TIMELINE

The timeline gets a little tricky around the time of Abraham and downright difficult around the time of living in Egypt but this should give you some sense of scale.

Adam is created in year 0. His son Seth is born in year 130. Enosh is born in 235. Cainanl is born in 325. Mahalalel is born in 395. Jarad is born in year 460 followed by Enoch in year 622. Methuselah is born in 687 and will live until the time of the flood, entering the record books as the man who lived the longest. Lamech is born in 874 and will be the father of Noah.

Adam dies in year 930 before any of the people above die. He lives to see 8 generations beyond himself and shares 243 years on the earth with Methuselah. For those interested in oral history this means Adam could have taught Methuselah everything he needed to know about the history of the world directly. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that writing existed in this time period. The building of cities and craftsmanship of tools would imply mathmatics. use of musical instruments shows music and the arts. The most accurate oral histories are musical. Even the Hebrews, who had written histories, used music to more easily memorize stories. This is why the bible is written "in verse", or as poetry.

Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. Enoch left earth in 987. Seth died in 1042 and Noah was born in 1056. Enosh died in 1140 and Cainan died in 1235. Mahalalel died in 1290. Jared died in 1422. Finally, Noah's son Shem was born in 1558.

Lamech died in 1651, 5 years before the flood. In 1656, shortly before the flood, Methuselah died. He shared 98 years on the earth with Noah's son Shem. Plenty of time to pass on the history. Now we have history passed from Adam, who was created at the beginning, to Methuselah, who lived the longest, to Shem, who would carry it through the flood to the rebirth of civilization.

The flood began in 1656 and lasted into 1657. Shem's son, Arphaxad, was born after the flood in 1658. Then came Salah in 1693. Eber is born in 1723. Peleg is born in 1757. Reu is born in 1787. Serug is born in 1819. Nahor is born in 1849. Terah is born in 1878. By 1948 Abram is born and will later be renamed Abraham by God. Peleg dies in 1996 so that Shem lives to see the death of his Great, great-grandson. The death of Nahor, in 1997 adds the death of his great-great-great-great-great-grandson to Shem's memory. Noah dies in 2006.

Salah, Shem's grandson, dies in 2026. Ishmael is born to Abraham by his wife's maid, Hagar. in 2034. Abraham's wife, Sarah, give birth to Isaac in 2048 and Shem's G-G-G-G-grandson, Serug, dies in 2049. Terah, the G-G-G-G-G-G-grandson of Shem, dies in 2083. Isaac returns to the land of Abraham's family and marries Rebekah in 2088. In 2096, Shem sees the death of his son, Arphaxad. Rebekah gives birth to Jacob and Esau in 2108. Abraham finally dies in 2123, Shem is still alive. Shem's Grandson, Salah dies in 2126. Finally, Shem dies in 2158. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each returned to their homeland to take wives. Each had the opportunity to learn history from Shem. Shem shared at least 50 years on the earth with Jacob and Jacob spent at least 20 years in his Great-great-grandfathers homeland working for Laban. The history can pass from Adam to Methuselah to Shem and to Jacob.

At this point dependence on oral history would not make sense. Written records were being kept by nearby civilizations with which everyone involved would have had contact. Sanskrit, one of the earliest known languages, originated in this region. In addition, the 3 patriarchs had regular contact with Egypt where written histories could be found on papyrus, carved in stone and molded in precious metals in the form of Hieroglyphs. The first 5 books of the bible are called the books of Moses because he originated them. The idea that an educated prince of Egypt would depend on Oral tradition to pass on the knowledge he sought to teach would be ludicrous. Furthermore the bible makes it quite clear that God ordered Moses to make those records in written form on several occasions. The records were carved in stone and written on some form of paper.

Joseph, too, was a prince of Egypt. His job as a record keeper and treasurer of the kingdom make it unlikely that he would leave the important history of his people to the vagaries of Oral tradition. This gives us 5 generations of oral transmission at the maximum and probably less.

Ishmael died around 2171. But further timing of his line is unavailable.

Eber died in 2187. Joseph would have been born around 2198. The story of tattling on his brothers at age 17 places that event around 2115. Issac died in 2223 but it's not clear if Joseph had been sold into slavery yet. In 2226, Joseph was in the Pharaohs prison and interpreted a the dreams of the Pharaohs chief butler and chief baker. he would be in prison another 2 years before Pharaoh's dream reminded the butler about him.

In 2228, at the age of 30, Joseph stood before Pharaoh. Having interpreted the dream and warned Pharaoh of what was coming he was immediately made prime minister and began to store the grain through the 7 years of plenty.

The Famine began in 2235 Joseph's brothers would have come for the first time by 2236 and made their second trip by 2237 so that Abraham/Israel would have moved his family to The land of Goshen in Egypt by 2238. The famine would end around 2242. In 2255 Jacob dies and is mourned by his family and the whole of Egypt because his son provided the way for Egypt to survive and prosper in the famine. The Children of Israel and an honor guard of Egypt escorted Abraham's remains to Canaan to be buried in the tomb of the patriarchs.

Joseph died in 2308. If we assume that the 430 years in Egypt is counted from the time Abraham moved his family to Goshen then the story of the Exodus begins with the birth of Arron in 2585 and the birth of Moses in 2588. Moses was 80 years old when he told Pharaoh to free God's people so that the escape from Egypt would be in the year 2668.

I don't know what year it is on a Hebrew calender. I do know that they began counting years from the time they left Egypt and Zola Levitt often commented on the Israelites having been around about 4000 years so, Based on the timeline so far, the earth is around 6500 years old or so.

That's about as accurate as I can get for now. There isn't a lot of detail on timelines and lineage until the book of Numbers.
2668

Genesis Chapter 50-Exodus chapter 2

The Cross-over. I won’t be able to do this very often. Most books of the bible are different enough that crossing the end of one book and starting another would lead to confusion of subjects. the Torah(the first 5 books of the bible)is an exception. Written together to go together they cross over easily. In fact, in the fine old Hollywood tradition, Exodus is a sequel. In point of fact it is the continuation of a story that wasn’t finished in Genesis. Genesis takes us from the beginning of the world to the beginning of a nation. Exodus will tell us about the birth of that nation and remind us of the rough time it had as a toddler.

God’s message to me: God rewards those who do right in the face of oppression. The midwives were given a direct order from the king. In that time such orders were law. The ignored and unjust and evil law and were rewarded by God. God tells us to submit to government but he has never told us to ignore His law in favor of political power. When the government gives unjust or evil laws we are bound to ignore them for the sake of obeying God. Slavery and segregation were such laws. Any law which violates God’s law or prevents worship qualifies.

Many of God’s servants violated local laws and international treaty to bring the word of God to the Soviet Union. In the last Olympic games we heard a lot of rumors about Christians violating the law to bring the word to China. Others have been at risk in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many are in danger in countries we aren’t politically involved with for the same reason. When we here of missionaries in danger for teaching the word we must pray for them and stand up for them. Regardless of government policy or popular sentiment they must be held as heroes. Our government cannot be allowed to harass them or abandon them and Governments who oppress them must be opposed and fought.

Americans have the freedom to practice religion and the responsibility to spread that freedom. Those who fail to do so deserve to lose that freedom and be forced in to secret worship like those who they do not defend. Notice that the bible never speaks a word against those who lie to protect actions that are right. The midwives lied to protect lives and avoid being replaced by those who would follow Pharaohs law. God rewarded them for protecting his children.

Promises: God remembers his promises even in the darkest hour. Under 2 Pharaohs, the children of Israel were oppressed and then God began to make their way out, as he had promised and prophesied.

Commands: Do what God would want you to do no matter what. No law should prevent you from doing God’s will. No oppressor should push you into doing the wrong thing. No amount of fear or public pressure should make you ignore God’s way.

Timeless principles: God raises up leaders to bring us out of harms way. No leader is perfect and most have a skeleton or two in the closet. To ignore a good leader because of a checkered past is to give up on leadership altogether. Abraham slept with his wife’s maid. Jacob was a polygamist, Joseph was accused of rape, Moses was a murderer, king David was a murder and a polygamist and stole a man’s wife. Solomon worshiped false Gods and had over 900 wives. The list goes on to the modern day. I have my problems with Pres Bush and I know he was a drunkard in his youth. He freely admits it. I also know he takes time to pray with the families of anyone who comes to him with problems and he never makes decisions without first bringing them to God in prayer. The same can be said of a lot of presidents from both sides of the isle.

God can use the selfish sinner even in the depths of his depravity but, when such a man gives himself to God and drops his selfishness in favor of God’s plan, he can turn that person into the greatest among us. Whenever you hear rumors of the past indiscretions of potential leaders you need to look at what they are doing. Some exchange one set of evils for another. Many have their pasts dragged out to discredit the good they are doing. How many true heroes have we ignored because someone found a mistake in their past that we didn’t like. You many people with an indiscretion in their past were kept from doing great good in the present because we were turned against them. When was the last time you dropped your support for a good person because you found out he or she did something in the past that you did and were ashamed of.

more to learn for in-depth study: God blessed Joseph mightily. The Egyptians, respecting his upbringing, honored Josephs father as they would the father of a king. When Israel(Jacob) died all the land of Egypt mourned his death for 70 days and the royal honor guard sent with his sons to Israel's funeral and burial in Canaan mourned him greatly another 7 days in Canaan so that the people of that land changed the name of the place in honor of the great mourning that went on there. Joseph was promised by God that his body, too, would be buried in Canaan, like his father was.

Archaeological note: The bible has just given an evidence of the past. The tomb of the patriarchs, the land purchased by Abraham for their burial, and the proof of the story telling how Israel became the heirs to the land they live on can be shown by finding the 2 Egyptian mummies. Both Jacob and Joseph were mummified in the traditional manner of Egypt and, having been a prince of Egypt until his death, the coffin in which Joseph was placed is likely to be the type of sarcophagus we are used to seeing in association with Pharaohs and other key figures from Egypt.

Prophecy tells us many things will occur in that land in the end times. The sacrifices will begin at the temple again. This cannot happen until the ark of the covenant is recovered and the temple rebuilt. It is unlikely the temple will be rebuilt without the Muslims giving up Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock being removed. The discovery of these mummy’s along with the recovery of the Ark would be major steps in that direction.

Archaeologists are busy on many fronts in Israel. Israeli and Christian archaeologists seek proof of Israel's past, like the mummies and ark, to prove the national claim. Muslim Archaeologists are actively trying to hide these proofs. When the secret vault under the temple mount was believed to be found the Muslims buried it behind over 20feet of reinforced concrete. They turned Solomon's stables into an underground mosque to prevent study that might find evidence of his kingdom. Bombings of digs, theft of artifacts and building mosques and the like on major finds to prevent study are a regular activity of the Muslim “historians”. Finally there are secular archaeologist who are just there because so much of civilization originated in the region and they want to learn. These are often our greatest allies because, without agenda, they prove our points. It was non-aligned Archaeologists who found the evidence proving the Philistines were seafaring warriors like the Vikings who controlled outposts near the cost but rarely, if ever, traveled more than a couple of miles inland and never controlled the Land of Israel as a whole.