Mike,
Have you read William Henry Green's Primeval Chronology (Bibliotheca
Sacra, 47(1890), 285-303)? I think it is the classic treatise on this
subject. It is printed as an appendix in Genesis 1 and the Origin of the
Earth by Newman and Eckelmann. His article compares the genealogies in the
Bible and notes the apparent discrepancies. He argues quite convincingly
that it was normal in Hebrew genealogies to skip generations in order to
make a segment have the desired number of generations. (Matthew 1 is
typical of this.)
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Mon, 6 May 2002 MikeSatterlee@cs.com wrote:
> As I mentioned in a recent post to Dick, I have recently completed a several
> year long study of the historical records found in the scriptures, with a
> view to determining if the chronological information contained therein can be
> used, and was intended by God to be used, to accurately assign historical
> dates to various events recorded in the Old and New Testaments. I have come
> to the conclusion that the chronological information contained in the Bible's
> historical records was preserved there by God for us to use for that very
> purpose. I am convinced that the Bible itself, with the help of several
> "anchor" dates provided to us by secular historians, tells us that Noah's
> flood occurred in 2350 BC. I have thoroughly considered and dispensed of all
> arguments to the contrary, including the argument that the Genesis
> genealogies may contain "gaps" which some say are evidenced by a "second
> Cainan" not listed in the Genesis genealogies, who Luke is said to have
> listed in his genealogy of Christ.
>
> As has been noted, this 2350 BC date for Noah's flood is the same date that
> James Ussher assigned to the flood over 350 years ago based on his study of
> Bible chronology. In my opinion, Ussher got lucky. He ended up with the right
> date despite the fact that he had been off by over forty years in his dating
> of a very crucial event in Old testament history. That event was the division
> of the kingdom of Israel upon the death of Solomon. He dated that event to
> 976 BC, which cannot possibly be reconciled with several well established
> dates in Bible history.
>
> However, I believe Usher was correct in the literal way in which he
> understood the chronological information contained in the Genesis
> genealogies, which caused him to date Noah's flood at about 2350 BC
> (2349-2348). And in his 4004 dating of Adam's creation, though I prefer 4005.
>
> Mike
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