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Wednesday 8/05/26
Thru the Bible: Old Testament Review – Genesis Pt. 3
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Thru the Bible Old Testament Review – Genesis Pt. 3
In our last session we covered the following topics and the time periods they fell into:
- A little regarding the pre-flood world
- 2518 B.C – Noah, the flood and the immediate post flood world
- The sin of Ham
- Noah’s prophecy that cursed Ham’s lineage through Canaan
- Noah’s blessing pronounced upon Shem and Japheth and how that prophecy is still holding true today
- 2417 B.C. The timing of the Tower of Babel
- The dating of the dispersion which we calculated by using the birth of Peleg, 101 years after the Flood, because scripture tells us that it was at this time that “the earth was divided” (Genesis 10:25).
- The division of the nations through Noah’s three sons following the Tower of Babel
- The commonalities in language suggesting a common root language from which all others came
- We spent a little time discussing the “out of no where” development of civilization in the Fertile Crescent as well as around the world shortly thereafter
- We commented on how many of these cultures produced very similar and advanced architecture – suggesting a common background
- We mentioned that Job most fit in that time period between the Tower of Babel and Abram
- The death of Noah in 2168 B.C.
- The birth of Abram just two years later in 2166 B.C.
What I failed to mention regarding Genesis 10:25 which is very important, but in view of being 100% transparent and honest this is a secondary meaning to the obvious one and is therefore only speculative.
The text says,
“(25) To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.”
Eber was Shem’s grandson through Arpachshad. Peleg’s name was literally a play on words. It says he was named Peleg BECAUSE in his days the earth was divided. Ergo, Peleg̱ ֶפֶּלג means “division.”
The primary and widely supported meaning both linguistically and through historical scholarship is that the “land division” was not literal, but metaphorical indicating a division of people and nations. This was known to be true from the text. This was a literary devise used in Hebrew writing and had already been witnessed in Genesis 1-2. What I am referring to is how two accounts are offered regarding the same event. One in which details are offered of what happened being described in a chapter just before the event that caused them is mentioned. Here in Genesis 10 we have a division of people into families and groups, in chapter 11 we have the Tower or Babel which introduces the cause for the division into people groups and nations.
The secondary meaning which is NOT the clear and primary meaning of the text, but one that could be defended on a lexical level is the division of the continents. This is something flood geologists have suggested for many years. This is a conclusion more from outcome than from the text itself, however, as I said it “could” be understood in the tectonic sense as a lexical possibility drawn from the root’s semantic range.
The root’s use in a literal concrete way in referring to physical land has an anchor which is found earlier in Genesis and in Job and is used to describe water dividing into channels. From the perspective of flood geology this would fit nicely in that it would be continental drift caused by massive hydroplaning which would have caused pangea to divide. This would also explain how many people groups arrived in their various locations around the world in relatively short order following Babel. This text would support this idea but primarily by inference from etymology, not from anything the passage actually and clearly states or implies.
For more on this visit Answers in Genesis. Specifically reference the following articles:
THIS week we are moving on to Job, Abram, Isaas, Jacob – his 12 sons and Moses.
As you no doubt remember, we placed Job, both as in the book as well as the man himself, as living post-Babel in the land Uz before Abram was born but while Noah was still alive. In fact, it is most likely that Job lived the entirety of his life and died before Noah died.
Job is, without question, the oldest nook in the Bible. Most place Job between 7th to the 5th century B.C. which I find highly unlikely for many reasons, of few of which are:
- The language used in the oldest copies of this book is ancient in the extreme and it employs unusual grammatical constructions, and it makes use of many very rare words. Some of these words are old and rare enough that we simply have no basis from which to translate them. As such Job might very well represent the only surviving book written in a nearly pure form of one of the languages God generated as a spin off language at Tower of Babel.
- Job mentions NOTHING about major biblical events including the very events surrounding the time period most people believe he lived in which would have covered the MAJOR Assyrian and Babylonian exiles and the destruction of the temple.
- No mention of any other biblical writing is referenced in Job – no quotations, no allusions to the law of Moses, no mention of any patriarch – nothing! The only other book which comes close is Jonah but at least he is mentioned as being a Hebrew who worships Yahweh which clearly dates him after the law of Moses.
- Job DOES mention words like Eloheem, Yahweh, satan and sin but all of these are generic terms except Yahweh which itself may be a word used to translate the original into Hebrew.
- No mention is made of Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus the Great either. This seems very unlikely for a Biblical book of that time period!
- The Chaldeans from which Abram came make an appearance in the book which is highly suggestive that these people were still nomadic and had not yet founded the land of Ur.
- In addition to this Job’s life span fits most appropriately in that time between Babel and Abram when human lifespans had decreased considerably, but were still multiples of that of Abram and his descendants.
- You remember Peleg I mentioned earlier – those in his lifetime lived around 200 years and those born a generation later lived only about 150 years. Abraham, being blessed by God, lived to 175 years.
- I believe that it is most likely that the book of Job actually predates the writings of Moses in the Pentateuch by 750 years. I base this on a good number of evidences we addressed back in December of 2023.
- There is no indication of the priesthood, a temple or a developed sacrificial system in Job.
- Job seems to offer his own sacrifice for himself but also in order to sanctify his adult children. This is NOT consistent with the Old Covenant Law.
- This makes the book of Job unique in the extreme.
- Consider if you will that the Bible is a near to 100% Jewish book, written to the Jews, about God’s interactions with the Jews and the role they play towards the salvation of the world. Yet, if my dating is correct then during the life of Job, the Jewish people did not even exist as an independent family nation as of yet.
- Fact is, if both Ezekiel in the Old Testament and James in the New did not mention Job, it would be highly problematic that the book was ever included in the canon of scripture in the first place.
2166 B.C. — The Birth of Abram (Abraham)
Exactly 2,008 years after Creation, occurring a mere 2 years after the death of Noah, Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldaes.
This city was incredible even by today’s standards and is a testament to mankind’s skill and ingenuity from the day of their creation.
Abram was chosen because God knew he would command His people. This is stated in Genesis 18:19.
“For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord“.
- Abram was called at approximately 70 years of age.
- He did NOT completely obey immediately but went first to Haran.
- He left Haran at the age of 75
- God promises an offspring to Abram at this time – Genesis 12:4.
- God cuts covenant with him about 10 years later at 85 years of age as recorded in Genesis 17.
- He follows his own plan and has Ishmael one year later at 86 years of age.
- Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 in 2066 B.C.
- He is called upon to sacrifice Isaac at about 125 years of age.
- Isaac had Jacob and Esau in 2006 B.C. at the age of 60.
Jacob separated from his father’s house through lies and deceit and through fear of his father and brother.
Jacob had not, up until this time, made God his God. He was always known as “the God of my fathers Abraham and Isaac” OR “the Fear of Isaac”.
It wasn’t until God met him in a dream and he wrestled with God, that Jacob made the conditional decision to follow God as his own as recorded in Genesis 35. An interesting, fictional account of this is found in Fredrick Buechner’s book “Son of Laughter”. It is grungy and gritty and soaking in ancient social frameworks, but is worth the read in my opinion since it has a way of submerging you in the time period, which has a grounding effect upon our minds of that period in history and location in which these events took place.
We will cover a little regarding Jacob, then his sons which make up the 12 tribes, then Joseph before leaving the book of Genesis next week
But up until now we have covered a full 2,168 years of the 3,774 years of the Old Testament. Meaning we only have 1,606 years left to cover in total 479 of which are still in this first book of Genesis!
4174 B.C. -2006 B.C.
