Bible Trivia: If Adam wrote a book on his life, his memoirs, how the universe was Created, and more, it’s only reasonable to believe that he would have passed this book on to his kids. Or great-grand kids. And it’s only reasonable to conclude that this would have made its way to Moses.
So… given these reasonable assumptions, what is the minimum number of people that would have passed the book onward as it made it’s way from Adam, down through the ages to Moses?
Using the years and lifespans given in the Bible, this can be calculated. And the minimum number of people involved may surprise you. Remember – in this thought experiment, we’re only looking at the absolute minimum number of people that would have to be involved as this document travels some 2,500 years down the ages.
This chart will help:
In a “minimum number” scenario,
- Adam would have passed it on to Lamech
- Lamech would have passed it on to Shem (Noah’s son)
- Shem would have taken it on the ark and passed it to Jacob (not pictured)
- Jacob would have passed it on to his grandson Perez, son of Judah
- When we do our time calculations for the Exodus, we see that Perez was alive when Jacob and the 70 went down to Egypt, and Gen 15:16 tells us that there are only 4 generations of bondage ill the Exodus.
In other words, the minimum number of people who would have passed on Adam’s story (whether by ink or by hearsay) is only 8 or 9.
I think that’s pretty interesting.
So the next time someone tries to convince you that Moses got his ideas of creation and Genesis 1 by taking a page from the local myths of the day, walk them through this exercise. It’s completely reasonable that Moses got his story undiluted from Adam, and that all his contemporaries in Egypt and Sumeria got corrupted/embellished versions.
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