One Race: The Human Race

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AStudying God’s Word

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Studying God’s Word

Introduction

In the lesson before our review, we took our first look at the events described in the Bible’s account of the tower of Babel.

• • Write on the board, “Who in this room is your relative?”
  Who can remember what some of the key ideas from the lesson were? God judged the people’s sin by confusing their language. As the people scattered, they built ziggurats across the globe. God demonstrated his power and his justice over his creatures, and the different people groups that we see around the world today are the result of God’s judgment. This was the fourth C of the Seven C’s of History—Confusion.

The Peoples Divided

Let’s read Genesis 10:1–5 together. Have someone read the passage aloud.

As we work through these genealogies, we are going to note on this worksheet the first two generations after Noah, so fill them in to help keep track of things. We will be hearing many more names than we will record. Give each student a Grandsons of Noah worksheet.

• Who are the three sons of Noah? Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
• What switch happens in verse 2? The focus moves to the sons of Japheth—Noah’s grandsons.
• Who are the sons of Japheth? Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Record them on the worksheet.
• Are there any names that you recognize in the list of descendants? Some may recognize Ashkenaz, namesake of the Ashkenazi Jews; Tarshish is where Jonah was headed (probably in Spain); others.
• To where were these various groups scattered? The coastlands is the general description given.
• What was the division based on? They were divided into their nations according to families and languages.

Discover the Truth

Genesis 10:5 says that the people were divided by their language and their families.

• Slide #6
  How does Genesis 10:32–11:1 help us understand the details of 10:5? Verse 5 cannot mean that the groups originally had different languages but that the languages were part of their division into nations. Without reading on to chapter 11, someone might mistakenly think that the languages were present among the different families before the division rather than as part of the division.
• Does this passage explain why or how there was a division? No.
• What was the reason for the division of the nations? They had sinned against God by exalting themselves (Genesis 11:1–9) and disobeying him by refusing to spread across the earth.

Spreading Around the World

Now let’s continue reading Genesis 10.

• Who wants to read verses 6–20? Have someone read the passage aloud.

  Remember to fill in the sons and grandsons of Noah on your worksheet.

• Slide #7
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  Slide #10
  Who are the four sons of Ham? Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. Record them on the worksheet.
• Where did Cush’s son Nimrod settle? In Shinar and Assyria.
• What cities did he found? Babel, Erech, Accad, Calneh, Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen.
• From which grandson of Noah did the Philistines come? Egypt.
• What areas did the descendants of Canaan settle in? From Sidon to Gaza along the Mediterranean coast and westward to Sodom.
• What names do you recognize from the long list of Ham’s descendants? Many of the names that appear are found in the list of the Canaanite clans later in Scripture and should be familiar to many students.

Discover the Truth

Modern Egypt is where the descendants of Ham’s son, Egypt, settled. Put’s descendants settled in Libya, the Cushites in Ethiopia, and Canaan along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Some of these names are still in use today—Egypt, of course. And in some languages, the Ethiopians are referred to as Cushites. In Hebrew, Cush means black or dark.

• How does verse 20 compare to verse 6? The same basic formula is given as the people are divided into their lands by languages.
• In what general direction from the tower of Babel did the descendants of Ham spread? If they went toward the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt, they headed west and south from Shinar.

Divided into Nations

Let’s finish reading the rest of Genesis 10.

• Slide #11
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  Who will read verses 21–32? Have someone read the passage aloud.

  Remember to fill in the sons and grandsons of Noah on your worksheet.

• Who are the sons of Shem? Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. Record them on the worksheet.
• What name appears in the middle of verse 21? Eber.
• What is the relationship between Eber and Shem? Eber is Shem’s great-grandson.
• What additional information are we given about Eber? His son Peleg was born when “the earth was divided.”
• What is the phrase “the earth was divided” refer to? In the context, this refers to the division of the languages/nations at the judgment of Babel. Some students may have heard that the continents were divided during Peleg’s life, but that separation had already happened during the flood.
• What areas did the descendants of Joktan settle? From Mesha (on the Gulf of Aqaba) to Sephar (in the Arabian Peninsula).
• Where was Japheth in the family birth order? He was the eldest son.
• What phrasing do we see that is common to the first two sons? They were divided by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
• According to verse 32, what happened to all of the families listed in verses 1–31? They were divided into various nations after the flood.

Discover the Truth

I bet you are starting to see a pattern in the text. Here we have basically the same format that was given for the other two sons.

• Based on the information about Shem’s descendants, how many generations passed between the flood and the events at Babel? Shem to Peleg includes five generations.
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  Let’s look down the page to Genesis 11:10–17. This is another genealogy of Shem that includes dates (sometimes called a chronogenealogy). If we look at the dates, we can add them up and find out how long after the flood Peleg lived. We only need to look at the ages when each son was born and add those together, just like we did earlier in the lesson on the biblical age of the earth.

  Arpachshad was born two years after the flood (v. 10); Shelah was born when Arpachshad was 35 (v. 12); Eber was born when Shelah was thirty (v. 14); and Peleg was born when Eber was thirty-four (v. 16). Adding those ages up, we come to 101. We also know that Peleg lived to 239, so we have a range for the date of Babel. Bishop Ussher placed the date at 2242 BC, when Peleg was five, though we cannot be exact based on the limited details in Scripture. Point out the flood and the tower of Babel on the History of Genesis Timeline.

• In light of all of these names, and knowing that the people were scattered by their families, about how many different language groups were formed at Babel? Somewhere around seventy different nations would have been formed and scattered across the globe.

  Next, let’s think about where some of these groups went and map it out.

Mapping the Nations Activity

Pass out a Mapping the Nations worksheet to each student. Have them work in small groups to look up the passages and identify three of the grandsons of Noah and their fathers from the clues and passages. Once they have found the answers, show the images that give the answers to the questions.

Now that you have answered the questions, let’s examine this idea a little closer and make a few more connections.

Connect to the Truth

Let’s compare your conclusions to this map. Show the Mapping the Nations answer key and where each grandson settled.

At least a portion of Cush’s descendants settled here, in modern Ethiopia. This is part of the line of Ham.

Elam’s descendants, part of the line of Shem, headed east, and some settled in an area of what is southern Iran today. They became known as the Persians, but we also see the name Elamites in the Old Testament.

Madai gave rise to the Medes, a variation of his name. These sons of Japheth settled near the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Later, the Medes and Persians were united, as you read in Esther.

Show the Table of Nations image. Overall, this is a general representation of where the descendants of the 16 grandsons settled, though there is a bit of debate over the exact details.

• Based on the passages that you looked up and the clues from the worksheet, is it very difficult to identify the general regions that Noah’s grandsons settled? It is fairly easy, though there are some disagreements over details.
• How do you think the task would change if we tried to identify exactly where each of the families from Genesis 10 settled? The task would become more difficult.
• What factors make this task more challenging than identifying some general areas? The amount of time that has passed, lost records, wars, and conquests have mixed the people groups, making their history hard to discern.

  As the people were spreading from Babel, they would have been traveling into new territory that had never been settled by people before them.

• What challenges might they have faced as they were migrating to these new territories? They would have had to find food along the way, find shelter, or take their shelter as they went (tents would be ideal); they could have taken with them only what they could have carried or hauled using animals, etc. The conditions would have been similar to those of the nomadic tribes that are still present on earth today.
• Would each family have had all of the skills that were present in the larger community at Babel? No, the division of labor that is common in large communities would not have been as extensive. As the large group of people splintered, the skills were splintered with them.

  The families might not have had many specific skills that had been present in the community. For example, we know that some families before the flood were working with metals. As the families were divided, it is likely that the knowledge of metalworking was not available to all family groups. Each group had to make do with what was available to them as they were traveling or use what they had been able to bring with them. Eventually, the technology to make metals could have been learned or shared among groups.

• If you were forced to travel to another area on foot, would you have the ability to survive along your journey by using materials available in the environment? Certain people would be more able than others. Discuss the various challenges you would face if you had to move 500 miles in a specific direction.
• What would you use if you needed to hammer on something? You would probably find a rock that could be held in your hand or a solid stick.
• Does this mean you are stupid or unsophisticated? No, it just means you are making use of what is available at the time.

  This is often the stereotype of people who used stone tools. Scientists often describe this time as the “Stone Age,” and the people as unsophisticated, without culture, and relatively unintelligent. From a biblical perspective, we might better understand these people as those who were spreading out after Babel and making use of what was available. The artifacts that we find must have been left after the flood, or we wouldn’t be able to find them in layers so close to the surface of the earth.

• Slide #22
  What kind of shelter do you think these people might have used? They likely used tents or sought shelter in caves. Unless they were intending to stay in a particular area, they probably didn’t build elaborate structures.
• In light of that thought, how might we explain “cavemen” from a biblical perspective? These were simply people who were living in caves for shelter, some temporarily as they traveled, and others for permanent shelter. Eventually they established cities and began building structures.

  So when you hear people describing cavemen as unsophisticated, ancient people who evolved into modern humans, you can now give a biblical explanation for the existence of cavemen. In fact, people all over the world today live in caves and structures carved into rock. Now, technology certainly advances as people share information and cooperate, but that takes time. After the dispersion at Babel, we see cultures gaining technology and accumulating new information, but this doesn’t mean they were stupid brutes before that.

We Are All One Blood

We are going to look at one more passage as we wrap up the lesson today.

Let’s read Acts 17:24–28. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• Who was speaking in this passage? Paul (v. 16).
• Where did this take place? Looking back to verse 22, Paul was talking to the philosophers at the Areopagus (Mars Hill) in Athens (v. 15).
• Who is the “he” referenced in verse 26? God (v. 24).
• From what has God made all of the nations? One man (other translations use “one blood”).
• How many nations are made from one man, or one blood? Every nation on all the face of the earth.
• What has God determined for the nations? Their allotted periods and boundaries—where they live on the earth.
• Are there any figures of speech in verse 26? “One man” or “one blood” is a figure of speech that will need to be examined. “Periods and boundaries” is a way to speak about the boundaries of nations over time.

Discover the Truth

Now that we have asked questions about the text, let’s talk about the main idea and identify some cross-references.

• How does this verse affirm that God is sovereign over the affairs of men? He has not only made all people from one man, or one blood, but he has also appointed the times and areas where they would exist throughout history.
• What does the phrase “one blood” refer to? Blood is a symbol for life throughout the Bible, and this phrase is intended to show the common relationship, being of one blood, of all humans making up all nations on the face of the earth. Today we use the idiom “blood relative” to refer to those we are directly related to within our families rather than by marriage or adoption. A “bloodline” is a family lineage, so all mankind can be traced back to one man—Adam.

  In the Greek, the word translated “nation” in this passage is ethnos, which is where we get our word ethnic. Rather than thinking about different races, it would be more biblical to refer to these as different people groups or ethnicities.

• Slide #26
  How does Genesis 3:20 affirm this idea? Eve is referred to as the mother of all living, so all nations have come from her. Also, we can look back to the eight on the ark as more confirmation (1 Peter 3:20).

  As we think about all of the different people groups (ethnic groups) that we see around the world today, they are really all part of one race—the human race. The differences that we see in facial features, hair type, skin color, hair texture, and eye shape can all be explained by the fact that families carried their traits with them to different regions of the globe.

  These traits became concentrated in certain areas, and different people groups, or ethnicities, were established. Over time there has been a mixing of those traits, but all can trace their origin back to Babel, then to the ark, and ultimately to Adam and Eve.

  Contrary to our popular terms, no one has white or black skin. Hold a sheet of paper (black if you have a dark complexion or white if your complexion is light) to make this point obvious.

  Slide #27
  The main color of our skin comes from a pigment called melanin. The difference between my skin and (pick someone in the room with a different complexion) is the amount of melanin stored in our skin.
  Melanin: the main pigment that gives skin a dark or light shade. Individuals with darker skin have higher concentrations.
  Slide #28
  We could describe the shades of skin as a continuum from very dark to very light.

  The more melanin you have, the darker skin you have. Adam and Eve probably had a middle-brown skin tone. Some basic genetics can help us understand why this is a reasonable conclusion.

  We know that skin color is based on the genes we inherit from our parents. If your parents have light skin, you are likely to have light skin, and vice versa. If you have a parent with dark skin and the other light, you will likely have a middle brown color—you would have genes for dark skin and light skin.

  • The explanation given here is a simplification of the inheritance of melanin tone, but it gives a starting point for thinking about how these traits are distributed in populations.
  If Adam and Eve were a middle brown color, they could have passed the dark genes on to one child and the light genes on to another child. This allows for a variety of skin colors within their children—a large variety within one generation. If the dark-skinned descendants have children, they will be dark; and light-skinned parents will have light-skinned children.
• Keeping in mind the dispersion of families from Babel, how would dark-skinned people become more common in Africa and lighter-skinned people in Europe? The families that settled these areas would have carried those genes to the areas they settled. Without mixing with other populations, the skin color would become fixed in those areas. Additionally, the darker skin offers a helpful advantage to those living in areas with lots of sun, acting as a defense against harmful rays which cause skin cancer and other issues.

  This gives us a very elementary start at understanding how the different people groups came to be, but one that is firmly grounded in the Bible.

Application

In the last two lessons we have looked at how the events surrounding the tower of Babel (“Confusion” of the Seven C’s of History) can help us explain the world we live in today. We have seen how the nations were established as the various families traveled to different regions with their new languages.

Along with them they took their genes—which are a little hard to leave behind. This helps us understand the ethnic characteristics of skin color, eye shape, and other features that we see in people groups across the globe.

We can also understand how some people could interpret the evidence they left behind as they settled new areas as proof that these people were unsophisticated “cavemen.” However, from the biblical perspective, we can see how they simply made use of the things they found in their environment—caves to take shelter in and stone tools to work and hunt with. Babel helps us understand that cavemen were real descendants of Adam and Eve, facing some real challenges in their new homes. Despite the evolutionary view, these were real, intelligent people made in the image of God just like we are.

Turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel 16. The prophet Samuel was at the house of Jesse in order to anoint the next king of Israel.

Listen as I read verse 7. Read the verse.

• Slide #30
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  When Eliab, the eldest son, came before Samuel, Samuel said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him!” How did God respond? But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
• How did Samuel evaluate who would make a good king? He was looking at the outward appearance rather than the heart of the man.
• How does this idea of judging based on appearances relate to our topic today? People often judge others because they look different from themselves. Skin color and other features often cause us to prejudge people we see or meet.
• Why is this type of prejudice unbiblical? All people have been made in the image of God and are worthy of respect, despite which people group (ethnicity) they belong to.
• Does God see any group of people differently with respect to their sin? No.
• How does this fact influence the way you think about sharing the hope of Christ with others? It should help us realize that all people need to hear the gospel—people who look like us and people who look different. We should not let any of these differences hinder our sharing the gospel.

• Someone read Revelation 5:9. Assign a reader. Where have the people worshipping Christ been redeemed from? From every tribe and language and people and nation.
• What attitudes concerning people who are different from you do you need to repent of? Discuss various ideas. Remind everyone of the truth of God’s forgiveness in Christ found in 1 John 2:8–10.
• How has your thinking about cavemen changed after the teaching today, and how do you think this might be useful as you share your faith? As people share their views about biblical history, this is likely to come up in discussions. Showing people that there is a reasonable explanation from a biblical perspective can help to make them more willing to hear the message of the gospel—the most important part of any conversation.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class and take requests if time allows.

• Pray that the Lord would use each person to share without prejudice the hope of Christ with others.
• Ask God to continue to teach the students as they study his Word this coming week.
• Thank God for the truths in his Word and how it allows us to understand the world we live in.