Genesis 11: Deterioration and Separation

Introduction

This chapter contrasts to chapter 10 in many ways. First, the genealogies are in a completely different style. Genesis 10 lists a variety of children for each person. The emphasis is on all the nations coming into being and spreading out. In chapter 11, instead, we have a singular focus–the patriarchal line. The genealogy continues from chapter 5, and instead of discussing many children and their descendants we mention just one patriarch in each generation. The number 10 is almost certainly stylized. It is really impossible to know just how many generations there actually were. Ten before and ten after the flood is a bit too convenient.

In chapter 10 again spreading out and possessing the earth is a human activity, while in chapter 11 the people don’t want to spread out. They prefer to build a single city and a tower, make themselves famous and secure, and live according to their own desires. God steps in and ruins their plans by dividing their language so that they can’t understand one another, and thus have to leave off building their city. There is a great deal of humor in this little story as you will see from the notes.

The patriarchal genealogy again provides us with the continuity of the patriarchal line, which culminates in Abram. He is the connection between the primeval history (Genesis 1-11) and the story of the people of Israel which begins in chapter 12. The story of Israel has been tied to the story of humanity at the start through the genealogies of chapter 10, and the story of the tower of Babel.

I will again be using blue text for P and black text for J.

Text and Notes

The Tower and City of Babel

This story is an aetiological legend, explaining two things: the separation of the languages and the name of the city of Babel (Babylon). On the second of these, the aetiology is not agree with the etymology. Babel, in Akkadian, means “Gate of God.” It is likely that this contrast is intentional, with a certain polemical intent.

Some readers are certain to be concerned that I call a story in the Bible “legend.” But I think it becomes clear when we contrast Genesis 10 and 11 that we do not have narrative history here. We have two completely different pictures of humanity spreading throughout the world. In the first, people are active and basically decide to populate the known world. This is an ongoing process, and various descendants of Noah move to various parts of the world.

The question that is raised by Genesis 10 is this: What is God up to? We should always be asking this question as we read. At the end of Genesis 10, we can say, “OK, that’s what the people are doing, but where’s God?

In answer, we turn to a less historical and more symbolic narrative. People, by nature, tend to gather together and create fortresses. They hope to produce safety for themselves and for their children. They want to be secure and in control. Even as they are spreading (Genesis 10) they are forming cities everywhere. So where is God?

Well, he is looking down from on high, and he sees what they are doing, and it is all under his control. You cannot build a tower high enough, or a city large enough, that God can’t come down and look at it. Proksch is quoted by von Rad:

Yahweh must draw near, not because he is near sighted, but because he dwells at such tremendous height and their work is so tiny. God’s movement must therefore be understood as a remarkable satire on man’s doing. (von Rad, Genesis, p. 149)

God is looking down to touch any human endeavor and bring it into support of his purposes. The confusion of the languages and the end of the building of tower and city is not a singular historical event, but rather a symbol of multiple events.

In the greatest confusing of humanity’s plans (and those of the evil one) God is about to take the patriarchal line, select one member of it, and form a people whose deeds will reverberate through history. Think of the difference. The humans who build the tower think to make themselves famous. Yet we really can’t identify a people and culture that are “Babylonian” today. God instead takes one man and his family, and sends them off to literally God-knows-where, and their impact on history can hardly be measured.

Sometimes the redactor of these early chapters of Genesis is accused of slapping things together. This is certainly not an example. A simple legend from the J source; a small genealogy from the P source, and combined they throw into stark contrast the work of evil, and the work of God.

¹Now the whole world spoke one language and used the same words. ²They traveled from the east, found a valley in the land of Shinar, and lived there. ³And each one said to his neighbor, “Come! Let’s make bricks and fire them.” So they had bricks for stone, and pitch for mortar.

Note that the writer (or perhaps redactor) assumes that stone is the “correct” building material.

⁴And they said, “Come! Let’s build a city, and a tower whose top reaches heaven. And let’s become famous, lest we be scattered all over the world.”

Fear and a desire for safety and control drive the building of the city. Limiting risk is a constant human activity. In this story, it will be a failure, because the risk is God, and that is one risk it is impossible to limit.

⁵YHWH came down to see the city and the tower that the humans had built. ⁶And YHWH said, “They could become one people, all with one language. They have begun to accomplish just that! ⁷Come! Let’s go down and confuse their language, so that one person will not be able to understand what his neighbor is saying.

The response doesn’t seem to match the problem. God doesn’t break up their city, or destroy their tower, or use physical force against them. Instead he confuses them. It makes a good explanation for something that would happen anyway as people separate. This places God in the center of action for an event that is demonstrably natural.

⁸So YHWH scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore it’s name is called Babel, because there YHWH confused the language of all the earth, and from there YHWH scattered them over all the earth.

In chapter 10 they scatter; in chapter 11 God scatters them. Two valid perspectives on the same event.

Shem’s Genealogy

There is very little to comment on the individuals in this genealogy. I will note a difference between this genealogy and the LXX version of it, which connects to a textual variant in Luke.

The key element to notice is that the ages grow progressively shorter until they seem almost normal, though the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) are all pretty long-lived folks. Genesis 1-11 is, in one sense largely a story of deterioration.

¹⁰This is Shem’s genealogical record. Shem was 100 years old and he gave birth to Arpachshad two years after the flood. ¹¹And after he gave birth to Arpachshad Shem lived 500 years, and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

¹²And Arpachshad lived 35 years and he gave birth to Shelah. ¹³And after he gave birth to Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years, and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

The Septuagint (LXX) inserts another person, Canaan, at this point. He is also included in Luke 3:36, presumably from the LXX.

¹⁴And Shelah lived 30 years and he gave birth to Eber. ¹⁵And Shelah lived 403 years after he gave birth to Eber, and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

¹⁶And Eber lived 34 years and he gave birth to Peleg. ¹⁷And Eber lived 430 years after he gave birth to Eber and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

¹⁸And Peleg lived 30 years and he gave birth to Reu. ¹⁹And Peleg lived 209 years after he gave birth to Reu and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

²⁰And Reu lived 32 years and gave birth to Serug. ²¹And Reu lived 207 years after he gave birth to Serug, and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

²²And Serug lived 30 years and gave birth to Nahor. ²³And Serug lived 200 years after he gave birth to Nahor, and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

²⁴And Nahor lived 29 years and he gave birth to Terah. ²⁵And Nahor lived 119 years after he gave birth to Terah, and he gave birth to sons and daughters.

²⁶And Terah lived 70 years, and he gave brith to Aram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷And these are the genealogical records of Terah. Terah gave birth to Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran gave birth to Lot.

Abraham’s Family

²⁸And Haran died before Terah his father in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife’s name was Sarai and Nahor’s wife’s name was Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and of Iscah. ³⁰And Sarai was barren. She had no child.

We get extra information on Abram and his family, because he is about to be pulled out of the ongoing story of the whole world, and become the focus of his own story–or better God’s story of action in history.

Distinguishing Terah and Abraham

³¹And Terah took Abram his son and Lot, son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went out from there, from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan. And they came to Haran, and they lived there.

³²And Terah’s lifespan was 205 years, and he died in Haran.

Note that there is here a different story of how Abraham gets to Haran–Terah takes him. In Genesis 12 he will be called from Ur. Again, there is no necessary contradiction here. One tells the natural story, and the other the story of God’s intervention.

Series Note

This concludes this series on the primeval history. It’s probably not the last comment I’ll make on these chapters, but that’s it for now.