Genesis 10:25 states and I Chronicles 1:19 repeats, “And two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided.” Peleg lived a few centuries after the flood. We know little else about him.
In what way was the earth divided? Here are three possibilities. Bible commentators mention only the first two.
a. Languages suddenly multiplied at Babel and produced divisions among the people of the world. [See Genesis 11:1–9.]
b. In Peleg’s day continental drift divided the continents.
c. As explained by the hydroplate theory, all continents were connected soon after the flood because of greatly lowered sea levels.1 Later, in Peleg’s day, rising sea levels divided the earth by water.
Were Languages Divided in Peleg’s Day? Scripture says, “the earth was divided.” The Hebrew word for earth, erets, is also translated as “countries,” “land,” or “ground,” so the land was divided, not people or languages. Besides, Peleg probably lived two generations after languages were multiplied at Babel2—and, according to Figure 13, on page 519, 100–339 years after the flood.
Did Continents Break and Began Drifting in Peleg’s Day? If this happened, what broke them apart, and what moved them? It takes earth-shaking forces to break and move continents. Those who accept the plate tectonic theory believe that continents have broken frequently—geologically speaking. To stretch a thick slab of rock to the point where it finally breaks, requires, among other things,3 sliding one end of the block horizontally on its foundation against enormous frictional force. [See the Technical Note on page 204.] Simultaneously, an additional force must stretch the slab, like a rubber band, until it breaks. Plate tectonics can’t provide either gigantic force. Therefore, you can safely offer to move a continent (provide one force) if someone will break a continent (provide both forces).
Those who claim that continents broke and moved have not fully considered the forces and energy required. To open up the entire Atlantic in a few thousand years by rock-on-rock sliding would produce indescribable global violence and volcanic activity that left no geological or historical record. Among almost all cultures, ancient and modern, the only global catastrophe with a clear historical record is the flood.
If the continents broke apart, they should fit together better than they do. (Figures 52– 54 on pages 120– 121, show this.) The public has been misled for decades into believing that the continents fit against each other. Figure 52 on page 120 shows that distortion. Continents bordering the Atlantic fit much better next to the base of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The hydroplate theory explains why.
Rising Water Divided Continents in Peleg’s Day. The Bible uses the Hebrew word Peleg as a verb three times. Two usages, mentioned above, are translated simply as divided (Genesis 10:25 and I Chronicles 1:19). The third use is a division by water (Job 38:25). In the ten instances where Peleg is a common noun, it always involves water. The New American Standard Bible translates it eight times as “streams,” once as “stream,” and once as “channels.” Therefore, Peleg probably implies a division by water.
In English, we have the words archipelago (a sea having, or dividing, many islands) and pelagic (relating to or living in the sea). Pelagic sediments or deposits are sediments on the ocean floor. Pelagic frequently refers to life forms found in the sea. Bathypelagic means relating to or living in the deep sea. Also, the prefix pelag means sea.
Dr. Bernard Northrup, a Hebrew professor, has shown that peleg originally meant division by water,4 and all three language families of Noah’s offspring, have that meaning, so it probably preceded the multiplication of languages at Babel. Northrup states:
[Peleg, palag, or PLG] often contains within it a reference to water. It refers to a stream of water in Hebrew, Coptic, Ethiopic, and in Greek. The root refers to irrigation canals that carried the water throughout the farming land of Mesopotamia. However, an examination of the Greek usage (of the family of Japeth [one of Noah’s three sons]) of the root letters PL and PLG clearly shows that in the majority of the instances, this root was used of the ocean. ... It means: “to form a sea or lake,” “of places that are flooded and underwater,” “of crossing the sea,” of “the broad sea” itself, of “being out at sea,” “on the open sea.” It is used for seamen and ships. The noun with the result suffix means “an inundation.” I continue: it is used of “a being at sea,” of “a creature of or on the sea,” of “one who walks on the sea,” of “running or sailing on the open sea,” of “a harbor that is formed in the open sea using sandbags,” and in many ways of “the open sea itself,” of “going to, into or toward the sea,” of “roving through the sea,” of “being sea-nourished,” of “turning something into the sea,” or “of flooding.” It is quite apparent that every Greek usage here involves the sea in some way.
Therefore, water probably divided the earth in Peleg’s day. The hydroplate theory explains how and why.
Although it may be difficult to see how waters that covered all earth’s preflood mountains could drain below today’s sea level, three lines of evidence show that sea level was once almost three miles lower: submarine canyons, tablemounts, and coral formations almost one mile below Eniwetok Atoll. A key point to remember is that most of today’s ocean floors (excluding the sediments and flood basalts deposited on them after the flood) were the preflood floors of the 60-mile-deep subterranean chamber. (Pages 111– 193 provide more details.) Then, in the centuries after the flood, the crushed, thickened, buckled, and sediment-laden continents sank into the mantle, and the earth regained a more spherical shape; sea level had to rise in compensation. Eventually, sea level approached today’s level.
With sea level much lower for a few centuries after the flood, imagine how many migration paths existed for animals and man to populate today’s continents and islands.5 God’s commands (Genesis 9:1, 11: 4–9) for humans and animals to populate the “whole earth” after the flood must have been doable. If, after the flood, sea level was where it is today, repopulating the “whole earth” would have been difficult, if not impossible, for those first receiving God’s command. The wisdom and urgency of God’s command are apparent when we realize that sea level was steadily rising. The “window of opportunity” for global migration was disappearing in Peleg’s day.
From the genealogies listed on page 519, we see that Peleg lived five generations after Noah. Therefore, Peleg, or those who named him, may have been world travelers or explorers who discovered that rising water was dividing the Earth. Yes, Noah’s early descendants knew how to construct ships, because Noah and his three sons built the Ark. They would have had an explorer’s curiosity when they realized how drastically the flood had changed the earth. Their long life spans allowed them to pursue that curiosity and accumulate knowledge. This helps explain a remarkably accurate, authentic, and ancient map that shows islands now covered with water and the outlines of Antarctica—as it would look with no ice. [See Figure 12 on page 511.]
The Ice Age would have lowered sea level about 400 feet—almost enough to join all continents. But at the height of the Ice Age, Antarctica and all its coastlines would have been covered with ice. Therefore, the Ice Age cannot explain both the visible coastlines shown on the ancient map and interconnected continents. The flood accounts for both. (The hydroplate theory also shows how the flood produced the Ice Age.)
Conclusion. Strong linguistic and scientific arguments oppose the two interpretations of Genesis 10:25 commonly taught: (1) a division of people by multiplication of languages, and (2) the beginning of continental drift. Instead, these studies point to Earth being divided by rising water in the days of Peleg and suggest that our ancestors knew, a few centuries after the flood, of rising sea levels that would separate, or had separated, continents.