Table of Nations Thumps Minimalists

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

I buried my father.  My grandfather is dead.  My great-grandfather is dead—and those all the way back to Adam are dead.  They, even as I am, were all temporal.  II Corinthians 4:18:

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Without something bigger than this life, the mortal condition is not a pretty picture, but there is a glorious hope.  The born-again have found that all-encompassing someone who is bigger than life itself and His name is Jesus Christ.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?  Would you like to possess something that will last forever—even eternal life in Christ?  Today, you can have the salvation that breaks all of life’s bondages and fills your life with joy and hope.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 10:1:

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

GOD SAID, Genesis 10:32:

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

GOD SAID, John 10:35:

…and the scripture cannot be broken;

GOD SAID, Psalm 19:9:

…the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

MAN SAID:  The Bible’s hand-me-down historical record is not even closely reliable, and its miraculous pronouncements are simply lies. 

Now, THE RECORD.  Thank you for visiting today.  This is GodSaidManSaid feature article 670 that will once again prove the supernatural inerrancy of the Word of God.  All of these features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and as bait for the fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

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Many years ago, I was asked to speak to married couples at a Chicago congregation.  The meeting was to take place in a couple of hours, and I was still in a quandary on what to say.  I asked God for direction and my Bible fell open to these marvelous verses.  Proverbs 22:20-21:

20 Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

21 That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?

How magnificent:  “The certainty of the words of truth.”   It’s essential to know “the certainty” because where there is doubt, the mountain won’t move.  Can you imagine that a Biblical definition of sin is unbelief?  Romans 14:23:

…for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

God commands us in I Thessalonians 5:21:

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Our absolutes must be absolutely absolute. 

The first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch.  The Greek word penta means “five,” and teuchos means “vessel, container.”  Theological minimalists, if they will in fact acknowledge Moses as the writer, claim that the information in the first five books is a hand-me-down, lips-to-ear, oral record and that the account is littered with errors.  Many academics discount it entirely.  Regardless of the skepticism and constant carping, the Word of God stands to the test of all its challengers.  It reigns supreme.  It cannot be broken.  The Pentateuch was penned by Moses, but it was authored by God, who was the hands-on eyewitness of all that occurred, whose recall is impeccably inerrant. 

GodSaidManSaid has published exciting information about one of the world’s oldest historical-geographical documents known as The Table of Nations found in Genesis, chapter 10.  Timothy Osterholm, in his work The Table of Nations and the Origin of Races, writes:

We can also factually claim that wherever its statements can be sufficiently tested, Genesis 10 of the Bible has been found completely accurate; resulting partly from linguistic studies, partly from archaeology, and, more recently still, from the findings of physical anthropologists, who are, to this day, recovering important clues to lines of migration in ancient historical times.  As implied in verse 32 of Genesis 10, this Table includes everybody; meaning that so-called fossil man, primitive peoples (ancient and modern) and modern man are all derived from Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  … As archaeologist William Albright noted, “it [the Bible] remains an astonishingly accurate document…and shows such remarkably ‘modern’ understanding of the ethnic and linguistic situation in the modern world, in spite of all its complexity, that scholars never fail to be impressed with its knowledge of the subject.”  [End of quote]

Moses writes the historical record in Genesis chapter 10 approximately 800 years after the first account that is mentioned.  The chances of an accurate lips-to-ear report passed down over 800 years is nil.  Answers in Genesis writer Bodie Hodge weighs in on the Table of Nations:

Noah in Royal Genealogies of Europe

The Bible in Genesis 10 gives an outline of family groups that left Babel.

These people moved throughout the world and populated virtually every continent.  Historians have commented on genealogical records in the past and other ancient documents on the origins of various peoples. 

These genealogies seem to connect prominent modern houses and royal lines with the Table of Nations listed in the Bible.  In these genealogies, Noah is found on the top of the lists on many of these documents, some of which feature various spellings such as Noe, Noa, and Noah. 

One historian discovered a relationship between the ancient name of Sceaf (Seskef, Scef) and the Biblical Japheth.  This seems reasonable, as Japheth has traditionally been seen as the ancestor of the European nations.  Most of the European genealogies researched have a variant of Sceaf, with the exception of the Irish genealogies, which still used the name Japheth. 

Anglo-Saxon chronologies feature six royal houses.  An eighth century Roman historian, Nennius, developed a table of nations of the lineages of the many European people groups from Noah’s son Japheth:  Gauls, Goths, Bavarians, Saxons, and Romans. 

Though it repeats the Goths in two different areas, Nennius’s chart bears strong similarities to the history that Josephus recorded, as well as the Bible’s Table of Nations.  However, there are clearly enough differences to show that it was neither a copy from the Biblical text nor from the Jewish historian Josephus.

Chinese records also describe Nuah with three sons, Lo Han, Lo Shen, and Jahphu, according to Miautso people of China.  Although original documents of ancient sources sometimes no longer exist and one has to rely on quotes from other ancient books, it is interesting how, in many places, we find similarities to the Table of Nations given in the Bible. 

Noah’s Grandsons’ Names Are Everywhere!

History abounds with names that are reused.  Names of places become names of people; names of people become names of places.  After the Flood, several of Noah’s descendants were named for places prior to the Flood.

Despite any changes, however, the names of post-Flood regions, cities, rivers, or languages should bear similarity to the names of those leaving Babel.  One would be surprised how often these names appear.  The following Table lists some of these:

Noah’s Descendants’ Names Reflected Around the World
Name	Descendant of Noah	What Is It?
Aramaic	Aram	Language that came out of Babel and still survives, likely with changes down the ages.  Some short parts of the Bible are written in Aramaic.  Jesus spoke it on the cross when He said: “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” (Mark 15:34)
Cush	Cush	Ancient name of Ethiopia.  In fact, people of Ethiopia sill call themselves Cushites.
Medes	Madai	People group often associated with the Persians.
Ashkenaz	Ashkenaz	Still the Hebrew name for Germany.
Galacia, Gaul, and Galicia	Gomer	These regions are the old names for an area in modern Turkey, France, and Northwestern Spain, respectively, where Gomer is said to have lived.  His family lines continued to spread across southern Europe.  The Book of Galatians by Paul was written to the church at Galatia.
Gomeraeg	Gomer	This is the old name for the Welsh language on the British Isles from their ancestor, Gomer, whose ancestors began to populate the Isle from the mainland.
Javan	Javan	This is still the Hebrew name for Greece.  His sons, Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim (Chittim), and Dodanim still have reference to places in Greece.  For example, Paul, the author who penned much of the New Testament, was from the region of Tarshish (Acts 21:39) and a city called Tarsus.  Jeremiah mentions Kittim in Jeremiah 2:10 and is modern-day Cyprus (and other nearby ancient regions that now had varied names such as Cethim, Citius, Cethima, Cilicia).  The Greeks worshipped Jupiter Dodanaeus from Japheth/Dodanim.  The Elysians were ancient Greek people.
Meshech/Moscow	Mechech	Mechech is the old name for Moscow, Russia, and one region called the Mechech Lowland still holds the original name today.
Canaan	Canaan	The region of Palestine that God removed from the Canaanites for their sin and gave as an inheritance to the Israelites beginning with the conquest of Joshua.  It is often termed the Holy Land and is where modern-day Israel resides.
Elamites	Elam	This was the old name for the Persians prior to Cyrus.
Assyria	Asshur	Asshur is still the Hebrew name for Assyria.
Hebrew	Eber	This people group and language was named for Eber.  Abraham was a Hebrew, and the bulk of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.
Taurus/Toros	Tarshish	A mountain range in Turkey.  Tanais is the old name of the Don River flowing into the Black Sea.
Mizraim	Mizraim	This is still the Hebrew name for Egypt.

[End of quotes]

God’s Word is true and accurate in every detail—miracles and all—and His truth never changes.  God’s Word is a place to build a life that will last forever. 

GOD SAID, Genesis 10:1:

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

GOD SAID, Genesis 10:32:

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

GOD SAID, John 10:35:

…and the scripture cannot be broken;

GOD SAID, Psalm 19:9:

…the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

MAN SAID:  The Bible’s hand-me-down historical record is not even closely reliable, and its miraculous pronouncements are simply lies. 

Now you have THE RECORD.

       

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Hodge, B., “Was the Dispersion at Babel a Real Event?,” Answers in Genesis, August 19, 2010

Osterholm, T., The Table of Nations and the Origin of Races, www.soundchristian.com

 

 

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