ISSUE 3 (Part 2): HOW LONG DID THE PATRIARCHAL CLANS LAST?

Continued from Part 1…….

By interpreting the reference to years in Genesis chapters 4 through 11 to mean generations, and the patriarchal names to represent clans, we have found in Issue 2 that Genesis can support current findings that modern humans were in existence as long as 150,000 years ago or more, as well as the first human migration out of Africa around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. 

Let us now explore what we can discover about the length of time each patriarchal clan existed and when each clan ended.  Table 3-2 shows the timeline for each ancient Biblical patriarchal clan from Adam through Terah.  In this table we interpret each reference to the death of a patriarch to instead mean the time the patriarchal clan ceased to exist.

PATRIARCHAL GENEOLOGY BSED ON GENERATIONS

2 Years per Generation

CLAN NAME	YEAR OF START	YEARS TO START OF NEXT CLAN	YEARS CLAN CON-TINUED	TOTAL YEARS OF CLAN	YEAR CLAN ENDED	CALENDAR YEAR OF START	CALEN-   DAR YEAR OF END
Adam	Not Recorded
End of Abel Clan	Time Starts	3,250	20,000	23,250	23,250	50,750	27,450
Seth	3,250	2,625	20,175	22,800	26,050	47,450	24,650
Enosh	5,875	2,250	20,375	22,625	28,500	44,825	22,200
Kenan	8,125	1,750	21,000	22,750	30,875	42,575	19,825
Mahalalel	9,875	1,625	20,750	22,375	32,250	40,825	18,450
Jared	11,500	4,050	20,000	24,050	35,550	39,200	15,150
Enoch	15,550	1,625	7,500	9,125	24,675	35,150	26,025
Methuselah	17,175	4,675	19,550	24,225	41,400	33,525	9,300
Lamech	21,850	4,550	14,875	19,425	41,275	28,850	9,425
Noah	26,400	12,550	11,200	23,750	50,150	24,300	550
Flood	41,400	15,000				9,300
Shem	38,950	2,500	12,500	15,000	53,950	11,750	3250*
Arphaxad	41,450	875	10,075	10,950	52,400	9,250	1700*
Shelah	42,325	750	10,075	10,825	53,150	8,375	2450*
Eber	43,075	850	10,750	11,600	54,675	7,625	3975*
Peleg	43,925	750	5,225	5,975	49,900	6,775	800
Reu	44,675	800	5,175	5,975	50,650	6,025	50
Serug	45,475	750	5,000	5,750	51,225	5,225	525*
Nahor	46,225	725	2,975	3,700	49,925	4,475	775
Terah	46,950	1,750	3,375	5,125	52,075	3,750	1375*
Abram	48,700					2,000
		*	Date is AD

What does it mean for a clan to cease to exist?   To this blogger, who is certainly not an expert in anthropology, it means that people who previously had identified themselves as members of a specific clan either passed away or began to identify themselves as part of another clan.  Clans might cease to exist due to violent annihilation by enemies (as was common in the Old Testament), capture/slavery, disease, death caused by loss of food and water due to environmental change, catastrophic natural events, or shifting alliances to a larger clan.  In addition, the end of a clan can also mean the time when a distinguishing trait in mitochondrial DNA is lost in subsequent generations.

In this timeline we see that all of the early (pre-flood) clans ended before or during the flood, and the only patriarchal clans that existed immediately after the flood were Noah and Shem.  What is interesting is that the later clans still existed at the time Genesis may have been written, meaning that the end dates reported in Genesis were at that time prophetic.  In fact, the timeline tells us that some of these patriarchal clans may still exist today.

Many Bible commentators say the book of Genesis was most likely written by Moses, perhaps between 1400 and 1500 BC.  At that time all of the post-flood clans still existed.  Most of them continued to exist even after the time of Jesus.  Dates after the time of Jesus are shown in Red.

Three of the clans – Shem, Shelah and Eber – still exist today according to this timeline.  While the dates for these clans extend well into the future, it is not the intent of this blog to make any predictions about the future, or to conclude that mankind will continue to live on Earth at least as long as the dates shown in the table, or that mankind will cease to exist on Earth after these dates.  It is possible that time might have been reported differently when referencing future events than when referencing past events.  It is also possible that the dates given for future events can be altered by other future events.  So no inference should be made about the meaning of these future dates.

The Bible gives us a warning that no one can know the time of Jesus’ return, which will trigger the end time:

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.  That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:36-39).

In Genesis 12: 1-3, God promised Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  Today the Arab and Jewish nations trace their ancestry to Abraham.  Perhaps there are markers in the mitochondrial DNA of Abraham’s descendants that can confirm their ancestry.  Perhaps there could also be markers tracing their ancestry all the way back to Shem as well.