Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 22:2 (Spring 2009)
Article: Making Sense Of The Days Of Peleg
Author: Richard D. Lanser, Jr.

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BSpade 22:2 (Spring 2009) p. 51

Making Sense Of The Days Of Peleg

Richard D. Lanser

“And two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided” (Gn 10:25, NASB)

Some very popular books today, such as Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods, examine the evidence for a “mysterious” civilization in the ancient past. Among other indicators, this widespread culture left behind megalithic (“large stone”) buildings in such diverse places as Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, the Osireion in Egypt, and Baalbek in Lebanon. These structures, built of gigantic hewn stones that leave one wondering how they could have been quarried, moved and fitted together with a precision that challenges our understanding of the capabilities of ancient man, are either largely ignored by mainstream science or not considered within a Biblical framework.

These megalithic ruins demand to be placed within an historical context, so Hancock’s attempt is worthwhile. But he is handicapped in seeking an explanation because he has apparently ruled out examining them within a Biblical framework. Yet even those who know their Bibles well find these structures a challenge to understand. They cannot be fit into an antediluvian timeframe (that is, before the Flood), since beneath them lay fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks that had previously been deposited by the waters of Noah’s universal Flood. Finding a satisfying post-Flood solution has been difficult as well. These structures, though widely scattered around the world, share features that indicate a common cultural origin; for example, stones weighing many tons were used, having very tight joints and often cut in asymmetrical shapes, and requiring unknown technology to move and place them. Such a common cultural origin seems unlikely if one holds the view that mankind dispersed from Babel (Gn 11:1-9) into a world where the Americas were already widely separated from Eurasia. It is no wonder Hancock considers these megalithic ruins a great mystery. A similar mystery is the presence of pyramids in Mesoamerica, not unlike those in Egypt.

University of Chicago

The “Trilithon” in the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, Lebanon. These three stones are the largest building blocks in the world, each measuring 70 ft (21.5 m) long, 14 ft (4.3 m) high and 10 ft (3.1 m) thick, and weighing around 800 tons (726,000 kg). The shared knowledge, by people now widely separated, of how to move and precisely place such huge stones, is easier to understand if their geographical separation did not take place until after the Babel event.

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