always predictable that sinful man can be counted on to do the opposite of the will of God. God told Noah to be fruitful, and multiply, and fill up the earth (9:1). To obey and do this, however, man would have to divide up. However, these descendants of Noah had no intention of doing so. Rather, they proceeded to do the exact opposite. They plotted to stay together lest they become scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth (11:4). May we chase a "rabbit" here for a moment? The essence of sin is utter independence from God. It’s a man with an attitude. It’s, "I did it my way" as the song declares. On the other hand, the essence of spirituality is the opposite. True spirituality is characterized by utter dependence on God. These folks said, " we’re gonna do this" and "we’re gonna do that". "We’re gonna build ourselves a city" and "We’re gonna make a name for ourselves." They wouldn’t have known what you were talking about if you had quoted Colossians 3:17 to them...

"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

It is obvious from their words that they considered themselves the captains of their own ship and the prime determining factor of their own destinies. Maybe I tend to go overboard on this, but I even hate to hear people say, "See you later" without adding, "God willing". How about you, dear saint? When I used to get off work at night, my fellow workers would usually say something like, "See you tomorrow." I liked to reply, "God willing." In James 4:13-16 we read...

"Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."

Do you think about these things? Do you take steps to give the Lord his due? Are you aware of his sovereignty over your life? In Luke 12, Jesus told a story about a rich man who’s barns were too small to contain all his crops so he went to bed one night planning to begin the very next day to tear down his old barns and to build new and bigger ones. Jesus said ...

"But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Luke 12:20-21

Psalm 138:6 says...

" Though the LORD is on high, yet he regards the lowly; but the proud he knows from afar."

Such were the people who began to build the Tower of Babel. However, they were in for a huge surprise.

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11:5-9

"But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.’ So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth."

When we read the Lord came down to see the city, we are not reading that he had to come down to find out what was going on. Rather, we are reading that the Lord actually did came down in bodily form and personally inspected this city that the descendants of Noah were building. This is another pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in Genesis. We will see yet other pre-incarnate appearances of Christ in Genesis as we go along. Theologians call these appearances “theophanies”.

After that hands on inspection, the Lord made the decision to supernaturally intervene at Babel to insure that his will for the human race be carried out. He then intervened  by means of instantly creating the wide variety of human languages that we know today. This, in turn, very natually forced all the inhabitants of Babel to separate and scatter as they were originally commanded to do. This is the true origin of human languages. Later, these people were even further divided up by the separation of the Earth during the days of Peleg as discussed above.

One last observation here before we move on. The Lord's words here, "let us go down and confuse their language" is another allusion to the existence of the Trinity in Genesis. There is only one God, yet three persons in the Godhead. Thus, throughout the Bible we find there is communication within the Godhead. We first encountered this back in 1:26, where we read, "And God said, 'Let us make man in our image'". Fascinating, is it not?

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11:10-26

"This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah. After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters. Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran."

Now, the writer picks up with and records the line of Shem, through whom Messiah would eventually come. Notice that, like the genealogy found in chapter 5, this is also an interlocking genealogy. Interlocking genealogies insure the exact descent and age of each person involved. In all, eleven generations are recorded here and we will find that longevity, after the Flood, has now been cut in half. During the 365 years that this genealogy covers, if each man had 8 children, and each of his children had 8 children and so on ... by the time of Abraham the population of the Earth would have been around 100 million.

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11:27-32

"This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran."

We have come now to a very important turning point in the book of Genesis. Thus far, we have studied four events: The Creation, The Fall, The Flood and The Tower of Babel. Now, the book will take up four persons: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Here, at the end of this genealogy, we have come to this man, Abram. His name means father. Later, God will change it to Abraham which means father of a multitude.

Terah was Abraham’s dad and he had three boys. Again, I believe they were a set of triplets. One of them, Haran, died before Abram's family left their home of origin in Ur of the Chaldees. In those days, they were just a family of idol worshippers. Yet, God called Abram and he responded ... believing God and becoming for all time the father of all who believe in the true and living God. As you have it later in the book, "And Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness" (15:6). Furthermore, it was from Abraham that God’s chosen people, the Jews, came into being from his grandson, Israel. Also, Abraham fathered the Arabic peoples through his son Ishmael.

Also, it was to Abraham that the land of Palestine was given by the promise of God as an everlasting possession to Israel (13:15). And, last but not least, it was to Abraham that the promise of Messiah was given ... promising that through Abraham’s Seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed (26:4). From this point on, the book of Genesis will take up this remarkable Old Testament saint. Abraham is very very special in the history of God's dealings with man.