Chronology After the Flood

Chronology After the Flood
The book of Jasher recounts the story of mankind from Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, to the destruction of Noah's Flood (chapters 1-6). The story of the post-Flood world begins in chapter 7 where we are told that Terah was 38 years old when he begat Haran and Nahor, the older brothers of Abraham (v.22). What year was this? According to the chronology, from the Flood, we discover that Noah was 600 years old at the time of the Flood (Gen.7:6). The Flood occurred in the year 2348 B.C. Noah's son Shem begat Arphaxad 2 years after the Flood (Gen.11:10), or in 2346 B.C. From that time on we can trace the descendants of Shem (see Genesis 11:10-26):
· Descendant                          Lived                        Begat                         Date
· Arphaxad                          35 years                      Salah                      2311 B.C.
· Salah                                     30                           Eber                          2281
· Eber                                      34                           Peleg                         2247
· Peleg                                    30                            Reu                           2217
· Reu                                       32                          Serug                          2185
· Serug                                    30                          Nahor                         2155
· Nahor                                   29                          Terah                         2126 B.C.
· Terah                                    70                          Abram                        2056 B.C.
At this point, the Biblical genealogy tell us, "And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran" (Gen.11:26). Yet the book of Jasher clearly states that "Terah was thirty eight years old, and he begat Haran and Nahor" (Jasher 9:22). Therefore, the fact that the Bible says Terah was 70 when he begat Abram, Nahor and Haran, must refer to the date when ABRAM was begotten -- 32 years after his two brothers. Abram was the youngest of the three, but is listed first because the birthright became his because of his righteousness and excellency.
This is a straight-forward chronology. However, it differs from that of Archbishop James Ussher. Usher, in his mammoth chronological work, concluded erroneously that Abram was born seventy five years before Terah his father died. Terah died at the age of 205 (Gen.11:32). The next chapter of Genesis tells us that God told Abram to leave his country and Abram did so at the age of 75 (Gen.12:1-4). Ussher assumes that Terah's death and Abram's departure for Canaan was the same year -- therefore, since Terah died in 1921 B.C., Abram's birth would have been, according to Ussher, 75 years sooner -- in 1996 B.C. Notice! This date is precisely 60 years later than the true date for Abram's birth! Unfortunately, Archbishop Ussher did not have access to the book of Jasher when he calculated the birth of Abram!
When this correction is made, however, it suddenly frees up our understanding of events that occurred after the Flood. Much of this illumination comes from the book of Jasher!