The Table of Nations

Dr. Couch, from the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, where do we put the American Indians, and the people of India and China? ANSWER:  This is a tough question, though almost all scholars, even in the secular world, believe that the Table of Nations is showing us that all peoples come from the three sons of Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Yet the closest references in the verses have to do with the races that are surrounding the Jewish people, at least to some degree. But even that has to be explained because there are connections within the list of peoples that would cover the tribal nations of Western Europe, Russia, Africa, the Greeks, and the Italians. Unger says the Table is a "remarkable geographic-ethnographic survey of the ancient biblical world that figures in redemptive history and has been remarkably illuminated by modern archaeological research."    Without being specific, Unger points out that "Christianity has had great outreach upon the Japhetic peoples of Europe and America."    One of the most valuable books in my personal library is a work entitled The Key written by John Philip Cohane (London: Turnstone Books, 1973). Prof. Cohane worked closely with the University of Pennsylvania. He spent his life working on place-names and proper names found worldwide. He constantly quoted Genesis 10 and the story of Abraham to show the continuity of all peoples around the globe. He wrote: "Starting with no preconceived theories or opinions, objectively sorting out and assembling date, I could not have been more astonished where the chain of facts led me." Thus     Within a relatively short time, it became apparent that, for better or worse, all of  [certain words] figure prominently in ancient Semitic legends … Most of them are to be found in the Old Testament, notably in Genesis. This is not to say there may not be a more logical, even earlier, point of origin than the Semitics, but if so I have not been able to find it. On the basis of the evidence it would seem that a high percentage of the people on earth today are more closely related than is generally assumed and that they are bound together by at least one early bloodstream that is Semitic in origin. (p. 19)    And: There is scarcely a prominent fact in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis that cannot be duplicated from the legends of the American nations, and scarcely a custom known to the Jews that does not find its counterpart among the people of the New World. It is a very remarkable fact that we find in America, traditions of the Deluge coming nearer to that of the Bible and the Chaldean religion than among any people of the Old World. … Other native legends told of the Garden of Eden, of the expulsion of Adam and Eve, complete to the temptation of a serpent and the sharing of a forbidden fruit. The same familiar legend was also pictorialized in native art that predated the advent of the Spaniards [coming to the Americas]. (pp. 24-25)    I challenge any one reading this to make it a point to study this book and come up with a paper or a booklet that would shed a tremendous amount of light on Genesis 10. This work needs to be done!    Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch