We’ve finally made it to the second genealogy of Genesis. But first, there is chapter 10 that tells us about the descendants of the sons of Noah. Chapter nine ends with the death of Noah, having lived nine hundred and fifty years. Life goes on, and the earth is populated through Noah’s sons.
I won’t spend much time on chapter ten because there are a lot of names to chase down. The last verse sums the chapter up nicely. Genesis 10:32 “These are the tribes of the sons of Noah according to their generations, according to their nations. From these, the islands of the nations were scattered about on the earth after the flood.”
Isaiah 66 is included in this week’s haftarah and lists some of these names in verse 19. Specifically, Isaiah mentions the nations of Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal, and Greece. Genesis 10 lists Tarshish and Tubal as the grandson and son of Japheth, respectively. Put was a son of Ham, and Lud was a son of Shem. That leaves Meshech and Greece. Meshech is listed as a son of Japheth, but Shem had a grandson named Meshech, also. Greece is not a name in the list, but the nation of Greece was formed by multiple people groups. The Cretans are listed as descendants of the grandson of Ham. And Javan, a son of Japheth, is believed to have settled in the area of Greece.
A couple of other things to notice from chapter ten is the number of people groups from Ham’s line that become enemies of Israel in the future and the mention of Nimrod. Not much is recorded of Nimrod, but there is a lot that is said.
Nimrod was the first to be a giant on earth. It is doubtful that Nimrod was a giant like the Nephelim. The consensus is that Nimrod was a great leader that controlled many peoples. He founded Babylon and built many cities in his kingdom. He could be the one who organized the building of the Tower of Babel. From there, Nimrod founded the nation of Assyria and built Ninevah and many other cities there.
Verse 21 says something interesting about Shem. It says, “And to Shem were born children, even to him, the father of all the sons of Eber. Eber is the great-grandson of Shem. Why is he specifically mentioned here? Verse 25 says that Eber fathered Peleg. Peleg was so named because the earth was divided in his day. This dividing of the earth is talking about the Tower of Babel. The people were scattered to become the nations around the world. God called one man from those nations to become the father of a new nation Israel. We are, of course, talking about Abraham. Abraham is considered the first Hebrew. The word Hebrew comes from Eber. The nation of the Hebrews was founded at the Tower of Babel, like all the other nations. The promise of this nation came to Abraham. But that’s for next week’s Torah Portion.
Speaking of the Tower of Babel, this is off-topic, but I thought I would throw this out there. NASA has plans to return to the moon and then on to Mars. I believe that trying to colonize the moon will be this generation’s Tower of Babel. The plan is to return to the moon by 2024. I don’t believe that God will allow that to happen. Keep a watch out. His return may be soon. Now, back to the study.
If you downloaded the Excel sheet or pdf of the genealogies, you’ve already seen the differences in the years between the Septuagint and the Masoretic. The Genesis 5 genealogy doesn’t affect the BC (BCE) dating because it’s pre-flood. Every pre-flood date is usually in a range and is speculative. There is no way to pinpoint events. After the flood, however, the LXX Genesis 11 genealogy changes a lot of things. For starters, it adds 650 years to the timeline. The BC dates would be off on several historical events. It might fix some things, though. For instance, the dating of the pyramids put them before the dating of the flood. Yet, there is no flood damage to the pyramids. The extra 650 years would put the building of the pyramids after the flood.
Take it or leave it. The two texts may disagree on the number of years, but it is not problematic. It doesn’t change the overall message. I just wanted you to be aware of the differences.
Lastly, we’ll look at Abram. Abrah had two brothers. One of them fathered Lot and then died. That is how Lot came to be with Abram in the land of Canaan. Abram’s father, Terah, took Abram and Lot to the land of Haran and settled there before he died. And we’ll finish that story next week.