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18 Dating the Book of Job wouldn’t take much of a leak, after all, over that great of a length of time with that much downpour to begin to fill and capsize the ark. It makes sense that Noah removed this covering at the end of the 150 days (601/1/17) when the ark first came to rest and the “floodgates of the sky were stopped up” (as opposed to 6 months later 8 ). The NKJV translation of the latter part of Genesis 8:13 is quite poor. The word “Indeed” does not correspond to any of the Hebrew text. Also, the 4 Hebrew words tacked on to the end of Genesis 8:13 (translated by NJPS as “he saw that the surface of the ground was drying”) are probably an explanatory addition that was not original to the text. The original point of Genesis 8:13 was probably that Noah removed the covering, not that he saw anything of significance. Genesis 8:13-14 is just a reiteration of the timing of the main events of the story. As was mentioned earlier, the wording of Genesis 8:5 is also peculiar to the point that corruption of the text might be suspected. As was the case with Genesis 8:13, the words for month and day are missing from the text of Genesis 8:5. The context does help us to piece together what the original text probably said however. Verses 3-6 are part of a continuous line of thought. Verse 3 tells us that the waters began decreasing at the end of 150 days. Verse 4 is a parenthetical note stating that the ark came to rest as soon as the waters started abating. Verse 5 tells us that the waters continued decreasing steadily until the tops of the mountains were seen (the time given is suspect because of the missing words for month and day). Verses 6 onward then tell us that after 40 days Noah started sending out birds to see if the ground was dry enough to dwell on. All one needs to realize is that the 40 days begin from where the 150 days left off. One does not switch from counting days to counting in months and then back to days because such a switch would cause a loss in accuracy. The way the story is told, one can easily envision Noah marking off the days on the interior wall of the ark. Because the rest of the story is told in a linear fashion, we can conclude that the date given in Verse 5 must fall between the dates given in verses 4 and 6. Therefore, it could not have been during the 10th month that the tops of the mountains started to show. It had to have been sometime during the 8th month because the 8th is the only month that would have begun during the 40 day period that began on the 17th day of the 7th month. Some might think that 40 days would be insufficient for all that water to go away. Such people are thinking purely in terms of evaporation, however, and the majority of the water was removed not because of evaporation, but rather because “… the waters … went down … to the place which the LORD founded for them” (Psalms 104:6-8 NKJV). The “places which the LORD founded for the oceans” are the modern ocean basins of the earth. Evidence that these basins formed quite quickly can be seen in the formation patterns of some of the worlds mountain ranges. 9 It is evident that the mountains formed very quickly because their deformation patterns show that they were still soft when they were formed. They could not have remained soft for long, however, and their upward displacement/buckling would have corresponded almost directly with the downward displacement of the ocean floors. The story of Noah’s flood does fit a six-month-year time frame and even makes more sense when such a time frame is taken into account. Such a time frame also correlates better with Islamic tradition which holds that “Noah spent five or six months aboard the Ark”. 10 Note that it is not a problem that the story of Noah’s flood refers to months 7 and 8 while the year 8 Noah had pigs in the Ark after all :-) 9 Walter Brown: In the Beginning – Figure 49 10 Wikipedia: Noah’s Ark – In Islamic tradition
Dating the Book of Job 19 of the time had only 6 months. When one wants to be both accurate and brief, it is not uncommon, even today, to refer to spans of time using only the smaller units (e.g. It is not uncommon for a child of 1 year and 3 months to be referred to as a 15-month-old even though our modern calendar has only 12 months to its year). The next 5 sections of the biblical text which make reference to months beyond the 6th and before the time of king Solomon – Leviticus 16:29, 23:23-44, 25:9, and Numbers 29:1-12 – do so in the context of the religious ceremonies that were ordained by םיהלֹ ִ אֱ to be kept annually as a reminder of things past and/or a type of things to come. Consider what would happen if it were suddenly decided and decreed that our modern year was to be doubled from its current 12 months per cycle to 24 months per cycle. In particular, how would people continue to celebrate annual events like Christmas, Earth Day or whatever they traditionally celebrated every 12 months? People are reluctant to change their long held traditions, so most would insist on continuing to hold the events every 12 months just as they had always done. This would cause the events to be celebrated twice every 24-month year. What is important is how the doubled events would be distributed through the new 24-month year. What was celebrated on the 25th day of the 12th month before would, on the new calendar, be celebrated on the 25th day of the 12th and 24th months. Table 5 shows how the dates of the religious ceremonies recorded in the passages in question do show just such a doubled distribution. 11 Table 5: Doubled Distribution of Holy Day Festivals Date (6m/yr) Date (12m/yr) Event 1/10 1/10 sheep or goat chosen (Ex 12:3-5) 1/14 1/14 8 Day Festival (1+7 – Ex 12:6-20) +50 +50 Feast of Weeks (Le 23:15-16) 1/10 7/10 goats chosen (Le 16) 1/14 7/15 8 Day Festival (7+1 – Le 23:33-36) +50 +50 Feast of Weeks [Wikipedia: Sigd] The situation is a bit more complex than just a doubling of the feasts though as can be seen by examining Exodus 23:14-17. – Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. (Exodus 23:14-17 NKJV) That the “Feast of Ingathering” occurs at “the end of the year” is repeated in Exodus 34:22. Some confuse the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16, 34:22) with the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-34, Deuteronomy 16:16), but the Feast of Tabernacles occurs in the middle of the 1st or 7th month depending on what calendar you are using, neither of which is “the end of the year”. 11 A festival 50 days after Atonement is still observed by Ethiopian Jews. [Wikipedia: Sigd]
Page 1: Dating the Book of Job G. L. Bartho
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