RE: [asa] Ages of the Patriarchs

Hi Iain, you wrote:

>>Johnson writes:

2. If only one age was different by even 1 year, the entire

system would collapse. This gives good grounds for

assuming the reliability of the MT figures. The LXX and

the SP have both "adjusted" the MT figures, but in

doing so have created chaos; in the LXX Methuselah

actually dies 14 years after the flood!

Are you willing to believe the LXX account which has Methuselah dying

14 years after the flood?<<

Reread the first two sentences. In order to make his math correct all
the reported ages in the MT have to be correct. How does his
mathematical model impact the reliability of the text? This is tail
wagging the dog. We don't have just 1 year being different we have a
whole missing patriarch in the MT!

The LXX puts the age of Methuselah at death at 969, same as the
Masoretic text. There is a discrepancy between LXX manuscripts as to
whether Methuselah lived 167 years or 187 years before the birth of
Lamech. If the correct figure is 187 then Methuselah didn't have to
tread water. So I wouldn't hinge an entire argument on simple scribal
errors which we can all agree impact both texts.

The Septuagint has its origin in Alexandria, Egypt and was translated
between

300-200 BC. The oldest fragments from the MT date from the 9th century
AD. So how does that square with your argument that "The LXX and the SP
have both 'adjusted' the MT figures"? Any textual corruption tarnishes
the Johnny-come-lately MT which omitted Arphaxad's son, Canaan, just to
prove the point.

There are enough questions about actual ages and textual ages that to
build a mathematical model to prove all the ages are symbolic is totally
flawed.

The argument that there are mathematical patterns in the patriarch's
ages, therefore they are symbolic is akin to the argument that there is
complexity in nature, therefore it was created.

Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association

Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History

www.genesisproclaimed.org

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Received on Tue Feb 20 19:04:30 2007