Genesis 10 - Noah’s Family Tree - Eber
Noah > Shem > Arphaxad > Shelah > Eber.
Eber is part of the Messianic line (Luke 3:35). There is another name in the Old Testament, Heber, who should not be confused with Eber. In total there are 16 references to Eber, his line, or the region associated with him. The following verses pertain to lineage and life spans…
- Genesis 10:21 - First mention of the “sons of Eber” - Shem was his ancestor
- Genesis 10:24, 1 Chronicles 1:18 - Shelah was his father
- Genesis 10:25, 1 Chronicles 1:19 - His sons were Peleg and Joktan
- Genesis 11:14 - Shelah was 30 when Eber was born
- Genesis 11:15 - Shelah lived 433 years total
- Genesis 11:16 - Eber was 34 when Peleg was born
- Genesis 11:17 - Eber lived 464 years total
- 1 Chronicles 1:25, Luke 3:35 - Messianic Lineage
- 1 Chronicles 5:13 - Related to the tribe of Gad
There are also three other Ebers in scripture, mentioned in relation to King Saul…
- 1 Chronicles 8:12
- 1 Chronicles 8:22
- Nehemiah 12:20 - A priest of Saul’s time
That leaves one scripture unrelated to lineage…
- Numbers 24:24
Ships will come from the shores of Cyprus; they will subdue Ashur and Eber, but they too will come to ruin.”
There is some very interesting information about Eber in Wikdipedia. I won’t go over it all, but I should call out a few things.
In Jewish tradition, Eber, the great-grandson of Shem, refused to help with the building of the Tower of Babel, so his language was not confused when it was abandoned. He and his family alone retained the original human language, Hebrew, a language named after Eber (Heber).
This would suggest that Eber may not have been disbursed. However, it also suggests that they would not stayed there. According to Genesis 11:2, the tower was built on a plain in Shinar. Shinar was in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). My guess is that wherever Eber was, it was not Babel but was not far from Babel, as any reason he had for moving his people was to stay away from the building, but not because God was scattering him. But where was Babel? We do not know, but given that everyone else was disbursed from there, one could probably go through the excercise of crossing off everywhere in Mesopotamia Noah’s descendents ended up, and what’s left is worth consideration. Perhaps this is the excercise I have begun. Perhaps when I am done I will revisit. However, Numbers 24:24 may provide us a clue.
In Numbers 24, the priest Balaam was told by Balak to prophecy against Israel. However, being in contact with the spiritual realm, God provided him prophecies against Balak that he could not speak against. So, he prophecied against Balak. Of these prophecies is the following…
23 Then he spoke his message:
“Alas! Who can live when God does this?
24 Ships will come from the shores of Cyprus;
they will subdue Ashur and Eber,
but they too will come to ruin.”25 Then Balaam got up and returned home, and Balak went his own way.
Now, Cyprus is an Island int he Mediteranean. It is actually seen in the map above where Citium is located. Now I had previously hypothesized that Assur was where Ashur originally went to. If so, it seems doubtful that they were there at this point in history. Going back to verses 21-22…
21 Then he saw the Kenites and spoke his message:
“Your dwelling place is secure,
your nest is set in a rock;
22 yet you Kenites will be destroyed
when Ashur takes you captive.”
The Kenites were located in the Levant, which was located in Syria, which includes the shores opposite Cyprus. It would seem then that Ashur and Eber were somewhere around Syria, perhaps not far from where Israel would eventually be.
Wow. I can see why it takes so much scholarly research to take all this apart. I’ve only gone through a few of Noah’s descendants, and just reading through the results of people’s research is hard… I can only imagine spending my life reviewing their original sources!