“Earth’s division in the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:25) refers to catastrophic splitting of the
continents.”
Commentators both before and after Lyell and Darwin (including Calvin, Keil
and Delitzsch, and Leupold) are almost unanimous that this passage refers to
linguistic division at Babel and subsequent territorial division. We should
always interpret Scripture with Scripture, and there’s nothing else in Scripture
to indicate that this referred to continental division. But only eight verses on
(note that chapter and verse divisions were not inspired), the Bible
states, “Now the whole earth had one language and one
speech” (Gen. 11:1), and as a result of their disobedience, “the LORD confused the language of all the
earth” (Gen. 11:9). This conclusively proves that the “earth” that was
divided was the same earth that spoke only one language, i.e., “earth” refers
in this context to the people of the earth, not planet Earth.
Another major problem is the scientific consequences of such
splitting—another global flood! This gives us the clue as to when the continents
did move apart: during Noah’s Flood.
|