Genesis 11:10-26

Ancient Formations

Image Caption: Göbekli Tepe, the oldest monolithic circle complex. Source: Göbekli Tepe (Facts and Details) [https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub362/entry-6007.html]

Gobekli Tepe is located in southeastern Turkey, 10 kilometers from Urfa (a possible location of the 'Ur' of Terah). Gobekli Tepe is the world’s oldest sacred monolithic complex (9500 to 8000 BC) — 6,000 years older than Stonehenge and 5,000 years older than the Egyptian pyramids. Its circular precincts rest on a hilltop that holds many megaliths carved with images. Because of similar alignments among its monolithic circles, it is likely it was an ancient observatory. It was built during the hunter-gatherer age millennia before metal tools or pottery appear in archaeology.

Postdiluvian Vertical Genealogy ⟡ Abram's Way of Redemption

It was during the last days of the culture of Ur III (in ancient Sumer) that Terah's family would emerge to relate their story of relocating from Ur to Haran. Even before the rise of the Old Babylonian kingdoms of Isin and Larsa (2017 to 1794 BC), Terah's family would settle in Padan-Aram (now Syria), from which Abram would travel to the Canaanite Levant. Some argue that Terah's family traveled from Ur in southern Mesopotamia to Haran; others that they traveled from Urfa in southeastern Anatolia to Haran. Either way, the cultural influence of Neo-Sumerian Ur III would have reached the entire region from southern to northern Mesopotamia to one degree or another.

Mesopotamia had entered the era when law codes extended the influence of city-states over vast regions. In time the social impact of such law codes would reach into surrounding cultures, including those of the Levant. The oldest known law code, that of the Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2100 to 2050 BC), would be followed by the Sumerian Code of Lipit-Ishtar, ruler of the First Dynasty of Isin (ca. 1934 to 1924 BC), then by the Old Babylonian Code of Eshnunna (ca. 1930 BC) and Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1792 to 1750 BC).

Israel as a nation was yet unknown. It would be generations before Joseph's family would rise to power in 12th Dynasty Egypt (1991 to 1782 BC) and his heirs continue rule into the Second Intermediate Period (1782 to 1550 BC) — especially in the 14th and 15th Hyksos Dynasties at Avaris. For the verses of Genesis under consideration, the stage for God's plan of world redemption was being set.

Postdiluvian Vertical Genealogy ⟡ Genesis 11:10-26

By now, it should be evident that the genealogies of Genesis 1–11 trace a vertical line of decendency from Adam to Abram. Because the line of descendency and the chronology it supplies appear to form an unbroken collinear sequence, some scholars deduce that the biblical patriarchal record forms a closed chronology (without gaps) from the first human being to Abram.

Image Caption: Biblical Chronology of Pre- and Post-Diluvian Patriarchs. Source: Ages of the Patriarchs (Creation Truth Foundation) [https://www.creationtruth.com/] and [https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.ecwid.com/images/51635246/2235032172.jpg]

tôledôṯ of Shem

Image Caption: Toledoth of Shem. Source: Shem (Wikipedia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shem] The genealogy of Genesis 11:10-26 is that line through Shem that leads to Abram. Abram is a pivotal figure who forms the transition from the primordeal accounts of Genesis 1–11 and the episodic narratives of Genesis 12–50.

Genealogy Parallelism

Image Caption: Toledoth Accounts of Adam through Cain, Adam through Seth, and Shem. Source: Seth, Shem (Wikipedia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shem] The formulaic tôledôṯ introduction of the transitional, vertical genealogical account of Genesis 11:10-26 prompts comparison with previous genealogies that begin with the formula: that of Adam (Gen. 5) and that of Noah’s sons (Gen. 10). The closest parallelism with Gen. 11:10-26 is the genealogy of Adam in Gen. 5:1-32.

The Shem genealogy differs from that in chapter 5, in that its entries neither end with 'and he died' nor tally the total number of years for each patriarch, and in that the longevity of each patriarch in Genesis 11:10-26 generally successively declines, nevertheless, there remain clear indications that the genealogical lists of Genesis 5:1-32 and 11:10-26 were designed to be compared and contrasted thematically.

The only purely vertical genealogies in Genesis 1–11 are those of 5:1-32 and 11:10-27 (that of 4:17-26 being horizontal, and that of 10:1-32 being a mixture of horizontal and vertical).

Image Caption: Toledoth Accounts of Adam through Seth, and Shem. Source: Seth, Shem (Wikipedia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shem] The postdiluvian genealogy from Shem to Abram (11:10-26) both continues and parallels the prediluvian genealogy from Seth to Noah (5:1-32). The last of each line, Noah and Abram, is a salvific character elected by God to furnish salvation to the world. Both genealogies lead to world salvation.

These genealogies offer parallel tenfold structures, in which the last figure is both a savior and the father of an entirely new generation: Noah was the blessed father of the postdiluvian generation — a second Adam; and Abram was the blessed father of a people who were destined to restore blessing to all nations.

Although the structural parallelism isn’t perfect, both genealogies end with mention of three sons of whom the secondborn, not the firstborn, emerges as preeminent (Shem [middle son] before Japheth [oldest, 10:21] or Ham [youngest]; Abram [middle son] before Nahor [oldest, cf. 11:26, 32; 12:4] or Haran [youngest]). This inversion of the rights of primogeniture (whereby the firstborn usually prevails over others) is an ironic motif in Genesis.

Age Discrepancies in Transmission

Below are the main numerical divergences in Genesis 5 and 11 in the Masoretic Text (MT), Septuagint (LXX), and Samaritan Pentateuch (SP). Numbers in ( ) are calculations derived from other texts. Brackets [ ] are proposed reconstructions for the original text of the MT.

Source: Henry B. Smith, Jr. 2018. "The case for the Septuagint’s chronology in Genesis 5 and 11." In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism, ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 117–132. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. [https://biblearchaeology.org/images/Genesis-5-and-11/Smith-Henry-The-Case-for-the-Septuagints-Chronology-in-Gen-5-and-11-ICC.pdf]

The Masoretic Text yields a total timespan of about 2,008 years from the creation of Adam to the birth of Abraham. The LXX chronology yields a total of 3394 years from Creation to Abraham's birth, which is 1386 years greater than the same span in the Masoretic Text (MT).

In some LXX manuscripts, Methuselah's begetting age is recorded as 167, but scholars like Henry Smith argue 187 is the original reading to align with other witnesses and avoid placing his death after the Flood.

The LXX includes an additional patriarch, Kainan, in Genesis 11 between Arpachshad and Shelah, who is absent in the MT and SP. The inclusion is likely original, and since the patriarch is missing from both the MT and SP, the omission took place in the tradition that preceded the divergence between MT and SP.

Henry Smith avers, "The LXX’s primeval chronology, with a Creation date of ca. 5554 BC and a Flood date of ca. 3298 BC, has the strongest evidence favoring its originality."

Geopolitical Rhetoric

Image Caption: Nations of Canaan to Be Displaced. Source: Israel in Its Surroundings (Watchtower Online Library) [https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102003115] To each genealogy is later appended an additional, remote descendant from the youngest of the three brothers: Canaan, who was born to Ham (cf. 9:18b, 22, 25), and Lot, who was born to Haran (cf. 11:27b; 13:1b, 5-13, 14a; 19:30-38). In both cases, this distant relative becomes the ancestor of a nation that rivals the descendants of the elect/favored son: the Canaanite descendants rival the Israelites, as do also the two sons of Lot: Moab and the sons of Ammon (cf. 19:30-38).

Perhaps the most important implication of the parallelism between the two lists is that Shem is equated with Abram, both of whom were recipients of God’s blessing (9:26-27 [mediated through Noah]; 12:2-3, etc.).

Generation 1: Shem — Genesis 11:10-11

Generation 2: Arpachshad — Genesis 11:12-13

Generation 3: Shelah — Genesis 11:14-15

Generation 4: Eber — Genesis 11:16-17

Generation 5: Peleg — Genesis 11:18-19

Generation 6: Reu — Genesis 11:20-21

Generation 7: Serug — Genesis 11:22-23

Generation 8: Nahor — Genesis 11:24-25

Generation 9: Terah — Genesis 11:26

Generation of a Nation

The genealogy deriving from Shem forms an important transition to a major division in Genesis, that between the primordeal accounts of all nations (Genesis 1:1–11:26) and a series of patriarchal sagas that will give rise to a new nation (Genesis 11:27–50:26). The first patriarchal saga, that of Genesis 11:27–25:11 is that of Abram/Abraham. So, the genealogy of Genesis 11:10-26 furnishes the reader with a sense that history is now moving toward an important new human figure, one whom the original readers of Genesis already venerated as their oldest patriarchal founder.

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