-
†. Gen 11:1 . . Everyone on earth had the same language and the
same words.
The Hebrew word for "language" is from saphah (saw-faw') which means:
the lip. The one for "words" is from dabar (daw-baw') which means: a word
(as spoken or written)
Spoken languages are a combination of words and lips; viz: vocabulary and
pronunciation; viz: accent. It's one thing to know the words of a language,
but it is quite another to speak them with the correct pronunciation. In that
day, everyone used the same words and spoke them with the very same
accent.
†. Gen 11:2 . . And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a
valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
The name "Shinar" was of course given later because these early migrations
were to lands heretofore uninhabited. According to Gen 10:10, Shinar
became Nimrod's turf.
The amount of time elapsed between Noah's bender and this migration isn't
stated in the Bible-- plus; there's really no way to tell which part of the
world was "the east" in the author's day.
Here in the USA, the Great Continental Divide is an east/west determinant.
Funny thing is, if you're located in Phoenix Arizona, then Billings Montana is
to your continental east even though geographically, it's almost directly
north; so when you see directions like "east" and/or "west" in the Bible, it's
probably best to NOT think compass directions.
For example in the case of the Magi of Matt 2:1. As best as we can tell, their
city was somewhere east of the meridian that runs north/south through the
Jordan River Valley but that kind of an east is continental rather than
geographical so there's really no telling where they came from.
This particular migration was "from" the east; which means pioneers from
among Noah's progeny, whose numbers at this point are totally unknown,
went out west looking for greener pastures. Although the region of Shinar
has not yet been precisely pinpointed, we can take a relatively educated
guess at it.
"In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord
delivered King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, together with some of the
vessels of the House of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar to
the house of his god; he deposited the vessels in the treasury of his god."
(Dan 1:1-2)
The "Shinar" of Daniel's day is apparently the region where ancient Babylon
was located. Babylon's location today is marked by a broad area of ruins just
east of the Euphrates River, approximately 90 km (56 mi) south of Baghdad,
Iraq.
It's part of an area commonly known as the Fertile Crescent; a very large
region arching across the northern part of the Syrian Desert and extending
from the Nile Valley to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the early post
Flood years, this region was very lush. But today much of it is arid
wasteland.
†. Gen 11:3a . .They said to one another: Come, let us make bricks
and burn them hard. (Brick served them as stone).
Brick are blocks of clay or other ceramic used for construction and
decorative facing. Bricks may be dried in the sun but are more usually baked
in a kiln. They cost relatively little, resist dampness and heat, and can
actually last longer than some kinds of stone.
Brick was the chief building material of ancient Mesopotamia and Palestine.
The inhabitants of Jericho in Palestine were building with brick about 9,000
years ago (7,000 bc). That's about 5,000 years before Abraham's day.
Sumerian and Babylonian builders constructed ziggurats, palaces, and city
walls of sun-dried brick and covered them with more durable kiln-baked,
often brilliantly glazed brick, arranged in decorative pictorial friezes. Later
the Persians and the Chinese built in brick, for example, the Great Wall of
China. The Romans built large structures such as baths, amphitheaters, and
aqueducts in brick, which they often covered with marble facing.
†. Gen 11:3b . . and bitumen served them as mortar.
According to Webster's; bitumen is any of various mixtures of hydrocarbons
(as tar) often together with their nonmetallic derivatives that occur naturally
or are obtained as residues after heat-refining natural substances (e.g.
petroleum).
The stuff can be deadly if one isn't careful because once your feet become
stuck, they are very difficult to extract; as the museum at the La Brea tar
pits in Los Angeles attests. But it's a handy building material too. Noah
sealed the ark with a bituminous material, and Moses owes his life to it. (Ex
2:1-10)
Apparently there was at one time an abundance of naturally-occurring
bitumen in the Mideast, which is not too difficult to believe seeing as how it
remains to this day an enormous source of the world's supply of oil.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
†. Gen 11:1 . . Everyone on earth had the same language and the
same words.
The Hebrew word for "language" is from saphah (saw-faw') which means:
the lip. The one for "words" is from dabar (daw-baw') which means: a word
(as spoken or written)
Spoken languages are a combination of words and lips; viz: vocabulary and
pronunciation; viz: accent. It's one thing to know the words of a language,
but it is quite another to speak them with the correct pronunciation. In that
day, everyone used the same words and spoke them with the very same
accent.
†. Gen 11:2 . . And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a
valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
The name "Shinar" was of course given later because these early migrations
were to lands heretofore uninhabited. According to Gen 10:10, Shinar
became Nimrod's turf.
The amount of time elapsed between Noah's bender and this migration isn't
stated in the Bible-- plus; there's really no way to tell which part of the
world was "the east" in the author's day.
Here in the USA, the Great Continental Divide is an east/west determinant.
Funny thing is, if you're located in Phoenix Arizona, then Billings Montana is
to your continental east even though geographically, it's almost directly
north; so when you see directions like "east" and/or "west" in the Bible, it's
probably best to NOT think compass directions.
For example in the case of the Magi of Matt 2:1. As best as we can tell, their
city was somewhere east of the meridian that runs north/south through the
Jordan River Valley but that kind of an east is continental rather than
geographical so there's really no telling where they came from.
This particular migration was "from" the east; which means pioneers from
among Noah's progeny, whose numbers at this point are totally unknown,
went out west looking for greener pastures. Although the region of Shinar
has not yet been precisely pinpointed, we can take a relatively educated
guess at it.
"In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord
delivered King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, together with some of the
vessels of the House of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar to
the house of his god; he deposited the vessels in the treasury of his god."
(Dan 1:1-2)
The "Shinar" of Daniel's day is apparently the region where ancient Babylon
was located. Babylon's location today is marked by a broad area of ruins just
east of the Euphrates River, approximately 90 km (56 mi) south of Baghdad,
Iraq.
It's part of an area commonly known as the Fertile Crescent; a very large
region arching across the northern part of the Syrian Desert and extending
from the Nile Valley to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the early post
Flood years, this region was very lush. But today much of it is arid
wasteland.
†. Gen 11:3a . .They said to one another: Come, let us make bricks
and burn them hard. (Brick served them as stone).
Brick are blocks of clay or other ceramic used for construction and
decorative facing. Bricks may be dried in the sun but are more usually baked
in a kiln. They cost relatively little, resist dampness and heat, and can
actually last longer than some kinds of stone.
Brick was the chief building material of ancient Mesopotamia and Palestine.
The inhabitants of Jericho in Palestine were building with brick about 9,000
years ago (7,000 bc). That's about 5,000 years before Abraham's day.
Sumerian and Babylonian builders constructed ziggurats, palaces, and city
walls of sun-dried brick and covered them with more durable kiln-baked,
often brilliantly glazed brick, arranged in decorative pictorial friezes. Later
the Persians and the Chinese built in brick, for example, the Great Wall of
China. The Romans built large structures such as baths, amphitheaters, and
aqueducts in brick, which they often covered with marble facing.
†. Gen 11:3b . . and bitumen served them as mortar.
According to Webster's; bitumen is any of various mixtures of hydrocarbons
(as tar) often together with their nonmetallic derivatives that occur naturally
or are obtained as residues after heat-refining natural substances (e.g.
petroleum).
The stuff can be deadly if one isn't careful because once your feet become
stuck, they are very difficult to extract; as the museum at the La Brea tar
pits in Los Angeles attests. But it's a handy building material too. Noah
sealed the ark with a bituminous material, and Moses owes his life to it. (Ex
2:1-10)
Apparently there was at one time an abundance of naturally-occurring
bitumen in the Mideast, which is not too difficult to believe seeing as how it
remains to this day an enormous source of the world's supply of oil.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=