If you add up the years according to the Masoretic–Adam would have died when Lamech(Noah’s father) was 57 years old–Noah wouldn’t be born until 125 years later.
This reckoning is reliable but it also is only meaningful if Adam alone could redact the knowledge he acquired and no other redactors existed. As I said in an earlier post, there were many people who were contemporary with both Adam and Noah. They are the transmitters of Adam’s doctrines and testimony about God. I find no difficulty here as many witnesses to Adam’s words were well able to both redact and transmit his account of history, and as the First Man, father of humanity, it stands to reason that everyone wanted to sit at the feet of Adam and hear his wisdom (and that of Eve, his wife).
The real challenge is how did Abram hear Adam’s words? According to the geneaologies, Noah and Abram lived contemporaneously for 58 years (!).
Abraham passed the revelation on to Isaac and Jacob, and the brilliant Joseph compiled a history of the elect family for the annals of Egypt. These records no doubt would have been available to Moses much later, and may be a source for the Genesis narratives. The reality is that some record existed somewhere, and that it was inspired and authoritative, and that the revelations Moses received on Sinai confirmed this record. It is instructive that the week of creation is referred to in the giving of the Law (Exodus 20:11).
In my judgment, it is reasonable to imagine that Noah took the writings of Adam, Enoch and other sources of revelation into the ark. Else they would be lost, and the fact is, we have them. In fact, Jude’s letter in the NT quotes Enoch. Therefore, some antedeluvian (pre-flood) prophetic writing existed, unless we say that Jude is lying in Holy Scripture. There is also ample apocryphal evidence for this argument embedded in the ancient Chinese
character for “boat.” (the character is comprised of 3 symbols that mean “vessel”, “8” and “mouths” literally persons)
The geneaology that shows Noah being contemporary with Abram again associates Abram with the fame and repute of Noah, who must have enjoyed Adam-like status in his own day. St. Peter’s epistles regard Noah as a significant historical figure in salvation history. Our Blessed Redeemer does, too. Regardless, the records transmitted from Adam to Noah would find a fitting stewardship in Abram, who was chosen by God as heir of the world and progenitor of the promised Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15).
When I was in Iraq for combat operations in 2003, we stopped at the biblical city Ur of the Chaldees (it was called Talil Airbase for us paratroopers), land of Abram’s origins. A
giant ziggurat is still there to this day. The Chaldeans most certainly would have regarded Noah as an important figure, even if they rejected his doctrines and preaching.
Once we get by the Modernist bias to regard ancient civilizations as primitive and inferior, and see that Adam was indeed the wisest of all ancient men, it is much easier to trace the transmission of revelation and sacred geneaologies through the patriarchs to Joseph. But those who cling to theistic evolutionism must needs stumble here, not because of faulty scriptures, revelation, redaction or archeological evidence, but because of a faulty anthropological of view of man that is advanced by atheistic science.
Easter blessings,
cj
