Bar chart of the lives of the 22 patriarchs

This is a study help to study the patriarchs. It shows a bar chart of the lives of the 22 patriarchs of the Bible, which are mentioned in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

This chronology also shows that one can determine when Adam was created.

The bar chart of the 22 patriarchs is followed by notes which deal with certain details of the listed data.

And now the bar chart (the notes follow afterwards):


Bar chart of the lives of the 22 patriarchs

Number, from Adam  
   Name
                 Age
                     Year of birth
                          Year of death
                               Age at birth of son.
One letter, for example A for Adam, represents about 20 years.
Five letters, for example Jacob, are about 100 years.

0                                                 1000 Years after Adam                             2000 Years after Adam
|    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .

 1 Adam          930    0  930 130
AdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAdamAda
 2 Seth          912  130 1042 105
      SethSethSethSethSethSethSethSethSethSethSethSe
 3 Enos          905  235 1140  90
            EnosEnosEnosEnosEnosEnosEnosEnosEnosEnosEnosE
 4 Cainan        910  325 1235  70
                 CainanCainanCainanCainanCainanCainanCainanCain
 5 Mahalaleel    895  395 1290  65
                    MahalaleelMahalaleelMahalaleelMahalaleelMahal
 6 Jared         962  460 1422 162
                       JaredJaredJaredJaredJaredJaredJaredJaredJaredJar
 7 Enoch         365  622  987  65
                               EnochEnochEnochEno
 8 Methuselah    969  687 1656 187
                                  MethuselahMethuselahMethuselahMethuselahMethusela
 9 Lamech        777  874 1651 182         LamechLamechLamechLamechLamechLamechLam
10 Noah          950 1056 2006 502                   NoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoahNoa
   Flood           1 1656 1657 600  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F
11 Shem          600 1558 2158 100                                           ShemShemShemShemShemShemShemSe
12 Arphaxad      438 1658 2096  35                                                ArphaxadArphaxadArphax
13 Salah         433 1693 2126  30  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SalahSalahSalahSalahSa 
14 Eber          464 1723 2187  34                                                    EberEberEberEberEberEbe
15 Peleg         239 1757 1969  30                                                     PelegPelegPe
16 Reu           239 1787 2026  32  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ReuReuReuReu
17 Serug         230 1819 2049  30                                                         SerugSerugSe
18 Nahor         148 1849 1997  29                                                          NahorNah
19 Terah         205 1878 2083  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TerahTerah
20 Abraham       175 2008 2183 100                                                                 AbrahamAb
21 Isaac         180 2108 2288  60                                                                      IsaacIsaa
22 Jacob         147 2168 2315  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JacobJac

|    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .    |    .    .    .    .
0                                                 1000 Years after Adam                             2000 Years after Adam

And now come the notes:

Note No. 1
This bar chart, it shows the length of life of each of the 22 patriarchs, emphasizes more visibly the difference of the length of life before the flood and the much shorter length of life after the flood.

Note No. 2
When one for example has a look at the life of Shem then it can be seen that he lived 98 years before the flood and 502 after the beginning of the flood. So he had a good knowledge of the time before the flood and lived a very long time after the flood and therefore had the opportunity to observe many of his descendants and he may have recorded much of the data from Genesis. He was still alive when Abraham was already a very old man; and between the two was a distance of 8 generations.

Note No. 3
Shem is the one who gives his family his name: The Semites.

Note No. 4
Another interesting example is the grandfather of Abraham, Nahor, he grew 148 years old, quite an age, but all his ancestors after the flood, at least in this list, except Peleg, were still alive when he died; even Noah was then still alive.

Note No. 5
In Genesis 10:25 and in 1 Chronicles 1:19 it is indicated that Peleg received his name because in his days the earth was divided. This could be a reference to the Babylonian division into linguistic groups, Genesis 11:8. From Peleg on the age abruptly drops by two centuries.

Note No. 6
Abraham was the father of many nations, not just of the Jews. The real first Jew was Jacob; he also had the name Israel, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel." Jacob was the first Jew and therefore the Jews are called Israelites in the Bible and their country's name is Israel.

Note No. 7
One of the ten bars before the flood stands out being exceptionally short, the one of Enoch. The reason it is so short is because Enoch led such a life, which also we should lead. He allowed the spirit in him to fill his soul and this spirit filled soul has then also filled his body and his body got spiritualized and therefore transformed so that he could get raptured - with his body remaining alive.

Note No. 8
The believers of the end times will be raptured, but not all, some will be recalled into the spiritual kingdom relatively shortly before the actual end, die a quite natural death. The example of the rapture is here the rescue by Noah's Ark and the example of a death just before the end is here Lamech; he grew two centuries less old than his ancestors and the reason being that God did not want him to experience the flood. Something similar happened to Methuselah, he perhaps could even have become older when the flood would not have occurred.

Note No. 9
When we look at the ten patriarchs from Adam to Noah and leave Enoch and Lamech out as exceptions, then we come to an average age of these 8 of 929 years. When we look at the three patriarchs before Peleg then they have an average age of 445 years and that is less than half of 929. And when we then look at the 8 from Peleg to Jacob we get an average age of 195 years, and that is also again less than half of 445 years. And when we then look at our present situation then our average age is again considerably less than half of 195 years.

Note No. 10
There are similar lists. One gives that Abraham was born when his father Terah was 70 years old. This is probably based on Genesis 11:26. There it says: "And Terah lived 70 years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran." But according to the above list Terah was 130 years old when Abraham was born. This is based on Genesis 12:4: "Abraham was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran." And in addition on Acts 7:4: "Then came he (Abraham) out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charan: and from thence, when his father (Terah) was dead, he removed him (Abraham) into this land (Israel), wherein ye (the Jews) now dwell." The detail of above list therefore comes from Abraham leaving Haran the same year in which his father Terah died, therefore 75 years after Abraham's birth. That is not so stated in the Bible because there it only says: "when his father was dead." The time between Terah's death and Abraham's departure is here therefore taken as less than one year because the Bible does not furnish further details. The scripture Genesis 11:26, in which the age of Terah, 70 years, is given in connection with begetting his three sons, seems to contradict Genesis 12:4 and Acts 7:4, but it does not say there directly that Terah was 70 years old when Abraham was born, and in addition it is unlikely that all three sons were born when the father was 70 years old. We have a similar scripture in Genesis 5:32: "And Noah was 500 years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japhet." But when Shem was born Noah was already 502 years old because Shem was 100 years old two years after the flood according to Genesis 11:10, therefore 98 years old at the flood and Noah was 600 years old at the flood. Therefore also this scripture, Genesis 5:32, does not give the age of the father when the son was born, and also not the age of the father when the first son was born, and therefore one can also apply this to Genesis 11:26 and assume that also there the age of the father is not given when the three sons were born, also not the age of the father when the first son, Abraham, was born. Perhaps these two scriptures indicate the age of the father at the time he got married to the mother of the three sons.

Note No. 11
That Noah's father, Lamech, and also his Grandfather, Methuselah, only lived until shortly before the flood, could be an indication that also before the coming end many believers will be recalled, perhaps because they are quite old and they are to be spared from the horrors of the end-times, like Methuselah, or because they are already quite old, like Lamech, and they were supposed to be spared from the journey in the ark and therefore also a life in the time after the flood. So it could be now that older believers are still recalled before because a stay in that part of the spiritual kingdom, which is called the kingdom of light, is still better than even a stay in the thousand year kingdom - on the renewed earth. It would be interesting how it will be for us.

Note No. 12
When you go back one webpage, to 2.4 The time of Adam's creation, you find the same details as here accept in the form of a list, and there also the places in the Bible are given from where the details are arrived.

Go to the next Study Help:
Bar chart of the lives of Israel's patriarchs

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