ISSUE 2 (Part 3): SETH, NOAH, FLOOD, NEPHALIM, ABRAM

. . . . . Continued from Part 2

Genealogy Goes Through Seth

Genesis 4:25 tells us Adam had another son after Abel’s clan was destroyed, named Seth.  In Genesis Chapter 5 we read, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female and blessed them.  And when they were created, he called them man.’”   Then later, after the Abel clan had been destroyed, we read, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.”  This is the only time in Genesis where it is mentioned that a son was in the same image and likeness as his father.  Adam was created in God’s image. Seth was born in Adam’s image.  From this point the patriarchal tree flows from Seth.  Descendants of Cain become lost in the genealogy once Seth is born.  Also, since Seth was born in Adam’s likeness and image, perhaps the mtDNA of Seth’s clan was indecipherable from that of Adam’s clan.  This might explain why the genetic research cannot date male ancestors earlier than around 50,000-60,000 years ago, even though the earliest female DNA dates to roughly 150,000 years ago.

Genesis goes on to say that by the time the Enosh clan descended from Seth, people were calling on or proclaiming the name of the Lord. This would seem to imply man had stopped calling on the name of the Lord.  Such a change would probably occur over many generations, which would be consistent with the generational timeline.  A renewed faith in God appears to have been embraced by the Seth and Enosh clans. 

When Did the Biblical Flood Occur?

In the alternative timeline the great flood occurred roughly 11,000 years ago (refer to Table 2-2 in Issue 2 Part 2).  Let’s assume that God’s instruction to Noah to build the Ark as reported in Genesis did not occur when an individual named Noah was 500 years old, but rather during the 500^th generation of the Noah clan.  God’s instruction to prepare for an upcoming flood could have been given to a member of the Noah clan at that time.  This could have begun a 2,500-year process of developing the skills needed to build an Ark over the next 100 generations.  During this time the Noah clan may have moved (perhaps due to changing climate and sea levels) to a coastal location perhaps along the Mediterranean coast or on the shores of the Black Sea or Caspian Sea.  There the clan could have learned to build ships and develop the expertise needed to build the Ark.  Then, during the 600^th generation, an individual of the Noah clan built the Ark.  This individual with his wife and couples from three descendent tribes – Shem, Ham and Japheth – entered the Ark and survived the great flood.  According to this alternative timeline, the flood would have occurred about 9300 BC or about 11,000 years ago.  This rough time estimate puts the flood within the range of potential dates for major catastrophic floods around the end of the Great Ice Age.  

The Patriarchal timeline at this point gets a little complicated as the Genesis text cites months and days of the year.  One possible interpretation is the flood started in the middle of the second month of a year during the 600^th generation of the Noah clan.  By the time the flood was over and the land became dry again, it was the beginning of a new year.  By that time a new baby may have been born, perhaps in the Ark, representing the 601^st generation of the Noah clan.

Did all of mankind perish in the Flood with the exception of the four couples in the Ark?  The Bible itself implies that some other people survived the Flood (see The Nephalim below).  It is possible that Genesis tells us God intended to destroy all of mankind and put into action a series of many cataclysmic floods worldwide over hundreds or thousands of years.  Perhaps when God said in Genesis 6:3  “My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years,” he was really announcing the start of man’s demise though a series of massive floods worldwide occurring over 120 generations (roughly 3,000 years) .  But then God was convinced by the righteousness of Noah, either the entire Noah clan or an individual within the Noah clan, and chose to reduce the impacts of these floods and allow more of mankind to survive.

Following the Flood the Noah clan may have planted a vineyard as described in Genesis Chapter 9.  Perhaps the Noah clan was the first to implement the practice of farming, planting vineyards.  Or perhaps the clan used skills learned from other surviving clans who moved back into Mesopotamia after the Flood.  Archaeologists have hypothesized that the agricultural practice of cultivating the soil and planting crops originated around 10,000-11,000 years ago after the climatic changes that followed the end of the Great Ice Age.  This may have been soon after the Flood.

Who Were The Nephalim?

According to Genesis Chapter 6, “The Nephalim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.  They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”  Who were these Nephalim?  Note the words “and also afterward.”  These words might imply that the Nephalim existed at the time of Noah and continued after the flood.  Descendants of the Nephalim are mentioned many years later in Numbers Chapter 13 when descendants of the Nephalim were seen when Moses sent spies to explore the Land of Canaan around 1400 BC.  It is possible these later references to the Nephalim were metaphoric, but perhaps they were literal.  Perhaps the Nephalim survived the Flood.  If Cain’s descendant Tubal-Cain clan were to be the people to start forming tools with bronze and iron, the clan would have to have survived the flood and remained in existence between 3300 BC and 550 BC.

Under the literal timeline, the Nephalim would have existed around 4,000 years ago.  They could have been humans who existed before Noah built the ark and continued after the Flood.  This would seem to be contradictory, though, to the entire literal premise that the only humans on earth descended from Adam and Eve, and that all humans on earth were killed in the flood except for the passengers in the ark.

Under the alternative timeline, men would have been around for many thousands of years by the time of the Flood.  Since the Cain clan had lost favor with God and began wandering the earth as early as 50,000-60,000 years ago, perhaps the Nephalim were the descendants of Cain.  Perhaps the words “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose” (Genesis 6:4) are an indication that the descendants of Adam through Seth and subsequent clans were intermarrying with descendants of the fallen Cain clan.  Notes in the NIV Study Bible published by Zondervan in 1985 indicate that the word “Nephalim” means “fallen ones” in Hebrew.   The reference to the Nephalim in Genesis is followed with “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” 

Why would God be upset about intermarriage between these clans?  Perhaps there was something about Adam that God wished to preserve, and that quality was not found in the Cain clan.  Or perhaps there was a quality of the Cain clan (e.g. rebelliousness?) that God did not want infesting the clans descending from Seth. 

Generational Timeline ends with Terah

The assumption is made that the last clan to be identified by name in Genesis is the Terah clan.  Abram is the first patriarch who is referred to as an individual.  From the birth of Abram, the timeline in Genesis is generally consistent with other historic data.  Abram is assumed to have been born around 2000 BC, and the estimated dates in the patriarchal timeline are set to end with the birth of Abram in approximately 2000 BC.

After the account of Terah, the language in Genesis changes abruptly.  No longer is the age given for when the eldest son is born.  Beginning with the account of Abram, details about the lives of the patriarchs and their actions are given, including their interactions with others outside their families.  After the account of Terah, it appears the word “year” begins to be intended literally.

Comments on Genesis 4:25 through 11:32

The following table shows how one might interpret the patriarchal history in Genesis in a way that might be consistent with recent scientific research.  The comments provided represent an alternative way of understanding what the scripture's intended meaning might be.

EXERPTS OF THE GENESIS PATRIARCHAL GENALOGY WITH COMMENTS

VERSE (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)	COMMENTS
GENESIS CHAPTER 4
25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”	Perhaps the Seth clan began at some point after the Abel clan was destroyed and the Cain clan had begun its wandering.
26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.	It is interesting that men would start to call on (or proclaim, as some commentaries offer as an alternative translation) the name of the Lord.  After all, God himself had been communicating directly with Cain, and both Cain and Abel were regularly giving offerings to God.  This would seem to imply man had stopped calling on the name of the Lord.  Such a change would probably occur over many generations, which would be consistent with the generational timeline.  A renewed faith in God appears to have been embraced by the Seth and Enosh clans.
GENESIS CHAPTER 5
1 This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.	The assumption is made that the timeline begins after the Abel clan was destroyed.  Seth, as the first new clan to begin in this timeline, was born 130 generations (roughly 3,250 years) after the Abel clan was destroyed. Why would it say that Adam had a son in his own likeness and image?  This is the only time a son is said to have the same likeness and image as his father, and the only time other than the creation of Adam and Eve where any reference is made like this.  What does this mean?  Why would Genesis even say something like this? Does this indicate that there may have been some inherited characteristics of Adam that were not passed on the Cain’s descendants? The birth of a new son with the same characteristics of Adam would allow them to again be inherited in new generations.
2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “Man.”
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.	This indicates that one clan would continue to thrive for many years after a subsequent clan began.  There are implications to be understood in the number of generations given for the lives of each clan.  These implications will be explored in a subsequent blog.
5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.
6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh.	Note that some commentaries say the word for “father” can also be interpreted “ancestor.”  By substituting the word “generations” for “years”, the genealogy allows early humans to have the same basic characteristics as modern humans (average lifespan, childbearing years, etc.).  At the same time the timeline becomes similar to the timelines hypothesized in modern genetic and archaeologic research.
7 And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters.
8 Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.
9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan.
10 And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters.
11 Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died.
12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel.
13 And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.
15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared.
16 And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters.
17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.
18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.
19 And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.
22 And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years.
24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech.
26 And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters.
27 Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son.
29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”	This could indicate that descendants of Noah would learn to cultivate the land again, as had been practiced earlier by the Adam clan.  Cultivation is said to have started in the Levant around 10,000 years ago, making it consistent with the time immediately after the Great Flood.
30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.
31 Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.	In the generational timeline, the Noah clan would have started roughly 26,000 years ago.  By the 500th generation of the Noah clan (roughly 13,500 years ago), three new clans had sprung up – Ham, Shem and Japheth.
GENESIS CHAPTER 6
1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,	Since Adam was created in God’s image and Seth was born in Adam’s image, sons of God could refer to descendants of Seth who had inherited the characteristics that God favored.  Daughters of men could refer to descendants of Cain, who had not inherited the characteristics that God favored.  The implication could be that intermarriage was occurring between descendants of Seth and descendants of Cain, threatening to again lose the favorable characteristics.
2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”	When I was young, I naively thought this was when God decided to reduce the lifespan of man from 500-1,000 years to 120 years.  But a more reasonable interpretation is that this is where God decided to end his experiment with mankind over a stated period of time.  But that period was not 120 years, but 120 generations (roughly 3,000 years).
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.	What humans would have been alive during the time of Noah before the flood and also after the flood?  A reasonable interpretation of this is that the name Nephalim was given to the descendants of Cain, and that some of these descendants survived the flood.  Some Bible commentaries say the name Nephalim means “fallen ones.”  This would be consistent with a reference to Cain’s descendants.  It is also an indication that there were human survivors of the flood beyond those who rode in the Ark.
5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.	These verses give background to God’s decision in Genesis 6:3 to end mankind.  Not only had mankind become inherently evil, but through intermarriage the desirable traits God had preserved through the birth of Seth were being lost through intermarriage. So God decided to remove mankind from the earth and, in the process, destroy the animals, birds and creatures that inhabited it. But there were members of the Noah clan who found favor with God.  This caused God to reconsider his decision. Ham, Shem and Japheth may not have been direct sons of Noah, but members of these clans.
6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
9 This is the account of Noah.  Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.
12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.	The revelations and instructions given by God were done over 100 generations, beginning at the 500th generation.  By now God has changed his plans, and instead of destroying all of mankind, he has decided to allow a remnant to survive.  He asks the Noah clan to place key members in the genealogy on the Arc to ensure key descendants of the Noah clan survive. It is through Shem that the genealogy continues after the flood.  The term Semite is a reference to the descendants of Shem.
14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 wide and 45 feet high.
16 Make a roof for it, and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
GENESIS CHAPTER 7
1 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,
3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.	Perhaps the flood began during the 600th generation of the Noah clan.  The flood was caused by more than just rain.  The springs of the great deep burst forth.  This could have referred to rising water levels around the world – oceans, rivers, etc.  The timing would be consistent with major floods around the world between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.  The flood also did not have to occur everywhere in the world at the same time.  It could have been a series of catastrophic events occurring at various times around the world at the end of the last Ice Age, when glaciers were melting and pouring massive amounts of water into the oceans.  A cataclysmic series of events such as this could potentially have wiped out the entire human population and destroyed all living creatures on the earth, as God had originally intended.
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.
15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.
16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.	It is possible that the term “days” in this portion of genesis refers to calendar days, but it is also possible that the term is means more loosely as it was in Genesis Chapter 1.  The flood could have lasted roughly eleven months or much longer, depending upon how the word “days” is interpreted.
18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.
19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.
20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.
21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
GENESIS CHAPTER 8
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3 The water receded steadily from the earth.  At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark.  He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf!
12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundredth and first year, the water had dried up from the earth.  Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14 By the twenty seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah,
16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you – the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground – so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.”
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.  And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
SKIP TO GENESIS CHAPTER 11
10 This is the account of Shem.  Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.	Again, commentators note the word for “father” could also mean “ancestor.”  In this section the word “year” is again interpreted to mean “generation.”
11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.
13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.
15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived  years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.
17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.
19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.
21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.
23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.
25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.	By the time the Terah clan had been in existence for 70 generations, one member of the Terah clan may have had three sons – Abram, Nahor and Haran.  The Terah mentioned in verses 26-31 could refer to the person who was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 This is the account of Terah.  Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.  And Haran became the father of Lot.
28 While his father Terah was still alive, Harah died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
29 Abram and Nahor both married.  The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaleans to go to Canaan.  But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.	This language is a return to the earlier language used in describing the accounts of the patriarchs, and again may refer to the Terah clan, which existed for a total of 205 generations.

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