7 replies to this topic

[Mark]

I've made a chart showing the birthdates and death dates of many of the characters in Genesis. I thought it was interesting to find out that Noah was contemporary with Abraham, meaning that there were 11 generations alive at the same time!

 Genealogy.gif   18.45K   52 downloads

The birthdate of Joseph is a bit of a guess based on the following facts:

• Gen 41:46 tells us that Joseph was 30 when he interpretted Pharaoh's dream
  
• Gen 45:6 is the 2nd year of famine, making Joseph 39 when he asks Jacob to come to Egypt.
  
• Gen 47:9 tells us that Jacob was 130 when he arrives in Egypt.

If we assume that it took about a year for the brothers to return to Canaan, pack their bags and return with their father that would make Joseph 40 when Jacob arrives in Egypt. Therefore Jacob was 90 when Joseph was born.

I thought the life-spans made an interesting graph too. They clearly go down massively following the changes to the Earth as a result of the flood.

 Life_span.gif   9.19K   39 downloads

[Jeremy]

Really helpful to see all that pictorially, thanks. I suppose Enoch's lifespan is an assumption if we don't know that he actually died when the record of his life ends.

The first chart reminds me that Methuselah died in the year of the flood. Any opinion whether this was due to natural causes, or did he perish in the deluge?

[Mark]

I think he died before the flood. I don't know why...it just seems right that he shouldn't see all the destruction and judgement on the earth. His name is prophetic meaning he dies, or there is a dart, or, a sending forth. (According to Matthew Henry's commentary).

[Tinkerbell]

I've heard it suggested in an exhortation that Methuselah means "after him it shall come" and he died in the year of the flood. However if this meaning of his name is correct then it would seem he didn't die in the flood, but rather that God waited all that time till Methuselah died till he flooded the earth. Which is a pretty amazing sign of God's patience and long suffering towards mankind.

[nsr]

Tinks, I thought we looked into that together and found Methusaleh doesn't mean that?

[Tinkerbell]

nsr, on Jan 4 2007, 05:33 PM, said:

Tinks, I thought we looked into that together and found Methusaleh doesn't mean that?

No, we couldn't find anything at all and said we'd look at it further but it never happened

[Mark]

Tinkerbell, on Jan 4 2007, 05:37 PM, said:

nsr, on Jan 4 2007, 05:33 PM, said:

Tinks, I thought we looked into that together and found Methusaleh doesn't mean that?

No, we couldn't find anything at all and said we'd look at it further but it never happened

I had a look into it too...it seems to depend on which dictionary of names, or which commentary, or which lexicon you look in.

Can you remember what you thought it did stand for NSR? Or where it came from? I'd be interested to know.

[nsr]

See Tinks' post. There's a popular theory going around that Methuselah means "when he dies it will come" or something like that. Probably some Big Important Speaker ™ came up with it and people accepted it eagerly because it sounded cool, without checking it for themselves.