After the Flood, The Tower of Babel

Here is what we have been up to for Biblical History: Readings:
  • Chronological Bible: Genesis 9, 10,11
  • Adam to Messiah: "After the Flood," "The Tower of Babel," Beginning of Nations
  • The Victor Journey Through The Bible: Tower of Babel (p. 18-19)
  • Genesis: Finding Our Roots: Unit 5 "The Book of Shem"
  • Adam and His Kin: Ch. 12: "Starting Up the New World," Chapter 13: "Trouble at Ararat,"Chapter 14: "Land of the Two Rivers," and Chapter 15: "The Tower of Babel, " Chapter 16: "Aftermath."
  • The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History: Discussion questions
  • The"Tower of Babel" issue of Answers Magazine
  • Life in the Great Ice Age
Audio:
  • True Tales: "The Table of Nations" (13:00) "The Origin of 'Races'" (15:04), "The Dispersion After Babel" Interview with Bodie Hodge (14:20).
  • What in the World: Descendants of Noah (10:59), Sources & Evidences (10:36), Oldest Cities (12:00)
Links:
Highlights: After the Flood waters settled, there were . . .
‘Billions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water, all over the earth.’
I love this song and it is a great way to teach kids the effect that the flood had on the earth and why we have billions of dead things, buried in rock layers all over the earth! Chapter 9
  • Yhvh-God blessed Noah and told him to be fruitful and multiple and fill the earth
  • Yhvh establishes His covenant with Noah and his descendants, never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth
  • Rainbow - the sign of the covenant
  • Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard
  • Noah became drunk and was naked in his tent, Canaan is cursed because Ham uncovered his father's nakedness
  • Noah lived 350 years after the flood (950 years total)
Discussion: We read Carl and Julie Parker's article and discussed that Noah may have taken the vines with him on the ark to plant afterwards and that it would have taken several years (5) before the grapes could be harvested for pressing to make wine. I love what Carl and Julie Parker say about the lesson to be learned about Noah's sons covering him:
Noah’s youngest son Ham found his father laying naked inside his tent, quite drunk from the wine. “Ham, the father of Canaan, ‘saw’ his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside” (Genesis 9:22). The word saw is ra’ah (Strong’s #7200) in Hebrew, which means to look, see and understand. The lesson of this story in Scripture is that we are to “cover” (forgive) each other’s “sins”/blunders, not expose them.
Chapter 10
  • the descendants of Noah
  • separated into their lands/nations according to their languages
  • Cush begat Nimrod (mighty hunter before the Lord)
  • the cities of Babel and Ninevah are built by Nimrod (Nimrod rebelled against Yhvh and His ways)
Recorded in the above Scripture reference is the list of recorded generations and lines of descent within their nations that filled the earth after the flood. Chaper 11
  • There was one language one speech on the earth
  • Man came to the plain in Shinar and dwelt there
  • Under the rule of Nimrod, they said let us build ourselves a city whose tower is in the heavens and make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered over the earth (rebellion to Yhvh's command to fill the earth)
  • Yhvh saw their plans and disobedience
  • Yhvh scattered them over the face of the earth and confused their language
  • It came to be called Babel because there Yhvh confused their language (originally Babel meant "Gate to God")
Babel comes from two words: “gate” (bab) and “god” (el), which means “gate to heaven” or “gate of god.” It came to mean confusion or “babble” because of what Genesis 11:1–9 says happened there. In Genesis 11 we see the extent of evil has intensified upon the earth once again. YHVH kept His word not to flood the earth again. Instead He caused great confusion among the populace by changing their language so that the nations could not function in a single language again. The various languages they spoke were thereafter just babble to those listening that spoke in a different tongue. With this, YHVH scattered them over the earth.
Stick Figuring with Grapevine's OT Overview Discussion:
  • When did it happen? 100-130 years after the flood (during Peleg's life ~ Peleg is 4 generations after Noah).
  • Why the tower? control, pride,
  • What did they take with them at the dispersion? History of the Flood, legends of linguistic division.
Remnants of Noah and his descendants can be found all around the world in the names of modern people groups and places. The Table of Nations:
  • Geographical evidence that Gen 11 and 12 are true: throughout the ToN (Table of Nations), every one of their names are found in the records of the early surrounding nations
  • That Noah's descendants Ham, Shem and Japeth and of the people that came from them that 99% of the names are documented in outside sources throughout the Middle East and in Europe {in other words our descendants go back to Noah!}
  • the ToN, is a very ancient document - how did they know all these names - they had to travel around the world! (remember the tower of babel - scattered)
  • Ancient pagan cultures can trace through their king list all the way back to Ham Shem and Japeth
  • Genesis - chinese language and chinese pictographs reveal that the chinese character that means boat ~ that part of it was for the character for vessel, 8, person (vessel carrying 8 people) ~ Noah's Ark! Other biblically relevant characters in chinese language include ~ to create - dust/mud - mouth - movement - able to walk. (the Lord god formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him and he became a living being (a grown man able to walk) and the chinese character for woman means "to want, necessity, important, late in the day," which describes the creation of Eve (Havah) perfectly. :-)
People tend to marry people with similar features and that is how races developed as they only used a part of the gene pool available. {Answers book}
We are not different races of men, rather we are just different families or people groups because we are all related (one blood) Acts 17:26There are 7,000 languages today. 78 family groups left Babel and there are a max of 94 language families out there, so it is possible that each language family came from Babel (and in fact many languages are a combination of two languages, such as English is German and Latin ~ anglo-saxon) Languages changed rather quickly before the invention of Gutenburg's printing press and then stabilized after the printing press. For further discussion, we used Natan Lawerence's study guide and compared Nimrod and his rebellion (from the faith of his fathers) with that of the Man of Sin (2 Thess 2:1–12) in the end times and compared the formation of Babylon and the building of the Tower of Babel and the end-time one-world system called Babylon the Great (Rev 18). We discussed how history repeats itself and how man, incited by Satan, the arch-rebel, has been continually in rebellion against Yhvh-God and his purposes. Ancient Civilizations highlights:
  • where it began{ in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the plain of Shinar}
  • what archaeology is {ancient + study}
  • what an oop artifact is {out of place}
  • that an oop is not as reliable as the bible itself as it does not tell the whole story
Coil pots, stone tablets, stone oil lamps, fossils are all ancient artifacts from this time period.
The Great Ice Age
  • Ice age 500 years after the flood is the peak of the ice age - people could have traveled on land bridges during this time
  • What Happened to the Dinosaurs? {after the flood, the climate changed drastically so that there was not enough vegetation to support them. Because of all the water on the earth, polar ice caps formed and then the ice age came and the dinosaurs lost their lush habitat with plenty of food and warmth. Job lived during a time not to long after the dinosaurs and describes them, so we know that some lived during this time and possibly into the Middle Ages from stories that we can read, such as Sir George and the Dragon and Beowulf, and drawings were found from Ancient Babylon, and even modern day stories such as the 1977 Japanese find of a plesiosaur confirm that dinosaurs (dragons) were on the Ark!}
We are finishing up the book, The Great Ice Age, and although there is so much more that we I want to do with this time period (think dinosaurs and ice age stuff with the little ones!), we are moving on to learn about the ancient city of Ur and why Abraham was called out of that city.

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