As discussed in the chapter about Psalms 82 and Deuteronomy 32, an essential element critical to the whole Nephilim Conspiracy and the related “Deuteronomy 32 Worldview” is the flawed interpretation of Genesis 10 as “the table of nations”. This interpretation has become widely accepted among theologians and Bible scholars of our time, as the following citations bear out:
“Throughout Genesis, Noah’s sons are commonly listed as ‘Shem, Ham, and Japheth,’ and the table of nations introduces them in this order:.. Gen 10:1 These are the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah: sons were born to them after the Flood.” (https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-table-of-nations-the-geography-of-the-world-in-genesis-10)
“Genesis 10 lists a total of 70 original founders of the nations of the world or racial groups”
https://bible-history.com/maps/table-of-nations
However, despite its popularity, such an interpretation bears closer examination. First one should examine the text itself, and let it speak for itself. Instead of telling us this is a table of nations, it tells us that “1This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.” (Genesis 10:1). What follows is the list of the names of the descendants of Noah, which if kept in context continues in the 11th chapter down to Abram and his siblings. We do see mention of “nations” as follows in the 5th, 20th, 31st and, summed up at the end of the chapter in the 32nd verse as follows:
“ 32These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their descendants, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.”
While this can be construed as saying that all of these are divisions into the various nations, hence the Table of Nations, it makes more sense to understand it as saying what is actually the obvious, that all the succeeding people groups, language groups, and nations ever to eventually appear on the earth, proceeded from these descendants of Noah. However, it can not be saying that all these descendants of Noah were the divisions into nations as a result of God’s judgment dispersing the people into nations at the Tower of Babel. We know from other passages of scripture that this Tower of Babel would have been built by the descendants of Nimrod, who founded Babel and numerous other ancient cities. Historians tell us that the “cradle of civilization” is the Mesopotamian area which is called “the land of Shinar” in Genesis 10:
“8Now Cush fathered Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. 9He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.’ 10And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11From that land he went to Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, 12and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13Mizraim fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorim.” (Genesis 10:8-14)
But again, assuming even theologians and Bible scholars need to follow the rules of logic, their interpretations of these genealogies as a table of nations has many problems. First, it makes no sense to interpret every descendent, son, grandson, great grandson, etc. as a separate nation. Doing so means that, for example, Shem is the head of a whole nation, Shem’s sons would each be heads of whole nations, their sons Shem’s grandsons would all each be heads of separate and distinct nations, and so on. But think about that for a moment. If Shem’s sons Elam, Ashur, Arpachshad, and others not identified by name, each became a separate nation, who would be left to be part of Shem’s nation (which is left out of the count to get 70)? And then if the descendants of each of them were to become heads of their own separate nations, who would be left to be part of their father’s nations, etc. It makes no sense at all to say that each person named in these genealogies became then the heads of separate nations, nor is that what is stated in the biblical text. At most there could be 64 nations, if we take the last generation named as the eventual head of those nations (see chart below), but even that does not account for all the nations we know of from scripture, such as Assyria for example named in Genesis 10:11. It does make sense to say that from these descendants of Noah, and their families, all the families and languages and nations on earth have their origin or etymology.
Descendants of Noah (Genesis 10-11) = 73 names (64 nations)
But then we have men, such as Michael Heiser, who claim that it is 70 nations.[1] Again, assuming the math required of such Bible scholars is the same as for everyone else, the discerning critical thinker should simply ask, how do you get 70 from this list. It appears as though this is just a count of all the names listed in chapter 10, but even then we get 73, not 70. The only way to get 70 nations in Genesis 10 is if we don’t count the original 3 sons of Noah, Japeth, Ham and Shem. Just counting all the names mentioned in chapter 10 for Shem’s descendants we get 27. However, if we included the additional names of Peleg’s 6 descendants identified in the following context of chapter 11 (and 1 Chronicles 1) the total number of Shem’s descendants would be 32, which would give us 76 nations, not 70. Apparently, the names of the 3 original fathers, and the 6 sons of Peleg named in the 11th chapter, are left out to get to the 70. In other words, if the counting of Shem’s descendants were the same as for Japeth and Ham the number would be 32 instead of 26 and again the total number would be 76 instead of 70 nations. To get to the 70 would require the assumption that all the descendants for up to 3 generations in the case of Japeth and Ham, were included as separate nations, but not in the case of the descendants of Shem (which includes up to 5 generations).
Genesis 11 (& 1 Chronicles 1) – descendants of Peleg:
Peleg (6 ) >Reu > Serug > Nahor >Terah (3) > Abram, Nahor, Haran
This becomes even more curious in light of how all of this is being interpreted. A vital piece in this ill-conceived logic chain is the account of the Tower of Babel, when supposedly this division of the peoples into this division of 70 nations occurred. This might be understandable because the account of the dispersion of the people groups by confusing their languages as judgment on that tower of Babel is recorded for us in that first half of the 11th chapter of Genesis, which is then followed by these genealogies of Noah from Peleg to Abram. But what makes no sense is to say that the genealogies represent that division into the 70 Gentile nations at the Tower of Babel, inasmuch as such a division did not occur immediately after the flood, beginning with Noah’s sons. In fact, most Bible scholars fix the time of the Tower of Babel event during the days of Peleg (in part because of the meaning of his name often interpreted to mean “division” or “split,” and because of Genesis 10:25 “One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided …”), which does make sense. However, Peleg is halfway down the list of names, 5 generations from Noah. If all those names listed there in chapter 10 represented nations, or head of nations, the supposed division into the nations would have to have occurred 5 generations before Peleg and the Tower of Babel. There is no correlation between the number 70, ostensibly coming from the “Table of Nations” of Genesis 10, and the dispersion at the Tower of Babel of chapter 11. In fact, we have no number in scripture associated with the latter.
However, it gets worse. According to Heiser the 70 are not actually these fathers of the nations, the descendants of Noah named, but Gods (elohim) assigned by the supreme God, YAWEH, in what he calls the “Cosmic Geography”. These “Gods” are part of the supreme God’s council of Gods, which He created before the Genesis account of creation – which sounds almost biblical inasmuch as there is an angelic realm created before Adam and Eve. But this is not that angelic realm. Heiser actually tells us where the 70 is coming from:
“It is interesting to note that the number of the nations listed in Gen 10 is seventy … This is precisely the number of the sons of El in the divine council at Ugarit.” (Unseen Realm, Kindle p. 384, footnote 7)
“Recall that in our discussion of Deuteronomy 32:8–9 I mentioned that the number of nations disinherited by Yahweh at the judgment of Babel was seventy. The number is telling. Israel’s nearest religious competition, the worship of El, Baal, and Asherah at Ugarit and in Canaan, held that their divine council had seventy sons.” (Unseen Realm, Kindle p. 156)
In fact, according to Heiser these Gods are actually the Pantheon of Gods of the Pagan religions – and they are real, not just mythological – but we need the Pagan Ugaritic texts to learn this. According to his Deuteronomy 32 Worldview, the world is divided into 70 nations, with 70 inferior Gods, and that is coming from Genesis 10 – seriously? But eventually, elsewhere he tells us where this 70 really comes from:
“Literary and conceptual parallels discovered in the literature of Ugarit, however, have provided a more coherent explanation for the number seventy in Deuteronomy 32:8 and have furnished support for textual scholars who argue against the ‘sons of Israel’ reading. Ugaritic mythology plainly states that the head of its pantheon, El (who, like the God of the Bible, is also referred to as El Elyon, the “Most High”) fathered seventy sons, thereby specifying the number of the “sons of El” (Ugaritic, bn il). An unmistakable linguistic parallel with the Hebrew text underlying the Septuagint reading was thus discovered, one that prompted many scholars to accept the Septuagintal reading on logical and philological grounds–God (El Elyon in Deut. 32:8) divided the earth according to the number of heavenly beings who existed from before the time of creation.” (https://christianpublishinghouse.co/2019/11/04/ottc-deuteronomy-328-was-it-the-sons-of-israel-or-the-sons-of-god-or-the-angels-of-god/)
The truth is that this number 70 does appear in scripture twice. Once it is in a text which is about the number of descendants of Jacob, which would have represented Israel at that time:
“all the people of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.” (Genesis 46:27b)
The other occurrence would be a division of the people, but only of the nation of Israel:
“The LORD therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their stand there with you.” (Numbers 11:16)
Obviously neither of these have anything to do with any kind of “table of nations”, nor the dispersion at the Tower of Babel into nations or people groups.
[1] Heiser makes the following admission about this number in a footnote as follows: “Some translations read seventy-two instead of seventy. Greek New Testament manuscript evidence for both readings is divided among very ancient manuscript traditions. The difference arose on account of the Septuagint, which has “seventy-two” for the number nations in Gen 10. The traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text has the number of nations as seventy. Consequently, either number points to a correlation back to the nations divided at Babel and the cosmic-geographical worldview of Deut 32:8–9. The number seventy of the traditional Hebrew text is best on external grounds, given the witness to seventy “sons of El” in the divine council at Ugarit. (Unseen Realm, Kindle p. 384).
end times revisited 