Day 4. Genesis 10-12

Genesis 10-12

Genesis 10

¹Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

The begats. Everyone hates the begats. Unless you love the begats. I kind of like them.

When you look up Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their offspring, you are reading something called the "table of nations". There are a whole lot of places that have various tables of nations. This one, is my favorite.

Genesis 10: 2-5 is the sons of Japheth.

Gomer
Magog
Madai
Javan
Tubal
Meshech
Tiras

Verses 6-20 are the sons of Ham.

Cush
Mizraim
Phut
Canaan (the cursed one)

Verses 21-31 are the sons of Shem.

Elam
Asshur
Arphaxad
Lud
Aram

Remember, Shem is the father of the Semitic people. The Hebrews (Abraham) came through the Arphaxad line.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Many (if not all) historical groups have a flood myth.

The Sumerian myth had the god Enki warning Ziusudra to build a large boat, then Ziusudra's offspring repopulated the earth.

The Babylonian myth is called the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Greek mythology had three floods: Ogyges, Deucalion, and Dardanus.

Norse mythology had two floods.

The Aztec's had one; as did the Caddo, Hopi, Inca, and Maya.

Many people believe that the reason behind the myth is the discovery of sea shells (fossils) inland. In "How the Earth Was Made" Episode: Sahara, the show starts out with a lady walking up to the bones of a whale in the middle of the Sahara. In others, they show fossilized shells in the Rocky Mountains. Ancient people would have had to come up with a way to explain finding these things. Having the entire world flooded would make a good enough excuse.

Genesis 11

¹And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Here we get the Tower of Babel.

³And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

That was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let us make a name, lest we be scattered. Do'h.

God went down to see what the people were doing.

⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

So, the people had their language changed.

⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

That's why it's called babbling. Because your speech is confounded.

Some people believe that the tower of Babel was the Etemenanki (temple of the foundation of heaven and earth), which was a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk. That ziggurat has been built, destroyed, and rebuilt several times throughout history. The last time it was destroyed was by Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

¹⁰These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

Part 2 of Genesis 11 is the generations of Shem... except that this is the names and ages of the offspring of Arphaxad.

Arphaxad > Salah > Eber > Peleg > Reu > Serug > Nahor > Terah

Terah had three kids: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died early so Lot was pretty much Terah's third son.

Abram took a wife, Sarai.

³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Baren wives is a common story in the old testament.

Genesis 12

¹Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Babel was in/around Babylon (Iraq). So we aren't told exactly when the tower of Babel incident occurred, so we'll assume that Abram and his family were all somewhere in the Iraq area.

³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

When you wonder why the United States shows such support for Israel. This verse is one of those main reasons. This verse is the foundation of why the religious right wants us to support Israel.

⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Remember, Lot was Abram's nephew.

⁷And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

That was part of the land of Canaan.

¹⁰And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Remember to earlier when we discussed the Green Sahara? That time ended in the 4th millennium BCE. If the desertification started from the edges and worked to the middle, then the area of Israel would have been one of the first areas to dry up, while Egypt would have lasted green longer. (possibly). Egypt itself had the Nile running through it, so that area would have survived the drought better.

¹¹And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

Sarai was a hottie, Abram was afraid that the Egyptians would think she was hot.

¹²Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

¹³Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

Abram told Sarah (oops I'm getting ahead of myself) to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister, and not his wife. Because Abram was a wuss.

¹⁵The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Pharaoh thought she was hot, so he took her to be a wife. We aren't told exactly how Abram felt about this. We are told how god felt.

¹⁷And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.

God plagued Egypt. God LOVES to plague Egypt. That's one of the things he does good. We aren't told exactly what these plagues were. But it probably had something to do with the end of the Neolithic Subpluvial.

Pharaoh calls Abram in...

¹⁹Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

²⁰And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

So, Pharaoh sends Abram and Sarai away; but, he didn't just send them away, he gave Abram great riches to take her away.

Abram will become one of the main characters in Genesis. He is pretty much the father of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Soon, he'll get his name changed to Abraham. The "God of Abraham" is one of the main descriptors of the hebrew god, that's the nickname that ties the three religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism together. In our readings of Abram so far, we've seen that he's a person who will lie, claiming his wife is his sister, so that he won't be killed.

Things to ponder from today:

1. Is there any truth to the flood mythology? If it's so prevalent in all those society, can some of it be true?
2. Is the tower of Babel story historically accurate?
3. Why isn't this pharaoh's name mentioned? Doing the math from the flood, it is possible to come up with when Abram was born. (1948 from creation; roughly 1800 BCE) The Pharaoh could have been Amenemhet III, or a different pharaoh in the Thirteenth Dynasty.
4. Other than worshiping the correct diety, has Abram done anything that sets him apart as even a good person?