And Noah was five hundred years old. Literally, a son of 500 years, i.e. going in his 500th year (cf. Genesis 7:6; Genesis 16:1). The son of a year (Exodus 12:5) means "strictly within the first year of the life" (Ainsworth). And Noah begat—i.e. began to beget (cf. Genesis 11:26)—Shem,—name (Gesenius), fame (Furst)—Ham,—cham; hot (Gesenius, Murphy), dark-colored (Furst)—and Japheth—spreading (Gesenius, Murphy); beautiful, denoting the white-colored race (Furst). That the sons are mentioned in the order of their ages (Knobel, Kalisch, Keil, Colenso) may seem to be deducible
But there is reason to believe that Japheth was the eldest and Ham the youngest of the patriarch's children (Michaelis, Clarke, Murphy, Wordsworth, Quarry). According to Genesis 11:10 Shem was born 97 years before the Flood, while (Genesis 6:11) Noah was 600 years old at the time of the Flood. Hence, if Noah began to beget children in his 500th year, and Shem was born in Noah's 503rd year, the probability is that the firstborn son was Japheth. In accordance with this Genesis 10:21 is understood by LXX; Vulgate, Michaelis, Lange, Quarry, and others to assert the priority in respect of age of Japheth. In the narrative ahem is placed first as being spiritually, though not physically, the firstborn. Ranke perceives in the mention of the three sons an indication that each was subsequently "to lay the foundation of a new beginning."
The Antiquity of Man
The chronology of the present chapter represents man as having been in existence at the time of the Deluge exactly 1656 years. According to the Septuagint, which Josephus follows except in one particular (the age of Lamech), and which proceeds, again with two exceptions (the age of Jared, which it leaves untouched, and that of Lamech, which it increases by six), upon the principle of adding 100 to the Hebrew numbers, the age of man at the date of that catastrophe was 2262 (vide Chronological Table, see below). The dates of the Samaritan Pentateuch, being manifestly incorrect, need not be considered. Adding to the above dates the subsequent chronological periods from the Deluge to the call of Abram, from the call of Abram to the exodus from Egypt, from the exodus to the birth of Christ, the antiquity of man, according to the Biblical account, is not less than 5652 and not more than 7536 years. The conclusion thus reached, however, is somewhat scornfully repudiated by modem science, as affording, on either alter. native, an altogether inadequate term of existence for the human race. 1. The evidence of geology is supposed irrefragably to attest that man must have been upon the earth at least 1000 centuries, and probably ten times as long. The data for this deduction, as stated by Sir Charles Lyell, are chiefly the discovery, in recent and post Pliocene formations of alleged great antiquity, of fossil human remains and flint implements along with bones of the mammoth and other animals long since extinct ('Antiquity of Man,' Genesis 1-19.). But
HEBREW
SAMARITAN
SEPTUAGINT
JOSEPHUS
Age at son's birth
Age at death
Age at son's birth
Age at death
Age at son's birth
Age at death
Age at son's birth
Age at death
ADAM
130
930
130
930
230
930
230
930
SETH
105
912
105
912
205
912
205
912
ENOS
90
905
90
905
190
905
190
905
CAINAN
70
910
70
910
170
910
170
910
MEHALALEEL
65
895
65
895
165
895
165
895
JARED
162
962
62
847
162
962
162
962
ENOCH
65
365
65
365
165
365
165
365
METHUSELAH
187
969
67
720
187
969
187
969
LAMECH
182
777
53
653
188
753
182
777
NOAH
500
950
500
950
500
950
500
950
SHEM
100
100
100
100
DELUGE
1656
1307
2262
2256
HOMILETICS