GENEALOGY OF SHEM. 8l 



intervals of time, and many generations of 



men. The same impression must arise from 



the condensed abstract given of the origin 



and growth of communities capable of 



building such cities as Resen and Calah 



and Nineveh are described to be.* In the 



genealogy of the family of Shem, we have 



a list of names, which are names and nothing 



more to us. It is genealogy which neither 



does, nor professes to do, more than to trace 



the order of succession among a few families 



only out of the millions then already existing 



in the world. Nothing but this order of 



succession is given, nor is it at all certain 



that this order is consecutive or complete. 



Nothing is told us of all that lay behind 



* Gen. X. II, 12. 

 G 



