Thursday, October 3, 2024

Carol Hill on the Ages of the Patriarchs on the Book of Genesis

The following comes from:

 

Carol Hill, A Worldview Approach to Science and Scripture (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Academic, 2019), 48, 49

 

The first thing to notice in Table 4-2 is that most of the numbers listed in the Genesis chronologies are based on the sexagesimal (60) system and can be placed into one of two groups: (1) multiples of five; that is, numbers exactly divisible by five, whose last digit is 5 or 0; and (2) multiples of five with the addition of seven (or two sevens). The significance of the number five is that 5 years = 60 months, and combinations or multiples of 60 years + 5 years (60 months) are basic to the patriarchal ages. Note that for the 30 (10 rows, 3 columns = triplet) numbers listed for the antediluvian patriarchs up to the flood (from Adam to Noah), all of the ages end on 0, 5, 7, or 2 (5 + 7 = 12), with only one number ending in 9 (5 + 7 + 7 = 19). However, since the third number of each triplet is entirely determined by the sum of the first two numbers, it cannot be treated as independent. The truly independent calculation has 20 numbers that end in 0, 2, 5, and 7 – a chance probability of about one in ninety million! For the entire 6-number list (antediluvian and postdiluvian), none of the ages end in 1 or 6—a chance probability of about one in a half million.

 

Such mathematical improbabilities continue for the 26 generations between Adam and Moses, as shown in Table 4-3. If one includes the six generations from Abraham to Moses (Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses), then the total number of years of these men becomes 12,600 (70 x 180), which total reflects both the sexagesimal (base 60; 60 x 3 = 180) system of the Mesopotamians and the Mesopotamian-Hebrew preferred number 7 (or 70). The ages in the first, Genesis 5, column add up to 8,575 (25 x 7 x 7 x 7) and the 7 ages in the third column add up to 1,029 (3 x 7 x 7 x 7). The 17 ages of the first and third column combined add up to 9,604 (4 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7); the middle age for these two columns is that of Lamech (777), and the 7 ages on either side of Lamech add up to a total of 7,777!

 

It is inconceivable that all of this should be accidental! Surely, if all of the ages listed in Tables 4-2 and 4-3 are statistically random numbers, such numerical improbabilities should not exist. The conclusion must be that these patriarchal numbers were purposely contrived by scribes knowing both mathematics and the religious importance of these numbers. The question that then must be asked is: What could have been the significance of these numbers? Could these ages somehow by mathematically connected to the real ages of the patriarchal? Could they be cryptographic (gematria) numbers, where numerical values were assigned to different letters of the patriarch’s names? Why do the “begetting” ages of the patriarchs decrease over time (Table 4-2)? It is because successive biblical authors gradually lost their concept of sacred exaggerated sexagesimal numbers? Were these numbers “assigned” to the patriarchs on the basis of their character, accomplishments, or relationship with God? For example, in the generally decreasing age trend, there is an enormous jump in the “begetting” age of Noah, which may signify an attempt by the biblical author to favor the more righteous or those who “stand out” from the rest due to their prominence in the unfolding story (i.e., Noah, the righteous hero of the flood). Specially for Genesis and the patriarchal ages, how these numbers were meant at the time of writing is something that we may only guess at today, and if a mathematical or theological principle underlies such numbers, it is no longer readily apparent. What does seem apparent, however, is that the specific intent of the biblical author(s) of the patriarchal ages was to preserve numerical symmetry and harmony in the written text, one commensurate with their mathematical worldview.

 

The following are tables 4-2 and 4-3 taken from Ibid., 49, 50 (click to enlarge):

 



 



 

 

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