Dating The Book of Job

Dating the Book of Job
G. L. Bartholomew
Abstract This article actually started out as a couple of paragraphs in my article The Lore of the Light-Bearer. I was just going to add up the birth dates from Noah to Jobab which works out to be somewhere between 600 and 700 years. Then, while googling for some information, I came across Stephen E. Franklins online book Alignment of Hebrew, Egyptian, and Assyrian Chronologies which contains a theory that has some rather drastic implications in regard to the dates and lengths of time of many of the records found in the Bible. As I continued my research in an attempt to either prove or disprove (from a biblical perspective) Stephens hypothesis, this material grew to become a lengthy appendix to my Light-Bearer article and now a full article (or small book) on its own. This article contains a lot of number crunching, but the conclusion of it all has some fairly significant theological implications. As a perhaps less tedious and more theologically interesting bonus, the appendix to this article discusses how Stephen Franklins hypothesis regarding the change of the Hebrew calendar may help to provide an answer to the riddle of who the Azazyel goat represents and why and how he came to be a part of the Atonement ceremony of Leviticus 16.

The book of Job does not explicitly state when it was written in relation to the flood, but it does contain sufficient clues to derive an approximate date. Dating the book of Job relative to Noahs flood is important to showing that the environment described in the background of the book of Job is consistent with what the hot-oceans cold-ice-caps model of the earth for the post-flood centuries predicts as is discussed in Appendix A of my earlier article: The Lore of the Light-Bearer. The first thing that we are told about Job is that he dwelt in the land of Uz. The land of Uz is associated with Edom (Lamentations 4:21). Edom is an alias for Esau the son of Issac (Genesis 25:30). Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz! (Lamentations 4:21 NKJV)
And Esau said to Jacob, Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary. Therefore his name was called Edom. (Genesis 25:30 NKJV)
Edom/Esau is said to have dwelt in Mount Seir (Genesis 36:8). Mount Seir is very near the popular tourist site Petra, south of the land of Canaan. Edoms territory extended southward from Petra/Seir to the Gulf of Aqaba/The Red Sea and eastward. Forty years after the Exodus, the descendants of Esaus grandson Amalek fought against the Israelites as they approached the boarder of the land of Canaan (Exodus 17:8-16; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; I Samuel 15). The Amalekites attacked the Israelites from behind and struck down many of the tired and weary stragglers and they were, thereafter, cursed by . Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his cattle and all his
animals, and all his goods which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presence of his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they were strangers could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. (Genesis 36:6-8 NKJV) Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the LORD said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called its name, TheLORDIsMyBanner; for he said, Because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. (Exodus 17:8-16 NKJV) Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. (Deuteronomy 25:17-19 NKJV) Samuel also said to Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. (I Samuel 15:1 NKJV)
Figure 1 below shows a partial genealogical tree containing a probable overlay of the main characters of Job with the genealogies found elsewhere in the Bible. In the below genealogical tree, the main characters Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu are highlighted in red. Secondary/background characters are highlighted in blue. A few other significant biblical characters are included to help give a sense of the timing.
Figure 1: Partial Genealogical Tree of Job/Jobab and His Friends

Terah Abram Issac Levi Kohath ? Amram Moses Judah Perez Hezron Ram Amminadab Nahshon Salmon Boaz Obed Jesse David Solomon Jacob Tamar Benjamin Bela Naaman Zophar Esau Eliphaz Teman Reuel Zerah Jobab Shuah Jokshan Sheba Dedan Nahor Buz
Amalek
Bildad
Barachel Elihu Rahab Ruth
Elihu Tamar
In Figure 1, Job and Jobab the son of Zerah are overlapped as being likely the same person. The reasons for this are as follows: 1. Job is a short form of Jobab (the names are actually pronounced Yov and Yovav, respectively, in Hebrew) and it is not uncommon for people to be referenced by names spelt in slightly varied ways in the Old Testament both in the Hebrew text and in translations (e.g. the Septuagint of I Chronicles 2:9-10 refers to one person using both of the names Ram and Aram)1 . 2. Jobab lived at the right time and in the right place with respect to what we are told about Job (Jobab is younger than Eliphaz but older than Elihu and he, being a descendant of Esau, would likely have lived in the land of Uz). 3. Jobab was a very prominent man among Esaus descendants as evidenced by his being awarded the kingship of the land after Bela (Genesis 36:33). 4. Jobab is a great-nephew of Eliphaz which would help to explain how Eliphaz knew Jobs father, even the birth date of Jobs father so as to be able to say the aged are among us, much older than your father. (Job 15:10). Though Job does not reveal his age in his book, he seems to indicate that he is older than Zophar when he argues against Zophars first charge that wisdom is with aged men (Job 12:12 NKJV). I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as
these? Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding. my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. Man decays like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten. Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.
1
Google Books: Old Testament Textual Criticism Page 164
He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue. And do You open Your eyes on such a one, and bring me to judgment with Yourself? (Job 12:3-14:3 NKJV)
After Jobs remark to Zophar that wisdom is with aged men, Eliphaz responded to Job saying that both the gray-haired and the aged are among us which suggests that the other two of Jobs friends were older than Job. Are you the first man who was born? Or were you made before the hills? Have you heard the counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father. (Job 15:7-10 NKJV)
Elihu was the youngest of those who have significant dialog recorded in the book of Job and he was the last to speak. Elihu seems to have been so young at the time that the events of Job were recorded that his name was not worthy of mention in the opening chapters. One gets the impression that Elihu was perhaps a teen or in his early twenties, not a direct friend of Job but probably tagging along with Zophar the youngest of Jobs three friends and the closest relation to Elihu. Of some significance is the possible relation between Elihu and king David. King David was a descendant of Ram and Elihu is said to be the son of Barachel and a member of the family of Ram (Job 32:2). Though Barachel is also said to be a Buzite, such is probably a reference to the area of his residence rather than his ancestry just as Eliphaz was said to be a Temanite because he dwelt in the land of his firstborn son chief Teman. Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job
(Job 32:2 NKJV)
The book of Job has come down to us in modern times through preservation by the Jews along with the rest of the Old Testament. It is not as easy to see in the English translations, but there are many references to the book of Job embedded in the written works of kings David and Solomon. As an example, Table 1 shows several cross references between Psalms 104 and the book of Job.
Table 1: Cross References between Psalms 104 and Job

Psalms 104 1a 1b 2a 2b 3 4 5-9 10 11 12 13a 14 17 18 19 20a 21-22 24a 24c 26 29a 29b 30a Job 36:26 40:10b; 37:22-24 37:21 9:8a; 26:7 9:8b-9; 26:13a Ex 3:2 38:4-11 38:25a 39:5-8 38:41; 39:26-30 38:37b 38:26-27 39:13-18 39:1-4 9:7; 38:12 38:15a 38:39-40 9:10 34:13 41 34:29 34:14-15 33:4
Psalms 104:1b and Job 40:10b make a good illustration of how hard it can be to see the parallel between two sections of text when viewed after translation. You are clothed with honor and majesty (Psalms 104:1b NKJV)
array yourself with glory and beauty (Job 40:10b NKJV)
Both of the above are translations of the same Hebrew phrase: . This phrase is unique to these two verses. Other parallels are more obvious. For example, Bildad referred to mankind as being like a worm in comparison to (Job 25:6) long before Davids famous remark I am a worm and no man (Psalms 22:6). Longer forms of some parallels are found in the book of Job which indicates that the book of Job contains the original statements. For example, the phrase He drew a circle on the face of the deep (Proverbs 8:27) is found in its full form in Job 26:10 He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. These are just a few examples of the many references to the book of Job that exist in the written works of kings David and Solomon. These references show that both these kings were familiar with the book of Job and, hence, that it predates them. Because Jesse, Davids father, named one of his sons Elihu, it appears that the book of Job came into the possession of the Jewish royal archives through king David himself.
Because Elihu was five generations from Eliphaz, Eliphaz would have been over 100 years old when the events of the book of Job took place. Job lived 140 years after his trial and saw four generations of his children born during those years. Abraham was born about 292 years after the flood.2 Abraham was 100 years old when he begot Issac (Genesis 21:5). Issac was 60 years old when he begot Esau (Genesis 25:26). Esau was about 40 years old when he begot Eliphaz his firstborn (Genesis 26:34). 292 + 100 + 60 + 40 = 492 years after the flood that Eliphaz was born. Because Eliphaz would have been over 100 years old at the time, we can roughly estimate that the events recorded in the book of Job took place between 600 and 700 years after the flood well as straight forward as that math might seem, there are a few curve balls that the Bible throws at us that need to be accounted for. Have you noticed in the numbers cited thus far how long people are living? Have you noticed that they are not having children until fairly old ages? Most of those who have noticed these numbers attribute them to divine blessings or a rather gradual decline in whatever environmental condition caused those of the pre-flood generations to live so long, but there is another explanation that deserves serious consideration. Stephen E. Franklin in Alignment of Hebrew, Egyptian, and Assyrian Chronologies points out that the Hebrew calendar of ancient times had two new years (in the Fall and Spring each corresponding with the first new moon after the autumnal and vernal equinoctes respectively) and, if the ancient Hebrews were using both of these new-years in the calculation of their spans of time, several things start to make a lot more sense; both internally with respect to the Bible and externally in aligning the dates of significant events as recorded in the Bible with some of the more ancient records from nearby civilizations. Consider a few of the more notable events recorded in the Bible, prior to king Solomons time, for which we are given durations in years. Is it more reasonable that Abram left home at age 75 or 37? Is it more reasonable that Abram was concerned about being killed because of the beautiful countenance of his 68 year old wife or his 34 year old wife? Is it more reasonable that Sarah bore Issac at 90 or 45? Did Moses choose a 40 year old man to go and spy out the land of Canaan or a 20 year old? Was Caleb boasting of being as strong at 85 as he was at 40 or at 42 as he was at 20? The case that I personally feel puts the nail in the coffin, so to speak, for the ancients having used a six-month year is that the birth dates recorded for all of Abrahams ancestors back to Noah (8 generations) are consistently in the 30 to 35 year range with respect to the parent (Genesis 11:10-26). It is highly improbable that so many people over such a long period of time under such circumstances would all wait until such an old age to have children. There should be at least a few, if not most of them, who have children by sometime in their mid-twenties; especially when the need to repopulate the earth is taken into account. If, however, those who lived in ancient times were using a six-month year such that the durations would have to be halved to be equal to our modern definition of years, then it is no surprise that none of them were marrying and having children much before 30 years as 30 years, in their reckoning, would be equivalent to what we modernly recognize as 15 years. The incredible consistency in the recorded ages at which they married is then because they couldnt physically have children prior to that age. Marrying at 15 years of age might seem a bit outrageous to some of us modernly,3 but there is archaeological evidence that even those of nobility married in their early teens in ancient times (e.g. the pharaohnen of ancient Egypt).
2 3
ICR: How Young Is the Earth? It is not unheard of in modern times, however.[The Sun: Baby-faced boy Alfie Patten is father at 13]
8 This [is] the genealogy of Shem:

Shem [was] 100 years old, and begot Arphaxad 2 years after the flood Arphaxad lived 35 years, and begot Salah Salah lived 30 years, and begot Eber Eber lived 34 years, and begot Peleg Peleg lived 30, and begot Reu Reu lived 32 years, and begot Serug Serug lived 30 years, and begot Nahor Nahor lived 29 years, and begot Terah Terah lived 70 years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Genesis 11:10-26 NKJV)
To be clear, Stephen Franklin believes that there was also a 12-month calendar with twelve named months in use all along and that the double counting of the years that is evident in the biblical accounts was probably due to editorial or translational error. I am personally less certain that there was a 12-month year originally because there are only four named months that are referred to throughout the Old Testament of the Bible and because the ancients of other civilizations are rumored to have lived prolonged lives as well (e.g. the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of China4 ) and because I am convinced, primarily by Walter Browns book In The Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood, that the earth before the flood was a tropical paradise world-wide without seasons of hot summer and cold winter (hence there would have been no strong reason to distinguish between the two equinoxes as beginning two distinct halves of one cycle/year). There is more intra-biblical support for the case of a six-month year having been used in ancient times. The support can be seen in the number of generations that are listed from the time of the Exodus to the beginning of the construction of the Temple. We are told that there were 480 years between the Exodus and the start of the Temple (I Kings 6:1), but there are only 6 generations listed for that span of time (Ruth 4:22). This gives us 7 consecutive segments of time that the 480 years must be divisible into. The segments are: Nahshon to Salmon (1), Salmon to Boaz (2), Boaz to Obed (3), Obed to Jesse (4), Jesse to David (5), David to Solomon (6), Solomon to the start of the Temple (7). If we were to divide these segments equally, 480 7 = 68.5 which is quite a large value for the average age of the parent at the birth of the child over so many generations. But the average age is even greater when it is factored in that Nahshon was already old enough to be declared the leader of his tribe at the time of the Exodus (Numbers 1:7) and Solomon was called young and inexperienced by his father 4 years prior to the beginning of the Temple (I Chronicles 29:1) and he referred to himself as a little child (I Kings 3:7) at that time. If we are generous and suppose that Solomon was 30 when he referred to himself as a little child and that Nahshon begot Salmon a full 20 years after the Exodus, then we are left with 480 - 30 - 4 - 20 = 426 years to divide among the remaining 5 segments. 426 5 = 85.2 years for the average age of the parent at the birth of the child. Such results are unreasonable. If, however, it is the case they were counting double for what we would call a years time, then the 85.2 value would be equal to what we would modernly call 42.6 years. While still excessive, 42.6 years for the average age of the parent at the birth of the child at least falls within the range of feasible values (~14 to ~60). That Boaz had young men who served him (Ruth 2:15) and that he blessed Ruth for choosing him over younger men (Ruth 3:9-13)
4
Note that 3 Sovereigns + 5 Emperors = 8 and there were 8 who survived the flood.
suggests that he may have been a contributing factor to the somewhat large number for the average. Also, David was the youngest of eight brothers (I Samuel 16:10-11). A similar situation exists in the case of the years of sojourning in a strange land that are given for Abrahams descendants only a few generations are listed for a relatively long span of time. Before we can count the number of generations that are listed for the 400 year period of sojourning, however, we need to know when, relative to the birth dates of Abraham and his descendants, the period begins and ends. There are three spans of time given in the Bible which concern the time in question and there is only one way that the three spans can be seen to work together as detailed in The 400 Years and 430 Years Time Puzzle. The spans and verses which cite them are: 400 Genesis 15:13-14 & Acts 7:6-7, 430 Exodus 12:40-41 & Galatians 3:15-17, and 450 Acts 13:16-215 . Table 2 lists the significant events and their relative times in years.
Table 2: The Years of Sojourning

Event 1: Event 2: Time: 000 Time: 030 Abraham offers Issac Confirmation of the promise (Passover) Jacob is born The fathers of the people of Israel (Abraham, Issac, and Jacob) are chosen (Acts 13:17) Beginning of the sojourning period The Exodus from Egypt (Passover) The entrance into Canaan The 7 nations conquered and the land divided among the Israelites
Event 3: Event 4: Event 5:
Time: 430 Time: 470 Time: 480
The above explanation places Abrahams descendants in Egypt for 270 years (400 years between Jacobs birth and the Exodus from Egypt less 130 years for Jacobs age at the time of the entrance into Egypt). Now that we have the significant events, their durations, and their starting and ending points in years relative to the birth dates of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, we can count the number of generations of Abrahams descendants that lived during those years. Exodus 6:16-20 lists there being 4 generations from Levi to Moses (Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses). These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And
the years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty-seven. The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimi according to their families. And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred and thirtythree. The sons of Merari were Mahali and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations. Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his fathers sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven. (Exodus 6:16-20 NKJV)
When we combine the information given in Exodus 6:16-20 with what we are told in Genesis 46:11-27, however, we find a bit of a problem. The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who
came from his body, besides Jacobs sons wives, were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph who The NIV and most other translations interpret the 450 years as being 400 + 40 + 10, but it should be noted that the King James links the period of 450 years to the time leading up to the arrival of Samuel.
5
10

were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy. (Genesis 46:11-27 NKJV)
Genesis 46:11-27 tells us that Kohath was among the 67 men (66 of Jacobs male descendants plus Jacob himself) who were born prior to and participated in the entrance into Egypt. We also know that Moses was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus (Exodus 7:7). This gives us only 2 spans of time to divide among 190 years (270 - 80). This gives us an average of 80 (190 2) for the ages of Kohath and Amram at the birth of their sons (assuming the best-case scenario that Kohath was born just prior to the entrance into Egypt). With just 2 generations, such an average might not seem beyond the realm of possibility. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls give us additional information which causes the numbers to exceed the realm of possibility. According to the Dead Sea Scrolls6 , Jacob was 65 when he fathered Levi, Levi was 35 when he fathered Kohath, and Kohath was 29 when he fathered Amram. Because 65 + 35 + 29 = 129 and because Jacob was 130 at the time of the entrance into Egypt (Genesis 47:9), Amram would have had to have been born right about the time of the entrance into Egypt and, consequently, would have had to have begotten Moses at 190 years of age! We are told, however, that Amram only lived 137 years (Exodus 6:16-20)! The Dead Sea Scrolls also tell us that Amram fathered Aaron at 110 years of age and, because we are told that Aaron was 3 years older than Moses (Exodus 7:7), this would mean that Amram fathered Moses at 113. 113 + 80 = 193 which is significantly less than the 270 year figure that was calculated earlier. At least one number somewhere must be incorrect. Of the numbers cited thus far, the 110 figure for the age of Amram at the birth of Aaron is the most suspect because it is a lone figure from a long lost text that is significantly out of proportion with the ages of those of several generations prior at the birth of their children (even Abraham was only 100 at the birth of Issac). It looks a bit like someone recognized the problem of Amram begetting Moses and simply inserted as large a number as they thought they could get away with. Throwing out the 110 figure still leaves the problem of Moses being born long after the death of Amram. Stephen Franklin proposes an interesting theory that Moses intentionally left out a few generations along the lineage of his forefathers because such information would have revealed a close relationship between the Levites and the throne of Egypt and Moses was trying to sever all ties with Egypt and begin a new nation. Darren Thompson7 points out that there are a few instances in the Bible where begat is used in reference to an adoption and explains how the wording in the genealogies may be hinting that Amram was adopted into the family of Levi. The six cases in point that Darren Thompson cites are: 1. We are told that Josiah begat Jeconiah 11 years after Josiah died, and that Jeconiah was 18 years old at the time. (Matthew 1:11 and II Kings 24) 2. King Zerubabbel had 2 fathers. (I Chronicles 3:17-19 and Nehemiah 12:1) 3. Machir begat his brother Gilead. (Numbers 26:29) 4. Israel adopted his grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim. (Genesis 48:5) 5. Special wording is used in the description of the begottal of Amram to Kohath. (Numbers 26:58)
6 7
Google Books: The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered Pages 92-93 Darren Thompson: Biblical Chronology Were the Israelites in Egypt for 430 Years?
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6. The Hebrew wording which describes Jochebed Amrams wife is peculiar and can be interpreted to mean that she was adopted into the family of Levi and hence that Amram may have married into the family of Levi. (Numbers 26:59) Whether the missing years are because generations were left out by Moses to prevent later descendants from claiming a right to the Egyptian throne or because Amram was adopted into the family of Kohath long after Kohath had died, it is clear that the 4 generations given from Levi to Moses are suspect and cannot be used to tally the generations that transpired over the 270 years that the Israelites were in Egypt. Stephen Franklin uses I Chronicles 7:20-27 to argue that there were 12 generations from Ephraim to Joshua. Darren Thompson uses Matthew 1:3-4 to argue that there were 6 generations from Judah to Nahshon. There is another way to get an estimate of the number of generations from Jacob to the end of the Exodus. Because a census was taken only 2 years after they had left Egypt and the numbers recorded, we can use those numbers to figure out what the average branching factor (b) would have to be for so many people (p) to be born into the generation (g ) in question. If, for example, the average person has 2 children (a branching factor of 2) then the first generation will consist of 2 children, the second generation will consist of 4 children, and so on. Mathematically this is expressed as p = bg where p is for people, b is for branching factor, and g is for the generation. We are given p = 603550 in Numbers 1:46 and we want to know whether 12 generations (I Chronicles 7:20-27) or 6 generations (Matthew 1:3-4) are more reasonable to achieve such a number. Solving for b we get: b = g p.
12
603550 = 3.03
6 603550 = 9.19 Both of the above results are plausible for the average number of children per household during the time in question. There are a couple more things that need to be factored in though. One of the things that needs to be accounted for is that the census was only of the males over 20 years of age and fit for war. This means that the 603550 value needs to be doubled to account for the women (assuming the likely fifty-fifty ratio of men and women). The other thing that needs to be accounted for is the known values for the number of children in the first and second generations. We know that Jacob had 12 children. Because 12 is roughly 4 times the average for the 12-generation model, and it occurs at the first level of the branching tree, the results for a branching factor of 3.03 are about 4 times larger than 603550 which is 2 times larger than the number we want when the women are also accounted for. Because a branching factor of 3.03 results in there being too many children being in the 12th generation once the extra children of the first generation are factored into the equation, the braching factor must be further reduced to make the 12-generation model come out to the required 603550 figure. In the case of the 6 generation figure, because 12 is roughly 1 the computed average, the end result of the equation for the number of descendants are 1 times more than 603550 which is a bit short of the number that we need once the women are also accounted for (1 < 2). We also know the number of children in the second generation because of Genesis 46:11-27. Genesis 46 tells us that Jacob had 69 descendants after 2 generations. 69 less the 12 which were of the first generation leaves 57 children born in the second generation. 57 children divided among their 12 parents gives an average of 4.75 children per parent. Because the 4.75 figure for the average branching factor at the second level of the tree is higher than the
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3.03 average for the tree overall, it will increase the final result for the 12 generation equation even further from the desired value; meaning that the braching factor would have to be reduced yet again to get the 12-generation model to work out. Because the 4.75 figure is less than the 9.19 average for the 6 generation equation, it will reduce the final result in that equation meaning that the average number of children for the remaining 4 generations would have to be greater to compensate for the smaller family size of the second generation. Another thing that is difficult to account for is intermarriage. It is much less likely that the Israelites were marrying among themselves for the first four generations because there were so few of them and plenty of Egyptians to choose from. In the latter three generations, however, there were significantly more of them and more intermarriage is likely. Intermarriage reduces the actual numbers from what the equations would predict. The equation is only accounting for the number of people born into the last generation, however, so the smaller number is good because it allows room for some of the 603550 soldiers to be from the two generations prior. Adoption is another issue that is difficult to estimate. Seeing that the storyline depicts the Egyptians and the Hebrews as being distinctly different and even rival social classes, I personally suspect that adoption was quite rare. Gary North, in the appendix of his Sanctions and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Numbers, argues that adoption must have been a major factor but he is trying to fit the 603550 descendants into a 4 generation model and is completely ignoring the 6 generation model that is suggested by Matthew 1:3-4. One bias that I have against the mass-adoption theory is that it seems, to me, to run contrary to s promise (Genesis 15). sent Abrahams descendants into Egypt for the express purpose of increasing their numbers while simultaniously reducing the numbers of the surrounding nations by means of famine (Genesis 41:28-36, 46:1-4). After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am
your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abram said, Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir! And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then He brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them. And He said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Then He said to him, I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it? So He said to him, Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Genesis 15 NKJV) {note that both Jacob and Esau refer to themselves as pilgrims and strangers but not Issac indicating that Jacob and Esaus lifespans were part of the 400 years but not Issacs (Genesis 36:7, 47:9)} {note also that the fourth generation terminology is a re-statement of the 400-years duration in a different unit of measurement (100 years per generation), not a count of the iterations that would transpire along his lineage}
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The question of whether the 12-generation or the 6-generation model is more likely for the Israelites stay in Egypt boils down to a question of whether it seems more reasonalbe that the Hebrews were, on average, having family sizes of 2-point-something children or over 10 children. An average of 2 or 3 children per family is more typical of modern western cultures, but not for the culture of the time in question. Consider that Jacob, the forefather of the Israelites, had 12 sons (Genesis 35:22-26) and, after the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, when they dwelt in the promised land during the time of the Judges, Ibzan and Abdon, the 10th and 12th judges of Israel respectively, had 60 and 40 children respectively. Consider also that we are told that the Israelites were having large families during their stay in Egypt (Exodus 1:7). That the Israelites were having large families is important to the storyline of the Exodus as it is given as the reason for the Egyptians turning on the Israelites (Exodus 1:8-22). And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased
abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondagein mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; and he said, When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive? And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive. (Exodus 1:6-22 NKJV)
All other environmental conditions being equal (e.g. available food, housing, weather conditions, &c.), the average family size will be a cultural trend and will tend to be consistent over many generations. The account of the Israelites behavior shortly after they had left Egypt also gives us a glimpse into their culture. Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat
down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. (Exodus 32:6 NKJV)
Exodus 32:9-10, 34:14-17 and I Corinthians 10:7 make it clear that the eating and playing as used in the above passage are euphemisms for idolatry and harlotry. And the LORD said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore,
let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation. (Exodus 32:9-10 NKJV) (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and
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his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. You shall make no molded gods for yourselves. (Exodus 34:14-17 NKJV) And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. (I Corinthians 10:7 NKJV)
This background information about the Israelites of the time suggests that they were having large families and therefore favors the 6 generation model. The 12 generation model was supported by the genealogy given in I Chronicles 7:20-27. The sons of Ephraim were Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eladah his son, Tahath his son, Zabad his
son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead. The men of Gath who were born in that land killed them because they came down to take away their cattle. Then Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him. And when he went in to his wife, she conceived and bore a son; and he called his name Beriah, because tragedy had come upon his house. Now his daughter was Sheerah, who built Lower and Upper Beth Horon and Uzzen Sheerah; and Rephah was his son, as well as Resheph, and Telah his son, Tahan his son, Laadan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, Nun his son, and Joshua his son. (I Chronicles 7:2027 NKJV)
It is evident in the wording of the passage that the pronoun in the phrase his son does not always refer to the previously listed name. If it were the case that his son always referred to the previously listed name then the passage would be telling us that Ephraim outlived 8 generations of his descendants and subsequently fathered Beriah. Such a long lifespan for Ephraim is not reasonable. Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell who exactly was the son of whom from the genealogy given in I Chronicles 7:20-27. It looks like the 6 generations from Jacob to Nahshon as given in Matthew 1 is the more reliable genealogy (Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon). Because we are told that Hezron was born before the entrance into Egypt (Genesis 46) and we are told that Nahshon was the leader of the tribe of Judah when the Israelites left Egypt (Numbers 1:7), we have 4 consecutive segments of time to divide the 270 years that the Israelites were in Egypt into. The segments are: the entrance into Egypt to the birth of Ram (1), the birth of Ram to the birth of Amminadab (2), the birth of Amminadab to the birth of Nahshon (3) and the birth of Nahshon to the Exodus (4). 270 4 = 67.5 years. Again, such an average for the age of the parent at the birth of the son is not reasonable (especially given the nature of the culture). Half the computed value 67.5 2 = 33.75 is very reasonable however; especially when one realizes that it is unlikely that all the decendents along Nahshons ancestry were firstborn. While 33.75 years is perfectly reasonable for the average age of the parent at the birth of the son along Nahshons ancestry, it is a little high for the average overall unless the Israelites were having a lot of children late in life. We know from historical documents of the time that it was common for parents to start having children when they were as young as 15 years of age. And we would expect, given the cultural background information that is provided in the book of Exodus, that they continued having children until at least their late twenties (though they probably had fewer and fewer children later in life). So we would expect the average age of the parent at the birth of the child to be somewhere around 20. If we divide the 135 years that the Israelites were in Egypt by this expected average age of the parent at the birth of the child we get 135 20 = 6.75 for the average number of generations that transpired while the Israelites were in Egypt. Feeding this number back into the equation for the average family size, 6.75 603550 = 7.18 for the average number of males born into each family (simply double we get this number to get the average including women). These numbers again support the conclusion that
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the people of the time were using a six-month year the Israelites were in Egypt 135 years, not 270. There is yet further evidence embedded in the story of the blessing of Josephs 2 sons. Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Indeed your father is sick ; and he took with him
his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob was told, Look, your son Joseph is coming to you; and Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. Then Jacob said to Joseph: God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Your offspring whom you beget after them shall be yours; they will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. But as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Then Israel saw Josephs sons, and said, Who are these? And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place. And he said, Please bring them to me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring! So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israels left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israels right hand, and brought them near him. (Genesis 48:1-13 NKJV)
We are told both here in Genesis 48 and in Genesis 46 that Ephraim and Manasseh were born prior to the entrance into Egypt. Genesis 47:28 tells us that Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years and died at 147 years of age. Put together, these scriptures indicate that Josephs children whom he brought from beside his knees to Jacob were at least 17 years old! Either Ephraim and Manasseh were extremely stunted in their growth or, more likely, they were much younger by our modern reckoning of years. Again, if the Israelites were using a six-month year, then the 17 years in their reckoning would be equivalent to 8.5 years in our reckoning which fits the story perfectly. A similar case can be seen in the story of Abrahams sacrifice of Issac. According to the figures, Issac was 30 and Abraham was 130. It is hard to imagine a 30-year-old grown man submitting to a 130-year-old in the way that the story indicates. A 15-year-old youth submitting to the command of his 65-year-old father is at least a little more plausible. Also, Genesis 47:9 records that Jacob said to the pharaoh of Egypt at the time of his entrance into Egypt that the years of his pilgrimage were 130 and few and evil. It is hard to imagine a 130-year-old referring to the years of his life as few, but ask anyone that is in their 60s today and they will testify that their life, in hindsight, has been short. The numbers cited thus far all indicate that a six-month year was in use by most if not all of mankind from the time of Noah to the time of king Solomons reign. We must also examine whatever contrary evidence may be present in the same texts. Table 3 shows the tallies and locations of the references to the months of the year in the books of the Bible which chronicle events prior to king Solomons time (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I & II Samuel, Job, Psalms).
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Table 3: Tallies of Month References Prior to King Solomon

Month First Ref. Count 12 Verse(s) Ge 8:13, Ex 12:2, Ex 12:18, Ex 40:2, Ex 40:17, Le 23:5, Nu 9:1, Nu 9:5, Nu 20:1, Nu 28:16, Nu 33:3, Jos 4:19 Ge 7:11, Ge 8:14, Ex 16:1, Nu 1:1, Nu 1:18, Nu 9:11, Nu 10:11 Ex 19:1 Nu 33:38 Ge 8:4, Le 16:29, Le 23:24, Le 23:27, Le 23:34, Le 23:39, Le 23:41, Le 25:9, Nu 29:1, Nu 29:7, Nu 29:12
Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh
7 1 0 1 0 11
Eighth Ninth Tenth Eleventh Twelfth
0 0 1 1 0
Ge 8:5 De 1:3
As shown in Table 3, there are 6 sections of the Bible which could counter the six-month-year theory (Ge 8:4-5, Le 16:29, Le 23:23-44, Le 25:9, Nu 29:1-12, De 1:3). The first section that needs to be examined contains the story of Noahs flood. The story does fit a six-month-year interpretation as shown in Table 4. Table 4: Noahs Flood
Offset E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E1 + 007 Days E2 + 040 Days E2 + 150 Days E4 + 040 Days E5 + 007 Days E6 + 007 Days Y/M/D 600/2/10 600/2/17 600/3/27 601/1/17 601/2/27 601/3/05 601/3/12 Description Enter Ark Flood Begins End of Forty Days of Continuous? Rain Ark Rests on Mt. Ararat Dove 1 Returns Dove 2 Returns w/ Olive Leaf Dove 3 Dove does not Return
Table 4 is counting every month as consisting of exactly 30 days as indicated by Genesis 8:3-4 in combination with Genesis 7:11. In the six hundredth year of Noahs life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all
the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (Genesis 7:11 NKJV) And when the waters had swelled on the earth one hundred and fifty days, God remembered Noah The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were stopped up the waters then receded steadily from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so that in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. (Genesis 7:23-8:4 NJPS)
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Because we are told that the flood began on the 17th day of the 2nd month and that 150 days later was the 17th day of the 7th month, we can derive that Noah was counting a month as being exactly 30 days in length (150 days divided by 5 months). The six-month-year interpretation of the flood story makes more sense than the twelve-monthyear interpretation because, in the six-month-year version, every day from when they entered the ark until when they left is accounted for. With the twelve-month-year version, six months of time have to be inserted somewhere Also, the six-month-year interpretation of Noahs flood recognizes the repetition in the story. Notice in particular the parallel between Genesis 8:3-6 and Genesis 8:13-14. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so that in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. (Genesis 8:3-6 NJPS) And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first, the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. (Genesis 8:13-14 NKJV)
Notice the bad grammar in the above excerpt from Genesis 8:13-14. They have been omitted from the above excerpt to illustrate the point, but the NKJV translation adds the words month and day to attempt to make sense of the peculiar wording (you will probably see them italicized in your Bible). The Hebrew word for month ( chodesh) is used 9 times from Genesis 7:11 to 8:14. Why should it be left out here? Likewise, the Hebrew word for day ( yom) is used 15 times from Genesis 7:4 to 8:22. Why should the word be omitted here? The peculiar wording here in 8:13 and earlier in 8:5 is an indication of possible corruption of the original text (more to come about Genesis 8:5). There is also the problem of the earth being declared dry on two occasions that are well over a month apart in Genesis 8:13-14. The NJPS translation addresses this latter problem by translating the text In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the waters began to dry from the earth; and when Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the surface of the ground was drying. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. The NJPS translation is obviously more sensible unless severe flooding of which we are not told occurred between the first and second drying of the earth. So, Genesis 8:13-14 is telling us that at some point (the exact time of which is uncertain due to the corruption of the text) the waters began to dry from the earth until the 27th day of the 2nd month of Noahs 601st year when the earth was dry. Genesis 8:3-6 also tells us that on the 17th day of the 7th month the waters began diminishing and 40 days later Noah opened the window of the ark to send out birds to test the land. Coincidently, when the 40 days of Genesis 8:6 are subtracted from the 601/2/27 of Genesis 8:14 the result is 601/1/17 which just happens to be the 17th day of the 7th month on a six-month per year calendar! This means that Genesis 8:13-14 is a reiteration of the 40 days from when the ark landed on the mountain to when the earth was dry (dry enough to start sending out the birds that is). It is likely that the fist part of Genesis 8:13 originally read And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the seventeenth day of the month . The removal of the covering of the ark, as stated in Genesis 8:13 was probably a one-time event. The covering was probably some massive sheet over the top of the ark to prevent any of the immense quantity of rain water that poured down over the 150 days from getting into the ark. It
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wouldnt take much of a leak, after all, over that great of a length of time with that much downpour to begin to fill and capsize the ark. It makes sense that Noah removed this covering at the end of the 150 days (601/1/17) when the ark first came to rest and the floodgates of the sky were stopped up (as opposed to 6 months later8 ). The NKJV translation of the latter part of Genesis 8:13 is quite poor. The word Indeed does not correspond to any of the Hebrew text. Also, the 4 Hebrew words tacked on to the end of Genesis 8:13 (translated by NJPS as he saw that the surface of the ground was drying) are probably an explanatory addition that was not original to the text. The original point of Genesis 8:13 was probably that Noah removed the covering, not that he saw anything of significance. Genesis 8:13-14 is just a reiteration of the timing of the main events of the story. As was mentioned earlier, the wording of Genesis 8:5 is also peculiar to the point that corruption of the text might be suspected. As was the case with Genesis 8:13, the words for month and day are missing from the text of Genesis 8:5. The context does help us to piece together what the original text probably said however. Verses 3-6 are part of a continuous line of thought. Verse 3 tells us that the waters began decreasing at the end of 150 days. Verse 4 is a parenthetical note stating that the ark came to rest as soon as the waters started abating. Verse 5 tells us that the waters continued decreasing steadily until the tops of the mountains were seen (the time given is suspect because of the missing words for month and day). Verses 6 onward then tell us that after 40 days Noah started sending out birds to see if the ground was dry enough to dwell on. All one needs to realize is that the 40 days begin from where the 150 days left off. One does not switch from counting days to counting in months and then back to days because such a switch would cause a loss in accuracy. The way the story is told, one can easily envision Noah marking off the days on the interior wall of the ark. Because the rest of the story is told in a linear fashion, we can conclude that the date given in Verse 5 must fall between the dates given in verses 4 and 6. Therefore, it could not have been during the 10th month that the tops of the mountains started to show. It had to have been sometime during the 8th month because the 8th is the only month that would have begun during the 40 day period that began on the 17th day of the 7th month. Some might think that 40 days would be insufficient for all that water to go away. Such people are thinking purely in terms of evaporation, however, and the majority of the water was removed not because of evaporation, but rather because the waters went down to the place which the LORD founded for them (Psalms 104:6-8 NKJV). The places which the LORD founded for the oceans are the modern ocean basins of the earth. Evidence that these basins formed quite quickly can be seen in the formation patterns of some of the worlds mountain ranges.9 It is evident that the mountains formed very quickly because their deformation patterns show that they were still soft when they were formed. They could not have remained soft for long, however, and their upward displacement/buckling would have corresponded almost directly with the downward displacement of the ocean floors. The story of Noahs flood does fit a six-month-year time frame and even makes more sense when such a time frame is taken into account. Such a time frame also correlates better with Islamic tradition which holds that Noah spent five or six months aboard the Ark.10 Note that it is not a problem that the story of Noahs flood refers to months 7 and 8 while the year
Noah had pigs in the Ark after all :-) Walter Brown: In the Beginning Figure 49 10 Wikipedia: Noahs Ark In Islamic tradition
9 8
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of the time had only 6 months. When one wants to be both accurate and brief, it is not uncommon, even today, to refer to spans of time using only the smaller units (e.g. It is not uncommon for a child of 1 year and 3 months to be referred to as a 15-month-old even though our modern calendar has only 12 months to its year). The next 5 sections of the biblical text which make reference to months beyond the 6th and before the time of king Solomon Leviticus 16:29, 23:23-44, 25:9, and Numbers 29:1-12 do so in the context of the religious ceremonies that were ordained by to be kept annually as a reminder of things past and/or a type of things to come. Consider what would happen if it were suddenly decided and decreed that our modern year was to be doubled from its current 12 months per cycle to 24 months per cycle. In particular, how would people continue to celebrate annual events like Christmas, Earth Day or whatever they traditionally celebrated every 12 months? People are reluctant to change their long held traditions, so most would insist on continuing to hold the events every 12 months just as they had always done. This would cause the events to be celebrated twice every 24-month year. What is important is how the doubled events would be distributed through the new 24-month year. What was celebrated on the 25th day of the 12th month before would, on the new calendar, be celebrated on the 25th day of the 12th and 24th months. Table 5 shows how the dates of the religious ceremonies recorded in the passages in question do show just such a doubled distribution.11
Table 5: Doubled Distribution of Holy Day Festivals

Date (6m/yr) 1/10 1/14 +50 1/10 1/14 +50 Date (12m/yr) 1/10 1/14 +50 7/10 7/15 +50 Event sheep or goat chosen (Ex 12:3-5) 8 Day Festival (1+7 Ex 12:6-20) Feast of Weeks (Le 23:15-16) goats chosen (Le 16) 8 Day Festival (7+1 Le 23:33-36) Feast of Weeks [Wikipedia: Sigd]
The situation is a bit more complex than just a doubling of the feasts though as can be seen by examining Exodus 23:14-17. Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall
eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. (Exodus 23:14-17 NKJV)
That the Feast of Ingathering occurs at the end of the year is repeated in Exodus 34:22. Some confuse the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16, 34:22) with the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-34, Deuteronomy 16:16), but the Feast of Tabernacles occurs in the middle of the 1st or 7th month depending on what calendar you are using, neither of which is the end of the year.
11
A festival 50 days after Atonement is still observed by Ethiopian Jews.[Wikipedia: Sigd]
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The three festivals to the LORD that are mentioned in Exodus 23:14-17 are repeated in Exodus 34:18-23. These are the only feasts that are mentioned throughout the book of Exodus and no mention of a 7th month is ever made in the book of Exodus. Leviticus 23 gives a different list of festivals. Leviticus 23 adds a Feast of Weeks which is to be observed 50 days after the Feast of Harvest/Feast of Firstfruits, drops any mention of a Feast of Ingathering, and adds three more feasts Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Trumpets (the Jewish new year) is instructed to be observed at the beginning of the month (none of the previous festivals occurred on the 1st of the month). Atonement and Tabernacles occur at about the same time as the choosing of the Lamb (Exodus 12:3) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, respectively, but in the 7th month rather than the 1st. Numbers 28-29 gives yet another list. Numbers 28-29 differs from Leviticus 23 in that it adds that a sacrifice is to be made at the beginning of every month, renames the Feast of Harvest/Feast of Firstfruits to the Feast of Weeks, and drops any mention of the Feast of Weeks that was to be observed 50 days after the Feast of Harvest. Deuteronomy 16 then differs from Numbers 28-29 in that it omits the Feast of Harvest/Feast of Firstfruits but reinstates the Feast of Weeks which was to be kept 50 days after the Feast of Harvest. Deuteronomy 16:16 then gives a new list of three festivals when the males are to appear before the LORD at the place which He chooses Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. (Deuteronomy 16:16 NKJV)
It should be obvious that Moses would not have been given such a disparate set of instructions as to when the holy festivals were to be observed; especially when one realizes that the issue would have been of absolutely no concern to Moses himself while he was alive because he and the rest of the Israelites were living on manna which had no harvest seasons or firstfruits. The series of changes that are evident from Exodus to Deuteronomy appear to be the result of seasonal precession. Originally, there were two harvest seasons per six-month-year. The earths climate was still undergoing very gradual but drastic changes due to the Flood. The Harvest of Ingathering gradually drifted from the end of the year until it overlapped the Feast of Unleavened Bread which was not observed based on season but rather was observed on a fixed date with respect to the Hebrew calendar. This precessional effect is illustrated in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows the earths orbit around the Sun as viewed from the north. The vernal and autumnal equinoctes are positioned at the bottom and top of Figure 2 respectively. The equinoctes divide the orbit of the earth around the Sun into two halves and each of these halves were seen as a complete year by the ancients. This six-month-per-year calender system was carried over from before the Flood when there were no seasons of summer and winter as we have today but rather the weather was moderate year-round and at all latitudes on the earth. There is archaeological evidence of such a world-wide moderate climate in the past as demonstrated by the presence of delicate plant foliage buried under the ice s post-flood statement, While the earth remains, of earths modern polar ice caps.12 Also, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22) can be interpreted to mean that the seasons of summer and winter began to be formed after the flood (the seasons mentioned in Genesis 1 may have been festival/harvest seasons not necessarily seasons of hot summers and cold winters like we have today).
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Walter Brown: In the Beginning Frozen Mammoths
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Figure 2: Before & After Seasonal Precession from Moses to King Solomon Before
2 3 2
After
1 Even Years Odd Years Even Years Odd Years
1 4
In Figure 2, there are two perpendicular lines which have been overlaid such that they intersect the earths orbit at four evenly spaced positions. These intersections are meant to indicate the place/time where a harvest seasons occurred. Positions 1 and 3 in the before diagram mark what would have been the Feast of Harvest during Moses day. Positions 2 and 4 mark what would have been the Feast of Ingathering which occurred at the end of the six-month-year of Moses day. The after diagram of Figure 2 shows how the seasons appear to have shifted as demonstrated by the varied instructions as to when the festivals were to be held. Notice in particular the black line which is present in the before diagram but which has been overlapped by the line representing the Feast of Ingathering in the after diagram. The overlapped black line represents the Feast of Unleavened Bread which was fixed to always occur during the first month. Some of the harvest seasons which existed in ancient times no longer exist today because more extreme winters and summers have since taken hold during those times of year. There are several factors which influence how quickly the seasons drift around the Hebrew calendar. One factor is the accuracy of the Hebrew calendar itself. Other factors relate to the physical precession of the earths rotational axis and orbit over time. Anomalistic precession alone causes the seasons to advance by 1 day every 58 years.13 The Hebrews were no doubt in disarray when the festival seasons commanded by began to overlap. King Solomon or other prophets appear to have resolved the issue by renaming the festivals and retroactively editing some of the details recorded in the ancient texts. This may well have been done at s instruction. The original command appears to have simply been that the Israelites keep a feast to the LORD at the times of harvest from year to year as recorded in the book of Exodus. It is significant to note that there is a mirroring of the meanings of the festivals in addition to the mirroring of their yearly timming. Passover and Atonement both deal with the issue of mankind being united with its savior (the sacrificial goat). The Feast of Unleaved Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles dipict comming out of Egypt/Babylon/sin and going into the promised land/the Kingdom of God/righteousness respectively which are flip sides of the same coin so to speak. Because there is evidence that the texts pertaining to the feasts of the LORD were retroactively edited, they do not present counter evidence to the six-month-year theory. Again, the six-month13
Wikipedia: Precession (astronomy) Anomalistic Precession
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year theory is actually able to resolve a hitherto unresolved issue the description of the Feast of Ingathering occurring at the end of the year. The last of the sections which potentially present counter evidence to the six-month-year theory is Deuteronomy 1:3. The event associated with the date given in Deuteronomy 1:3 is Moses last speech to the children of Israel. Most of the rest of the book of Deuteronomy is presented as one long dictation apparently given over the course of a single day. In Deuteronomy 31:1-2 Moses says, I am one hundred and twenty years old today. In Deuteronomy 32:48-52 the LORD tells Moses that he must die for his trespass just as his brother Aaron died. Deuteronomy 34:8 then indicates that the Israelites mourned for Moses for thirty days. We are then told that Israel crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month (Joshua 4:19). Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke
to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him as commandments to them. (Deuteronomy 1:3 NKJV) Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them: I am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, You shall not cross over this Jordan. (Deuteronomy 31:1-2) Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:48-52 NKJV) And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. (Deuteronomy 34:8 NKJV) Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. (Joshua 4:19 NKJV)
It is doubtful that the Israelites would have waited many days after they had finished mourning to cross the Jordan and take their promised land. Subtracting the thirty days of mourning from the date they crossed the Jordan puts them in the eleventh month of the previous year as indicated in Deuteronomy 1:3. On a six-month calendar, however, the subtraction would indicate the fifth month of the previous year. Interestingly, Numbers 33:38-49 indicates that the Israelites left Mount Hor bound for Acacia Grove in the plains of Moab across from Jericho on the first day of the fifth month. Numbers 20:23-29 speaks of the death of Aaron which occurred at Mount Hor. Numbers 21-31 then details the events that happened to the Israelites at Mount Hor and afterward. Note that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom requesting passage through their land while they were still at Kadesh before they had gone to Mount Hor (Numbers 20:14-17). Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. Thus says your brother Israel: You know all
the hardship that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers. When we cried out to the LORD, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the Kings Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory. (Numbers 20:14-17 NKJV) Now the children of Israel, the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor. (Num-

bers 20:22 NKJV)
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They moved from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom. Then Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the command of the LORD, and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor. Now the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel. (Numbers 33:37-40 NKJV) And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah. So Moses did just as the LORD commanded Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the LORD, and said, If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the LORD listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah. Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. (Numbers 20:23-21:4)
While they were still camped at Mount Hor, the Israelites fought and defeated the king of Arad (Numbers 21:1-4). After they left Mount Hor, the Israelites fought and defeated Sihon king of the Amorites (Numbers 21:23-24), Og king of Bashan (Numbers 21:33-34), Balak king of Moab, and the five princes of Midian (Numbers 31:6-8). Note that the Israelites were already at Acacia Grove when the Balaam incident and the subsequent war with the Midianites occurred (Numbers 25:1). If a twelve-month-year was being used by the Israelites at the time, then it took the Israelites about six months to win these victories from the fifth month of the fortieth year to the eleventh month. But if the Israelites were using a six-month-year, then the Isrealites won these victories in about a weeks time (it could have been as much as a month longer if the thirty days of mourning overlapped the entrance into the promised land). From the brevity of the details about the conflicts that are given in Numbers 21-31, the shorter time span seems more reasonable. Notice that chapters 28 and 29 of the book of Numbers are wedged, out of context, into the middle of the story about the war with the Midianites. The Midianite incident begins in chapter 25. As a consequence of the Midianite incident, the LORD struck Isreal with a plague. Partially as a consequence of the plague, a new census was taken (Numbers 26). The census lead to some debate about inheritance issues among women (Numbers 27). The inheritance issues are tangentially related to marriages and vows which are discussed in Numbers 30. Chapter 31 then resumes the recount of the war with the Midianites. That they occur out of context supports the theory that the festivals commanded in Numbers 28 and 29 were retroactively inserted into the storyline. Notice also that there is no mention of Joshua throughout the course of the war with the Midianites as detailed in Numbers 31; but the details of Joshuas inauguration are given in Numbers 27:1523. It appears that the inauguration of Joshua happened after the war with the Midianites but before the events detailed in chapter 32. It may be that the block of text that is in Numbers 28-29 was inserted after the fact and that this editing caused Numbers 27:15-23 to be shuffled just in front of the insertion. If Numbers 27:15-23 is moved after chapter 31 but before chapter 32 and Numbers 28-29 are omitted, then Numbers 27:12-14 meshes neatly with the opening verses of chapter 31. Now the LORD said to Moses: Go up into this Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the
children of Israel. And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes. [These are the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the
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Wilderness of Zin.] (Numbers 27:12-14 NKJV)
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people. So Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the LORD on Midian. (Numbers 31:1-3 NKJV)
Note that the phrases These are the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin and And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying in the above excerpts are explanatory glosses14 added at a later time. Without these glosses, the original, continuous text of Numbers 27:12-14 and Numbers 31:1-2 would have read as follows: Go up into this Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. And when you have
seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes. Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people. (Numbers 27:12-14 & Numbers 31:1-2 combined)
To illustrate the point, Figure 3 is given below. The figure depicts how several fragments of papyrus containing the text of Numbers 27-32 appear to have been altered. Block A represents some text up to and including Numbers 27:11. Block B represents Numbers 30. Block C represents Numbers 27:12-14. Block D represents Numbers 31. Block E represents Numbers 27:15-23. Block F represents Numbers 32 on. Block G represents the text of Numbers 28 and 29 which appears to have been added at a later date.
Figure 3: Shuffling of the Text of Numbers 27 - 32 Before

C A B D E F
After
C A G E B D F
14
Wikipedia: Glosses to the Bible - Hebrew Bible
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Table 6: Partial List of Explanatory Glosses in the Book of Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 1:1-5 Deuteronomy 2:10-12 Deuteronomy 2:20-23 Deuteronomy 3:9 Deuteronomy 3:11 Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon? Deuteronomy 3:13b-14 Deuteronomy 3:17 the Salt Sea Deuteronomy 4:41-49 Deuteronomy 10:6-9 Deuteronomy 34:10-12
As illustrated in Figure 3 above, fragments 3 and 5 appear to have been shuffled up in the ordering and the text that is now Numbers 28 and 29 appears to have been appended to fragment 5. It is left to the reader to read the verses in question in the hypothesized original order and judge for him/her-self how much better the text flows. Seeing that the Pharisees of Jesus day were notorious for adding to the law, it should not be considered out of the question that such was done at earlier times in history as well. It is important to notice that the text of the book of Deuteronomy is riddled with several explanatory glosses which were added to the text by later scribes. Because of the transition from third person to first between verses 5 and 6 in the opening chapter of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 1:15 should be considered one of the explanatory glosses which were written long after the events transpired. A good translation will have most of the explanatory glosses of Deuteronomy clearly marked as parenthetical inserts. Upon inspection, one should be easily convinced that these parenthetical remarks were added at a much later date. Table 6 lists several of the explanatory glosses that are scattered throughout the text of the book of Deuteronomy. Note that because the fortieth year was an even year, the eleventh month and the fifth month would be the same month depending upon whether one was using a twelve-month or six-month calendar; so Deuteronomy 1:3 isnt necessarily inaccurate it is just using a different calendar because it was written at a later date. Because the story of Noahs flood refers to months of higher ordinal value than six in a relativeoffset context and not a absolute-date context, it does not contradict the six-month-year theory. Because there is evidence that the texts which reference the festivals of the seventh month were retroactively edited, they do not contradict the six-month-year theory. Because Deuteronomy 1:3 is part of an explanatory gloss and because the parallel accounts of the events leading up to the occasion spoken of in Deuteronomy 1:3 which are given in Numbers 20:14-22:1 and Numbers 33:3749 suggest a shorter time frame than what the combination of Deuteronomy 1:3 with the parallel accounts would indicate if a twelve-month calendar were being used in both accounts, Deuteronomy 1:3 does not conclusively contradict the six-month-year theory. Because there is strong support for the six-month-year theory and no strong evidence against it, the six-month-year theory will be used in deriving the dates and lengths of time for relevant events discussed henceforth. Stephen Franklin also suspects that the ages of some of the more ancient biblical characters have been multiplied by factors even greater than two. He introduces his theory as a mathematical extension of the doubling that has been discussed thus far. While the doubling theory has a basis in the structure of the Hebrew calendar and a great deal of corroborating evidence in the text of the Bible itself, the theory that the ages of the patriarchs who lived prior to Abraham have been inflated by factors larger than two appears to have considerably less support. Stephen Franklin
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points to a discrepancy between the records of the Bible and some of the dates that he has derived with respect to the age of Terah when he died at Haran and the age of Abram when he departed from Haran. I havent taken the time to determine exactly how Stephen Franklin arrived at the contradictory figures but I think he may be misinterpreting the biblical record as saying that Abram did not leave Haran until after Terah died. In any case, the question is just how unreasonable is the notion that people prior to Abram lived extended lives. Stephen Franklin points to a correlation between the ages of the patriarchs and a sliding scale of multipliers which are themselves factors of six. While there is evidence that people of ancient times gave great significance to the number six, this correlation seems a bit too coincidental to be called evidence; especially when one considers just how much play the multipliers can have and still yield reasonable values (multipliers of 4,5,7,11, and 13 also work quite well as alternatives). Even with the multipliers that Stephen has proposed, there is still a statistical drop of about 5 years in the average lifespans of men after Shem which remains unexplained (not counting the three who appear to have died young). While the evidence for the numbers having been further inflated is sparse at best, there is some interesting evidence that supports the Bibles claim that men of ancient times lived longer lives. J. William Dawson in The Meeting-Place of Geology and History observes that some of the more ancient skeletal remains that have been found have marked details that indicate the people of the time lived extremely long lives. Below is the relevant excerpt with emphasis added. Another point which strikes us in reading the descriptions of these skeletons is the indication which they
seem to present of an extreme longevity. The massive proportions of the body, the great development of the muscular processes, the extreme wearing of the teeth among a people who predominantly lived on flesh and not on grain, the obliteration of the sutures of the skull, along with indications of slow ossification of the ends of the long bones, point in this direction, and seem to indicate a slow maturity and great length of life in this most primitive race. (J. William Dawson, The Meeting-Place of Geology and History, pages 62-63)
Figure 4 below depicts some ancient neanderthal skulls which show the healed sutures and worn teeth along with a diagram of the modern human skull. The images were lifted from Wikipedia. The headers link to the original images on Wikipedia. The originals are larger.
Figure 4: Ancient Skulls Showing Healed Sutures & Extremely Worn Teeth Ferrassie Human Skull Neanderthalensis
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It has also been observed that the flattening and broadening of the braincase occurs naturally as men age due simply to the extreme mass of the human brain (I think Ive heard that the brain is the most dense part of the human body but cannot find a reference at the moment). The brain also grows more dense with age due to increased neural connectivity (the connections encode memories). It should be easy to see how the weight of the brain, given enough time, could distort the human skull such that it would look much like what is depicted in Figure 4 above (note how the brow ridges have been stretched and exposed). These sort of deformations only just begin to take place in those who live to be around ninety years of age today, but if people lived to be three and four hundred years of age, they would likely start to resemble what modern scientists have classified as the neanderthal species. While most of the differences in form of these ancient skeletons can be attributed to age, some of the differences are no doubt genetic; just as there are genetic differences between the different races of men that exist today. According to the biblical record, only one lineage of mankind survived the flood. The question of why they lived so long still remains. There is one ancient reference that suggests it was due to an abundance of a chemical produced by trees. The reference is I Enoch 24 and is quoted below (emphasis added). I went from there to another place, and saw a mountain of fire flashing both by day and night. I proceeded
towards it; and perceived seven splendid mountains, which were all different from each other. Their stones were brilliant and beautiful; all were brilliant and splendid to behold; and beautiful was their surface. Three mountains were towards the east, and strengthened by being placed one upon another; and three were towards the south, strengthened in a similar manner. There were likewise deep valleys, which did not approach each other. And the seventh mountain was in the midst of them. In length they all resembled the seat of a throne, and odoriferous trees surrounded them. Among these there was a tree of an unceasing smell; nor of those which were in Eden was there one of all the fragrant trees which smelt like this. Its leaf, its flower, and its bark never withered, and its fruit was beautiful. Its fruit resembled the cluster of the palm. I exclaimed, Behold! This tree is goodly in aspect, pleasing in its leaf, and the sight of its fruit is delightful to the eye. Then Michael, one of the holy and glorious angels who were with me, and one who presided over them, answered, And said: Enoch, why do you inquire respecting the odour of this tree? Why are you inquisitive to know it? Then I, Enoch, replied to him, and said, Concerning everything I am desirous of instruction, but particularly concerning this tree. He answered me, saying, That mountain which you behold, the extent of whose head resembles the seat of the Lord, will be the seat on which shall sit the holy and great Lord of glory, the everlasting King, when he shall come and descend to visit the earth with goodness. And that tree of an agreeable smell, not one of carnal odor, there shall be no power to touch, until the period of the great judgment. When all shall be punished and consumed for ever, this shall be bestowed on the righteous and humble. The fruit of the tree shall be given to the elect. For towards the north life shall be planted in the holy place, towards the habitation of the everlasting King. Then shall they greatly rejoice and exult in the Holy One. The sweet odor shall enter into their bones; and they shall live a long life on the earth as your forefathers have lived ; neither in their days shall sorrow, distress, trouble, and punishment afflict them. And I blessed the Lord of glory, the everlasting King, because He has prepared this tree for the saints, formed it, and declared that He would give it to them. (I Enoch 24)
According to this ancient reference, the key to longevity is an odorous chemical which can apparently pass through the lungs, into the blood stream, and into the bones of men. Such is not at all an unreasonable explanation. There is already a symbiotic relation between men and trees in that the trees produce oxygen and fruit upon which men breath and feed. Indeed, from the beginning from the story of creation there was a parallel drawn between men and trees. It is in the bones of men that red and white blood cells are produced and it is these cells that work to continually regenerate the bodily organs. It has been observed in recent centuries that the lifespans
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of men have averaged longer in the first-world nations where men live on fuller, more nutritious diets. Only one hundred years ago men in Europe lived on average fifty years but today, in North America, men are living on average to be seventy and eighty years of age. It may well be that men were designed to live nearly five hundred years as the Bible purports but have been suffering a sort of malnutrition ever since the global flood changed the topography of the earth to the extent that seventy percent of its surface is now covered with water. This explanation fits neatly with the genealogical record given in the Bible. Some have proposed that the accelerated aging that men now undergo relative to those who lived before the flood may be due to a thiner atmosphere on the earth which is allowing more E.M. Radiation to bath men. While intense E.M. Radiation does cause accelerated cell division, and hence aging, this explanation does not explain the genealogical record of the Bible because men continued to live prolonged lives for a short while after the flood. If the reduced lifespans of men were a matter of an external element being present that actively shortens their lifespans, then Noah should have died in short order after the flood and not lived out the rest of a full lifespan of 950 years! Likewise, his sons should not have lived for 500 years after the flood (250 years when the doubling is accounted for as discussed earlier). If the shorter lifespans were due to the lack of some crucial chemical as suggested by I Enoch, however, then the genealogical record makes sense. Noah, who was exposed to the abundant pre-flood chemical for about 300 years, lived a total of 475 years. Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were exposed to the abundant pre-flood chemical for about 50 years lived a total of about 300 years. Arpachshad, Shelah, and Eber, who were all born within the first 35 years after the flood and were consequently exposed to a less potent mixture of the chemical in the atmosphere because most of the plant life which continually replenished the chemical in the atmosphere before the flood had been destroyed, lived about 200 years. From about 35 years after the flood on, men have not lived much over 100 years (usually less due to poor nutrition). There does appear to be a bit of a stepwise decrease in the lifespans of men after the flood as recorded in the Bible. This may indicate that the chemical is more crucial at certain stages of mens lives than at others (e.g. at puberty). Chapter 24 isnt the only reference in I Enoch that associates abundant foliage on earth with the longevity of men. Chapter 10 also seems to indicate a parallel. Chapter 10 is excerpted below and the relevant portion emphasised (and more as well which is to be discussed soon). Then the Most High, the Great and Holy One spoke, And sent Arsayalalyur to the son of Lamech, Saying, Say
to him in my name, Conceal yourself. Then explain to him the consummation which is about to take place; for all the earth shall perish; the waters of a deluge shall come over the whole earth, and all things which are in it shall be destroyed. And now teach him how he may escape, and how his seed may remain in all the earth. Again the Lord said to Raphael, Bind Azazyel hand and foot; cast him into darkness; and opening the desert which is in Dudael, cast him in there. Throw upon him hurled and pointed stones, covering him with darkness; There shall he remain for ever; cover his face, that he may not see the light. And in the great day of judgment let him be cast into the fire. Restore the earth, which the angels have corrupted; and announce life to it, that I may revive it. All the sons of men shall not perish in consequence of every secret, by which the Watchers have destroyed, and which they have taught, their offspring. All the earth has been corrupted by the effects of the teaching of Azazyel. To him therefore ascribe the whole crime. To Gabriel also the Lord said, Go to the biters, to the reprobates, to the children of fornication; and destroy the children of fornication, the offspring of the Watchers, from among men; bring them forth, and excite them one against another. Let them perish by mutual slaughter; for length of days shall not be theirs. They shall all entreat you, but their fathers shall not obtain their wishes respecting them; for they shall hope for eternal life, and that they may live, each of them, five hundred years. To Michael likewise the Lord said, Go and announce his crime to Samyaza, and to the others
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who are with him, who have been associated with women, that they might be polluted with all their impurity. And when all their sons shall be slain, when they shall see the perdition of their beloved, bind them for seventy generations underneath the earth, even to the day of judgment, and of consummation, until the judgment, the effect of which will last for ever, be completed. Then shall they be taken away into the lowest depths of the fire in torments; and in confinement shall they be shut up for ever. Immediately after this shall he, together with them, burn and perish; they shall be bound until the consummation of many generations. Destroy all the souls addicted to dalliance, and the offspring of the Watchers, for they have tyrannized over mankind. Let every oppressor perish from the face of the earth; Let every evil work be destroyed; The plant of righteousness and of rectitude appear, and its produce become a blessing. Righteousness and rectitude shall be for ever planted with delight. And then shall all the saints give thanks, and live until they have begotten a thousand children, while the whole period of their youth, and their sabbaths shall be completed in peace. In those days all the earth shall be cultivated in righteousness; it shall be wholly planted with trees, and filled with benediction; every tree of delight shall be planted in it. In it shall vines be planted; and the vine which shall be planted in it shall yield fruit to satiety; every seed, which shall be sown in it, shall produce for one measure a thousand; and one measure of olives shall produce ten presses of oil. Purify the earth from all oppression, from all injustice, from all crime, from all impiety, and from all the pollution which is committed upon it. Exterminate them from the earth. Then shall all the children of men be righteous, and all nations shall pay me divine honours, and bless me; and all shall adore me. The earth shall be cleansed from all corruption, from every crime, from all punishment, and from all suffering; neither will I again send a deluge upon it from generation to generation for ever. In those days I will open the treasures of blessing which are in heaven, that I may cause them to descend upon earth, and upon all the works and labour of man. Peace and equity shall associate with the sons of men all the days of the world, in every generation of it. (I Enoch 10)
There is a corresponding verse in the canonical Bible which speaks of the earth being drastically reformed at the beginning of the second advent. The verse is Zechariah 14:10. All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised
up and inhabited in her place from Benjamins Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the kings winepresses.
While we are on the subject, I Enoch reveals a great deal of important information about Azazyel. This information is relevant because many confuse Azazyel with Satan. When the details that are given in I Enoch are known, however, it becomes clear that the two are not the same because Azazyel and his followers are subjected to a different punishment they are bound in darkness until the day of judgement of mankind. Below are the next few chapters of I Enoch which discuss his crime and punishment. Note how much more sense the Atonement ceremony makes when the Azazyel story is known. During the Atonement ceremony, many of the sins of mankind are transfered to two goats; one of which represents Azazyel and the other Christ. In the previous excerpt, which is continued below, it is made clear exactly which sins are ascribed to Azazyel those committed by men before the flood as a result of Azazyels direct interference. Before all these things Enoch was concealed; nor did any one of the sons of men know where he was concealed,
where he had been, and what had happened. He was wholly engaged with the holy ones, and with the Watchers in his days. I, Enoch, was blessing the great Lord and King of peace. And behold the Watchers called me Enoch the scribe. Then the Lord said to me: Enoch, scribe of righteousness, go tell the Watchers of heaven, who have deserted the lofty sky, and their holy everlasting station, who have been polluted with women. And have done as the sons of men do, by taking to themselves wives, and who have been greatly corrupted on the earth; That on the earth they shall never obtain peace and remission of sin. For they shall not rejoice in their offspring; they shall behold the slaughter of their beloved; shall lament for the destruction of their sons; and shall petition for ever; but shall not obtain mercy and peace. (I Enoch 12) Then Enoch, passing on, said to Azazyel: You shalt not obtain peace. A great sentence is gone forth against
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you. He shall bind you; Neither shall relief, mercy, and supplication be yours, on account of the oppression which you have taught; And on account of every act of blasphemy, tyranny, and sin, which you have discovered to the children of men. Then departing from him I spoke to them all together; And they all became terrified, and trembled; Beseeching me to write for them a memorial of supplication, that they might obtain forgiveness; and that I might make the memorial of their prayer ascend up before the God of heaven; because they could not themselves thenceforwards address him, nor raise up their eyes to heaven on account of the disgraceful offence for which they were judged. Then I wrote a memorial of their prayer and supplications, for their spirits, for everything which they had done, and for the subject of their entreaty, that they might obtain remission and rest.Proceeding on, I continued over the waters of Danbadan, which is on the right to the west of Armon, reading the memorial of their prayer, until I fell asleep. And behold a dream came to me, and visions appeared above me. I fell down and saw a vision of punishment, that I might relate it to the sons of heaven, and reprove them. When I awoke I went to them. All being collected together stood weeping in Oubelseyael, which is situated between Libanos and Seneser, with their faces veiled. I related in their presence all the visions which I had seen, and my dream; And began to utter these words of righteousness, reproving the Watchers of heaven. (I Enoch 13) This is the book of the words of righteousness, and of the reproof of the Watchers, who belong to the world, according to that which He, who is holy and great, commanded in the vision. I perceived in my dream, that I was now speaking with a tongue of flesh, and with my breath, which the Mighty One has put into the mouth of men, that they might converse with it. And understand with the heart. As he has created and given to men the power of comprehending the word of understanding, so has he created and given to me the power of reproving the Watchers, the offspring of heaven. I have written your petition; and in my vision it has been shown me, that what you request will not be granted you as long as the world endures. Judgment has been passed upon you: your request will not be granted you. From this time forward, never shall you ascend into heaven; He has said, that on the earth He will bind you, as long as the world endures. But before these things you shall behold the destruction of your beloved sons; you shall not possess them, but they shall fall before you by the sword. Neither shall you entreat for them, not for yourselves; But you shall weep and supplicate in silence. The words of the book which I wrote. (I Enoch 14:1-7)
Again, there are corresponding verses in the canonical Bible that agree with what is stated in I Enoch; not the least of which are Genesis 6:1-8 and Jude 1:6 and 1:14-15. When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them, the divine beings saw how beautiful
the daughters of men were and took wives from among those that pleased them The LORD said, My breath shall not abide in man forever, since he too is flesh; let the days allowed him be one hundred and twenty years. It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown. The LORD saw how great was mans wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was saddened. The LORD said, I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them. But Noah found favor with the LORD. (Genesis 6:1-8 NJPS) And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; (Jude 1:6 NKJV) Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. (Jude 1:14-15 NKJV)
The latter excerpt from Jude is a direct quote of I Enoch 2:1. Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked,
and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him. (I Enoch 2:1)
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Paul may also be making a vague reference to I Enoch when he speaks of an aroma of life; paralleling it with the knowledge of Christ. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And
who is sufficient for these things? (II Corinthians 2:16 NKJV)
The most ancient references to I Enoch can be found in the book of Job the oldest book of the Bible. One example is when Bildad speaks of the stars not being pure in s sight. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: Dominion and fear belong to Him; He makes peace in His high
places. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise? How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm? (Job 25 NKJV)
The idea that the stars are not pure before is a peculiar one, but Bildad appears to be referring to the last part of I Enoch 18. I then surveyed the receptacles of all the winds, perceiving that they contributed to adorn the whole creation, and
to preserve the foundation of the earth. I surveyed the stone which supports the corners of the earth. I also beheld the four winds, which bear up the earth, and the firmament of heaven. And I beheld the winds occupying the exalted sky. Arising in the midst of heaven and of earth, and constituting the pillars of heaven. I saw the winds which turn the sky, which cause the orb of the sun and of all the stars to set; and over the earth I saw the winds which support the clouds. I saw the path of the angels. I perceived at the extremity of the earth the firmament of heaven above it. Then I passed on towards the south; Where burnt, both by day and night, six mountains formed of glorious stones; three towards the east, and three towards the south. Those which were towards the east were of a variegated stone; one of which was of margarite, and another of antimony. Those towards the south were of a red stone. The middle one reached to heaven like the throne of God; a throne composed of alabaster, the top of which was of sapphire. I saw, too, a blazing fire hanging over all the mountains. And there I saw a place on the other side of an extended territory, where waters were collected. I likewise beheld terrestrial fountains, deep in the fiery columns of heaven. And in the columns of heaven I beheld fires, which descended without number, but neither on high, nor into the deep. Over these fountains also I perceived a place which had neither the firmament of heaven above it, nor the solid ground underneath it; neither was there water above it; nor anything on wing; but the spot was desolate. And there I beheld seven stars, like great blazing mountains, and like spirits entreating me. Then the angel said, This place, until the consummation of heaven and earth, will be the prison of the stars, and the host of heaven. The stars which roll over fire are those which transgressed the commandment of God before their time arrived; for they came not in their proper season. Therefore was He offended with them, and bound them, until the period of the consummation of their crimes in the secret year. (I Enoch 18)
Proving that they are referring to I Enoch, Job responds to Bildads comment with further references to peculiar phrases found only in the text of I Enoch. The dead tremble, Those under the waters and those inhabiting them. Sheol is naked before Him, And Destruction has no covering. He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it. He covers the face of His throne, And spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble, And are astonished at His rebuke. He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand ? (Job 26:5-14 NKJV)
When Job refers to sheol being naked before and destruction being uncovered, he may be paraphrasing I Enoch 18 (quoted above) where Enoch writes of a desolate place that
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exists before the throne of . When Job refers to the face of s throne being covered, he may be referencing I Enoch 14:1124. Into this vibrating flame I entered; And drew nigh to a spacious habitation built also with stones of crystal. Its
walls too, as well as pavement, were formed with stones of crystal, and crystal likewise was the ground. Its roof had the appearance of agitated stars and flashes of lightning; and among them were cherubim of fire in a stormy sky15 . A flame burned around its walls; and its portal blazed with fire. When I entered into this dwelling, it was hot as fire and cold as ice. No trace of delight or of life was there. Terror overwhelmed me, and a fearful shaking seized me. Violently agitated and trembling, I fell upon my face. In the vision I looked. And behold there was another habitation more spacious than the former, every entrance to which was open before me, erected in the midst of a vibrating flame. So greatly did it excel in all points, in glory, in magnificence, and in magnitude, that it is impossible to describe to you either the splendour or the extent of it. Its floor was on fire; above were lightnings and agitated stars, while its roof exhibited a blazing fire. Attentively I surveyed it, and saw that it contained an exalted throne; The appearance of which was like that of frost; while its circumference resembled the orb of the brilliant sun; and there was the voice of the cherubim. From underneath this mighty throne rivers of flaming fire issued. To look upon it was impossible. One great in glory sat upon it: Whose robe was brighter than the sun, and whiter than snow. No angel was capable of penetrating to view the face of Him, the Glorious and the Effulgent; nor could any mortal behold Him. A fire was flaming around Him. A fire also of great extent continued to rise up before Him; so that not one of those who surrounded Him was capable of approaching Him, among the myriads of myriads who were before Him. To Him holy consultation was needless. Yet did not the sanctified, who were near Him, depart far from Him either by night or by day; nor were they removed from Him. I also was so far advanced, with a veil on my face, and trembling. (I Enoch 14:11-24)
Likewise, Job only mentions them in passing, but the fiery pillars/columns of heaven are spoken of in detail in I Enoch 18 (quoted above) and the thunder of [ s] power is spoken of in I Enoch 57:1-5. In those days my eyes beheld the secrets of the lightnings and the splendours, and the judgment belonging to
them. They lighten for a blessing and for a curse, according to the will of the Lord of spirits. And there I saw the secrets of the thunder, when it rattles above in heaven, and its sound is heard. The habitations also of the earth were shown to me. The sound of the thunder is for peace and for blessing, as well as for a curse, according to the word of the Lord of spirits. Afterwards every secret of the splendours and of the lightnings was seen by me. For blessing and for fertility they lighten. (I Enoch 57:1-5)
The idea of four winds (I Enoch 18) supporting heaven and earth may seem unreasonable. However, when one understands the limited language that Enoch was recording these things in, one realizes that wind was the only word that Enoch had available in his vocabulary to describe an invisible force and, once this linguistic limitation is accounted for, I Enoch 18 makes perfect sense. According to the Standard Model of quantum physics, all things in this universe are indeed supported by four invisible forces (bosons). When reading I Enoch, one must bear in mind that wind can refer to any invisible force. It may at times be referring to the fundamental forces of the universe, at other times to solar/cosmic winds (made from charged particles), and at times to the literal winds of earths atmosphere. Likewise, the idea that would punish stars seems at first unreasonable, but it is explained later in chapter 43 that the stars are symbolic of the names of the righteous who dwell upon the earth. I beheld another splendour, and the stars of heaven. I observed that he called them all by their respective
15
In a stormy sky. Literally, and their heaven was water [Google Books: The Book of Enoch Page 81]
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names, and that they heard. In a righteous balance I saw that he weighed out with their light the amplitude of their places, and the day of their appearance, and their conversion. Splendour produced splendour; and their conversion was into the number of the angels, and of the faithful. Then I inquired of the angel, who proceeded with me, and he explained to me secret things, What their names were. He answered, A similitude of those has the Lord of spirits shown you. They are names of the righteous who dwell upon earth, and who believe in the name of the Lord of spirits for ever and for ever. (I Enoch 43:1-2)
This previous excerpt appears to be referenced by king David in Psalms 147:4. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. (Psalms 147:4 NKJV) The book of I Enoch is highly symbolic; just as are the books of Revelation and Daniel (there are also many parallels between I Enoch and these books). Highly symbolic content is no reason to regard a text as being ingenuine however. The book of I Enoch was extremely popular among first-century Christians, but the Catholic church went to great lengths to abolish it because they objected to the idea of angels marrying the daughters of men. Such an idea is not at all outrageous though; mankind and angels are both the offspring of and, in that sense, related. Angels refer to themselves as the brethren of mankind (Revelation 12:10, 19:10, 22:9). Also, Adam is called the son of God (Luke 3:38). Christ Himself, was begotten by the combination of spirit and flesh (Matthew 1:18-20). It is not unreasonable to believe that angels who are also spirit and who manifest themselves in all manner of physical forms could do likewise. We really do not know much about the angelic realm. We do know that their history predates this physical universe (Job 38:4-7). Note that the -el suffix on the names of the angels is s name. The phrasing of II Enoch 31:3 even suggests that this is not the first time that has created a world of physical beings. It may be that the angels are a previous iteration of ourselves. The Catholic objection to the notion of angels and mankind intermarrying would seem to stem from the gnostic notion that the pure spirit cannot interact with the impure flesh; such a notion is wholly external to the inspired scriptures however. The Gnostics believe in seven layers/heavens that separate from the physical realm but the inspired scriptures make it clear that is an omnipresent being. Also, all the physical realm was made from s invisible spirit (Job 26:13, Psalms 33:6, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 11:3), so the two, spirit and flesh, are closely related. The flesh is merely a limited form of the spirit as is evident in that spiritual beings can take on physical forms and create physical things this existence is just a shadow of a much greater one. the devil understood that I wanted to create another world, because Adam was lord on earth, to rule and
control it (II Enoch 31:3) By His Spirit He adorned the heavens (Job 26:13 NKJV) By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. (Psalms 33:6 NKJV) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16 NKJV) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:3 NKJV)
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Dating the Book of Job Those who object to I Enoch try to use Luke 20:34-36 to disprove the legitimacy of it. Jesus answered and said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are
counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. (Luke 20:34-36 NKJV)
Just because it will not be in our nature to marry after we have become spirit beings, however, does not exclude the possibility that beings of spirit and beings of flesh have married in the past. As an example, one could just as easily use II Peter 2:11 to prove that any text that claims that Satan accuses mankind is illegitimate (e.g. Revelation 12:10). angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against [prominent men]
before the Lord. (II Peter 2:11 NKJV) Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. (Revelation 12:10 NKJV)
It is made clear in chapters seven through nine of I Enoch that the angels who transgressed their nature knew that they were walking a fine line that they were not supposed to intermarry with the daughters of men. It happened after the sons of men had multiplied in those days, that daughters were born to them, elegant and
beautiful. And when the angels, the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became enamoured of them, saying to each other, Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children. Then their leader Samyaza said to them; I fear that you may perhaps be indisposed to the performance of this enterprise; And that I alone shall suffer for so grievous a crime. But they answered him and said; We all swear; And bind ourselves by mutual execrations, that we will not change our intention, but execute our projected undertaking. Then they swore all together, and all bound themselves by mutual execrations. Their whole number was two hundred, who descended upon Ardis, which is the top of mount Armon. That mountain therefore was called Armon, because they had sworn upon it, and bound themselves by mutual execrations. These are the names of their chiefs: Samyaza, who was their leader, Urakabarameel, Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, Saraknyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal, Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel, Ertael, Turel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the prefects of the two hundred angels, and the remainder were all with them. Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. And the women conceiving brought forth giants, Whose stature was each three hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labor of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them; When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them; And began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood. Then the earth reproved the unrighteous. (I Enoch 7) Moreover Azazyel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, breastplates, the fabrication of mirrors, and the workmanship of bracelets and ornaments, the use of paint, the beautifying of the eyebrows, the use of stones of every valuable and select kind, and all sorts of dyes, so that the world became altered. Impiety increased; fornication multiplied; and they transgressed and corrupted all their ways. Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots: Armers taught the solution of sorcery; Barkayal taught the observers of the stars, Akibeel taught signs; Tamiel taught astronomy; And Asaradel taught the motion of the moon, And men, being destroyed, cried out; and their voice reached to heaven. (I Enoch 8) Then Michael and Gabriel, Raphael, Suryal, and Uriel, looked down from heaven, and saw the quantity of blood which was shed on earth, and all the iniquity which was done upon it, and said one to another, It is the voice of their cries; The earth deprived of her children has cried even to the gate of heaven. And now to you, O you holy one of heaven, the souls of men complain, saying, Obtain Justice for us with the Most High . Then they said
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to their Lord, the King, You are Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings. The throne of your glory is for ever and ever, and for ever and ever is your name sanctified and glorified. You are blessed and glorified. You have made all things; you possess power over all things; and all things are open and manifest before you. You behold all things, and nothing can be concealed from you. You have seen what Azazyel has done, how he has taught every species of iniquity upon earth, and has disclosed to the world all the secret things which are done in the heavens. Samyaza also has taught sorcery, to whom you have given authority over those who are associated with him. They have gone together to the daughters of men; have lain with them; have become polluted; And have discovered crimes to them. The women likewise have brought forth giants. Thus has the whole earth been filled with blood and with iniquity. And now behold the souls of those who are dead, cry out. And complain even to the gate of heaven. Their groaning ascends; nor can they escape from the unrighteousness which is committed on earth. You know all things, before they exist. You know these things, and what has been done by them; yet you do not speak to us. What on account of these things ought we to do to them? (I Enoch 9)
There is a great deal going on in I Enoch that requires a great deal of explanation. It is a bit too much to go into at this point in this article however. To summarize, the miracles that are detailed in the canonical Bible and the things of the third heaven that are described in I Enoch both suggest our reality is but a limited dimension of a much greater reality. At this point in time, I am planning on writing another article titled Miracles that Matter which will list and explain, in light of what is known in modern quantum physics, the many miracles that are detailed throughout the canonical Bible and the things that Enoch was shown when he visited the third heaven. Both the miracles that are described in the Bible and the great things that Enoch saw in the third heaven are possible. To its credit, I Enoch appears to distinguish between the first (88:86-87) and second (89:26-33) advents of Christ. But these the sheep began to kill. And when one of them was saved from slaughter he leaped, and cried out
against those who were desirous of killing him. But the Lord of the sheep delivered him from their hands, and made him ascend to him, and remain with him. (I Enoch 88:86-87) I saw also that the Lord of the sheep came to them, and taking in his hand the sceptre of his wrath seized the earth, which became rent asunder; while all the beasts and birds of heaven fell from the sheep, and sunk into the earth, which closed over them. I saw, too, that a large sword was given to the sheep, who went forth against all the beasts of the field to slay them. But all the beasts and birds of heaven fled away from before their face. And I saw a throne erected in a delectable land; Upon this sat the Lord of the sheep, who received all the sealed books; Which were open before him. Then the Lord called the first seven white ones, and commanded them to bring before him the first of the first stars, which preceded the stars whose form partly resembled that of horses; the first star, which fell down first; and they brought them all before him. And he spoke to the man who wrote in his presence, who was one of the seven white ones, saying, Take those seventy shepherds, to whom I delivered up the sheep, and who receiving them killed more of them than I commanded. Behold, I saw them all bound, and standing before him. First came on the trial of the stars, which, being judged, and found guilty, went to the place of punishment. They thrust them into a place, deep, and full of flaming fire, and full of pillars of fire. Then the seventy shepherds were judged, and being found guilty, were thrust into the flaming abyss. (I Enoch 89:26-33)
It is evident that the latter reference in the above excerpts is to the second advent of Christ. The earlier, however, is sometimes confused with the story of Elijah. The earlier reference appears to be to the first advent of Christ because things change so drastically after the event. It is after this earlier event that shepherds begin to be appointed over the sheep. According to the prophecy, there are seventy of these shepherds who rule over the sheep between the first and second advents of Christ. The prophecy that is detailed between the two references given above is a bit vague and perhaps a bit counter-intuitive in the sense that it portrays rejoicing that [the sheep] were devoured. rejoicing that the saints are willing even to lay down their lives in trust/faith that He will
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rectify all things in the end is, however, in agreement with the canonical Bible (Revelation 12:11, I John 3:16). And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love
their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11 NKJV) By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (I John 3:16 NKJV)
It may be this prophecy in I Enoch to which king David was referring when he said, Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. Why do You hide Your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression? (Psalms 44:22-24 NKJV). Some argue against apocryphal texts like I Enoch by saying that we do not know how much of the text that we have modernly is original. With I Enoch, however, fragments of its text through 103:7-8 have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS fragment 7QEn) and these fragments are in agreement with what we have today (it is even rumored that the complete text of I Enoch was found among the DSS16 ). It is significant to note that the seventy shepards prophesied in I Enoch apparently come to authority in sequential order because I Enoch 89:25 describes the latter twelve of the shepards as being more distructive that those who went before them. Then I saw, that the man, who wrote the book at the word of the Lord, opened the book of destruction, of that
destruction which the last twelve shepherds wrought; and pointed out before the Lord of the sheep, that they destroyed more than those who preceded them. (I Enoch 89:25)
It seems likely that these seventy shepards are men because there would not seem to be any good reason for cycling through so many different angles over this span of time. While angles are immmortal and can hold a position of authority indifinately, men are not and in practicality tend not to hold possitions of authority for much more than thirty years. Interestingly, about two thousand years have elapsed since the first advent of Christ and 70 into 2000 yields about 30 years. Note also that Christ said that His church would exist right up to the end of the age (Matthew 16:18). And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall
not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18 NKJV)
On page 7, it was shown that the book of Job was written between 600 and 700 years after the flood. This previous estimate did not, however, take into account that the lengths of time were based on a calendar that had only six 30-day months to its year. Taking the six-month-year into account, the date for the occurance of the events of the book of Job would be somewhere in the range of 300 to 350 years after the flood. To get a date relative to the birth of Christ, we can refer to Stephen Franklins work which, using biblical dates and taking the six-month-year into account, calculates a date of 1185 BC for the Exodus. 1185 plus 135 for the time the Israelites were in Egypt plus 65 for the age of Jacob when he went to Egypt gives a birthdate of 1385 BC for the twins Jacob and Esau. Because Esau was 20 years old when he married (Genesis 26:34) and because Eliphaz was his firstborn (Genesis 36:15), we can figure the birthdate of Eliphaz to be about 1385 - 20 = 1365 BC. We can sum some minimums to get an idea of when the events of the book of Job took
16
Ancient Secrets of the Bible: DEAD SEA SCROLLS - What Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Tell Us?, offset ~14 min.
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place. Elihu was the youngest of those who were alive at the time and his ancestral line back to Jacob is the longest. Elihus ancestor Hezron was alive before Israel went to Egypt (Genesis 46:12) but there is no mention of Hezrons son Ram in the list of those who went to Egypt with Israel so, at a minimum, Ram was born in 1385 - 65 = 1320 BC. At a minimum, the age of Ram at the birth of Barachel was 15 years. Likewise, a minimum age for Barachel at the birth of Elihu would be 15 years. Elihu himself, at a minimum, would have had to have been about 10 years old when the events of Job took place. 1320 - 15 - 15 - 10 = 1280 BC. So, the minimum age for Eliphaz when the events of the book of Job took place would be 1365 - 1280 = 85 years. Because Job/Jobab was two generations from Eliphaz, he would have been at least 30 years younger than Eliphaz. Because Job lived another 70 years after the events of the book of Job took place (Job 42:16), he was probably in his mid-thirties to early fourties at the most. Supposing that Eliphaz was 85 to 95 years old when the events of the book of Job took place, the book of Job would be chronicling events that took place between 1280 and 1270 BC about 100 years before the Exodus. As explained in the below excerpt, it is also evident from the text of the book of Job itself that it is older than any other book of the Bible. Excerpted from ancient-hebrew.org: Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine Issue #019:
Q: What is the Oldest book of the Bible? A: The books of the Bible are not arranged in a chronological order. The books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are, by tradition, believed to be written by Moses and are usually believed to be the oldest books of the Bible. But this is not the case. The book of Job is the oldest book, some even believing it was originally written before the flood. The most compelling evidence for the antiquity of the book of Job is its use of Hebrew words. In many cases the more ancient, concrete meaning of a word is found in the book of Job. As an example the Hebrew word pachad is used to mean fear or awe an abstract concept but is used in its concrete form only in Job 4:14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
Appendix A: The Azazyel Goat

I Enoch, which tells the story of Azazyel, does appear to be a reputable text and there are numerous references to it scattered throughout the books of the canonical Bible. There are even references to I Enoch in the book of Job which is the oldest book of the Bible. One of the several references to I Enoch is found in Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16 references Azazyel, a character out of the book of I Enoch, in the context of the Atonement festival (the NKJV renders scapegoat in place of his name). It was stated earlier that Atonement appears to be a duplicate of the Passover festival that was mirrored from the first month into the seventh month when the Hebrews switched from using a six month year to one that was twice as long. The role of the sacrificial goat is clear it is a physical type and foreshadowing of Christs spiritual sacrifice; as are all sin offerings because there is no other name by which [men can] be saved (Hosea 13:4, Acts 4:12). How did Azazyel, who was incarcerated long before the festival of Atonement was establish for crimes against humanity that he committed in antediluvian times, come to be involved in a ceremony that is about the redemption of mankind by way of becoming one with its savior? There are several significant things that need to be pointed out before attempting to answer the previous question. One significant issue is that both lambs were sacrificed originally (Exodus 29:39). Another factor is that the high priest was required to eat the atonement sacrifice on behalf of the people (Exodus 29:32-34). A third factor is that the Bible records that the Levitical priesthood caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity (Ezekiel 44:10-13, 48:11). Yet a fourth point of interest is that Ezekiel 43:19-27, which also specifies the details of how the sevenday cleansing ritual for atonement is to be carried out, specifies that only one goat is to be offered on each of the seven days. I believe the clue to what is going on with respect to the doubled goat/lamb sacrifice is to be found in the details of how the sacrifices were to required to be carried out. In Exodus 29:39 it is specified that one lamb be sacrificed in the morning and the other at twilight. When the Hebrews switched from using a six-month calendar to a twelve-month one, they undoubtedly realized that the celebration which was ordained to be kept during the first month of the year would be celebrated half as often. To compensate for this effect, they may well have doubled the offering. Realizing that both the day and the year were cyclical, having lighter/hotter and darker/colder halves, they distributed the sacrifices throughout the day in a way that typified how they had been distributed throughout the twelve-month year all along. The morning time and twilight time were logically equated to the spring equinox and fall equinox respectively and the morning sacrifice covered the summer half of the now twelve-month year and the twilight sacrifice was made in anticipation of the winter half. When the seventh month eventually came around, out of fear of dishonoring by doing nothing, they went ahead and held a celebration but ate nothing fasted because a double portion had been eaten during the spring celebration. This is a hypothetical explanation for how there came to be two lambs/goats in relation to the sin offering on one festival day but it does not account for how one of these goats came to be associated with Azazyel. I suspect that Azazyel was introduced by the priesthood at a later time by reason of their distaste for the way the festival was originally ordained to be kept. Remember that the high priest was required to eat the goat that had all the sins of the people placed on it (Exodus 29:33, Leviticus 16:21). Christ used similar wording with respect to His sacrifice Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you
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(John 6:53 NKJV). Consumption of the sacrifice is key to the whole atoning ritual as will be discussed shortly. Eating the goat that had all the sins of the people placed on it undoubtedly didnt set well with the high priest though. I believe this is the motivation behind the introduction of the Azazyel goat. The high priest would have known that the second goat was superfluous, so to speak, with respect to the original command that a lamb or goat be sacrificed during the first month of each year in remembrance of the Exodus. Note that the Day of Atonement, when the high priest enters the tabernacle of meeting to minister in the holy place (Exodus 29:31, Hebrews 9:7), is associated with remembrance of the exodus in Exodus 29:46. The high priest, having an extra goat and not desiring to eat a sin-laden goat, looked for a way to send the sinful goat away and found in the ancient text of I Enoch the principle of banishment. There are major problems with the doctrine of Leviticus 16 though. ascribed the whole crime (I Enoch 10:12) of the antediluvian chaos to Azazyel because he was directly involved in the crime (before the flood, angels were permitted to take on physical forms and interact directly with mankind). Azazyel has had no interaction, direct or indirect, with mankind since the flood though because he has been incarcerated in chains of darkness (Jude 1:6) the whole while. How then can Azazyel be held responsible for the sins of mankind since the flood? The simple answer is that he cant. Even Satan cannot be held entirely responsible for the actions of mankind as is best illustrated in the garden of Eden episode even though Eve was following the advice of Satan and Adam was complying with Eves suggestion, both Adam and Eve were still cursed for their actions. A penalty can be taken, but a penalty cannot be arbitrarily assigned. The simplest analogy that I can come up with to illustrate this point is the analogy of a speeding ticket. Figure 5: Redemption Analogy
Figure 5 above depicts a speeding violation being caught in the act. There are two people in the car. For the sake of the argument, the car is being driven by the green stick-man but the car is owned by the yellow stick-man. Who green or yellow gets the ticket? The answer is yellow the owner of the car. The reason yellow gets the ticket is because yellow permitted green to drive the car. Yellow cannot make green pay the fine even though yellow may think that green bears the guilt. This analogy maps to real life where the car represents ones body with which they interact with this physical universe, yellow maps to your soul/spirit, green to Satans soul/spirit (or any other external influence), the red cop maps to , the blue bystander maps to Christ the king, the speed sign maps to the law that leads to death, and the road represents life. While you cannot make anyone pay your fine, someone who has sufficient wealth can volunteer to pay your fine for you. Even if Satan were willing to pay your fine, he cannot because he lost all that he had in Eden (even his life though that penalty hasnt been collected yet). In a sense, the fine is all that one has, regardless of how great ones possessions are. This is why Christ had
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to be sinless. If He had His own fine to pay then He would not be able to afford to pay ours. Christs wealth is infinite in the sense that He is immortal. Satan too was once infinitely wealthy, but he lost it all when he sinned. No man is of infinite value, however, because men were made mortal. The infinite Christ can afford to pay the worth of all mortal men and He has volunteered (John 10:17-18, Ephesians 5:2, Hebrews 9:14, 10:10) to pay the fine of all those who agree to come under His rule (Romans 6:18). Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me,
but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father. (John 10:17-18 NKJV) And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (Ephesians 5:2 NKJV) how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14 NKJV) By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10 NKJV) And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:18 NKJV)
It was mentioned earlier that consumption is an important part of the symbolism of the sin offering. Consumption is the means by which physical life is sustained. While spirit beings are not sustained by physical food, they do require spiritual energy. Only has this indwelling life energy (I Timothy 6:13-16) but He appears to have granted it to Christ as well so that we can gain access to this water of life (Revelation 22:1) through Him (John 10:18, 14:19). The consumption analogy is inaccurate in that physical things are finite and cease to be when consumed. Christ, however, is infinite and the spiritual energy that flows from Him can be consumed forever without end. What might be a slightly better modern analogy is the analogy of a blood transfusion. It is as if spirit beings cannot generate or regenerate their own blood but have to continually receive transfusions from Christ. This is why blood is required to make atonement (Leviticus 17:11)17 and why the Azazyel goat cannot atone for the sins of mankind. A penalty must be exacted but Azazyel cannot afford the due. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good
confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christs appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. (I Timothy 6:13-16 NKJV) And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1 NKJV) No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father. (John 10:18 NKJV) A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. (John 14:19 NKJV) For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your Note that in this regard the Leviticus version of the atonement ceremony even contradicts itself when it says that blood is required for atonement but also implies that the Azazyel goat can remove the sins of man without its blood being shed.
17
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souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11 NKJV)
Some mistakenly read into the poetic statement of Isaiah by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5) that the pain that the savior suffered on the cross is what heals mankind. While what Christ went through was no doubt painful, there is no way in which pain equates to life. The stripes that Christ suffered also released His blood though, and it is His spiritual life blood that cleanses us from sin and heals us to life. Again, it wasnt Christs physical body which He can create and uncreate in a whim that He gave for us to live. Nor did He give pain. What He gave was the essence of His spiritual body/soul (Isaiah 53:12) and everything that happened to Him physically on earth was only a type of what was really going on in the invisible spiritual realm. Those who try to argue that the Azazyel goat represents Satan argue that Azazyel and Satan must be the same person because both are incarcerated. Such logic is not sound. Because two individuals are imprisoned does not mean that they are the same person. For example, both O. J. Simpson and Bernie Madoff have spent time in jail but they are not one and the same person. Note that wilderness is a generic term just as is jail. It is evident that the Bible has suffered some editing down through time, especially the parts of it that are concerned with the holy rituals. Other verses in the Bible reveal that the Levitical priesthood went astray (Ezekiel 44:10-13, 48:11) and that the holy festivals that the Levites appointed were burdensome to (Isaiah 1:14). Even modern rabbis acknowledge that the Bible was edited by the priesthood as late as 536 BC (M. N. Kertzer & L. A. Hoffman, What is a Jew?, page xxvi). And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols,
they shall bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in an oath against them, says the Lord GOD, that they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. (Ezekiel 44:10-13 NKJV) It shall be for the priests of the sons of Zadok, who are sanctified, who have kept My charge, who did not go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. (Ezekiel 48:11 NKJV) Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. (Isaiah 1:14 NKJV) The Second Jewish Commonwealth was reestablished in 536 B.C.E., when Persia conquered Babylonia and allowed the exiles to return home. Not many did, but eventually, under one of them, Ezra (a priest), Jerusalem and its temple were rebuilt. The first five books of the Bible were edited then, and used as a sort of constitution for the new commonwealth. Those five books, which we call the Torah, serve still as the primary document that Jews read and study for guidance from our past. (What is a Jew? - The Saga of the Jew, page xxvi)

Dating The Book of Job

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