Noah and Abraham lived 58 years contemporaneously

Revealing the Hidden Administration in History of Redemption
Missionary Joanna Lee

Senior Pastor Abraham Park’s The Genesis Genealogies, the first book in the History of Redemption series, has been published 4 years ago. The 3rd edition and 7th print has been published on August 15th. During the last 4 years, 17 prints have been published. The book is translated in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Indonesian. It is read by many, becoming a bestseller and undergoing translations to German, Hebrew, Cambodian, Indian, Pakistan, Tamil (Sri Lanka), Sinhala (Sri Lanka), Nepalese, Myanmar languages.
The Genesis Genealogies takes “Consider the years of all generations” (Deut 32:7) as the founding words. When we calculate the years of generations we can see that Adam lived contemporaneously with his 9th descendant, Lamech for 58 years. This truth was revealed for the first time in the world history and has received amazing responses from all around the world.
Ever since the Bible was written, no one ever knew that the redemptive providence was hidden in genealogies and chronologies?the parts which most people considered as dull and unimportant. Not only did anyone consider calculating the years of all generation, but furthermore, no one was able to discover the priceless treasure that was hidden therein. Indeed, such discovery would be impossible without the Holy Spirit, and therefore we cannot be but grateful and deeply moved for the fact that the mysteries have been revealed to our generation according to the administration suitable to the fullness of the times (Ephesians 1:9).

Adam’s book of genealogy in Genesis Chapter 5 records only the names and years at which they passed away. Hence, without calculating the years of generations, it would be difficult to discover who lived contemporaneously with Adam. In addition, the Bible does not explicitly record that Adam and Lamech lived contemporaneously for 56 years.

However, it is easy to deduce that Adam and Lamech lived 56 years contemporaneously by calculating the years of generations listed in Chapter 5 as the following.

(1) All the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died (Genesis 5:5).

(2) Then, Lamech was born 874 years after the creation of Adam. Adding up the ages when the patriarchs from Adam to Methuselah (Lamech’s father) had their firstborn yields 874 years?the year Lamech was born.
Adam had Seth at 130 years (Gen 5:3), Seth had Enosh at 105 years (Gen 5:6), Enosh had Kenan at 90 years (Gen 5:9), Kenan had Mahalalel at 70 years (Gen 5:12), Mahalalel had Jared at 65 years (Gen 5:15), Jared had Enoch at 162 years (Gen 5:18), Enoch had Methuselah at 65 years (5:21), and Methuselah had Lamech at 187 years (Gen 5:25). Therefore, adding 130+105+90+70+65+162+65+187 = 874, which means, Lamech was born 874 years after Adam was created.

(3) Adam died at the age of 930 and Lamech was born 874 years after Adam’s creation. So, subtracting 874?the year Lamech was born?from 930 when Adam died, we get 56 years. Therefore Adam and Lamech lived 56 years contemporaneously.


Then in the view of history of redemption, what is the significance of Adam living contemporaneously with his 9th descendant, Lamech?

As Adam lived 930 years, he probably shared the following with his descendants:

(1) Being the sole witness who had lived in the Garden of Eden, he testified that Garden of Eden really existed on this earth and vividly shared the precious faith experiences he had there.

(2) He taught his descendants that the covenant of eternal life which God gave in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:22) was the true purpose of creation.

(3) He taught them that death came because he fell for serpent’s deception and disobeyed the command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1-4, 2:17, 3:18-19).

(4) He passed on God’s fervent love that did not give up on Adam despite of his fall and His zeal to restore him through the “Covenant of the Messiah” (Gen 3:15).
In result, Adam’s 7th descent Enoch lived with him contemporaneously for 308 years (930 [year of Adam’s death] ? 622 [year of Enoch’s birth] = 308 years). Adam shared with Enoch the covenant of eternal life, and Enoch, having believed in it, did not see death and received the blessing of transfiguration (Gen 5:24, Heb 11:5-6). Lamech, Adam’s 9th descendant, believed in the covenant of the Messiah which Adam passed onto him during the 56 years, and therefore Lamech named his son Noah (Gen 5:28-29). Enoch and Lamech lived 113 years contemporaneously (987 [year of Enoch’s transfiguration] ? 874 [year of Lamech’s birth] = 113 years). During these years, Lamech heard about the prophecy of judgment from Enoch (Jude 1:14-15), and he then passed it to Noah. Just as Lamech believed, Noah became the savior to save mankind from the judgment of the flood.

Although the Bible does not explicitly record that Noah and Abraham lived 58 years contemporaneously, it becomes evident when we calculate the years of the generations.
We can use the same method used in calculating the 56 years of contemporaneous life for Adam and Lamech. Noah lived 950 years (Gen 9:29) and Abraham was born in Noah’s 892nd year. Hence, subtracting 892 from 950 yields 58 years. We can also obtain the same number by subtracting the year of Abraham’s birth (1948 years since Adam’s creation) from the year of Noah’s death (2006 years since Adam’s creation): 2006-1948 = 58 years.

But, the easiest method is using the year of Noah’s flood as the starting point. Senior Pastor Abraham Park, the author of the History of Redemption series, revealed it during his lecture, “Chronology of the 20 Generations of Patriarchs” at this year’s seminar on August 2. This was surely an incredible method that enables a simple calculation solely using the Bible.

Calculating with the flood as the starting point is as follows:

(1) Noah lived an additional 350 years after the flood (Gen 9:28).

(2) Abraham was born 292 years after the flood.
Using the “Genealogy of Shem” recorded in Genesis 11:10-26, we can simply calculate. Just add the ages of the patriarchs when their firstborn were born from the time of flood to the age of Terah when he had Abraham. Shem had Arpachshad 2 years after the flood (Gen 11:10), Arpachshad had Shelah at 35 years (Gen 11:12), Shelah had Eber at 30 years (Gen 11:14), Eber had Peleg at 34 years (Gen 11:16), Peleg had Reu at 30 years (Gen 11:18), Reu had Serug at 32 years (Gen 11:20), Serug had Nahor at 30 years (Gen 11:22), Nahor had Terah at 29 years (Gen 11:24), and Terah had Abraham at 70 years (Gen 11:26).
Therefore, the sum of 2+35+30+34+30+32+30+29+70=292 years; this means that Abraham was born 292 years after the flood.

(3) Since Noah lived an additional 350 years after the flood and Abraham was born 292 years after the flood, Noah and Abraham lived 58 years contemporaneously (350-292=58 years).
All three methods above prove that Noah and Abraham lived 58 years contemporaneously.

Why do we need to draw our attention to the method using the flood as the starting point?
It is because the Bible records the chronology of Noah’s and Shem’s descendants using the flood as the starting point.
Genesis Chapter 5’s genealogy lists the 9 patriarchs from Adam to Lamech in three types of chronology:
“At what age his son was born”
“How many years he lived and had children”
“How long he lived and died (in Enoch’s case, only “how long he lived”).”

Genesis Chapter 11’s genealogy lists the 9 patriarchs from Shem to Terah in two types of chronology:
“At what age his son was born”
“How many years he lived and had children”

However, the case of Noah and Shem is exceptional.
In Noah’s case, his genealogy does not list Noah’s age when he had Shem; rather, it starts with the flood.
“Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died (Genesis 9:28-29).”

Also, in Shem’s case, the year when Shem was 100 years and had Arpachshad is recorded as “2 years after the flood.”
“These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood (Gen 11:10),”
In other words, the Bible records the genealogy of Noah’s descendants using the flood as the starting point for chronological calculations. This is probably similar to how Adam, the first man, became the starting point for the chronology of all the descendants after him, and how the birth of Jesus, the second Adam, became the dividing point of the history of mankind into Before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (AD). Likewise, the flood became a great turning point that divided the world into the antediluvian (before the flood) and the postdiluvian (after the flood) worlds.

God used the judgment of the Great Flood to completely demolish the structure of the sin ridden world, and He prepared the second great works of creation. Just as He blessed Adam (Gen 1:28), God blessed Noah and his sons to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen 9:1). The blessing that was given to mankind and the world during the first creation is still in effect after the Great Flood and even now. The flood incident was not the end of the world but a new beginning. Although God knew that man’s wickedness still existed even after the flood, God with His absolute grace and mercy made an “everlasting covenant of the rainbow” with Noah and his descendants to never send a flood again to destroy the earth (Gen 9:9-17).

Then in the view of history of redemption, what is the significance of Noah and Abraham living 58 years contemporaneously?

(1) First we need to look at Noah’s longevity.
Since Noah lived 950 years and died, he is the third longest man to live after Methuselah (969 years, Gen 5:27) and Jared (962 years, Gen 5:20). However, it is notable that Noah lived contemporaneously with the most patriarchs before and after the flood. Noah lived contemporaneously with 7 patriarchs starting with the 3rd descent Enosh to Shem (excluding Enoch) during his first 600 years before the flood, and he lived contemporaneously with 9 patriarchs from Arpachshad to Abraham during the 350 years of his life after the flood: total of 16 patriarchs. Noah experienced both the antediluvian and postdiluvian worlds. He witnessed the sinful earth facing its judgment, and after the flood, he watched how the world became corrupt again as it built the Babel tower. Noah also witnessed how the lifespan was drastically reduced among his descendants after Eber?Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor and Terah?as they lost their faith and drifted away from God to serve idols (Josh 24:2, 15, Peleg died 10 years before Noah, and Nahor died 9 years before Noah).


(2) Noah lived an additional 350 years after the flood. He most likely shared the testimony of God’s stern judgment of flood to his descendants who had never experienced it. Just as the world’s overflowing wickedness and continuous corruption brought about the flood, the postdiluvian generation was rapidly corrupting through the Babel tower incident (Gen 11:1-9). Even Shem’s descendants participated in the construction of the tower, repeating the wickedness that had existed immediately prior to the flood. Only the judgment was held back because of the Covenant of the Rainbow.
God blessed Noah with longevity so that he could live with Abraham for 58 years and pass down the covenantal faith to his descendants.

(3) Not only did Noah lived with Abraham for 58 years contemporaneously, but he also lived with Shem (who lived 35 years longer than Abraham), Arpachshad (who lived 148 years contemporaneously with Abraham), Shelah (who lived 3 years longer than Abraham), and Eber (who lived 64 years longer than Abraham) contemporaneously.

(4) The covenantal generations may seem severed between Peleg and Terah, Abraham’s father, because they betrayed God’s covenant and served idols. But, God gave Noah the blessing of longevity to live 58 years contemporaneously with Abraham in order to pass down the faith. Therefore God’s covenant was not severed but continued with Abraham.

Truly, this was an incredible redemptive history God carried out in the lives of the 20 patriarchs. We are deeply moved by “the zeal of the faithful God” Who always fulfills His everlasting covenants. This God is indeed our God. The God of Abraham will complete the history of mankind as the history of redemption. The same God will continue to work to complete our lives also in His redemptive history, and He will be our God as long as we have the faith like Abraham (Gal 3:7-9, 29).

Surely, using the flood as the starting point in calculating the 58 contemporaneous years between Noah and Abraham has been revealed for the first time in history. And we are the first people in the world to listen to the history of redemption that has been revealed for the first time in world history. We are partakers in the glory of being the first recipients of the manifested mystery that has been hidden from the past ages and generations (Col 1:26). A mystery is something that is hidden from everyone’s knowledge; however, once it is manifested, it signifies that the time has come to let everyone know.
Those who first received the word of the History of Redemption are those entrusted with the oracles of God (Rom 3:1-2). Those entrusted are stewards of Christ, and the stewards must be found faithful (1Cor 4:1-2). When the entrusted stewards move with their blessed feet to bring the glad tidings of good things (Rom 10:14-15), they will be blessed with abundant salvation not only for their own souls but also for all those who listen to them (1Pet 4:17-18).