The Tower of Babel to Abraham (Gen 11)

Genesis 11

1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

• This story of the Tower of Babel is EXTREMELY out of place. Last chapter, it talks about the "Sons" of Noah's Children, who's names are actually linked to other civilizations and cultures spread throughout the area like the Assyrians, Greeks, and Egyptians to name a few. Many of the cities and cultures linked to some of those names don't have much history, if any at all, before about 1500 BC, which is 800 years after the flood "supposedly" occurred. It goes into detail about how each of Noah's grandchildren were born and divided by their languages and nations.
  
• So to summarize, the last chapter had to be a pretty big expanse in time after the flood in order to account for the world to be repopulated with enough people to eventually begin to migrate, settle, and develop their own languages, cities, and nations.
• Now all of a sudden, this story seems to backtrack from the last chapter when it says "(Gen 10:5)By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." That verse is basically saying that once people migrated, their own languages evolved on their own, which is basically what happens throughout history. No need for the story of "the Tower of Babel."
  

2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

• According to the last chapter, "they" who journeyed east is apparently Nimrod, the founder of Babel, along with his "crew." Now the Earth had to have been repopulated enough after the flood to have enough people as citizens of the many cities Nimrod founds, as well as the populations of the other civilizations in existence at the time.
  

3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

• Interestingly enough, the inven­tion of the fired brick is believed to have arisen in about 3000 BC in the Middle East from the archaeological evidence, which is 700 years BEFORE the supposed date of the flood. The earlier sun-dried mud brick is believed to have been used since 6-7000 BC.
• After a flood which wiped out all of civilization save for a few people, all technology and tradeskills of each profession would eventually have to be rediscovered. It's ridiculous to think Noah and his three sons knew it all and taught everyone from that point on.
  

4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

• Their grand "scheme." It's interesting to note that "lest" is defined as "for fear of." This verse doesn't make any sense in this context. In other words, they're saying "Let us build a tower for fear that we be scattered across Earth." Ironically enough, they supposedly do get scattered. The author is writing this with foreknowledge.
  

5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

• God has to "come down and see?" I haven't seen one characteristic of God being omnipresent or all-knowing at all so far in the Bible since the beginning.
• It's interesting to note that a tower big enough to reach into the sky would take many years, possibly up to 100 or more. This "city and tower which men builded" suggests that it was completed.
• Why doesn't God get mad when we build our skyscrapers in the cities of today?
  

6And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

• What is God so afraid of? What's wrong with working as one? What is wrong with having one language and nothing being restrained from us? Apparently, the only thing restraining us is God.
  

7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

• Let "US" go down? This is one of many plural verses of God. (Gen 1:26, 3:5, 3:22, 6:24)
  

8So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

• So to confound our languages, God scattered us upon the face of ALL the Earth. This literally sounds like God picked people up, and put them in remote parts of the world, which is a violation of free will and obviously ridiculous.
• This would make migration patterns unpredictable and with huge gaps, which is not the case. The migration pattern of man and civilization can ultimately be traced back to Africa in a linear and congruent time-line by tracing the colonization patterns and taking boat use into account throughout history.
• This makes no sense on God's part. He's obviously afraid of something and needs to cause confusion and separatism. Not to mention it makes no sense in that it defies known history.
• The only truth here is that as humans have migrated on their own, (but with their OWN LEGS, and not a God that forcefully teleported people all over the world) each of their languages eventually evolved in their own directions. The English language has roots that can be traced back thousands of years to other languages. This is the result of migrating and splitting up across the world on our own, which is exactly how languages change and evolve over time. This is known as a "living language," as opposed to a "dead language" that never evolves.
  

9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

• If God didn't randomly scatter people all over Earth, then he scrambled everyone's brains. What about writing? Did this little "scrambling" make people forget how to read and write the language that they once knew? The flood supposedly happened around 2300 BC according to young Earth Creationists. The first written language was invented about 3000-3500 BC by Sumerians, and language itself predates that by a long time.
  
• Sumer is located in southern Mesopotamia, and is one of the earliest known civilizations in the world. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid Period (late 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk Period(4th millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylon(Babel) in the early 2nd millennium BC. The term "Sumerian" applies to all speakers of the Sumerian language.
• The history of the rise of Babel(Babylon) clashes with the supposed date of the flood. Babylon cannot rise if it doesn't have the population on Earth to do so. Noah's sons need time to populate the Earth. Sumer, along with all the other cities that existed at the time, would have been destroyed by the flood, and not by the Babylonians. This is not the case.
  
• Sumerians even have their own flood legend on their cuneiform tablets which predate the Bible's purported date. The Sumerian flood legend was passed down through oral tradition way before they invented the cuneiform writing and wrote about it. Sumerians even have their own "Eden." Babylon has their own flood legend known as "The Epic of Gilgamesh" that shares various similarities to the Sumerian story. It's becoming increasingly clear where the stories in the Bible have evolved from.
  

10These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

• From the last chapter describing nations and languages having already been developed from Noah's sons, and then to the beginning of this chapter which tells the story of the Tower of Babel, which supposedly happens very shortly after the flood, it suddenly comes all the way back to Shem's bloodline up to Abram which pretty much negates the stories of the Tower of Babel along with the entire last chapter.
  
• Something is NOT right here. If the flood ever happened, it was a localized flood. No animals and no people had to repopulate Earth. All nations, all languages, and ESPECIALLY all the religions on Earth did not evolve from just 3 families over 4,000 years.
  

11And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

• Again, these are not individual people, but cities, tribes, and/or civilizations based on region.
• Also, before the flood, God said Man should only live to 120 years, but yet here we have people who are still living longer than that up to 500 years. This would normally be a contradiction, but most of this "bloodline" are apparently not individual people.
• I'm beginning to think that these names were made to be portrayed as people with ridiculous life spans in order to somehow establish some kind of congruent timeline, as well as attempt to establish a divine bloodline from day 1 of creation to Jesus to revelation. A beginning and end, so to speak. It's the perfect cover up, and would indeed explain why people are given ridiculous ages of life in order to do so.
  

12And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: 13And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 15And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

16And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:

• In Genesis 10:26, it says that Eber begat Peleg, AND Joktan, then went off into Joktan's "bloodline." Now in this chapter, it goes off into Eber's bloodline which leads into Abram. It gives no mention of Joktan for some reason.
  

17And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 18And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: 19And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. 20And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: 21And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. 22And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: 23And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 24And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

25And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. 26And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

• It's interesting to note that Terah names Nahor after his "father."
  

27Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

• Here Abraham is born.
  
• The name "Haran" is used as both the son of Terah, and as the name of a city as well.
  

28And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

• "Ur of the Chaldees" is a Sumerian city, and is one of the oldest known civilizations in history. "Of Chaldees" mainly describes where it is located. "Chaldees" was a Hellenistic designation for a part of Babylonia, mainly around Sumerian Ur, which turned into an independent kingdom under the Chaldees.
  

29And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

• In Rabbinic literature, Abram is the daughter of Haran, which is Abram's niece. It was conveniently left out of the Bible of today for possibly that reason because it is incenst.
  
• This verse does say that Nahor's wife is the daughter of his brother Haran, so it's safe to assume that Sarai is indeed Haran's daughter as well. The only child credited to Haran in the verse above is Lot, but here it says he had another child. It's very possible he had one or more not credited above in verse 27.
  
• Again, bloodlines are VERY important throughout the Bible and history. Especially the bloodlines of Kings and Pharaohs.
  

30But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

• At least for now.
  

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

• Here, Terah takes his family to Haran, which is a city. Ironically, Terah's "fathers" name was Haran.
  

32And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

• Terah was at least seventy years by the time he had Abram. So by the time Terah died, Abram is 135 years old. Now Abraham is 100 years old by the time he has Isaac, and Abraham and Sarah laugh at this because they have him in "their old age." Terah lives to see his two grandchildren, Ishmael and Isaac.
  
• Sarah dies at the age of 127, and is about 10 years younger than Abraham. Terah outlives Sarah according to this.
• (Gen 25:7-8)7And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
• According to that, Abraham lived 175 years up to a "good old age, an old man, and full of years." Abraham's father died 40 years before that and apparently lived up to a better old age, an even older man, and fuller years. This is nonsense.
• And people are STILL living lives greater than the "120 year max" God said people should live up to before the flood. This is a contradiction. Apparently, whatever God says DOESN'T go.