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Genesis 11 |
 (11:1) "The whole earth was of one language."
This could not be true, since by this time (supposedly around 2400 BCE) there were already many languages, each unintelligible to the others.
This is even admitted earlier in Genesis (10:5, 10:20, 10:31) where other languages are mentioned before the tower of Babel was supposedly
constructed.
How many languages before Babel?
 The Tower of Babel
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| 11:1
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
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| 11:2
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a
plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
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| 11:3
And 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.
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| 11:4
And 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.
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| 11:5
And the LORD came down
to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. |
(11:4-6)
"Now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
God worries that the people will succeed in building a tower high enough to reach him (them?) in heaven, and that by
so doing they will become omnipotent.
(11:5)
"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower."
Couldn't he see it from where he was sitting?
Does God know everything?
(11:7-9)
"Let us go down."
Maybe he hasn't been talking to himself; maybe
there is more than one of them up there. Well, however many there may be,
they all decide to come down to confuse the
builders by confounding human language and scattering them [humans] abroad.
Is God the author of confusion?
How many gods are there?
(11:9)
"The LORD did there confound the language of all the earth."
According to the Tower of Babel story, the many human languages were created instantaneously by God. But languages
evolved gradually over long periods of time.
How many languages were there before Babel?
(11:10-27) "These are the generations of Shem....."
Another boring genealogy that we are told to avoid in
1 Tim.1:4 and Tit.3:9. ("Avoid foolish questions and
genealogies.") Also note the ridiculously long lives
of the patriarchs.
(11:10-11)
Shem lived 600 years.
(11:12)
"Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah."
Who was Salah's father?
(11:12-13)
Arphaxad lived 438 years.
(11:14-15)
Salah lived 433 years.
(11:16-17)
Eber lived 464 years.
(11:18-19)
Peleg lived 239 years.
(11:20-21)
Reu lived 239 years.
(11:22-23)
Serug lived 229 years.
(11:24-25)
Nahor lived 148 years.
(11:26, 32)
"And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years."
How old was Terah when he died?
How old was Abram when he left Haran?
How old was Abram when Ishmael was born?
(11:26) "Terah ... begat Abraham."
Who was Abraham's father? Azar or Terah (Quran 6:74)? Which is right, the Bible or
the Quran?
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| 11:6
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one
language; and this they begin to do: and know nothing will be restrained from them, which they
have imagined to do.
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| 11:7
Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
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| 11:8
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left
off to build the city.
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| 11:9 Therefore 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.
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| 11:10
These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old,
and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
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| 11:11
And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons
and daughters.
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| 11:12
And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
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| 11:13
And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and
begat sons and daughters.
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| 11:14
And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
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| 11:15
And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and
begat sons and daughters.
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| 11:16
And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
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| 11:17
And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and
begat sons and daughters.
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| 11:18
And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
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| 11:19
And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat
sons and daughters.
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| 11:20
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
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| 11:21
And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat
sons and daughters.
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| 11:22
And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
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| 11:23
And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and
daughters.
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| 11:24
And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
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| 11:25
And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and
begat sons and daughters.
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| 11:26
And Terah lived
seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
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| 11:27
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran
begat Lot.
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| 11:28
And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur
of the Chaldees.
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| 11:29
And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai;
and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of
Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
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| 11:30
But Sarai was barren; she had no child. |
 The Call of Abraham
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| 11:31
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and
Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with
them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came
unto Haran, and dwelt there.
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| 11:32
And the days of Terah
were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. |
(11:32)
Terah lived 205 years.
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