Intelligent Design, Science & Religion

[teddyv]

Is Bishop Ussher's timeline canonical?

[Paul James]

3 hours ago, David1701 said:

This all sounds good, apart from the dating of the Flood, which was probably about 4,400 years ago, if I recall correctly.

There is a bit of an oddity about the way Jews recorded their genealogy.  We do it by actual people.  They did it by generational family groups initiated by the name of the patriarch.  Seeing that individuals lived very long lives just after the Flood right up until the Lord limited the average life span to 120 years and later on to 75 years, Noah and his sons could have lived a very long time before their recorded offspring were born, and their offspring could have lived hundreds of years before the next particular person in the genealogical line was born, and so on.   This could move the time frame back thousands of years more to when the flood happened.

One archaeological fact that we have is that there is evidence of human habitation in North America as far back as 20,000 years ago.   Whether it was there of a civilisation before or after the Flood, we don't really know.   It is more likely to be after the Flood, because human society dispersed after that because of the Tower of Babel event.   So, the Tower of Babel event had to have happened around 20,000 years ago.

Also, we must remember that the genealogical records in the Bible trace just one line that led up to the birth of Christ, and there would have been many other lines branching out from the sons of Noah as they had sons and daughters over their lifetimes.

Although I believe that the genealogical records are accurate, it may be too simplistic to make calculations based on each individual's actual lifetime.  There has to be another answer somewhere to be in harmony with what is being discovered through archaeology,

But then, I could be all wrong about this, and the date of the Flood was actually 4,400 years ago!  :-)

[David1701]

3 hours ago, Alive said:

This makes me chuckle.

:-)

Okay, I'm not quite that old.

[David1701]

1 minute ago, Paul James said:

There is a bit of an oddity about the way Jews recorded their genealogy.  We do it by actual people.  They did it by generational family groups initiated by the name of the patriarch.  Seeing that individuals lived very long lives just after the Flood right up until the Lord limited the average life span to 120 years and later on to 75 years, Noah and his sons could have lived a very long time before their recorded offspring were born, and their offspring could have lived hundreds of years before the next particular person in the genealogical line was born, and so on.   This could move the time frame back thousands of years more to when the flood happened.

The 120 years was never man's lifespan.  It referred to the length of time that God was patient with the evildoers, while Noah was building the ark.

Man's lifespan settled down to about 70 years, some time after the flood; but this was clearly an average.

Quote

One archaeological fact that we have is that there is evidence of human habitation in North America as far back as 20,000 years ago.   Whether it was there of a civilisation before or after the Flood, we don't really know.   It is more likely to be after the Flood, because human society dispersed after that because of the Tower of Babel event.   So, the Tower of Babel event had to have happened around 20,000 years ago.

How is that date (20,ooo years) arrived at?  Are there assumptions involved?

Quote

 

Also, we must remember that the genealogical records in the Bible trace just one line that led up to the birth of Christ, and there would have been many other lines branching out from the sons of Noah as they had sons and daughters over their lifetimes.

Although I believe that the genealogical records are accurate, it may be too simplistic to make calculations based on each individual's actual lifetime.  There has to be another answer somewhere to be in harmony with what is being discovered through archaeology,

But then, I could be all wrong about this, and the date of the Flood was actually 4,400 years ago!  :-)

 

The 4,400 is an approximation; but many YECs say that the maximum possible age is about 10,000 years, according to biblical chronologies.

[David1701]

30 minutes ago, teddyv said:

Is Bishop Ussher's timeline canonical?

Canonical?  No.  But it is a reasonable approximation, based on biblical chronologies.

[Guest kingdombrat]

9 hours ago, David1701 said:

Noah's Flood was not a "flash flood"!  It lasted for many months.

Recent floods, although much smaller than the global flood of Noah's day, have shown that many layers of sediment can be laid down, in a short space of time.

Not the point though here.   A flood of standing water is not going to erode an entire Canyon by just sitting there like a lake.   My point is when the waters were springing forth from the Earth and coming down like rain the combination was like a wrecking ball that came crashing down carving out Canyons and Mountain/Valley formations.

[Guest kingdombrat]

9 hours ago, David1701 said:

Noah's Flood was not a "flash flood"!  It lasted for many months.

Recent floods, although much smaller than the global flood of Noah's day, have shown that many layers of sediment can be laid down, in a short space of time.

Noah's Flood was an eruption of water coming from the Earth and falling from the sky.   The combination of such would be like a wrecking ball sweeping over the land masses carving bits and pieces here.   The water itself then became settled after God shut the water source down.   After that, the natural process of [evaporation] took place.

[David1701]

14 hours ago, kingdombrat said:

Not the point though here.   A flood of standing water is not going to erode an entire Canyon by just sitting there like a lake.   My point is when the waters were springing forth from the Earth and coming down like rain the combination was like a wrecking ball that came crashing down carving out Canyons and Mountain/Valley formations.

Many formations would have been made when the flood waters receded.

[David1701]

14 hours ago, kingdombrat said:

Noah's Flood was an eruption of water coming from the Earth and falling from the sky.   The combination of such would be like a wrecking ball sweeping over the land masses carving bits and pieces here.   The water itself then became settled after God shut the water source down.   After that, the natural process of [evaporation] took place.

It was not just the water.  There would have been massive and fast movements of Earth's plates, creating enormous tsunamis.

[Guest kingdombrat]

2 minutes ago, David1701 said:

Many formations would have been made when the flood waters receded.

I agree, but a rushing great amount of water at once would literally carve out more landscape than what sitting water for 6 months could erode away.