More Genealogies: Genesis 10

The genealogies of Genesis 10 bring the story of Noah to a clost. it is likely that the hypothetical priestly source or P wrote this because P loved lists.

Modern people have a lot less to gain from this kind of thing than the ancients, so I'll just touch on it. Basically, this list answers the question 'where did all of these people come from?' It provides a bridge between the story of Noah and the populated world that the Jewish people were familiar with.

This chapter (like the stories that have come before it) is not historical. it's a story that served to remind the Jews that God wasn't just their God but the one who created and ruled over the the whole world. That was important, because in the time this story was written, the kingdom of Judah had beed conquored several times and reduced to the status of a privince in the Persian Empire. The Jewish people feared that they were nothing more than a footnote in another culture's history. This genealogy was meant to remind them that this was not the case.

We really don't learn much anything about the people in this chapter except for their names and where they settled. The only exception to this is Nimrod, who is described as the first man on earth to become a mighty warrior. He is also described as a mighty hunter. Reading this you get the impression that Nimrod may at one time have been the hero of his own story which is now forgotten. There are Jewish traditions that suggest he was the Great King of Babylonia, that he built the Tower of Babel, and that he had at least one meeting with Abraham. However, none of this shows up in the Bible.

FOOTNOTE: If you've been reading this blog, you may have noticed that I refer to the people who wrote it by several different names. Sometimes I say "Hebrews", sometimes "Israelites", and sometimes "Jews." There is a method to this madness that has to do with the history of Israel.

The word "Hebrew" appears to come from the Egyptian word "apiru" or "habiru" which refers to foreigners (often slaves) living in Egypt. Historians believe that the Habiru were a mishmash of different Semitic peoples who were united by the worship of God to become one people when they left Egypt.

When the Hebrew people settled in the Promised Land they named the place "Israel" after their ancestor Jacob, and the people were called the "Israelites." After the death of King Solomon the nation split into two. The northern kingdom kept the name of Israel while the southern kingdom was took the name "Judah" and its people were called "Jews." Eventually, the northern kingdom was conquored and destroyed by the Assyrian Empire leaving only Judah and the Jews to carry on the faith.

When I refer to "Israelites" in this study, I'm referring to writers from the northern kingdom, and when I use "Jews" I am referring to writers from the southern kingdom.