The story of Jacob and Rachel in Genesis is one of the great love stories in Scripture. Jacob apparently fell in love with Rachel at first sight. This seems to have inspired him to move that heavy stone covering the well all by himself. This probably impressed Rachel, as Jacob undoubtedly intended. But how old was Jacob when he first met Rachel? The place to find the answer is in Genesis. Genesis does give life dates for various events in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Actually, Rûãch @Élöhîm provided an answer to the question of how old Jacob was when he fell in love with Rachel in one of the logic puzzles in Scripture. That's the short version. He also provided an answer through a longer version using life dates for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph for a more detailed look at the question, which I charted for clarity in sequencing the events. Logic Puzzle Answer The Detailed Look: Abram/Abraham The first chart lists the life dates that Genesis gives for events in Abraham's life.
| Chart 1. Life of Abram//Abraham | ||
| LifeYr | Event | Ref |
| 000 Abr | Abram born to Terah | Gen 11.26 |
| 010 Abr | Sarai (Iscaah) born to Terah's brother Haran (calculation) | Gen 17.17 |
| 075 Abr | Abram leaves Haran for Canaan | Gen 12.4 |
| XX/085Abr | 10 years in the land, Sarai gives Hagar to Abram | Gen 16.3 |
| 086 Abr | Hagar bears Ishmael to Abram (86yo) | Gen 16.16 |
| 099 Abr | Circumcision Covenant; Ishmael at 13yo | Gen 17.25 |
| 100 Abr | Sarah bears Isaac to Abraham (100yo) | Gen 21.5 |
| Sarah at 90yo | Gen 17.17 | |
| 137 Abr | Sarah dies at 127yo | Gen 23.1 |
| 140 Abr | Isaac at 40yo marries Rebekah | Gen 25.20 |
| 160 Abr | Rebekah bears Esau and Jacob to Isaac (60yo) | Gen 25.25-26 |
| 175 Abr | Abraham dies at 175yo | Gen 25.7 |
According to Genesis 16.3, Sarai gave Hagar to Abram as a wife when they had been 10 years in the land. While Genesis does not give an age for Abram when they had been 10 years in the land, it does state that he was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. It seems highly likely that Hagar got pregnant right away. It's also likely that Ishmael was born the next year. Therefore, I assigned 086 Abram to the 11th year in Canaan and 085 Abram to the 10th year in Canaan. Chart 2 documents the deduction for how old Abram was when he actually arrived in Canaan. It counts backwards from 086 Abram (his age at Ishmael's birth) to 001 Canaan (the year that they arrived). As the chart clearly shows, Abram must have been 76 years old when they actually got to Canaan. Apparently Abram and his household had a leisurely trip. It's likely that they left Haran in the late spring/early summer of Abram's 75th year (after his father Terah died-Acts 7.4), but they must not have entered Canaan until after the turn of the year in the fall when Abram would have turned 76.
| Chart 2. 10 years in Canaan | |||
| LifeYr | Era | Event | Ref |
| 086 Abr | 011 Can | Hagar bears Ishmael to Abram | G16.16 |
| 085 Abr | 010 Can | 10 years in the land, Sarai gives Hagar to Abram | G16.3 |
| 084 Abr | 9 | ||
| 083 Abr | 8 | ||
| 082 Abr | 7 | ||
| 081 Abr | 6 | ||
| 080 Abr | 5 | ||
| 079 Abr | 4 | ||
| 078 Abr | 3 | ||
| 077 Abr | 2 | ||
| 076 Abr | 001 Can | 1 Abram arrives in Canaan | |
| 075 Abr | 000 Can | Abram leaves Harran for Canaan | G12.4 |
The Detailed Look: Isaac and Jacob Genesis has only three life dates for Isaac: his age at marrying, his age when his sons were born, and his age when he died. Given that all of these life dates overlap with Abraham's and Jacob's lifetimes, there is no separate chart for Isaac. Chart 3 is the chart for Jacob. Although Genesis only lists two life dates for Jacob (his age when he met Pharaoh and when he died), his life overlapping with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob allows for life date calculations to plot the deaths of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac on the chart. Now, Genesis does record that Esau was 40 years old when he married, but that doesn't mean that Jacob was 40 years old when he met Rachel. Scripture frequently skips any number of years between one verse and the next. The key to finding how old Jacob was when he met Rachel is finding a common age date with one of his sons.
| Chart 3. Life of Jacob | |||
| LifeYr | Event | Ref | |
| 160 Abr | 000 Jac | Rebekah bears Esau and Jacob to Isaac (60yo) | Gen 25.25-26 |
| 175 Abr | 015 Jac | Abraham dies at 175yo; Twins at 15yo | Gen 25.7 |
| 040 Jac | Esau (40yo) marries Judith daughter of Beeri and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite | Gen26.34 | |
| 063 Jac | Ishmael dies at 137yo | Gen 25.17 | |
| 120 Jac | Isaac dies at 180yo | Gen 35.28 | |
| 130 Jac | Jacob at 130yo meets Pharoah | Gen 47.9 | |
| 147 Jac | Jacob dies at 147yo, having lived 17 yrs in Egypt | Gen 47.28 | |
Although Jacob had 12 sons, Genesis gives life dates for only one of them: Joseph. However, Genesis also records other time periods that allow for calculating more life dates for Joseph, as shown in Chart 4, the life of Joseph.
| Chart 4. Life of Joseph | ||
| LifeYr | Event | Ref |
| 000 Jos | Jacob renegotiates his wages with Laban in the year that Joseph is born | Gen 30.25 |
| 017 Jos | His brothers sell Joseph at 17yo to Ishmaelite / Midian traders who sell him to Potiphar in Egypt | Gen 37.25-28; 37.36 |
| 028 Jos | Joseph interprets the cupbearer's & baker's dreams 2 full years before the cupbearer remembers him to Pharoah | Gen 41.1 |
| 030 Jos | At 30yo, Joseph stands before Pharoah | Gen 41.46 |
| 031 Jos | 7 Years of Plenty start | calculation |
| 038 Jos | 7 Years of Famine start; widespread famine, even beyond Egypt to Canaan | calculation |
| 039 Jos | Joseph invites his brothers to move to Egypt for the remaining 5 years of famine | Gen 45.9-14; calc |
| 110 Jos | Joseph dies at 110yo | Gen 50.22 |
Since Joseph is the only son for whom Genesis records life dates, it stands to reason that the place to look for a common life event date between Jacob and one of his sons is some event when Joseph and Jacob's lives intersected after Joseph ended up in Egypt at age 17. The first event meeting that criterion is when Joseph introduced Jacob to Pharaoh; Jacob informed Pharoah that he was 130 years old. Calculations and Logical Deductions Joseph was 30 years old when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream. It is likely that the years of plenty started the year after that, when he was 31; it was, after all, a prophecy. Therefore, the years of famine began when Joseph was 38, seven years later. According to a calculation noted in Chart 4, Joseph was 39 years old when he invited his brothers to move to Egypt for the remaining five years of the famine. It seems likely that it took a while for Jacob to move his entire household plus flocks and herds from Canaan to Egypt. After all, he was not fleeing an angry father-in-law this time and he was 130 years old. So, I put Jacob's appearance before Pharaoh in Joseph's 40th year. Therefore, Jacob would have been 90 years old when Joseph was born. While this calculation still doesn't answer the question of how old Jacob was when he first met Rachel, it does provide a starting place to go back to Genesis and look for more clues. More Clues in Genesis In his confrontation with Laban in Genesis 31, Jacob stated that he worked 20 years for his father-in-law Laban - 14 years for his wives and 6 years for his flocks (Gen 31.41). In addition, Genesis 25 records Jacob renegotiating his wages just after Joseph was born, which was in the year that he was 90 years old (Gen 20.25). Therefore, all the events from Jacob's arrival in Padden Aram to his departure for Canaan have to fit within those 20 years. Chart 5 shows the 20 years split up into 14-year and six-year segments. Joseph's birth and Jacob's 90th year are in Year 1 of the six- year segment, which is Year 15 of the 20-year segment.
| Chart 5. The Twenty Years | ||||
| Life Yrs | Yrs | Event | Ref | |
| 076 Jac | . | Jacob arrives in Padden-Aram and falls in love with Rachel at first sight | G29 | |
| 01 | Jacob agrees to serve 7 years for Laban's daughter Rachel | G29.18-20 | ||
| 077 Jac | 02 | |||
| 078 Jac | 03 | |||
| 079 Jac | 04 | |||
| 080 Jac | 05 | |||
| 081 Jac | 06 | |||
| 082 Jac | 07 | Jacob marries Leah and Rachel (Shevat/Adar) | G29.21-29 | |
| Jacob agrees to serve another 7 years for Rachel | ||||
| 083 Jac | 08 | |||
| 084 Jac | 09 | |||
| 085 Jac | 10 | |||
| 086 Jac | 11 | |||
| 087 Jac | 12 | |||
| 088 Jac | 13 | |||
| 089 Jac | 14 | |||
| 090 Jac | 15 | 1 | Joseph born of Rachel (1 or 17 Tammuz) | G30.22-24 |
| Jacob renegotiates his wages with Laban | G30.25 | |||
| 091 Jac | 16 | 2 | ||
| 092 Jac | 17 | 3 | ||
| 093 Jac | 18 | 4 | ||
| 094 Jac | 19 | 5 | ||
| 095 Jac | 20 | 6 | Jacob leaves for Canaan | G31:38 |
ANSWER So, the answer to the question of how old Jacob was when he fell in love with Rachel at first sight is that Jacob was a 76-year-old middle-aged bachelor. An Observation It's interesting that, when Jacob arrived in Paddan-Aram, he was the same age as Abram was when he reached the land of Canaan. ADDENDUM And what about Rachel? How old was she when she met her cousin? Scripture gives no life dates for Rachel, but according to Jewish tradition,(1) both Leah and Rachel were 14 years old when Jacob came to visit. In that time and culture, a 14 year old girl was of marriagable age. So, it's possible. It probably was not unusual in that time and place that Jacob was 62 years older than the girl he wanted to marry. Jewish tradition(2) has the sisters as twins, but it's possible that, instead, they had different mothers and were born within a few hours of each other. I see this as a possibility based on their names. Leah means "weary" and Rachel means "lamb." Was Leah's mother near the end of her child-bearing years and just plain ?" Was Rachel's mother at the beginning of her child-bearing years and delighted with her "lamb?" That's speculation of course, but again, Scripture names can be very telling. Jacob fell in love with Rachel at first sight, but how did Rachel react? How do you think a young marriagable girl reacted? Some things do not change no matter the time or the culture. She had just seen this "dreamboat hunk(3)", who turns out to be her cross-cousin, perform a feat of strength just for her (Jacob moved that stone covering the well all by himself). Her heart was probably all aflutter as she ran home to tell her father that his nephew had just arrived. Now doing a little age calculation based on Rachel being 14 years old when Jacob was 76 years old, Rachel would have been 28 years old when Joseph was born. Joseph was born in the same year(4)" as Zebulon and Dinah. Dinah must have been of marriagable age when she was seduced by Shechem. So, we'll go with the 14 years old again. If Rachel was 28 years old when Dinah was born, then she was 42 years old at the time of the Shechem incident. The question then becomes how old was she when she died(5)" giving birth to Benjamin? Given that the brothers sell Joseph into slavery when he is 17 years old, or three years after the Shechem incident, and that twenty years later Joseph particularly inquired after his little brother when the brothers came to Egypt for grain (Genesis 43:7), I think that Benjamin must have been born long enough before Joseph went to Egypt for Joseph to know him. But Benjamin could not have been more than 3 years old because he was born after the Shechem incident, which occurred in the year that Joseph was 14. It seems likely that Benjamin was around three years old when Joseph went down to Egypt so that he was old enough for Joseph to know him beyond infancy. This makes it likely that Rachel bore Benjamin in the same year as the Shechem incident. Therefore, Rachel was 42 years old when she died. Even in this day and age, 42 years old is late for childbearing. While this is speculation, if Rachel was in her early 40s when Benjamin was born, it's no wonder that she had a hard labor and died in childbirth, especially since they had been traveling. Next Steps Combining all the charts from "A Question in Genesis" created the beginnings of a chronology internal to the Story in the Bible (ICB) based on life dates, stretching 285 years from Year 00/075 Abram when Abram left Harran at 75 years old to Year 285/110 Jos when Joseph died at 110 years old. The next life date that could push the ICB forward is Levi's death age at 137 years old given in Exodus 6.16. The key to plugging Levi's death date into the ICB chart is figuring out when he was born. So, on to the next essay.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Jewish Encylopedia.com, "Rachel" (Seder Olam Rabbah ii) [Retrieved 12/31/2023] Return
(2) Ibid Return
(3) Jacob was the son and grandson of two very beautiful women. Of course, he was a "dreamboat hunk," even in middle age Return
(4) Based on SLP: The Birth Order of Jacob's Sons according to their father Return
(5) I will note that Jewish tradition has two possibilities for Rachel's age at her death: 36 years old or 45 years old.
Jewish Encylopedia.com, "Rachel" (Seder Olam Rabbah l.c.; Sefer ha-Yashar) [Retrieved 12/31/2023] Return
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