QUESTIONS #14
How Was the Earth Divided in Peleg's Day?
Genesis 10:25 states, and I Chronicles 1:19 repeats, "And two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided" Peleg lived a few centuries after the flood. Little else is known about him.
In what way was the earth divided?
Here are three possibilities. Bible commentators mention only the first two.
a. Languages suddenly multiplied at Babel and
produced divisions among the people of the world.
[See Genesis 11:1-9.]
b. The continents were divided by continental drift,
which began in Peleg's day.
c. Greatly lowered sea levels soon after the flood (as
explained by the hydroplate theory) connected all
continents.1 Sea level rose in Peleg's day, dividing the
earth by water.
THIS LAST ONE IS BROWN'S THEORY - THE LAND-MASSES, AND SEAS, WERE CREATED AND DIVIDED TO A POINT, IN GENESIS ONE. "A" AND "B" ABOVE IS MORE LIKELY AND CORRECT - Keith Hunt
Languages Divided in Peleg's Day? Scripture says, "the earth was divided" The Hebrew word for earth, erets, can also be translated as "countries," "land," or "ground." In other words, the land was divided, not people or languages. Besides, Peleg probably lived two generations after languages were multiplied at Babel.2
IT MAY REFER TO THE FACT THAT THE DIVIDING OF THE EARTH AND PEOPLES ON IT, WAS CONCLUDED BY THE DAYS OF PELEG. AS THE FLOOD OF NOAH'S DAY WAS NOT UNIVERSAL/GLOBAL - THE BASIC DIVIDING WAS PRETTY WELL COMPLETE IN PELEG'S DAY, I.E. THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA WERE SETTLED IN NORTH AMERICA; THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA WERE SETTLE IN THAT COUNTRY BY PELEG'S DAY. THE PEOPLES OF THE EAST WERE IN THE EAST BY PELEG'S DAY; SOUTH AMERICA HAD A POPULATION BY PELEG'S DAY, AND SO FORTH. IT'S A WAY OF TELLING US THAT THE BASIC GEOGRAPHY AND POPULATIONS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF THE EARTH HAD BEEN DONE BY THE TIME OF PELEG - Keith Hunt
Continents Broke and Began Drifting in Peleg's Day?
If this happened, what broke them apart? Worse yet, what moved them? It takes earthshaking forces to break and move continents. Those who accept the plate tectonic theory believe that continents have broken frequently— geologically speaking. To stretch and break a thick slab of rock requires, among other things,3 sliding it horizontally on its foundation against enormous frictional force. [See the Technical Note on page 423.] Simultaneously, an additional force must stretch the slab, like a rubber band, until it breaks. Plate tectonics can't provide either gigantic force. Therefore, you can safely offer to move a continent (provide one force) if someone will break a continent (provide both forces).
Those who claim that continents broke and moved have not fully considered the forces and energy required. To open up the entire Atlantic in a few thousand years by rock-on-rock sliding would produce indescribable global violence and volcanic activity that left no geological or historical record. (Among almost all cultures, ancient and modern, the only global catastrophe with a clear historical record is the flood.)
If the continents broke apart, they should fit together better than they do. (Figures 51-52 on page 115, show this.) The public has been misled for decades into believing that the continents fit against each other. Actually, four great map distortions were deliberately made, as Figure 50 explains. Continents bordering the Atlantic fit much better next to the base of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The hydroplate theory explains why.
THIS THEORY IS INDEED VERY WEAK. THERE HAS BEEN SOME MOVEMENTS HERE AND THERE; EARTHQUAKES CHANGING SOME AREAS HERE AND THERE OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS; BUT THE BASIC LAND AND SEA MASSES WERE MADE AS EXPLAINED IN GENESIS ONE; GOD DIVIDED THE LANDS FROM THE SEAS. WITH THE LANGUAGES CONFOUNDED AT BABEL, AND A VERY LARGE PART OF THE EARTH COVERED WITH WATER IN NOAH'S DAY, BY THE TIME OF PELEG THE BASIC DIVIDING HAD TAKEN PLACE. IT WAS ONLY IN WESTERN AND EASTERN EUROPE THAT MOVEMENTS OF PEOPLES CONTINUED FOR SOME THOUSANDS OF YEARS, UNTIL THE NATIONS OF EUROPE SETTLED THEMSELVES IN THE LAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS - Keith Hunt
Rising Water Divided Continents in Peleg's Day?
The Bible uses the Hebrew word peleg as a verb three times. Two usages, mentioned above, are translated simply as divided (Genesis 10:25 and I Chronicles 1:19). The third use is a division by water (Job 38:25). In the ten instances where peleg is a common noun, it always involves water. The New American Standard Bible translates it eight times as "streams," once as "stream," and once as "channels." Therefore, peleg may imply a division by water.
SO THINGS WERE BASICALLY SETTLED AFTER NOAH'S FLOOD AND IN THE DAYS OF PELEG - Keith Hunt
In English, we have the words archipelago (a sea having, or dividing, many islands) scad-pelagic (relating to or living in the sea). Pelagic sediments or deposits are sediments on the ocean floor. Pelagic frequently refers to life forms found in the sea. Bathypelagic means relating to or living in the deep sea. Also, the prefix pelag means sea.
Dr. Bernard Northrup, a Hebrew professor, has shown that peleg originally meant division by water.4 That meaning is embedded in all three language families of Noah's offspring. Consequently, its meaning probably preceded the multiplication of languages at Babel.
YES, AND SO IT WAS, AS GIVEN TO US IN GENESIS ONE - GOD HAD THE BASIC LAND AND SEA MASSES DIVIDED; BUT SOME OTHER CHANGES HAPPENED IN THE FLOOD OF NOAH'S DAY, AND SO AFTERWARDS UNTIL IN PELEG'S DAY THINGS WERE BASICALLY AS THEY ARE TODAY WITH LAND AND SEA MASSES, AND THE MIGRATIONS OF PEOPLES - Keith Hunt
Northrup states: [Peleg, palag, or PLG] often contains within it a reference to water. It is used to refer to a stream of water in Hebrew, Coptic, Ethiopic and in Greek. The root is used to refer to irrigation canals which carried the water throughout the farming land of Mesopotamia. However, an examination of the Greek usage (of the family of Japeth [one of Noah's three sons] of the root letters PL and PLG clearly shows that in the majority of the instances this root was used of the ocean....It is used to mean: "to form a sea or lake," "of places that are flooded and under water," "of crossing the sea," of "the broad sea" itself, of "being out at sea," "on the open sea" It is used of seamen and ships. The noun with the result suffix is used of "an inundation" I continue: it is used of "a being at sea," of "a creature of or on the sea," of "one who walks on the sea," of "running or sailing on the open sea," of "a harbor that is formed in the open sea by means of sandbags," and in many ways of "the open sea itself of "going to, into or toward the sea," of "roving through the sea," of "being sea-nourished," of "turning something into the sea," or "of flooding" It is quite apparent that every Greek usage here involves the sea in some way.
Therefore, the earth was probably divided by water in Peleg's day.
NO, IT MEANS THE BASIC LAND MASSES AND SEAS AND RIVERS, AND HUGE LAKES [THE GREAT LAKES OF CANADA AND THE USA]; THE "BLACK SEA" AND THE MIGRATION OF PEOPLES OVER THE WATERS TO LANDS, HAD TAKEN PLACE BY THE TIME OF PELEG. IT HAD BEEN GOING ON BEFORE NOAH'S FLOOD AND BABEL, BUT THE BASIC THOUGHT IS ALL WAS SETTLED FOR LAND AND SEA AND POPULATIONS BY THE TIME OF PELEG - Keith Hunt
The hydroplate theory explains how and why. Soon after the flood, sea level was several miles lower than today,5 because the floor of the subterranean chambers was about 10 miles below the earth's surface. As the crushed, thickened, buckled, and sediment-laden continents sank into the mantle in the centuries after the flood, sea level had to rise in compensation. Eventually, sea level approached today's level. [See pages 105-141 for details and evidence.]
WRONG IN THE CONTEXT OF NOAH'S FLOOD, AS THAT FLOOD WAS NOT GLOBAL BUT REGIONAL - SEE THE STUDY ON THIS WEBSITE CALLED "NOAH'S FLOOD WAS NOT UNIVERSAL." Keith Hunt
With sea level much lower for a few centuries after the flood, imagine how many migration paths existed for animals and man to populate today's continents and islands.6
IT WAS NOT SO; ONLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE NOAH'S FLOOD WAS GLOBAL COME UP WITH SUCH IDEAS; THE GLOBAL FLOOD WAS GENESIS 1:2 - Keith Hunt
God's commands (Genesis 9:1, 11:4-9) for humans and animals to populate the "whole earth" after the flood must have been doable. If, after the flood, sea level was where it is today repopulating the "whole earth" would have been difficult, if not impossible, for those first receiving God's command. The wisdom and urgenqy of God's command are apparent when we realize that sea level was steadily rising. The "window of opportunity" for global migration was disappearing in Peleg's day.
AGAIN JUST NOT SO, MADE UP IDEAS BY THE WRONG THEOLOGY THAT NOAH'S FLOOD WAS GLOBAL - Keith Hunt
From the genealogies listed on page 380, we see that Peleg lived from 100 to 339 years after the flood, five generations after Noah. Therefore, Peleg, or those who named him, may have been world travelers or explorers who discovered that the earth was being divided by rising water. Certainly, Noah's early descendants knew how to construct ships, because Noah and his three sons built the Ark. They would have had an explorer's curiosity when they realized how drastically the flood had changed the earth. Their long life spans allowed them to pursue that curiosity and accumulate knowledge. This would help explain a remarkably accurate, authentic, and ancient map that shows islands now covered with water and the outlines of Antarctica— as it would look with no ice. [See Figure 179 on page 348.]
ONCE MORE THE ANCIENTS HAD MIGRATED FROM THE LAND AREA OF NOAH; THE CENTRAL LARGE POPULATION WAS WHERE NOAH LIVED; IT HAD INDEED BECOME WICKED AND EVIL; IT WAS TO BE DESTROYED. FOR ALL THE DETAILS OF WHY NOAH'S FLOOD WAS NOT GLOBAL, SEE THE STUDY I'VE MENTIONED MANY TIMES; WHEN GETTING TO THE NITTY-GRITTY OF NOAH'S FLOOD, THE REASONS WHY IT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN GLOBAL BECOME VERY CLEAR - Keith Hunt
The Ice Age would have lowered sea level about 300 feet— almost enough to join all continents. But at the height of the Ice Age, Antarctica and all its coastlines would have been covered with ice. Therefore, the Ice Age cannot explain both the visible coastlines shown on the ancient map and interconnected continents. The flood accounts for both. (The hydroplate theory also shows why the flood produced the Ice Age.)
ALL INCORRECT AND MADE UP IDEAS TO SUPPORT THE WRONG THEOLOGY OF A GLOBAL NOAH'S FLOOD - Keith Hunt
How Was the Earth Divided in Peleg's Day?
Conclusion. Strong linguistic and scientific arguments oppose the two interpretations of Genesis 10:25 commonly taught: (1) a division of people by multiplication of languages, and (2) the beginning of continental drift.
THE ABOVE TWO ARE PARTLY THE ANSWER , BUT CERTAINLY NOT ALL THE ANSWER. LAND MASSES AND THE SEAS HAD BASICALLY BEEN FORMED IN GENESIS ONE. MIGRATIONS OF SOME PEOPLES HAD ALREADY TAKEN PLACE BEFORE THE DAYS OF NOAH. THE STUDIES IN THIS SECTION DOWN AT THE BOTTOM ON "LOST RACES" SHOWS HOW ADVANCED THE WORLD HAD BECOME BY THE TIME OF THE TOWER OF BABEL; HENCE GOD HAD TO STEP IN TO SLOW THINGS DOWN; HIS TIME PLAN FOR HUMANS ON EARTH NEEDED A LONGER TIME FRAME ACCORDING TO HIS WILL - Keith Hunt
Instead, these studies point to an earth being divided by rising water in the days of Peleg. They also paint a picture of our ancestors migrating and exploring soon after the flood.
MIGRATION HAD STARTED BEFORE NOAH, AND OF COURSE IT CONTINUED AFTER NOAH. ALL KINDS OF FALSE IDEAS HAVE BEEN INVENTED TO UPHOLD A GLOBAL FLOOD IN NOAH'S DAY….IT JUST WAS NOT SO - Keith Hunt