Genesis 11 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Genesis 11 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

Previous chapter  Next chapter  Index  Comments or corrections?

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment


1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

(11:1) "The whole earth was of one language." This could not be true, since by this time (supposedly around 2400 BCE) there were already many languages, each unintelligible to the others. This is even admitted earlier in Genesis (10:5, 10:20, 10:31) where other languages are mentioned before the tower of Babel was supposedly constructed.
How many languages before Babel?
The author of the SAB cites as fact that there were already many languages at the time of Babel. But he gives no proof, and every language for which we have actual artifacts date from around this period. (according to the reckoning of Ussher the Tower of Babel was built in 2242 BC, with Babylon founded in 2234 BC according to Larry Pierce).

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.


(11:5) "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower."
Couldn't he see it from where he was sitting?
Does God know everything?
John Gill explains:

Not locally or visibly, being immense, omnipresent, and invisible; nor in order to see and take notice of what he otherwise could not see from heaven, for he is omniscient; but this is spoken after the manner of men, and is to be understood of some effects and displays of his power, which were manifest, and showed him to be present

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

(11:4-6) "Now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
God worries that the people will succeed in building a tower high enough to reach him (them?) in heaven, and that by so doing they will become omnipotent.
This verse gives no indication at all that God was worried about the height of the tower. What God wanted to do was restrain the people so they could not continue in the same wickedness as before The Flood.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.


(11:7-9) "Let us go down."
Maybe he hasn't been talking to himself; maybe there is more than one of them up there. Well, however many there may be, they all decide to come down to confuse the builders by confounding human language and scattering them [humans] abroad.
Is God the author of confusion?
How many gods are there?
God uses here the plural because there are three persons in one Godhead.
On if God is the author of confusion, it all depends on the context. God can send confusion as judgement, but God does not send a confusing message. Compare also 1 Cor. 1:27 with 1 Cor. 14:33.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.


(11:9) "The LORD did there confound the language of all the earth."
According to the Tower of Babel story, the many human languages were created instantaneously by God. But languages evolved gradually over long periods of time.
How many languages were there before Babel?
The author of the SAB does not give any proof for his assertion. Even the Egyptian historian Manetho mentions that Egypt started in the days of Peleg.

10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:


(11:10-27) "These are the generations of Shem....."
Another boring genealogy that we are told to avoid in 1 Tim.1:4 and Tit.3:9. ("Avoid foolish questions and genealogies.") Also note the ridiculously long lives of the patriarchs.
See On genealogy.

11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:10-11) Shem lived 600 years.

12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:


(11:12) "Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah."
Who was Salah's father?
See Luke 3:36.

13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:12-13) Arphaxad lived 438 years.

14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:14-15) Salah lived 433 years.

16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:

17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:16-17) Eber lived 464 years.

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:

19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:18-19) Peleg lived 239 years.

20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:

21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:20-21) Reu lived 239 years.

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:22-23) Serug lived 229 years.

24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.


(11:24-25) Nahor lived 148 years.
Readers will have noticed that the ages after the Flood are dropping sharply. See the first graph in this article.

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

The Call of Abraham

31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.


(11:26, 32) "And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years."
How old was Terah when he died?
How old was Abram when he left Haran?
How old was Abram when Ishmael was born?
(11:26) "Terah ... begat Abraham."
Who was Abraham's father? Azar or Terah (Quran 6:74)? Which is right, the Bible or the Quran?
On how old Terah was when he died: the author of the SAB is simply mistaken that Abraham was born when Terah was seventy. Terah got his first son when he was seventy, and his first son was not Abraham, see the explanation with Acts 7:4. Terah was 130 when Abraham was born. After 75 years Abraham left Haran, that is when Terah was 205 as per this verse, and the year Terah died.
On how old Abraham was when he left Haran, again this rests on the author of the SAB believing that Abraham was born when Terah was seventy, see Acts 7:4.
The last question is how old Abraham was when Ishmael was born. Again the premise fails: Abraham was not born when Terah was seventy. So Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born as per chapter 16:16.
The reader is also referred to El Borak's Myopia who takes the reader through these steps a bit more slowly.

Previous chapter  Next chapter  Index  Comments or corrections?