Alice C. Linsley
James Ussher, the 17th century Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, developed a chronology using the Genesis genealogies to calculate the age of the Earth. His scheme is generally accepted by Young Earth Creationists who hold that the universe is less than 10,000 years old.
Ussher didn't recognize that these lists are not generational. They are regnal, that is to say, they can't be used to count generations because they are king lists and some kings ruled simultaneously, others ruled for short periods, and still others ruled for longer than a generation (40 years).
Most of the rulers had two wives so there were two first-born sons. Ussher didn't take this complication into consideration, which is another reason his chronology can't be used to determine the age of the Earth.
There are, in fact, various versions of the king lists, depending on the group of people being ruled. Some are traced through the cousin/niece bride who named her first-born son after her father. This name is often referred to as "the throne name." Other lists provide the names of the first-born sons of the half-sister brides. Some lists are telescopic to provide a bigger picture whereby a famous ruler is shown to be the direct descendant of a great common ancestor. Telescopic lists leave out some names.
The Genesis king lists are usually organized in depths of ten rulers. For example, Genesis chapter 11 lists ten kings from Noah to Abraham. Genesis 4 and 5 attempts to place Noah as the tenth ruler from Adam, but analysis of the kinship pattern of Genesis 4-5 reveals that Adam is not the name that heads this list. The name is Enoch or Nok.
James Ussher, the 17th century Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, developed a chronology using the Genesis genealogies to calculate the age of the Earth. His scheme is generally accepted by Young Earth Creationists who hold that the universe is less than 10,000 years old.
Ussher didn't recognize that these lists are not generational. They are regnal, that is to say, they can't be used to count generations because they are king lists and some kings ruled simultaneously, others ruled for short periods, and still others ruled for longer than a generation (40 years).
Most of the rulers had two wives so there were two first-born sons. Ussher didn't take this complication into consideration, which is another reason his chronology can't be used to determine the age of the Earth.
There are, in fact, various versions of the king lists, depending on the group of people being ruled. Some are traced through the cousin/niece bride who named her first-born son after her father. This name is often referred to as "the throne name." Other lists provide the names of the first-born sons of the half-sister brides. Some lists are telescopic to provide a bigger picture whereby a famous ruler is shown to be the direct descendant of a great common ancestor. Telescopic lists leave out some names.
The Genesis king lists are usually organized in depths of ten rulers. For example, Genesis chapter 11 lists ten kings from Noah to Abraham. Genesis 4 and 5 attempts to place Noah as the tenth ruler from Adam, but analysis of the kinship pattern of Genesis 4-5 reveals that Adam is not the name that heads this list. The name is Enoch or Nok.
Now that the marriage pattern of these rulers has been identified, we see why the Genesis genealogies can't be used to determine the age of the Earth. Genesis 4-5 is the first place in the Bible where we read about historically verifiable people and they are rulers over territories and have a sophisticated kinship pattern and material culture. Clearly, these are not the first people on the Earth. In other words, we can't use the Genesis king lists to verify the historicity of Adam and Eve. That is not the purpose of the king lists, nor the intention of the Genesis origin narratives.
Using what we know about the kinship pattern of these rulers, we are able to reconstruct a picture of Cain and Seth's relationship to two ruling houses of ancient Africa: the House of Seti (Seth) and the House of Nok (Enoch).
Cain married Seth's sister, a daughter of Enoch. Seth married Cain's sister, a daughter of Enoch. In other words, Cain and Seth married half-sisters. Cain and Seth and their half-sister brides were the offspring of Enoch by his two wives. So the name that belongs at the head of the Genesis 4-5 king lists is not Adam, but Enoch. The African form of Enoch is Nok.
Using what we know about the marriage pattern of these rulers, it is also possible to trace the Genesis 4-5 lists back to Enoch's father-in-law, Seth or Seti. Cain's brother Seth was named by his mother, Enoch's cousin bride, after her father Seti the Nubian.
The Nubian Lineage of Kain and Seth © 2010 Alice C. Linsley
Segment I: The Cousin Bride’s Naming Prerogative and the Throne Name of Seth/Seti
The cousin bride’s first-born son rules in place of his maternal grandfather. So Seth ruled over the territory of Seth
Seth/Seti (Nubian)
∆
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O = ∆ Enoch the Elder
O = ∆ Enoch the Elder
|
Seth the Younger ∆ Gen. 5
Segment II: The Half-Sister Bride and the Throne Name of Enoch/Nok
The half-sister’s first-born son rules in place of his father. So Enosh ruled over the territory of his father Seth.
Enoch/Nok ∆ = O Half-sister bride
___|___
Kain ∆ O = ∆ Seth Gen. 5
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∆ Enosh/Enoch the Younger
Abraham's Kushite Ancestors
The connection of these rulers to ancient Kush is confirmed by Genesis 10:6-8 which tells us that Ham's son Kush had two first-born sons: Raamah and Nimrod, both Kushites. Raamah's territory was in Arabia his two first-born sons were Dedan and Sheba. Nimrod's territory was in the Tigris-Euphrates region. His first-born son by his cousin bride was Asshur the Younger, named after Shem's son, Asshur the Elder.
The Kushites spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic world. These rulers were great kingdom builders. Their royal lines continued to intermarry according to the pattern we have identified even after their languages morphed into Afro-Arabian (Dedanite) and Afro-Asiatic (Aramean). Genesis 10:25 tells us that this division was evident in the time of Peleg, one of Eber's first-born sons. Eber's other first-born son was Joktan the Elder, after whom one of Abraham's sons by Keturah received his throne name (Gen. 25:1).
Genesis 25 calls Joktan the "father of Sheba and Dedan." Here the word "father" does not intended in the biological sense. In connecting Joktan, Sheba and Dedan, this writer recognizes that Joktan, Sheba, Dedan and Asshur were all Kushites.
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