The following are the recorded ages of the patriarchs: Adam, 930 years (Gen. v, 5); Seth, 912 (8); Enos, 905 (11). Cainan, 910 (14); Mahalaleel, 895 (17); Jared, 962 (20); Enoch, 365 (23) Methuselah, 969 (27); Lamech, 777 (31); Noah, 950 (ix, 29); Shem, 600 (xi, 10, 11); Arphaxad, 438 (12, 13); Cainan, 460 (omitted in Hebrew Version, but given in Septuagint); Salah, 433 (14, 15); Eber, 464 (16, 17), Peleg, 239 (18, 19); Reu, 239 (20, 21); Serug, 230, (22, 23); Nahor, 148 (24, 25); Terah, 205 (32); Abraham, 175, (xxv, 7); Isaac, 180 (xxxv, 28); Jacob, 147 (xlvii, 28); Joseph, 110 (l, 26).

Eleven generations of these patriarchs (twelve if Cainan be included), Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, (Cainan), Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, and Abraham, were all living at the same time.

Noah died in the year 2006 A.M. When Adam died Noah’s father was 56 years old.

Abraham was the twentieth generation from Adam. When Abraham was 56 years old, Noah, whose father was 56 years old when Adam died, was still living.

When Noah died, his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson, Abraham, was an old man.

Isaac was the eleventh generation from Shem. When Shem died Isaac was 110 years old.

Jacob was the thirteenth generation from Noah. When Noah’s eldest son died Jacob was 50 years old.

The combined ages of seven patriarchs equal a sum five hundred years greater than the time that has elapsed from the creation of the world to the present time.

“Every one that findeth me shall slay me” (Gen. iv, 14).

“And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him” (15).

“And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod” (16).

“And Cain knew his wife: and she conceived, and bare Enoch; and he [Cain] builded a city” (17).

Cain, believing that he had a plurality of lives, and fearing that every one who found him would take one, appealed to God, who set a mark on him so that his father and mother, the only persons in existence besides himself, would know him. Then going out from the presence of Omnipresence, he went to a country where nobody lived, married a wife, and built a city with a population of three inhabitants.

“And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years.... And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years” (Gen. v, 25–27).

“And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah” (28, 29).

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (vii, 11).

“And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth” (viii, 13).

“And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years” (ix, 28, 29).

When the Flood began Noah was 599 years (one month and seventeen days) old; when it ended he was exactly 600 years old.

It is commonly supposed that Methuselah died before the Flood. If the foregoing passages be correct, he did not, as will be shown by the following:

1. From the birth of Lamech to the beginning of the Flood was 182 years + 599 = 781 years; and from the birth of Lamech to the end of the Flood was 182 years + 600 years = 782 years. If Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years, he lived until the end of the Flood.

2. From the birth of Methuselah to the beginning of the Flood was 187 years + 182 years + 599 years = 968 years. From the birth of Methuselah to the end of the Flood was 187 years + 182 years + 600 years = 969 years. At the commencement of the Flood he was but 968 years old, and not until the end of it was he 969.

3. From the birth of Methuselah to the death of Noah was 187 years + 182 years + 950 years = 1319 years. As Noah died 350 years after the Flood, from the birth of Methuselah to the end of the Flood was 1319 years - 350 years = 969 years. If he lived 969 years, he lived until the end of the Flood.

As Methuselah was not one of the eight persons that went into the ark, where was he during the Flood?

According to the Septuagint Genesis, the Flood occurred fourteen years before the death of Methuselah.

“Of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee” (Gen. vi, 19, 20).

“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female” (vii, 2, 3).

Referring to the above, the celebrated Jewish commentator, Dr. Kalisch, says: “Noah was commanded to take into the ark seven pairs of all clean, and one pair of all unclean, animals, whereas he had before been ordered to take one pair of every species, no distinction whatever between clean and unclean animals having been made.... We do not hesitate to acknowledge here the manifest contradiction.”

“And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begat Shem” (v, 32).

“And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth” (vii, 6).

“Shem was a hundred years old, and he begat Arphaxad two years after the flood” (xi, 10).

If Noah was five hundred years old when he begat Shem, and six hundred years old at the time of the Flood, Shem was one hundred years old at the time of the Flood. If Shem begat Arphaxad two years after the Flood, he was one hundred and two years old when he begat Arphaxad.

“And Arphaxad begat Salah” (Gen. x, 24).

“And Arphaxad begat Shelah” (1 Chron. i, 18).

“And Arphaxad begat Cainan, and Cainan begat Salah” (Genesis, Sept. Ver.).

“Which was the son of Sala, which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad” (Luke iii, 35, 36).

According to the Hebrew Genesis and Chronicles, Arphaxad was the father of Salah; according to the Septuagint Genesis and Luke, Cainan was the father, and Arphaxad the grandfather of Salah.

“The woman [Sarah] was taken into Pharaoh’s house” (Gen. xii, 15).

“And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me?” (18).

“And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah” (xx, 2).

“Then Abimelech called unto Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us?” (9).

It may be claimed that both Pharaoh and Abimelech took Sarah. But it is evident that these are both legends of the same event, or, rather, different and conflicting forms of the same legend. The first belongs to the Jehovist, the second to the Elohist.

“And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.... And into the land of Canaan they came” (Gen. xii, 4, 5).

“And Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram” (xi, 26).

“And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years” (32).

“When his father was dead, he [Abram] removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell” (Acts vii, 4).

If Abram did not go to Canaan until after the death of his father, he did not go until he was 135 years old, 60 years older than stated in the first account.

“And Abram was four score and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram” (Gen. xvi, 16).

“And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him” (xxi, 5).

“And the child [Isaac] grew, and was weaned” (8).

“And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child [Ishmael], and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs” (14, 15).

When Isaac was weaned, and Hagar was sent into the wilderness, Ishmael, who was about sixteen years old, is represented as a babe in his mother’s arms.

“And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite” (Gen. xxvi, 34).

“Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter” (xxxvi, 2, 3).

Did Esau marry two wives, according to the first account, or three, according to the second? Was his first wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri, or Adah, the daughter of Elon? Was Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, or was she the daughter of his uncle Ishmael?

“I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty: but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them” (Ex. vi, 3).

“I [Abraham] have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord [Jehovah] the most high God” (Gen. xiv, 22).

“He [Isaac] said, For now the Lord [Jehovah] hath made room for us” (xxvi, 22).

“He [Jacob] said, Surely the Lord [Jehovah] is in this place” (xxviii, 16).

According to the writer in Exodus, Jehovah did not become the national God of Israel until after the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. According to the writer in Genesis, he was known to each of these patriarchs.

“All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were three score and ten” (xlvi, 27).

“Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, three score and fifteen souls” (Acts vii, 14).

“And the Midianites sold him [Joseph] into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard” (Gen. xxxvii, 36).

“And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him [Joseph] of the hands of the Ishmaelites” (xxxix, 1).

“Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: the sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi,” etc. (Gen. xxxv, 22, 23).

“And these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations: Gershon, and Kohath” etc. (Ex. vi, 16).

“And the sons of Kohath; Amram,” etc. (18).

“And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses” (20).

“And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramases to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children” (Ex. xii, 37).

Levi was the son of Jacob, Kohath was the son of Levi, Amram was the son of Kohath, and Moses was the son of Amram. Moses was the fourth generation from Jacob. In the time of Moses the adult male population of Israel numbered 600,000, representing a total population of about 3,000,000. Thus in four generations the progeny of Jacob increased from twelve persons to three millions.

Judah, Jacob’s fourth son, married and had three sons—Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er grew to manhood, married Tamar, and died. Onan then married his widow, and died also. Shelah, who was much younger than Onan, grew to manhood and refused to marry his brother’s widow. Tamar then had two sons, Pharez and Zarah, by Judah himself (Gen. xxxviii). Pharez grew to manhood, married, and had two sons, Hezron and Hamil (xlvi, 12), before Jacob and his family went to Egypt. When they went to Egypt, Judah was but forty-two years old.