Patriarch Abraham - Timeline from Abraham through Levi and Aharon to Zadok the Priest

To Whomever This May Concern:

My aim in this post is to bring an alternative perspective on the Abraham to Zadok timeline currently presented in the GENI tree so that researchers may draw their own conclusions. There are obviously big issues with the GENI timeline in that Levi is born 200 years after his father's death, but I am staying focused on this post's perspective rather than seeking to discuss or change individual dates on the GENI tree. For those who view the biblical genealogy as symbolic rather than actual, I respect the view, The reason I am revisiting this ancient debate is that some recent work I've done studying ancientDNA suggests there could be some aspect of truth to some of the biblical genealogies. I'm not going to present the ancientDNA work here as that is discussed more fully in two separate documents (https://www.academia.edu/43340967/ and https://www.academia.edu/44710820/).

If one takes the year 3761 BCE as the first year of the Hebrew Calendar (i.e., we are now if 5781 and counting backwards brings us to 3761 BCE: https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/hebraica/about-hebrew-calendar), and using the exact ages given in the Bible of fathers at the time of the births of their sons, then Avraham's father Terah is born in 1883 BCE (all years given in this message are approximate). This means that Avraham was born sometime after 1883 BCE, and I estimate this year to be 1781 BCE since the Bible does not to my knowledge give the age of Terah at the time of Avraham's birth (NB: Avraham is the first person in the biblical lineage whose father's age is not given at the time of birth; my use of 1781 is simply an extrapolation based on Avraham's being 100 at the time of his son Isaac's birth). So if I use 1781 BCE as the birth of Avraham and then begin again using the exact ages given in the Bible of fathers, then Isaac is born in 1681, Jacob in 1621, Levi in 1535, Judah in 1534, Joseph in 1530, and the sojourn in Egypt begins in 1493, lasting for 430 years or until 1063. Therefore the Exodus occurs in 1063 when Aharon is 84 and Moses 81, giving them birth years of 1147 and 1144 respectively-- using the Bible's own timeline. So comparing these dates with what is estimated in the current GENI tree we have (GENI/biblicaly based calculation): 1) Avraham: 1972/1781, 2) Isaac: 1950/1681, 3) Jacob 1892/1621, 4) Levi: 1565/1535, 5) Judah1749/1534, 6) Joseph 1814/1530, and 7) Aharon: 1395/1147.

Between Levi and Aharon the Bible records only 4 generations (Levi>Kohath>Amram>Aharon) so if the above calculated time line is correct then there must be many more generations between Levi and Aharon: how to explain this? Well it is possible that the 430 year sojourn in Israel is a genealogical black box with no data available somewhere along the line between Levi and Aharon (my guess is that the gap in genealogical knowledge occurs in the 150-200 years between Levi and Kohath). Or it could be that the birth ages given in the Bible should be replaces by average-adjusting the number of years by the generations: 1781 to 1141 is 640 years, divided by the 6 generations is about 100 years (incidentally this is more or less what the same time distance on the current GENI tree between Avraham bca1972 to Aharon bca 1395: =577 years for the 6 generations).

Personally, I have a difficult time accepting 100 years between generations and believe a more accurate scientific number for this period in history would be 15-20 years, which means I opt to believe there are many generations missing from the period of the sojourn in Egypt, and that the more accurate genealogy begins around the time of the Exodus with Aharon's immediate ancestry of Amram and continuing with the generations between Aharon and Zadok the Priest (before Amram I suspect we are dealing with a 'mythical' genealogy which may contain some socio-historical truths but which cannot be viewed as a complete, uninterrupted, and fully accurate descending lineage).

The other part of this study involves looking backwards from historical times to corroborate the prior calculation for Aharon's birth year: looking specifically at the number of generations between Aharon and Zadok the Priest (the high priest who anointed King Solomon, giving him a historical birth year of around 1000), the Bible records ten generations. Using an average of 20 years between generations, this would give Aharon a birth year of 1200 (which is not far from the 1147 calculated from the top down). I think even a 15 year generational average is reasonable for this period of history, making Aharon's birth year 1150 (almost exactly as calculated from the top).

Obviously any attempt to historicize the biblical account is going to be highly speculative, but I think it is worth revisiting the GENI dates from time to time based on new evidence. Some other work I have done, using an ancient DNA strategy supports the later timeline presented above. I believe the reason for these much earlier GENI estimates is that many researchers try to align the Abrahamic genealogies with various historical waypoints which are not specifically mentioned in the bible, such as the dates of certain Egyptian Pharaohs (as seen in the movies for example), etc....

Scholars have been debating the Abrahamic tree for millennia and I suspect will keep doing so until 'Watson' is able to figure it all out for us :-)

Profiles mentioned in the above post: Terah ., Patriarch Isaac / יצחק אבינו, Patriarch Isaac / יצחק אבינו, Levi ., Judah ., Joseph, Vizier of Egypt, Prophet, Aaron ., High Priest, Moses the Law Giver, Zadok 1 ., High Priest

My question as someone who never graduated in jewish OR christian theology, failed most of their asian history classes - but graduated in merit (B average) in graphic design (i'm getting there..) - used Soren Kierkegaard in most of their 2nd year essays on design and philosophy is....

Is there any links to the studies involved, not just your research, but some of the findings from your research.

Nobody's claiming you're incorrect.
Just that my head exploded a bit when reading this.

FYI: My mother graduated with a theology degree in her 50s, and graduated at 65 with a post grad in chapllaincy. She seems to think i'm the dumb one in this discussion :P

I'm still reading this as if it were a mathmatical rubik's cube, however- for the sake of genealogy, and for the sake of data clarification - any chance you can like asked above - give some more insight, academic papers, websites etc? LAy people's blogs that have information?

Agian i'm not a professional genealogist 1, and 2, I graduated in design - I connected Soren Kierkegaard's work to about half of the anime that came out in the 1990s - XD

@Adam I saw you have made two post now and agree with everything you're saying. I have been working these trees forwards and backwards. Using DNA both modern and Archeological kits.

Reading newer and older Bibles and even older Bibles than that... many translations and "Copies " made. Errors to be had and things removed...

Either the years are calculated wrong or a lost line. I am looking at the lost line personally. I'll follow you because I enjoyed what you wrote and can see you too know a thing or two. =)

Reply to Kieran Haldeman-Somerville: I apologize if what I wrote caused a cerebral detonation. I try to be as clear and reasonable as I can, but sometimes I fall short. You may be surprised to hear that I don't have a well prepared bibliography to offer. In my paoers there are some citations to prior work, but these are mostly genetic rather than biblical papers. Judging from your post my guess is that your mother may be the person to ask for additional references concerning biblical historicization. Please post anything interesting you find here
I am an ecological policy attorney who is staying busy during isolation with biblical genealogies.

I believe this to be true with some info missing, they say once you find it it is facts to support your lineages, my links to the Rothschilds go to him and some other go way back 200 relatives, so nice to see the generations to see where ands who mixes with that, thank you for the message to clear other minds as well, confusion says, don't sweat the small stuff, this is generally right lets go with it to slowly modify the facts. Thank you for the message will help lots and we will lose most of the drama that goes with this

Hi Adam, Thank you for your "alternative perspective" much appreciated.
I feel it is good for someone to have the courage and wisdom to question these Biblical genealogy time lines, I don't believe anything should be so sacrosanct it is beyond questioning.
As to "symbolic rather than actual" , I feel Geni World Family Tree should be as actual/correct as possible rather than symbolic.
If it is to be both, then it would be good if it was somehow defined or indicated which parts or the Tree are symbolic and which parts are actual.
Thank you,

Hey Adam :)
It's ok.
Cerebral Detonations are a good thing when it means i revive with more knowledge than i did before.
I'm not claiming sacreligious reincarnation, i may just be implying a "spiritual cerebal detonation" in where something magically ... well religiously MAKES MY HEAD NOT EXPLODE! :P

Aka: I take panadol (tylenol) and learn to explore and learn more :)
If there's alternative information that's SCIENTIFIC it's still valid.
Biblical isn't ... always helpful when studying a scientific fact because modern translations sometimes lose information.

However christian history and jewish history - do have academic fields and i'm sure you're already knee deep into information from those - i wouldn't know where to start :)

Even if there is a break in the lineage we are aware that someone born 3000 BC is likely to the ancestor of everyone on earth today. Then is it not likely that Abraham is the ancestor of everyone in North Africa (Magrib), the Middle East, India, and Europe. It is myopic to just look at recorded lineages because the actual lineage includes the six sons of Keturah, Jacob, and Ishmael. That excludes ancestry by Abraham's daughters who are more likely to survives than a male tine.

I may or may not have a recorded ancestry through Isaac but having other prominent Rabbis, Philosophers, and Royal Hebrew descent it is highly likely I have Isaac among my ancestors. What I am most proud of is my descent from Pharaoh Magrib father of Hajar, who was the mother of Ishmael. His ancestry goes back to the old kingdom of Assyria another one thousand years. Ishmael was the firstborn, the child chose to be sacrificed by Abraham. Until Abraham realized leaving the boy in the desert with his mother, separated from him was the fulfilment of Abraham's sacrifice. Then Ishmael and Abraham rebuilt the temple of Noah which became the Kabbah.

We all forget that Judaism, Samaritanism, and Islam are the same faith built from the same source and sum ancient tongue along with Aramaic. They share the general idea of the return of the Messiah and an age of faith, it is not the end of time.

Many thanks to all the responses, I had no idea there was so much interest in this arcane topic. I would like to respond to Raymond Henry who makes many interesting points in the summary. To Raymond I make have one clarification and pose one question. WIth the statement "we are aware that someone born in 3000 BC is likely to [be] the ancestor of everyone alive on earth today," I must differ. Yes, it is true that according to the Hebrew Calendar the world begins sometime around 3700 BC, but I personally am not aware of this as a scientific fact, since we have human remains from many millennia before that. I would consider this portion of the biblical account to be a description of 'time immemorial', and as being a creation myth as is found in many ancient cultures. I use the Year 1 of the Hebrew Calendar as a starting point in the calculation of birth years of subsequent biblical figures and events, but do not mean to imply that there were no humans before then. It follows from this that I do not believe Abraham to be the ancestor of everyone in all those places.// My question is this: do you consider Zoroastroism to be also built from the same source as the other three you mentioned since it too has a messianic aspect?

The date of creation was based on the erroneous research of Archbishop Usher. It seems as though the ages of people has changed from years and months in the past. It seems unlikely this was not consciously recorded by using nice round numbers. Even the Hebrew Bible which is without the tampering of the text by Christians in translation has different authors and conflicting narratives and foreign additions.

I give two sources of the Common Ancestor of All Humans Lived 5,000 Years Ago:
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Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/story/statisticians-common-ancestor-of-all-...

and BBC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19331938

This does not mean the One common ancestor hypothesis had bottle necks when a desert or an ocean delayed that date.

It is quite clear that the big bang was circa 13 / 14 billion years ago and may have been proceeded by earlier events. We are told that one year to God can be 1000 years to us (even in the Qur'an). So Usher's work is a flight of fancy as much as the written Bible existing before 500 BC when it changed from an oral tradition to a written one.

Hi Adam,

Very interesting, very well thought out. Very well explained, and a great read! I am quite interested in this topic.

Thank you for sharing.
Linda GM

Like 207 generations thru Ab and yes start in North Africa and thru the Moses trail the Red Sea/dead sea, to the tree of life and up thru Istanbul to Holland is the German side, and Grandma is the same but she goes into China and back up to Turkey Ottoman Empire and down thru Austria, Italy, France to England and Ireland, thats grandma, it is nice to know that is just 2 of my greatest lineage in the world, connect to me and you connect to both worlds

CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME, WHY EVERY CHARACTER IN THE KJV BIBLE ARE CAUCASIAN, WHICH BELIES THE WORD OF GOD? THERE ARE NO REFERANCES TO CLAIM THIS REDICULES ASSUMPTION. THE CAUCASIAN PEOPLE'S CLAIM TO NORTHERN AFRICA AND TONTHE MIDDLE EAST IS TO CLAIM POSSESSION OVER ALL THAT THE GREAT MASTER HAS MADE. THE ONLY REFERENCE TO Melanated PEOPLE, IN THE BIBLE ARE KING SOLOMON, '"I AM BLACK AND COMELY" AND IN REVALATIONS,
"The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.". LASTLY, GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD..