While reading about Abraham recently, I started thinking "where did all these people come from?" Not only does Abraham keep running into new people, but cities have also been founded.
Turns out Abraham is born 1,948 years after creation, judging purely on the accounts of lifespans. It's interesting how large that distance is, especially when they feel so connected and close in Genesis.
Full link & timeline here.
What do you think? Is it fair to do things like this? Are the lifespans meant to be taken literally? And -- of course -- what enabled them to live so long? Are the years solar years?
If you want to see an interesting discussion on Google Answers (I don't know if I endorse any particular opinion), check this out. Spoiler alerts though -- maybe you want to form your own opinion first?
For future reference:
Timeline URL: http://www.practicalchristianliving.org/timeline.htm
Google discussion on lifespans: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/538112.html
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That timeline is intense - kudos to whoever scoured the Bible to put that together. It's interesting to see all the births & deaths laid out like that. It is pretty different to think about Abraham living almost 2000 years after Adam & Eve - there would have been so much change & progress & growth in society before his time. I wondered about the where-the-other-people-came-from question too. But I think that since the purpose of the OT is primarily to communicate the history of the Jewish people, the writers weren't as concerned with recording details of the other nations, except where it concerned them (like the ones they fought & slaughtered and stuff).
ReplyDeleteIn high school I started making a family tree based on the Genesis genealogies. I had a notebook full of diagrams, and then my brother went to Israel and brought back a huge poster showing the family tree from Adam to Jesus. Really cool to study it.
ReplyDelete"Are the lifespans meant to be taken literally? And -- of course -- what enabled them to live so long? Are the years solar years?"
ReplyDeleteOne principal of biblical interpretation is to read the text literally unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise (e.g., poetic book, figurative language, etc). Is there a historical or logical reason to question the lifespans? The decreasing lifespans reminds me of the blood of Numenor fading in Middle Earth. I wonder if Tolkein got that from the Bible...perhaps subconsciously.
Mark and Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteBy no means am I questioning the veracity of the Bible, but to answer your question: I would find it logical to question 900 year lifespans. Am I way off?
Is there any basis for questioning it other than it not matching our current lifespans? i.e., Is there a textual reason to question it?
ReplyDeleteI suppose it is natural to question something so foreign to our experience, but that would lead me to question many, many things in the Bible. Every miracle is beyond my experience or my understanding of the physical world. The lifespans could be viewed as a "miracle," or they could just be viewed as the natural result of recent creation. In a way, I might be surprised if Adam didn't have some incredible lifespan, since his body was created presumably perfectly. To me, it fits logically for Adam and his kin to have long lives, even if it is unfathomable.