How Old Were the Patriarchs?

Jim S · Little Guppy Joined: 21 Nov 2002 Posts: 30

How old were the Patriarchs? No human being has ever lived to age 180, yet this is the age that the Bible says Isaac attained.

By reviewing Genesis from an Egyptian history perspective, I think I have figured out the actual ages of all the Patriarchs, as set forth in detail below.

The good news is that ALL the ages of everyone in Genesis, beginning with Abraham, make perfect sense!

PROPOSED INTERNAL TIMELINE FOR GENESIS
(beginning with Abraham)

A. Basis for Proposed Internal Timeline

1. Each person’s stated age in Genesis is divided by two to convert it into 12-month years. The theory here is that the stated ages in Genesis may have been erroneously multiplied by two, since the third Egyptian calendar then in use was (unlike the other two more commonly used Egyptian calendars then in use) based on the bi-annual cattle count, or a 24-month year. Since much of Genesis takes place in Egypt, and since viziers like Joseph were in charge of the bi-annual cattle count, there could easily have been some confusion as to whether a “year” in this Egyptian context was 12 months or 24 months, and this confusion could have led to an erroneous multiplication of each person’s actual age by two (either once erroneously; or once properly, and a second time [at a later date] erroneously). This aspect of Egyptian history has only recently come to the fore. In the 8-14 March, 2001 edition of A1-Ahram Weekly On-line, for example, we read: “According to Zahi Hawass, director-general of the Giza Plateau, and the American scholar Mark Lehner,… ‘Ancient Egyptians recorded the lengths of the reigns of their kings based on the bi-annual cattle count,’ Hawass explained. ‘Khufu reigned longer than we thought.” http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/524/eg5.htm.

In my view, dividing each person’s stated age by two restores the originally-intended ages of each person from Abraham through Joseph.

2. Only ages are adjusted, not periods of time. So the periods of time Jacob spends with Uncle Laban are not adjusted, and neither are the 7 years of plenty followed by the 7 years of famine (prophesized by Joseph).

By making the one simple adjustment above, all of the seemingly ridiculous ages of people in Genesis, beginning with Abraham, instantly become completely sensible!

In considering these revised ages, however, one must realize that marriage and child bearing, and adulthood in general, usually occurred much earlier in Biblical times than in modern times. For example, age 14 was the most common age at which an Egyptian female would have her first child.

A man might be expected to be age 15-20 when he got married. A 15-year-old male was a young man, not a boy. A 13-year old male could marry and father a child.

In “The Legacy of Ancient Egypt” (1997), Charles Freeman writes at page 80: “Young men were expected to marry as soon as they had the financial means. By the age of 15, most girls were married and had given birth to one child.” Another source reports: “Boys would have been circumcized sometime after they reached the age of ten, and girls were often considered marriageable by thirteen.” http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/mothers.htm Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II had his own harem at age 10. Finally, Joyce Tyldesley reports that although a female would not usually bear a child until age 14, “Some documents state that girls may have been married at the age of eight or nine, and a mummy of an eleven year-old wife has also been found.” http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/womneg.htm

Thus in ancient Egypt in Biblical times, it would not be too unusual for a 13-year-old male to marry a 13-year-old female, and for the female to bear her first child the next year at age 14. The internal timeline for Genesis set forth below uses these exact ages for Judah’s son Er and Judah’s daughter-in-law Tamar. Likewise, since marriages of females in ancient Egypt between ages 8 and 11 are well attested, it would not be terribly unusual for a man to want to marry Jacob’s daughter Dinah when Dinah was 10 years old. Note that Dinah does not get pregnant; on my view, Dinah was too young to have a child, but she was not too young to get married. Thus the young ages used in this internal timeline make sense given the historical context.

Age 50 was a good long life for a man in Biblical times. For example, Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III (who is sometimes compared to King Solomon) died an old man at age 47. Anything beyond age 55 would be an exceedingly old age in Biblical times.

The three Patriarchs, Sarah and Joseph (the five persons for whom we have exact lifetime ages in this section of Genesis) still have very long lives in this proposed timeline, but not absolutely impossibly long lives:

1. Abraham lives to age 87.5 (not an impossible age 175).

2. Sarah lives to age 63.5 (not an almost impossible age 127).

3. Isaac lives to age 90 (not an impossible age 180).

4. Jacob/Israel lives to age 73.5 (not an impossible age 147).

5. Joseph lives to age 55 (not age 110, an age which in Biblical times would have been almost impossible), which is still longer than the age to which most men lived at that time.

Egyptian pharaoh Pepi II is believed to have lived to age 100, so it would have been possible for Isaac to live to age 90 (but not to age 180).

B. Proposed Internal Timeline for Genesis (beginning with Abraham)

Year Event and Ages

0 Abraham is born.

5 Sarah is born.

37.5 (a) Abraham moves to Canaan.
(b) Sarah, still attractive at age 32.5, spends night with Pharaoh.

49 Sarah at age 44.5 (no longer described as attractive) spends night with King Abimelech.

50 Isaac is born when Sarah is age 45 (and Abraham is age 50). [It would have been unlikely, but not impossible, for a woman age 45 in Biblical times to bear her first child.]

70 Isaac marries Rebekah at age 20.

80 Jacob and Esau are born (after Rebekah has been barren for 10 years). Isaac is age 30.

87.5 Abraham dies. [This is EXACTLY one-half of this proposed 175-year timeline!]

100 Esau marries at age 20. [The impetuous Esau could not possibly have waited to age 40 to marry.] Isaac is age 50.

107 Approximate date when Jacob is given the blessing that Isaac had intended for Esau. Jacob and Esau are age 27. Isaac is an old, blind man at age 57. Jacob flees east to work for Uncle Laban.

107-113 Jacob works 7 years for Uncle Laban to earn right to marry one of Uncle Laban’s two daughters.

114 Jacob, age 34, marries both Leah and Rachel.

114-120 During these 7 years, Jacob has 6 sons and daughter Dinah by Leah, with Leah having a short barren period after bearing her fourth son Judah. [Leah probably used a wet-nurse (like Rachel’s nurse) to nurse the babies, thereby enabling Leah to bear a child every year, instead of every other year.] Jacob also has two sons by the concubine of each of his wives, for a total of 10 sons. [See Appendix I for further information on Jacob’s 12 sons.]

118 At age 5, Reuben brings mandrakes to his mother, ending her temporary barren period.

120 Joseph is born as Jacob’s 11th son. Jacob is age 40.

121-126 Jacob breeds speckled animals for 6 years as his share of Uncle Laban’s flock.

126 Jacob returns to Canaan at age 46, a rich man. Esau is no longer hostile; Esau settles on eastern edge of Canaan.

129 Dinah, age 10, is taken by a Gentile man. Simeon and Levi, ages 14 and 13, slay many Gentile men in retaliation.

129 Benjamin is born when Jacob is age 49. (Benjamin is the only child born in Canaan.)

129 Reuben, age 15, sleeps with Billah, who is one of Jacob’s concubines. [Billah is probably about age 44 at the time, and as such, (i) she probably is beyond her child-bearing years, and (ii) she probably is not very sexually attractive. (In my view, Reuben was attempting to show that he as the firstborn had the right to be the future leader of the Hebrews {a view which Jacob ended up totally rejecting}, rather than Reuben having a sexual misadventure.)]

129.5 Joseph at age 8.5 tattles on some of his older half-brothers (who are pre-teens), and tells the whole family of his dreams that one day whole family will bow down to him. Joseph’s brothers first decide to kill their father’s favorite son, but later end up selling him into slavery in Egypt.

130 Judah, age 13, leaves his brothers and Jacob to settle elsewhere in Canaan.

131 Judah, age 14, marries and has son Er.

132 Judah has son Onan.

133 Judah has son Shelah. Judah’s wife later dies.

144 At age 13, Er marries, and dies childless that same year. Tamar is probably age 12. Onan, age 12, dies that same year without having married and without impregnating Tamar. Shelah at age 11 is said by Judah (truthfully or untruthfully) to be too young to impregnate Tamar.

145 Tamar believes that Shelah, age 12, is no longer too young to become a father. Judah, age 27, impregnates Tamar, age 13, with twins.

145.5 Judah, Shelah, Tamar and twins Perez and Zerah (who possibly are still en ventre sa mere) rejoin Jacob’s extended family.

[Now going back to the Joseph story.]

129.5-132 Joseph is a faithful and competent precocious steward for his master, until his master’s wife lusts after Joseph when Joseph changes from being a boy to being a young man at age 13.

133-134 Joseph is in jail 2 years.

135 Joseph, age 15, a “young man”, is appointed grand vizier of northern Egypt. [A 30-year-old male would not be a “young man” in Biblical times.] Joseph marries the daughter of an Egyptian priest.

136-142 Seven years of plenty. Joseph has two sons.

140 Isaac dies at age 90.

143-149 Seven years of famine.

145.5 Judah rejoins Jacob’s extended family. All 11 brothers visit Joseph in Egypt in two trips occasioned by the famine. See Appendix I for brothers’ ages at that time. Benjamin, referred to affectionately as a “boy”, is age 16.

145.5 After just over two years of a terrible and persistent famine in Canaan, Jacob at age 65 agrees to Joseph’s plan to have all the Hebrews move to Egypt. See Appendix II for an analysis of the 70 named members of Jacob’s extended family who are said to move to Egypt. Joseph is age 25 (and has two fairly young sons and no grandchildren).

153.5 Jacob dies at age 73.5.

175 Joseph dies at age 55. Although Joseph had not lived an exceedingly long life, he does live just long enough to bounce great-grandchildren on his knee. [If Jacob were really age 110, his great-grandchildren would have been adults long ago.] Joseph’s oldest child at Joseph’s death is about 38 years old, which is just old enough to allow Joseph to have some young great-grandchildren.

Van · Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:51 am Post subject: How Old Were the Patriarchs?

What do you do with the 900 year lives from Adam to Noah, the 600 to 200 year lives from Noah to Abraham? The Bible seems to say people lived a long time in the beginning, then after the flood, life times decreased over time until they reach current levels.
You effort to correct (if true) a translation error just gets us to modern levels sooner but does not address the underlying premise - people used to live much longer and something has changed.

Jim S · Little Guppy Joined: 21 Nov 2002 Posts: 30

Van:

I myself do not pay too much attention to Genesis before the story of Abraham begins. Beginning with the story of Abraham, the Bible is sui generis, and is a world-class document that sets forth a world-class religion in a unique way that no other book has ever matched. But the first 15 pages of Genesis, by stark contrast, are really just run-of-the-mill religious stories that are very similar to other people's religious stories at the time. I myself do not think that the person who told the stories of Abraham through Joseph told the stories of Noah and the Flood, etc.

Thus I myself would never try to make sense of the ages of people in Genesis before Abraham. What my timeline does is to show that BEGINNING with Abraham, ALL of the ages in the rest of Genesis make absolutely perfect sense if one simply divides the stated ages by two in every case and makes no other changes at all.

Van · Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2003 2:02 pm Post subject: How Old Were the Patriarchs?

Lets just leave it that my Bible begins at Genesis Chapter One and yours begins at Genesis Chapter 12.

It should be noted for those that put their trust in Christ that Jesus referred to Genesis in Matthew 19:3-6 and Mark 13:19.

zao275 · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2003 11:37 pm Post subject:

Just remember Jim, that no one has documented a man living to age 180. But that certainly doesn't disprove it. And the idea of a protective firmament previous to the Flood and not after it allows for protection from solar radiation. Nowadays, science is discovering that radiation produces free radicals which damage cells and mutate the genome (DNA) of an organism. This allows aging, cancer, and a slew of other problems to increase with much greater frequency than in an individual who is not exposed to such things. And since, as you said, many other cultures have similar Flood stories, it seems that a Flood of some sort did occur. God could also have miraculously lengthened their lives. Ultimately, it's a matter of faith.