Scholars routinely look with suspicion on the dates and ages given in the early chapters of Genesis. Several passages are confusing, multiple textual traditions have been preserved with differing numbers, and historians have had difficulty in reconciling the biblical numbers with the histories of other nations. The numbers given in the various texts of the Scriptures will be taken at face value. Others can worry about the validity of the numbers. The goal is to show that the lifespans of Old Testament people born after the Flood reveal a numerical pattern known as an exponential decay curve. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to derive a mathematical equation that predicts, with reasonable accuracy, the lifespan of people born after the Flood, given the number of years that they were born after the Flood. This is true for all of the texts examined. It will further be shown that only the Masoretic text predicts that the human lifespan will level off to approximately 70 to 75 years.
edited to correct BBCode fail lol & clarify diction
I'm not done reading this, but Dr. Holladay isn't using inclusive reckoning (which the Bible / Hebrews did use) to count, so his numbers are going to be off. For example,
Philip M. Holladay WROTE: 1 Kings 6:1 states that it was 480 years from the Exodus until the beginning of the work on the temple. This yields the year 1012 + 480 = 1492. But 1 Kings 6:1 also says that this was the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, so Solomon began to reign in1488. Taking this to be the year David died one has: (see Table 6)
According to inclusive reckoning, you would include the year 1492 in the count as the fourth year, ergo: 1492 = fourth year 1491 = third year 1490 = second year 1489 = first year
Solomon would've began reigning in 1489 using those numbers (but the numbers are off if he hasn't been using inclusive reckoning).
To provide illustration of inclusive reckoning elsewhere in the Bible: this is why people erroneously allege that the Bible "contradicts itself / invalidates itself", in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1, when they only count the differences between so and so because they don't include them in the count, even though Scripture does (and also tells them to) count from ___ to ___; as a result, they arrive at "13" generations from Abraham to David, "13" from David to exile in Babylon and "13" from exile to Jesus. They're calculating differences, not counting how many of a thing there is. Scripture identifies it as 14 from one to the other, because it includes the first person they're mentioning (e.g. including Abraham in the count from Abraham to David); we / the Bible are not calculating differences, but how many of a thing there are (whether it be years or generations).
For example, I'll bold from Abraham to David (in the spoiler tag below), and you will count 14 bolded names, same for “from David to exile” (which I'll underline), and “from exile to Jesus” (which I'll italicize):
Matthew 1:1-17 (NIV)
1 This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, 7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, 9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, 15 Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 1:1 Or is an account of the origin b. Matthew 1:1 Or Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One; also in verse 18. c. Matthew 1:11 That is, Jehoiachin; also in verse 12
Notice that “David” and “exile” were points where the lists/counts overlapped because they were included in the count from ___ to ___ in two separate lists. We're not calculating differences like the Dr. Holladay was doing between 1492 and 1488 (which is a difference of four years, but that would be a reign of 5 years using Biblical counting/ inclusive reckoning. If we're using 1488 as the starting point of Solomon's reign, then 1492 would actually be the fifth year of Solomon's reign, while the fourth would be 1491; however, if we're using 1492 as the point to count back from [1492 being the fourth year], then Solomon first started reigning in 1489 [the first year of his reign]).
