doctrine and purpose. - by Charles H. Welch
Once more, we leave the question of “place” and return to the element of “time”.
“This is the book of the generations of Adam” (Gen. v. 1). A serious writer has recently put forward the idea that the fourteen generations of Genesis, refer not to what follows, but to what goes before. Thus, Gen. ii. 4 refers to the first chapter of Genesis, and speaks of the “origin” of heaven and earth, and so throughout the book.
While an appeal to Matt. i. 1 most certainly shows that, there not the “descendants”, but the ancestry of Jesus Christ constitute His “generations”, an examination of the usage of toledoth, “generations”, in the O.T. makes the idea of ancestry impossible in every case. The only meaning that fits all cases is “family history”, the context alone deciding whether the look is backward or forward.
“The generations of Pharez.”
These are found in the book of Ruth, but one looks in vain for any of the ancestors of Pharez: what is given is a list of his descendants, from his son Hezron to David.
An example where “family history” better fits the case is found in I Chron. xxvi., in verse 31 of which chapter the expression “according to the generations of his fathers” obviously looks backward. Two “books of generation” are found in Scripture. The first relates to Adam, the second to Christ, and between the two is to be found the chronology of the Scriptures. After the birth of Christ, chronology ceases, and all attempts to construct a chronology of the N.T. fail because the necessary facts are wanting.
Anstey, in his work “The Romance of Bible Chronology”, says:--
“In a conversation with a friend, the present writer, in claiming authenticity for the chronological records of the early chapter of Genesis, was met by the objection ‘At any rate there were no Registrars of Births and Deaths in those days’, to which we replied, ‘That is just exactly what the fifth chapter of Genesis is’. It might have been copied from the fly-leaf of an old patriarchal family Bible, or genealogical family chart. The family records that are preserved in these days are little else but records of births, marriages and deaths, but they go back farther than any other records in the family chart. Moses was the literary executor of Joseph, and the custodian of the heirlooms of antiquity preserved by the chosen race.”
The chronology that extends from Adam to Noah is simplicity itself, but in later Scriptures we meet increasing complication. It may be good for us to construct our own chronology, collecting the material from the record of the Scriptures themselves. We shall soon find that we must not assume that the son named in the genealogy is always the firstborn, or that where the firstborn is included, he is always mentioned first. Seth was born after Cain and Abel, and, though mentioned first, Shem was not the eldest (Gen. x. 21). While there is a most careful catalogue of births and deaths in the line of Adam to Noah in Gen. v. no such genealogy is given of the line of Cain (Gen. iv.). Some have objected to the length of life attributed to Adam and the Patriarchs, but if we tamper with the 930 years of Adam’s life, and reduce it to so many “months”, what shall we do with the statement in the same book that Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh? After all, it is more reasonable to believe that, in the beginning, disease was less rampant than in later times, and the climate not so changeable as it became after the Flood.
It will be noticed that Moses does not give the “date” of the birth or death of each individual, neither day nor month being included, but reckons by complete years. This principle must be remembered when using the chronology.
“Methuselah is said to have been 969 years at his death (Gen. v. 27), but actually it will be discovered that he was 968 years, 1 month and 17 days old, plus whatever fraction of the year of his birth was included in the 65th year of his father Enoch, when the flood began” (Anstey).
“Since Ussher, no chronologer who has adopted the numbers given in the Hebrew text as the basis of his calculation, has ever failed to fix the flood in the year AN. HOM. 1656, and the death of Joseph in the year AN. HOM. 2369” (Anstey).
The chronology of the Antediluvian Patriarchs.
Anno Hominis.
0 Adam created (Gen. v. 1).
130 Age of Adam at birth of Seth (Gen. v. 3).
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130 Seth born.
105 Add age of Seth at birth of Enos (Gen. v. 6).
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235 Enos born.
90 Add age of Enos at birth of Cainan (Gen. v. 9).
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325 Cainan born.
70 Add age of Cainan at birth of Mahalaleel (Gen. v. 12).
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395 Mahalaleel born.
65 Add age of Mahalaleel at birth of Jared (Gen. v. 15).
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460 Jared born.
162 Add age of Jared at birth of Enoch (Gen. v. 18).
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622 Enoch born.
65 Add age of Enoch at birth of Methuselah (Gen. v. 21).
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687 Methuselah born.
187 Add age of Methuselah at birth of Lamech (Gen. v. 25).
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874 Lamech born.
182 Add age of Lamech at birth of Noah (Gen. v. 28)
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1056 Noah born.
600 Add age of Noah at the Flood (Gen. vii. 6).
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1656 The Flood.
Here is the most venerable family document in the world, the family history of the ancestors of all mankind. To remove it from the book is to leave mankind without a record of its beginning, and more serious still, to snap the link that binds Adam, the first head of the race, to Christ, the true Head and Saviour of mankind.
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