MAY THEIR DAYS BE A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS

The ages of the first seven patriarchs (from Adam to Enoch) add up to a total of 5,879 (930 + 912 + 905 + 910 + 895 + 962 + 365), just one less than 5,880, which is 7 times 7 times 120 years. Although the total is only 5,879 and not 5,880, the age of Enoch, who walked with God, was 365. This figure refers to the number of days in a year. And while a normal year has 365 days, a leap year has 366. With this number we do reach a total of 5,880.

We thus see that the average age of the first seven patriarchs is 7 times 120 years. Whereas the number 7 should remind us of how the earth was repopulated starting from seven couples, the figure 120 should remind us that God said: “May their days be a hundred and twenty years”.(Gn6:3)

Earlier on we have seen that a male lineage that in each new generation successively crossbreeds with each of the seven different female lineages, the first and the eighth generation have something in common. This is what happened with God and Enoch. This may explain why it was precisely Enoch who walked with God and why it was Enoch that God took with him.

The ages of the next 13 patriarchs (from Methuselah to Abraham) add up to a total of 5,867 (969 + 777 + 950 + 600 + 438 + 433 + 464 + 239 + 239 + 239 + 230 + 148 +205 + 175), or 5,880 minus 13. These 13 years equal one per patriarch.* We thus see that Genesis suggests that just as God has something in common with Enoch, Enoch has something in common with Abraham.

Since Enoch died in the year 987 and Abraham was born in the year 1946, 959 years separates them, which is 960 (or 8 times 120) minus 1. The ages in Genesis were therefore not taken randomly and imply much more than one immediately is aware of. The immediate consequence of this discovery is that it demonstrates that the Hebrew Masoretic Text offers the right ages and the Greek Septuagint altered them.**

*Thirteen is also the age of Ishmael, Abraham’s firstborn son through Hagar, at the time of the covenant, when all the males among Abraham’s household got circunsized.

**All Bibles are based on translations from either the Hebrew Masoretic Text or the Greek Septuagint. The latter is believed to be a translation of the former, ordered by the Jews that lived in Alexandria and spoke Greek instead of Hebrew. Legend says that six translators of each tribe did the translation and afterwards stated that their texts matched one another. Strange enough the Greek Septuagint offers other ages. When we wonder why the ages were altered, we see that they tried to reconcile the chronology of the Old Testament with the ideas of the Greek world regarding universal chronology. The patriarchs are now often a hundred years older when they get their heir and therefore we find that 3,412 years elapsed between the births of Adam and Abraham, instead of the 1,946 years according to the Hebrew Masoretic Text.