RECASTING THE GENESIS ACCOUNTS THROUGH THE CORRECTED CHRONOLOGY

THE FORESHADOWING OF PART 2 IN PART 1

In this article drawn from the first book in a two part series, I provide an overview of what is discussed in PART 2 of Rebooting the Bible.  This introduction was provided in PART 1. Obviously this illustrates that the two Parts of the story were known from the outset of the effort and are complementary. PART 2 IS NOW OUT! Readers are showing strong interest in the book.  My thanks to you.

You should find this quick introduction helpful in deciding whether you want to get your copy of PART 2 and for that matter, both parts of the series if you haven’t already.  The book is taking off and has already been declared as the Number 1 New Release in Biblical Textual Criticism (the necessary subject that tells us, as far as can be determined, what the authentic, original authors wrote in our Bible).

An Overview of the Part 2 of Rebooting the Bible, as Presented in Part 1.

To reconsider the times long since passed, we need to go back in time. How far? All the way back to Genesis, Chapter one. That far back. And here’s how we will organize our quest.

For the most part, Part 2 focuses on the first eleven chapters of Genesis. We touch on what happened at the beginning of the Bible’s story (recall Genesis means beginnings) and consider whether this planet started spinning less than 10,000 years ago. We investigate whether the Bible supplies an accurate chronology. However, we only glance at the debate over The Young Earth vs. The Gap Theory – for although significant, Rebooting the Bible doesn’t seek to prove either to be solely correct. Our focus will be on what comes about after Genesis 1, conventionally seen as a 4,000-year period from Adam to Christ. The “corrected chronology” this study presents is neutral on which theory is most likely true, although it admittedly supplies a shot in the arm to the view the world is less than 10,000 years old. However, that doesn’t mean that that is my point of view. [1]

We recall that Noah built a giant ark (300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high) through which he and his family weathered the world’s worst perfect storm. But, since the global population outside the ark (both human and animal, birds included) was reset to zero, does it mean that we should call Noah our ancestor?  Yes, it certainly does.

Consequently, after the Flood, Noah and his kids restarted humanity. That part of the story remains especially crucial because most Christians still don’t know why God went to the extreme to destroy all land-life on the earth. The background to “why the Flood” is unlike anything we can imagine except in our worst nightmare. It involves chimeras and giants, angels corrupting the human genome, and demons appearing for the first time – and from that point forward – sanctioned to harass and deceive humanity. This is a challenging subject to say the least. Happily, we can count on some sophisticated help from a scholar or two that will ease us over the speed bump we might label, “The Incredible Hybrid Humans, the Nephilim.”

After Noah’s Ark was grounded, we recall that the father of humanity, Noah, grows a vineyard, and drinks too much wine. His son Ham takes advantage of the situation (one of the more controversial episodes of the Bible’s flood account), and as a result, Noah curses Ham’s son (his grandson) Canaan, commencing a fraternal conflict continuing throughout their lineages even down to our present day. But what was the sin of Ham? It will surprise you. But the critical point up for discussion has more to do with the replenishment of the world, instead of what Ham did to his father and his wife.

Then we will take up the man, the myth, the legend we call Nimrod. Yes, he was a real, live historical figure. And we can spot him amid the annals of the past as constructed by secular archeology from Iraq, however treacherous such activity might be today.  Was Nimrod the first “transhuman?” What difference does it make if he was?  We will examine whether Nimrod was in fact, the rabble-rouser that led to the Tower of Babel incident. We will consider whether he was only an archetype of the evil one to come or will one day reappear during the end times as the embodiment of Antichrist. Like H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu who slumbered (suspended in the blackened depths of the darkest ocean), we will ask whether Nimrod lurks in the bottomless pit, described in Revelation 9 until his moment arrives to haunt humanity one final time.

Then we will set the table, the so-called “table of nations” that is, from Genesis, chapter 10. Through its contents, we will take a look-see to where everyone went after God enforced His mandate to humanity that it should multiply and replenish the earth.[2] You see, it looks as if the LORD had to force the issue by confusing the languages[3] of humankind so we would quarrel, get in big dustups, then split them up – literally – scattering to-and-fro over God’s green, and recently very well-watered earth.  Meanwhile, almost 800 years later, back in Sumer near Uruk (Spoiler alert: Fans of the Book of Jasher won’t like the biblical chronology offered here), God places his historic call to Abraham in the famous city Ur of the Chaldees, presumably occupied by the infamous Chaldeans. But when exactly did Abraham live?  Was he a contemporary of Nimrod as the Book of Jasher supposes? When did he first visit Egypt?  When did his son Jacob (Israel) migrate the clan to the land of the Pharaohs? How many were in that clan? How long did the Israelites remain there? How many years were the Hebrews enslaved to the Egyptians? You may think you know the answers, but I can promise that only a few readers actually do.

That will bring us to the Exodus and the incident following: The conquest of Canaan. This period is most important because once the timing has been rightly established, for the first time the biblical testimony aligns with Mesopotamian and Egyptian Archeology.  As it stands right now, by believing in the “conventional chronology” as set forth by the King James Bible, we cannot reconcile secular archeology with the Bible. Yet, with a corrected chronology based upon the original biblical record, the two can be synchronized. Consequently, if we really care about our witness to the world and our ability to convince others that the Bible provides an accurate and reliable historical account, we must no longer hold to a false history protected by tradition while at the same time conflicting with science and an authentic witness of Scripture.

NOTES

^[1] For the record, I currently believe the so-called Gap Theory is the correct way to interpret the ages before Adam and Eve. But that position is not essential to the revised chronology presented in these pages.

^[2] It seems humans were clannish and didn’t want to disperse, thinking they had a better chance to make a name for themselves if they hung out together.

[3] Which itself is a misunderstood matter that confuses what really happened in the plain of Shinar.