in the days of peleg

Four generations after Noah, Genesis 10:25 records the birth of Peleg (meaning division) “for in his days was the earth divided”. Some suggest the continents of the earth were divided at this time. However, this seems unlikely, as such a process would have had to occur within a very confined time period. The resultant geological violence would be overwhelmingly catastrophic—like another Noahic Flood all over again. Any continental separation thus likely occurred during the Flood. 1

The traditional interpretation, which seems more reasonable, relates this verse to the division of people/nations at the Tower of Babel event in Genesis 11. (Just like the English “earth” can have a variety of meanings, the Hebrew erets can also mean nation(s)—thus erets Yisrael, the land (nation, people) of Israel.) According to the biblical chronology as deduced by Archbishop Ussher, the Flood occurred in 2349–2348 BC, and Peleg was born in 2247 BC about a hundred years later. Do ancient writers shed any light on when this happened? The answer is a resounding yes

Question: Noah's Ark came to rest on a peak of the "mountains of Ararat." This is a mountain range situated between the Black and Caspian Seas in southern Armenia. The Bible does not say that the Ark came to rest atop Mount Ararat in Turkey. More likely, as indicated by the travel direction of the people who migrated into the place called Babel (see: Genesis 11:2), the Ark came to rest on a mountain top farther to the east near the present-day northern Iraq/Iran region. That fact could also explain the flood legend in the fabled Epic of Gilgamesh that predates the writing of the books of Moses. But how did humans and animals quickly migrate to the other continents like Australia and North America, which are presently separated by the seas?

To begin to answer this important question we must examine another lesser-known, but important event that occurred on the Earth about one hundred years after Noah's flood:

"And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one [was] Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name [was] Joktan."
(Genesis 10:25 KJV)

"And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one [was] Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother's name [was] Joktan."
(1 Chronicles 1:19 KJV)

In the Hebrew language the name "Peleg" means a dividing by a "small channel of water" and is also root associated with the meaning of an earthquake. The Hebrew word translated as "divided" in the passage means to "split" something. According to the Bible genealogy, this man named Peleg was born 101 years after the flood. No doubt this Peleg was so named because of an event of great significance to the people living at the time he was born. The fact that this dividing event is mentioned by the Holy Spirit in TWO places in the Scriptures, and that the EXACT number of years between this event and the flood is also recorded, alludes to the importance of these passages in the interpretation of post-flood history.

Some Creationists have interpreted this event to be the division of the North and South American continents from the European and African continents by the Atlantic Ocean after the flood. But a division of such magnitude at that point in geologic time would invalidate our previously proposed flood model. It would also invalidate accepted paleomagnetic data which supports gradual sea floor spreading at the mid-Atlantic ridge. Besides, the Atlantic Ocean is no "small channel of water" between land masses. Obviously, that is not the answer we are looking for.

After examining the Hebrew meanings, a more plausible alternative interpretation would be that it describes an earth-splitting event such as a valley opening in the ground and filling with water. That could have happened anywhere along the Dead Sea Rift zone (discussed in detail later) and may have been associated with a delayed adjustment of the Earth's plates in response to the rapid subsidence of the sea floors by the flood.

In theory, when the weight of the waters of the flood forced the sea floors downward to fill the void left in the magma chambers beneath, strain would have developed between the oceanic and continental portions of the crustal plates. Consequently, tectonic pressures were redistributed. About 100 years later the strain and pressure redistribution may have caused the Earth's crust to rapidly rent in weaker places, much like a piece of ridged plastic which can be stretched and deformed. It will eventually snap if the strain remains constant. An abrupt further change in sea levels could possibly accompany such an event.

Looking at world relief and tectonic maps, one possible location of the effects of this Peleg event is found in Middle East. It is called the Afar Triangle.