| Terah's Life Year Chart Summarized | ||||||
| STORY | ICB | Life Yrs | Clocks | Jub Clock | EVENT | Source |
| 1900 | T0843 Gen11 | T843Noah | VW272 | S39-06-04 | Josephus: Nahor begat Haran (1) at 20 years old/120yo?(2) | B01,C06 |
| 1909 | T0852 Gn11 | T852Noah | S39-07-06 | The Line of the Promise Continued | ||
| T029Nahor | Terah born to Nahor at 29 years old(3) | Gen11.24 | ||||
| Gen 20: Terah(4) [turning, wandering, loitering] [spy out] [opportunity](5) | ||||||
| G20 Luke: Terach/Terah/Tarà | Lk 3.34 | |||||
| 70 YEARS UNTIL THE NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 1979 ICB | ||||||
| 1979 | T0922 Gn11 | T922Noah | S41-03-06 | Terah's Eldest Son(6) | ||
| T070Terah | Terah became a father at age 70 | Gen11.26 | ||||
| Haran born in Ur of the Chaldees (7) [strong, enlightened? mountaineer?] | Gen11.28 | |||||
| 28 YEARS UNTIL THE NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2007 ICB | ||||||
| 2007 | T0950 Gn11 | T950Noah | S41-07-06 | Noah son of Lamech died at 950 years old(8) | Gen9.28-29 | |
| 20 YEARS UNTIL THE NEXT LIFE YEAR DATE EVENT, 2027 ICB | ||||||
| 2027 | T0970 Gn11 | T118Terah | S42-03-05 | Peleg son of Eber died at age 239 | 11.19 | |
| 2028 | T0971Gn11 | T119Terah | S42-03-06 | Nahor son of Serug died at age 148 (Terah's father) | 11.26 | |
| 11 S UNTIL THE NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2039 ICB | ||||||
| 2039 | T0982 Gn11 | T130Terah | S42-05-03 | The Line of the Promise continued | ||
| Abram born to Terah at 130 years old | 11.27 | |||||
| Gen 21: Abram [the (divine) father is exalted] | ||||||
| G21 Luke: @Avräm/Abram/Abraám | Lk 3.34 | |||||
| 10 YEARS UNTIL NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2049 ICB; events listed likely occurred between life year dated events but timing is speculative | ||||||
| 2040 | T0983 Gn11 | T131 Terah | ?Lot(9) born to Haran the son of Terah? (veil, covering) | 11:27 | ||
| 2041 | T0984 Gn11 | T132 Terah | G052 | ?Nahor(10) born to Terah? (piercer, slayer, or river, or light) | 11.27 | |
| 2049 | T0992 Gn11 | T140 Terah | S42-06-06 | Sarai (Iscaah) born to Haran (Terah's brother)(11) ? [my princess] | 17.17 | |
| 8 YEARS UNTIL NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2057 ICB; event listed likely occurred between life year dated events but timing is speculative | ||||||
| 2052 | T0995 Gn11 | ?Milcah born to Haran brother of Terah? [queen, or counsel] | 11.27 | |||
| 2057 | T1000 Gn11 | T148Terah | S42-07-07 | Reu son of Peleg died at 239 years old | 11.12 | |
| 23 YEARS UNTIL NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2080 ICB; events listed likely occurred between life year dated events but timing is speculative | ||||||
| 2075 | T35 Abram | VW297 | ?Abram marries Sarai at (25yo)? and Nahor marries Milcah? | 11.30 | ||
| 2079 | T1022 G11 | T170 Terah | AW298 | S43-04-01 | Abram at 40 years old(12); possible date for YHWH's call | |
| ?Terah left for Canaan but stopped in Haran? | 11.31-32 | |||||
| 2080 | T1023G11 | T171 Terah | S43-04-02 | Serug son of Reu died at 230 years old | 11.23 | |
| 17 YEARS UNTIL NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2097 ICB | ||||||
| Sarai has no children | 11.31 | |||||
| 2097 | T1040 Gn11 | T188Terah | S43-06-05 | Arpachshad son of Shem died at 438 years old | 11.13 | |
| 17 YEARS UNTIL NEXT LIFE YEAR DATED EVENT, 2114 ICB; events listed likely occurred between life year dated events but timing is speculative | ||||||
| 2108 | T1051 Gn11 | T199 Terah | S44-01-02 | ?Haran dies before his father Terah? | 11.29 | |
| 2109 | T1052 Gn11 | T070Abram | S44-01-03 | Abram at 70 years old(13) ; possible date for YHWH's call (Gen 15.7, Acts 7.2-4) | 12.1-3 | |
| T200 Terah | ?Terah left for Canaan but stopped in Haran? | 11.31-32 | ||||
| 2114 | T1057 Gn11 | T205 Terah | AW303 | S44-02-01 | Terah died at 205 years old; Go to Abraham's chart | 11.32 |
FOOTNOTES (1) According to Josephus, Nahor son of Serug had at least two sons: Haran and Terah. I have found no other source besides Josephus who records the name of another son of Nahor. However, the Genesis 11 genealogy agrees that Nahor had other sons and daughters besides Terah (Gen 11.25), but it does not mention the names of Terah's siblings. It's interesting that Josephus does not give an age for Nahor when Terah was born but he does so for Haran's birth. I think Josephus lists Nahor's age at Haran's birth instead of at Terah's birth because he knew that Haran was Nahor's eldest son and that Terah was a younger son. Genesis 5 and 11 genealogies record the names of the men in what turned out to be the Line of the Promise. However, except for the logic puzzles about the birth order of Noah's and Terah's sons, there is no way of knowing whether those men were their fathers' eldest or younger sons. Still, both Noah's and Terach's ages are recorded when they first became fathers, which makes me wonder whether there was a scribal tradition of correlating the father's age to the birth of his eldest son. That could argue for the Genesis 5 and 11 genealogies recording the eldest sons but then, YHWH seems to rarely use the eldest son in accomplishing His purposes. So, I don't find Scripture providing a clear answer to this very minor question, but I do think Terah had an older brother named Haran after whom he names his eldest son. Return (2) Given that Josephus followed the Ancient Near East literary tradition of inflating numbers, (as the Septuagint did) in routinely adding 100 or so years to the life years listed in the Masoretic text, I think it likely that, in the Story chronology, Nahor was 20 years old when Haran was born. Return This literary tradition included inflating ages, armies, and population counts. Apparently the Ancient Near East scribes did this to increase their country's status and to impress their enemies and/or allies. In their fluid mindset, they apparently did not view these inflated numbers as inaccurate because everybody at that time knew how to read the numbers. It's reading the numbers from the literal Western Greco-Roman mindset that finds the numbers inaccurate. I would restrict this hypothesis to the Genesis 5 and 11 genealogies, as I don’t think that the Masoretic reduced all the numbers found in Scripture nor do I think that the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch inflated all the numbers in their manuscripts either. However, the Septuagint and Josephus fairly consistantly inflated the Genesis 5 and 11 fatherhood age counts by 100 years in comparison to the Masoretic. Curiously, the Samaritan Pentateuch's Genesis 5 fatherhood ages tend to agree with the Masoretic while its Genesis 11 fatherhood ages tend to agree with the Septuagint. Return (3) While the Masoretic (29yo), the Septuagint (79yo), and the Samaritan Pentateuch (79yo) all list an age for Nahor when Terach was born, Josephus does not but rather he dates Terach's birth from the Flood. According to Josephus, [Antiquities, Bk 1, Ch 6, #5] Terach was born in the 292nd year since the Deluge, but he set Arpachshad's birth 12 years after the Flood instead of the two years recorded in Genesus 11.10 Jubilees 11:9-10 gives Terach's birth year as Jubilee 37, Week 6, Year 7 (or 1806 A.M.) [Nahor at 56yo], which would be 498 years after its Jubilee 27, Week 7, Year 6 (1308 A.M.) date for the Flood. In the ICB count, Terach is born in 1909 ICB, 252 years after the Flood. So, there is a 40 year difference between Josephus and the ICB, and a 103 year difference between Jubilees and the ICB. Since I'm using the Masoretic life years, I'm going with Nahor as 29 years old at Terah's birth. Return (4) Jubilees names Terah's mother as 'Ijaska, the daughter of Nestag of the Chaldees' (11.10). While it seems doubtful to me that Jubilees preserved the real name of Terah's mother, I wonder whether Haran and Terah had the same mother. If so, they might have been very close, even with the nine years difference in their ages, especially if they had no other full brothers. This would bolster Dr. Custance's hypothesis [A Question of Two Harans] that Terah named his eldest son after his older brother Haran (the father of Iscaah/Sarai and Milcah). It's speculation but Josephus does record a Haran son of Nahor, just as he preserves the tradition that Sarai's birth name was Iscaah. Return (5) Jubilees 11:11-14 says there was a widespread famine in the land when Terah was born in Ur of the Chaldees. It was caused by prince Mastema (who is apparently Satan) sending ravens to eat the seed off the ground before men could plow it under. Jubilees claims that Nahor named his son Terah because the ravens reduced men to destitution and devoured their seed. Return (6) Abram is commonly considered Terah's eldest son because he is listed first in the list of Terach's sons. The traditional assumption is Terah's sons are listed in birth order. However, a detailed examination of the relevant Scriptures finds a different answer. See essay 'Who was born first?' for my reasons for concluding that Japheth and Haran were the eldest sons of Noah and Terach respectively with Shem and Abram as the middle sons. According to Jashar, Haran was Terah's eldest son, born when Terah was 38 years old. Haran married at age 39 with Lot born when Abram was 8 years old. Haran was 42 years old when Sarai was born (Abram at 10 years old). Although the author of Jashar got Haran as Terah's eldest son correct, I think he was wrong about the ages. Return (7) Gordon, Cyrus H. “Where is Abraham’s Ur?”, Biblical Archaelogical Review While 19th century scholars changed the traditional birthplace of Abraham from northwestern Mesopotamia to southwestern Mesopotamia and Ur of Sumer, the discovery of the Elba tablets in the mid-20th century re-ignited the debate because these tablets mentioned 'Ur in the region of Charran'. Before I found the article(7) by Cyrus H. Gordon reviewing his research and arguments for the traditional birthplace of Abraham in northwestern Mesopotamia, I had concluded, based on the Biblical evidence and logical interpretations of the geography of the region, that Ur of the Chaldees was most likely in northwestern Mesopotamia, possibly northwest of Charran. It made no sense to me that Terah would have gone 250 miles out of his way to go to Charran if he was travelling from Ur of Sumer to the land of Canaan. I discuss the matter in my essay, "Where was Ur of the Chaldees?" Return (8) While there is debate today over whether to count jubilees as 50 years or as 49 years with the 50th year overlapping with the 1st year of the next 49, a comparison of the ages given in Jubilees using a 49 year jubilee count makes it clear that, for this author, a jubilee counted as 49 years. I doubt the author made that up. I think he simply used the jubilee counting method used by the Hebrew scholars in his day, which probably had not changed down through the millenia. So, in the ICB, a jubilee counts as 49 years with the 50th year overlapping with the first year of the next 49. Jubilees 10:16-17 lists Noah's age as 19 jubilees, two weeks, and five years, which is 950 years, based on a 49-year jubilee count. It gives his death year as 1659 A.M. Now, charting the ages listed in the Masoretic Genesis 5 geneaology puts Noah's death in 2007 ICB. Jashar gets it completely wrong in having Noah still alive when Abram was a child. Return (9) Scripture gives no indication of how old Lot or Nahor were in relation to Abram or how old Haran was when Lot was born. Jubilees 12.10-11 has Haran around age 50 when Lot was born, and Jasher 9.12 has him at age 39. Jubilees 12 mentions the birth of Lot to Haran, six years after Abram married at age 49. This makes Lot 55 years younger than Abram, according to Jubilees. I think the timing given in Scripture makes it far more likely that Abram and Lot were close to the same age, rather than a generation apart. The ICB puts Haran at 61yo when Lot was born. Now, it turns out that Jasher 24.32 lists Lot dying at 140 years old when Isaac was 39 years old (which is an inconsistency in the Jasher timeline). That would make him one year older than Abram. I noticed the ages given in this Jasher are a year or so off the ones I deduce from Scripture. So, I put Lot's birth the year after Abram was born because I had to put it somewhere, and there's always the possibility that Jasher preserves some genuine Jewish traditions amongst its hodge-podge of sources. What this means is Abram and Lot might have grown up together. Return (10) Terah appears to have named his third son after his father Nahor, who apparently had died untimely. Scripture does not say how much younger Nahor was than Abram (any more than it says how much younger Ham was than Shem). It also does not say whether they had the same mother, although, according to Josephus, Abram and Nachor were full brothers. "Abraham is the son of Terah, and a kinsman of yours; for Nahor, the grandfather of these children, was the brother of Abraham, by both father and mother; upon which account he hath sent me to you, being desirous to take this damsel for his son to wife." . But, given how much Josephus gets wrong, I am not automatically assuming that's true, but it's certainly possible. Jasher has Nahor as older than Abram, listing him with Haran in Chapter 7.22. Anyway, I had to put Nahor’s birth somewhere, so I put him down as two years younger than Abram. (11) See "A Question of Two Harans" for a discussion of Dr. Arthur C. Custance's hypothesis that the Haran who fathered Iscaah and Milcah was Terah's brother, rather than Terah's son. Return (12) I don"t think Scripture gives a life year date for when Abram received YHWH"s call. I picked 40 years old as a possible life year date because Scripture often uses the time period of 40 years. Bullinger, E.W. Numbers in Scripture, 4th Ed., Revised. Part II. “Forty.” London: Bible Warehouse, 1921. Return (13) I picked Abram at 70 years old as another possible life year date for YHWH's call because 70 is also a number frequently used in Scripture. One question is how long did Abram stay in Haran before YHWH removed him to Canaan: five years or thirty-five years? I suspect five years is more likely. Return Return to ICB Menu Return to blog post
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