Q. Been doing an in depth study on the Bible. Came across a series of questions from Genesis. Genesis 10:5 says there are multiple clans with multiple languages, but Genesis 11:1 says the whole earth had 1 language. Could you clear this up?
Genesis 11 picks up the biblical narrative where Genesis 9 leaves off. Genesis 10 is an insertion, a genealogy, that describes the descendants of Noah’s sons before the narrative moves on from Noah and his family. So when Genesis 10 describes various languages, this means the languages that those descendants came to speak after the Tower of Babel episode, which follows the genealogy in the book but not in time.
Author: Christopher R Smith
The Rev. Dr. Christopher R. Smith is an an ordained minister, a writer, and a biblical scholar. He was active in parish and student ministry for twenty-five years. He was a consulting editor to the International Bible Society (now Biblica) for The Books of the Bible, an edition of the New International Version (NIV) that presents the biblical books according to their natural literary outlines, without chapters and verses. His Understanding the Books of the Bible study guide series is keyed to this format. He was also a consultant to Tyndale House for the Immerse Bible, an edition of the New Living Translation (NLT) that similarly presents the Scriptures in their natural literary forms, without chapters and verses or section headings.
He has a B.A. from Harvard in English and American Literature and Language, a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell, and a Ph.D. in the History of Christian Life and Thought, with a minor concentration in Bible, from Boston College, in the joint program with Andover Newton Theological School.
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Good Question 