Toward An Historical Timeline for Genesis 2 through 11

In the Biblical book of Genesis, chapters 2 through 11 record the history of mankind from Adam and Eve to Abraham.  Establishing an historical timeline for this bit of history continues to be a significant and unmet challenge.  Here at Ages of Joy, we are trying to narrow in on what happened when.  Now, a newly published article on Science Daily provides more insight into a horrific cataclysm that occurred at pivotal time deep in human history.

Younger Dryas onset and the Prophecy of Enoch

Headlined as The Day the World Burned and alternately as Major Cosmic Impact 12800 Years Ago, new research detailing evidence from South America lends support to the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis.  This hypothesis states that just as the Earth was emerging from the last Glacial Cycle, a fragmenting comet or astroid struct the earth, simultaneously at multiple locations.

Imagine a swarm of meteorites from a disintegrating comet raining down on the Earth, setting most of the forests of North America on fire, destroying North American megafauna and people groups, striking numerous European locations and plunging the Earth back into an ice age cycle for 1200 years known as The Younger Dryas.

At the end of this period, the earth passed through a phase of rapidly warming climates to emerge into an era with phenomenally more stable global temperatures and seasonal variations.  This in turn empowered the nascent agricultural revolution to rapidly emerge, changing the course of human history.

c. 10850 BCE    Comet Impact triggers Younger Dryas
c.   9650 BCE    End of the Younger Dryas Ice Age brings climate stability (1200 years)
c.   9600 BCE    Jericho established as a seasonal camp
c.   9500 BCE    Jericho begins to support a pre-pottery, agricultural culture with sedentary dwellings
c.   9400 BCE    Jericho town has more than 70 dwellings
c.   9130 BCE    Oldest date measurements of Gobekli Tepe Sanctuary built with stone (1720 years since comet)

Biblical chronology:

Enoch was 65 when he became the father of Methuselah; lived 365 years
Methuselah was 187 when he became the father of Lamech; lived 969 years
Lamech was 182 when he became the father of Noah; lived 777 years
Noah lived 600 years before the flood and 350 years after it
2 years after the Flood, Shem was 100 and then lived 500 more years

Sequence:
0 - Enoch born
65 - Methuselah born to Enoch
252 (65+187) - Lamech born to Methuselah
365 - Enoch was no more
434 (65+187+182) - Noah born to Lamech
934 - Noah becomes father of Shem, Ham, Japheth
1029 - Lamech died
1034 - Flood, Methuselah died, 669 years since Enoch's death
1384 - Noah died
1536 - Shem died (Flood + 502 years)

Enoch (comet impact)  - Judgment from the sky, thousands of fireballs devastate the Earth

Jude 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Noah (promise of climate stability)

Genesis 8:22 
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

From the time Enoch was born to when Noah died was a span of at least 1384 years.  From the comet strike to the stabilized climate was approximately 1200 years.  Therefore, it is possible that Enoch prophesied the Younger Dryas comet and Noah, before his death, was witness to a stabilized climate and received God's promise regarding seedtime and harvest.

Let's call YD 0 the year of the Comet which starts the Younger Dryas

YD 0 - Comet strike witnessed by Enoch (assumed age of 65 years old, year of Methuselah's birth)
YD 969 - Flood (year of Methuselah's death)
YD 1200 - End of the Younger Dryas (Noah, age 831, receives a promise of a better climate)
YD 1250 - Founding of Jericho
YD 1319 - Noah's death at age 950 years old
YD 1350 - Jericho has agricultural culture (enabled by better climate)
YD 1450 - Jericho has at least 70 dwellings
YD 1471 - Shem's death at age 600 years old
YD 1720 - Gobekli Tepe founded commemorating comet strike prophesied by Enoch.

It is likely that gaps are present in the genealogy recorded in Genesis.  We also do no know whether Enoch's prophesy corresponds to the comet strike that started the Younger Dryas or whether he witnessed the event himself.  We also do not have reason to believe that Shem ever lived in or visited Jericho, but we should expect Jericho, the oldest known city in the world, is a post-Flood city.  This interesting exercise shows that it is at least theoretically possible to line up a portion of the Biblical historical record with some of the most pivotal and dramatic events in human history.

The site at Gobekli Tepe is only 5% excavated, so it is possible that many more details will emerge regarding this pivotal point in human history.

Building the Ark of Noah

The building of Gobekli Tepe continues to be a marvel of ancient accomplishment.  From wikipedia,

"It remains unknown how a population large enough to construct, augment, and maintain such a substantial complex was mobilized and compensated or fed in the conditions of pre-sedentary society."

The construction of Gobekli Tepe, some 6,000 years before other similar architectures in the world, indicates that the similarly amazing feat of building Noah's ark, although using different materials, must at least be considered plausible.  In fact, the building of the ark may have been the "moon shot" project that enable Noah and his sons to develop critical techniques for organizing and managing large-scale projects.  Those techniques may have been applied to Gobekli Tepe.

The Tower of Babel

After the flood, some people migrated east to the Mesopotamian region and built the Tower of Babel from baked bricks.  The oldest known use of baked bricks in antiquity is in the Indus Valley Civilization in India, dating as far back at 3200 BC (long after the Younger Dryas).  However, baked brick technology takes significant resources, including skilled laborers and specific natural resources.  In the Indus Valley Civilization, the technique was eventually abandoned.  Unlike Gobekli Tepe, which was made of stone, the Tower of Babel was made from baked bricks.  It may have been the first such structure in the world.  With the abandonment of the project, it may have been thousands of years before conditions were right to resume the use of baked bricks for construction, and the technology may have had to be re-invented, even if the memory of its use was preserved in the intervening time span.