WBC-04-From the Flood to Abram

From the Flood to Abram CHRONOLOGY FROM THE FLOOD TO ABRAM
"THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH AND THOSE OF ABRAHAM

Having ascertained that Noah was 502 years old at the birth of Shem, and that Shem was 98 years old at the date of the flood, we are able to continue the count of the years from the flood to the birth of Abraham, as given in Genesis 11:10-26, as follows:

This brings us to Genesis 11:26, where we read: "And Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran." But this does not state the year of Terah’s life in which Abram was born, which must be ascertained in order that we may connect the generations of Abraham with what went before. How is this necessary information to be supplied? As in the parallel case of the sons of Noah, where Shem is named first, not because he is the oldest son, but because he is the one through whom God’s purpose was to be accomplished, so of the sons of Terah, Abram is first mentioned, though not the oldest son. From Genesis 11:32 we learn that Terah, Abram’s father, died in Haran at the age of 205 years. The following verse (Genesis 12:1) should be read as a continuation of this, and without the word "had," for which there is no warrant in the original. For it appears by the wording of the narrative, as well as by Stephen’s words in Acts 7:4, that God gave two distinct calls to Abram. In response to the first call he went only so far as to Haran, where he continued to abide until the death of his father. Therefore, Genesis 11:32 and what follows should be read thus: "And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran; and the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. … So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran" (Genesis 11:32; Genesis 12:4). From this it appears that Terah died at the age of 205, and that upon the death of Terah Abram departed out of Haran, being then 75 years old. If then Abram was 75 years old at the death of Terah, the latter was 130 years of age when Abram was born. This enables us to complete the table of the generations of Shem as follows:

TABLE II (Completed)

Anstey says:

"The credit of the discovery of the age of Terah at the birth of Abram is due to Archbishop Ussher. It is one of the principal improve­ments of his system, and is a proof of the acuteness of his intelligence, and the keenness of his insight into the chronological bearing of statements contained in the text of Holy Scripture."

Commenting further upon this interesting point Anstey says:

"The lateness of Abram’s birth in the life of his father explains how he could be only ten years older than his half-niece Sarah, or Iscah (Genesis 11:29), and therefore of an age to marry her, notwithstanding that he belonged to a generation earlier than that to which she belonged. Sarah married her father Haran’s much younger brother; and similarly Milcah, Sarah’s sister, married her father Haran’s brother, Nahor. Abram was probably Terah’s son by a second wife. If so, this would explain how Abram could say to Abimelech, ’She is the daughter (grand-daughter) of my father (Terah) but not of my mother ’." The lateness of Abram’s birth in the lifetime of his father would also explain how, at the time of the events described in Genesis 18, Abram could have a nephew (Lot) who was old enough to have daughters who were married (Genesis 19:14), and others who were of marriageable age.

It is a matter of interest to observe that the call of Abram divides the chronology of the Bible into two periods of nearly equal length. In other words, the first eleven chapters of Genesis cover a period of history almost equal in length to that covered by au the rest of the Bible. When the Genesis narrative reaches Abraham it pauses to give a detailed account of his life. Up to this point many centuries had been covered, sometimes in a few words. But now the narrative lingers. The reason for this is very clearly seen in the light of the New Testament, where Abraham’s relation to die covenants, promises, and world-wide purposes of God in Redemption, are plainly set forth, and where the particular incidents of Abraham’s life, which are described in Genesis, are seen to have a special significance. Now it is of the utmost importance to observe that, at the time the account of Abraham’s life was written, the significance of those incidents could have been known only to God Himself. Thus we learn only by the revelation given in the New Testament the deep spiritual significance of such incidents as the call of Abraham, his obedience of faith, the barrenness of Sarah, the faith Abraham had in the promise of a numerous seed, the episode of his marriage with Hagar, the "allegory" (Galatians 4) of his two wives and two sons, the miraculous birth of Isaac the child of " the promise," the offering of Isaac, and the seeking of a wife for him in Mesopotamia. Here is further evidence that the Bible is of Divine authorship. Its first Book is a history covering two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine (2369) years, from the creation of Adam to the death of Joseph; yet this exceedingly condensed narrative pauses to relate personal incidents in the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whereof the significance could not be known until the work of Redemption was finished, and its nature fully revealed by the Scriptures of the New Testament.

Thus the chronological features of the Bible serve in a very marked way to exhibit the fact that the theme of the Old Testament is Redemption, towards which the line of God’s dealings was ever advancing. That purpose is connected first with a line of individuals, including the ten ante-diluvian patriarchs and the ten post-diluvian patriarchs (most of whom are mentioned for the sole reason that they stand in the line which leads ultimately to Christ) and including also Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is connected next with a family, the sons of Jacob. And lastly, it is connected with a nation composed of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Everything connected with that line is deemed of sufficient importance in God’s eyes to be dated. Other matters, mentioned solely because they come into contact with that line, are not dated, until the time arrived for God to put His rebellious people under Gentile dominion, at which time Bible chronology passes from the line of the kings of Judah to the first year of the first Gentile world­1ruler (Jeremiah 25:1). Thus the more carefully we consider the chronology of the Bible, the more clearly we will see in it the evidences of the design of One Who both knows and also plans the end from the beginning. As to how the chronological facts, so clearly set down by Moses, were made known to him, we are not informed. It may well have been that God imparted to him the knowledge of those facts directly, just as He imparted the instructions for building the tabernacle, and for its ordinances. Or He may have prompted those patriarchs who knew Him to preserve the necessary records.

How easily this might have been, will be apparent when due notice is taken of the facts that Adam was for 243 years the contemporary of Methuselah, that Methuselah’s life overlapped that of Shem for 98 years, and that Shem was, for 150 years, the contemporary of Abraham. Thus there were but two persons between Adam and Abraham. Moreover, it is now known that the times of Abraham were times of advanced civilization. "The men of his day lived in a world which teemed with schools and libraries and books" (Anstey). It would not be strange if Abraham, "the friend of God," concerning whom He said, " Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?" (Genesis 18:17-18) had been Divinely instructed to preserve such records as were needed for the purposes of the Scriptures. If so, those records would naturally have been preserved in the "coffin" wherein Joseph’s remains were placed, which "coffin" was an ark or chest (see Genesis 50:26; Exodus 40:20;

2 Chronicles 24:11, where the same word is used) concerning which Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel ere he died, and which is the subject of the very last verse of Genesis. Assuredly, whatever there were of family records, preserved (as the custom then was) with the embalmed body of Joseph, went up out of Egypt with the children of Israel, and were thus in the custody of Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis. At this point we quote again from Dr. Anstey, who says:

"The Hebrew records of the Old Testament possess, from the very earliest times, a definite historical character, in marked contrast with those of other nations. The antiquities of the Greeks are full of poetic fictions. They wrote nothing in prose until after the conquest of Asia by Cyrus.... They had no chronology of the times preceding the Persian Empire, except in so far as they subsequently constructed one by means of inference and conjecture.

"The antiquities of all other nations are likewise lost in the mist of early legend, myth, and fable. The religious systems of Greece and Rome, Egypt and India, Persia and other nations of the East did not even postulate an historical basis. The further back we trace their past history, the more obscure and uncertain it becomes.

"With the Hebrew records it is quite different. The history of the race begins with an epoch which is quite definite; and the record of the first 2369 years "the period covered by the Book of Genesis "is stated with such minute accuracy and precision that, for those who accept the Hebrew text, there is no possible alternative to that of Ussher, as shown in the margin of the Authorized Version. The chronological record, moreover, is accurately continued, and it may be definitely traced through the succeeding centuries. It is only when we reach the latest records of Ezra and Nehemiah that chronological difficulties become acute.

"The annals of the Hebrew nation are authentic narratives by contemporary writers. The Biblical record is the record of the redeeming activity of God. This record is embedded in human history; but it is a miraculous history throughout" (see 1 Corinthians 10:1 l). It is not only a history of the external events of the lives of men. In its primary significance it is a history of God and of His activity within the realm of human history.

"Hence none but men informed by the Spirit of God could write it; and only by faith in the truth of the Revelation can we ever hope to be able to understand it. The essence of Revelation is Redemption; and Redemption is a work of God, done, as it were, within the vail, yet manifesting itself to us in the Revelation given to us in Holy Scripture as a Divine movement in human history.

"We trace the history in one unbroken line, from the creation of Adam to the crucifixion of Christ. Bible chronology is an exact science. It is not built upon hypothesis and conjecture. It rests ultimately upon evidence or testimony; but it does occasionally require the use of the method of scientific historic induction." The Two Lists of Patriarchs in Genesis

Upon comparison of the two lists of patriarchs, those before the flood and those after, it is seen that there is a certain similarity between them. Each is preceded by a genealogical line to which no dates are attached, and which is carried only a certain distance, and then dropped. Each list comprises ten generations (if we include Abram in the second list). Each brings us to an individual (in one case Noah, and in the other Abram) in connection with whom the working out of God’s plan receives some special development. In Noah we have one chosen of God out of all the families of the earth to bridge over the flood, and to be the beginning of a new order of things in the world. In Abram also we have one chosen of God out of all the peoples and nations of a world given over to idolatry, to be the beginning of a new order of things, and through whom, eventually, all the nations of the earth should be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). With Noah God established His covenant, promising the continuance of seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night; and promising also that He would not again cut off all flesh by a flood (Genesis 8:21-22; Genesis 9:9-17). God gave the rainbow as the token of this covenant. Similarly, with Abram, God established His everlasting covenant, promises to make him the father of many nations; and He gave circumcision as the token of this covenant. All the inhabitants of the world have an interest in, and receive benefits in a measure from, both these covenants; but those who have the faith of Noah and Abraham participate in the full and eternal benefits thereof.