The Discovery of Genesis (69 page)

This word for
to speak, to say
, is probably the most commonly used character today for “talking” and has replaced in the language the radical
to speak
, which has become largely archaic.

Noah suffered disappointment and anguish, even as Adam had, in seeing one of his sons become disrespectful and wicked. His youngest son, Ham, was separated from the family, even as Cain had been. The curse that fell upon Ham and his posterity was to become the servants of his brothers. It was through this new rebellious line also that the first postflood cities would be built.

Shem, on the other hand, was chosen because of his fidelity, as the son through whom the promised Seed would eventually come. His later descendants, Abraham Jacob, Judah, David, and Solomon preserved a knowledge of God in the earth as the Hebrew people.

It might be assumed that the ancient Chinese were rather immediate descendants of Noah, as evidenced by their familiarity with the story of the flood. Consequently it would be natural for the inventor of the Chinese characters to incorporate essential facts regarding the deluge and the human remnant of eight people into a newly developing calligraphy. In this way an authentic historical record could be preserved. Even in our day, millennia later, this primitive writing still memorializes the beginnings of the second world and the postdiluvian era by the frequent use of the numeral
eight
in their characters.

Chapter 10: The Tower of United Defiance

After the flood, the earth began to be repopulated with the descendants of Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. At this time, according to the Genesis record, “The whole earth had
one language
and few words” (Genesis 11:1). Some left the region of Mount Ararat where the ark had grounded as the flood waters subsided and traveled to a fertile valley of Shinar, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which would later become Mesopotamia. There, several cities were founded, Erech, Accad, Babel, and Calah, by Nimrod, the grandson of Ham (Genesis 10:10).

If Ham’s grandson, Nimrod, was able to found four cities from the world’s total inhabitants after such a short time, there must have been a great burst of population immediately after the flood. The generation time had been shortened from about 100 years in the antediluvian patriarchs to only 30 years immediately after the flood. At the time the Chinese race came into being after the flood, the 30-year generation time was already a fact and is thus recorded as
an age, a generation of 30 years, from generation to generation
. Usually 30 is written
(three tens), occasionally as
. Written as it is with a base line
, the word indicates a unit of 30 years.

The period of fertility must have been very long for the early vigorous descendants whose total lifetimes were about 400 years. The original eight survivors of the flood themselves bore many children also, as it is recorded that Noah lived 350 years and Shem 500 years after the flood.

In one of Nimrod’s cities, Babel, something occurred that was to forever change the course of civilization. As the abbreviated genealogic record of Shem is read in Genesis 10, one meets the name of Peleg in the fifth generation from Noah. Of him it is said, “The name of one was Peleg; for in his days
the earth was divided
” (Genesis 10:25). Anciently, the names of children had great significance. Sometimes these revealed the character traits of a child; other names were prophetic, as “Methuselah,” for example, which meant “at his death the sending forth of waters.” He died in the year of the flood, 1656 years after creation. Peleg’s name meant “division.” Of Shem’s lineage, he evidently was born the year of the great dispersion, which was a mere 101 years following the flood, according to the carefully recorded genealogy of Genesis 11. How many adult people might there have been by this time with the above reproductive facts in mind? A conservative estimate is at least several thousand people.

By now men were quite clever with their building talents, for they had learned not only how to make clay bricks but to increase the durability of this building material by firing it. They had also developed a suitable mortar for cementing the bricks together to construct impressive edifices. While laying out the city of Babel, they also began to erect a tower that was to become very noteworthy. Towers were at this point in history, quite fashionable as temples of worship but, unfortunately, not a place to worship the God of heaven and Creator of the earth. Already men had departed from the services established by God, and instead had substituted the deification of wooden, stone, and metal idols, as well as the sun, moon, and stars. These inanimate images were placed in the temple towers for adoration.
¹

The purpose in constructing this particular ziggurat in Babel, however, was probably dual — not only to house their false gods, but also as an object of rebellion against the true God. The dwellers in Babel determined that never again would a destructive flood come upon mankind for they bragged, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and
let us make a name for ourselves
, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). Instead of “call [ing] upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26) in true worship, they determined to “make a name for themselves,” and independently substitute their own gods or works — even as their defiant ancestors Cain and Ham had done. Was this also to be an escape tower should another flood come? Evidently the people had forgotten God’s promise to Noah, “I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:15). Either they had forgotten this promise, or they did not believe it!