bible_camping

We have seen thus far that God has provided in His marvelous Word a calendar reaching back all the way to the first man, Adam. By analyzing the data offered in Exodus 6 concerning the life spans of Levi, Kohath and Amram, we have discovered that these ancient peoples kept track of time by referencing the passage of time to the life spans of certain key individuals. These individuals were selected on the basis of at least two qualifications:

1.  Their birth year had to coincide with the death year of the previous patriarch.

2.  They were to be in the same blood line of the previous reference patriarch.

By analyzing all of the Biblical data concerning Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Aaron, we have discovered that they met these two qualifications.   We then applied this understanding of this ancient method of calendar keeping to the genealogical accounts found in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11. There the life span of each reference patriarch is given. Additionally, the age of each reference patriarch is given at which point the next reference patriarch tied into his blood line. The formula that is used in each case is, “when A was ‘x’ years old he begat ‘B’. ‘A’ lived after he begat ‘B’ ‘y’ years and had other sons and daughters.” The sum of (x + y) indicates the life span of the reference patriarch ‘A’. He was ‘x’ years old when the progenitor of the next reference patriarch ‘B’ was born to him. The giving of the value of ‘x’ assured that ‘B’ was indeed of the blood line of ‘A’.

There were periods in history when the above rules for calendar keeping could not be strictly kept. Such was the situation at the beginning when men were just beginning to multiply on the earth. This was the situation at the flood of Noah’s day, and the special time when God limited his people to the family of Abraham.

God uses two methods to guide our thinking through these special period in history. In the first place, he indicates that wherever the clue phrase “qara shem” is used, which indicates a parent named his child, we can be sure the child in question is the immediate son of the parent. Such was the case of Adam-Seth, Seth-Enosh, and Lamech-Noah. In the second place, God at times gives other Biblical information to indicate immediate father-son relationship. Such was the case with Noah-Shem, Terah-Abram, Abram-Isaac, Isaac-Jacob, Jacob-Levi, and the history of man following Aaron. By applying these principles we have been able to develop an accurate calendar of ancient man beginning with Adam at 11013 B.C.