Hi Hermione,

Indeed, one must ask how accurate the internal chronology of the bible actually is, and even if it reflects real events. After all the writers had no problems extending the life spans of the anti-diluvian patriarchs. Also of note is the fact that many reigns or time frames of events last for 20 years and 40 years etc which seems rather unlikely.

Traditionally, an absolute chronology is determined from an anchor date of the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem (586 BC if memory serves) which is usually taken as an historical date I believe. This then makes the year of Exodus 1491 BC (I believe this is the general chronology of Ussher). Now we observe the coincidence of 470 years between Exodus and the events of David, and 469 years in the tree data, and suggest we move the Exodus begins at 1628 BC, and suddenly we introduce a 137 gap that is not accounted for. That is we must shift the temple destruction date 137 years older, or there must be a total of 137 years of unrecorded bible events after the events of David.

Then of course we must ask are the events in the bible real, or a fabricated history, or propoganda to justify the `politics' of the time. Are they metaphorical but based upon a background of real events (i.e. there was no exodus from Egypt, but people remembered a time when the environment was turning sour for whatever reason, and thought, well if there was an Exodus it would have been then).

The 470/469 year interval in the biblical chronology and that of tree data may well be a coincidence, but it is fun to speculate around it all the same.

Jonny

The path to good scholarship is paved with imagined patterns. - David M Raup