Genesis 11:2 - The Tower of Babel - One Language, but Multiple Settlements
In my last post, I made a mistake. In Genesis 11:1-2 - The Tower of Babel - Yes, one language, I summarized Genesis 1:1-2 as follows…
The people on the Plains of Shinar spoke Sumerian. Noah’s clans moved there.
I do not think that is accurate. Here are our verses again…
 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Do you see the problem with verse 2? Nowhere are Noah’s clans mentioned, just people. Obviously, Noah’s clans ended up in the plains of Shinar, but if science is correct that there were people other than Noah’s clans, and that their language was Sumerian, then verse 2 is referencing people in general. With that being the case, then I find it likely that there were multiple settlements on the plains of Shinar, not just one. We generally read verse 2 to mean that there was one plain in particular where everyone settled. However, allow for the existence of additional settling, other than Noah’s clans, and you realize that this limitation to one settlement on the plains of Shinar is actually an artificial limitation. That said, I would like to focus on Noah’s clans.
Scripture has quite a bit to say about how Noah’s clans settled in Shinar, both before the Tower of Babel and after. However, it is not obvious until you study Nimrod. I wrote about him in my post Genesis 10 - Noah’s Family Tree - Nimrod (9/11, Operation Iraqi Freedom - Micah 5), regarding Genesis 10:8-12…
 8 Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.
Notice verse 10? Nimrod had four kingdom-centers in Shinar: Babylong, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh. This must have been before the Tower of Babel. We know this because of what happened after the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:8…
 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
It would seem unlikely that Nimrod would have established 4 cities in Shinar, after the Tower. After all, things were confused. There was no longer a common language. Though archaeology records the endurance of culture both before and after the Tower, it also records a replacement of Sumerian with Akkadian. If you assume that this transition is a direct result of God’s confusion of the languages, and scripture is also correct that Akkadian originated in Akkad, then what is more likely? That Nimrod founded Akkad in response to the scattering, and that his “new” language was Akkadian? Or that he founded Akkad speaking his Semitic language, and God confused that city as well as the others in Shinar by give it a new language… which came to dominate the entire region? In my opinion verse 11 has the answer. It says that after ruling “Babylon, Uruk, Akka, and Kalneth, in Shinar…”
11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.
Odd, isn’t it? Part of Nimrod’s kingdom in Shinar overcame the rest of Shinar, and scripture says nothing about it. Instead, it says he left. In my opinion, Nimrod was scattered.
In my opinion, Nimrod had some kind of ruler ship over the city where the Tower was built (Babylon) and over a city that would one day dominate Shinar with its new language (Akkad). Then, God confused the region. In part, He did this by making people from Akkad speak the language we now call Akkadian. Like most others, Nimrod left. In fact, as Genesis 10:11-12 says, I believe Nimrod went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen. Such an account is consistent with the words of scripture and the known discoveries of science… and it gives some insight into our verse for today, Genesis 11:2…
As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
It would seem that this settling resulted in the establishment of several settlements, as opposed to one big one. In fact, I think Genesis 9:32 is reference to this…
 32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Yes, they did spread out after the flood. However, first they settled in Shinar. They didn’t actually spread out until the settlements of Shinar got together and tried cooperating to make a Tower to God. Though Noah’s clans were Semitic, the common language between them and the rest of the people of that region was Sumerian.