The Babel Narrative

(Genesis 10:1 - 11:9)

This is the genealogy of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the sons born to them after the flood.

The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meschech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.  The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. The lands across the sea that were peopled by unbelievers were divided among the descendants of these, each with a distinct language and ethnicity.

The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan,  The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah.  The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.  Cush also fathered Nimrod, who became one of the world's great rulers.  He was a hunter of great prowess, so much so that his name became a byword.  Initially, his kingdom comprised Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.  It was from out of that country that came Asshur came.  It was he who founded Nineveh, the city of Rehoboth, and Calah, and the metropolis of Resen, which lies between Nineveh and Calah.  Mizraim fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (who was the father of Philistim), and Capthtorim.  Canaan fathered Sidon, his oldest son and Heth and was the patriarch of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgasites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, the Hamathites.  Afterwards these Canaanite tribes were dispersed.  The borders of Canaan's land were from Sidon to Gerara as far as Gaza, until one reaches Sodom, Gomorrah, and Adama, and to Seboim as far as Lesa.  Thus are the descendants of Ham, comprising distinct tribes, countries, ethnicities, and languages.

Shem, the patriarch of the tribes of Eber and the brother of the older Japtheth, sired children as well.  They are Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.  The children of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.  Arphaxad fathered Salah and Salah fathered Eber.  To Eber were born two sons, Peleg, who lived during the time when the world was divided, and Joktan.  Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.  All of these were the sons of Joktan and their country was from Mesha to Sephar, a mountain in the east.  These are the descendants of Shem  comprising distinct tribes, countries, ethnicities, and languages.

These are the descendants of Noah's sons who originated the tribes and countries by which the world was divided after the flood.  Then the entire world spoke a single language.

It happened that when these people journeyed from the east they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and it was there they settled.  They conferred with each other and agreed "Let us make bricks and fire them well." (for they had brick instead of stone and slime for mortar.)  "Let's build a city and a tower that will reach to the heavens, so we can make a name for ourselves before we become dispersed across the face of the earth."

Jehovah came back down to earth to view the city and the tower that the descendants of Adam were building.  He observed [to his companions] "Look, they are one people and speak a single language. They have embarked upon this great project, there is nothing now to stop them from accomplishing anything they may aspire to.  Let us, therefore, go down and confuse them by rendering them unable to understand each other's language."  Jehovah then scattered the people into other lands and they abandoned construction of the city.  (The name of that place was Babel, for that was where man's language was diversified and mankind was made to migrate across the world.)

Notes
1.  Since the narrative claims the world was populated solely by the offspring of Noah, an attempt is made here to identify every people with a specific descendant, often linking the name of the descendant to the tribe or nation they founded.  While it is possible that certain tribes and ethnic groups may have taken the name from that of their founder and patriarch, seldom is this found to really be the case.  The Romans claimed to be descended from Romulus, but was he an historical or a mythical figure?  The Huns were not descended from a Mr. Hun, nor were the Franks the progeny of some guy named Frank.  Americans do not claim Amerigo Vespucci as an ancestor.  Native Americans were called Indians because of a huge geographic error.   It is possible, indeed not at all uncommon for a man to produce hundreds of thousands of descendants in the space of five hundred, even four hundred years, but the evolution of a familial tribe into a nation is usually a complex one; racial admixture, cultural assimilation, the fusion of ethnicities is the rule, rather than the exception, even in ancient times.

2.  It is not surprising that there is no Noahic ancestor assigned as founder for many important peoples, the Chinese, Indians, Native Americans, Black Africans, Polynesians, Germans and so forth -- these being races with which the writers of Genesis were unacquainted.  Indeed, the bulk of humanity is unaccounted for and orphaned!

3.  The sons of Noah are always listed as Shem, Ham, and Japheth, with the assumption that Shem was the eldest.  However, in the genealogical lists of this narrative, the order is reversed and Shem is noted to be younger that Japheth.  Was the customary naming of Shem first due to his being the most important in the eyes of the Hebrews and not because he was the oldest?

4.  The tribe of Noah, apparently all living together at this point travels west to Shinar, which is in central or southern Mesopotamia.  They should have been traveling south, but this would place the original settlement of Noah's family east -- where?  This seems to be in conflict with the assertion that Noah's boat came to rest in the mountains to the north of Mesopotamia.

5.  The main impetus for the descendants of Noah in building a city was the desire to make a name for themselves.  Make a name for themselves with whom?  They were supposed to be the only inhabitants on the earth!

6.  Jehovah, who does not seem to be omniscient, as God would be, seems to merely check on his creations from time to time, as would an extraterrestrial space traveler who is apprised of humankind's progress only when he makes a return visit.  It is very possible that Jehovah, as an extraterrestrial human, could have had the life span of an earthling (or, more likely, the antediluvian life span of 900 years) and still appear on earth over a period of thousands of years, owing to time warps that could occur in the interstellar transit.

7.  In itemizing the tribes descended from Noah, it is clearly stated that each had its own language and culture as if that were a natural occurrence, but the confusion of languages by Jehovah at Babel comes later in the narrative.

8.  For a second time, Jehovah seems to confer with his compatriots, members of his own race, and decides, perhaps with their counsel, to scatter the community of men and to cause them to speak a multitude of languages so they won't be able to understand one another.  This is a facile explanation for the mystery of the many languages on earth.  While it is easy to see how one language can evolve into dialects and, eventually into separate languages, the origin of human language itself remains a mystery, and if one reads the modern theories put forth to explain it, one is quick to realize we are still clueless on the subject.  Interestingly, in the Eden Creation Narrative there is no mention whatsoever of Adam's speech.  (The snake, in fact is the first to be actually quoted in the account.) He and his wife were created and immediately begin to speak, apparently Jehovah's language, but there is no reference to Jehovah endowing man with language or teaching him to speak.  There is only the reference to Adam devising names for all the animals that Jehovah showed him, but no suggestion that Adam invented language.  There is no mention either, in the account, of how the tempter snake acquired spoken language, but apparently he spoke the same tongue, even if, one might drolly add, he spoke it with a forked tongue.  What the first, Adamic language was has been the subject of much speculation.  There was a discredited body of opinion that if a child were left on his own and not subjected to any human speech, it would naturally speak the ancestral human tongue learned in Eden.  Not so.  (Generally, children unexposed to speech never learn to speak at all on their own and may even have difficulty learning to do so when taught in later life.)  Jehovah, who endowed Adam with speech, now decided put a new language into every man's head.  Why, though, did he do this?  Men were getting together, getting along, creating a community, building a city, accomplishing something worthwhile -- doing what one would think would find favor in the eyes of their creator.  Was Jehovah, notoriously hard to please,  jealous, fearful even, of man's achievements?  Was building a city an act of unforgivable hubris in his eyes?  Was the tower these primitives were building (with bricks, no less, not stone) really going to reach Heaven  -- is Heaven so low?  (The height possible with a brick structure would not be very impressive.)  Did Jehovah simply take delight in messing with men's minds, goading and provoking his pets, his zoo specimens just to see what they would do?  There is no rationale given for the confusion of languages, unless it was part of a plan to precipitate the migration necessary to settle the earth.  Or Jehovah had a preference for a multicultural and multilingual world.  Or was he just trying to make things tough on his creations --- for their own good?