Harvest 1874
Well-Known Member
I am sorry I did not quote a little more of the Genesis flood account. It reads,
Genesis 7 : 6: - 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.
Genesis 7: 11-12: - 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 8: 13-14: - 13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
Notice please that the Waters began to flood the earth on the 17 day of the month, of the second month of the 600th year of Noah's life.
Also notice please that the waters were dried up from the earth on the 1st day of the 1st month of the 601st year of Noah's life and it was not until the 27th day of the second month of the 601st year of Noah's live.
From the above, it can be seen that the Ark was closed up for just over one year and that the flood was not over until the 601st year of Noah's life when God told Noah to leave the ark. In your link to your "blog", you reference Genesis 8:13 but you use the number 600 instead of the number 601 which is found in the Genesis 8:13 reference that you used for the flood being over.
It is an error, a very common error.
From Adam to the Flood
Adam lived 130 years and begat ... Seth
Seth lived 105 years and begat Enos
Enos lived 90 years and begat Cainan
Cainan lived 70 years and begat Mahalaleel
Mahalaleel lived 65 years and begat Jared
Jared lived 162 years and begat Enoch
Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah
Methuselah lived 187 years and begat Lamech
Lamech lived 182 years and begat ... Noah
Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth
Creation of Adam to the End of the Flood 1656 years
Many get confused as to how exactly to reckon the closing 600 years listed above. The flood episode lasted just over a year from beginning to end. The rains began “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month” (Gen 7:11), and the band of eight survivors left the ark the following year “in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month” (Gen 8:14).
The 600th year referred to means 600 complete years had not yet passed. The conclusion of that year came later, and in fact the very first day of the next year numbered 601 is explicitly mentioned in the Genesis account. “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year [of Noah’s life], in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth” (Gen 8:13). Thus we conclude that the full 600 years closed near the end of their flood experience.
In other words, there were 1655 years until the flood, and 1656 years until the flood ended.
“Now although it is possible to approximate the year in which Noah was born (3072 B.C.) we cannot know for fact what specific month or day it was as this is not recorded in the scriptures.
In the 600th year of Noah's life (Gen. 7:11), he was 599 years old and sometime during that 600th year we know not exactly when, Noah turned 600 years old. We are not to erroneously conclude as some are inclined to suppose that on the very first day of the first month (Gen. 8:13) in his 601st year, that he turned 601 years old, but rather that he was just beginning the 601st year of his life; consequently up to that date he had lived 600 full years.”
Calendar Years
The method of dating experiences in the flood is by year, month, and day, each numbered and reported. The flood began on the 17th day of the second month of year 600. The years mentioned are the years of Noah’s life. But how were they reckoned?
They seem to be calendar years, because of the mention of numbered months and days. They do not seem to count from Noah’s birthday, as we reckon ages of people today for example. Presumably all of the years mentioned in the genealogy are of the same kind of reckoning, that is, calendar years.
This is consistent with the way reigns of kings of nations such as ancient Israel, Babylon and Assyria were reckoned. Calendar years were used, so that the number of the years of a king’s reign was incremented on the first day of a new year. It was not counted from the day he came to the throne, which could be any time during the previous year when the previous king died.
I will continue with my next post