Apr. 19, 2008 - Time Lining
Time Lining
I'm having SERIOUS troubles with my Book of Centuries.
The Book of Centuries is a Charlotte Mason thang - Charlotte Mason being the home education approach I use in teaching my kids. The idea is to take the events and people that we read about - in history, in music, in art, and in Bible - and put them on a 'timeline'. Only because of the vast number of people and events involved, the timeline would wrap around the house eight times if you did it on index cards and stuck it to the wall like a border. So Charlotte Mason suggested a "Book of Centuries". Where you designate however many pages you need to each period, and if you need more, you can add them. It makes a 'book' in chronological order of everything, so the child can see that King George V was at the same time as President Roosevelt, Salvador Dali and Gershwin... (or whatever, I haven't a clue, as I'm a victim of public school education - sucks to be me.).
My problem is with BC. (Or BCE, if you're politically correct, which I'm too stubborn to be.) I've looked at several charts on line (some provided by my homeschool group, some by friends) and the one in my KJV/TCR... and it just doesn't add up for me - what they're claiming. So I'm gonna 'talk' this out, and figure out history here. History based on a Biblical Worldview... which would mean that the earth is only (roughly) 6000 years old.
We have to start with the assumption that there are going to be 6000 millinea of human history before the Millineal Reign of Messiah, right? Because Yah always works in sevens - ALWAYS - when it comes to this stuff, and seven is always reserved for Him. And that would mean the years between 7000 to 8000 are His.
And we know that there are two millinea BEFORE that which start with Yeshua's death and go thru to Judgment Day, right? That'd be the Age of Grace... 6000 to 5000, and 5000 to 4000. (Check the top left of my site - right now we're in 5768, give or take 230 years (since the Jewish calendar skips about 230 years of the Persian Empire's rule... btdt, already, on the sidebar). Which means BEFORE Messiah's time on earth, there were FOUR millinea... 4000 to 3000, 3000 to 2000, 2000 to 1000, snd 1000 to 0... right? I've got that.
There are also SIX covenants: the Adamic, the Noahide, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the Davidic... and then the Messianic covenant. ((Six covenants, six thousand-year periods before Yah sets up His eternal kingdom... six being the number of mankind.)) So I figured that those five 'BC' covenants would fit into the five thousand-year periods evenly, somehow. But they don't on the other people's charts. And you know me... I can't just buy whatever everyone else says. And I know there are ways to calculate actual events from the Bible, because of all of those beautiful geneologies (that I thought were blah-blah-blah when I was younger). So - not being one to take people's word, I was on a mission.
First, I sat down and logged how old the Earth was using Genesis geneologies in chapters 5 and 10. Because I'm anal (and I wanted to see it myself)... but if you want from Adam (the fall, beginning of 'aging process') to Abraham's departure from his father... you can get it right here. It matches my study precisely, only it's printable and I don't have to graph the sucker all over again, thank heavens.
But now we run into another problem. Because of the oh-so-stOOpid-ass Catholic church that decided Yahweh's calendar wasn't good enough, and went with a Gregorian one, instead. So we don't USE the Hebrew calendar, so 0 is actually 5000BC. Everything is bass-ackwards. Just my luck. Don't make it easy, or anything, on me... OR on the kids. ((I'm so sick of Catholic BS...))
Time is a measurement - the measurement of deterioration of things. You might not have known that, but it's true. And before The Fall of man, there was no keeping of time, because there was no 'death' - no deterioration. Now, since Adam eating the fruit brought in 'death' (deterioration), we know that The Fall occurred at 0. Cain and Abel were before Seth's birth (which was when Adam was 130), so they were first millineum, Enoch was 987, which would put him in the first millineum, too. So on my Book of Centuries pages labeled 5000BC, there should be Creation (before it, actually), then The Temptation in Eden (5000BC), then Cain kills Abel (4900BC-ish), and then Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him (4013BC). I probably should've labeled the page 5000BC to 4000BC, but I didn't, so I gots t'deal with that. Within here falls the Adamic Covenant.
The Great Flood dates to 1656 years into life, which would be 3344BC. (5000-1656=3344). Which ISN'T what the home ed chart says (2400BC) OR what my Bible helps say (2348BC). And I don't know where they got their numbers from. But it doesn't matter, because I don't trust other people, and my numbers match scripture, so... pbbbbbt. So on the page labeled 4000BC to 3000BC, you would start with The Flood. Unless you're like me and have to include the dividing of the continents, the formation of the Earth's rifts, the collapse of the external hydrous layers, and the Earth being thrown off kilter.
In addition, there's the Tower of Babel, which of course isn't dated... BUT...!! In the Genesis 10 geneology of Shem, it says Peleg was named "divided", because that's when the land was divided. I tried to look that up (what do they mean by 'divided'?) and the two explanations were either a geographical division (separation of continents) or a demographic division (peoples separating). Since the continents separated at The Flood, that left a demographic division, and wouldn't you know that Peleg's place in the lineage lined up almost perfectly with Nimrod and Babel - the creation of all the languages of the Earth by Yahweh! WOOOOT! Which puts the Tower of Babel at 3215BC-ish. I'm wondering if I couldn't do the whole Ishtar/Tammuz/Nimrod thang in there, too... y'know, Easter bunnies, ham, eggs, etc.? Hrm... being me, I think I probably will. It'll fill the pages, too. Within here falls the Noahide Covenant.
Next up, Abraham. According to the geneologies, he left home in 2979BC, and Sodom and Gomorrah were pulverized into ash in or near 2955BC. The Akeda (near-sacrifice of Isaac) isn't date-able, but my guess is that Isaac was 12-ish (based on Yah's precedence with numbers), and that'd make Abraham 112 and place it in 2942BC(ish). Jacob would've been born in 2894. Because the selling of the birthright happened over lentil soup (somebody died) and follows Abraham's death directly, Jacob would've been 15 years old when he bought a birthright with a bowl of soup - in 2879BC. Jacob left his family after Esau married at 40, so he was probably about that age (they were twins, recall) when he saw the stairway to heaven and was called by Yahoveh - 2844BC. Which would make sense, as 40 is another biggie number with Yah. Within here falls the Abrahamic Covenant.
But that's not all that happened between 3000BC to 2000BC. But the next part is tricky, because there aren't a lot of dates given for Joseph. We know he was 17 when he got the coat of many colors and started having dreams, but we don't know when he was born, so we have to go to his father's death date and work backwards. Jacob lived 147 years, and spent the last 17 in Egypt. He went to Egypt 2 years into the famine. There were 7 years of plenty before the famine. And Joseph was 30 when he stood before Pharoah and interpreted the dream about the famine and became a ruler. So Jacob had Joseph when he was 91... in 2803BC. Which means the coat of many colors was 2786BC. Which puts Joseph as ruler at 2773BC. Joseph lived 110 years, and then we have a 400 year (ish) period of bondage for the Israelites in Egypt, putting us near 2293BC for Moses' birth/basket trip. He was 80 when he went before Pharoah and the plagues took place, so that would be 2213BC. Then we have 40 years in the wilderness, which would bring us somewhere in the neighborhood of 2173BC, which is also the death of Moses (which I'm not sure was actually a death: check out Deut 34:7, Jude 1:9). Then comes Joshua & Jericho, which leads to a slew of other battles. ((Get it, a slew...? Hahaha!)) Within here falls the Mosaic Covenant.
And... I'm stopping there for the day. My brain is fried. I'd love to have someone check my numbers, because I could've botched it up easily (that was a LOT of numbers, people!)... maybe I'll have Brian check me. Oh, how happy that would make him. ((Nnnnnnot.)) But anyhow, at least I have things sorted out for the first three millinieum, right? All that's left is 2100BC thru 0BC... bwahahahahaha... my, look at the time..!
Comments
Aug. 16, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
I would like to read your blog but the green type on black background with that jagged design next to the type makes it too difficult. Would you consider changing blog designs?
Jun. 13, 2009 - Oh dear
Posted by Evelyn
And this is why fringe-y maniac whack jobs should not be allowed to homeschool. You better pray that there is a rapture before your poor children have to go out into the world and actually make their way in sane society.
