Fortigurn wrote:I'm familiar with this argument, but there are problems with it. Is it really credible to sugget that these genealogies extend over some 30,000 years?
Fortigurn, yes.. Some scholars would even argue that he Biblical genealogies can be stretched indefinitely. However, most reliable and conservative Hebrew scholars place the biblical date for the creation of Adam and Eve sometime between about 10,000 to 60,000 years with the outside limits at about 7,000 and 100,000 years.
On what basis do we then date Adam to approximately 30,000 years ago, if we don't know the time duration these genealogies cover?
Besides the biblical calendar, there are three other factors that we can base these dates on.. The historical calendar, biochemical dates, and data convergence.
"The
historical calendar is based on evidence of religious artifacts and altars, the only spiritual species ever to inhabit Earth, appears to be 8,000 to 24,000 years ago. The earliest advanced art (like sophisticated cave drawings of animals and hunting rituals) dates back 33,000 years. Archaeologists see a sudden burst, of jewelry making-actually outstripping toolmaking-that dates to 40,000 years ago. This date coincides with the first evidence for clothing. The earliest evidence for complex language also dates to about 40,000 years ago."
"The
biochemical dates can be seen through DNA. By measuring DNA differences across several generations in different families, geneticists can measure the rates at which mtDNA and Y-DNA mutations occur. Such rates allow them to determine the dates back to the most recent common male and female ancestors for all humanity. These dates are 37,000 to 49,000 years ago for the most recent common male ancestor (Noah) and about 50,000 years ago for the most recent common female ancestor (Eve)."
"
Data convergence gives us a brief review of the data showing that the fossil and archaeological dates for the origin of humanity coincide with the dates for the most ancient religious artifacts. The biochemical history of humans proves consistent with these dates and, further, shows that the Neanderthals were morphologically and biochemically distinct from humans. All the dates and data fit the roughly estimated biblical dates for the creation of Adam and Eve."
All of this information was taken from Dr. Hugh Ross's book "A Matter of Days".
Are there any texs which we can use to demonstrate that genealogies were recorded with gaps of 1,000 years or more?
And why is it that when we add up the genealogies as if they were valid as they read at face value, we actually arrive at accurate dates for historically verifiable events
"The flexible, literal meanings of the Hebrew words "ben" and "ab" allow for many more generations than are listed in the biblical genealogical records. Therefore, instead of referring to a direct son, the genealogy could be referring to a family line that culminated in the next named "son."
Source: //
www.godandscience.org/evolution/sld015.html
Also the verses Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 Chronicles 16:15, Psalms 105:8 seem to indicate that humans have been around for at least 1000 generations.
That's possible, but where then in Biblical history do you place the Mesopotamian mega-flood (which Biblical events do you think took place around 2,900 BC?), and how could it possibly avoid mention in the Bible?
The Mesopotamian mega-flood was Noah's flood. It was not avoided in the Bible... The question is, however, where did it originate? Was it north around Mount Ararat or directly in the Mesopotamian Plains?
Here is a good view of the Mesopotamian plains with the mountains of Ararat to the north. How is Noah's ark going to land in the "mountains of Ararat" if the flood originated in the Mesopotamian Plains which flow southward to the Persian Gulf?
