Who came first, Moses or Noah?

The principal events stand thus: B.C. 4004 Adam created. 2948 Noah born. 2348 The Flood. 1996 Abraham born. 1921 Call of Abraham. 1896 Isaac born. 1836 Jacob born. 1706 The Israelites enter Egypt. 1491 The Exodus. The law given. 1451 The Israelites cross the Jordan. 1444 The division of the land. (See JUDGES.) 1095 Saul anointed king: the kingdom begins. 1055 David, king. 1015 Solomon, king. 1005 Dedication of the Temple. 975 Division of the kingdom. (See KINGS.) (776 Era of the Olympiads begins.) (753 Rome built: era of A.U.C. begins.) 740 Captivity of the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan. 721 End of the kingdom of Israel. 658 Manasseh carried to Babylon. 606 Jerusalem taken: first captivity of Judah. 605 Nebuchadnezzar reigns alone. Time of the Gentiles begins in the first great empire — Babylon. 599 Jerusalem re-taken: the great captivity. 588 Jerusalem re-taken and destroyed. 538 Belshazzar slain: the second great empire commences. The Medes and Persians. 536 Cyrus reigns alone. The 70 years of Jer. 25:11-12 end. The Jews return. Ezra 1, 2: (See PERSIA.) 475 Artaxerxes succeeds Xerxes. 455 Artaxerxes commissions Nehemiah to build Jerusalem. The Seventy Weeks of Daniel begin. 336 Alexander the Great, head of the third great empire — The Greek. 323 Death of Alexander the Great: his four Generals divide the kingdom, but it mainly merged into two kingdoms: Egypt, 'kings of the South,' and Syria, 'kings of the north.' (See ANTIOCHUS.) 191 All Asia Minor on the west of Mount Taurus delivered to Rome. 166 to about 65 The times of the Maccabees. In 166 Jerusalem was recovered and the temple re-dedicated. 65 Rome, the fourth great empire, rapidly gains ascendancy. Syria becomes a Roman province. In 63 Judaea is subjected to Rome. In 30 Egypt becomes a Roman province. 40 Herod is appointed by Rome king of Judaea. 20 Herod begins to rebuild the temple 6 Birth of John the Baptist. 5 Birth of Christ. (See NEW TESTAMENT.)

I thought of his writing the five books that bear his name—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—in those dreary and desolate regions. Did he inscribe the sacred writings in cuneiform characters on clay tablets? All we know is that the work must have been crude and laborious compared with our methods. The wonder is the Books have been preserved, and have come down to the present time in their wonderful detail. The whole of Genesis is taken up with history that took place hundreds of years before Moses was born. Was there ever such a book? How is it that this record did not disappear?

repeated nine times (verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29). It is very evident that we have here a matter of pure revelation. The events narrated in Genesis 1 took place about 2,300 years before Moses was born. Would Moses have dared to place on record nine times that God had spoken, and pretend to give His actual words, had God not spoken?

Ham (black) is not mentioned in the curse, but the son of Ham, Canaan (the merchantman). Ham's deed revealed the unbelieving condition of his heart, while Shem's and Japheth's action manifest divine grace in covering up the nakedness. God's eye beheld Canaan and his subsequent career in his descendants. He inherits the curse. How literally it was carried out! Shem, meaning "name," becomes the family in which Jehovah, the Name, is to be revealed. Jehovah is the God of Shem. Soon we shall see a son of Shem, Abram, and his seed becoming the depository of Jehovah's revelation. Later Jehovah speaks and reveals His name by which He wishes to be known forever to another son of Shem, Moses. "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you; this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations" (Ex. 3:15). He does not call Himself "the God of Japheth" but "the God of Shem." Shem's supremacy is here indicated. It is a far-reaching prophecy. Japheth means "expansion." His sons are Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras, and the sons of Gomer and Javan are mentioned in the next chapter. They expanded and Japheth dwells in the tents of Shem, partakes of Shem's blessing and responsibility. Some take "He shall dwell in the tents of Shem," the "he" as referring to God, but this is incorrect. It means Japheth and reminds us of the parable of the olive tree in Romans 11. Shem's blessing consisted (1) In being the carrier of the Name, Jehovah. (2) In controlling Canaan and being the master over him. (3) The giving shelter to Japheth and let him be sharer of the blessing. It is the germ of all following prophecy and we wait still for its end fulfilment.

"And these [are the] generations of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood" (Gen. 10:1). This is the true place for such a statement given after Noah's fall and its remarkable consequences; just as the genealogy of Adam's sons followed in Gen. 5 after his sin and that of Cain led to the revealed state of the world before the flood. Noah lived on for centuries after, but is mentioned no more in the history, as Adam disappears after his sin, with Cain's crime leading to Seth given instead of Abel. One Spirit forms the narrative beyond the wisdom of Moses, and in total disproof of incoherent fragments pieced together, least of all at an epoch when all was crumbling to ruin among the chosen people. It was well ordered that none of Noah's sons had children till they emerged from the ark. So Adam became a father only after the fall and expulsion from paradise.

According to an old tradition, not only Genesis (also called the first book of Moses), but the whole Pentateuch (from Greek pente - five and teuchos - container for scrolls) were written by Moses. As far as Exodus to Deuteronomy is concerned, Moses was an eyewitness and partly even main character. When writing Genesis, apart from direct revelations of God (for example the report on the creation of the world in Genesis 1-2), he could possibly have referred to documents from the time of the patriarchs (for example the genealogies of Genesis 5:10-11 and 36). Under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God Moses wrote everything down. As he was a prophet, the words of 2 Peter 1:21 apply to him as well: "Holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit."

*"It may be said that Moses was not a witness of the facts which he relates between the birth or the call of Abraham (when the history of the Hebrews may be properly said to commence) and his own time. But there were so few steps between Abraham and Moses that, though not a witness, he was an authentic reporter of evidence. In the following history, from the exode to the rebuilding of the temple, all the writers were, strictly speaking, witnesses."

"For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law; nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him to come." This looks difficult, but it is simple after all. The law was given by Moses; from Adam to Moses there was no law, men were left to conscience, by which they knew good and evil. But death reigned nevertheless from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Adam had a commandment which he transgressed, inasmuch as there was no law till Moses, the generations could not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Sin is lawlessness and not as the faulty translation of 1 John 3:4 states, "sin is the transgression of the law." However, sin becomes transgression when there is a law. As there was no law from Adam to Moses, sin was therefore not imputed as transgression. But as they all sinned, death reigned and there is also judgment afterwards for them. The last sentence of verse 14 "who is the figure of Him that was to come" is the important statement which is fully developed in the verses which follow and upon which the whole argument rests.

This is yet more apparent from the support the Apostle Paul adds in verse 14 to what was laid down in verse 13: "But death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those that sinned not in the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was coming." The two points are named when a positive commandment was imposed by God. Adam had a law; by Moses the law was made known. Between them there was no dealing with men by either the one or the other; yet men sinned as scripture abundantly shows. Hence death reigned, for it is the wages (not of transgression only but) of sin. It reigned in the case of Adam and Eve; it reigned from Moses' day; but not at either epoch only, but between them, when there was no law. Death reigned over all those that sinned; for sin they did, even though it was not in the likeness of our first parents' transgression. Their antediluvian posterity, as well as those who followed the flood down to the gift of law from Sinai, could not sin as their father in Eden or the children of Israel after they heard the ten words. But they sinned, they did their own will, they were corrupt and violent, as they afterwards added idolatry to their evil ways. Accordingly death reigned even over them; for they were sinners, though not transgressors, like Adam at first and Israel afterwards.

αἰών. A period of time marked off by that which distinguishes it from other periods, as the Patriarchal age, the Apostolic age, etc. Though these terms do not occur in scripture, many allusions are made to the different ages. Thus we speak of the Antediluvian age, and scripture speaks of the same period as 'the old world,' i. e., the ordered scene which God did not spare. 2 Peter 2:5. The 'Patriarchal age' embraces the time from the call of Abraham to the release from Egypt and the giving of the law. From 'Adam to Moses' excluding both, is an epoch when men's sins could not be classed as transgressions, seeing there was no definite law such as was given to Adam, or such as was administered by Moses. Rom. 5:13-14. Again, from Moses to Christ formed a definite period: "the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," John 1:17; "the law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." Luke 16:16. The time when Christ was on earth is in John's first epistle repeatedly called 'the beginning:' the beginning of Christianity, though it is not called an age. We may also distinguish the period of the Church (from the day of Pentecost until the Rapture of the saints), though it is separated from recognised times and seasons. Our Lord not only spoke of the age in which He was on earth, but referred some events to 'the end or completion of the age.' Matt. 13:39-40, 49. The disciples also asked what would be the sign of that completion. Matt. 24:3. Our Lord also spoke of 'the coming age,' when His own should receive life eternal. Luke 18:30; cf. also Matt. 12:32; Eph. 1:21; Eph. 2:7. God's kingdom is 'a kingdom of all ages.' Ps. 145:13, margin. Eternity, in reference to the glory of God, to the blessing of the saved, and to the punishment of the wicked, is again and again called the 'age of ages,' often translated 'for ever and ever:' all being consummated in the eternal state. The Greek word is αἰών throughout, though often translated 'world' in the A.V.