How could Noah and his family repopulate earth according to Genesis 10:1-5?

[Heathenlove]

I just read an article written in June 2008 by Meiko, and titled, “How did Noahs descendants procreate?” Meiko wanted to know who we are descendants of. Meiko references three chapters the Bible. Genesis 10:1-5 has the answer.

I recall the story of, the first humans God created on earth, Adam & Eve, and a story about a flood. Another one tells of how the descendants of Adam & Eve began to; take part in orgies, worship false idols, and turned their backs to God. Since this was displeasing to him he had to take action. God will wipe out humans by flooding the entire earth. God chose to save Noah. God saw Noahs pure heart and knew he was worth saving. So, God told Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every creature (male & female) on earth, including his wife, three sons and their wives. He sent rain from the heavens for forty days and forty nights wiping out all living things, except Noah and his family. When the rain stopped, Noah and his family found dry land. So, what came next?

Some believe that we’re descendants of Adam and Eve and others argue that we’re descendants of Noah. Easy explanation. Both sides in the argument are right. Adam and Eve were created first, therefore Noah is their descendant. God flooded the earth, killing everyone except those on Noahs Ark. The only descendants of Adam and Eve living. Argument solved! We are descendants of Adam and Eve AND Noah. Now that the mystery of descendantship has been solved, lets look at a bigger question.

Genesis 10:1-5 gives me reason to question the truth in the Holy Bible and God. Here’s why: Take a look at Genesis 10 1-5.
“1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nation”

Genesis 10:1-5 only describes Noah and his descendents as Sons, how was earth repopulated? There is NO mention of Noah having female descendants to repopulate earth. How could Noahs sons have sons and their sons have sons if there were no daughters?

So, where did we really come from?

It is not my intention to sound insult your faith or your God. I have a very analytical mind that breaks everything down to see how it works, and there is NO mention of woman other than Noahs wife and three daughter in laws. I’m just curous, so please as said in Luke 6:37 “…forgive and ye shall be forgiven”
Thanks for reading!
Blessed Be

 

[OddBird]

In a patrilineal society, as the Hebrew society was, female children were rarely mentioned in genealogies and lists of descendants. That doesn’t mean they didn’t exist, just that they were not considered important in establishing patrilineal ancestry.

Which is, by the way, one of the reasons why the three women Matthew mentions in Jesus’ genealogy at the beginning of his gospel (Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah) have caused so much ink to flow, because their presence is very much unexpected. By contrast, Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:23-38) does not mention a single woman.

 

[mdgspencer]

Genetecists have established that everyone is descended from the same woman, if that helps.
Speculations about someone like Noah would seem very uncertain, since we know very little about him. For one thing, he could have had daughters after the Biblical account. I don’t see this as a problem.

 

[Wozza]

Genetecists have established that everyone is descended from the same woman, if that helps.
Speculations about someone like Noah would seem very uncertain, since we know very little about him. For one thing, he could have had daughters after the Biblical account. I don’t see this as a problem.

That’s not correct. It’s like saying that you are descended from only one great-great-great grandmother. I’ll guess that you are thinking of Mitochondrial Eve. Which isn’t one woman. She changes to a more recent woman as lineages die out.

She is the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) on the female side.

 

[poche]

Those women are seen as a prefiguration of the Blessed Virgin.

 

[OddBird]

Yes, and as a testimony of the surprising ways God works in the history of his people.

But that wasn’t my point.

My point was that lists of descendants and genealogies have the purpose of tracing patrilineal lineages, and that it is so usual to exclude women from them that they just jump at us when they are included (albeit for very good reasons).

 

[dochawk]

Genetecists have established that everyone is descended from the same woman, if that helps.

Close, but not quite.

All people outside a particular valley in africa trace to a woman presumed to be of that valley.

In that valley, though, they trace to one of four woman (including that first one).

 

[CelticWarlord]

So, where did we really come from?

The Catholic Church doesn’t teach a literal interpretation of either the Adam/Eve or Noah stories. It should be pointed out that members are free to do so if they wish, but church scholars and theologians talk about them as allegory and metaphor. They have no issue with the scientific explanations of evolution and the beginnings of the universe through the Big Ban which, by the way, was first espoused by Father Georges LeMaitre, a Belgian priest and university prof. While most Fundamentalist denominations vigorously oppose anything other than a literal reading of the texts in question, Catholicism is open to a hugely diverse base of data and knowledge. I remain a Protestant but am most interested in Catholicism and study it intensely.

 

[Wesrock]

The story says his sons’ wives went on the ark, too.

Genesis 6:18 “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you”

1 Peter 3: 20 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

The non canonical Book of Jubilee names the wives, too.

Granted, I don’t know that I believe a strict literal-historical take, but there was an oversight in your analysis.

 

[Serpent_of_Paradise]

While the genealogies listed in Genesis only list for the most part men; there were certainly women as well. It is a reasonable speculation that some of the men listed in the genealogies could be Son-in-laws,which married the daughters of those listed previous to them in the Biblical genealogy.

 

[RaisedCatholic]

Genesis 10:1-5 only describes Noah and his descendents as Sons, how was earth repopulated? There is NO mention of Noah having female descendants to repopulate earth. How could Noahs sons have sons and their sons have sons if there were no daughters?

…there is NO mention of woman other than Noahs wife and three daughter in laws.

I think you answered your own question.