Languages in Genesis...???

[tribeofjudah]

Hi all, (sorry if this is repeat topic)

I have always known that the language was confused by God to become many languages at the Towel of Babel.

Gen 11:1 ¶ And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

But the previous passages in Genesis perplex me:

Gen 10:5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

Gen 10:20 These [are] the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, [and] in their nations.

Gen 10:31 These [are] the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.

After reading this, I was wondering what "tongues" are being referred to here.

Can you help a brother out....???

[Gerr]

May I suggest that Moses was anticipating in Gen 10 what he was going to relate occurred in chap 11?

[Gail]

And since he was writing after the fact...

[tribeofjudah]

And I don't know how chronologically accurate the texts are written.....

[Igakusei]

Moses didn't write Genesis.

http://www.amazon.com/Wrote-Bible-Richard-Elliott-Friedman/dp/0060630353

[BobRyan]

Moses didn't write Genesis.

yes he did - Mark 12:26, Luke 20:37, John 1:17 (, 45), 2Cor 3:15

[Igakusei]

Okay Bob

[Kevin H]

Graham Maxwell points out that we read more into the story of the Tower of Babel than the Bible actually says. God commanded the people to refill the earth. One group of people decided to stay together and to build a tower to heaven. God came down and confused their language so that they did not understand each other and thus kept the project from growing like it would have. The Bible does not say that this was where the languages came from. Dr. Maxwell points out how the languages are devrived from a once common language and you can see how the shadings of words devlope over geography. Dr. Maxwell suggests that we read no more into the story than that those were involved in the building had their speach confused causing them to abandon the project and several move away.

[doug yowell]

Graham Maxwell points out that we read more into the story of the Tower of Babel than the Bible actually says. God commanded the people to refill the earth. One group of people decided to stay together and to build a tower to heaven. God came down and confused their language so that they did not understand each other and thus kept the project from growing like it would have. The Bible does not say that this was where the languages came from. Dr. Maxwell points out how the languages are devrived from a once common language and you can see how the shadings of words devlope over geography. Dr. Maxwell suggests that we read no more into the story than that those were involved in the building had their speach confused causing them to abandon the project and several move away.

I wonder if he ever mentioned that to his dad, before he published vol.1 of the Bible Story series?

[Mark Aurelius]

Moses didn't write Genesis.

As my Hebrew teacher used to say, somewhat in jest, if Moses didn't write the books of Moses, it was someone else of the same name.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted By: Igakusei

Moses didn't write Genesis.

As my Hebrew teacher used to say, somewhat in jest, if Moses didn't write the books of Moses, it was someone else of the same name.

There are 3 theories, two are better known. The first is the Fundamentalist view which says that Moses wrote Genesis-Deuteronomy except for the comments about Moses' death, and what we have is the results of Moses' hand.

The second is the Modernist view which says that there was no Moses, but just a collection of myths that were collected by different people following human evolution. First the Yahwhest, then the Elohist, then the Deuteronimist followed by a Priestly writer writing in Babylon, with each writer being further evolutionalistically developed, then after the exile they were edited together and assigned to a fictional Moses.

The Third view is the Moderate view, which says that there was indeed a historial Moses who lead the exodus and gave laws and started the book of the law. These writings were added to (Joshua says that Joshua added to Moses' book of the law) by judges and priests and that the devlopment in the North was what became the Yahwest and in the South the Elohist (or visa versa) and that the two was colected together and edited together under David. Then after David they continued to grow, in the south as the Priestly writings, finally edited under Hezikiah and Isaiah, and in the North writings of say Elijah and Elisha through Jeremiah added to this devloping process eventualy becoming the Deuteronomist. When the book of the Law (which was more of the Bible of the Northen Prophetic movement and more neglected in the south) was discovered in the temple Josiah turned to Jeremiah, the High Priest of the North, to understand it and apply it which lead to Jeremiah finally editing it into the book of Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic history.

The third view differs from the modernists in: 1. Seeing the Bible as historical and Moses as a historical figure. 2. Seeing JEPD not as authors but but editors of schools of thought on how the work starting with Moses developed in the land. 3. Assigns P to Heziakiah/Isaiah as opposed to the exile and thus older than D. so instead of JEDP they see it as J and E as contepories, and P crystalizing with Isaiah and D with Jeruemiah. 4. It is not following human evolution but just the development of Judah and Israel.

Although basicaly supporting a liberal approach to the Fundamentalist view, the SDABC does give credence to the Jeremiah influence in the final editing of Deuteronomy and very central to the development of possibaly the author of the Deuteronomic history (Joshua - 2 Kings).

Althought the Adventist Theological Society says that they completely refuse to accept JPED, Dr. Hasel said that there is evidence of their existance and that they were edited together, now ever we are to approach the scripture as if the final editing was how it was originally. (I don't have the page number but it was in a college texbook he wrote on Issues in Old Testament Theology) and pointed out at Andrews, and one of my professors who holds to the Moderate view points out that this was Hasal's view (and he and Dr. Hasal were close friends).