The Flood and the Tower: One Line Becomes Three
The black Flood line of 2348, Noah’s band splitting into Japheth, Shem and Ham, and the dashed line of 2247 where the nations scatter.
The numbered pins of this stretch, walked in order, are in the book (pp. 38–39). Here you can zoom and explore it freely.
Eight Souls, Three Sons, Every Nation
Eight people step out of the ark, and every nation on the pages that follow grows from them. That is what this stretch of the chart claims, and Adams makes the claim with a ruler rather than an argument. On pp. 38–39 a single thick black line drops from the top border to the stream of time. Nothing else on the spread looks like it, and at its head he prints “Noah’s Deluge. 2348 B.C.” Whatever lies to the left of that line is the old world running out. Whatever lies to the right comes from one family.
Watch how the old world ends. Lamech’s band stops just short of the black line, because he died five years before the Flood. Methuselah’s runs right up to it, and Adams says so in plain words: he dies the year of, and before, the Deluge. In the box at the top left he counts the survivors the way Peter does, eight souls, and names every one: Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their four wives. Under Noah’s band he writes how long they were shut in, a year and ten days, in at 2348 and out at 2347. Under the black line he gives the year twice, “1656 A.M.” and “2348 B.C.”, and the two numbers always add up to 4004.
Now put your finger on Noah’s green band at the far left, where Adams writes that Noah lived 950 years and “has 3 sons only.” Slide right. At one point the band splits three ways. Japheth curves up toward the top, and Adams calls him “the elder,” as Genesis 10:21 does. Shem runs straight on in red. Ham bends away below, marked as Noah’s “younger son.” Seven short shoots rise from Japheth, numbered in the order of Genesis 10:2. Under Shem, Asshur carries the note “Builded Nineveh.” From Ham come Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan, and beside Mizraim Adams writes that he “settles Egypt.”
A hundred and one years after the Flood comes the second turning. A thin dashed line runs down the chart from a note at the top, the “Confusion of Tongues” and the “Dispersion,” 2247 B.C. On its way it passes the birth of Peleg, whose name Genesis explains, “for in his days was the earth divided,” and it runs right beside Nimrod, the man who founds Babylon. Next to Nimrod Adams writes a new kind of note: he “subverts the patriarchal and establishes the regal government.” Until now every band was a father and his years. From here on there are kings.
Just below the spread Adams turns the family tree into a map, a table of the peoples he believed came from each son. He prints the races of his own day beside Noah’s sons, which is how the 1870s sorted mankind. Scripture starts from the other end. Genesis 10 calls every nation one family’s descendants, and Paul says God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.”
Then look along the top of Shem’s red line. It keeps narrowing to one son in each generation, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, until a new band opens at the right edge in 2126 B.C. It belongs to Terah, and Terah will be the father of Abram.
“I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.”Genesis 9:13 · KJV
Think it through
Keep your Bible open. There are no wrong answers here; the worksheet in the free Companion gives you room to write.
- After the Flood, what does God promise Noah and his sons, and what does he ask of them? (Genesis 9:1, 8–17)
- Adams prints eight dates for the Flood, not only his own. What stays the same in every row?
- Follow Shem’s red band to the right edge of the spread. Why does Genesis keep following this one line while the other nations branch away? (Genesis 11:10–26)
- Adams puts Babel and Peleg on one dashed line. What does “divided” in Genesis 10:25 have to do with “scattered” in 11:8–9?
- Beside Noah’s sons Adams prints the races of his own day. Genesis 10:32 calls every nation one family’s descendants. How does that change the way you read his labels?
- The builders feared being scattered; at Pentecost the scattered heard one message. How do the two scenes answer each other? (Genesis 11:4; Acts 2:5–11)
Find “2348 years, to the Birth of Christ,” beside the black Flood line on p. 39. Which key tells you what it means, and what does it say?
Show the answer
Key 1 · Dates ride the stream of time. The years B.C. count down toward the birth of Christ, so a date B.C. is also the number of years still to go: from the Flood, 2348.
Scattered at Babel, Gathered by One Message
When Noah’s family came out of the ark, God gave them a blessing that was also a command: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” A hundred and one years later, on Adams’ reckoning, their descendants stood on a plain in Shinar and decided to do the opposite. They gave their reason in their own words. They wanted a name, and they did not want to be scattered. Genesis does not describe the tower they built. It tells you what they were afraid of.
Adams draws the answer as a single dashed line. Find it on p. 39, falling from the note of 2247 down through Peleg’s birth to the stream of time, and under the stream read his summary, that the descendants of Noah disperse over the earth. Just below the spread, within a few years of that line, the first kingdoms open as bands of their own: Babylon under Nimrod, China under Fohi, Egypt under Mizraim (p. 41). On Adams’ chart the scattering is not the end of the nations’ story. It is where their bands begin.
It also matters how you read the labels Adams sets beside those bands. His table on p. 40 matches each son of Noah to peoples of his own day, and his race labels come from the learning of the 1870s. Genesis begins somewhere else. It calls every nation the families of the sons of Noah, and when Paul stood in Athens he told the Greeks, Javan’s descendants by Adams’ own table, that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” The chart can show you where the families went. Scripture tells you they were one family when they set out.
And Scripture does not leave them scattered. On the day of Pentecost devout men from every nation under heaven stood in Jerusalem, and each heard the apostles speak in his own language. At Babel the languages divided people who wanted to stay together for their own name; at Pentecost one message, heard in many languages, gathered people for the name of another. Put your finger back on the dashed line of 2247, and as you follow those bands to the right, remember where Scripture says their story is going.
Read and reflect
“Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
What did the builders want, and what were they trying to avoid?
“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth …”
How would this verse change the way you read the labels Adams prints beside Noah’s sons?
“Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”
What is undone at Pentecost of what happened at Babel, and what is not?
Quiz: ten questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Each explanation names the page of the book.
Read the whole chart, stretch by stretch
This site lets you wander; the book walks you through. All seventeen stretches on full spreads at 75% of the real chart, numbered pins explained in order, Adams' Six Keys on every page and a study page for every stretch. Large format, full color.