The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or Origines Gentium, is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after the Flood, focusing on the major known societies. The term 'nations' to describe the descendants is a standard English translation of the Hebrew word goyim following the 400 CE Latin Vulgate's nationes, and does not have the same political connotations that the word entails today.
The list of 70 names introduces for the first time several well-known ethnonyms and toponyms important to biblical geography,"Biblical Geography," Catholic Encyclopedia: "The ethnographical list in Genesis 10 is a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the old general geography of the East, and its importance can scarcely be overestimated." such as Noah's three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from which 18th-century German scholars at the Göttingen school of history derived the race terminology Semites, Hamites, and Japhetites. Certain of Noah's grandsons were also used for names of peoples: from Elam, Ashur, Aram, Cush, and Canaan were derived respectively the Elamites, Assyrians, Arameans, Cushites, and Canaanites. Likewise, from the sons of Canaan: Heth, Jebus, and Amorus were derived Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites. Further descendants of Noah include Eber (from Shem), the hunter-king Nimrod (from Cush).
As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, it carried the idea that all human peoples were descended from Noah. However, not all Mediterranean and Near Eastern peoples were covered in the biblical genealogy; Iranic peoples such as Persians, Indic people such as Mitanni, and other prominent early civilizations such as the Ancient Greeks, Macedonians, and Romans, Hurrians, Iberians, Illyrians, Kassites, and Sumerians are missing, as well as the Northern and Western European peoples important to the Late Roman and Medieval world, such as the Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and Nordic peoples; nor were others of the world's peoples, such as Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, Turkic and Iranic peoples of Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Far East, and Australasia. Scholars later derived a variety of arrangements to make the table fit, with for example the addition of Scythians, which do feature in the tradition, being claimed as the ancestors of much of Northern Europe.
According to the biblical scholar Joseph Blenkinsopp, the 70 names in the list express symbolically the unity of humanity, corresponding to the 70 descendants of Israel that followed Jacob into Egypt in and the 70 elders of Israel who visit God with Moses at the covenant ceremony in Exodus . Gordon J. Wenham states the use of the number 70 cannot be a coincidence, as it is also seen in Canaanite traditions and amongst other Biblical figures. Ronald Hendel characterizes the number 70 in the table as representing totality, and a redactor may have combined two originally distinct tables. "The total number of peoples in the table is seventy, a number that seems to represent totality (cf. the seventy sons of Jacob in Genesis 46). R [the redactor] achieved this number by combining thirty-four peoples in P with thirty-six in J (not counting Nimrod, who is not a nation). R combined the two tables to form a coherent whole, while omitting many redundancies."
Table of Nations On the family pedigrees contained in the biblical pericope of Noah, Saadia Gaon (892–942) wrote: The Scriptures have traced the patronymic lineage of the seventy nations to the three sons of Noah, as also the lineage of Abraham and Ishmael, and of Jacob and Esau. The blessed Creator knew that men would find solace at knowing these family pedigrees, since our soul demands of us to know them, so that [all of] mankind will be held in fondness by us, as a tree that has been planted by God in the earth, whose branches have spread out and dispersed eastward and westward, northward and southward, in the habitable part of the earth. It also has the dual function of allowing us to see the multitude as a single individual, and the single individual as a multitude. Along with this, man ought to contemplate also on the names of the countries and of the cities [wherein they settled]."
Moses Maimonides, echoing the same sentiments, wrote that the genealogy of the nations contained in the Law has the unique function of establishing a principle of faith, how that, although from Adam to Moses there was no more than a span of two-thousand five hundred years, and the human race was already spread over all parts of the earth in different families and with different languages, they were still people having a common ancestor and place of beginning.
Other biblical commentators observe that the Table of Nations is unique: thus R. N. Whybray writes that "it appears to be quite unique: no comparable ancient texts exist".Whybray, R. N., 4. Genesis, in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 47, archived on 2 November 2017 When compared with other genealogies, it depicts a "broad network of cousins", with a "shallow chain of brotherly relationships", while other genealogies focus on "narrow chains of father-son relationships".
Book of Genesis
Chapters 1–11 of the Book of Genesis are structured around five toledot statements ("these are the generations of..."), of which the "generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" is the fourth. Events before the Genesis flood narrative, the central toledot, correspond to those after: the post-deluvial world is a new creation corresponding to the Genesis creation narrative, and Noah had three sons who populated the world. The correspondences extend forward as well: there are 70 names in the Table, corresponding to the 70 Israelites who go down into Egypt at the end of Genesis and to the 70 elders of Israel who go up the mountain at Sinai to meet with God in Exodus. The symbolic force of these numbers is underscored by the way the names are frequently arranged in groups of seven, suggesting that the Table is a symbolic means of implying universal moral obligation. The number 70 also parallels Canaanite mythology, where 70 represents the number of gods in the divine clan who are each assigned a subject people, and where the supreme god El and his consort, Asherah, has the title "Mother/Father of 70 gods", which, due to the coming of monotheism, had to be changed, but its symbolism lived on in the new religion.
The overall structure of the Table in Genesis 10 is: Introductory formula, verse 1 Japheth, verses 2–5 Ham, verses 6–20 Shem, verses 21–31 Concluding formula, verse 32.
Verse 1 corresponds to Genesis 7:13: "Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark".: English Standard Version Thus, all the descendants of Noah's own sons were born after the flood.
The overall principle governing the assignment of various peoples within the Table is difficult to discern: it purports to describe all humankind, but in reality restricts itself to the Egyptian lands of the south, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the Ionian Greeks, and in addition, the "sons of Noah" are not organized by geography, language family or ethnic groups within these regions. The Table contains several difficulties: for example, the names Sheba and Havilah are listed twice, first as descendants of Cush the son of Ham (verse 7), and then as sons of Joktan, the great-grandsons of Shem, and while the Cushites are North African in verses 6–7 they are unrelated Mesopotamians in verses 10–14.
The date of composition of Genesis 1–11 cannot be fixed with any precision, although it seems likely that an early brief nucleus was later expanded with extra data. Portions of the Table itself may derive from the 10th century BCE, while others reflect the 7th century BCE and priestly revisions in the 5th century BCE. Its combination of world review, myth and genealogy corresponds to the work of the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus, active . Donald B. Redford identified that Sidon being the firstborn of Canaan instead of Tyre (which is never mentioned), points to a period where Sidon had greater fortunes and was the new leading city of Phoenicia. This pointed to a time between Nebuchadnezzar II campaigns against Tyre in the 6th century BCE and the Tennes rebellion in the 4th century BCE. Scholars estimate the final editing and compilation of the Table took place during this later period, to also account for geopolitical shifts.Thomas Hieke (2014), Die Völkertafel von Genesis 10 als genealogische Raumordnung. Form, Funktion, Geographie, p. 23-40 "A certain consensus seems to exist that the geographical-ethnic structure of the Table of Nations is conceivable at the earliest between the end of the 7th and the end of the 6th century BCE, while the final editing likely took place later (4th century BCE)" Russel Gmirkin argued that it instead dates to the 3rd century BCE. "An analysis of the sons of Japhet in Gen 10 will eliminate 315-312 BCE from serious consideration, and the Septuagint translation in ca. 273-269 BCE provides a further chronological constraint. The Table of Nations was thus composed sometime within the period 278-269 BCE."
Book of Chronicles 1 Chronicles 1 includes a version of the Table of Nations drawn from Genesis which has been edited to make clearer that the intention is to establish the background for Israel. This is done by condensing various branches to focus on the story of Abraham and his offspring. Most notably, it omits an account matching Genesis 10:9–14, in which Nimrod, a son of Cush, is linked to various cities in Mesopotamia, thus removing from Cush any Mesopotamian connection. In addition, Nimrod does not appear in any of the numerous lists of Mesopotamian Kings.
Book of Jubilees
The Table of Nations is expanded upon in detail in chapters 8–9 of the Book of Jubilees, sometimes known as the "Lesser Genesis", a work from the early Second Temple period. Jubilees is considered pseudepigraphical by most Christian and Jewish denominations but thought to have been held in regard by many of the Church Fathers. Its division of the descendants throughout the world are thought to have been heavily influenced by the "Ionian world map" described in the Histories of Herodotus, and the anomalous treatment of Canaan and Madai are thought to have been "propaganda for the territorial expansion of the Hasmonean state".
Septuagint version The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in Alexandria at the request of Ptolemy II, who reigned over Egypt 285–246 BCE. Its version of the Table of Nations is substantially the same as that in the Hebrew text, but with the following differences: It lists Ἐλισὰ (Elisa) as an extra son of Japheth, giving him eight sons instead of seven, while continuing to list him also as a son of Javan, as in the Masoretic text.Swete, H. B., Swete's Septuagint: Genesis 10: 2, 4 Whereas the Hebrew text lists Shelah as the son of Arpachshad in the line of Shem, the Septuagint has a Cainan as the son of Arpachshad and father of Shelah – the Book of Jubilees gives considerable scope to this figure. Cainan appears again at the end of the list of the sons of Shem. Obal, Joktan's eighth son in the Masoretic text, does not appear.
1 Peter In the First Epistle of Peter, 3:20, the author says that eight righteous persons were saved from the Great Flood, referring to the four named males, and their wives aboard Noah's Ark not enumerated elsewhere in the Bible.
Sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth
The Genesis flood narrative tells how Noah and his three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), together with their wives, were saved from the deluge to repopulate the Earth. A brief statement in Genesis 6:10, before the account of the flood, states that these were the names of Noah's three sons.