To Whomever This May Concern:
My aim in this post is to bring an alternative perspective on the Abraham to Zadok timeline currently presented in the GENI tree so that researchers may draw their own conclusions. There are obviously big issues with the GENI timeline in that Levi is born 200 years after his father's death, but I am staying focused on this post's perspective rather than seeking to discuss or change individual dates on the GENI tree. For those who view the biblical genealogy as symbolic rather than actual, I respect the view, The reason I am revisiting this ancient debate is that some recent work I've done studying ancientDNA suggests there could be some aspect of truth to some of the biblical genealogies. I'm not going to present the ancientDNA work here as that is discussed more fully in two separate documents (https://www.academia.edu/43340967/ and https://www.academia.edu/44710820/).
If one takes the year 3761 BCE as the first year of the Hebrew Calendar (i.e., we are now if 5781 and counting backwards brings us to 3761 BCE: https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/hebraica/about-hebrew-calendar), and using the exact ages given in the Bible of fathers at the time of the births of their sons, then Avraham's father Terah is born in 1883 BCE (all years given in this message are approximate). This means that Avraham was born sometime after 1883 BCE, and I estimate this year to be 1781 BCE since the Bible does not to my knowledge give the age of Terah at the time of Avraham's birth (NB: Avraham is the first person in the biblical lineage whose father's age is not given at the time of birth; my use of 1781 is simply an extrapolation based on Avraham's being 100 at the time of his son Isaac's birth). So if I use 1781 BCE as the birth of Avraham and then begin again using the exact ages given in the Bible of fathers, then Isaac is born in 1681, Jacob in 1621, Levi in 1535, Judah in 1534, Joseph in 1530, and the sojourn in Egypt begins in 1493, lasting for 430 years or until 1063. Therefore the Exodus occurs in 1063 when Aharon is 84 and Moses 81, giving them birth years of 1147 and 1144 respectively-- using the Bible's own timeline. So comparing these dates with what is estimated in the current GENI tree we have (GENI/biblicaly based calculation): 1) Avraham: 1972/1781, 2) Isaac: 1950/1681, 3) Jacob 1892/1621, 4) Levi: 1565/1535, 5) Judah1749/1534, 6) Joseph 1814/1530, and 7) Aharon: 1395/1147.
Between Levi and Aharon the Bible records only 4 generations (Levi>Kohath>Amram>Aharon) so if the above calculated time line is correct then there must be many more generations between Levi and Aharon: how to explain this? Well it is possible that the 430 year sojourn in Israel is a genealogical black box with no data available somewhere along the line between Levi and Aharon (my guess is that the gap in genealogical knowledge occurs in the 150-200 years between Levi and Kohath). Or it could be that the birth ages given in the Bible should be replaces by average-adjusting the number of years by the generations: 1781 to 1141 is 640 years, divided by the 6 generations is about 100 years (incidentally this is more or less what the same time distance on the current GENI tree between Avraham bca1972 to Aharon bca 1395: =577 years for the 6 generations).
Personally, I have a difficult time accepting 100 years between generations and believe a more accurate scientific number for this period in history would be 15-20 years, which means I opt to believe there are many generations missing from the period of the sojourn in Egypt, and that the more accurate genealogy begins around the time of the Exodus with Aharon's immediate ancestry of Amram and continuing with the generations between Aharon and Zadok the Priest (before Amram I suspect we are dealing with a 'mythical' genealogy which may contain some socio-historical truths but which cannot be viewed as a complete, uninterrupted, and fully accurate descending lineage).
The other part of this study involves looking backwards from historical times to corroborate the prior calculation for Aharon's birth year: looking specifically at the number of generations between Aharon and Zadok the Priest (the high priest who anointed King Solomon, giving him a historical birth year of around 1000), the Bible records ten generations. Using an average of 20 years between generations, this would give Aharon a birth year of 1200 (which is not far from the 1147 calculated from the top down). I think even a 15 year generational average is reasonable for this period of history, making Aharon's birth year 1150 (almost exactly as calculated from the top).
Obviously any attempt to historicize the biblical account is going to be highly speculative, but I think it is worth revisiting the GENI dates from time to time based on new evidence. Some other work I have done, using an ancient DNA strategy supports the later timeline presented above. I believe the reason for these much earlier GENI estimates is that many researchers try to align the Abrahamic genealogies with various historical waypoints which are not specifically mentioned in the bible, such as the dates of certain Egyptian Pharaohs (as seen in the movies for example), etc....
Scholars have been debating the Abrahamic tree for millennia and I suspect will keep doing so until 'Watson' is able to figure it all out for us :-)
Profiles mentioned in the above post: Terah ., Patriarch Isaac / יצחק אבינו, Patriarch Isaac / יצחק אבינו, Levi ., Judah ., Joseph, Vizier of Egypt, (Prophet, Nabi Yusof), Aaron ., High Priest, Moses the Law Giver, Zadok 1 ., High Priest
