What lifespans does Genesis give Noah’s descendants, and how should the Masoretic, Septuagint, and Samaritan numerical variants be evaluated?
Genesis 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 25, 35, 47, and 50; 1 Chronicles 1; Luke 3.
Genesis records real ages and an irregular post-Flood decline. Unforsaken follows the Masoretic chronology while describing ancient variants honestly.
Opening the Numbers After the Flood
Genesis gives names and ages because God acts in real history. The genealogies connect Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, and Abraham’s family to Israel and Jesus Christ. They are theological history, not decorative lists.
The numbers also require careful reading. A person’s age when he fathered the next named patriarch advances the chronology. The years lived afterward help establish his total lifespan. Confusing those categories creates false claims about how the ancient textual traditions differ.
Unforsaken uses the Hebrew Masoretic Text as the Old Testament base. The Greek Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch contain significant numerical variants in Genesis 5 and 11. Those witnesses should be described accurately, considered as textual evidence, and never allowed to overrule the controlling Hebrew base.
Genesis Records More Than Total Lifespans
The recurring formula names a patriarch, gives his age when he begot the next named person, states how long he lived afterward, mentions other sons and daughters, and supplies his total years. Each part answers a different question.
Total lifespan tells how long someone lived. Begetting age moves the named line forward. Remaining years let the reader verify the total. In Genesis 11, the formula often omits an explicit total, though it can be calculated by adding the first two figures.
The Hebrew verb yalad can describe bearing, begetting, or ancestry. Genealogies elsewhere may telescope generations. Here the ages and repeated arithmetic give the named sequence an unmistakable chronological purpose.
Genesis 5 Establishes the Pre-Flood Chronology
Genesis 5:1-32This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died. Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died. Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died. Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died. Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The Masoretic figures run from Adam through Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. Enoch’s translation interrupts the repeated phrase “and he died,” but his age still belongs to the chronology.
Adding the begetting ages from Adam to Noah’s birth gives 1,056 years. Noah is six hundred when the Flood begins, placing the Flood 1,656 years after creation on the Masoretic count.
The long lives should be received as historical data. Genesis does not present them as royal exaggeration or mythic symbolism. Their repetition, arithmetic, family connections, and continuation into later genealogy all belong to narrative history.
Noah Was Six Hundred at the Flood, and Shem Was About Ninety-Eight
Genesis 7:6Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came. Genesis later says he lived 350 years after the Flood and died at 950.
Genesis 9:28-29And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Genesis 11 says Shem was one hundred years old when he begot Arphaxad two years after the Flood. He was therefore about ninety-eight at the Flood, not one hundred as the source page claimed. He lived another five hundred years, reaching six hundred.
Genesis 10:1-5Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
Scripture does not record the total lifespans of Ham and Japheth. Genesis 10 traces nations from all three sons and begins by following Japheth’s descendants into their lands, languages, families, and nations. Its interest is the repopulation and division of peoples, not a lifespan table.
This distinction prevents an argument from silence. We cannot calculate Ham’s or Japheth’s age from how many generations are named, and we cannot assume that every branch declined at precisely the same rate as Shem’s recorded covenant line.
The Masoretic Text Gives the Post-Flood Line
Genesis 11:10-32This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah. After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters. Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
The Masoretic line after Shem records Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, and Terah. Adding each begetting age and remaining years gives their total lifespans.
35 before Shelah, 403 afterward, 438 total.
30 before Eber, 403 afterward, 433 total.
34 before Peleg, 430 afterward, 464 total.
30 before Reu, 209 afterward, 239 total.
32 before Serug, 207 afterward, 239 total.
30 before Nahor, 200 afterward, 230 total.
29 before Terah, 119 afterward, 148 total.
The text gives 205 total years; Abram’s birth order requires separate care.
The Decline Is Broad but Not Smooth
Across the generations, human longevity falls dramatically. Shem reaches six hundred, Arphaxad through Eber live in the four hundreds, Peleg through Serug live in the two hundreds, and later patriarchs move toward the range familiar in subsequent Scripture.
The sequence is not a decrease at every step. Eber’s 464 exceeds Arphaxad’s 438 and Shelah’s 433. Terah’s 205 exceeds Nahor’s 148. Isaac’s 180 exceeds Abraham’s 175. A faithful summary calls the trend broad and irregular.
The pattern shows mortality asserting itself across the post-Flood world. It does not provide a graph from which every individual’s age can be predicted. God’s providence governs persons, families, health, and historical conditions beyond the limited data Genesis supplies.
Scripture Does Not Explain the Biological Mechanism
The source page proposed a vapor canopy, radiation changes, atmospheric conditions, accumulated mutations, and a genetic bottleneck. Genesis does not state any of those explanations. They may be discussed as hypotheses elsewhere, but they cannot be preached as what the genealogy proves.
Eight people left the ark, and the human family grew from Noah’s household. That historical bottleneck does not by itself establish which genetic processes caused particular lifespan changes or how quickly those processes operated.
Restraint strengthens the study. We can affirm the ages, the Flood, the decline, human mortality, and God’s judgment without inventing a scientific account. Where Scripture is silent, confidence should stop at the boundary of revelation.
Genesis 6:3 Is Not an Immediate 120-Year Lifespan Cap
Before the Flood, God declares that man’s days will be 120 years. Some understand this as a new maximum lifespan. The post-Flood figures make an immediate hard cap impossible: Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all exceed 120.
In context, the 120 years most naturally describes the period remaining before Flood judgment while God’s Spirit still strives with humanity. A lifespan-related interpretation might view it as a long-term tendency, but the verse does not explain the stepwise post-Flood decline.
Moses later dies at 120 with undiminished eye and natural vigor. Psalm 90 speaks of seventy or eighty as an ordinary later expectation. Neither passage supplies a biological theory for Genesis 11.
Begetting Age, Remaining Years, and Total Age Must Stay Distinct
Suppose a text says a man lived 130 years, begot a son, then lived 800 years, and died at 930. The first number advances chronology. The second covers the rest of life. The third checks their sum.
Several Septuagint variants raise the first number by one hundred and reduce the second by one hundred. The total remains unchanged. Calling this an “inflated lifespan” is therefore inaccurate even though it lengthens the chronology before the next birth.
Genesis 11 often provides the first and second figures without restating the total. Readers can add them, but textual differences in either category must still be labeled correctly. Sound apologetics begins by describing the evidence without rhetorical shortcuts.
Why Unforsaken Uses the Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text preserves the received Hebrew consonantal tradition together with later vowel points, accents, and scribal notes. The medieval Masoretes did not invent the underlying Hebrew text; earlier witnesses demonstrate substantial continuity.
The project’s theological constitution requires the Masoretic Text for Old Testament language work and chronology. That judgment agrees with the broad stability of the Hebrew tradition and with comparative evidence that often favors the MT form of Genesis.
Using the MT does not require claiming every medieval manuscript is flawless, every ancient variant meaningless, or every scholarly question settled. A base text supplies authority and consistency while other witnesses are honestly examined as evidence.
The Septuagint Changes Chronology More Often Than Total Lifespans
The Septuagint is an ancient Greek translation whose Genesis numbers are preserved with manuscript variation. In many standard Genesis 5 readings, begetting ages are one hundred years higher while remaining years are one hundred lower, preserving the same total life.
Genesis 11 also contains higher begetting ages in the Greek tradition, and many witnesses include an additional Cainan between Arphaxad and Shelah. These differences lengthen the primeval chronology by many centuries.
The variants should not be called random or reduced to one simple motive. Scholars debate whether they arose in a Hebrew source behind the Greek, during translation, or through later copying and harmonization. Unforsaken does not accept the LXX numbers over the MT, yet it will not fabricate certainty about every stage of their history.
The Samaritan Pentateuch Does Not Give One Consistently Longer Timeline
The Samaritan Pentateuch supplies a third major numerical tradition. Its pre-Flood Genesis 5 chronology is shorter than the Masoretic count because it reduces figures connected with Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech.
In Genesis 11, however, its begetting ages often align with the longer Greek pattern. This mixed relationship is valuable for tracing how textual traditions diverged, but it disproves the source page’s claim that the Samaritan text simply stretches the timeline even farther.
Samaritan manuscripts also contain distinctive readings tied to Samaritan theology and worship. That fact calls for evaluation without making every difference malicious or useless. The MT remains the base; the Samaritan witness helps expose the real shape of the textual problem.
The Received Text Includes Cainan in Luke 3
Luke 3:34-38the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Luke traces Jesus through Abraham, Shelah, Cainan, Arphaxad, Shem, Noah, and Adam. The Textus Receptus and received Byzantine tradition include Cainan, and the NKJV rightly prints the name.
The Masoretic Genesis 11 moves directly from Arphaxad to Shelah and does not contain this post-Flood Cainan. Many Septuagint witnesses include him, though the Greek manuscript history also requires care.
We should preserve both received readings and acknowledge the interpretive question. Deleting Cainan from Luke to protect an argument is unacceptable. Inserting the LXX generation and its ages into the Hebrew Genesis base is also unacceptable. Scripture does not require us to solve every transmission and genealogical relationship before trusting either passage.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Do Not Settle Every Number
The Dead Sea Scrolls provide early Hebrew witnesses to many Old Testament books. They demonstrate strong proto-Masoretic continuity in many places and real textual plurality in others. Both facts matter.
No complete Qumran copy preserves all the numerical data of Genesis 5 and 11 in a form capable of resolving the full chronology debate. Fragmentary Genesis evidence cannot bear the sweeping claim that the scrolls prove every Masoretic number against the Greek and Samaritan traditions.
The scrolls strengthen confidence that Scripture was transmitted with remarkable stability while allowing scholars to see actual variants. God’s preservation does not require us to deny what surviving manuscripts visibly contain.
Conservative Researchers Disagree About the Original Numbers
Internal and Comparative Patterns
MT advocates argue that the Hebrew numbers are less harmonized, avoid certain chronological problems, and usually preserve the earlier Genesis form.
Early External Witnesses
LXX advocates appeal to early Greek chronology, some Samaritan agreements, Josephus, and other ancient chronological writers.
The Masoretic Base Controls
The opposing evidence is reported honestly, but it does not displace the Hebrew Masoretic chronology required by the project.
Disagreement among conservative researchers shows that the variants are real and the reconstruction arguments involve judgment. It does not mean Scripture has no knowable message or that every proposed chronology is equally sound.
The public conclusion can be definite about its base without accusing every opponent of attacking inspiration. Careful disagreement honors truth better than exaggerated certainty.
The Masoretic Text Gives 1,656 Years From Creation to the Flood
The Genesis 5 begetting ages total 1,056 years from Adam’s creation to Noah’s birth. Noah’s six hundredth year brings the Flood, giving 1,656 years from creation to that judgment.
Arphaxad is born two years after the Flood. Continuing the Genesis 11 begetting ages through Terah brings the line into Abraham’s generation. If Acts 7 and Genesis 11 through 12 indicate Abram was born when Terah was 130, Abram’s birth falls about 352 years after the Flood.
This yields roughly two thousand years from creation to Abraham. Later biblical anchors carry the chronology through the patriarchs, Egypt, Exodus, monarchy, exile, and Christ, but those calculations involve additional interpretive questions.
Ussher’s Dates Are a Calculation, Not Inspired Marginal Notes
Archbishop James Ussher famously placed creation at 4004 BC and the Flood at 2348 BC. The source page’s claim that the Masoretic Text simply places the Flood at 2304 BC is therefore inaccurate as a description of Ussher’s system.
Other MT-based chronologies differ because scholars choose different historical anchor dates and handle Terah, the 430 years, kings’ reigns, and overlapping periods differently. An exact BC label is downstream from the inspired numbers.
Ussher’s work is useful evidence that Scripture supports a young chronology. It should not become a test of orthodoxy equal to six-day creation, the historical Flood, or the authority of Genesis.
All Three Primeval Chronologies Remain Young-Earth in Scale
The Masoretic chronology supports an earth measured in thousands of years. The literal six creation days, Genesis father-age links, and later historical anchors do not permit evolutionary millions or billions of years.
Longer Septuagint calculations add centuries or roughly a millennium and more to the primeval period, depending on the textual reconstruction. They still describe thousands of years. Accepting those numbers would not by itself require theistic evolution or an old earth.
Unforsaken rejects the longer numbers because the MT is its settled Hebrew base, not because every additional century opens the door to Darwinism. Arguments for biblical authority should follow logical consequences rather than guilt by association.
Possible Genealogical Selectivity Does Not Erase the Chronology
Biblical genealogies can omit intermediate names when their purpose is ancestry, tribal identity, or literary structure. First Chronicles and the Gospels sometimes arrange names selectively without error.
Genesis 5 and 11 are distinctive because they attach an age to each begetting link and give years afterward. Even if yalad can mean ancestor in some contexts, the formula still supplies sequential chronological data rather than an open-ended list.
Cainan in Luke 3 reminds us not to make simplistic claims about every relationship. It does not authorize inserting unlimited millennia between every Masoretic number. The text’s arithmetic retains real force.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph Continue the Decline
Genesis 25:7-11This is the sum of the years of Abraham's life which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. And it came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt at Beer Lahai Roi.
Abraham dies at 175, described as a good old age. God’s covenant continues through Isaac rather than ending with its first recipient.
Genesis 35:28-29Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Isaac reaches 180, five years beyond Abraham. This alone disproves a perfectly smooth decline.
Genesis 47:7-10Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How old are you?" And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
Jacob tells Pharaoh he is 130 and calls his years few and evil compared with his fathers. He later dies at 147.
Genesis 47:28And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob's life was one hundred and forty-seven years.
Genesis 50:22-26So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brethren, "I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Joseph reaches 110, sees several generations, and dies trusting that God will visit Israel and bring them to the promised land. Shorter life never means covenant failure.
The Names Carry the Promise Toward Jesus Christ
1 Chronicles 1:1-27Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshishah, Kittim, and Rodanim. The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, and Sabtecha. The sons of Raama were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and the Caphtorim). Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth; the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech. Arphaxad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber. To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, and Abram, who is Abraham.
First Chronicles repeats the line from Adam through Noah, Shem, and Abram without repeating ages. Its purpose is canonical and national continuity. The same real people anchor Israel’s later history.
Luke traces Jesus through this line to Adam and God. The eternal Son truly entered the human family, fully God and fully man, virgin-born and completely sinless. Genealogy protects the reality of His incarnation.
Wicked men physically tortured, punished, and killed Him. He willingly bore that real punishment for our sins in His innocent body, shed His blood, died, was buried, and rose bodily. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus.
Read Chronology With Confidence and Humility
Trust the inspired numbers. Read the Masoretic sequence carefully. Check arithmetic, distinguish categories, and refuse to make uncertain mechanisms sound biblical.
Christ died for the whole world. Every person may receive or resist God’s genuine offer. Whoever repents and believes is forgiven, born again, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and eternally secure.
The generations remind us that even the longest earthly life ends. Do not turn a chronology debate into a substitute for receiving the Savior to whom the chronology leads.
Keep the Numbers Straight
Separate begetting age, remaining years, total lifespan, and later BC calculations.
Do Not Invent Mechanisms
Affirm the historical decline without preaching vapor canopies, radiation, or genetics as revealed fact.
Follow the Line to Christ
Let mortality and covenant history direct you to the crucified and risen Savior.
The Masoretic Numbers Record Real Generations and Real Mortality
Genesis records Noah at six hundred when the Flood came and Shem at one hundred two years afterward. Ham’s and Japheth’s lifespans are not given. In the Masoretic line, longevity falls broadly but irregularly from Shem’s six hundred years through the four-hundred-year lives of Arphaxad, Shelah, and Eber, the shorter generations after Peleg, and the 175, 180, 147, and 110 years of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Scripture does not identify a vapor canopy, radiation change, or genetic mechanism. The Septuagint chiefly lengthens chronology through different begetting ages and contains manuscript variants; the Samaritan pattern is shorter before the Flood and often longer afterward. Unforsaken follows the Masoretic base without misrepresenting those witnesses. The resulting chronology remains young-earth in scale and carries real history toward Jesus Christ, who entered Adam’s family, shed His blood, died, and rose bodily to save sinners.
- Which Genesis numbers actually advance chronology?
- How old was Shem at the Flood?
- What does Scripture say about Ham’s and Japheth’s lifespans?
- Why should the post-Flood decline be called irregular?
- Which proposed biological explanations go beyond Scripture?
- What does Genesis 6:3 most likely mean in context?
- How can the LXX change chronology without changing a total lifespan?
- Why is the Samaritan timeline not simply longer?
- How should Cainan in Luke 3 be handled?
- What can the Dead Sea Scrolls prove, and what can they not prove?
- Why should one exact BC date not become a test of faith?
- How do the genealogies direct attention to Christ?
