RE: [asa] Two questions... (genealogy gaps)

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, Dehler, Bernie wrote:

> James Patterson: "The genealogies are well known to contain gaps."
>
> How can there be gaps in Genesis geneologies when it not only gives names, but who begat who and how long each lived and how old they were when one was begat? My opinion is that the history is nailed-down, but wrong; but it's ok because the history is incidental to the theological message (RE: Lemoureux).
>
> ...Bernie
>

There are many questions raised by the Biblical genealogies, and there are
numerous theories about them, none of which is obvious, and so I would say
that they are speculations.

Some genealogies have obvious gaps. For example, Matthew 1 skips three of
the kings of Judah. Also 14 generations from Abraham to David would
require very long generations if there are no gaps there. It has been
suggested that the OT and NT writers deliberately chose their genealogies
to have a predetermined number of generations.

In order for Dick Fischer to date the Flood at 2900 B.C. without positing
gaps in the genealogies, he would need to use the Septuagint rather than
the Masoretic text. Whereas in the MT's genealogy from Noah to Abraham
most individuals fathered their sons while in their 30s, in the LXX they
were in their 130s. Also Cainan is in the LXX but not in the MT. We also
note that in the Masoretic text these individuals died in roughly the
reverse order of their births.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

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Received on Tue Feb 10 22:56:19 2009