Timeline of the Flood

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Ben Zartman

Puritan Board Junior
I see it asserted here and there--in the RHB Study Bible, among other places--that from the time God told Noah to build the ark until the rains began it was 120 years. But in 5:32 Noah's age is placed at 500 years, at which time he begets children. Then launches (heh) the flood narrative, and again in 6:10 Noah's three sons are mentioned, after which God tells Noah to build a boat.
We see later that Noah was 600 years old when he entered the ark. So unless God told Noah to build an ark 20 years before he begat children, there's no way it took 120 years to build his boat.
I see two possibilities: God told Noah to start building before Noah procreated, or the 120 year number was God reducing the ordinary lifespan of Man from hundreds of years to a shorter time, possibly to give each one less time to accumulate wrath against himself. I'm for the latter, since just a few generations after the flood, Abraham was considered aged at a measly 100 years.
Thoughts?
 
The text concerning "120yrs" is 6:3. That v is a divine response to vv1-2. It constitutes a record of some prophetic word that is delivered to the remnant church--it could have come by Noah, or his father Lamech, or by grandpa Methuselah, or someone whose name is unknown. It told the church that the world would end in about 120yrs.

That's taking the text at face value. Another way to take it is that the prophetic word that was given, regardless of the specific language, amounted to a word of sure warning that came to pass in only 120yrs. Perhaps it told that already-ancient Methuselah and his son Lamech (who died 5yrs before him) would both die and be buried, however long that should take, and then come the end.

In the one reading, the prophecy received is very specific. In the other, it is a more general expectation that comes to pass in 120yrs. At this moment in the text, we don't know what else (if anything) is also revealed along with these words. The primary context is what has come before, especially from 5:1.

In any case, we don't get to the command to Noah to build an ark until v13. There are two other text notes of great importance before that. One is a second prophetic word even before the word to Noah. v7 reiterates the statement of v3. We are not told when that reinforcing word is given to the church.

The other is v9. Here is the start of the "genealogy of Noah." This is one of the 10 major internal divisions of Genesis (cf.5:1). Find all the toletoth and you have eleven distinct histories within Genesis. In other words, v9 needs to be regarded as a kind of fresh ground and starting point for interpreting the story moving forward. Not that the previous context is irrelevant, it is one grand narrative. But that you shouldn't read from 6:1, or 5:32 as if it had to be all events of the day Noah started his ark enterprise.

I see Noah as something of a pessimist--not too surprising in a world in massive spiritual decline, and a church that was being swallowed by the world, 6:2. I wonder if Noah had a wife before he was 500yrs old. Would you want to marry and risk bringing children into a world like that? I believe marriage and having children today is an element of my statement of faith.

I think Noah was galvanized to marry and to have sons and to find them wives by the command to build an ark, so that he might fulfill the word of the Lord to him, v18. If this did come to him at the same time as the 6:3 revelation, then Noah had to find a wife. I am inclined to think that God simply prompted him at that time to get a wife, regardless of his pessimism (or to cure him of it). Perhaps he had to be the agent of converting a woman able to bear children, then persuading her to marry him (a "middle aged" man). Maybe that took 20yrs.

There are other possibilities. Maybe Noah and his wife earlier had other sons and daughters like his fathers' notices indicate, and the other children were apostates. But I find that more speculative than just taking 5:32 and 6:10 to mean that he married late.

Anyway, Shem was 100yrs old two yrs after the flood, Gen.11:10. I take that to indicate he was born near the beginning of the building phase. He grew up helping Noah build, and God gave him and his two brothers wives before they went in the ark. All that would thus come in accord with the prophecy, being intermediate fulfillments pointing to the sure end of it.

I'm also willing to accept the idea that building the ark was a shorter project than a century. But it was a huge effort, and basically the work of one man, and one family, even if he was able to hire outside laborers. He might have had to learn a shipwright skill plus a few others, along with providing for his family during those years, unless we think they had manna or ravens. A hundred years isn't really too much time to commit for the project.
 
I used to be as well, but then people do get older than 120 years.
That's why I said "ordinary," because there were and are exceptions. It may have been shortened again in the time of Moses when he noticed that the strong may even reach 80, though he surpassed that by a mile.
 
The text concerning "120yrs" is 6:3. That v is a divine response to vv1-2. It constitutes a record of some prophetic word that is delivered to the remnant church--it could have come by Noah, or his father Lamech, or by grandpa Methuselah, or someone whose name is unknown. It told the church that the world would end in about 120yrs.

That's taking the text at face value. Another way to take it is that the prophetic word that was given, regardless of the specific language, amounted to a word of sure warning that came to pass in only 120yrs. Perhaps it told that already-ancient Methuselah and his son Lamech (who died 5yrs before him) would both die and be buried, however long that should take, and then come the end.

In the one reading, the prophecy received is very specific. In the other, it is a more general expectation that comes to pass in 120yrs. At this moment in the text, we don't know what else (if anything) is also revealed along with these words. The primary context is what has come before, especially from 5:1.

In any case, we don't get to the command to Noah to build an ark until v13. There are two other text notes of great importance before that. One is a second prophetic word even before the word to Noah. v7 reiterates the statement of v3. We are not told when that reinforcing word is given to the church.

The other is v9. Here is the start of the "genealogy of Noah." This is one of the 10 major internal divisions of Genesis (cf.5:1). Find all the toletoth and you have eleven distinct histories within Genesis. In other words, v9 needs to be regarded as a kind of fresh ground and starting point for interpreting the story moving forward. Not that the previous context is irrelevant, it is one grand narrative. But that you shouldn't read from 6:1, or 5:32 as if it had to be all events of the day Noah started his ark enterprise.

I see Noah as something of a pessimist--not too surprising in a world in massive spiritual decline, and a church that was being swallowed by the world, 6:2. I wonder if Noah had a wife before he was 500yrs old. Would you want to marry and risk bringing children into a world like that? I believe marriage and having children today is an element of my statement of faith.

I think Noah was galvanized to marry and to have sons and to find them wives by the command to build an ark, so that he might fulfill the word of the Lord to him, v18. If this did come to him at the same time as the 6:3 revelation, then Noah had to find a wife. I am inclined to think that God simply prompted him at that time to get a wife, regardless of his pessimism (or to cure him of it). Perhaps he had to be the agent of converting a woman able to bear children, then persuading her to marry him (a "middle aged" man). Maybe that took 20yrs.

There are other possibilities. Maybe Noah and his wife earlier had other sons and daughters like his fathers' notices indicate, and the other children were apostates. But I find that more speculative than just taking 5:32 and 6:10 to mean that he married late.

Anyway, Shem was 100yrs old two yrs after the flood, Gen.11:10. I take that to indicate he was born near the beginning of the building phase. He grew up helping Noah build, and God gave him and his two brothers wives before they went in the ark. All that would thus come in accord with the prophecy, being intermediate fulfillments pointing to the sure end of it.

I'm also willing to accept the idea that building the ark was a shorter project than a century. But it was a huge effort, and basically the work of one man, and one family, even if he was able to hire outside laborers. He might have had to learn a shipwright skill plus a few others, along with providing for his family during those years, unless we think they had manna or ravens. A hundred years isn't really too much time to commit for the project.
Thanks for that reply. I'll comment only that a hundred years is not a lot of time for a boat of that magnitude--we have some far smaller ones around here (big boatbuilding town), over a decade in the making. If Noah had to deal with subcontractors, it's a wonder he finished it even if we give him the full 120.
 
I'm sure building a boat is no easy task, but surely God could've helped smooth line Noah's efforts. If God could seal the door of the ark, surely God could've helped Noah in other ways. I also understand that gathering up all of the animals would not have been easy under normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances.
I've never heard anyone speak about the timeline...
 
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