OEBD-3

A. The Historical Reality: Flood to Terah

1. Post Flood Cultural Development

a. How could all the peoples described in Genesis 10 and 11 descend from Noah’s three sons after the flood and populate all the cities mentioned in as little as 101 years (the “birth” of Peleg, the earliest possible date for the Tower of Babel), or even 222 years until the birth of Terah in the metropolis of Ur?
b. How could the world become completely repopulated with animals in that timeframe?

B. An Unproven Hypothesis: God intended men to develop a chronology from this material and date the creation.

1. Our Hypothesis and Supporting Arguments: God never intended man to know the exact date of the creation, flood, or tower of Babel.

a.    The Bible includes chronological information between the descent into Egypt and the Exodus (430 years, Ex 12:40-41) and between the Exodus and Solomon’s temple (480 years, 1 Kn 6:1).

b.    This ample evidence that Moses knew how to draw a precise chronological timeline with day, month, and year accuracy

c.    This also occurs in the following stories:

1)    The flood (cf Gen 7:11 8:4-5, 13-14 NAU)
2)    The setting up of the tabernacle (cf Ex 40:17)
3)    The death of Aaron (cf Nu 33:38)
4)    Moses’ final words to the Israelites (cf De 1:3).

d. If God through Moses wished to detail a precise timeline from the creation event, why didn’t he date the flood and the Exodus with respect to creation – just as he did between the descent, Exodus, and the temple? Is it reasonable to conclude that God chose not to reveal this information, but He intended later scholars to sort through sketchy information about the earliest patriarchs to calculate dates for creation and the flood? We think not.