There are those who believe that the names given in chapter 5 of Genesis represent both a person and their offspring through their first born. This method allows the figures to be added end to end instead of overlapping. When Adam is said to have lived 930 years this indicates that Adam and his family or dynasty were in a position of leadership for 930 years, and then Seth and his family replaced Adams governmental leadership. This method allows for a total of 8,277 years between Adam and the flood. Another method or interpretation is the literalist interpretation. With this interpretation there are no gaps between generations and the total number of years between Adam and the flood is 1,656. And the number of years from the flood to Abraham is 290. This presents a problem because the Bible records that Shem lived for 502 years after the flood meaning that he would have outlived Abraham. The genealogies of the Bible were never designed to provide an absolute chronology of past events such as creation or the flood. If Moses had intended these genealogies to be used for chronological purposes he would have provided a numerical summary at the end of each list. Even in the Scriptures you wont find and attempt to compute the time that elapsed between creation and the flood. But it does give a time period between the time that Joseph brought his family to Egypt and to the Exodus. It also gives other accurate dates including the countdown to the crucifixion of Christ in Daniel 9. There is evidence in stratified mounds in Mesopotamia that shows an unbroken sequence as far back as 7000b.c. Does this mean that the flood didnt happen? No. It only means that the flood took place prior to then. The geological record of earth history points to major catastrophes which have sufficiently interrupted natural processes to render any general uniformitarianism untenable. And because genealogies in Scripture are notorious for their schematic arrangement and omissions, the second presupposition is equally untenable (J.J. Davis) The Bible does reveal that there has been limited uniformitarianism since the flood, but the world before that was destroyed by the flood.~Eddy
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 21:07:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015