by John P. Pratt
Reprinted from Meridian Magazine (11 Sep 2003)
©2003 by John P. Pratt. All rights Reserved.
|1. Eber and his son Peleg|
|2.1 60-year Uncertainty|
|2.2 Are 60 Years Important?|
|2.3 Modern Revelation|
|2.4 Sacred Calendars|
|2.5 Four stars|
|2.6 Not Astrology|
|4.1 Sodom and Gomorrah|
|4.2 Three Important Days|
|4.3 "Set Time"|
|4.4 Isaac born on Consecration|
In the previous two articles in this series, we have seen that divine calendars witness to the precise dates of historical events from Adam through Noah. In this article we will see that precise dates for the births of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are also indicated, which resolve the confusion about when Abraham lived. The close relationship of family birth dates will be discussed, including between Isaac and his wife Rebekah and also his brother Ishmael. These remarkably rare interlocking birth dates provide a strong witness to their correctness.
Checking those calendars produces very likely candidates because there are excellent alignments in those very years. The indicated birth date for Peleg is Mon 22 Sep 2241 BC which was 10 Tishri (Atonement, Hebrew), and 1 Birth (Venus). The day 1 Birth is the ideal day for birth on the Venus calendar and it only occurs on one of the 10 major Hebrew holy days about once in 58 years. Looking 430 years later at the day 1 Birth on the Venus Calendar we note that there is only about a one in seven chance that it will also coincide with a Hebrew holy day. So it is statistically significant that the day indicated for Eber's death, Mon 4 Oct 1811 BC, falls precisely on 1 Tishri (Trumpets, Hebrew). Moreover, that day is also the day 1 Skull on the Sacred Round, the day representing death. Thus, this pair of dates fits the pattern we have seen so far in Hebrew-Venus alignments, which is that they are supported by other witnesses to remove any doubt. Those additional testimonies can be either the appropriateness of the particular holy day (such as 1 Birth for Peleg's birth), or from another sacred calendar (such as 1 Skull for Eber's death). This evidence seems compelling enough to propose that these two dates are indeed correct.
While Eber is an illustrious figure, we know almost nothing about his son Peleg. We are told the meaning of his name ("division") refers to the time when the earth was divided (Gen. 10:25). The account of the tower of Babel is found in Genesis shortly after the birth of Peleg (Gen. 11:1-9). On the other hand, the Book of Jasher places the confounding of the languages at Babel toward the end of Peleg's life (Jasher 9:20-10:1), so it seems safe to conclude that the tower of Babel occurred sometime during the life of Peleg. Now let us turn to the birth date of someone we all know much better, Father Abraham.
First, the verse which we expect to be definitive seems unclear: "And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran" (Gen. 11:26). Was Terah age 70 when he begat Abram (whose named was later changed to Abraham)? Were the three brothers triplets? For all of the preceding patriarchs, the year of the principal son's birth was listed, followed by the statement that the father also begat other sons and daughters. This appears to be the same pattern, except that the other two sons are named. The clear intent seems to be that Terah was age 70 at Abraham's birth, and that he had two other sons named Nahor and Haran.
An alternate interpretation arises because immediately after the statement that Abraham's father died in Haran at age 205, it says that Abraham departed from Haran at age 75 (Gen. 11:32-12:4). If one assumes that Abraham left immediately after Haran died, then Terah was 130 ( = 205 - 75 ) at Abraham's birth. So was Terah age 70 or 130 at Abraham's birth? And does it really matter?
Counting years from the Flood in 2343 BC, Noah died in about 1993 BC. Similarly, the two choices for Abraham are either that he was born about 2051 BC or about 1991 BC. Thus, if Abraham was born when Terah was 130, then Noah could not have known Abraham because Abraham would have been born two years after he died.
A similar question arises concerning the Tower of Babel. According to Genesis, Peleg died about a decade before Noah. Jasher says the Tower of Babel occurred nearly at the end of Peleg's life (Jasher 10:1). If so, then the confusion of tongues occurred when Abraham was about 48. If we knew with certainty when Abraham lived, we might be able to resolve that question, which would help us to know Abraham better. For example, might Abraham have been acquainted with Jared and his group who left Babel to be led to a promised land in the Americas? If so, that might help us understand the context in which the Lord later told Abraham that he would (also) be led to a promised land and father many nations.
The chronology found in Bibles published during the last three centuries generally follows that of Bishop Ussher, who decided that Terah was age 130 at Abraham's birth. L.D.S. Bibles used to list those dates, but then they were dropped when the new L.D.S. edition was published. Even so, our current L.D.S. Bible Dictionary still lists Abraham's birth as occurring after Noah's death. But that is just a hold-over from Ussher, which is not supported by modern revelation as we shall now see.
The main point for this article is that Abraham makes it clear that he left his father and many others in Haran, and he definitely did not wait until Terah's death to depart. That removes all of the support for the interpretation that Terah was age 130 at Abraham's birth.
Now let us see how sacred calendars verify that Abraham's birth did indeed occur about 2051 BC (when Terah was 70).
Plotting the position of the planets in the sky on the proposed date of Abraham's birth yields something very much like Jasher describes. Four of the five planets visible to the unaided eye were in a double conjunction which was visible just before dawn. "Conjunction" means that the planets appeared near each other in the sky. It is very unusual to have two conjunctions occur at the same time in the same area of the sky. If there had been a comet there also at that time (which is virtually impossible to verify now), it would have been a remarkable sign indeed. Thus, this double conjunction, coupled with what might be its description in Jasher, adds another witness of this date. The illustration, created with professional astronomy software, shows that the four planets are still visible in the predawn sky near Babylon even after most stars have disappeared.
Now let us turn to finding the birth dates of Abraham's children. Only if they can be found with sufficient testimonies of their accuracy can we really we sure we have Abraham's date correct.
Sarah remained barren. Finally, she gave her handmaid Hagar to Abraham, which led to the birth of his first son, Ishmael, when Abraham was 86 years old (Gen. 16:16). Abraham loved Ishmael and was delighted that finally the covenant could be fulfilled to have numberless descendants.
Searching for a likely date for Ishmael's birth leads to an excellent candidate which was a holy day on four sacred calendars. The day Thu 6 Sep 1966 BC was 1 Tishri (Trumpets, Hebrew), 1 Serpent (Sacred Round), 1 Birth (Venus) and 1 Resurrection (Mercury). Only about once in 58 years does 1 Birth (Venus) coincide with one of the 10 principal Hebrew holy days, and this date has the added bonus of being 1 Resurrection on Mercury. While it is very encouraging that there is such a perfect birth date for Ishmael almost exactly 86 years after the proposed birth date for Abraham, still we must be cautious before declaring victory. What about Isaac? If there is not an equally good date for Isaac, then that would be problem because the Lord tends to treat children equally (D&C 38:26).
First, the Lord made a new covenant with Abraham. The Lord changed his name from Abram to Abraham, meaning "father of a multitude" because he would be the father of many nations. The Lord also changed his wife Sarai's name to be Sarah, meaning "Princess" and declared that she would have a son, and that through him many nations and kings would come. The token of this covenant would be circumcision (Gen. 17:1-16). Abraham feared that something might be taken from his beloved son Ishmael, but the Lord assured him that Ishmael would still become a great nation as promised. That has certainly been fulfilled, because to this day the Arab nations are located on and around the Arabian Peninsula, comprising many of the descendants of Ishmael. Then the Lord added what to me as a researcher in calendars is a unique and very strange statement. The Lord then prophesied that Isaac would be born "at this set time in the next year" (Gen. 17:21). We'll come back to that, but first, let's see what else happened that week.
As the angels departed, the Lord told Abraham that they were on their way to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the angels arrived at Sodom, Abraham's nephew Lot prepared for them a "feast" of "unleavened bread" (Gen. 19:3). Why did the Lord include that detail of what was served for supper? To me it is meant to indicate that it was the night of Passover, which would later be designated in the law of Moses as the time to begin the feast of unleavened bread. Passover is the traditional time to flee into the wilderness, as Lot's family did. The cities of the plain were destroyed the next day, on Passover (15 Nisan), when burning sulfur rained down from heaven on them (Gen. 19:24).
There are two days on the Hebrew calendar which are best for making covenants with God. The foremost such day is the Day of Atonement, 10 Tishri in the fall, which is the most sacred day of the year. The second choice is the counterpart of that day in the spring, 10 Nisan, which I have named "Consecration" because it had no other formal name. It was the day on which the Passover lamb was chosen (Ex. 12:3) for the Passover feast five days later. It was also the day on which the Israelites who crossed the river Jordan were circumcised, being the day they entered the promised land (Josh. 4:6, 5:2). Thus, it appears to have been the ideal day for the law of circumcision to have been given because the Israelites would have been following that same pattern. If so, then the new covenant with Abraham was made on Sat 28 Mar 1953 BC (10 Nisan), which seems appropriate because it was the sabbath and also a holy day on the Enoch Fixed calendar (summer solstice).
Are these two dates correct? We get a strong confirmation by considering the day on which the angels came, Mon 30 Mar 1953 BC. That day was 1 Creation (or Conception, Venus) and 1 Birth (Mercury), an ideally symbolic date to announce the birth of Isaac to Sarah. For that alignment to occur on the very day of the angels' visit as recorded in Jasher is compelling evidence that these three dates are correct and that Jasher was compiled from some very ancient authentic sources. Now let us see how knowing these dates leads directly to knowing Isaac's birth date.
The Hebrew word mow'ed is translated many ways other than "set time." Perhaps the best translation is "appointed time" because the root word means "appointment." In fact, the same word in the same context (referring to Isaac's birth) is indeed translated "time appointed" (Gen. 18:14). It also is the very word translated as "seasons" in the verse which is so often quoted in my work when the Lord told Moses that the lights in the firmament were "for signs, and for seasons" (Gen. 1:14). At the time of the Exodus, the Lord uses the same word when he stated that he had appointed a "set time" for the Passover, and Israel was commanded to keep that feast in its proper "season" (Ex. 13:10) or "time appointed" (Ex. 23:15 ) every year. In all of these cases the meaning seems to be what my articles refer to as a "holy day."
So what is the indicated day for Isaac's birth? The day 10 Nisan in the following year was Tue 16 Mar 1952 BC. This is the first precise day which has been predicted by my theory of sacred calendar alignments, and a lot rides on whether or not there are other witnesses that this date is correct. Is this day as impressive a birth date as was Ishmael's? His was sacred on four calendars. This time we don't have the luxury of searching through an entire year for an alignment. If this day is not right, then we may need to re-examine either the theory or this entire set of dates. If the Lord is indeed using these calendars to schedule birth dates, then a consistent pattern should emerge (D&C 52:14).
Checking out that date on the sacred calendars produces such an amazing result as to lock in all of the dates proposed so far as being correct. The day 10 Nisan was also 1 Serpent (Sacred Round), the same as Ishmael's birthday. Moreover, it was also 1 Resurrection (Venus) and 1 Birth (Mercury), which is exactly the reverse of Ishmael's on those calendars. Thus, it is also sacred on the same four calendars as was Ishmael's, with Venus and Mercury being mirror images of each other. To show how unusual that is, in the 200 years from 1800 BC to 2000 BC there are only two days which meet those three criteria and those are the proposed birthdates of Ishmael and Isaac. And those two dates both also happen to be holy days on the Hebrew calendar and within 14 years of each other! No wonder the Lord made a point of foretelling the exact day of Isaac's birth because now we are allowed to discover just what a finely crafted precision heavenly clock he created.
Another confirmation of the appropriateness of Isaac being born on the day that the Passover lamb is chosen is that Isaac would indeed be in the position of a Passover lamb, to be sacrificed by his own father, Abraham. Thus, this date for Isaac's birth is so ideal that it confirms both Abraham's and Ishmael's proposed birth dates. Now let us turn to the birth date of Rebekah.
That six-hour interval was Passover, 15 Nisan (Hebrew), 1 Temple (Sacred Round) and 1 Birth (Venus). Here we see a link to their mother, who was born on 1 Birth (Venus), and also to their grandfather Abraham, who was born on 1 Temple. Those are both indications that we have the right date because similar links were found between parents and children in the earlier papers of this series.
But whereas Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah each were born on an "ideal" date representing birth on only one of the sacred calendars, this proposed date represents birth on both the Sacred Round and the Venus calendar. Just how often do both of those coincide with a major Hebrew Holy Day?
The day 1 Birth (Venus) aligns with any given day on the Hebrew calendar only once in about 584 years. To require it also to be 1 Temple drops the expectancy by a factor of 20 to be once in 11,680 years! The ideal day to be born on the Hebrew calendar is 15 Tishri, the Feast of Tabernacles. We saw in the first article in this series about Adam, that there is not even one date during the 7,000 years from 4000 BC to AD 3000 which has that coincidence occur, even for six hours. The second best birth date on the Hebrew calendar is Passover, which represents "passing over" through a life transition, such as birth or death. The Savior was born at Passover and died at Passover, and the nation of Israel was "born" at Passover at the Exodus. Because both the Savior and the nation of Israel were born at Passover, that day would be most meaningful to be the birthday of Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel. Such was apparently the case, with the indicated time being so precise as to be in the evening, just as when the Savior was born, and the Passover meal occurs.
Given that Passover is the best day for Jacob to have been born on the Hebrew calendar, just how often does it occur on 1 Birth (Venus) and 1 Temple (Sacred Round)? As with the above calculation for Tabernacles, we only expect one occurrence in 11,680 years. Exhaustively checking every date in history against my current models of the calendars, shows that the proposed 6-hour period proposed for Jacob's birth is the only time in history when Passover coincides with 1 Birth (Venus) and 1 Temple (Sacred Round).
It was a rare date indeed! If the Lord was concerned with giving Jacob and Esau equally significant birth dates, as he apparently was with Ishmael and Isaac, then there may have been no other way than to have them be twins! There is no other day like it in history, much less within a few years. Thus, this alignment testifies not only that this one date is correct, but also that all of the interlocking dates for Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Rebekah are also correct.
The dates proposed in this article are summarized in the following table. There is also a table of all of the dates I have published so far on all seven sacred calendars available on my web site.
|Peleg b.||Mon 22 Sep 2241||10 Tis||1 Flower||1 Bir|||
|Abraham b.||Wed 5 Oct 2052||10 Tis||1 Temple|||||
|Ishmael b.||Thu 6 Sep 1966||1 Tis||1 Serpent||1 Bir||1 Res|
|Circumcision||Sat 28 Mar 1953||10 Nis|||||||
|Angels visit||Mon 30 Mar 1953||||1 Jaguar||1 Cre||1 Bir|
|Sodom/Gomorrah||Thu 2 Apr 1953||15 Nis|||||||
|Isaac b.||Tue 16 Mar 1952||10 Nis||1 Serpent||1 Res||1 Bir|
|Rebekah b.||Tue 8 Nov 1923 pm*||1 Kis||1 Jaguar||1 Bir||1 Res|
|Jacob/Esau b.||Wed 20 Mar 1892 pm*||15 Nis||1 Temple||1 Bir|||
|Eber d.||Mon 4 Oct 1811||1 Tis||1 Skull||1 Bir|||
Moreover, this work is also a testimony of the authenticity of at least some of the chronological data in the Book of Jasher. It confirms that Abraham and Noah's lives overlapped by 58 years, as did Jacob and Eber's for 81 years, both of which Jasher states. Moreover, not only did the age given for Rebekah yield a birth date which fits perfectly with Isaac, that record also stated the exact day on which the three angels appeared to Abraham, which was seen to be an ideal day symbolically to announce to Sarah the birth of her promised son.
The Lord has provided ample witnesses of the divine authenticity of the Book of Genesis, and of the existence of the Creator who crafted the solar system to be an incredibly accurate time piece which he uses to perform his great work.