In Hebrew the word ben means ‘son’ or ‘son of’. It can also mean grandson, great grandson, son-in-law, step-son or simply ancestor. So when the Bible says ‘son of’ it doesn’t necessarily mean what we think it means – one generation on. An example of this is Belshazzar who, in Daniel chapter 5, is described as the son of Nebuchadnezzar although it seems that he was actually the son of Nabonidus and therefore grandson to Nebuchadnezzar. This explains why Daniel was made only the third ruler in the kingdom for his vital translation services. So how can we apply this to the conundrum presented earlier?
It seems fair to state that Kohath, Gershom and Merari were actually sons of Levi. He was born c.1770 BCE and entered Egypt in 1728 BCE with these three boys in tow according to Genesis 46:11. He was, therefore, in his early to mid forties at that point. From the birth of Levi to the birth of Moses is about 180 years. We have just accounted for roughly 40 of those years, leaving us with a balance of 140 years with just Amram named in the middle. To get to Moses would mean that both Kohath and Amram wait until an approximate age of 70 before fathering their sons. This would not be impossible, merely improbable given the data in Genesis 11 where a typical age of maturity immediately post flood is about 30 years. But by inserting two unnamed generations such that Amram is a great grandson of Kohath, making Moses the direct son of Amram and Jochebed, then we can do the numbers quite nicely. Therefore by using an average of five sons per family, we have:
Generation Ass. Yr birth Total Cumulative Levi 1770 1 1 Kohath 1730 1 1 Sons of Kohath 1690 5 6 Grandsons of Kohath 1655 25 31 Amram 1620 125 156 Moses 1593 675 831 Son of Moses 1553 3375 4206 Grandson of Moses 1513 Just starting. Two sons each by the census?
The 1512 census included boys from one month old and upward. By using reasonable assumptions we can easily achieve the 8,400 population, even when we include the natural death rate, although in this case this would make very little difference. Both Levi and Kohath lived into their 130s. The Exodus account remarks on the fecundity of the Israelites such that the Egyptians had a sickening dread of them. One is left with the impression that five sons per family was not excessive.
Why is this important? Because accounts such as this are used to challenge the accuracy of the Bible and even the chronology of Biblical events. How could the sons of Kohath, the sons of Amram and the sons of Moses reach a vast population of 8,400? There must have been more generations. That pushes the date of the flood back by an unspecified number of years and so the Bible can’t be relied upon. Rather than assuming that the Bible is wrong, however, by doing some research into language and doing a little basic mathematics we can easily come up with a scheme that is reasonable, believable and that preserves the chronology that is presented in the Bible. It is also in harmony with the current understanding of ‘this generation’. With Kohath living to the age of 133 his life would have overlapped that of Amram by about twenty years.
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