Critical History of Dogmas and Cults [with] Supplement

catchword: vowing

...Shem live all the time of Abraham and Isaac. For Shem died, according to the Hebrew text, only around the 48th or 50th year of Jacob. But the Chronology of this small book only prolongs the life of Shem until the 150th year of Abraham and the 50th of Isaac, and makes Jacob born ten years after the death of Shem; for Jacob only came into the world in the 60th year of Isaac: which makes a difference of 60 years. A difference which, reigning throughout the history of the Patriarchs, casts into it a considerable embarrassment from which all the scholars have not successfully extricated themselves.

This comes from the confusion found in the history of the generation of Terah. The text of Moses says expressly Genesis chap. XI. vers. 26. that Terah, father of Abraham, being 70 years old, begat Abram, etc. And in the last verse of this Chapter XI of Genesis, one has Moses say, and the days of Terah were 205 years, and he died in Haran. St. Stephen in the 7th Chapter of Acts v. 4 says: That Abraham, having gone out of the land of the Chaldeans, dwelt in Haran, and from there, after his Father was dead, God transported him into the land where you presently dwell. Now this appears contrary to the history of Moses: if Abraham came into the world in the 70th year of the life of his Father Terah, that the Father lived 205 years, and that Abraham only left Haran after the death of Terah, it is clear that Abraham must have been 135 years old when Terah died, and that it was at this age of 135 that he must have entered the land of Canaan. Now that is certainly false, for Moses says expressly that Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran and came into the land of Canaan. If Abraham had been 135 years old when he came to Canaan, his son Isaac would have been 35 years old then, and would have been born in Haran during the life of his Grandfather Terah. Instead, it is certain, and constantly recognized by all Authors, that Abraham at the age of 75, when he came to Canaan, had no children, and that he was a hundred years old when Isaac was given to him in Canaan, and not in Haran. I will not stop to report the various ways that have been used to get out of this; I will only say the one that I believe is certainly the good one, and the only good one. It is that there is a copyist error here in the count of the years of the life of Terah. All critics and commentators admit that in the sacred historical books, errors of calculation have slipped in regarding the number of years, and on other things that are counted, such as weights and measures: which creates difficulties that one cannot successfully resolve except by admitting...