Flood to End of Babel, Demographics

I'll presume (unlike some adherrents of Ussher) that Babel ended when Peleg was born.

So, Peleg was born 101, 401 or 531 after the Flood.

I'll presume Noah had no extra son born on the Ark, or after it. I'll also have an annual population increase of 2, 3, 4 or 5 %. Starting with 8 people.

8 * 1.02101 = 59		8 * 1.03101 = 158		8 * 1.04101 = 420		8 * 1.05101 = 1105
8 * 1.02401 = 22 478		8 * 1.03401 = 1 124 131		8 * 1.04401 = 54 132 620		8 * 1.05401 = 2 511 880 150
8 * 1.02531 = 294 972		8 * 1.03531 = 52 439 230		8 * 1.04531 = 8 867 335 788		8 * 1.05531 = 1 427 604 121 610

I think there is a reason why people holding to a Masoretic chronology tend to say Babel and the Confusion of tongues could have been later on in Peleg's life. According to Andrew Sibley,* this happened very early, since the author or authors of Seder Olam Rabbah were constrained to Masoretic chronology:

But at what point in Peleg’s life do the events occur? Answering this question is important because it will help us understand the timeframe of post-Flood climatic changes and human migration. A number of present-day Christians who hold to a literal reading of Genesis consider that the reference to Peleg is linked to his birth, combined with acceptance of the MT. This suggests the Babel incident occurred as early as 101 years after the Noahic Flood, although with some flexibility of several decades (figure 1).

...

But in addition to this consideration, the first-century commentary of Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, follows the longer timeframe of the Septuagint (LXX) and Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), and places the events at Peleg’s birth. While early commentaries on the MT, for instance the Seder Olam Rabbah, place the events at a later stage in Peleg’s life, namely at his death. But both early approaches require at least several hundred years from the Flood to the Babel event, and this length of time is supported by the Book of Jubilees. This evidence constrains the time of the Babel scattering to several centuries post-Flood.

Well, how about taking this as a reason to accept the view of Antiquities, namely that Peleg was born later than 101 after the Flood?

I would say, another consideration than the one brought up by Andrew Sibley, Joctan's tribes, tends to exclude the birth of Peleg as early as 101 after the Flood. We'll have a look at the population growth if instead we have 6 or 7 % ...

8 * 1.06¹⁰¹ = 2877, 8 * 1.07¹⁰¹ = 7427

At 7 % annual population increase, it just could work, even with a geographical spread. At 5 %, one would need to have all of mankind huddling together at Babel.

However, at 401 years, 2 or 3 % would do just fine, 4 would start to be excessive. At 531 years, 2 % would be OK, 3 % would approach excessive.

This brings us to the next point, was Babel before or after the geographic spread of mankind over much if not necessarily every nook and cranny of our globe?

As readers of my blog will be aware, it was after some very considerable spread, if you ask me. This is often contested in the form "but they precisely refused to spread", so, let's look at the text:

And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands
[Genesis 11:4]

I would say, this was not said by every living human person (except small children), it was said by a specific élite which still had the habit of coming together regularly, which already had a notion of "all lands" (and which had therefore already experienced geographic spread), and the point was not disobeying God's command of spreading, but of resisting its consequence, the élites becoming local chieftains without international contacts. They were the proverbial they, and they wanted to remain an international élite.

I'll propose a reading of the narratives, in which the Babel narrative actually starts in verse 2, first mention of "they" ... so, what does verse 1 belong to? It comes at the end of "table of nations" ...

... These are the families of Noe, according to their peoples and nations. By these were the nations divided on the earth after the flood. And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.
[Genesis 10:32—11:1]

So, the verses in ending each of the three sons' genealogies, they mention "tongues" as an edit added after the Babel event.

By these were divided the islands of the Gentiles in their lands, every one according to his tongue and their families in their nations ... These are the children of Cham in their kindreds, and tongues, and generations, and lands, and nations ... These are the children of Sem according to their kindreds and tongues, and countries in their nations ...
[Genesis 10:5, 10:20, 10:31]

The account is redacted, perhaps by Noah before he died, and after Babel, a re-edit adds "languages" or "tongues" and also adds chapter 11 verse 1 so as to indicate this was proleptic. Another edit would be the inclusion of Peleg and of Joctan, and then, further on, the posterity of Joctan. However, the Babel narrative as such starts with chapter 11, verse 2.

"They" is in Hebrew the grammatical form of 3mp, third person, masculine, plural. It does not grammatically refer back to "the earth" which is feminine singular. And if we assume it can mean something less than all of the human population on earth, we can have a geographic spread before Babel, and Babel starting with a displacement of the global élite, from East of Tigris, presumably the landing place in Armenia, to West of Tigris, whereever Babel was, and this presumably also in purely travelling directions from East to West, i e to for instance Göbekli Tepe, with the Harran plain directly mentioned:

And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it
[Genesis 11:2]

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Sosthenes
28.XI.2024

Apud Corinthum natalis sancti Sosthenis, ex beati Pauli Apostoli discipulis; cujus mentionem facit idem Apostolus Corinthiis scribens. Ipse autem Sosthenes, ex principe Synagogae conversus ad Christum, fidei suae primordia, ante Gallionem Proconsulem acriter verberatus, praeclaro initio consecravit.

* Dating the Tower of Babel events with reference to Peleg and Joktan.