Bible Contradiction? How many languages were there before the Tower of Babel was built?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How many languages were there before the Tower of Babel was built?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

There was only one language.

“Now all the earth used the same language and the same words.” (Genesis 11:1)

“6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore it was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:6-9)

There were many languages.

“From these the people of the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.” (Genesis 10:5)

“These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and by their nations.” (Genesis 10:20)

“These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and according to their nations.” (Genesis 10:31)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction: 

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit both Genesis 11:1 and Genesis 11:6-9 as affirming the claim “There was only one language before the Tower of Babel was built” against Genesis 10:5, Genesis 10:20 and Genesis 10:31 as affirming “There was many languages before the Tower of Babel was built.”
4. While Genesis 10:5, Genesis 10:20 and Genesis 10:31 does mentioned there’s more than one languages nevertheless none of them says “There was many languages before the Tower of Babel was built.”  That’s because the Tower of Babel itself is not mentioned in these verses nor in Genesis chapter 10.
5. According to Kenneth Matthews in his commentary (The New American Commentary) said Genesis 10 and 11 should be understood as being read together in light of the lexical and literary connection (Matthews, 428):
   1. Territories/Earth is mentioned in Genesis 10:5, 10:20, 10:31-32 and also in Genesis 11:1, 11:8-9.
   2. Shinar is mentioned in Genesis 10:10 and also in Genesis 11:1, 11:9.
   3. The building of cities in Genesis 10:11-12 and Genesis 11:4-6, 11:8.
   4. The action of dispersion in Genesis 10:5, 10:18, 10:32, and Genesis 11:4, 11:8-9.
   5. Of course there’s also the word “language” that appears in Genesis 10:5, 10:20-21 and Genesis 11:6-7, 11:9.
6. Yet while these two chapters (Genesis 10 and specifically the passage in Genesis 11:1-9) are meant to be read together both section are actually in different literary form (literary genre) and one must interpret any verses from these two chapters according to its literary forms.
7. Genesis 10 is a genealogical record.
   1. We know this because of the first verse in the chapter that states “Now these are the records of the generations of the sons of Noah” (Genesis 10:1a).
   2. Throughout this chapter there are a lot of “the son of” and “the father of…” construct.
   3. There’s a lot of names.
8. Genesis 11 is a historical narrative.
   1. We know this is evident because there’s a sequence of actions.
   2. There is a plot.
   3. In Hebrew there is a lot of Waw Consecutive verbs that shows sequential actions.
9. The different literary forms of these two chapters of Genesis 10 and Genesis 11 should be understood as complimentary yet presenting information in different ways.
10. Given Genesis 10 is a genealogical record it shouldn’t be read as a narrative that gives us sequential event or even chronologically prior to the Tower of Babel narrative in Genesis 11:1-8.  So the skeptic’s claim that Genesis 10:5, Genesis 10:20 and Genesis 10:31 should be interpreted as “There was many languages before the Tower of Babel was built” is unfounded.  And if those verses in Genesis 10 doesn’t support the claim “There was many languages before the Tower of Babel was built” then there’s no Bible contradiction here.
11. One should see Genesis 10 which is often called “Table of Nations” as a genealogical summary of the nations; meanwhile the narrative in Genesis 11:1-9 of the Tower of Babel provides the historical narrative how the nations arose historically. 
12. As a human analogy: I am reading a history book which has a lot of charts and figures concerning the history of the slave trade from Africa to North and South America.  There’s also portion of the book that is more narrative account.  The beginning part of the book gives us summarizing data of the hundreds of years of the slave trade across the Atlantic.  I don’t then say “hey there’s a contradiction” when the narrative portion follow after the statistics for slavery.  I don’t say “hey the charts said they are already in North America, why is it they are going to North America again as a slave on a ship in the Atlantic?”  Just because I read an earlier chapters on summarizing facts and figures don’t mean in a later chapter it gives stories of the slave trade that I think there’s a contradiction of temporal sequences.  One would point out how I have reading comprehension with regards to being aware of literary forms within the book.  The same thing is going on with the skeptics here when they pit Genesis 10 against Genesis 11 with genealogical records against historical narratives. 
13. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
14. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”