The Table of Nations And the Explanation of the Divisions (Genesis 10:1 to Genesis 11:10 a) TABLET V.
THE NATIONS DESCENDED FROM NOAH (Genesis 10).
This tablet is described as ‘this is the history of Shem' (Genesis 11:10 a). It demonstrates the descent of the nations from the sons of Noah with special emphasis on Shem, including important snippets of information typical of ancient genealogies (Genesis 10:9-10; Genesis 10:25). We can compare with it the Sumerian king lists which have similar snippets relating to things of especial importance. It finishes with a description of why the divisions took place (Genesis 11:1-9).
In many ways it is unique in the ancient world. Although lists of people and nations are known elsewhere, this was no list of conquests. It was a deliberate attempt to reveal ‘a world view'. It demonstrated God's concern for the whole world, and showed that Yahweh was God over all.
Its scope is quite remarkable and must reflect the knowledge of someone with wide sources of information such as we would not find in a non-seafaring country like Israel. It was just such knowledge as would be available to a man in Moses' position in Egypt, although there are indications that at least part of it was composed earlier than Moses. See, for example, the mention of Sodom and Gomorrah as though they were still active cities.
God had said to man, ‘be fruitful, and multiply'. Here was the fulfilment of that command as man spread abroad to possess the earth. It demonstrated that Yahweh was the God of the whole earth. But it is also made apparent that this expansion results in a world split up into tribes and nations. This is seen as being the result of a further fall of man leading to judgment (Genesis 11). Very interesting is the fact that there is in it no mention of Israel. This would seem to confirm its great age and authenticity.
Lists themselves were a common early Mesopotamian literary form, giving personal and place names, including names of countries and mountains, and are extant from the second millennium BC onwards, and a genealogical ancestry of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, (c.1750 BC) contains names of individuals later applied to peoples descended from them or to the territory they inhabit. But their nature is not the same as this record.
It is impossible to put a firm date on the narrative, nor is it likely that it remained totally unchanged in subsequent centuries. Whereas sacred texts and narratives may be preserved complete, especially where they formed the basis of a covenant, a listing of place and tribal names would have a tendency to be updated to make sense to the present generation, where old names had fallen out of use and could be replaced with their modern equivalent. Thus the dating of the original record cannot be determined by individual, possibly updated, place names.
But we must not overdo the suggestion of updating. We may yet be unaware of the ancient origins of names known to us from later inscriptions, and such changes could have been few, if any. The fact that the Persians are not mentioned confirms that any such changes, if they took place, had ceased to be made by the time of the exile.
However the use of very ancient forms of names does demonstrate the early date of the essential narrative (consider how the early empire in Shinar is described - (Genesis 10:10)) and there is much that is clearly early and on the whole nothing in it that need post-date the time of Moses at Pharaoh's court, for such knowledge would have been available to Egyptian scholars. It is true that some few names mentioned only appear in 1st millennium BC records, but those mentioned in those records must have had a preceding history and there is nothing unlikely in the names being far older.
However any work done by Moses may well have made use of an earlier record. Abraham may well have had access to knowledge of a similar, but earlier, kind at Ur of the Chaldees, and there are indications that the essential record is as ancient as Abraham.
The account is one of growth and prosperity but behind it lies the ominous reminder that the earth has become divided so that brotherly love has ceased. It begins with all speaking one language but ends with nations speaking many languages (Genesis 10:5; Genesis 10:20; Genesis 10:31). The reason for this is given in Genesis 11.
Surprising is the non-mention of Sumer, although attempts have been made to show that it is present in the name ‘Shem'. It may have been thought of as indicated by ‘the land of Shinar'. But comparison of place names between ancient nations is a difficult operation and is still very far from being an exact science through lack of material. In spite of great advances, too little is known about the languages concerned and how they were transliterated into other languages. Thus many ‘identifications' must be viewed with caution and it is always possible that nations known to us by one name may be included under another. Sumer may have been known to the compiler of the record under a totally different name.