Signs Times and Progress (part two (part one))

Abel was dead and Cain rode the white horse, but Adam was spry for a man of 130. Eve, who wasn’t much younger than her husband, had another boy; she called him Seth (Compensation). Adam lived another 800 years after that, making him 930 when he died.

I always thought that if I were an anti god guy guy I’d be jumping all over Genesis 5. Nine hundred and thirty years old…Really?

Of course, being a church guy who said what the god guys said, I never said anything so as not to show a weakness in our arguments. Still, it would be interesting to see the two square off on the improbable longevity of Adam and his most immediate descendants.

It’s just too much to believe. I mean: Did everyone live for centuries or just these guys and their wives? You’d think someone would have discovered at least one skeleton of a 900 year old man by now (unless someone did, but the pan-dimensional mice behind the shadow government suppressed it).

Of course, I know how that debate ends.

< ---- Straw Man

The god guy goes on about good living and pure genes before moving on to the impossibility of proving a negative (that Adam did not live for 930 years). If that doesn’t work, there’s always the the old stand-by of expressing his outrage at the very idea of questioning God’s Word in this manner, and then stomping off in a huff. Later he'll stand in the pulpit and condemn the anti god guy guy to hell.

Anti Straw Man ---->

No less obtuse than the god guy, the anti god guy guy will stroll away with a smug smirk and a brand new video on his phone. He’ll post it on You Tube so all the other anti god guy guys can tell Bible jokes because the god guy is an idiot.

They're both idiots; they refuse to acknowledge the validity of Biblical Myth, and totally miss the truth of the matter..

What we need to remember is that most of Genesis is the product of the early Hebrews' oral tradition that developed over the course of 2000 years. The stories and the names were sung over and over by the tribal priests, whose careers were taken up with committing the stories to memory. These stories defined the Sons of God. Their entire culture was rooted in their relationship with YHWH Eloheem (Lord of gods) the Lord God.

How else would the preliterate ancient genius clan -- let me say that again -- genius clan do justice to their collective experience with the One God who rules all gods, if not through the symbolism and the emotion that myth employs to bind people together to form a People?

Here’s the thing, ancient Mythologies often describe actual events, actual technological and social advances, and actual political intrigues/revolutions. Hebrew Mythology is no different as far as all that goes, but what I find remarkable is that their mythology includes numbers, the work of archivists and historians. It’s as if Moses grafted history into the myth, and it’s in Gen 5 where we can see some of the cut lines between the two.

That still doesn't explain the seemingly inflated numbers, but now all we need is a pinch of plausibility to form a theory that fits the facts. What if, in the context of Genesis 5, the name of the man (Adam, Seth, Enosh…) is symbolic of the tribe he established, and every succeeding big man took his father’s name?

Adam = Tribe of Adam

Once more from the top:

The tribe of Adam thrived for 130 years and grew too large so the Adam’s son, Seth established a second tribe of the Sons of God. The tribe of Adam planted other tribes for another 800 years, so the tribe of Adam endured for 930 years.

The tribe of Seth thrived for 105 years and grew too large so the Seth’s son, Enosh (Man) established another tribe of the Sons of God. The tribe of Seth planted other tribes for another 807 years, so the tribe of Seth endured for 912 years.

The tribe of Enosh thrived for… You see my point, and I’m not going to go through the whole list except to leave you with the first half of a chart that measures the years from Adam to Jacob.

Name	Father’s age	Yr Born	Yr Died	Age
Adam	N/A	1 AA (Anno    Awdawm)	930 AA	930
Seth	(Adam) 130	130	1032	912
Enosh	(Seth) 105	235	1140	905
Kenan	(Enosh) 90	325	1235	910
Mahalalel	(Kenan) 70	395	1290	895
Jared	(Mahalalel) 65	460	1422	962
Enoch	(Jared) 162	622	987	365
Methuselah	(Enoch) 65	687	1656 (year of the flood)	969
Lamech	(Methuselah) 187	874	1651	777
Noah	(Lamech) 182	1056	2006AA/350PD                             (Post Diluvium)	950
Shem	(Noah) 500	1556	2156   /   500	600

I didn't mean to go all hermeneutical on you (that's why this post is late) but the real story Genesis 5 and the purple highlights tell can’t be fully understood without re-framing our perspective. 

Next Saturday: Signs Times and Progress (Part Two (Part Two))

Peace Out Y’all