Genesis 5
ABSChapter 5. The Beginning of the NationsGen_4:16-26; Genesis 6:1-5; Genesis 9:25-29; Genesis 10:1 to Genesis 11:26
Section I: The Antediluvian Nations
Section I—The Antediluvian NationsGen_4:16-26; Genesis 6:1-5The human race divided immediately into two distinct families, the first and the older from the race of Cain, the second in the line of Seth. The Cainites became the representatives of the world, the Sethites, the professed followers of the true God. The City of Cain The former soon gathered into a civil community and peopled the first city of human history. It became the center of earthly culture, wealth and wickedness. There originated the earliest arts and manufactures, the first artificers in brass and iron, the first great musicians and the first proprietors of wealth and worldly estate. Culture and Crime The very names of the women of the race of Cain are expressive of earthly beauty and sensuous pleasure. Ada, Zillah and Naamah signify beauty, music and sweetness; but the culmination was bloodshed and violence. Beginning with the murderer, Cain himself, we soon meet a spirit of more daring and boastful crime in his immediate descendants, in the song of Lamech, “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, truly Lamech seventy-seven times” (Genesis 4:23). In a few centuries the wickedness of this race has grown into such enormous proportions that God can no longer endure it, and the deluge comes to purge the earth of its hideous and abominable burden. The Family of Seth The race of Seth stands for a while apart from the godless world, and openly professes the name and worship of Jehovah. “At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26), or rather “to call themselves by the name of the Lord,” as the margin reads, that is, to profess the true religion, and to recognize their dependence upon the fellowship with a living and present God. This we see beautifully exemplified a little later in the most distinguished link in this line, the godly Enoch. Unholy Alliance After a few generations, however, the two races mingled in defiance of the divine purpose that there should be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The sons of God (Genesis 6:2) are attracted by the beauty of the daughters of men, and the races unite in ungodly marriages, the fruit of which soon appears in a very high state of physical culture and strength, but the most desperate moral and spiritual corruption, until the earth is filled with violence (Genesis 6:5). This age closes with the catastrophe of the flood, and a new generation commences afresh the story of human history on the other side.
Section II: The Family of Noah
Section II—The Family of NoahGen_9:25-29The race really begins anew in Noah as it had in Adam. And God renews His covenant with the patriarch not only for himself, but for his posterity, giving him the same blessings in natural things He had to Adam, and adding new promises and covenants with special reference to the security of the earth from the repetition of the awful judgment that had just engulfed it. The old benediction, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28), is repeated, as is the old dominion given over the animal creation, with the permission to use animal food, and the most solemn sanctions in regard to the protection of human life. And the rainbow arch is made the token and seal of the promise that the flood waters shall no more destroy the race. The three sons of Noah are constituted the respective heads of the three great divisions of the human race, which are henceforth to spread abroad to the east, the west and the south. All ethnological and philological researches lead us back to three great original races—the Aryan, Semitic and Turanian, thus confirming the threefold development of the race from the family of Noah, and from the three heads, Japheth, Shem and Ham. Noah’s Prophecy The future of the three lines is foreshadowed by the prophecy of Noah (Genesis 9:24-27). Commencing with the family of Ham, the prophecy refers especially to the line of Canaan, his son, and pronounces upon him and his race what has ever since been literally fulfilled. The subjection and destruction of the Canaanites by Joshua, the overthrow of Carthage by the Roman power, and the sad story of the African race even down to our own time, are but instances of its wider fulfillment. The race of Shem is especially distinguished in the prophetic vision by their religious privileges. Jehovah is to be their God, and to dwell in their tents. This has been fulfilled in the selection of the seed of Abraham as God’s covenant people, and the religious privileges and glorious hopes which are linked with the future of the chosen race. The prophecy respecting Japheth indicates great national prosperity and a multiplied posterity, “May God extend the territory of Japheth” (Genesis 9:27). Dr. Young translates it, “God gave beauty to Japheth.” The descendants of Japheth comprise more than half of the human family, and the most cultivated, civilized and powerful nations of the earth. The promise, “He shall dwell in the tents of Shem,” may mean either God or Japheth. If the former, it has already been fulfilled in the manifestation of Jehovah to the Jewish people, and the coming of Christ to dwell among them in His incarnation and earthly life. If the latter, it signifies that which has been so literally fulfilled, the fact that the Gentiles have superseded the family of Shem in their religious privileges, and have entered their tents as the heirs of their covenant blessings, and of their worldly place and power. Even the political control of human history has passed from the Semitic race to the line of Japheth, and the tents of Shem are possessed by his brother in almost every part of the globe.
Section III: The 70 Nations Which Sprang Front the Family of Noah
Section III—The 70 Nations Which Sprang Front the Family of NoahGen_10:1 to Genesis 11:26The genealogical tree of humanity, starting from the confines of the flood, spreads first into three great trunks, and then speedily becomes subdivided into 70 smaller branches which thus form the genealogical sources of the various races which have since peopled the world. This division into 70 is not accidental, but carries with it the idea of completeness, which is suggested even by the numbers which comprise it (7 x 10). The Jews were accustomed to speak of the 70 nations as comprising the human family. The names of these several lines are preserved in the 10th chapter of Genesis and form a sort of chart of ethnology of which we have still many traces even in our most familiar geographical and historical names. The Family of Japheth Fourteen of these names comprise the line of Japheth. Thirty are found in the family of Ham. The remaining 26 belong to the Semitic race. The first of the Japhetic tribes springs from Gomer. It is not hard to trace this name in the races afterwards known as Cimmerian, Cimbri, etc., and such geographical names as Crimea, Cumberland, and Cambridge. Magog was the sacred progenitor of the Japhetic tribes, and his home was beyond the Caucasian mountains. His race is connected with the races of Tubal and Meshech in the prophecies of Ezekiel (chapters 27, 28, 29). This identifies them with the races to which those names refer, and which we know are connected with the inhabitants of Russia. These names, Tubal and Meshech, we find repeated in Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia, Moscow, Muscovite and other familiar Russian names. Madai was the father of the Medes, Javan of the Ionians or Greeks, Tiras of the Thracians and the people of the Taurus mountains; Ashkenaz has left his name in the Euxine Sea, and, perhaps, in the continent of Asia. Riphath reappears in the Rhiphoean mountains near the Black Sea. Elishah is the source of the word Elis or Hellas, the district of the Peloponnesus where his descendants settled. Tarshish was the colonizer of the Tartes-sus and Tarshish in Spain. Kittim left his name in Chittim and the islands of Cyprus and Italy. Dodanim is recognized in Dardania, a district of Illyricum, and some think in the name Rhodanus, the ancient name of the river Rhone, thus connecting his descendants with the people of France. Hamitic Race Of the Hamites, Cush peopled the Assyrian plain and left his son Nimrod as its proud despot, and then migrating south gave his name to Ethiopia, where monuments as old as the sixth dynasty of Egypt have been found bearing his name. Mizraim’s name frequently reappears as a geographical term in Egypt. Phut is found in Nahum 3:9, in alliance with African tribes, and the city of But or Butor on the delta of the Nile perhaps retains his name. Canaan moved westward and settled in the land of Canaan, where 11 tribes are mentioned as the early inhabitants of the land. In the second and third generations of the Hamitic family, the names of Saba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sheba are identified with regions in Arabia, and suggest many familiar names that have been derived from these early ancestors. Dedan is still found in the island of Daden in the Persian Gulf. Nimrod and Babel A little episode now breaks the genealogical line, and the historian pauses at the name of Nimrod, who stands out as the most prominent figure of this ancient period. His name means a rebel, and the expression “before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9) seems to imply the proud defiance which neither regarded God or man, and finally sought in Babel’s tower to entrench himself even against the heavens. It would seem at this period that God had given a commandment to the human family to disperse in various directions, and thus occupy the whole earth. We read a little later that it was in the days of Peleg that the earth was divided (Genesis 10:25), and perhaps he was commanded or commissioned to deliver and execute the divine message to that effect. Nimrod, however, refused to comply with the divine order, and attempted to establish an exalted empire around the city of Babel, comprising a quadrilateral with the cities of Erech, Accad and Calneh which afterwards formed the framework of the great Babylonian empire. His impious attempt to build the tower of Babel was frustrated by God’s miraculous interposition and the confusion of human languages, compelling the rebellious tribes to obey the divine command and disperse over the unoccupied earth. Nimrod went forth from his blasted ruin and formed another empire farther east and north, around the great city of Nineveh, where the excavated mounds are today unveiling the marvelous confirmations of God’s ancient Word. Between these two centers, Nineveh and Babylon, the sovereignty of the world long alternated, and the name of Babylon has come to represent in type and mystery the last forms of the world’s consolidated opposition to the kingdom of God in connection with which the last conflict of the ages shall come, between rebellious man and his righteous and long-dishonored Maker. Other Hamitic Tribes Returning to the catalog of nations, the sons of Mizraim, namely, the Ludim, the Amamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, the Pathrusim, the Cashluhim, the Philistim and the Caphtorim, recall to our minds the Libyans of Africa, the names of Memphis and Pathros in Africa, the Col-cheans of ancient Egypt, the Philistines, the name of Palestine and the Copts of Egypt. The Canaanites The sons of Canaan have left their traces still more definitely on later times. Sidon founded the great Phoenician capital that bears his name. Heth was the head of the Hittites, so well known. The Jebusite was the first inhabitant of Jebus, or Jerusalem. The Amorite, in the days of Joshua, ruled seven of the great kingdoms of Canaan. The Girgasites, perhaps, have left their names in the land of the Gergashines. The Hivite, Arkite and Sinite can he traced in the region of Lebanon, in the city of Tel Arka and the stronghold of Sinas. The Arvadite is remembered by the town of Arvad in Phoenicia. The Zinite appears in Simra west of Lebanon. And the Hamathite gave his name to the great land of Hamath with the cities of Riblah, Antioch and Hamath on the Orontes. Semitic Peoples Shem’s descendants next claim our attention. Elam was the founder of the nations inhabiting the district that comprises Persia, which was called by the name of Assyria. Asshur was the ancient inhabitant of Assyria. Arphaxad settled in northern Assyria, and from his line came the chosen seed of Abraham. Lud was the ancestor of the Lydians of Asia Minor. Aram was the father of the Arameans and Mesopotamians; and the Syriac and Chaldaic languages are called the Aramaic. Uz, the son of Aram, was the ancestor of Job, and the name reappears in the home of this patriarch. Hul settled near the sources of the Jordan, where Huleh is still found. Gether is identified with Geshur, the refuge of Absalom, in Syria. Mash was the father of the Mysians, the people of Troy. Eber was probably the progenitor of the Hebrews. Peleg, his son, was the one through whom the earth was divided and colonized. Joktan was the progenitor of the Arabian tribes, and the names of his descendants are nearly all preserved in Arabian localities, which it is not necessary to trace in detail. Sheba, Ophir and others are made familiar by later allusions in the sacred Scriptures. These various tribes in the line of Shem occupied a circumscribed place, compared either with the Japhethites or Hamites, being chiefly limited to Mesopotamia and Palestine; but from their narrow limits, all the world’s true light has gone forth, until their brethren have been glad to dwell under its beams, and Japheth has come to reside in the tents of Shem.
Section IV: Subsequent Development of the Nations
Section IV—Subsequent Development of the NationsWe have already referred to the ambitious achievements of Nimrod, and his great world empire—the founding of Babylon, Nineveh, and the neighboring cities whose monuments and ruins still attest their ancient power and glory; and also to the dispersion of the nations in the time of Peleg, probably by divine revelation and afterwards the enforcement of the divine purpose by the confounding of human languages. A Divine Plan All through the Scriptures we trace a distinct divine purpose in connection with the location and distribution of the various nations. The Word of God distinctly declares that when the Most High divided the nations, He placed the bounds of their habitation with reference to His chosen people and His plan of providence and redemption (Deuteronomy 32:8). In Acts 17:26-27, the apostle declared to the ethnologists of Athens that “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” The enterprises of human ambition have been permitted and overruled by the hand of God for the working out of His will. The World Empires In the later centuries we find the nations crystallizing under successive empires, aspiring to universal dominion and reaching it at length. In the colossal world powers of Daniel’s vision, four great empires appear arrayed against the kingdom of God. There were two others which were not included in Daniel’s vision, but had already finished their career, namely, Egypt and Assyria. The next four were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The series is closed with the mystical Babylon of the visions of Daniel and John. Then shall come the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His glorified saints, which shall never pass away, and the earth at length shall be ruled in peace and righteousness and rescued from the wrongs and oppressions of the ages of the past. Their Beastly Symbols There is a dark figure associated with all earth’s national developments. In the vision of the Apocalypse they are represented as great beasts rising out of the troubled sea, and a dragon gives to each his authority and power. They are all Satan’s counterfeits, and his attempts to be a god and rule instead of God on earth. The world will never have good government until all its monarchies and republics have been superseded by the everlasting kingdom of our God and His Christ.
Section V: Hybrid Races
Section V—Hybrid RacesSeveral of these, sprung from the chosen seed, but not in the direct line of the Covenant, appear in the book of Genesis. First, there is the Ishmaelite race which culminates in the Arab tribes, one of the most singular peoples of human history. Next, come the wicked tribes of Ammon and Moab, descended from the unnatural daughters of Lot. Next, we have the Edomites, who came from Esau and occupied for many centuries a prominent place in close connection with the kingdom of Judah. And later, the Samaritans arose from the mingling of the Jewish remnant after the captivity, with the population of Assyrian colonists imported by the conqueror into Palestine.