Parallel Guide 7 - The Table of Nations and the Tower of Babel

Read Genesis 10; 11: 1-9

• Who were the Sumerians (relative to their origins and accomplishments in Mesopotamia)
  
  
  • empire ended by 2000 BCE
  • seagoing people originally from the outside of the Fertile Crescent (unknown location)
  • transformed rural (hunting and gathering/nomadic traditions) into urban culture (agricultural)
  • orderly government
  • made pottery and copper instruments
  • S. established the first civilization in Mesopotamia and were Hamitic, first cities Erech, Ur and Babel
  • Sargon, a native of one of the Sumerian cities, united the people of Babylonia under his rule about 2300 B.C. Many scholars believe that Sargon might have been the same person as Nimrod
• Why Sumerians important in this study
  
  
  • S. alternative center of civilization (like Egypt) Both competed for control over Palestine.
  • S. built Babel and its tower
  • S. invented/implemented writing as a way of recording the past and plan for the future, alternative to reliance on oral traditions
  • progression of writing
  
  
  • Egyptian hieroglyphics
  • Sanskrit
  • Phoenician alphabet
  • Greek and Latin alphabets
• Peoples represented by the sons of Japheth, Ham and Schem
  
  
  • Ham descendents = Ethopians, Egyptians, Libyans, Canaanites
  • Japheth descendents = Mediterraneans, Etruscans, Tarshisheans
  • Shem descendents = Mesopotamians (Arameans to Abraham, Israelites)
• How J writer ridicules the tower builders
  
  
  • they built the tower of brick made from bitumen (slime) and mud, instead of more durable stone.
  • God has to descend from the heavens to see this tower which was intended to reach to the heaven.
• Motives for building the city and the tower
  
  
  • to bring together collective living
  • provides security
  • the tower was a monument to pride
• How city life affected people's awareness of time
  
  
  • people lived in community and needed to share or divide resources
  • conventions and standards for this sharing were established necessarily
  • others needed to be trusted with enforcing standards
• Locate the Fertile Crescent on a Bible map
• define
  
  
  • ziggurat
    
    
    • step-pyramid-temples - found in Babylonian architecture - for ceremonial purposes - a stylized mountain or sacred place
  • sacred place
    
    
    • place where the dwelling of gods and humans meet
  • grace
    
    
    • God's salvation freely given to sinful non-deserving man
• National security and Tower of Babel
  
  
  • in a civilization, very combination of evil of sin with arrogance and pride is counter-productive. Results: social disruption and concerns for national security
• Public welfare and Cain and Abel v Tower of Babel
  
  
  • unity and reknown come only from faithfulness to YHWH
  • not from anything humans can accomplish on their own
• unity or diversity linked to language understanding/miscommunication

"However much both Israel and the church may have at times forgotten it, their selection by God was for the sake of all the peoples of the world."

"No one can understand, much less appreciate, the 'good news' of God's acts of salvation until he or she has felt the depth and the power of the contradiction between creation and sin."

• Denial of God leads to shame, guilt and fear.

"Religious acts are not necessarily good acts; when done for self-justification, they are often done at the expense of others. and leads to alienation."

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Genesis 10

The Tower of Babel

The Table of Nations

¹ This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah's sons, who themselves had sons after the flood. The Japhethites
² The sons of Japheth:
Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
³ The sons of Gomer:
Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
⁴ The sons of Javan:
Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim and the Rodanim. ⁵ (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.) The Hamites
⁶ The sons of Ham:
Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan.
⁷ The sons of Cush:
Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca.
The sons of Raamah:
Sheba and Dedan.
⁸ Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD." ¹⁰ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah ¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.
¹³ Mizraim was the father of
the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴ Pathrusites, Casluhites (from whom the Philistines came) and Caphtorites.
¹⁵ Canaan was the father of
Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, ¹⁶ Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, ¹⁷ Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸ Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.
Later the Canaanite clans scattered ¹⁹ and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
²⁰ These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations. The Semites
²¹ Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.
²² The sons of Shem:
Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.
²³ The sons of Aram:
Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech.
²⁴ Arphaxad was the father of Shelah,
and Shelah the father of Eber.
²⁵ Two sons were born to Eber:
One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.
²⁶ Joktan was the father of
Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
³⁰ The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.
³¹ These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
³² These are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

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Genesis 11

The Tower of Babel

¹ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
³ They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
⁸ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.