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Ask the Rabbi: answers from Project Genesis rabbis
What does it mean that in Peleg's time "the earth was divided (Gen.10:25)?
The verse could mean one of two things:
1. That when Peleg died, the Tower of Babel was built, and the languages of the world were divided.
2. Shem and the following three generations lived to the ages of 600, 438, 433, and 464; Peleg and the following four generations lived to the ages of 239, 239, 230, 148, and 205. Thus starting from Peleg's generation, human lifespans were cut in half.
I don’t really have a question. It was my impression that in the days of Peleg that the earth was literally divided. At some point the land was divided from one large continental mass into the familiar continents we have today. This “supercontinent” couls have existed at that time and the “division” provided the resulting land masses. There are numerous references to awful and tremendous earthquakes and other geologic activity that (to me) suggests that the actual physical nature of the the earth changed.
Having said all of that, I really would like your spin on this with reference to much of the events that were described by several Old Testament writers. Am I way off base here?
I don’t know about continental divides. Maybe you are on to something. The division of the people in 1Chroncles 1:19 is specifically talking about lifespans. Average lifespans were being sliced by 900 years to 400+ and then to 200+ and this is essentially the divisions being discussed.
Regards, Eliahu Levenson