Name: Episode 175: Genesis 11:1-9. The Tower of Babel. Genesis 11:10-32. Genealogy of the Hebrews After the Flood
Uploaded: 2017-09-25T18:52:54.910Z
Duration: 5 min 22 s

Episode 175.

Genesis 11 verses one to nine,

is the fascinating account of the Tower of Babel.

In this account, humans build a tower in an attempt to reach heaven,

because they want to be divine.

Of course, this only makes sense in a Three-Tier Universe,

with heaven just above our head.

Genesis 11, one and nine state,

now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

And then what happens,

The Lord confused the language of

the whole world and the construction of the tower stopped.

This account deals with the etiological question of,

where do all the languages come from?

And the answer is,

God confused an original language.

This is a minor motif in the ancient Near East.

The Sumerians, who lived in Southern Mesopotamia,

had a confusion of language account as well.

The author is the J author,

and as we noted previously,

the J table of nations made no mention of different languages,

in contrast to the P account.

There is an interesting origins debate implication.

According to Genesis 11,

God confuses an original language into many languages at one point in time.

However, the archaeological and historical records reveal that Ancient Near

Eastern languages evolved over a long period of time.

Please turn to page 50 in the handouts.

Here's an outline of how Ancient Near Eastern languages evolved over time.

But are we to believe that the confusion of language in

Genesis 11 was into Semitic cognates,

that is, related languages as you see here?

Why confuse an original language to look like language has evolved?

Therefore, the archaeological and historical records

clearly indicate that the appearance of different languages,

at one point in time, is not historical.

The Messages of Faith in the Tower of Babel account

include -- humans can't make themselves

divine and God judges such arrogance as sinful.

Genesis 11 verses 10 to 32 is a Genealogy of the Hebrews After the Flood.

This genealogy deals with etiology and

the question -- where does our Hebrew community come from?

The answer is that after the flood we descended from God's chosen descendants of Shem.

The major motif is tribal formation and the origin of

a people or nation from a single founding male individual,

which in this case, is Shem.

There's also a minor motif,

which is the decrease in longevity after the Great Flood.

The lifespan of the Hebrews drops from 912 years,

which is the average in Genesis Five,

to 333 years in Genesis 11.

Please turn to page 46 in the handouts.

Here is the Genesis Five: Genealogy of the Hebrews,

with an average lifespan of 912 years.

In Genesis 11, you can see that the Hebrews lived to shorter periods,

the average was 333 years.

Still on page 46 of the handouts,

we see a similar pattern in the Weld-Blundell (W-B)

444: Sumerian King List Before the Flood.

The average reign is over 31000 years.

And after the flood, the reign of the Sumerian Kings drops to an average of 530 years,

and near the end of this list,

the rains are within normal ranges.

The author of the Hebrew Genealogy in Genesis 11 is the P author,

as you know, he often uses a poetic format and stylistic fives and sevens.

There is a symmetrical 10 individuals in this genealogy,

which is the same as Genesis Five,

also by the P author.

There's also a repetitive formula as seen in Genesis One and Genesis Five,

X lived A years and fathered Z,

X lived B more years and had other sons and daughters.

This genealogy also features stylistic numbers,

12 of the 20 numbers are multiples of five.

This was similar to P's other genealogy in Genesis Five,

with 15 of the 20 numbers being multiples of five.

As I mentioned previously,

my speculation is that the P author's stylistic use of

five was to emphasize the Hebrews except the first five books of the Bible,

which is known as the Pentateuch.

End of episode.

Episode 175: Genesis 11:1-9. The Tower of Babel. Genesis 11:10-32. Genealogy of the Hebrews After the Flood

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