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45. How many languages were there before the Tower of Babel was built? Gen 11:1, 6-9 vs. Genesis 10:5, 20, 31
No, it’s not a question from Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?.
Genesis 11:1
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.
Genesis 11:6-9 says the same thing.
Genesis 10:5
From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
Genesis 10:20 and :31 say the same thing, referencing different families.
Genesis 11 and 10 are not in chronological order.
It is not an uncommon literary tool throughout scripture, especially where genealogies are listed.
Genesis 10 covers a lot of time. The descendants of Noah’s son, Shem, are given, starting in verse 21, through five generations. Then, the first nine verses of Genesis 11 tell us about the Tower of Babel incident, and verse ten goes right back to Shem’s descendants.
The Tower of Babel account is an aside, a parenthesis, an event that needed recounting in order to explain two big things:
- Why there were different languages
- Why God was about to speak to Abram
Genesis 9 wraps up the flood account, and Genesis 10 details how Noah’s descendants spread out. Chapter 10 repeatedly mentions that people settled “according to … language.” Most readers would pause, here, and wonder how people got off the same boat and started speaking different languages. So there’s a pause in the genealogy to explain, via Babel.
More importantly,
there’s a pause to demonstrate why God was about to call a man out of his family and homeland to establish a new, special people on the earth.
In Genesis 9:1, God told Noah and his boys to “fill the earth.” They didn’t. Only a couple generations later, the people were not only still traveling as one big, nomadic family, they were planning to defy God’s command to keep it that way. They conspired to build a city, and make a name for themselves, precisely so they would not be scattered over the face of the earth. They set about building a tower that would reach into the heavens.
We’ve seen this attitude before:
How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. (Isa 14:12-14)
In only a few generations, we were back to our disobedient ways.
The account of the Tower of Babel is to remind us how quickly we turn away.
God had a plan, though.
He was about to call out a humble, obedient man, through whom He would bless the whole world (Gen 12:3). He was about to begin the greatest story of all time, in all its complexity and detail. He was about to watch Abram take that first step away from home that would, one day, lead to an incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection, to invite everyone into His life.
But we don’t appreciate where we’re going if we can’t remember where we came from. And we remain un-amazed at what He makes us when we forget what we used to be.
So in the midst of fast-forwarding from Noah to Abram, there’s a reminder of what we are when we’re left to ourselves. The story of Babel is the set-up being played out behind the opening movie credits. It’s ripe with allusion and foreshadow, and well worth the pause.