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From Adam to Abraham
You are likely at least vaguely familiar with the term “Anno Domini”, better known and recognized as A.D., but have you ever encountered the term “Anno Mundi”? Buckle up. It’s about to get technical up in here.
Okay, so before modern “scholars” (and yeah, that’s intentionally a bit derisive) began adopting the terms “Before the Common Era” and “Common Era” (BCE & CE respectively), we used B.C. and A.D. ~ “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini”, translated “In the year of our Lord”, respectively. Regardless of the terminology used, the same system of dating by years is effectively employed. This system essentially splits time utilizing the birth of the Messiah as the central point upon which our numeric scale would pivot… e.g. the last year prior to the birth of Yeshua would have been 1BC, and one year after would be 1AD ~ more or less. We could dig into the issue of what year Yeshua was actually born, but that again would be a whole additional article… series.
Depending on the proverbial “circles” you run in, you may have come across the “Hebrew Calendar” and noted that this calendar presents the year very differently. Currently, the “Hebrew Calendar” reports the year as being 5781 and this may be completely alien to some of the readers here. The reason for this drastic difference is that the Hebrew calendar uses “Anno Mundi” or “The Year of the World”, which tracks the year based upon the mathematical information provided in scripture to calculate the amount of time that has transpired from creation to the present day.
If you, like myself, reject the current scientific position that the Earth is billions of years old – and assert that the creation account isn’t some nebulous poetic representation, but a factual recounting, then you may be tempted to accept this year and go on your merry way… but that would be an error. Even Rabbinic scholars admit that there is room for some level of – for lack of a better term – interpretation regarding the present year, going so far as to provide a potential range of +/- (plus or minus) up to 250 years.
Now, it should surprise no one when I say that I am fairly literal with my approach to scripture… which is not to say that allegory, parable, symbolism and poetic representation are lost on me, I simply find that scripture is pretty plain when it’s doing so. I rarely need a trained theologian to tell me when this occurs ~ scripture does that just fine thanks. Having said that, and being a “Show Me” boy at heart, I personally believe that such discrepancies can often be resolved by taking a more literal approach with what scripture says. In other words; allow the Word to be authoritative in your understanding and the answers will often present themselves.
Typically, in discussions centering on the age of the earth from a biblical standpoint, we begin with the ages of the patriarchs listed in scripture. The reason for this is two-fold; the first being that we prefer to allow to scripture to inform our understanding and to take at face value those matters not presented in a symbolic or poetic manner – and the second being that the amount of information presented through these lineages is astounding when one truly looks at what is presented.
As a quick side note, I want to draw your attention to a very specific consideration… that being the difference between two values – the Year of the World and Years from Creation. In effect, the difference between these two terms is precisely one, but I’d like to take a moment to ensure that you understand the what and the why.
Consider the text of Genesis Chapter 5, verse 3:
When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3
In the preceding citation, Adam was 130 years old at the birth of Seth. This indicates that it had been 130 Years from Creation, though in terms of AM or Anno Mundi, the year would have been 131. Why the apparent discrepancy? Programmer Math. I’m being somewhat humorous here as there’s a running joke in technical circles that programmers always start counting from zero – but this is precisely the difference between these two values.
The crux of this comes down to the difference between what year one is presently in and how many have been completed. AM (Anno Mundi) accounts for what year one is actually in, so in the prior example, understanding that in AM (Year of), we begin our count from one, we can see that the year AM was 131. If we calculate Years from Creation however, we begin our count at zero and arrive at the same value as Adams’ age – 130 Years from Creation. Since upon drawing his first breath, Adam was zero years old, the years from creation and his age will coincide. Therefore, when Adam was 130, he was in the process of living out his 131st year. You follow?
So why does that mater? Because as we calculate time based upon the ages of the Patriarchs presented in scripture, we are going to arrive at the Years from Creation every time. In order to know the year AM, we must add one. Again, Years from calculates completed time, while AM accounts for the currently occurring year.
Clear as mud?
On we go…
In Genesis chapter 5, we are given a lineage from Adam to Noah and this is where we begin. Note that I am not quoting the full life-spans in this article, though they are provided, because it is the birth of the first-born sons that provide us with the information we need. If you are inclined to follow along, the specific portion we are looking at is Genesis chapter 5, verses 3 through 32:
Adam was 130 years old when he fathered Seth. Seth was 105 years old when he fathered Enosh. Enosh was 90 years old when he fathered Kenan. Kenan was 70 years old when he fathered Mahalalel. Mahalalel was 65 years old when he fathered Jared. Jared was 162 years old when he fathered Enoch. Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah. Methuselah was 187 years old when he fathered Lamech. Lamech was 182 years old when he fathered Noah and after Noah was 500 years old he fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now, don’t let the change in wording stump you on that last. In Noah’s case, rather than providing us with the name of the first-born, scripture provides us with all three of Noah’s sons… who weren’t born until after Noah was 500. This isn’t telling us that the three were triplets, or that they weren’t sure when Noah had his first son – it’s covering all of them because all three are very relevant to what transpires next.
We’ll get to Noah’s exact age at the birth of Shem momentarily, but at this point in the text, we have a hard break. The narrative shifts from one of genealogy to that of explaining the great calamity about to befall mankind. This is another fascinating subject as, again, the information provided to us is astounding…. but that too will have to wait for another article.
Back to work – let’s tally up what we have so far:
130 + 105 + 90 + 70 +65 + 162 + 65 + 187 + 182 = 1056
Now back to Noah.
We know that Noah’s first-born son came after he (Noah) was 500 years old, but this doesn’t tell use precisely when. To ascertain this, we need to consider two very important passages. First, in Genesis 6, we are told at what point the great Flood, or Deluge occurred:
Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed the earth.
Genesis 6:6
For those wondering, Noah’s 600th year coincides with the exact year of Methuselah’s death in 1656 (1056 + 600).
In Genesis 11, the text picks up the genealogy of Shem:
Shem was 100 years old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
Genesis 11:10
Since we know now that Shem was 100 at the birth of Arphaxad, and that this occurred two years after the flood, we can calculate that Noah was exactly 502 years old when he fathered Shem… track with me here: if we add two years to the year of the flood, we get 1658. Now subtract 102 and you get 1556. We were told in chapter 5 that Noah fathered his sons after he was 500 – subtract 500 from 1556 and you get… wait for it… 1056, the year n which Noah was born. It’s elegant really.
Now before we continue, we need to plug in Noah’s age at the birth of Shem to our calculations:
130 + 105 + 90 + 70 +65 + 162 + 65 + 187 + 182 + 502 = 1558
Picking up in Genesis 11, verses 10 through 26:
Shem was 100 years old when he fathered Arphaxad. Arphaxad was 35 years old when he fatherd Selah. Selah was 30 years old when he fathered Eber. Eber was 34 years old when he fathered Peleg. Peleg was 30 years old when he fathered Reu. Reu was 32 years old when he fathered Serug. Serug was 30 years old when he fathered Nahor. Nahor was 29 years old when he fathered Terah and Terah… well, we have to stop and take a closer look at Terah.
Recall that in the case of Noah, he was the only individual for which the text named numerous heirs as opposed to only the first-born? Here again, we see a break in the standard – to this point, each father was listed with his first-born son, but like Noah, Terah is listed with multiple sons. For this reason, we’re going to stop and ascertain why.
Incoming Tangent:
There are those – and they are not few – who would take issue with what I am about to present, so before I do, I would like to explain the rationale behind it. Once you understand the reasoning, you’ll understand the information and then you can make up your own mind. Recall that “THINK FOR YOURSELF” is something of a mantra of mine.
First, throughout much of ancient literature, but particularly Hebrew texts, it is accepted that genealogies are presented in such a way that the first-born son is always listed first among offspring. The issue arises however, that such matters are not always “hard and fast”. Language, tradition are often far more complex than “meets the eye”… “I before E… except after C” or “sometimes W and sometime Y” come to mind. (English speakers should hopefully get that).
Sometimes, prominence takes precedence over genealogical tradition and here, with regards to Terah and Abram, we have precisely such a situation. Consider the following citations:
The lifetime of Terah was 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Genesis 11:32
So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.)
Genesis 12:4
Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this country where you now live.
Acts 7:4
So, here’s the problem and/ or the evidence that our father to first-born tradition has been deviated: if we know that Abram left Haran after the death of Terah, and that He was 75 years old at the time – and insist that Terah was 70 years old when Abram was born, then Terah would have had to have been dead by the age of 145, 60 years earlier than what scripture tells us.
So what’s going on here and how exactly do we reconcile this?
The answer is prominence. We know that the promise was given to Abram, and that through Abram we arrive at the line of David – which is paramount. I think that regardless of “Jew or Gentile”, believer in Yeshua as Messiah or not, we can all agree on this much, no? If not – go read your bible. Seriously, you should understand this point automatically and intrinsically if you are any student of scripture at all.
The promise did not come through Nahor or Haran, it cam through Abram and it is for precisely this reason that Abram is listed first despite being Terah’s youngest son. For Terah to have died at the age of 205 ~ and for Abram to have left Haran at the age of 75 after the death of Terah, Terah would have to have been 130 years old when he fathered Abram.
At this point, once again, the text takes a hard break in the lineage in order to recount specific events. We’re going to take a break here as well and leave off for this week – I mean, I am sure some of you already feel like you’re drinking from a fire-hose, and that’s even if you haven’t been doing the math along side me!
Before we end though, let’s tally up and see where we’re at. Recall that we left off at 1,558 Years from Creation.
1558 + 100 + 35 + 30 + 34 + 30 + 32 + 30 + 29 + 130 = 2008 Years from Creation, or to put it in other terms; Abram (Abraham) was born in 2009 AM, the year of the World.
Not incidentally, tomorrow May 22nd marks Shavuot, more commonly known in Gentilic circles as Pentecost. One might think it a coincidence that I am discussing matters pertaining to time on the eve of such a significant Mo’ed, or Appointed Time, but they would be wrong. There are no coincidences, or as a beloved sister-in-faith often says “coincidence is not a kosher word”.
I assure that I did not plan this… but someone clearly did. Golly-gee, I wonder who?
Until next time,
שלום עליכם – Shalom Aleichem – Peace Be Upon You