Smoky Mountain Bible Institute
Lesson #44
Breakout
your maps and histories as we travel in a time machine of sorts to examine
History & Geography through a biblical world view. Now that we have defined
prehistory lets start our trek trough recorded history.
We will cover the
first 1000 years following the creation, circa 4000 to 3000BC. The world of
recorded history still has very little for us because the practice of writing
even in pictograph form by most accounts is in its infancy during this millennium. Sumerian tablets show a pictographic based
writing containing some 2000 signs. Some of the earliest Babylonian omen
tablets that predate Hammurabi's code date from this period. Some of the
earliest wedge shaped Sumerian cuneiform writing starts to appear around
3500BC.
Keep in mind that
this first 1000 years is the Pre-flood or antediluvian earth. This means that
we are dealing with an unknown geography, the land mass that ended up being the
cradle of civilization and is now called the Levant or the Middle East may have
been quiet different. So when we speak
of the earliest clay and stone examples of writing these are either pre flood
artifacts or they are actually about 1200 years younger than is commonly held because
they would have developed following the flood.
This makes more since as much of the advances of civilization would have
been lost except that which Noah would have brought with him on the Ark. This
miss match of dates will continue until we get to 2344 BC when commonly held
dates and biblically recorded dates will come more in line with each other.
Other commonly held
developments we find in that first millennium; The Egyptian lunar calendar,
Earliest carbon dated cities in Mesopotamia, Cretan ships in the Mediterranean,
The beginning date of the Jewish calendar 3760BC, this makes 2013 the year 5773
on the Jewish calendar. The Myan
calendar starts in 3373 BC, they were not around for the end of their calendar
so maybe they were not around in the beginning or they were acknowledging a
common ancestry. Evidence has been
found of masonry, metalsmithing of copper, gold and silver, wheels, linen, agriculture,
animal husbandry, written numerals, pottery, harps, lyres, flutes, and
ceramics. We would expect to find high
levels of technology and civilization from people who live for hundreds of
years and were being fruitful and multiplying to a pre-flood population of
billions by the time of the flood.
You might ask how can
two people Adam and Eve multiply to such a vast population in only 1656 years,
give or take a few. Well they were
created to live for ever and while death did come into the world Adam lived to
the ripe old age of 930, for that matter so did most of His children. When Adam died in 3070 BC The following
individuals could have attend the funeral;
His son Seth age 800,
grandson
Enos age 695,
great-grandson Cainan
age 605, great great-grandson
Mahalaleel age 535,
3x great-grandson
Jared age 470, 4x great-grandson Enoch age 308,
5x great-grandson Methuselah
age 243, 6x great-grandson Lamech
a mere toddler at age 56,
Noah would not be born to Lamech until 126 years later so he would not
have been there. God would not limit mans life span to 120 years until after
the flood. So back to the question about being fruitful and multiplying, if
eight generations of your sons can attend your funeral, and if you and they are
being blessed with children at the rate of one every other year and the child
bearing years seem to be earliest age 65 Enoch oldest 502 Noah, then you will
have an exponential population growth and getting to billions in 1656 years is quite
easy mathematically, however raising such a large brood may be another matter. That is enough for this month, we will try to
wrap up the antediluvian time frame next month and maybe even cover a few more
years.
Have a blessed Easter season
In Christ Pastor Portier
