Interesting Facts

(last updated 05/15/2004)

 

With the length of lives (in years) that our patriarchs enjoyed, it is no wonder, to me, that there were a people who remained faithful to the One, True God of Heaven in an an unbroken line from the time of Creation to the time of Joseph in Egypt approximately 2,300 years later.  The amazing (and ultimately shameful) thing, is that mankind could still become so irredeemably sinful, during that same time frame, that it required the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel experience, and the destruction of the cities and peoples of Sodom and Gomorrah to stop the unrestrained depravity that was taking almost total control of humanity.  Witness these interesting (and amazing) facts...

Did you know that Noah's father (Lamech) could enjoy the privilege of speaking face-to-face with Adam for the last 56 years of Adam's life?  What a witness, and a first-hand account, Adam could provide to our antediluvian patriarchs concerning Creation, the Garden of Eden (which also remained on the earth, as a testimony, up until just before the Great Flood), the Fall of Man, and the ultimate Love of Our Heavenly Father in the promise of The Messiah!  I can well accept that Adam's first-hand testimony played a major part in the life Enoch chose to lead that resulted in the translation of Enoch to Heaven without seeing death (Genesis 5:22-24; Hebrews 11:5).  Imagine the heartbreak to all of the antediluvian patriarchs, every one of them Adam's direct descendant and all of them still living (up through Lamech's time), over having to watch the death of the First Patriarch.  Enoch was translated to Heaven only 57 years after Adam died.  Before translation, the Bible records that Enoch became one of the first "official" prophets for the God of Heaven (Jude 1:14,15) — and I think he was a mighty one.

Did you know that Abraham's father (Terah) could enjoy the privilege of speaking face-to-face with Noah for the last 128 years of Noah's life?  What a witness, and a first-hand account, Noah could provide for 350 years to our postdiluvian patriarch's concerning the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, and the Tower of Babel!  Noah's witness, combined with that of his son, Shem (born 98 years before the Great Flood and lived for 502 years after the Great Flood), makes it a wonder that the Tower of Babel experience could even occur at all — then again, Cain's murder of his brother Able occurred almost under the very nose of Adam and almost at the Garden gate of Eden.  A final note, on this chapter, though...  Many scholars believe that Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Genesis 14:18) and to whom Abraham paid his tithe (Genesis 14:22), was none other than Noah's son — Shem.  Shem would have died when Abraham was 150 years old and Isaac was 50 years old.  Eber, Shem's great-grandson would have died four years after Abraham died, and when Isaac was 79 and Jacob & Esau were 19.

The following is what information I have been able to gather on the patriarchs:

The Generations of the Patriarchs
Son's Name Father's Birth
Year (A.H.*)
Father's Age at
Birth of Son
Birth Year
(A.H.*)
Age at Death Year of
Death (A.H.*)
Reference for
Age of Father
Reference for
Age at Death
Adam     0 930 930   Genesis 5:5
— FALL — 8♦            
Seth 0 130 130 912 1042 Genesis 5:3 Genesis 5:8
Enos 130 105 235 905 1140 Genesis 5:6 Genesis 5:11
Cainan 235 90 325 910 1235 Genesis 5:9 Genesis 5:14
Mahalaleel 325 70 395 895 1290 Genesis 5:12 Genesis 5:17
Jared 395 65 460 962 1422 Genesis 5:15 Genesis 5:20
Enoch 460 162 622 365 987 Genesis 5:18 Genesis 5:23
Methuselah 622 65 687 969 1656 Genesis 5:21 Genesis 5:27
Lamech 687 187 874 777 1651 Genesis 5:25 Genesis 5:31
Noah 874 182 1056 950 2006 Genesis 5:28 Genesis 9:29
Shem 1056 502 1558 600 2158 Note 1 Genesis 11:11
— FLOOD — 1656♦            
Arphaxad 1558 100 1658 438 2096 Genesis 11:10 Genesis 11:13
Salah 1658 35 1693 433 2126 Genesis 11:12 Genesis 11:15
Eber 1693 30 1723 464 2187 Genesis 11:14 Genesis 11:17
Peleg 1723 34 1757 239 1996 Genesis 11:16 Genesis 11:19
Reu 1757 30 1787 239 2026 Genesis 11:18 Genesis 11:21
Serug 1787 32 1819 230 2049 Genesis 11:20 Genesis 11:23
Nahor 1819 30 1849 148 1997 Genesis 11:22 Genesis 11:25
Terah 1849 29 1878 205 2083 Genesis 11:24 Genesis 11:32
Abra(ha)m 1878 130 2008 175 2183 Note 2 Genesis 25:7
Isaac 2008 100 2108 180 2288 Genesis 21:5 Genesis 35:28
Jacob(Israel) 2108 60 2168 147 2315 Genesis 25:26 Genesis 47:28
Joseph 2168 74 2242 110 2352 Note 3 Genesis 50:22

Notes:
    (1)    For the age of Noah at the birth of Shem, this requires a calculation of: 600+2-100=598.  This is necessary because Genesis 5:32 lists all three of Noah's children for the same year of Noah — 500 years old.  One can, however, take the age of Noah at the flood (Genesis 7:6), plus the two years after the flood when Shem's son was born (Genesis 11:10), minus the age of Shem at his son's birth (Genesis 11:10), to obtain Noah's true age when Shem was born.
    (2)    For the age of Terah at the birth of Abram, this requires a calculation of: 205-75=130.  This is necessary because Genesis 11:26 lists all three of Terah's children for the same year of Terah — 70 years old.  One can, however (presuming that Abram left Haran upon the death of his father), take the age of Terah at his death (Genesis 11:32), minus the age of Abram when his father died (Genesis 12:4), to obtain Terah's true age when Abram was born.
    (3)    For the age of Jacob at the birth of Joseph, this requires a calculation of: 130-2-7-30-17=74.  This is necessary because the Bible does not explicitly tell the age of Jacob when Joseph was born.  One can, however, take the age of Jacob when he stood before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:9), minus the number of years of famine before Jacob came to Egypt (Genesis 45:6), minus the number of years of plenty (Genesis 41:53), minus the number of years before Joseph interpreted the pharaoh's dream (Genesis 41:46), minus the number of years before which God first called Joseph by giving him a dream of his future (Genesis 37:2), to obtain Jacob's true age when Joseph was born.

*  A.H. stands for "Anno Homini" or, "In the year of Man" — which is an equivalent naming convention as is used for A.D., which stands for "Anno Domini" or, "In the year of Our Lord."
♦  Rather than the Father's Birth Year, these two numbers represent the year these events occurred.

(For a copy of the MS Excel Chart on the Generations of the Patriarchs, click here.)