I was pondering the chronology of Genesis today with reference to the Tower of Babel. The whole story is a bit of a puzzler because at face value it presents an interesting picture of God, but that wasn’t my question. The story of Babel occurs in Gen 11:1-9 and it begins with the fact of a common language which God subsequently confuses.
However in the previous chapter (Genesis 10:5) in a genealogy from Noah it says they each had their own language – within two generations from Noah. So, if you take the story of Babel as historical and in the right place in Genesis then it most likely occurred within two generations of Noah but that raises a host of other questions.
I haven’t yet gone to the commentaries to see what clever solutions they have to this (because no doubt they exist) – anyway, who knows the answer?
As a pastor, we’re often supposed to know all the answers and we’re afraid of admitting that there are some bits of the Bible (inspired though they may be) that we just don’t get or are difficult to fathom. We shouldn’t be. We shouldn’t be afraid of honest questions and honest doubts as it will lead us to new discoveries. I’ll let you know which answer I find the most convincing when I do a little study on it later in the week.
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