This online institute is designed to give a brief analysis and discussion of all scientific disciplines through the lens of a biblical world view. +++ SDG +++

Friday, April 19, 2013

Lesson #44 4000-3000 BC


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