"NOAH" can still be searched. Noah's son Ham: a biblical story about a generational curse Genealogy according to the Bible
After the flood, everyday life began again, with its usual worries and labors. Noah was an example of piety, hard work and other virtues for his children. But the word of God is true that “the thoughts of the heart of man are evil from his youth,” and the righteous Noah himself soon showed his sons an example of vicious weakness. He planted a vineyard, using for this, according to Jewish tradition, a shoot of a vine that protruded from the fence of paradise. Whether he did not know the effect of the fruit of the grape, or in consuming it, a tendency towards vice manifested itself in him, which distinguished the people destroyed by the flood, who “ate and drank” immoderately, in any case, he became drunk and fell in an indecent position - “naked in his tent” which caused a disrespectful and mocking attitude towards himself from his son Ham. Only the other sons, Shem and Japheth, treated him with respect and covered him up.
Upon learning of this, Noah expressed his feelings in words that received prophetic significance for the fate of the descendants of his sons. The primitive state of society was patriarchal. The patriarch, that is, the head of the clan, had unlimited power over his children and their descendants, which subsequently belonged to the king; he was at the same time a priest who made sacrifices, and a prophet, as the guardian of the true religion and the herald of future destinies. Therefore, what Noah said to his sons was truly decisive for their future fate. Ham, for his disrespect for his parent and patriarch, was cursed in the person of his son Canaan; Shem was blessed as a representative of true piety, and Japheth was predicted to have an extraordinary spread on earth, and Canaan was given to both of them as slaves. The meaning of this prophecy is this: the earth will be divided among people and the descendants of Japheth will occupy the largest space; the true religion will be preserved in the descendants of Shem; at certain times he will conquer the land of Canaan with the tribe inhabiting it, and the Redeemer of the world will appear in his country. The descendants of Japheth will also live in the tents of Shem, that is, they will enter the land of Canaan, as a symbol of the true church founded in it.
Noah himself lived another 350 years after the flood and died at 950 years of age, being the last representative of antediluvian longevity. Nothing more is said about him in the biblical chronicle, which proceeds to describe the further fate of his descendants. The earth was divided into three parts among the descendants of Noah's three sons. The descendants of Shem occupied Asia, mainly the Arabian Peninsula with adjacent countries; the descendants of Ham settled almost exclusively in Africa with offspring in the neighboring countries of Asia, and the descendants of Japheth populated the entire northern strip of earth inhabited at that time, running from the cradle of post-Flood humanity through Asia Minor to Europe, along the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The origin of the population of these countries of the world from the three sons of Noah is indicated by the fact that science reduces the numerous languages spoken by the peoples and tribes in these parts of the world to three main roots, which undoubtedly have their common origin in the primitive language as it was before “ confusion of languages." In particular, from the descendants of Japheth, one can indicate the peoples who descended from his sons and grandsons: from Homer - the Cimbri, from Magog - the Scythians, from Madai - the Medes, from Javan - the Greeks (Ionians), from Thiras - the Thracians, and so on. From Shem descended all the Semitic peoples who inhabited Arabia and other neighboring countries of Asia. He was “the father of all the sons of Eber,” that is, tribes and peoples related to the Jewish people. Finally, of the sons of Ham, Cush (or Cush) was the ancestor of the population of Ethiopia, Mizraim - Egypt, Fut - Libya and Canaan - the population of the land of Canaan, or Palestine.
Tower of Babel
The descendants of Ham settled almost exclusively in Africa, with the exception of Canaan, which occupied Palestine and was subsequently partly expelled from it by the Israelites. But there was another descendant of the Hams who also settled in Asia. This is precisely Nimrod, the son of Cush, the founder of the Babylonian kingdom and the conqueror of Assyria. He was a “strong trapper,” but in his character he resembles the first city builder - Cain and his immediate descendants. He founded a city (Babylon) that quickly grew into a large, proud capital, dominating a large population with a number of other neighboring cities. It is not surprising that such success filled Nimrod and his descendants with extraordinary pride. They began to dream of founding a world monarchy in order to unite all the peoples of the earth under their rule and dominate them contrary to the will of God, which determined that they should be slaves. And for this purpose, having founded a powerful city in the land of Shinar, as Mesopotamia was called in ancient times, they formed a council, at which they decided, as a sign of their political power and as an expression of their pride, to build “a tower with a height reaching to heaven.” The enterprise, obviously, was crazy and unfulfillable, but at the same time it was criminal and dangerous: criminal because it stemmed from pride, bordering on arrogance and rejection of God, and dangerous because it came from the midst of the cursed and unblessed descendants of Ham. His success in this matter could have a detrimental effect on other nations and thus infect them with criminal arrogance and wickedness. And so, when work began to boil, bricks were fired and earthen resin was prepared, the Lord decided to punish them for their crazy undertaking. “And the Lord said: Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language, and they will not deviate from what they have planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other. And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city and the tower. Therefore the name was given to it: Babylon; for there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout all the earth.” Near the location of Ancient Babylon, even now, there are the huge ruins of some gigantic tower, with seven multi-colored floors, called Birs-Nimrud, i.e., “Tower of Nimrod,” and Jewish tradition sees in it exactly the tower that the tribe of Ham built to the heavens wanted to glorify his name. As for the “mixing of languages,” there is no need to identify it with the origin of languages. We do not know what this confusion consisted of, or what rudiments of language the various peoples carried with them during the dispersion. There is no doubt that at this very time the main features that distinguish the various classes of languages occurred, and that the builders scattered because they could no longer understand each other. But this does not mean that languages as they exist now were immediately formed then. Comparative linguistics reveals harmonious and wonderful laws in the structure and development of languages, alien to any disorderly confusion. Mixing could consist of different pronunciations and combinations of words (sufficient for mutual misunderstanding), and after settling in different countries, separate languages had already developed based on these features.
Since the wicked offspring of Ham, who had forgotten God and relied entirely on themselves, would not have been slow to instill the godlessness that characterized them into all other tribes and peoples that they wanted to unite under the dominion of Babylon, then with the dispersion of the peoples the danger of the rapid spread of this evil was averted. But the makings of evil itself still remained, “because the thoughts of the human heart are evil from his youth.” Dividing further and further from the original cradle of humanity and those ancestors who kept the true faith in God and the truths associated with it, and encountering many unprecedented objects and dangers, the peoples little by little began to concentrate entirely on these immediate objects; their memory of the common traditions of their ancestors was obscured, and at the same time the very concept of God was obscured. Among the many difficulties and dangers, they needed a God who would be close to them and to whom they could resort for help in any present disaster. Meanwhile, the God of their fathers was invisible to them and was only vaguely presented to their imagination. In view of this, they could easily move on to idolizing something so visible that it could especially strike their imagination with its greatness, beauty, usefulness or fear. This is how idolatry or paganism arose, which is nothing more than the rejection of the invisible and superstitious attachment to the visible. Instead of the invisible Creator and Provider, man began to idolize the visible - first of all, perhaps, the sun, moon and stars, as beneficent luminaries that gave life and guided one’s journey, then objects of the surrounding inanimate and animate world (useful or terrible animals), and, finally , people outstanding in some way, who as heroes became demigods and upon death passed into the host of gods. The idolization of the visible sky (Sabeism), visible and especially animate nature (zootheism) and man (anthropotheism) constitute the three main stages of paganism and, as its external expression, idolatry. These three types of idolatry subsequently found their most dramatic expression in three separate countries - Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. True, man was not satisfied with such crude idolatry and, in addition to all visible gods, constantly recognized the dominance of a higher, inexorable fate over everyone and even over the gods (in which one cannot help but see vague traces of the memory of the one omnipotent God-Provider), but idolatry by its very essence riveted the mind to grossly sensual objects and distracted from everything supersensible. Sensual deities forced sensual powers and properties to be idolized in them, and with the spread of wickedness, things came to the point that people began to idolize and sanctify even gross vices in their sensual deities, the imitation of which was made a religious duty.
And thus, instead of true reverence and reverence for God, crude idolatry and wickedness spread on earth. Waves of sin and superstition again flooded the earth and again threatened to completely destroy and eradicate true religion with its main root, which lay in the great promise of the future Savior of the world from slavery to sin and moral death. True, on earth, among the general idolatry and wickedness, there were still some individuals who retained the true faith. But the environment could soon carry them away with a common stream of wickedness. Therefore, in order to preserve the seeds of true faith for the future, it was necessary to single out some bearer of them from the midst of lawlessness and make him the chosen father and ancestor of a new generation of believers. This is how it was arranged by the good providence of God.
This was 352 years after the flood according to the Hebrew reckoning and 1207 according to the Greek reckoning. The latter reckoning seems more likely, since it provides more historical space for the occurrence of the important events outlined.
The disagreement in determining this time depends on the fact that the only data for its determination are the years of the post-flood patriarchs, whose testimony again differs significantly in the main texts of the biblical chronicle. The genealogy of the post-flood patriarchs begins with Shem, who gave birth to Arphaxad 2 years after the flood. All three texts agree in this indication, and therefore the difference in the indication of the years of the next patriarchs before the birth of their first son can be seen from the table above.
From this table it is clear that in the indications of the years of the post-flood patriarchs, the Greek and Samaritan texts agree with each other, but the Hebrew evades them, consistently lowering the figure by one hundred years and in the indication of the years of Nahor by 50 years. Such a departure clearly indicates a deliberate shortening of years, and even entire generations, since Cainan does not appear in the Hebrew text at all. Due to the complete agreement of the Greek and Samaritan texts, their testimony receives more reliability compared to the Hebrew.
In a direct line from Adam
Born according to the Hebrew text in 1056 from the creation of the world, and according to the Slavic Bible in 1662, a descendant of Seth, son of Lamech. At the birth of his son, Lamech named him Noah, saying: "he will comfort us in our work and in the labor of our hands in cultivating the land that the Lord has cursed(Genesis 5:28 -29).
Very little is said in the word of God about the first, very significant period of Noah’s life. He was 500 years old and Noah gave birth to three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth, who later became the ancestors of the three main representatives of the human race (Gen. 10:32).
The book of Genesis notes that among the corrupted human race, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that he was a righteous and blameless man in his generation and walked with God (Genesis 6:8,9). The prophet Ezekiel testifies to the same high holiness of Noah (Ezekiel 14:14-20).
When God decided to destroy people for their unrighteousness, He told Noah to build an ark and enter it with his wife, sons and their wives. Noah had to take with him seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals, as well as food for himself and for the animals. Noah obeyed the Lord and did as he was told, thereby setting an example of true faith (Gen. 6:13-22; Heb. 11:7). When he was 600 years old, a destructive flood struck the earth (Gen. 7:6); only eight people were saved from death (1 Pet 3:20).
At the end of the flood, Noah came out of the ark, which ended up “on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4,18), built an altar and offered a burnt offering on it. Then God decided never again to curse the earth for the sins of man; sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never again “pass away” (Gen. 8:20-22). God blessed Noah and his sons (Gen. 9:1ff; cf. Gen. 1:28ff.) and made a covenant with him, his descendants, and all living creatures who were with him at that time. In this covenant, God promised not to destroy life on earth with a flood; The sign of the covenant was the rainbow (Genesis 9:8-17).
Noah began to cultivate the land and planted a vineyard. Once he drank wine, became drunk and lay naked in his tent. The youngest son Ham saw this and laughed at him, telling his brothers about it. Shem and Japheth respectfully covered their father with clothes. When Noah learned what Ham had done, he cursed his son, Canaan, and blessed Shem and Japheth (Genesis 9:20-27).
Noah lived after 350 years, but all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died (Genesis 9:28 -29).
The memory of Noah and the great events of his life has never died in posterity and is often found in the Holy Scriptures. The prophets mention him: Isaiah, Ezekiel and the wise son of Sirach (Isa 54:8 -10, Eze 14:14 -20, Sir 44:16 -18). The Lord Himself points to the times of Noah, warning people against unbelief and carelessness (Matthew 24:37-39). Ap. Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness, and in saving people from the flood in the ark in his days he gives us an indication of our salvation through baptism (2 Pet 2:5). And ap. Paul presents the example of Noah as a model of faith and righteousness by faith (Heb. 11:7).
According to Azeybarjan belief, in the south of the city of Nakhichevan there is the grave of Noah, and in the north-west - the grave of his sister. According to some sources, the toponym “Nakhichevan” was associated with the name of the prophet Noah (in Turkic “Noah” sounds like “Nuh”). Russian educator K.A. Nikitin, who worked in Nakhichevan schools in the 1880s, and researcher V.M. The Sysoevs left detailed materials about the connection between forefather Noah and Nakhichevan and detailed descriptions of his tomb located in this city. These descriptions are typical for Turkic tombs, consisting of underground and above-ground parts. During the years of Soviet power, the remains of the mausoleum over Noah's grave were destroyed.
Used materials
- Archim. Nikifor (Bazhanov). Biblical encyclopedia. Moscow. 1891 Reprint edition 1990
- Rinecker F., Mayer G. Brockhaus Biblical Encyclopedia
After the Flood ended, Noah left the ark with his sons. His sons were named Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Noah began to cultivate the land and grow grapes. He made wine from grape juice and, having tasted it, became drunk, because he did not yet know the power of wine. He lay naked in his tent and his son Ham saw it. He treated his father disrespectfully and told his brothers about it. His brothers Shem and Japheth took clothes, approached their father so as not to see his nakedness, and covered him. When Noah woke up and learned about the action of his youngest son Ham, he condemned and cursed him in the person of his son Canaan.
He said that his descendants would be enslaved by the descendants of his brothers. And he blessed Shem and Japheth and predicted that the true faith would be preserved in the descendants of Shem, and the descendants of Japheth would spread throughout the earth and accept the true faith from the descendants of Shem.
Everything that Noah predicted to his sons came true exactly. The descendants of Shem are called Semites; they include, first of all, the Jewish people, in whom alone the faith in the true God was preserved. The descendants of Japheth are called Japhetids, and these include the peoples inhabiting Europe, who accepted faith in the true God from the Jews.
The descendants of Ham are called Hamites; these include the Canaanite tribes that originally inhabited Palestine, many peoples of Africa and other countries.
The Babylonian Pandemonium and the Dispersion of the People
The descendants of Noah lived together for a long time in one country, not far from the Ararat Mountains, and spoke the same language.
When the human race became numerous, the evil deeds and strife between people increased, and they saw that they would soon have to disperse throughout the entire earth.
But before they dispersed, the descendants of Ham, drawing others along with them, decided to build a city and in it a tower, like a pillar, with a height reaching to heaven, in order to become famous and not be subordinate to the descendants of Shem and Japheth, as Noah predicted. They made bricks and got to work.
This proud idea of people was displeasing to God. So that evil would not completely destroy them, the Lord mixed the language of the builders so that they began to speak different languages and ceased to understand each other.
Then people were forced to abandon the construction they had begun and scatter across the earth in different directions. Japheth's descendants went west and settled throughout Europe. The descendants of Shem remained in Asia, the descendants of Ham went to Africa, but some of them also remained in Asia.
The unfinished city was nicknamed Babylon, which means “confusion.” The whole country where this city was began to be called the land of Babylon, and also the Chaldean.
People who settled across the earth gradually began to forget their kinship, and separate, independent peoples or nations with their own customs and language began to form.
The Lord saw that people learn more from each other evil deeds than good ones, and therefore he mixed languages, divided people into separate nations and gave each nation a separate task and goal in life.
The emergence of idolatry
When people dispersed throughout the earth, they began to forget the invisible true God, the Creator of the world. The main reason for this was sins that remove people from God and darken their minds. There were fewer and fewer righteous people, and there was no one to teach people the true faith in God. Then a wrong belief (superstition) began to appear among people.
People saw many wondrous and incomprehensible things around them, and instead of God they began to worship the sun, moon, stars, fire, water and various animals, make images of them, worship them, make sacrifices and build temples or temples for them.
Such images of false gods are called idols, or idols, and the peoples who worship them are called idolaters, or pagans. This is how idolatry appeared on earth.
Soon almost all people became pagans. Only in Asia, in the descendants of Shem, was there a righteous man named Abraham who remained faithful to God.
The story of Noah and his descendants after the flood is described in book of Genesis. In this article you will find an interpretation of the story of Noah and his sons Filaret of Moscow Drozdov. Particular attention is paid to the genealogy of Noah and his sons: Japheth, Shem and Ham.
DISPERSION / DISPERSION OF NATIONS AFTER THE FLOOD
The beginnings of the human race after the flood
9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.
9:19 Three were the sons of Noah. From these the whole earth was peopled.
Shem, Ham and Japheth. This is not the first time that Moses has numbered the sons of Noah, but it is not in vain. Now he answers the questions: did the human race multiply while in the ark and did Noah have more sons after the flood?
Ham was the father of Canaan. This was said either so that the Jews could see the origin and predestination of the Canaanites, whom the land was to occupy, or in order to prepare for the understanding of the curse, which is described below, that fell through Ham on Canaan.
From these the whole earth was peopled. This is the resolution and purpose of this tale about the sons of Noah. The entire current human race descends from them.
Noah's Lifestyle
9:20 Noah began to till the land and planted a vineyard.
Since nature after the flood could not suddenly become rich in both fruits and animals used for food, it is not surprising that Noah primarily turns to agriculture. In particular, he could have been prompted to plant a vineyard and drink wine by the waters, perhaps permanently damaged in the springs by sea waters, the imperfection of food substances on the earth corrupted by the flood, and his own old age, which required a strengthening and encouraging drink.
A fall
9:21 One day the pylon became drunk with wine, and lay naked in the midst of his tent.
Got drunk. Church Fathers: Chrysostom (Nosh. XXIX. in Genes), Theodoret (Quaese. LVI. in Genes), Ambrose (De. Noe et Area, c. 29), Basil (De jejun. horn. I) excuse the Patriarch for this fall , believing that the power of wine was hitherto unknown to him. Indeed, it has not been proven that wine belongs even to the luxury of the first world (Matt. XXIV. 38).
Naked. The sequence of the story shows that this happened in a dream.
Properties of the sons of Noah
9:22 When Ham the father of Canaan saw his father's nakedness, he spoke to his two brothers in the courtyard.
9:23 And Shem and Japheth took the robe, and putting it both on their shoulders, they went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; and since their faces were averted, they did not see their father’s nakedness.
In order to feel the obscenity of Ham's act, one must imagine that Noah's nakedness would have remained closed to Shem and Japheth if Ham had not told them about it. So he opened it again. This revealed in him pride, consoled by the fall of another, a lack of modesty characteristic of chastity, and disrespect for his parent.
Shem and Japheth, who had not seen the nakedness of their father, showed these opposite qualities in themselves.
The fate of the sons of Noah
9:24 When Noah woke up from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,
9:25 Then he said, Cursed is Canaan; He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.
9:26 Again he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; Canaan will be his slave.
9:27 May God spread Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; Canaan will be his slave.
After the fall of Noah, the invisible one, repentance had to be expected; but we see only his anger at his son, who reproached his fall. We will not, however, blame the righteous man for this, who, of course, admitted and made amends for his sin a hundredfold, but we recognize from this the intention of the narrator, who wanted here to reveal not so much the virtue of Noah, no longer subject to doubt after the Divine testimony about it, as his prophecy the path and fate of his descendants.
Noah’s words, although addressed to his three sons, are divided into two parts, that is, curse and blessing. Their content and subsequent experience show that they contain not so much human judgment as God's; and not simple desires, but predictions endowed with the power of the Spirit of God.
Cursed be Canaan; He will be a servant of servants to his brothers. Wanting to explain how the curse fell on his son Canaan for the act of Ham, the Jews say that he was the first to see the nakedness of his grandfather and told his father about it (Bereschith rabba, 37); others add that Noah spared Ham, respecting the blessing of God in which he participated after leaving the ark, or wanted to reduce the curse to one branch of the family instead of a whole offspring. The matter will be explained completely if we combine with the condemnation of present sin the foreknowledge of future things in Noah. Ham is punished in that son, or in that tribe, to whom he leaves his sins as a legacy: the punishment is the most sensitive for the ancestor, but no less righteous in relation to the offspring; the punishment is even merciful, because a double crime, the ancestor and the clan, is marked once.
When Canaan is called a slave of slaves, that is, a most despicable slave, this shows that slaves will come from other tribes, but the slavery of the Canaanite tribe will be the most painful and shameful. Such was the slavery of the Canaanites, first sinful and then civil ( Life XV. 16. 18–21).
Blessed be the God of Simov. This blessing is very important, because instead of Shem, God is blessed, just as Noah expressed not his goodwill to Shem, but his gratitude to God ( Life XIV. 19.20), and that even God - an apparently daring thought - is assimilated by Sim. The more unexpected such expressions are in this place, the less permissible it is to weaken their significance.
Blessed be God. It is not Shem who receives the blessing, but his blessing is attributed to God. So this is not a blessing of nature or merit, but of Grace.
Blessed be the God of Simov. Of the three tribes of Noah, God will bless the tribe of Shem, that is, it will preserve the true knowledge of God and worship.
God Simov. God will not only be known and revered in the tribe of Shem, but will also belong to them through incarnation from him.
Canaan will be his slave. This was fulfilled among the Canaanites, who were partly destroyed and partly conquered by the Israelites, the descendants of Shem, from the time of Joshua to Solomon.
May God extend Japheth. Indeed, the descendants of Japheth occupied Europe, Asia Minor and the entire north, which then was, in the words of Jornand, a nest and nursery of nations. And may he dwell in the tents of Shem. Some understand this about God and refer to His dwelling in the tabernacle of testimony and the temple of Solomon (Ps. CXXXI. 13. 14). But the union of these words with the previous and subsequent ones requires that they be applied to Japheth. The content of this prophecy was repeated by Balaam (Num. XXIV. 24), and the Greeks and Romans showed its event when they entered the countries of Shem’s descendants with weapons. In addition, the tents of Shem, the dwellings of strangers and strangers of the earth, instead of the dwelling of God, blessed by Shem, the God of Shem, can mean the Church, preserved in the descendants of Shem and, finally, taking under its roof and taking part in its inheritance (Col. I. 12) and the Gentiles, the descendants of Japheth.
Canaan will be his slave. This happened when the Macedonians and Romans conquered Syria and Palestine, Tire and Sidon with their settlements in other countries.
Noah's chronology
9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Following the Jewish calendar of the Patriarchs, some are surprised at the numerous vicissitudes that Noah saw during the course of his life, since, according to this calculation, he lived for several more years with Abraham.
Noah, drunk, naked, subject to reproach, covered, cursing, blessing, not without decency, is revered as a prototype of Jesus Christ, who drank the whole cup of God’s wrath, or more than his own love for man; naked on the cross, subject both in himself and in his members to the reproach of carnal men, but for that leaving them under the curse and in the slavery of sin; with reverence embraced under the cover of faith by the true children of God from Jews and pagans and blessing them, spreading them, dedicating them, enthroning them. Only this image is not clearly indicated by the word of God, but was found through the contemplation of the Fathers of the Church, such as Jerome (Contra Lucifer), Augustine (deciv. Dei. L. XVI, p. 2), Cyprian (Epise. LXI).
A brief enumeration of the first descendants of Noah according to his three tribes in connection with the narrative of Moses has the benefit that it paves the way for the understanding of Noah’s prophecy, in view of its event, and gradually introduces the narrator into the history of the people of God. This is why the genealogy begins with Japheth and ends with Shem.
It is not surprising that the parts of this genealogy do not represent the same completeness or strict order of time. The narrator names only those who left their names to the countries and peoples that existed in his time and are worthy of special attention due to their fate, past or future.
The search for the whereabouts of the descendants of Noah and the origin of the peoples from them cannot be done in such a way that it satisfies curiosity with clarity and accuracy, however, it can be done with benefit for the sacred antiquities and antiquities of the world.
The genealogy of the sons of Noah (1) Moses arranges into three parts according to the number of ancestors, who are: Japheth, 2–5, Ham, b–20, and Shem, 21–32.
Offspring of Japheth
10:1 This is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After the flood, their children were born.
10.2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
10.3 Sons of Gomer: Askenaz, Riphat and Togarmah. 4. The sons of Javan: Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim.
10.5 From these came the settlements of the pagan peoples, divided in their lands according to their languages, according to their tribes, among their nations. Sons. This word, according to the property of the Hebrew language, does not always mean the sons themselves, but also indefinitely the descendants of one ancestor (20, 21). The writer expresses himself more precisely and more thoroughly when he speaks about his son himself (8.15).
Homer. The people of this name Ezekiel are located north of Judea or Chaldea ( Ezek. XXXVIII. 6). Flavius finds the descendants of Homer in the Gomarians, the ancient inhabitants of Galatia, Bochart - in the Phrygians, Michaelis - in the Cimbri or Celta (Bochare. Phal. et Can. Michael, spicil. Geogr. ext. Hebr. ejusd. suppl. adLex. Hebr).
Maror. And this must be sought in the north, according to the instructions of Ezekiel ( XXXVIII. 2. XXXIX. 12). Joseph, Theodoret, Jerome derive from him the Scythians, under whose name the ancient Greeks included all the peoples of the north (Serab. L. XI). Bohart finds the name Gog or Magog in the name of the Caucasus, which the Colchians and Armenians called Goghasan, Gog's fortress. Madai. In books Daniel (V.28) And Esther (I. 3) this name unquestionably means Medes. Flavius also produces them from Madai; and everyone agrees on that.
Iavan. This name can be abbreviated as Ion, and from this the name Ionian is derived, which was once the name for most of the Greek tribes, mainly those of Asia Minor. Homer calls the inhabitants of Delos Iaon (Himn. Apol.) King Javan in Daniel (III. 21) means Alexander the Great.
Tuvalu. According to the pronunciation of seventy interpreters: Fauvel. From this the Tibarians probably originated. Flavius says that these are Iberians, formerly called Thovels. Meshech, or Mosoch. From this Moschi, according to Josephus, are Cappadocians. Fovel and Mosoch are repeatedly combined in Ezekiel ( Ezek. XXVII. 13. XXXVIII. 2. XXXIX. 1). With this, according to Strabo, Iverov also believes in the land of Moschov ( L. XI).
Firas. Everyone agrees that this is Father Thracian.Askenaz. Traces of this name are found in Bithynia and lesser Phrygia in the names of the lake, bay, Ascanian islands, as well as the city and region of Ascania. Bochart thinks that among the Greeks Pontus Aksenos also means Pontus Aksenazov, for the sign of inhospitability contradicts the property of the Pontic peoples. In the prophecy of Jeremiah (LI. 27) Ararat, Minni and Askenaz are called to Babylon; Bochart, applying this to the present research, proves from Xenophon (Sutor. L. VII) that Cyrus, having conquered Phrygia, brought out a strong army from it.
Rifat. According to the book of Chronicles, however, not in all of its lists (I. 6).
Rifat. Flavius and after him Bochart give him Paphlagonia, whose inhabitants were once called Riphates (Pomp. Mel. L. I). Others derive from this the name of the Riphean Mountains, which Mela (L. I) puts on the eastern side of the Don, and the people of the Arimphaeans, meek by the name of ךיף and according to the description of Herodotus15.
Togarmah. The house of Togarm in Ezekiel appears to be replete with horses and horsemen (XXXVII. 14). On this basis, Bohart finds it in Cappadocia. But this sign, according to the testimony of Xenophon (Exped. Cyr. L. IV.) and Strabo (Georg. L. XI), also befits Armenia. The Armenians have legends about their origin that agree with this last guess.
Elisha. His home, according to his father, should be sought in Greece. It is, according to the Chaldean interpreter, Ellas or Hellas אלם; according to Josephus, Aeolia; according to Bohart, Elis and the Peloponnese in general. The purple from the islands of Elisha, mentioned in Ezekiel (XXVII. 7), is a product of Laconia and the surrounding countries.
Tarshish. The characteristics of the land of Tarshish are: a position distant from Palestine, in the west ( Ps. LXXI. 10), seaside ( Ps. XLVII..8), trade with Tire and an abundance of metals ( Ezek. XXVII. 12). They probably think that this is Spain, where the pier and the island of Tartessus and the city of Tarsius (Polib. L. Ш) and where the abundance of metals in ancient times was extraordinary (Serab. L. III. Died. L. V. Pirn. 3. H. L. Ill, p. .3).
Kittim. Bochart from this makes Italy, referring the prophecies to Balaam ( Number XXIV. 24) and Danilovo ( XI. 29.30) about the ships Kittim to the Romans and thinking that the name Latium is a translation of the Arabic Ketam, which means hidden. They believe with greater certainty that Kittim is Macedonia, for in this sign the writer of the first book of Maccabees uses this name ( I. 1. VIII. 5), with this sign all prophecies about the land and islands of Kittim agree with the event ( Is. XXIII. 1. Ezek. XXVII. 6), and the ancient name of Macedonia, Macketta, or Maketia, is very close to the name Kittim.
Let's add. According to some lists of the book of Chronicles (1 Chron. I. 7), Rodanim. Those who follow this last reading look for the Rodanim tribe either on the island of Rhodes, as seventy interpreters and Jerome do, or near the mouth of the Rhone River and the city of Rodanusia, as Bochart does. If we prefer the first reading, then the village of Dodanim can be placed in Epirus, where the oracle, the river and the city have the same name: Dodona. The antiquity of the Dodonian oracle, attested by Herodotus (L. II, p. 52), and the surviving legends about it confirm this guess. The prophecies were given, according to the legends of the Egyptians, by a priestess, and according to the fables of the Dodon priests, by a dove: this discrepancy is explained by the Phoenician or Hebrew name יונית Yavanif, or Jonif, which can mean both a woman from the tribe of Javan and a dove. Settlements. This meaning of the word יא, drawn from the Arabic language, apparently is the root meaning of it. The meaning of the island that seventy interpreters give it here, however, is ordinary, does not befit this place. That the Jews used the same name to mean lands lying on the sea, beyond the sea, and generally remote and little-known, this is in accordance with the state of land description in ancient times and with the position of their own land. And other Asian peoples considered only Asia to be solid land (Herod. L. II, p. 103). The writer of everyday life, pointing to the settlements of pagan peoples, seems to have wanted to draw the attention of his compatriots especially to the little-known tribes of Europe that were still emerging at that time.
Offspring of Ham
10.6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Puth and Canaan.
10.7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Savta, Raama, Savteha. Sons of Raam: Sheba and Dedan.
10:8 Cush also gave birth to Nimrod: he began to be strong on earth.
10.9 He was strong in hunting before God, which is why it is said: just as Nimrod is strong in hunting before God.
10:10 His kingdom at first consisted of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.
10:11 Assyrian came out of the land and built Nineveh, Rehobothir, Kalah
10:12 and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah, a great city.
10:13 From Mizraim came Ludim, Anamim, Legavim, Naftuhim,
10:14 Patrusim, Kasluchim (where the Philistines came from) and Caphtorim.
10:15 From Canaan were born Sidon his firstborn, Heth,
10.16 Jebusi, Emori, Girgash,
10.17 Khivvi, Arki, Sini,
10.18 Arwadi, Tsemari and Hamafi. Subsequently, the Canaanite tribes scattered.
10:19 And the border of the Canaanites went from Sidon to Gerar, to Gaza, from there to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, as far as Lasha.
10:20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, among their nations.
Kush. Cush is Ethiopia, both the original Arabian and the African derived from it. The first is proven by the confusion of the names Cush and Midian in the story of Moses ( Ref. III. 1. Number XII. 1), the contiguity of the land of Kush with Arabia ( 2 Par. XXI. 16) and the wars of the Kush people in Asia ( 2 Kings XIX. 2.2Par. XIV. 8 The latter is also undoubted, according to the testimony of Josephus (Antic. L. I, p. 6), according to the Syriac and Arabic translations of the New Testament, according to which Ethiopia, Kush and Abyssinia are one ( Acts VIII. 27), and according to the natural sign of the Ethiopians in Jeremiah (XIII. 23).
Mizraim. This name in Holy Scripture constantly signifies Egypt.Fut. This name can often be seen among the Prophets among African peoples ( Jer. XLVI. 9. Ezek. XXX. 4. 5. Nahum. III. 9). Flavius says that this is Libya, and also finds among the Greek writers the region and the river Futus, which Pliny also mentions (L. V. p. 1).
Canaan. This one gave the inhabitants and name to the land of Canaan, which included Judea, Phenicia and Syria.
Seva. His descendants are mentioned in the prophecy of Isaiah ( XLV. 14), where God gives Cyrus the trade of Cush and Savea. Josephus shows the city of Sava in African Ethiopia.
Havilah. This name is still found among the sons of Iektan. From Havilah, the son of Husov, comes Khavlan, otherwise Yemen, in Arabia.
Savta. Dark traces of the settlement and migration of his descendants are found in the names: Saffa (the city of happy Arabia by Ptolemy), Saffa (an island or peninsula of the Persian Gulf by the same writer), Messawata (which Pliny believes to be within Persia).
Raama. According to the pronunciation of seventy interpreters of Regma. Signs of this tribe in Ezekiel ( XXVII. 22) most likely show a country in Arabia near the Persian Gulf, where the city of Regma is, according to Ptolemy.
Savtech. A name that no longer appears in the sacred books and which is useless to pursue with guesses.
Sheva. The same name appears again in this genealogy and also in the genealogy of Abraham ( XXV. 3). Bohart refers to the ancestor mentioned here as those passages of Holy Scripture where the name Sheba is combined with the names of Cush or his descendants ( Ps. LXXI. 10. Ezek. XXVII. 23. XXXVIII 13), and places his descendants near the Persian Gulf, where the people of Asaba, according to Ptolemy, and Mount Sabo, according to Arrian.
Dedan. One tribe of this name lived in the neighborhood of the Idumeans ( Jer. XXV. 23.XLIX. 8), and came from Dedan, the grandson of Abraham ( LifeXXIV.3). The other, according to the description of Ezekiel (XXVII. 15. XXXVIII. 13), should be located by the sea in the neighborhood of Sheba. From here may be the city of Daden on the Persian Gulf.
Cush also begat Nimrod. The glory of this man became the reason that Moses spoke about him separately from his brothers. Nimrod's name means rebel or proud person.
This one began to be strong on earth. This signifies power and wealth ( Ps. CXI. 2.3), and sometimes predominance ( Ps. LI. 3).
He was strong in hunting before God. These words can mean both that Nimrod was skilled in hunting, and that with this skill he achieved power over people. A strong man before God is the same as a strong man without an example among men. Such expressions in the sacred language are reflections of the pious feeling of those who formed and used it ( Ps. LXXIX. 11. Ion. III. 3. Acts VII. 20).
That is why it is said: how Nimrod is strong in hunting before God. To show that the memory of Nimrod still existed in popular tradition, Moses used here either a proverb or a fragment of some folk poem. The meaning of this saying is that a courageous ascetic or a cunning oppressor was compared with Nimrod.
Babylon. This city began before the division of nations and was designated to be the capital of the world ( Life XI. 4), but Nimrod, who probably had a great participation in the intent of the pandemonium, took advantage, due to the confusion of languages, of the labors of the entire human race, as the strongest.
Erech. According to the explanation of the Targum, Ephraim the Syrian and Jerome, this is Edessa. Akkad. According to Ephraim's explanation - Nizibis.Khalne. Bohar thinks that Khalne is the main city of Chilonitida in Assyria, later known under the name of Ktisiphon.
Shinar. It is known that this name signifies Babylonia, but the space of its signification is not defined.
From this land came Assur. This is how the ancients usually translated this place. The newest ones, taking אשור instead of אשורה, of which there are examples ( 1 Kings III. 15, 2 Sam. VI. 10), for the most part they translate as follows: from this land he, that is, Nimrod, came out to Assyria. And he built Nineveh. Nineveh Bohart finds one near the Euphrates, and the other beyond the Tigris; here, apparently, the latter should be understood.
Rehoboth-ir, or Rehoboth-city, was so called, perhaps to distinguish it from another city, Rehoboth-gannagar (Gen. XXXVI. 37). According to Ephraim, this is Adiabene.Kalah. According to Ephraim, Hetro, or Gartha.
Resen. Instead of the great city of this name, Ephraim found only a place.
Let's cheat. The name is, without a doubt, not a person, but a tribe. The distinctive sign of this people in Isaiah ( LXVI19) and Jeremiah ( XLVI 9) there is an art of archery. Home is in Africa.
Anamim. Bochart thinks that these are the people of Gammana or Garamanta, who wandered around the temple of Jupiter Ammon. Bochart applies this name to the Livio-Egyptians, who lived to the west of Thebaid, in a sandy and hot country. להבה cop means flame and heat ( Joel. I. 19).
Naftukhim. Neffis, according to Plutarch (Lib. deIside), among the Egyptians means the seaside edge of the earth. Therefore, some are looking for the dwellings of the Naftuhim people near the Mediterranean Sea, where the pier of Fthia at Ptolemy.
Patrusim. From Jeremiah ( XLIV. 15) and Ezekiel ( XXIX. 14) it is known that the land of Patros belonged to Egypt. But in Isaiah ( XI. eleven) she is separated from him. Bochart interprets this about Thebaid, finding the position of the country of Patros indicated in the calculation of the parts of Egypt in Jeremiah ( XLIV. 1), where they are named in order, starting from the side of Palestine, Magdol (near the Black Sea), Takhpankhes according to Herodotus, Nof (otherwise Mof, that is, Memphis) and Patros Thebaid, where the region is Pafurit, according to Pliny.
Kaslukhim. Bohart means by this the names of the Colchians, immigrants from Egypt, but this settlement is not so ancient. Others place this tribe between Gaza and Pelusium.
The Philistines are produced here from Kasluhim, and in other places, as in Jeremiah (XLVII. 4) and Amos (IX. 7), from Caphtor. Perhaps the Philistines migrated repeatedly, just like the Jews.
Kaftorim. The ancients, starting from seventy interpreters, call them Cappadocians (Jer. XVII. 4. Am. IX. 7). Michaelis thinks that Caphtor is Cyprus. Sidon. Hence Sidon is the main city of Phenicia before Tire.
Het. His tribe lived in the southern region of Judea near Hebron ( Life XXIII. 23).
Jebusite. His descendants dwelt in Jerusalem until the time of David ( Is. Nav. XV. 63. 2 Kings IV. 6–9).
Emory. This tribe was strong beyond the Jordan ( Number XXI. 26).
Girgashi. This tribe fought with the Jews west of the Jordan ( Is. Nav. XXIV. eleven). Therefore, it is difficult to consider it one with the Gergesinians ( Mf. VIII 28).
Hivvy. This tribe lived in Lebanon (Judges III. 3), and before the war with the Jews in other places in Palestine ( Is. Nav. XI. 19).
Arches. From this Bochart produces the city of Arku at the foot of Lebanon, mentioned by Joseph and Ptolemy.
Blue. Jerome (Quaese. Heb. In Genes) writes that Sini was located not far from the Arch. Strabo ( L. XVI) mentions a fortified place in Lebanon called Sinna.Arwadi. From this, it seems, the inhabitants of Arad, an island opposite the mouth of the Eleuthera River.
Tsemari. From this, perhaps, the city of Simira near Eleuthera originated.
Hamafi. According to the book of Numbers ( XIII. 22. XXXIV. 7. 8.) Hamath is the northern limit of the land of Israel. Chaldean interpreters take it for Antioch, but Joseph says that it was a city among the Greeks, called Epiphania. For the Jews, who were soon to occupy the land of the Canaanite tribes, Moses describes it and its borders in general (19). He goes around it, starting from the north, to the west, south and east and points to the most famous cities. The least known Lasha, according to Jerome, is the Fox, otherwise Callirrhoe.
These are the sons of Ham, according to their tribes, according to their languages, and so on. With this conclusion of the genealogical list, the writer explains that this is not a complete census of the immediate descendants of the Khamovs, but that only those of them whose names became the names of tribes, languages, lands and peoples are named here.
Offspring of Shem
10:21 Shem also had children, the father of all the sons of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth. 22. The sons of Shem: Elam, Assur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.
10:23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gepher and Mash.
10:24 Arphaxad begat (Cainan, Cainan begat) Salah, Salah begat Eber.
10:25 Eber had two sons; the name of one is Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided; His brother's name was Joktan.
10.27 Gadoram, Uzal, Dikla,
10.28 Oval, Avimail, Sheva,
10.29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All cuu were children of Joktan.
10:30 Their settlements extend from Mesha to Sephar, the eastern mountain,
10:31 These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages in their lands, according to their nations.
10:32 These are the tribes of the sons of Noah, in the order of their genealogy, among their nations. From these nations spread across the earth after the flood.
Father of all the sons of Eber. Some newer ones translate from Hebrew: to the father of all the sons of that side, that is, those living beyond the Euphrates. But the first translation, common among the ancients, is justified by the fact that the expression עבר בני is not so complete that it could replace the following: הנהר מעבר אנשי ( Drive IV. 10, 11. 2 Sam. X. 16), and that the name Eber is a well-known name of a person in this very genealogy, which later became popular ( Life XIV. 13. XL. 15. Number XXIV. 24), and therefore there is no need to look for another origin and meaning. That Moses, at the beginning of the general genealogy of Shem, often calls him the father of the sons of Eber, this reason is that the writer gradually enters from the general into the private history of the sons of Eber, or, in a word, the Jews. The elder brother of Japheth. It can also be translated from Hebrew: brother of Japheth the elder. Only in the latter case, by the nature of the language, it would be necessary to say more fully, for example: the eldest son of Noah. That Japheth was the firstborn can be inferred from a comparison of the chronology of Noah’s life with the chronology of Shem’s life ( Life V. 32.VII.11. XI. 10). But it could happen that in the first of these places a round number was put instead of a non-round one, just as the three sons were mentioned without distinguishing the times of their birth; The strictness of chronology is left to the other two places. On the contrary, the fact that Simbyl is the first-born is noticeable from the fact that in the calculation of brothers he is usually placed first ( V. 32, VI. 10.VII. 13.IX. 18. 23. X. 1) – Having deviated from this order here and placed the genealogy of Shem after the genealogies of his brothers, the writer had reason to remind the reader that Shem is the elder brother of Japheth, whose genealogy is placed ahead of the others, without deigning to name with them a third brother, already separated from them and temper, and curse.
Elam. From this originates Elymaida, the country between Susiana and Media, with which in Holy Scripture it is often connected ( Is. XXI. 2. Jer. XXV. 25. Acts 11.9. Drive IV. 9), and is sometimes even mixed with the first ( Dan. VIII. 2).
Assur. This name means happy. It signifies Assyria, and it is worthy of this name ( 1 Sam. XVIII. 32).
Arfaksad. A weak trace of this name is found by Bochart in Ptolemy's name Arrapahitida, which was part of Assyria. In the Holy Scriptures, no nation, lower country, is called by the name of Arphaxad. Of the sons of Shem, he was given the best glory - to be among the Patriarchs of the chosen people.
Ludg. Joseph, Jerome, Eusebius, Isidore consider Lidian. Aram to be descendants of Lud. The grandson of Nahor from Kamuel was also called by this name ( Life XXII. 21), and there are many countries: Aram-Nagaraim (Aram interfluve, that is, Mesopotamia) ( Life XXIV. 10), Padan-Aram or Sede-Aram (Aram Polish) ( XXVIII. 7. Os. XII. 13), Aram Vefrekhov, Aram Tsova ( 2 Sam. X. 6. 8), Aram Dammesek (Damascus) ( 2 Sam. VIII. 5). Even the fatherland of Nahor and the fatherland of Jacob is called Aram ( Life XXV. 20. Deut. XXVI. 5). In the prophecy of Amos ( IX. 7) God says that He brought the Arabs out of Cyrus, which some countries are looking for near the Cyrus River in Persia or near Kura in Iberia. Of so many Aramian countries there is no way to recognize the one that was the first fatherland of the Aramites. And the Greeks used the name Arameans or Arims, and then began to call them Syrians (Strab. L. XVI).
Uts. The firstborn of Nahor is also called by this name ( Life XXII. 21) and one of Esau's descendants ( XXXI. 28). The firstborn of Aram, mentioned here, according to the legend of the ancients, created Damascus and gave his name to the Damascus plain, which the Jews call Uz, and the Arabs Gaut.Hul. Bohart from him produces Holobotene (בית חול house of Hula), part of Armenia, Michaelis - Tsele-Syria.
Gepher. A trace of this name is found in the name of the river Keitripa.Mash, according to the book of Chronicles, Meshech (1 Chron. I. 17). From these names Bohart derives the name of Mount Masiya.Kainan. This name is not in the Hebrew text among the descendants of Shem. But it is found in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament and the Gospel of St. Luke ( III. 36) and in the antiquities of Josephus.
Yoktan. The Arabs call him Qahtan and consider him the father of many tribes of happy Arabia and the Arabic language itself. Traces of his name are shown by the people of Catanita. near Ptolemy and the city of Waisaf-Iektan in the vicinity of Mecca.
Moses, describing the descendants of Joktan, puts their boundaries in the west as Mesha, which is probably Muse, the trading port of the Red Sea in Arabia in the east, Sefar, a city and a chain of mountains, which the Greeks called Klimax, that is, the ladder. According to this instruction, the sons of Joktan should be sought in Arabia.
Almodad. From this, according to Boharg, Allumeota is in the middle of happy Arabia.
Shalef. This is why Salapen.
Hatzarmavef. The Arabic pronunciation is Hadhramaut. From this word, due to the difficulty of its pronunciation, the Greeks gave birth to the names: Adramita, Hatramis, Hatramitis. The country they signify is rich in myrrh and incense, but not healthy; and this last property corresponds to the name חצרמות Land of Death. Merah. This name means Moon. Bohart compares it with the name of the people Αλιλαιοιamong the ancients, now בני הלאל Bne-gilal, children of the moon.Hadoram. From this, according to Bohart, the Drimats are the inhabitants of Cape Khodor on the Persian Gulf.
Uzal. The city of Tsanaa is still called by this name among the Arabian Jews, and by the ancients Auzar, from the birth of the myrrh of Auzar. Dikla. This name from the Syriac means palm tree or palm forest. Bohart finds such a place, and for this reason the descendants of Dikla, in southern Arabia.
Oval. Bokhart assigns this tribe a place in Africa opposite Arabia, where there was a pier at Avalitskaya.Avimail. According to Bochart, there is the father of the Malites, whom Theophrastus believes to be among the four nations of happy Arabia, famous for their incense.
Sheva. This tribe Bochart lies between the Menaians and Catavans at the Red Sea.
Ophir. Among the Arabians this name means rich. Bohart finds a translation of it in the name Cassanites, which comes from the word חסן hasan, to hide treasure. Havilah. Henceforth the country of Khavlan, near the land of Saveev.
Jobab. Ievav, from Arabic, desert. Such was the land of the Jobarites (perhaps the Jovavites), according to Ptolemy.
Dispersion of Nations
11:1 While all the earth spoke one language and one speech,
11.2 It happened that people, moving from the East, found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
11:3 And they said to one another, Let us make bricks and burn them with fire. Thus, they had bricks instead of stones, and earthen resin instead of lime.
11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men were building.
11:6 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have begun to do, and they will not stop in anything that they have decided to do,
11:7 Let us go and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the language of the other.
11:8 Then the Lord scattered them from there throughout all the earth; and they stopped building the city.
11.9 Therefore the name was given to it: Babylon; for there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout all the earth.
Having spoken about the spread of the human race through the flood, in the first or most noble tribes, Moses explains how various peoples arose from the one great family of the human race.
According to the most natural order, it shows first the state of the human race in its unity (1), then the event of division on the part of people themselves (2 - 4), then the judgment and determination of God about this division and, finally, the very action of division (8, 9 ).
The whole earth spoke one language and one dialect. Literally from Hebrew: the whole earth had one mouth and one word. Expressions like this in the Hebrew language often signify unanimity or unanimity ( Is. Nav. IX. 2. 1 Kings XXII. 13. Ref. XXIV. 3), but used here definitely means one common language ( Is. Nav. XIX. 18). So, Moses depicts the unity of human society in a universal language, and not the general agreement of people in the intention of pandemonium16.
They ask, what was this first and universal language of the human race?
Some who have studied this question argue that although traces of it are more or less visible in the ancient eastern languages, none of them is more original, just as in our times neither French, nor Italian, nor Spanish is ancient Latin.
Others give primacy to the Jewish, without denying, however, that it too has undergone changes over time. This opinion is justified:
History. With the help of the long life of the Patriarchs and their constancy in opinions and customs, the language of Adam should have been preserved without great damage until Noah, the language of Noah - until Abraham, and the language of Abraham is Jewish. Sacred history gives us no reason to confuse the blessed race with the sons of men (5) either in the crime of pandemonium or in the punishment of confusion of tongues. Some believe that the natural language of the tribe of Abraham is Chaldean, because they find it in the homeland of this tribe and even in the mouth of Laban (יגר־שהרותא yegar sagadufa, the hill of testimony. Life XXXI. 47), but is it not more likely that the tribe of Nahor, left in the midst of a confusion of languages and peoples, little by little changed the language of their ancestors to the language of their neighbors, than that this was done by Abraham, separated by God from all nations and not wanting to be with anyone? have close communication as soon as with your ancient family?
A property of the Hebrew language itself. It still mainly preserves the dignity of the original language that the properties of things are visible in its names. In the Holy Scriptures, he explains from himself the most ancient names of places and persons, except for very few, whose roots have been lost or have been preserved only in other languages closest to him. That this advantage cannot be attributed to the art of the writer of the Holy Books, this is proved by the names whose education was not in his power and which should have received their beginning along with the language, such as, for example, אדס from אדמה, אישה from איש, and so on.
Comparing it with other ancient languages. More than anyone else, he has purity, simplicity and correctness in his education. The most ancient names of peoples, countries, pagan deities and many other words, the origins of which are invisible in other languages, are explained from Hebrew. In general, in it the antiquities of languages come together, like streams at a source.
The occasion for the division of nations was pandemonium, of which Moses notes the place, image and intention.
Having moved from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. From Armenia, where the first dwelling of the human race was after the flood, the path to the land of Shinar lies to the south. So, here either the first migration is not already being spoken about, or the name of the east is used in a very vague sign ( Is. IX. 12). The use of bricks instead of stones and earthen resin instead of lime in the structure of Babylon is explained by the properties of the land of Shinar.
The words city and tower mean either a collectively fortified city, or separately a city with one tower for strengthening and splendor ( Court. IX. 51).
Height to heaven. This is an intense expression of enormity, not unprecedented among the Jews ( Deut. 1, 28, IX. 1) and not alien to the true story, although, however, from it, in all likelihood, a pagan fable about giants who wanted to conquer the sky was born.
Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered across the face of the whole earth. To create a name, in the language of Holy Scripture, means to gain glory ( 2 Kings VII. 13. Isa. LXIII. 12. Jer. XXXII. 20). So, one of the motivating reasons for the pandemonium was the love of fame; another reason (if we follow the simple presentation of the Hebrew text) was the desire to prevent the dispersion and division of the human race, which could previously have been feared according to the meaning of Noah’s prophecy. It is likely that the tribe of Ham, which was most threatened by this prophecy, before other tribes, received the idea, if possible, to keep them all in a state of unification by decreeing one universal center and capital of the world; in order to escape the curse of slavery announced to him, he hastened to universal dominion. It is not difficult to judge whether an enterprise that was so contrary to the known will of God was worthy of punishment, and whether the Wise One rightly calls it the unanimity of wickedness ( Prem. XII. 5).
The Lord came down to see. God descends, Augustine explains, when he creates something on earth that, having been created miraculously against the ordinary course of nature, reveals His presence in some special way. In the likeness of men, a twofold procession is here attributed to God: the first is the descent, as if not so close to vision; the second is the closest coming for action: let us go and confuse their language there.
By the name of the sons of men, on whom God turns his angry gaze here, some do not mean the entire human race, but with the exception of the sons of God, that is, pious people, which division was used in this mind by Moses in the history of the first world ( Life VI. 2). Others consider all people, without exception, to be the creators of the pillar, because they are called the whole earth; because the great enterprise of pandemonium required the participation of all people, not yet very numerous after the flood; because it was not so criminal as to frighten the pious, and, finally, because it is incredible that the separation of the faithful from the infidel so soon after the flood. But this reasoning can be countered by the fact that the expression “all the earth” in Moses refers not to the action of pandemonium, but to the universal original language; that the tribe of Eber means nothing to the number of the building pillars of Babylon; that the prophecy of Noah, which mentions the spread of men over the earth and the division of villages, and which, no doubt, was known and respected in the tribe of Eber, sufficiently showed the absurdity of the intention of creating a capital of the world, and that the division of faithful from infidel, already existing between the three sons of Noah, not at all surprising in their offspring.
Let us go, and let us confuse their language there. Some think that God is introduced to those who say this imitatively, in response and as a reproach to the words of men: let us build ourselves a city; Augustine refers the words of the Lord to the Angels in whom he lives (De. civ. ei. L. XVI, p. 5). Others imagine here an interview of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity.
The confusion of languages is explained by some - by the instantaneous or gradual, but miraculous formation of several new languages in different tribes; others - the disagreement that arose between the builders of Babylon, since this can also be called not only a confusion, but also a division of languages, as in the Psalmist (LIV. 10); others, finally, by the disorder into which for some time the actions of memory and imagination were brought in people, so that memory did not produce the words that mental images required, as naturally happens in some illnesses.
By the force of the first explanation, Origen says that the Angels, the guardians of the nations, gave each of them their own language, except for the Jews, who, being the lot of God himself, preserved the language given by God to Adam.
Many ancients determine the number of languages born during the pandemonium by the number of seventy or, according to the Greek text, seventy-two descendants of Noah, called Moses ( Life X.5.32) and according to the number of the sons of Israel ( Deut. XXXII. 8), who entered Egypt ( Life XLVI. 27, according to the Hebrew text); but these guesses cannot be considered important. Since among the descendants of Noah numbered by Moses in the tenth chapter of the book of Genesis, there are those who, even after the pandemonium, undoubtedly spoke one common language, like the descendants of Canaan; there are those who did not participate in the pandemonium, like Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber; and there are those who were born after the pandemonium, like the sons of Joktan. Also, when Moses says that God set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel, not even the number of the sons of Israel is shown here (12 or 70?), and even less the number of different languages.
Those who prefer the second explanation of the confusion of languages, presenting this event as completely natural, reduce its importance and make the solemn depiction of the judgment of God in the narrative of Moses unnecessary.
The third explanation, as much as it is consistent with the spirit of the sacred narrative, allowing the direct action of the Divine in the confusion of languages, so much favors the natural and experiential origin of languages, connecting with their mixing the existence of one original one, which, after the end of the miracle of mixing, could still remain common until the passage of time changed and did not fragment into many in different places and tribes. Therefore, the ancient languages: Chaldean, Syrian, Canaanite, Phoenician, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Persian - have the appearance of branches of one root, which is the Hebrew language. It should be thought that the languages: Greek, Latin, Slavic, Teutonic (ancient German), Tatar, Chinese, revered by the indigenous people, are such only by their distance from the first and common root.
In the punishment of the confusion of languages and the dispersion of nations, the beneficial intentions of God are also revealed:
to protect human societies from extreme oppression; for if the entire human race were united under one ruler, as Nimrod was, then power would take an excessive preponderance over freedom, and innocence, oppressed by force, could not find security;
to prevent the corruption of morals, which in one universal kingdom was supposed to become universal for the human race; but which, after the division of peoples, destroying one of them, leaves the other in the distance and obscurity to arise and strengthen with the help of simplicity and purity of morals;
prevent strife that would be endless if the human race were confined to one center with its villages.
Then the Lord scattered them from there throughout the whole earth. Moses, as usual, briefly notes the fulfillment of God's decree. However, there is no doubt that the dispersion of peoples across the face of the entire earth did not happen suddenly, but gradually.
Babylon. The origin of this word is not as clear in the Hebrew language - בבל Babel from בבל balal, as in the Chaldean - בבל Babel from בלבל bilbel; however, in both forms there is one root and a sign of confusion.
Genealogy and chronology of Simov's descendants
11.10 This is the genealogy of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old when he gave birth to Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
11.11. After the birth of Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.12. Arphaxad lived thirty-five years (135) and begat Cainan. After the birth of Cainan, Arphaxad lived 330 years and begat sons and daughters, and died. Cainan lived 130 years and gave birth to Salah.
11.13. After the birth of Sala, Arphaxad (Kainan) lived four hundred and three (330) years and gave birth to sons and daughters (and died).
11.14. Salah lived thirty (130) years and begat Eber.
11.15. After the birth of Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three (330) years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.16. Eber lived thirty-four (134) years and begat Peleg.
11.17. After the birth of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty (370) years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.18. Peleg lived thirty (130) years and begat Raghav.
11.19. After the birth of Raghav, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.20. Raghav lived thirty-two (132) years and gave birth to Serug.
11.21. After the birth of Serug, Raghav lived two hundred and seven years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.22. Serug lived thirty (130) years and begat Nahor.
11.23. After the birth of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.24. Nahor lived twenty-nine (79) years and begat Terah
11.25. After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen (129) years and begat sons and daughters (and died).
11.26. Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor and Arran.
Moses gave the history of the first world the completeness and continuity possible in brevity through the genealogy and chronology of the seed of the woman; He does the same with the history of the world after the flood, before entering into the private history of the chosen people.
The same difference that exists between the Greek and Hebrew chronology of the Patriarchs who lived before the flood is noted here, but the Samaritan text almost agrees with the Greek. The difference in chronology from the flood to Abram can extend from 700 to 900 years, according to different methods of reckoning.
A particular difficulty appears in the chronology of Abram, and precisely in finding the time of his birth.
Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor and Haran. According to these words, it seems that Abram was the firstborn. But being such, at the death of his father, whose entire life lasted 205 years (32), he should have been 135 years old from birth. On the contrary, at this time he was seventy-five years old ( Life XII. 4).; So, it must be assumed that Abram was born after 130 years of the life of Terah; He was placed first among his brothers not by order of birth, but by his personal superiority. The above words of the narrative of Moses allow this explanation without compulsion and can be resolved as follows: “When Terah was 70 years old, he began to bear children, among whom the most famous was Abram, the eldest before him was Nahor, and the first of all Haran” (for the daughter of this latter was the wife of second, 29).
Also on the site:
The Sons of Noah, or Table of Nations - an extensive list of the descendants of Noah, described in the book of Genesis of the Old Testament and representing traditional ethnology.
According to the Bible, God, saddened by the evil deeds that mankind was doing, sent a great flood known as the Earth to destroy life. But there was one man, distinguished by virtue and righteousness, whom God decided to save along with his family so that they would continue the human race. This was the tenth and last of the antediluvian patriarchs named Noah. The Ark, which he built at God's direction to escape the flood, was able to accommodate his family and animals of all kinds that remained on Earth. He had three sons born before the flood.
After the water receded, they settled on the lower slopes on the north side. Noah began to cultivate the land and invented winemaking. One day the patriarch drank a lot of wine, got drunk and fell asleep. While he lay drunk and naked in his tent, Noah's son Ham saw this and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth entered the tent, turning their faces away, and covered their father. When Noah woke up and realized what had happened, he cursed Ham's son Canaan.
For two thousand years, this biblical story has caused much controversy. What is its meaning? Why did the patriarch curse his grandson? Most likely, it reflected the fact that at the time it was written, the Canaanites (descendants of Canaan) were enslaved by the Israelites. Europeans interpreted this story to mean that Ham was the ancestor of all Africans, citing racial characteristics, particularly dark skin. Later, slave traders in Europe and America used the biblical story to justify their activities, claiming that Noah's son Ham and his descendants were cursed as a degenerate race. Of course, this is wrong, especially since the compilers of the Bible did not consider either him or Canaan to be dark-skinned Africans.
In almost all cases, the names of Noah's descendants represent tribes and countries. Shem, Ham and Japheth represent the three largest groups of tribes known to the writers of the Bible. Ham is called the ancestor of the southern peoples who lived in that region of Africa that adjoined Asia. The languages they spoke were called Hamitic (Coptic, Berber, some Ethiopian).
According to the Bible, Noah's son Shem is the first-born, and he is given special respect because he is the ancestor of the Semitic peoples, including the Jews. They lived in Syria, Palestine, Chaldea, Assyria, Elam, and Arabia. The languages they spoke were Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Assyrian. Two years after the flood, his third son, Arphaxad, was born, whose name is mentioned in the family tree of Jesus Christ.
Noah's son Japheth is the forefather of the northern nations (in Europe and northwest Asia).
Until the mid-nineteenth century, the biblical story of the origins of nations was accepted by many as historical fact, and is still believed by some Muslims and Christians today. While some believe that the table of peoples applies to the entire population of the Earth, others perceive it as a guide for local ethnic groups.
