Most of us know that Genesis has ten parts, each of which begins with a reference to a genealogy.
Genesis 2:4: The Generations (Genealogy) of the Heavens and the Earth
Genesis 5:1: The Book of the Genealogy of Adam
Genesis 6:9: The Genealogy of Noah
Genesis 10:1: The Genealogy of the Sons of Noah
Genesis 11:10: The Genealogy of Shem
Genesis 11:27: the Genealogy of Terah
Genesis 25:12: The Genealogy of Ishmael
Genesis 25:19: The Genealogy of Isaac
Genesis 36:1: The Genealogy of Esau
Genesis 37:2: The History (Genealogy) of Jacob
Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. The genealogy of Noah in chapter 10 includes the generations of all three: Japheth (vv. 2–5), Ham (vv. 6–20) and Shem (vv. 21–31). Verse 25 mentions two sons of Eber (a descendant of Shem): Peleg and Joktan. Verses 26–30 list the descendants of Joktan, but nothing more is said about Peleg.
What happened to him? We do not find out until the end of chapter 11. Verse 10 of that chapter begins the Genealogy of Shem. Verses 10–15 again list his descendants down to Eber. Verses 16–26 list the descendants of Eber. This time there is no mention at all of Joktan. Instead, the genealogy includes only the descendants of Peleg, Eber’s other son.
Why? Part of the reason is surely that Peleg was the ancestor of Abraham. Immediately after the Genealogy of Shem (11:10-26) is the Genealogy of Terah the father of Abram, and the story of his emigration from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran. Here also we find mention of Abram’s wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. So the Scriptures break the genealogy of Shem into two parts, one from Shem to Eber and the descendants of Joktan, and the other to Eber and the descendants of Peleg, to bring the ancestors of Abram into close proximity to the story of Abraham which begins in chapter 12.
But there is another reason. When 10:25 mentions the sons of Eber, it also tells us that Peleg (which means ‘division’) received his name from the division of the earth that took place in his days. The division of the earth referred to is the confusion of languages at Babel described in 11:1–9. So the story of Abram (or Abraham) is God’s redemptive answer to Babel. The confusion of languages was his judgment on the wickedness of men at that time. The call of Abram was his determinative counsel for the preservation of the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), the line of believers that runs from Adam through Noah to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and David all the way down to Christ, who is the one great seed of the woman and of Abraham (Gal. 3:16).
Next time we’ll look at how this fits into the grand cyclical scheme of Old Testament history