—Genesis Chapter 11!14/11/90DFO 2779

—Bible Classtime with Grandpa!

The Tower of Babel!

(After praying for classtime:)

1. David, would you like to read our next Chapter while I'm eating? (David: Yes! Genesis Chapter 11: "And the whole Earth was of one language, & of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; & they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, & burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone‚ & slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city & a tower‚ whose top may reach unto Heaven; & let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad, upon the face of the whole Earth."—Which they eventually were‚ I guess.) That's right.

2. They knew they could become very powerful if they were all united & spoke the same language. (Techi: So was that language Hebrew or what?) We don't know, Honey. (Techi: Maybe it was even English.) (David: It was probably related to one of the dialects we have now in the Earth, right?) Possibly.

3. (David: Verse 5: "And the Lord came down to see the city & the tower, which the children of men builded."—Ha, that sounds funny, "The Lord came down to see it!" Verse 6: "And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, & they have all one language; & this they begin to do: & now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.") They were big & powerful.—Like the Antichrist government. (Techi: "Nothing will be restrained from them!")

4. (David: Verse 7‚ "Go to, let us go down, & there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the Earth: & they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the Earth.") The word "Babel" here‚ by the way, means confusion. (David: "And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the Earth.")

5. (Techi: Since they couldn't speak the same language, they moved out—is that what it means by "scattered abroad"?) Yes. Can you imagine working with some workmen & you both speak different languages & you can't even understand each other? How is the boss going to tell the workers what to do? It completely ruined their building. They couldn't understand each other & they couldn't get along with each other any more.

6. It's one of the best things that ever happened to the World, believe it or not!—Otherwise there would have been a huge anti-God nation of the whole World much sooner. (Techi: Couldn't they have been for God though?) No, they weren't. The very fact that they were building the tower was in defiance of the Lord. (Techi: To reach the heavens.) Yes! They wanted to be like gods.

[Concerning the "confusion of tongues": Linguistic experts are at a loss to explain the origin of languages. Just as it is impossible for evolutionists to prove that Man descended from apes, so it has proven impossible for linguistic experts to explain how totally different languages or language groups "evolved" from one root language. Although certain languages within a group are related to a common root (for example, Latin is the common root for the Romance languages of French, Italian, Spanish, etc.), there is no link between Chinese & Latin. (The story of the Tower of Babel shows that they didn't evolve; God instantly created different languages!) One renowned textbook of linguistics concluded that "no matter how far-fetched the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel might seem, it remains the only plausible explanation of the origin of languages thus far."]

Genealogy from Shem to Abram!

7. (David: Verse 10: "These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, & begat Arphaxad two years after the Flood.") (Techi: Two years after the Flood?) (David: Yes.) (Techi: Wow, that would mean he must have been 97 or 98 when he went into the Ark!) Could be.

8. (David: Verse 11, "And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, & begat sons & daughters." So Shem was 600 years old when he died!) Think of that! Amazing! I feel like I've lived a hundred already! Imagine living that long!

9. (David: Verse 12, "And Arphaxad lived five & thirty years, & begat Salah: And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred & three years, & begat sons & daughters. And Salah lived thirty years, & begat Eber: And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred & three years, & begat sons and daughters." It's getting lower & lower. "And Eber lived four & thirty years‚ & begat Peleg: And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred & thirty years, & begat sons & daughters.") What happened in the days of Peleg? (Kids: The Earth was divided.) Right!

10. (David: Verse 18: "And Peleg lived thirty years, & begat Reu: And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred & nine years, & begat sons & daughters. And Reu lived two & thirty years, & begat Serug: And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred & seven years, & begat sons & daughters. And Serug lived thirty years, & begat Nahor. And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, & begat sons & daughters. And Nahor lived nine & twenty years, & begat Terah." Terah was Abraham's father?) Yes! Good for you!

11. (David: Verse 25: "And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred & nineteen years‚ & begat sons & daughters. And Terah lived seventy years, & begat Abram, Nahor, & Haran.") (Techi: Terah named one of his sons after his father?) (David: Yes. Abraham, Nahor & Haran.)

Origin of Last Names!

12. (Techi: Grandpa, where did last names start?—Like nowadays people have a first name & a last name.) Oh‚ it started back in China, they say. It's in the Bible also. And in England, for example, Herbert the Miller's son just got shortened to Herbert Millerson. Or Herbert the son of Steven became Herbert Stevenson. Or Herbert the son of David became Herbert Davidson, etc. That's why so many Scandinavian names end with "son" or "sen." Or their names came from their trade, like Smith. A smith was a blacksmith. (Techi: There must have been a lot of Smiths because there were so many blacksmiths.)

13. They would identify the children by their fathers, & that's how it got started. (Techi: Or by their trade.) Or where they were from, like Joan of Arc. In French it's Jeanne d'Arc.

The Generations of Terah!

14. (David: Verse 27: "Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, & Haran; & Haran begat Lot.") (Techi: They called him "Abram" at first, instead of Abraham.) (David: Verse 28: "And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.") You pronounce it "Kal-dees." (David: Oh, interesting! "And Abram & Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai."—Is that how you pronounce it?) SAR–eye, yes‚ that's right. And it was later Sarah. (David: "And the name of Nahor's wife‚ Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, & the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child."

15. (Verse 31: "And Terah took Abram his son‚ & Lot the son of Haran his son's son, & Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; & they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; & they came unto Haran, & dwelt there.")

16. Ur of the Chaldees was down here at the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, in what is now Iraq, right here above Kuwait. And because you couldn't just cross the desert over into Canaan, they naturally just followed the Euphrates river up to Haran, which is up here in Southern Turkey. (Techi: Why did they move up there?) They were on their way to Canaan & stopped there. They went up there & then they were going to follow the coast of the Mediterranean down to Canaan. These were the main camel routes even way back then to go to Canaan.

17. (Techi: But why would they want to go to Canaan?) Well, obviously God must have told Terah to go. See, here was Babylon‚ where they were from, & they'd gone on further down towards the Persian Gulf to live at Ur. Then they went up the river until they got to Haran, & then Abraham was heading down towards Canaan, down here, see? (David: That's where God told Abraham to get his family & go.) Yes.

18. And now look particularly at this 31st verse, I want to talk to you about this a little bit: "Terah took Abram his son, & Lot the son of Haran his son's son." What relation was Abraham to Lot? (David: His uncle.) Abraham was Lot's uncle, right. Lot was Abram's nephew. (Techi: But why? How does that work?) Well‚ Abram was a son of Terah, & Haran was a son of Terah. Abram & Haran were brothers, & Lot was the son of Abram's brother Haran. (Techi: Yes‚ I get it.)

19. "And they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan." They were headed for Canaan then. So God must have told his father Terah to go to Canaan originally. (Techi: Why did he bring Lot with them instead of his other sons?) Well, he brought the remaining family. (Techi: Oh, that was all the family then?) (David: Yes, Haran was dead.) He had died, & it doesn't mention Nahor until later. (Techi: Why did Haran die?) People just die sometimes, Honey. (Techi: Was he old?) We don't know exactly. We could figure out how old he was, I presume, but we don't want to stop. Every little detail like that is not that important, Techi. We want to stick to the main body of the story.

20. Now notice the 31st verse, I wanted to bring out this fact that they "went to go into the land of Canaan; & they came unto Haran, & dwelt there." I guess they were tired of travelling by that time & Terah was old. "And the days of Terah were two hundred & five years: & Terah died in Haran." They were on their way to Canaan, but I guess Terah was getting pretty old & tired, so he died in Haran.—That was about half way.

Chapter 11 Review!

21. On our test‚ I'm certainly not going to ask you about all the ages & all the names of all of these people in the 11th Chapter, but I will ask you questions about the Tower of Babel.—Why they built it, or why they stopped building it, & why God confused their languages. That must have really been quite a shock when they'd all been speaking the same language & all of a sudden this guy over here next to you starts jibber jabbering in another language!—And the guy over here is jibber jabbering in some other language! (Techi: And the guy over there is jibber jabbering in another language!) (David: They probably went searching through the city to find somebody who spoke their language.) (Techi: Maybe they'd find a girl that spoke their language & would marry her & have a whole bunch of other people who spoke the same language.) Right!

22. So really it kind of messed things up‚ but it probably saved the World from self-destruction much earlier, because otherwise there would have been some big dictator & dictatorship in one language.

23. The main purpose of giving this genealogy here is to help you figure out the chronology, when this was & when that was. Savvy?

24. Then I will ask you who was Abram's father & who were his brothers. (Techi: Terah was Abram's father.) Yes, & Terah had how many sons? (Kids: Three!) What were their names? (David: Abram‚ Nahor & Haran.) And I'll probably ask you which one died. (Kids: Haran.) Haran died first. And he had a son named what? (Techi: Lot.) Who was Abram's... (Techi: Nephew.) Right! Abram was Lot's uncle, & Lot was Abram's nephew.

25. Haran died before his father, that was rather unusual. "In the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees," where they came from. (Techi: I wonder if he had some disease.) Well, we don't know. Apparently it wasn't important enough to tell us.

26. "And they all took wives." You certainly should remember the name of Abram's wife. What was that? (David: Sarai.) And I probably won't ask you this one, but who was Nahor's wife? (Techi: Milcah.) Right! So Nahor married his niece, didn't he? Nahor's wife, Milcah, was the daughter of Haran. (Techi: He married his brother's daughter?) Yes. (Techi: That would mean that he was probably twice her age.) Well‚ he was probably as old as her father, or close to it. (Techi: Unless he was a real young son & his brother was really old & married early. Then she might have been around the same age.) It was quite common for older men to marry younger women back in Bible times; in fact, to marry several of them. "And Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah‚ & the father of Iscah." Now Iscah, we don't know whether that was a boy or a girl, as far as I know.

27. So Terah took Abram & Lot & Sarai his daughter-in-law, & went forth with them from where? Where was Abram probably born? What city? (Kids: Ur.) Right, Ur of the Chaldees.

28. And what land would that have been in today? (Techi: Iraq or Kuwait.) Probably somewhere in Iraq or even Kuwait. For many years the scoffers said there was no such place as Ur of the Chaldees, but then they discovered the ruins. They even found an inscription there that Abram was a judge in Ur of the Chaldees. So he was there! (Techi: He must have been pretty old when they moved.) Well‚ not necessarily. You lived longer & didn't get old as quickly in those days!

29. And where were they headed for when they left Ur, their home town? (Techi: To Canaan.) Right! But where did they land & live for awhile? (Kids: In Haran.) Until who died? (Kids: Terah.) And who was Terah? (Kids: Abram's father.) Right.

30. So it was up to somebody else to carry on to go on into the land of Canaan, which apparently Terah was headed for, & whom God had probably told to go there, but he didn't make it. He settled down & didn't really finish the journey. And we're going to find out in the next Chapter who finished the journey! (Kids: Abraham!) Very good!

31. And we're just about right on time! Amen? (Kids: Yes! Amen!) Praise the Lord! Did you find that interesting? (Kids: Yes!) I think we can get maybe 20 questions out of that! Praise the Lord! Would you like to close in prayer, Techi? (Techi: Amen! Thank You Jesus! Praise You Lord! Thank You Lord for this good class that Grandpa gave us. Please bless him, Lord‚ for teaching us, & bless the rest of this evening, in Jesus' name, amen!) Amen! PTL!

Picture captions & fact boxes:

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The Confusion of Tongues!

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SARAH, SARAI [SAR uh, SAR eye] (noble lady)—The wife of ABRAHAM‚ and the mother of ISAAC. Sarah's name was originally Sarai, but it was changed to Sarah by God, much as her husband's name was changed from Abram to Abraham. Ten years younger than Abraham, Sarah was his half-sister; they had the same father but different mothers (Gen.20:12). Sarah was about 65 years old when she & Abraham left Haran (Gen.12:4-5).

Ruins of the Tower of Babylon & Birs Nimrud.

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UR, Abraham's native city in southern Mesopotamia, a pre-Flood city; destroyed by the Flood & rebuilt. Ur was an important metropolis of the ancient world, situated on the Persian Gulf, at the mouth of the Euphrates River, 12 miles from Eridu‚ in present-day Iraq.

Ur was the capital of Sumer for two centuries until the Elamites captured the city. The city came to be known as "Ur of the Chaldees" after the Chaldeans entered southern Babylonia.

Abraham lived in the city of Ur (Gen.11:28,31) at the height of its splendor. The city was a prosperous center of religion & industry. Thousands of recovered clay documents attest to thriving business activity. Excavations of the royal cemetery, from about 2900 to 2500 B.C., have revealed a surprisingly advanced culture, particularly in the arts & crafts. Uncovered were beautiful jewelry & art treasures, including headwear, personal jewelry, & exquisite china & crystal.

The Babylonians worshipped many gods, but the moon god Sin was supreme. Accordingly, the city of Ur was a kind of theocracy centered in the moon deity. Ur-Nammu, the founder of the strong Third Dynasty of Ur (around 2070-1960 B.C.), built the famous ziggurats, a system of terraced platforms on which temples were erected. The Tower of Babel (Gen.11:3-4) was a seven-story ziggurat made of brick. It is a miracle of God's providence that Terah & Abraham resisted Ur's polluted spiritual atmosphere & left, as Abraham set out on a journey of faith to Canaan that would bless all Mankind.

Ur's glory was suddenly destroyed about 1900 B.C. Foreigners stormed down from the surrounding hills & captured the reigning king‚ reducing the city to ruins. So complete was the destruction that the city was buried in oblivion until it was excavated centuries later by archaeologists.

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(From Dad's "Bible in Pictures," Chapter 2:) The higher critics of the Bible said there was not such a person as Abraham because there never was such a place as Ur. But since that time they've actually dug up the remains of Ur & they know more about its culture than we know about many other cities in the Bible. They even dug up plaques which mention the name of Abram. Whether it was the same Abram or not‚ we don't know, but there was someone called that in that city many thousands of years ago!

The great ziggurat at Ur was a brick stage-tower, on the topmost level of which stood the temple of Nanna. Seventy feet high‚ the structure was 200 feet long & 150 feet wide. Above it is seen as it was excavated & below is an artist's impression of what it may have looked like around 2000 B.C.

HARAN [HAIR uhn] (meaning unknown) — A city of northern Mesopotamia where Abraham & his father Terah lived for a time (Gen.11:31-32; 12:4-5). The family of Abraham's brother Nahor also lived in this city for a time, as did Jacob and his wife Rachel (Gen.28:10; 29:4-5). The city was on the Balikh, a tributary of the Euphrates River, 386 kilometers (240 miles) northwest of Nineveh and 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of Damascus.Haran lay on one of the main trade routes between Babylonia and the Mediterranean Sea. Second Kings 19:12 records that the city was captured by the Assyrians. Today Haran is a small Arab village, Harran. Haran is also spelled Charran (Acts 7:2‚4).

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family