I. Introduction

              The tower of Babel is spoken of in Genesis 11. Genesis 10 gives a table of the nations.

 

II. Date of the Tower of Babel

Answers in Genesis gives a date of about 2348BC for Noah’s flood with the Tower of Babel happening about 100 years later (around 2242BC).

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III. What did the Tower of Babel Look Like?

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“Artist’s reconstruction of the Tower of Babel. This view, modelled upon ancient ziggurats, is probably

very similar to how it actually appeared. The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC), who saw it

on his way through Babylon, described it as having eight levels, and standing a colossal 60 m (about

20 modern stories) high.” (from Larry Pierce “In the days of Peleg”)

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IV. Evidence for the Tower of Babel

“Secular linguists are puzzled by the existence of twenty or so language families in the world today. The languages within each family (and the people that speak them) have been shown to be genetically related, but few genetic links have been observed between families. This is a problem for secular linguists. If, as they believe, man evolved from an ape-like ancestor, man would at some point have gained the ability to speak. This process of change would actually be superbly dangerous, as they admit. But still, if speech did evolve somewhere, somehow, we would expect to find that all languages are genetically related. They clearly are not. Some have therefore suggested that man evolved speech simultaneously in more than one place. This suggestion is beyond belief, considering the dangers involved in the supposed evolution of speech.”

“Only Genesis provides a credible explanation. It records how God gave the people new languages to speak. Groups speaking the same language moved away together. The languages they spoke then, have slowly evolved into the six thousand-or-so languages we find today, but the distinctions between the groups of languages are still observable, as we shall see.”

(from K. J. Duursma “The Tower of Babel Account affirmed by Linguistics”)

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V. Language Families

            1) From Japheth comes the Indo-European languages.

            2) From Ham comes the Afro-Asian languages.

            3) From Shem comes the Semitic languages.

These are the “three major language streams.” (from Murray Adamthwaite “The languages of Babel”; K. J. Duursma agrees.)

  One writer traces these three major language streams to the following civilizations that started soon after Peleg was born or soon after the tower of Babel.

            1) Greece -- traces an early king back to 160 years after Peleg was born.

            2) Egypt -- traces its history back to 60 years after Peleg was born.

            3) Babylon -- traces its astronomical data back to 13 years after the birth of Peleg.

            (from Larry Pierce “In the days of Peleg”)

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VI. “The Stone Age”

  Osgood says “we have examined the possible population statistics which would correspond to the biblical interval from the Flood until the days of Abraham’ entry into Canaan (approximately 400-450 years). We have found that an interval of no greater length would be required to explain the populations and cultures known to the archaeologists today as belonging to the ‘Stone Age’.”

(from Dr. A. J. M. Osgood “A Better Model for the Stone Age Part 2”)