One of the most well-known stories in the world is “The Tower of Babel.” It is from this event that the world’s variety of languages are born, as well as the diversity in people groups.
According to the renowned chronologists, Archbishop James Ussher, the tower of Babel happened in 2242 B.C. This is based on his published work, in 1654, called Annals of the World.
Genesis records that it happened after the birth of Peleg (10:25), about five years. For it was in his days the nations were divided. Note that, Peleg is said to be the line through whom Jesus was born. (Adam’s Synchronous History)
To get to such a date is no easy process. Today, it is still debated on the exact year for the Tower of Babel event, even though it’s a close estimation. One could count back the years based on the ages and timelines the Bible gives us. You could then trace that back through the historical dates we know presently. Doing so would give us close to the 2242 B.C. date.
In conjunction to counting backwards, Ussher came to this conclusion by also:
“Calculating the astronomical observations by Porphyry (an anti-Christian Greek philosopher, c. 234–305 AD), and the number of years is as we find recorded in Simplicius (a Latin writer in the 6th century AD). He affirmed that these observations were taken to Greece from Babylon by Callisthenes at Aristotle’s request. From these writings it appeared that the Babylonians devoted themselves to the study of astronomy, even from the very days of Nimrod from whom all that region took its name (Micah 5:6).”
Annals of the World (pg. 22, 2003 English version).
The Construction of the Tower of Babel
There are many artisan renderings of the Tower of Babel. Some depict it as being a spiral building reaching into the heavens. Others paint it as being a square shape based on Mesopotamian ziggurats.
“Herodotus (5th century BC), who saw it on his way through Babylon, described it as having eight levels, and standing a colossal 60 meters (about 20 modern stories) high.” (reference)
The shape and size of the tower is of less significance than the actual story, however.
According to Genesis 11:1, “the whole earth used the same language and the same words.” The post-Flood population traveled east from where Noah’s Ark rested and found a “plain in the land of Shinar and settled there” (vs. 2).
It seems that Nimrod was a leader and instigator in constructing this tower according to Josephus (Antiquities, 1.1.c. 4. S. 3. (118) 4:57). Out of it arose the first major cities and kingdom, Babylon, which he ruled over (Genesis 10:8-11).
Purpose for Construction
As Genesis 11:3-4 reveals, the people said to one another:
“Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
Building a city and even a tower is not wrong. God is an originator and builder and being made in His image means that we also have creative ability and desire to build. However, when such projects have the purpose of going against God’s mandates and Him receiving glory, that is when man has gone too far.
Once again, a depraved human race will need to be judged for their evil, and only a few generations after a global judgment took place.
What was God’s command to Adam, and then to Noah, who is still alive at this point of the story (died 350 years after the global flood of 2348 B.C.)? God told them to “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1).
The post-Flood population wanted to make a name for themselves by reaching the heavens or being the highest point in the area (since they were on a plain). One could also say that they wanted to be known more than God or be gods themselves, for their next statement goes against God’s mandate “Fill the earth.”
How Many People Built the Tower of Babel?
Growing up, I had believed that there were millions of people on the earth at this time. Perhaps because of artists renderings of the account. Or because no one had mathematically projected the possible number of people post-Flood. At least, that I had heard of.
However, if we look closely at the biblical account after the Flood, we see that there were 8 people who left the Ark and began to repopulate the earth (Genesis 8:16; 9:1). A few generations after the Flood, whence this event took place, the Bible mentions 70 families are on the earth (chapter 10; c.f. 1 Chronicles 1). This list is known as the Table of Nations because that is the number of nations, and thus, languages that appeared after God scrambled their one language (11:1, 6-7).
- 26 of the seventy descended from Shem
- 30 of the seventy descended from Ham
- 14 of the seventy descended from Japheth
Those seventy families mentioned are not an exhaustive list. It only details the sons who were born to each of their fathers starting from Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Each son is the head of their own family and would also have a wife as well as daughters and other sons born to them.
The Number of People on the Earth
With that said, let’s take the eight generations of lineage mentioned with each family. Each family would have sons and daughters who married and had kids of their own in that timeframe. This would give us a conservative guest of around 1,000-1200 people on the earth at that time. For example:
70 men + 70 wives + 10-12 children = 770-910 people.
Not to mention however many daughters were born to Ham, Shem, and Japheth, as well as Noah. I know that this is simple math and assumptions, but 1,000-1200 people seem reasonable. You can check out these articles for further suggestions and theories. Article 1 & Article 2.
That is probably a new way of seeing the biblical account and earth’s history for you. You would think it’d be intuitive to have so few of people on the earth since the earth started reproducing with just eight people again. At least for me, it was not the first thought that came to mind.
Well, armed with that bit of knowledge, that means the number of people who built the Tower of Babel would be in the 1,000s not millions!
Smaller Families and Small Nations
Let’s consider the ramifications of this number. When God confused the people’s language and scattered them from a central location, that means each family was separated from each other and unable to communicate with each other.
“These are the sons…according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations”
(Genesis 10:5, 20, 31)
If we distribute the seventy families evenly between earth’s current population, that means each family had about 12-17 members who could only communicate with themselves. It is no wonder mankind wanted to stick together. To be only a few people on such a large planet would feel very isolating. And now, each family will feel that even more so.
The population of the world gradually increased from there, but still wasn’t in the billions like it is, today. For example, when King David was on the Throne of Israel around 1000 B.C., the entire world population was around 50 million people. A thousand years later (A.D. 1) this number had more than tripled to almost 170 million (Jeanson, “Traced,” pg. 25). At that rate, you would think the world population would be larger now, but we need to consider the effect of plagues and wars on growth of populations too.
The Nations Post-Babel
The dispersion of the nations was not a global migration yet. Most families stayed within the Middle East region as we know it, today. However, we have the rise of 3 great nations close to a century after the Tower of Babel event.
Babylon was the first great empire established in 2234 B.C. by Nimrod (c.f. Genesis 10:10).
Egypt, which was established by Mizraim, Ham’s son, in 2188 B.C. Mizraim is the Hebrew word used for Egypt and is sometimes called “the land of Ham.”
Then, there is Greece which was established in 2089 B.C. Doing a concordance search using the Blue Letter Bible app (check out my video on the BLB, here), the name “Javan,” a son of Japheth, comes up as “Greece” in Daniel 8:21. We could assume that Javan’s family started this great nation. After that, according to the 4th Century bishop and historian Eusebius of Caesarea, Egialeus, king of the Greek city of Sicyon, west of Corinth in Peloponnesus, began his reign in 2089 BC. (reference)
The search for what nation came from each son of Ham, Shem, and Japheth is a lengthy analysis. We will begin to look at other nations and where they came from in future articles. This is a good initial attempt though.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Like I mentioned in my earlier articles, my goal is to journey from a time when people believed in one God, monotheism, to a time when other religions and worldviews became dominate. It is here, at the Tower of Babel, that the journey really begins. We will begin to see the growth and migration of the world’s populations in future articles.
Our focus begins with the East Asian people group, starting with those who we know as the Chinese. As this journey progresses, we will then move southwest from there to discover India, their population and beliefs starting from Babel.
Next article, I will begin the discovery of the Chinese people group and examine their move from monotheism, into their current beliefs of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. That is, if they ever believed in a one, true God.
For Further Study
(Note: There are Amazon affiliate links in this article by which I receive a commission from any purchases. I appreciate the support!)
Was the Dispersion at Babel a Real Event? (article)
The Image of God in Man (article)
Ziggurats (article)
The Tower of Babel (video)
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