one kind cannot change into another and that the changes are a result of variation within the created kinds — not descent from a single common ancestor.” by Roger Patterson in “Evolution Exposed: Biology” (chapter 3), www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee/natural-selection-vs-evolution.
4 For example, the antelope kind bore many specialized new species, including gazelles, blackbucks, gerenuks, dibatags, saiga, beira, suni, klipspringer, and others. The camelidae kind bore camels, llamas, vicunas, guanacos, and more. Some animals were born with no hair, some with short hair, some with long. There were thick, dark coats, and thin, light-colored coats. This sort of variation within a kind is often referred to as speciation. It is not the unproven amoeba-to-man idea of evolution popularized by Charles Darwin and others.
5 Genesis 11:2. “And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar.”
6 All of Greenland, Iceland, and Antarctica, nearly all of Canada and New Zealand, and much of modern-day Russia, Europe, the USA, South America, and Australia.
7 Dr. Andrew Snelling and Michael Matthews, “When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?” Answers magazine, vol. 8.2, April–June 2013, p. 46–52.
8 Weather data studied by meteorologist Michael Oard suggests 500 years (rather than 300), plus about 200 years for melt off, (compared to 100). See the technical writings and summaries by Mike Oard, Larry Vardiman, and Jake Hebert on this subject: www.icr.org/article/are-polar-ice-sheets-only-4500-years-old by Michael Oard, M.S., www.icr.org/article/was-there-ice-age/ by Jack Hebert, Ph.D., and www.icr.org/article/7161/ by Larry Vardiman, Ph.D.
9 “It is hard to imagine such extreme changes in weather, landscapes, and vegetation during the rapid Ice Age and the years that followed. Some lush places in the north were stricken by drought, while monsoons filled the Sahara Desert with lakes and grasslands, attracting rhinoceroses, crocodiles, and human settlers. For a time at the end of the Ice Age, the drenched Nile Valley was not even habitable,” by geologist Dr. Andrew Snelling in the Answers magazine article “When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History,” at https://answersingenesis.org/environmental-science/ice-age/when-was-the-ice-age-in-biblical-history/.
—8—
THE TOWER OF BABEL
(c. 2242 B.C.)
Sometimes, God has to move us out of our comfort zone.
More than one hundred years had passed since Noah left the Ark1 and much had happened!
The fossil record reveals that there were many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as the movement of the continents slowed in the decades after the Flood.2 Even so, forests and abundant vegetation spread across the warm and well-watered areas near the equator. Immense ice sheets and glaciers began to form near the poles. Animals continued to spread across the earth. And four generations of Noah’s family may have totaled thousands of men, women, and children.3
Noah was now over 700 years old. His three sons were all about 200. Each had the opportunity — the spiritual responsibility as husbands and fathers — to ensure that their children and grandchildren knew and could pass down the truth about creation, how sin and death started, and the promised coming Redeemer who will crush Satan and be the once-and-for-all ultimate sacrifice.4
However, in the four generations since the Flood, something began to go drastically wrong. The people did not spread out and instead settled in a region called Shinar, probably in modern-day Iraq.5
One can easily imagine how this rebellion against God’s command to fill the earth may have come about.
Beginning with Adam and Eve, everyone apparently spoke the same language. This made it easy for ancient people to build on the substantial knowledge and experiences of others, which helped them to achieve so much so quickly.6
Much of the pre-Flood knowledge — such as Cain’s experience as a city-builder, and Tubal-cain’s skill with brass and iron — was passed from Noah and his sons to their descendants.7 However, when those entrusted with great knowledge do not seek to honor the Creator and adjust their lives to live according to His plan, God is not pleased. This was the case just four generations after the Flood, when Noah and his sons were still living.
During the time of Noah’s great-great-great grandson Peleg,8 the people were constructing a city with a very distinctive tower.9 Genesis 11 says that they wanted to make a name for themselves10 by building a structure to help them reach to the heavens, perhaps under the guise of being a place to sacrifice to God. It was likely a towering pyramid-like ziggurat.11
Before Babel was finished,12 God confused the people with new languages. Scholars say that around 90 different root-languages originated in this middle-eastern region, and that the 7,500 languages and dialects of today all came from those.13 Since God normally works through families, such as Noah’s, it is likely that each immediate family spoke the same language. There may have been multiple families per language.
No longer able to communicate with those who suddenly spoke differently, and unable to finish the city, the different groups spread out and moved to other parts of the world. Now separated by language, the people expanded their domains and eventually established nations and empires. They took their knowledge of tower building with them, as evidenced by the many ziggurats, pyramids, and tower mounds in countries near and far.14
It was at this time that the human gene pool was split apart and physical characteristics in the various groups became distinctive. A wide variety of facial bone structures, skin tones from very dark to very light, different textures and colors of hair, eye shape, and other features started to be dominant in various language groups and the regions where those groups settled.
Today we mistakenly call groups with distinctive features races. However, the Bible is clear that we are all of one blood, and only one race exists — the human race.15
PRIMARY PASSAGES
Gen. 11
KEY VERSE
“Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Gen. 11:9
WRAP UP
“Lord, when I think of men on the Tower of Babel working and talking side by side, I think of how dependent they were on each other for safety. One moment they were talking and the next they were stunned because they were hearing gibberish! Fear would have grown quickly, and so would distrust. The people would have broken into groups based on who they could understand. That was a gentle way of forcing them to move out and begin filling the earth, as You commanded a century earlier! Thank You for your grace and patience then, and now, dear Lord.”
1 “Renowned chronologist Archbishop James Ussher placed the time of Babel at 106 years after the Flood because