The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-J, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 12."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1980. All Rights Reserved.

Question

I have a verse here I’ve been having a little bit of a problem with. In Genesis 10, verse 5, it refers to the descendents of Noah and the settling in the certain areas. I’m not having a problem in the verse by itself, but I’m coming to my problem after the verse, it says, they were divided in their own lands everyone after their own language or tongue. I think that’s referring to language, everyone after his tongue. Then we come down to verse 20 and it’s talking about the sons of Ham, and they were divided after their tongues. And then verse 31 after their tongues. The problem I was having with this is that it appears to me that this all takes place before Babel. And in chapter 11 verse 1 there, the whole world was in one language. And I just couldn't reconcile that it appears that happens earlier in time or before the tower of Babel. Could you clarify that, or maybe this happens afterward. It seems to me like it happens before.

Answer

What you’ve got in the genealogy is, you have the full flow of the Noahic genealogy. And it goes beyond Babel. Then when you come to 11, you recap backwards and pick up Babel. You understand?

Question (continued)

Oh, so that does precede actually…

Answer (continued)

Yes, Babel would precede.

Question (continued)

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking…

Answer (continued)

Yes, that’s the right answer. What you have then is that he gives us Noah’s generations all the way out from here to here, and Babel occurs in here somewhere, see, in the beginning. So, you find that too in the first part of Genesis, for example, in chapter 1 of Genesis, you have a full blown perspective on creation, then in chapter 2 of Genesis, he backs up into the creation and picks up and redefines and redescribes the creation of man. It’s like you would say to someone, "Well, yesterday I went to the beach," then you said, "First of all I got in my car and I drove down to Santa Monica and then I went north to Zuma, and then I got out of my car"—and you give all the details. Well, essentially, that’s what happens here. Chapter 11 explains why they had different tongues and languages. So it would occur prior to that, alright?

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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