The Earth Was Divided

by Cole Fraley

In Genesis 10:25 scripture says that in the days of Peleg that the earth was divided. In the King James Version the verse says:

This verse has been "understood" by many to mean that the continents were separated at that time by the oceans. But does the bible really mean that a potential catastrophic event like this happened? Is the bible talking about a structural change to the earth's outer mantle through the method of Plate Tectonics? Was this verse talking about "Geology 101-Chapter 7-Plate Tectonics"? Does the word "earth" always mean the physical planet or does it, at time, refer to nationss?

God finished the work of creation during day 6. The seas, continents, mountains and landscapes we see today were finished at that time. There was no more need to re-create the physical structure of the earth. The work of creation was finished.God knows the end from the beginning, the beginning from the end and formed the earth the way it needed to be during the week of creation.

Gen 2:1 "And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them".

Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

Act 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

In Genesis Chapter 10 verse 1 and 5. Notice verse 5.

"Gen 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.

Gen 10:5 "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nation"

In verse 5 the Hebrew word for isles indicate a habitable land, coast, country or isle.

The Youngs Literal Translations puts it this way:

Gen 10:5 "By these have the isles of the nations been parted in their lands, each by his tongue, by their families, in their nations".

Gen 10:31 "These [are] the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. Gen 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".

Genesis 10 Verses 1, 5, 31 and 32 from the Modern King James Version

Gen 10:1 "Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. Gen 10:5 By these were the coasts of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. Gen 10:31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, and after their nations. Gen 10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. And from these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood".

Gen 10:5,20, 25, 31,32 in the NIV Translation

Verse 5 "(From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language".)

Verse 20 "These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations".

Verse 25 "Two sons were born to Eber:One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan".

Verse 31 "These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations".

Verse 32 "These are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood".

The New International Readers Version renders Genesis 10:5,20,25,31,32 this way:

Verse 5 "The people who lived by the sea came from all of them. Their tribes and nations spread out into their own territories. Each tribe and nation had its own language".

Verse 20 "Those are the sons of Ham. They are listed by their tribes and languages in their territories and nations".

Verse 25 "Eber was the father of two sons. One was named Peleg. That's because the earth was divided up in his time. His brother was named Joktan".

Verse 31 "Those are the sons of Shem. They are listed by their tribes and languages in their territories and nations".

Verse 32 "Those are the tribes of Noah's sons. They are listed by their family lines within their nations. From them the nations spread out over the earth after the flood".

And so in Genesis 11:8-9 we read in the NIRV

Verse 8 "So the Lord scattered them from there over the whole earth. And they stopped building the city".

Verse 9 "The Lord mixed up the language of the whole world there. That's why the city was named Babel. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth".

The Message Bible renders Genesis 10:25,31,31 thus:

Verse 25 "Eber had two sons, Peleg (so named because in his days the human race divided) and Joktan".

Verse 31 "These are the descendants of Shem by family, language, country, and nation".

Verse 32 "This is the family tree of the sons of Noah as they developed into nations. From them nations developed all across the Earth after the flood"

The nations spread out over the earth after the flood but that event took place after the confusion of languages in days of Babel and the time of Peleg. Genesis 10:5,20,25,31,32 give the fact of the division while Verse 25 indicates the actual timing of the event (in the days of Peleg)of the divisions of the nations according to language and families. I do not believe that this is talking about a great rupture of the earth's plates but a mere confusion of languages which was sufficent to cause people to congregate into language groups and go their own way. The earth's form and plate structure were as they are today in Adam's day when God finished the work of creation.

Once again the entire chapter 10 of Genesis is a listing of the sons of Noah, their family names which became nations in time with verse 25 telling us when the division by language took place. It happened in the time of Peleg which was in the days of Nimrod and the time of the confusion of tongues or assigning different languages to the different families so that they would leave that area and migrate to their assigned geographical area.

The greatest number of nations on the earth are only separated by geographical or political boundaries, not by oceans. The earths greatest single land mass, the great African-European-Asian land mass is a single land mass. A person could walk from the Southern tip of Africa to all nations in Africa except Madigascar, into the Middle East, into Europe from Spain to the Eastern tip of Siberia, down through Asia to most of the nations in Asia and the Indian subcontinent and not get wet. The nations separated by water are mainly islands such as the British Isles, New Zealand, Australia, Japan the many islands in the Pacific and of course North, Central and South America. Bust most nations of the earth are separated only by unmarked land boundaries into political and cultural systems.These divisions are mainly identified by race, curture and language.The original division of peoples were from the time of Babel when God broke up the single language and gave the families who would become the worlds nations a different language for each. It was by families and by language the peoples were divided or distributed over all the earth. Over the years the new groups developed into the different cultures, skin color, physical structure and habits that we see today each with their own language. Through time some cultures developed, by separation, sub-cultures and different dialects of the same language and became even more separated.

The entire chapter of Genesis 10 is about the descendents of Noah and their names and distribution over the earth. The division was by the descendents of Noah's three sons and their different languages. Verse 25 of Genesis 10 states that this took place in the days of Peleg which is mentioned in chapter 11 of Genesis. This verse is telling us just when the division took place and finding out when Peleg lived will tell us when the language division took place. Peleg lived in the days of Babel and Nimrod and it was during the building of the Tower of Babel and God coming down and confusing them by a sudden change of language that work on the tower broke off and all the different families, since they couldn't talk to other families any more, then left and migrated to their modern abodes or nations.

Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Gen 11:16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: Gen 11:17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. Gen 11:18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: Gen 11:19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

Eastons Bible Dictionary has this to say about Peleg.
Peleg:
"Division, one of the sons of Eber; so called because “in his days was the earth divided” (Gen_10:25). Possibly he may have lived at the time of the dispersion from Babel. But more probably the reference is to the dispersion of the two races which sprang from Eber, the one spreading towards Mesopotamia and Syria, and the other southward into Arabia".

I think that we need not go into geology or plate tectonics because the bible itself is clear enough on this point. A verse taken out of context will give a erroneous impression. The subject in Genesis Chapter 10 is families and their distribution to their assigned areas on the earth. It is much like taking a parcel of land of 1000 acres and sub-dividing it up into one acre parcels and selling each parcel to a different family. It would be divided but there would be no dividing the land by a physical separation between the parcels. The separation would be by family ownership with everyone knowing who owned what parcel. In many places in scripture the expression "earth" "whole earth", etc signifies nations and peoples and not the physical earth itself. "Earth" "whole earth" or "all the earth under the heavens" signifies a more local geographical area or refers to human populations as in the book of Revelation where "deceiveth the whole world", referring to the nations and not the physical earth itself.

God said that the creation was finished and that He had finished His work of creation. God knew well in advance what nations would be where and when. God finished creating and what we see in the earth now is very close to what the earth was like after day six of the creation. There have been very minor changes since then as the earth is constantly changing but it is a slow change. The great divisions of land (continents, islands) was accomplished before the day of Adam and Eve and has remained pretty much that way since.

The geology of plate tectonics is a subject that would take a lot of space to discuss. I certainly do not believe that the continents were separated at the time of Peleg. I believe that it was all accomplished in the first six days of creation when God separated the waters from the dry land. Such a movement of continents by thousands of miles would have created enormous convulsions on the earth and great destruction of land forms. The bible is silent on such an earth moving event. The earth we see today is what the earth was like in the time of Adam.

God "divided" the earth up into geographical areas and by giving each of Noah's son's decendents their own piece of real estate, and giving them a new language, the world's nations were divided up and placed in their own lands which God had provided for them.