These notes refer to Abraham's age when Noah dyed, and Shem's age when Abraham dyed.
Genesis 5:28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: Genesis 5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. Genesis 5:30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: Genesis 5:31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. Genesis 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Noah's age: 500 ears.)
Genesis 11:10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: (Noah's age, 602 years old.),( Shem's age: 100 years old)
Note:
Please note Noah's age of five hundred years old, when he
begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The flood occurred one hundred years later making Noah six
hundred years old. And should make his 3 sons one hundred
years old. How ever, There is an apparent two year age
discrepancy between Genesis 5:32, and Genesis 11:10, which
will be discussed later in this article.
End of note.
Genesis 11:11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: (Noah's age, 637 years old.),( Shem's age: 135 years old) Genesis 11:13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: (Noah's age, 667 years old.),( Shem's age : 165 years old) Genesis 11:15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: (Noah's age, 701 years old.),( Shem's age: 199 years old) Genesis 11:17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: (Noah's age, 731 years old.),( Shem's age: 229 years old) Genesis 11:19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: (Noah's age, 763 years old.),( Shem's age: 261 years old) Genesis 11:21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: (Noah's age, 793 years old.),( Shem's age: 291 years old) Genesis 11:23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: (Noah's age, 822 years old.),( Shem's age: 320 years old) Genesis 11:25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. Genesis 11:26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. (Noah's age, 892 years old when Abraham was born), Shem's age: 390 years old)
Genesis 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Now, If Noah was 892 years old when Abraham was born, And, Noah was 950 when he died, that makes Abraham, if you take in to account the two year age discrepancy, spoken of above, between 58 and 60 years old when Noah died.
The following is one possible explanation of the age discrepancy, in Noah's age of five hundred years, given in Genesis 5:32, and Shem's age of one hundred years given in Genesis 11:10. The explanation is from James Wilson, of the Saar Shalom center located in Hot Springs Arkansas.
"In regard to the two years and the flood issue, I know that we can easily come up with a 1-year difference without any problem. Suppose that one has a son in the twelfth month of a particular year, and that son has a son in the first month of a year 30 years down the line. You can see that a 1-year discrepancy could then occur. But as for a two-year discrepancy, that is different. It would seem, then, that when the text states that Noah was 500 years old, that could be a round-off of 499 years, where he was about to have a birthday, or it could be a round-off of nearly 501 years old. And this would take care of another year. I can at least propose that to you, having no proof."
And, here is another possible explanation of the age discrepancy, From Philip W. Johnson
I am a dispersed student of James Wilson– so naturally I would like to put forth another proposal to the mystery of the “two year discrepancy” with Noah and Shem.
As with James’ proposal, I have no proof – yet, I do have some evidence.
First I would like to ask some questions:
1. Were Shem, Ham, and Japheth triplets?
2. If not triplets, were they all three born in the same
year?
This is what I see: Gen 5:32 is the closing of the “generations of Adam” and the beginning of a new story. Every other descendant gets the privilege of revealing their age at the time of birth of the next son in line – the number of years they lived after that birth – and the total number of years they lived. Why is Noah so different? We just get…
“And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Gen 5:32”
…tune in for the rest of the story!
I would like to compare this to Gen 1:27 where
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them.” –
and then proceeds to explain the creation of man and woman in Gen 2:7–25.
My evidence continues: Gen 9:28-29 “And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.”
Do you see that Noah’s landmark was not the birth of his son, but the flood? He lived 350 years after the flood – not 350 years after the birth of Shem, Ham, or Japheth. So, how old was Noah when Shem was born? The answer is in
Gen 11:10 “These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begot Arpachshad two years after the flood.”
Once again the flood is the landmark –
Gen 7:6 “And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood
of waters was upon the earth.” – Gen 7:11 “In the six
hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the
seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the
fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened.”
One year and ten days later in Gen 8:13-14 the earth is dry and they leave the boat. Clearly the landmark is the start of the flood – Noah was 600 yrs old, he lived 350 yrs after the flood, he lived to be 950 yrs old. Shem had a son 2 yrs after the flood when he was 100 yrs old – Noah was 602 yrs old: making him 502 yrs old when he had Shem. Therefore, Gen 5:32 is not the age of Noah when he had triplets, but an introduction to a story that Noah was in his 500’s when he had three sons and this is how it happened.
Now, After Philip's proposal, the next thing I want to point out is: that Shem lived six hundred years, and when Abraham was born, Shem was three hundred and ninety years old. Abraham lived one hundred and seventy five years as stated in Genesis 25:7-8
gen 25:7-8 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
Now, if Shem was three hundred and ninety years old when Abraham was born, and Abraham lived one hundred and seventy five years, that makes Shem five hundred and sixty five years old when Abraham died. So, if Shem lived six hundred years , he out lived Abraham by thirty five years.
Questions:
Did Noah know Abraham?
Did Abraham know Shem?
Here again, a comment from Mr. Philip W. Johnson:
in answer to your questions of did Noah know Abraham and did
Abraham know Shem? I would say yes… who wouldn’t want to go
see a dinosaur? Seriously, I like what you put together and
your questions that make one think of the many
possibilities, since the Scriptures do not tell all. Also, I
have put together a timeline which has Shem’s death in the
year 2158 P.C. (Post Creation) and the birth of Isaac
(lived 180 yrs) as 2048 P.C. – that would give them 110
years to get to know one another – and Jacob with his twin
was born in 2108 P.C., 50 yrs before Shem dies.
My sincere thanks to James Wilson and Philip Johnson for their proposals and comments. I very much appreciate them and enjoied them, I hope all of you who read this will as well.
Tom Sweeny