http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=881
Pre-Babel Confusion?
I am amazed (and troubled) at how far some will go to appease the vast
ages of time associated with evolutionary geology. It seems that the
decisive factor for many “Bible believers” in interpreting God’s Word is
no longer, “What does the Bible say?,” but rather “What do evolutionary
dating methods indicate?” Sadly, for many people the deceptive
evolutionary geologic timetable has become the father of modern biblical
exegesis. Instead of the Universe and everything in it being created in
six days (Genesis 1-2; Exodus 20:11), we are told it actually took
billions of years, which can be “found” in “gaps” between Genesis 1:1
and 1:2 or between each of the creation days. And even though the
genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 match up remarkably with the genealogy
recorded in Luke 3, and although Jude confirms through inspiration that
Enoch was indeed the seventh from Adam (Jude 14—just as Genesis 5 tells
us), we are informed that many thousands (or millions!) of years could
be inserted (and
should be, according to many religious evolutionary sympathizers) between Adam and Abraham.
As if we had not “heard it all,” some now are teaching that there was a great gap of time between Genesis chapters 10 and 11.
Supposedly,
since Moses recorded that the descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth
spoke different languages in Genesis 10 (vss. 5,20,31), and since
Genesis 11:1 states that “the whole earth had one language and one
speech,”
there must have been a gap between Genesis 10:32 and 11:1!
It is alleged that enough time must have passed in order for the
descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth to the begin speaking one
language.
If you have ever read Genesis 6-11, you likely have questioned why the
order of events seemed to indicate that the Earth’s population went from
speaking one language (by the eight persons on the ark), to speaking a
variety of languages and dialects (10:5,20,31), to then speaking one
language again (11:1). It may be that you have asked the same question
that I heard asked recently: “How can there
not be a gap between Genesis 10 and 11?”
The reason that no gap of time exists between Genesis 10 and 11 is because the events recorded in these two chapters
were not written chronologically.
As Victor Hamilton stated in his commentary on Genesis: “We have here
the unusual order of effect (ch. 10) before cause (ch. 11), or result
preceding explanation” (1990, p. 347).
The simple fact is, Bible writers did not always record information in a
strictly chronological sequence. Genesis 2:5-25 does not pick up where
chapter one left off, rather it provides more detailed information about
some of the events mentioned in chapter one. Several of the events in
Genesis 38 involving Judah and Tamar occurred while the things recorded
in chapter 39 and following took place. Making the assumption that the
entire Bible was written chronologically hinders the trustworthiness of
the text. How will one explain the differences in the arrangement of the
temptations of Jesus recorded by Matthew (4:1-11) and Luke (4:1-13) if
we always must conclude that things are written in sequential order? If
Jesus only cleansed the temple once, how does a person explain why John
mentioned this event as having occurred
early in Jesus’ ministry while the other gospel writers placed it
later
in His ministry (John 2:12-17; cf. Matthew 21:12-17)? Obviously, the
gospel accounts were not arranged to be a strict chronology of Jesus’
life. Similarly, Moses jumps ahead of himself at times, inserting
parenthetical material like that found in Genesis 10.
Aside from the languages mentioned in Genesis 10, there is another
“clue” in the text that reveals the events recorded in chapter 11
occurred before the descendents of Noah began speaking different
languages and spreading throughout the Earth. In 10:25, it mentions a
man named Peleg (meaning “division”) who received such a name because
“in his days the earth was divided.” This is a clear reference to the
confusion of languages at the tower of Babel described in chapter 11.
The “earth” (i.e., people; cf. 11:1) divided when God confused the
languages (11:7-8). Thus, the division in Peleg’s day is linked
contextually to the linguistic segregation at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).
When Genesis 10 and 11 are read with the understanding that not all
events are recorded chronologically, one clearly sees how the events
revealed in these chapters are entwined tightly with one another—so
tighly in fact that those who seek to place a gap of time between them
are doomed to fail. Linguistically speaking there was no pre-Babel
confusion!
REFERENCES
Hamilton, Victor P. (1990),
The Book of Genesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
