#Genesis 11 #BibleForBeginners #Bible #BibleStudy #KnowYourBible
alittleperspective.com/genesis-11-2022/

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

11:1-9 {p} The tower of Babel rebellion against God
11:10-11 {s} Shem the father of Arphaxad
11:12-13 {s} Arphaxad the father of Shelah
11:14-15 {s} Shelah the father of Eber
11:16-17 {s} Eber the father of Peleg
11:18-19 {s} Peleg the father of Reu
11:20-21 {s} Reu the father of Serug
11:22-23 {s} Serug the father of Nahor
11:24-25 {s} Nahor the father of Terah
11:26-32 {p} Terah the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran

The Tower of Babel incident is one of the pivotal events in the history of the world and in understanding Scripture. We learned that God had told Noah, when he emerged from the ark, to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth,” (Gen 9:1). And then we learned that in the fifth generation, Noah divided up the earth into seventy districts, and assigned a district to each of his seventy grandchildren and great-grandchildren who became the patriarchs of the nations.

Josephus records that Nimrod instituted a rebellion against God among them as they journeyed to their places. Instead of each family journeying to their place, and establishing themselves there and multiplying there so that the earth was filled,

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. … And they said, ‘Come, let us build a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make a name for us, lest we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth.’ Gen 11:2, 4

We learned in Gen 10:10 that Nimrod was the king of Babel. Josephus records that Nimrod instituted idol worship among the people to turn their hearts from God, as some of them were reluctant to join in this tower building project and leave off journeying to their places as they had been commanded. They feared another flood of judgment to punish them for their rebellion.

Thus they built the tower, using bitumen for mortar (Gen 11:3). Do you ever wonder why God includes some details in Scripture? It turns out, if you look up Sumerian architecture in an encyclopedia (Shinar is known as “Sumer” in modern history books) they never used mortar in their buildings. But here, they did something they didn’t normally do – bitumen is a waterproofing agent. They were waterproofing their tower.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer#architecture
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitumen#history

In other words, they were defying God. They knew God’s plan, rejected it, and were busy establishing their own. Included was what they thought was an insurance policy in case the one true God they knew existed, decided to judge them for their rebellion and their sin.

There is an enormous amount of cultural information from the ancient world that reveals Nimrod as the founder of paganism, of occultism, of every sort of depraved immorality embedded into ancient idol worship as tenets of their religion, of even an attempt to resurrect “the way of Cain” which had been cleansed from the earth in the Flood (Gen 6:4, “and also afterward,”). The name “Nimrod” means in Hebrew, “rebel.”

This Great Rebellion against YHVH in Hebrew, is Babel. The same word in Greek, is Babylon. So Satan’s master plan in his war against YHVH, was to take the seventy “seeds” of the nations, and so thoroughly corrupt them that the truth and worship of YHVH would be lost, and the Promised Seed could not come. Next time we will learn of God’s ingenious counter plan.

If there are questions, these are good resources:

Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, Book I – Josephus
sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-1.htm

Bricks for Stones part 1, part 2, part 3 – Brad Scott
wildbranch.org/teachings/articles/10brick1.html
wildbranch.org/teachings/articles/11brick2.html
wildbranch.org/teachings/articles/12brick3.html

The Babylon Connection – Christine Miller
alittleperspective.com/the-babylon-connection/

Origin of the Human Races – Answers in Genesis
answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v3/n3/origin-of-human-races

mewe @ mewe.com/join/a_little_perspective
Gab @ ChristineMiller
Torah Network @ ChristineMiller