BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Biblical Family Tree or Ancient Map?

Genesis 10 and the Table of Nations

What is a biblical family tree if not a family tree? Genesis 10 famously presents the so-called “Table of Nations,” a long list of the descendants of Noah, together with the different lands where they resided. Many read this list as a simple family tree, but important questions remain, namely what was the purpose of this list, and where does it come from?

These questions are tackled by Guy Darshan, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Tel Aviv University, in his article “The Table of Nations: A Geographic Odyssey,” published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Flood Myths and Ancient Maps

An essential first step in discussing the history of the biblical text is to examine literary parallels, as even when a story is unique to the Hebrew Bible, the biblical authors still borrowed traditions and customs from neighboring cultures, just as we do today. This is an especially important step in discussing the Table of Nations, since the Israelites were an inland people from the southern Levant who would have had little interaction with many of the people groups mentioned in this biblical family tree.

Perhaps the best known parallel to the Table of Nations is the Babylonian Map of the World, an annotated depiction of the Babylonian world that dates to the early first millennium BCE. Recorded in Akkadian on a small clay tablet, the map consists of a circle—representing the ocean—encompassing the known world, with the Euphrates River running through its center. Beyond the ocean were originally seven triangular mountains, each containing fantastical and mythical objects and beings. Especially relevant for a discussion of the Table of Nations, the tablet records that one of the mountains—located near the land of Urartu (biblical Ararat)—contains the remnants of the ark of Utnapishtim, who is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Noah.

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Although the Babylonian Map of the World is not concerned with family trees, the inclusion of Utnapishtim’s ark makes it clear that even in Mesopotamia, ancient scribes placed the flood story within a realistic geographic setting. Perhaps the need to establish a real-world geography around the biblical Flood narrative gave rise to the Table of Nations. Indeed, despite taking the form of a biblical family tree, the table can also easily be read as an ancient map.

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But, if the Table of Nation’s geographic component comes from Mesopotamian tradition, where does its interest in genealogy come from? One possibility is that it originated with the Phoenicians. After all, while the ancient Israelites would not have had contact with many of the peoples recorded in the Table of Nations, the Phoenicians—widely known for their extensive trade networks—would have. Unfortunately, very little Phoenician literature has been preserved. However, within the flood tradition that survived from ancient Greece, which was likely directly adopted from the Phoenicians along with the alphabet, genealogies play a central role. Thus, the biblical family tree from Genesis may owe its final form to broadly shared genealogies known from the Syro-Levantine tradition.

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To learn more about the Table of Nations and its biblical family tree, read Guy Darshan’s article, “The Table of Nations: A Geographic Odyssey,” published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

Noah and the Genesis Flood

How Did Noah Build the Ark?

Where Noah Landed

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Table of Nations: A Geographic Odyssey

Was Noah’s Ark a Sewn Boat?

A Futile Quest: The Search for Noah’s Ark