[96] Chronology of early Genesis, from Adam to Abraham

From Abraham’s Entrance into Canaan back to Adam’s birth

This section is repeated in section [16].

A calendar year is a year starting on the first calendar day of the year. For us this is January 1, for the Jews it was Tishri 1 before they left Egypt and Nisan 1 after they left Egypt. To the Jew a boy became 12 years old on the first day of the 12th whole calendar year of his life. Such a 'boy' could have actually been, in today's terms, anything from 11 years and 1 day old, if he was born on Adar 30, to 12 years old less 1 day, if he was born on Nisan 2. Similarly a king's first regnal year was the first calendar year in which he was reigning on the first day of that year. This gives rise to the accession year, this being the Jewish calendar year preceding the first regnal year, during which the king ruled for a period starting after Nisan 1. In fact the middle east even today thinks of men's ages and king's reigns in terms of actual calendar years, not years from their date of birth or from the date of their investiture. Even in Britain, the Jubilee was the same Gordon thinks. With this method of determining age, a one year old lamb is a lamb in its first whole year, which is apparent from the legal requirements for sacrificing animals. For more on this - see [BLC] and [How Ages and Reigns are counted].

This understanding transforms Genesis into a book of exact Chronology as we shall see:

For simplicity we will define the Hebrew year of Adam's birth as year 0, these years ran from Tishri to Elul. The typical wording of a verse in Genesis 5 is:

And he lived, Kenan 70 year and he fathered namely Mahalalel (Genesis 5:13 NIVHEOT interlinear bible).

This means that Mahalalel was born in the 70th whole calendar year of Kenan's life. Kenan was 70 years old all through this year. Knowing this we can construct the whole chronology of the ancestors of mankind up to the inauguration of the Abrahamic covenant from Genesis 5 & Genesis 11. We have already seen that this covenant was inaugurated in 1943Nisan which was in the Hebrew year starting 1944Tishri, the year in which Abraham was 75 years old. We could, if we were so inclined, count the whole thing backwards and deduce, from the crossing of the Euphrates in the year starting 1944Tishri, that Adam was born in the year starting 4027Tishri. But we prefer to count forwards, because it’s easier that way! Doing this, we find that Abraham was 75, 2083 years after the year in which Adam was born.

1 This is the book of Adam's history. In the day of God's creating Adam he made him in the likeness of God.
2 Male and female he created them. After that he blessed them and called their name Man in the day of their being created.
3 And Adam lived on for 130 years. Then he became father to a son in his likeness, in his image, and called his name Seth.
4 And the days of Adam after his fathering Seth came to be 800 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
5 So all the days of Adam that he lived amounted to 930 years and he died.
6 And Seth lived on for 105 years. Then he became father to Enosh.
7 And after his fathering Enosh Seth continued to live 807 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
8 So all the days of Seth amounted to 912 years and he died.
9 And Enosh lived on for 90 years. Then he became father to Kenan.
10 And after his fathering Kenan Enosh continued to live 815 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
11 So all the days of Enosh amounted to 905 years and he died.
12 And Kenan lived on for 70 years. Then he became father to Mahalalel.
13 And after his fathering Mahalalel Kenan continued to live 840 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
14 So all the days of Kenan amounted to 910 years and he died.
15 And Mahalalel lived on for 65 years. Then he became father to Jared.
16 And after his fathering Jared Mahalalel continued to live 830 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
17 So all the days of Mahalalel amounted to 895 years and he died.
18 And Jared lived on for 162 years. Then he became father to Enoch.
19 And after his fathering Enoch Jared continued to live 800 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
20 So all the days of Jared amounted to 962 years and he died.
21 And Enoch lived on for 65 years. Then he became father to Methuselah.
22 And after his fathering Methuselah Enoch went on walking with the [true] God 300 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
23 So all the days of Enoch amounted to 365 years.
24 And Enoch kept walking with the [true] God. Then he was no more, for God took him.
25 And Methuselah lived on for 187 years. Then he became father to Lamech.
26 And after his fathering Lamech Methuselah continued to live 782 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
27 So all the days of Methuselah amounted to 969 years and he died.
28 And Lamech lived on for 182 years. Then he became father to a son.
29 And he proceeded to call his name Noah, saying: This one will bring us comfort from our work and from the pain of our hands resulting from the ground which Jehovah has cursed.
30 And after his fathering Noah Lamech continued to live 595 years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
31 So all the days of Lamech amounted to 777 years and he died.
32 And Noah got to be 500 years old. After that Noah became father to Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5).

And Noah son of 600 year and the flood he was waters upon the earth (Genesis 7:6 NIVHEOT).

In year of 600 year to life of Noah, in the month the second, in 17th day to the month in the day the that, they burst all of springs of great deep and floodgates of the heavens, they were opened (Genesis 7:11 NIVHEOT).

In other words in the 600th year of Noah's life, when he was 600 years old, the flood occurred, on Heshvan 17. It is an impossible thing to be 600 years old in your 600th year of life by modern day reckoning of age, but the two statements are identical by the Jewish reckoning.

And he was in 601 year in first [month] in first [day] to the month, they dried up, the waters, from upon the earth, and he removed Noah namely covering of the ark and he looked and Look! they were dry faces of the ground. And in the month the second on 17 day to the month, she was dry the earth (Genesis 8:13,14 NIVHEOT).

So the flood was entirely contained in the Creation year 1656, which ran from 2371Tishri to 2370Tishri, although 1657 was a bit muddy!

These lines of Shem, Shem son of 100 year and he fathered Arpachshad, two after the flood (Genesis 11:10 NIVHEOT).

One year after the flood was the year 1657, so two years after the flood was the year 1658.

We have already deduced that Abraham crossed the Euphrates when he was 75 years old in the same year that his father died aged 205. Because he was asked by God to go to Canaan before his father died, and his father died in Haran on the way to Canaan, and Haran is not far from the Euphrates, and Abraham did not sit around after God had asked him to do something - see [95] and Acts 7 below.

2 He said: Men, brothers and fathers, hear. The God of glory appeared to our forefather Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia [in Ur in fact - see Genesis 11:31], before he took up residence in Haran, 
3 and he said to him: 'Go out from your land and [out from] your relatives and come on into the land I shall show you [he is not told to go out from the house of his father here. So this is the command to leave Ur, not the command in Genesis 12 to leave Haran - God is Patriarchal. Abraham was not told to leave the house of his father until his father had died. The command to leave Ur was given to Abraham in 1968Nisan14, when he was 50 years old we believe by symmetry with the 25 year Time of the End - deduced from the matching 50 cubit dining rooms on either side of the outer gates of Ezekiel's temple in chapters 40-47. 1968Nisan14 to 1943Nisan14 was the Time of the Beginning because 2008Nisan14 to 2033Nisan14 is the Time of the End of Daniel12 for adamic Abraham - see U267].'
4 Then [tote] he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and took up residence in Haran. And from there, after his father died, [God] caused him to change his residence to this land in which you now dwell (Acts 7).

31 After that Terah took Abram his son and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went with him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. In time they came to Haran and took up dwelling there.
32 And the days of Terah came to be 205 years. Then Terah died in Haran (Genesis 11:31,32).

1 And Jehovah proceeded to say to Abram: Go your way out of your country and from your relatives and from the house of your father to the country that I shall show you;
2 and I shall make a great nation out of you and I shall bless you and I will make your name great; and prove yourself a blessing.
3 And I will bless those who bless you, and him that calls down evil upon you I shall curse, and all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves by means of you.
4 At that Abram went just as Jehovah had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he went out from Haran.
5 So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot the son of his brother and all the goods that they had accumulated and the souls whom they had acquired in Haran, and they got on their way out to go to the land of Canaan. Finally they came to the land of Canaan (Genesis 12).

2 And Joshua went on to say to all the people: This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, It was on the other side of the River that your forefathers dwelt a long time ago, Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they used to serve other gods.
3 In time I took your forefather Abraham from the other side of the River and had him walk through all the land of Canaan and made his seed many. So I gave him Isaac (Joshua 24:2,3).

So Abraham was 75 years old when Terah died aged 205 in the year 2083, after Adam's birth, which is the Jewish year running from Tishri 1944BCE to Elul 1943BCE, the one containing 1943Nisan, when we know that the crossing occurred. With this as a starting point the above chronology proves that Adam was born in the Jewish year starting 4027Tishri. The flood is therefore put as starting on 2371Heshvan17.