Or, The Change from Primeval to Patriarchal History
Scripture: Genesis 11:10-32
Date: March 13, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
One commentator gave the following counsel regarding Genesis 11:
In our judgment, the only section that can be used to advantage as a text is that of verses 1-9.
The Tower of Babel profits for preaching, but the rest presumably can only be used for…disadvantage? I acknowledge the challenge, but Genesis 11:10-32 is far from hopeless.
A transition takes place here in the book of Genesis as we move from Primeval history to Patriarchal history. If you don’t know what either of those words means, I’ll come back to it in a bit.
In the summer of 2003, Jonathan Sarr, Chuck Weinberg, and my father-in-law, Dave Light, volunteered to drive my mom and dad from Marysville to Cincinnati, OH, where my sister lived. My parents had flown to Washington to see Maggie who had just turned one. My dad also really wanted to see some of the sights going back across the middle of the United States, but he wasn’t well enough for the two of them to make the drive. So one August Tuesday morning all six of us headed east in a minivan.
We traveled around 500 miles a day for the first five days and slept in hotels the first four nights. We saw Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and the Mall of America in Minneapolis. But when we dropped my parents off on the fifth night, a Saturday night, we took stock. We had a rental van with unlimited miles, my parents had already agreed to pay for the gas, we had four drivers, what could we do?
It had been percolating for a couple days, but we made the decision that night to drive from Cincinnati to the East Coast in New York City. We were going to try to get to New York and then back home in two days; which we did. We didn’t stop at another hotel. The four of us covered a total of 28 states and one District in seven days, and called it the Trogdor Tour due to some audio clips I’d play from Homestarrunner when the four of us were getting punchy. Mo made us celebratory t-shirts with a map of the U.S. and all the states we went through were colored.
We’ve talked since then about trying to hit all 48 continental States in seven days, but gas prices went crazy and a couple of us had more kids and more responsibilities.
The reason I tell you that story is because, from the time we left Marysville, we were on the same trip. We had the same goal: to take my parents, drop them off, and return. But there was a moment when we were in NYC when the trip totally changed. Up until that time, we were headed toward the same purpose, but when we turned south west in NYC we made a turn that would change the rest of the trip.
There are times when one turn changes everything after that. That’s exactly what happens here in the last part of Genesis 11. There is a turn in God’s story of redemption that changes everything to come. It’s not a different goal from before. God’s goal was the same since before He created in Genesis 1. His goal is still the same as it was in Genesis 3 after Adam sinned and God promised a Seed who would save.
From nothing but the Trinity to a universe is a big change. From innocence to sinfulness is a big deal. From pre to post flood, things are different, geographically and geologically and meteorologically. In comparison this transition between verses 9 and 10 in Genesis 11 might not seem as important, but God’s choice of Abram, a descendant of Shem, is like a snowball that continues to gather size today. We’re in it.
Moses organizes Genesis by “Generations,” by toledot. Two divisions are started (and one completed) in Genesis 11, verses 10-26 and then 11:27-25:11. Consider how many chapters Moses spends on the story of Terah’s offspring. No coverage has come close to the proportion given to the “generations of Terah.”
Genesis can be outlined by generations as well as by four key events and four key persons. That turn also takes place in Genesis 11:10. We move from the beginning of the human race to the beginning of the Hebrew nation. We move from what’s called ancient or primeval history about the easiest ages in the world. Most of that group are the antediluvians, those who lived pre-flood. Primeval history extends to Genesis 11:9. Then we move to patriarchal history about the “fathers.” A patriarch is a male head of a family or tribe, usually the oldest of the group.
The biblical patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s Twelve Sons (called “patriarchs” in Acts 7:8). Genesis 11:10 is where the patriarchal story starts.
The move is from global history to one group, a new nation formed by God. The first eleven chapters of Genesis covered some 2000 years of history and the final 38 chapters cover less than 200. Much more attention is given to the story of the Fathers than to the creation of the universe, and there’s more concern for the land of Canaan than the rest of the earth.
Two sections divided by toledot, verses 10-26 is Book 5: Shem’s genealogy, and verses 27-32 introduce Book 6: Terah’s genealogy.
These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. (Genesis 11:10–26)
Shem’s genealogy is what’s known as a linear rather than segmented genealogy. The only other linear genealogy in Genesis is in chapter 5 which traces the line of God’s promised seed. There are other sons and daughters but it doesn’t name more than one per generation until the end. Many of the other genealogies in Genesis are segmented, incorporating a variety of details, including the most recent in Genesis 10.
There is nothing extra in verses 10-26. There are no digressions. There are the same number of words following the same pattern in each of these verses before verse 26.
One reason for that might be because the aim is Abram; there’s no need for sightseeing between Shem and Abram. The point is to get from the flood (mentioned here for the last time in Genesis) to Abram and his offspring. The first five generations up to Peleg were already mentioned in Genesis 10. The elect line from Eber goes through Peleg and, since his name means division, he was probably born around the time of Babel. Arpaschad was born two years after the flood, so there were only 10 generations between the flood and Abram.
We have to do the math for ourselves to determine how long each father lived, and the length of life was significantly shorter than before the flood. Noah was still alive when Terah was born. I think about my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather who has been dead a really long time. None of my grandparents are alive and I never met any of my great-grandparents. But Noah and Shem were alive around Abram’s time.
Usually someone insists that there are gaps in the genealogies, perhaps thousands of years of gaps. The primary reason that men want to add invisible names and make “father” mean “in the same line together” rather than father is to find room for evolution in the Bible. Maybe there are other, smaller reasons (based on reading in 1 Chronicles, Luke 3), but the the burden of proof is on the gap-finders who willy-nilly throw out the detailed information. Why repeat the five names from Shem to Peleg as in 10:22-25? Why list how old each father was when his son was born if the son was not their son? There’s no reason in the text to explain it otherwise.
This is a segmented genealogy presenting the pivotal persons and plot line of Book 6.
The first paragraph tells us the characters. It repeats the very end of the last toledot.
Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took 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 Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. (Genesis 11:27-30)
These are the primary characters found in the story over the next major section of Genesis.
Sarai is Abram’s half-sister, a daughter of the same father (Terah) but a different mother. Sister status becomes an issue in a later chapter.
The darkest foreshadow comes in verse 30. Barren means that Sarai had no kids, she couldn’t have kids.
The name Abram combines ab “father” and rum “be high,” so “exalted father” (Waltke, Wenham). When God changes his name to “Abraham” in 17:5 it fits even less: “exalted father of a multitude.”
So this is the “father” God chose to make a nation for Himself? This is the patriarch through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed? God starts with Abram and Sarai.
To go back to Sarai, her name is likely based on the Akkadian word sharratu which was a name for the mistress of the moon god Sin, the primary god of Ur. Milcah is based on malkatu which was the title of the goddess Ishtar, daughter of the moon god Sin (Watke).
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. (Genesis 11:31–32)
Three specific locations are mentioned: Ur, Haran, and Canaan. It’s more than likely that Ur was originally a seaport on the gulf coast in Mesopotamia, and sediment deposited over time so that the archaeological finds connect to Ur are now inland. It’s about 125 miles southeast from Babel/Babylon.
Ur and Haran were both centers of moon worship.
Haran was approximately 600 miles from Ur (so a little more than from Seattle to Spokane and back, or Seattle to Redding, CA, which is 590 miles). Their goal was Shechem in Canaan which is about the same distance again from Haran. They did not travel from Ur to Canaan directly because of the desert. It was wise to follow the water source of the Euphrates River.
In Acts 7, Stephen said that God called Abram in Ur to move. Genesis 11 says Terah moved the family. Abram must have communicated that revelation to his father and his father agreed to leave. They left for Canaan via Haran.
The LORD reaffirmed His call while Abram was in Haran. Perhaps they stopped and Terah settled there because Terah was too old, or he was hurt. Perhaps Terah never fully committed to the LORD and fully turned from his idolatry. Maybe the moon worship in Haran kept him back.
Though Abram is in the chosen line of Shem through Eber, there is no evidence that Abram was worshipping the Lord. The evidence is to the contrary. The Lord chose him out of worshipping strange gods.
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:1–2, see also verse 14)
Terah and his family, including Abram, were in the chosen line but they were idolators. The turn in the salvation story, the creation of the Jewish nation, comes from God’s call of a pagan with a barren wife. A people who will worship the LORD come from a people who aren’t.
There are no “tips” from this passage, unless we consider this to be the tip of the redemptive iceberg.
Why did God choose an idolator? Why did God choose a man with a barren wife to be a father? God chooses those who look like they don’t have a future to blessing by faith.