John Blakemore Dr.

Jonathan Henry Foundations of Ethics and Science 19 February 2011 Fate of the Ethnic groups in the Table of Nations Genesis chapter 10 lists 70 ethnic groups that dispersed from the Tower of Babel. The fate of these groups is traceable from Biblical statements and extra biblical sources. Only the listed descendants gave rise to family lines which continued to flourish, at least beyond the dispersion from Babel. Some of Noahs descendants are not named as individuals, but by the plural form of the family which they originated. Noah prophesied that God shall enlarge Japheth. And in fact Japheths descendants did experience remarkable prosperity and dispersion. Gomer, the first named son of Japheth gave rise to all the peoples that settled from the Black to eastern Germany. The next three sons: Magog, Tubal and Meshech can be considered the ancestors of the modern Russian peoples. Madai, Javan and Tubal migrated to India as the ancestors of the east Indians. Meshech was a founder of the Russian peoples and Tiras is also associated with the Etruscans of ancient Italy. The descendants of Ham migrated mainly into Africa. But it is incorrect to simply identify all the Hamites with Africans. Mizriam is the ancestor of the Egyptians and is the customary name for Egypt in the Bible. Phut in the Bible is the same as Libya, applied to the region of north Africa west of Egypt. Canaan is of course the ancestor of the Canaanites and gave his name to the land of Canaan. The most influential son of Cush (grandson of Ham) was

Nimrod. The center of Nimrods empire was Babel or Babylon. Nimrod was attempting to bring all peoples under a centralized rule. Descendants of Shem dispersed primarily into religions that figure prominently in Scripture i.e. the Bible lands. The Jews and Arabs are the major surviving Semite lines. The Assyrians were a mixture of both Semite and Hamitic people. Son of Salah was Eber who was an ancestor of Abraham and hence of Christ. Eber gave his name to the Hebrew people, the most significant semitic line because it led to the Messiah. All mankind is descended from Noah and his three sons who lived through the flood. Japheths descendants seem to have experienced the most numerous preservations of the family lines that can be identified with extant ethnic groups. The remaining Hamites, spread out to more parts of the earth than either the Japhethites or the Semites. Of the Semites, none of the family lines seems to have a lasting mark on history except the descendants of Ever, the ancestor of Abraham.