Genesis 5:32

And Noah was five hundred years old . Literally, a son of 500 years, i.e. going in his 500th year (cf. Genesis 7:6 ; Genesis 16:1 ). The son of a year ( Exodus 12:5 ) means "strictly within the first year of the life" (Ainsworth). And Noah begat — i.e. began to beget (cf. Genesis 11:26 )— Shem ,—name (Gesenius), fame (Furst)— Ham ,— cham ; hot (Gesenius, Murphy), dark-colored (Furst)— and Japheth —spreading (Gesenius, Murphy); beautiful, denoting the white-colored race (Furst). That the sons are mentioned in the order of their ages (Knobel, Kalisch, Keil, Colenso) may seem to be deducible

But there is reason to believe that Japheth was the eldest and Ham the youngest of the patriarch's children (Michaelis, Clarke, Murphy, Wordsworth, Quarry). According to Genesis 11:10 Shem was born 97 years before the Flood, while ( Genesis 6:11 ) Noah was 600 years old at the time of the Flood. Hence, if Noah began to beget children in his 500th year, and Shem was born in Noah's 503rd year, the probability is that the firstborn son was Japheth. In accordance with this Genesis 10:21 is understood by LXX ; Vulgate, Michaelis, Lange, Quarry, and others to assert the priority in respect of age of Japheth. In the narrative ahem is placed first as being spiritually, though not physically, the firstborn. Ranke perceives in the mention of the three sons an indication that each was subsequently "to lay the foundation of a new beginning."

The Antiquity of Man

The chronology of the present chapter represents man as having been in existence at the time of the Deluge exactly 1656 years. According to the Septuagint, which Josephus follows except in one particular (the age of Lamech), and which proceeds, again with two exceptions (the age of Jared, which it leaves untouched, and that of Lamech, which it increases by six), upon the principle of adding 100 to the Hebrew numbers, the age of man at the date of that catastrophe was 2262 ( vide Chronological Table, see below). The dates of the Samaritan Pentateuch, being manifestly incorrect, need not be considered. Adding to the above dates the subsequent chronological periods from the Deluge to the call of Abram, from the call of Abram to the exodus from Egypt, from the exodus to the birth of Christ, the antiquity of man, according to the Biblical account, is not less than 5652 and not more than 7536 years. The conclusion thus reached, however, is somewhat scornfully repudiated by modem science, as affording, on either alter. native, an altogether inadequate term of existence for the human race. 1. The evidence of geology is supposed irrefragably to attest that man must have been upon the earth at least 1000 centuries, and probably ten times as long. The data for this deduction, as stated by Sir Charles Lyell, are chiefly the discovery, in recent and post Pliocene formations of alleged great antiquity, of fossil human remains and flint implements along with bones of the mammoth and other animals long since extinct ('Antiquity of Man,' Genesis 1-19.). But

HEBREW

SAMARITAN

SEPTUAGINT

JOSEPHUS

Age at son's birth

Age at death

Age at son's birth

Age at death

Age at son's birth

Age at death

Age at son's birth

Age at death

ADAM

130

930

130

930

230

930

230

930

SETH

105

912

105

912

205

912

205

912

ENOS

90

905

90

905

190

905

190

905

CAINAN

70

910

70

910

170

910

170

910

MEHALALEEL

65

895

65

895

165

895

165

895

JARED

162

962

62

847

162

962

162

962

ENOCH

65

365

65

365

165

365

165

365

METHUSELAH

187

969

67

720

187

969

187

969

LAMECH

182

777

53

653

188

753

182

777

NOAH

500

950

500

950

500

950

500

950

SHEM

100

100

100

100

DELUGE

1656

1307

2262

2256

HOMILETICS