And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The record to which this birth notice belongs traces the generations after the Flood, whose length of life had begun to fall away from the nearly thousand-year lifespans of the patriarchs before Noah. Across nine generations before the Flood the average age reached 912 years, while across nine generations after the Flood it was only 332 years. The generations listed in Genesis 11 thus stand as the measure of that shortened span, averaging 332 years of life, far less than those who lived before the Flood.
By its dating of Abraham's birth, this genealogy places Shem as still living 150 years after Abraham was born and 50 years after Isaac was born. That overlap allowed what God taught Adam to be handed down directly in only a few steps. Adam passed it to Methuselah, Methuselah to Shem, Shem to Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel.
The record to which this birth notice belongs traces the generations after the Flood, whose length of life had begun to fall away from the nearly thousand-year lifespans of the patriarchs before Noah. Across nine generations before the Flood the average age reached 912 years, while across nine generations after the Flood it was only 332 years. The generations listed in Genesis 11 thus stand as the measure of that shortened span, averaging 332 years of life, far less than those who lived before the Flood.
By its dating of Abraham's birth, this genealogy places Shem as still living 150 years after Abraham was born and 50 years after Isaac was born. That overlap allowed what God taught Adam to be handed down directly in only a few steps. Adam passed it to Methuselah, Methuselah to Shem, Shem to Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel.