Dating the Book of Job (PDF) - Ancient Hebrew Research Center

Dating the Book of Job 11
6. The Hebrew wording which describes Jochebed – Amram’s wife – is peculiar and can be
interpreted to mean that she was adopted into the family of Levi and hence that Amram may
have married into the family of Levi. (Numbers 26:59)
Whether the missing years are because generations were left out by Moses to prevent later
descendants from claiming a right to the Egyptian throne or because Amram was adopted into the
family of Kohath long after Kohath had died, it is clear that the 4 generations given from Levi to
Moses are suspect and cannot be used to tally the generations that transpired over the 270 years
that the Israelites were in Egypt. Stephen Franklin uses I Chronicles 7:20-27 to argue that there
were 12 generations from Ephraim to Joshua. Darren Thompson uses Matthew 1:3-4 to argue that
there were 6 generations from Judah to Nahshon. There is another way to get an estimate of the
number of generations from Jacob to the end of the Exodus. Because a census was taken only
2 years after they had left Egypt and the numbers recorded, we can use those numbers to figure
out what the average branching factor (b) would have to be for so many people (p) to be born into
the generation (g) in question. If, for example, the average person has 2 children (a “branching
factor” of 2) then the first generation will consist of 2 children, the second generation will consist
of 4 children, and so on. Mathematically this is expressed as p = b g where p is for people, b is for
branching factor, and g is for the generation. We are given p = 603550 in Numbers 1:46 and we
want to know whether 12 generations (I Chronicles 7:20-27) or 6 generations (Matthew 1:3-4) are
more reasonable to achieve such a number. Solving for b we get: b = g√ p.
12 √ 603550 = 3.03
6√ 603550 = 9.19
Both of the above results are plausible for the average number of children per household during
the time in question. There are a couple more things that need to be factored in though. One of
the things that needs to be accounted for is that the census was only of the males over 20 years
of age and fit for war. This means that the 603550 value needs to be doubled to account for the
women (assuming the likely fifty-fifty ratio of men and women). The other thing that needs to be
accounted for is the known values for the number of children in the first and second generations. We
know that Jacob had 12 children. Because 12 is roughly 4 times the average for the 12-generation
model, and it occurs at the first level of the branching tree, the results for a branching factor of
3.03 are about 4 times larger than 603550 which is 2 times larger than the number we want when
the women are also accounted for. Because a branching factor of 3.03 results in there being too
many children being in the 12th generation once the “extra” children of the first generation are
factored into the equation, the braching factor must be further reduced to make the 12-generation
model come out to the required 603550 figure. In the case of the 6 generation figure, because 12
is roughly 1⅓ the computed average, the end result of the equation for the number of descendants
are 1⅓ times more than 603550 which is a bit short of the number that we need once the women
are also accounted for (1⅓ < 2). We also know the number of children in the second generation
because of Genesis 46:11-27. Genesis 46 tells us that Jacob had 69 descendants after 2 generations.
69 less the 12 which were of the first generation leaves 57 children born in the second generation.
57 children divided among their 12 parents gives an average of 4.75 children per parent. Because
the 4.75 figure for the average branching factor at the second level of the tree is higher than the