How many years ago did Noah live. When did Noah live? Other testimonies about Noah

The time when Noah could have lived is limited by biblical and archaeological evidence. The Bible dates the life of Noah by tracing the genealogy from Adam to Abraham along the line of Seth (Gen. 5). It is known that Abraham lived around 2000-1900. BC, and since the birth of Noah is chronologically placed in the Bible approximately 900-1000 years before Abraham, it turns out that Noah lived about 3000-2900 years. BC. Although one “generation” in the Bible does not necessarily mean a direct transition from father to son (as discussed in chapter 3), it is noticeable that the Bible lists 9 “generations” from Adam to Noah and 7 “generations” from Adam (through Cain) to Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal Cain (Gen. 4). Assuming that the average length of generation for both lineages was the same (40-year "full generation"), it would appear that Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain lived sometime before Noah—perhaps 80 years or so. Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal Cain are important to our topic because the Bible mentions their activities, which can be associated with archaeological data. And Lamech took two wives for himself: the name of one was Ada, and the name of the second was Zillah. Ada gave birth to Jabal: he was the father of those who dwell in tents with flocks. His brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah also gave birth to Tubal Cain, who was the forger of all copper and iron tools. And Tubal Cain's sister Noah(Gen. 4:19-22).

The word "father" in verses 20 and 21 implies that Jabal and Jubal were the first to do such things. However, this word can also be translated as "ancestor", which gives an alternative - these people could only be the first of the kind in which such activities began to be practiced. In cuneiform texts from Uruk, one of the oldest cities that existed in the southern Mesopotamia (Fig. 4.1), they are mentioned as already fixed by 3100-3000 BC. the following professions: plowman (farmer), sheep and goat herder, cattle herder, fisherman, blacksmith (metal worker), weaver (fabric maker), and potter (ceramic maker). Since these studies by 3100 BC. already existed, this implies that both Jabal and Jubal and Tubal Cain lived about or before (if they were the first) this time.

Jabala the father of those who live in tents with the flocks, is difficult to place in an archaeological context at a particular time. It is known that the domestication of cows, sheep and goats took place around 6500 BC. in the regions around Mesopotamia. Nomads are also known to have occupied the Negev (west of the Southern Mesopotamia) by the early Bronze Age (c. 3000 BC). It seems that these ancient nomads led a lifestyle similar to that of the modern Bedouin, who pitch their tents and make seasonal movements to provide pastures for their domesticated animals. The occupation of Jubal the Musicians also roughly corresponds to 3000 BC. Sumerian characters depicting harps have been found on stone tablets from the late Uruk period (c. 3100 BC; Table 4.1).

The stories of the great empires of the past: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Persia - are firmly connected with biblical characters that are directly related to the sons of Noah Published on the web portal

Secular history provides ample evidence that the survivors of Noah's Flood were real historical characters, and their names are indelibly imprinted on many events and things in the ancient world. When Noah and his family left the Ark, they were the only people on earth. It was the three sons of Noah - Shem, Ham, Japheth and their wives who were to repopulate the earth through their descendants after the Flood.

Genesis 10 speaks of 16 grandchildren of Noah. God has left us ample evidence that these grandchildren of Noah actually lived, that their biblical names are their real names, and that after the Babylonian dispersion (Genesis 11) their descendants spread throughout the earth and gave rise to various peoples of the ancient world. The first generations of people after the Flood lived long lives, some of them outliving their children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. This made them stand out.

They were the heads of tribal clans, which grew and became large groups of the population in their respective regions. This is what happened:

People in different areas were called by the name of their common ancestor.
They called their land after him, and often large cities and rivers.
Sometimes people slipped into the cult of ancestor worship. And when this happened, it was natural for them to call their god by the name of a common ancestor. Or they revered their long-living ancestor as a god.

All this means that the evidence of history has been preserved in such a way that it simply cannot be lost, and human ingenuity cannot simply be erased. Let's take a closer look at this evidence.

Seven sons of Japheth

Genesis 10:1-2 says:

“This is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. After the flood, their children were born. Sons of Japheth: Homer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Firas. Sons of Homer: Askenaz, Rifat and Togarma"

Noah's first grandson mentioned in Scripture was Homer. He was the progenitor of the Cimmerians, who originally settled on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Ezekiel wrote that the descendants of Homer, as well as the descendants of Togarmah (son of Homer), lived in the northern reaches (Ezek. 38:6). There is an area in modern Turkey that was called Galatia during the New Testament. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the people who in his time (93 AD) were called Galatians or Gauls were formerly called Gomerites.

They moved west to what is now France and Spain. For many centuries, France was called Gaul, after the descendants of Homer. Northwestern Spain is still called Galicia to this day.

Some of the Gomerites moved further into the area now called Wales. The historian Davies reports a traditional Welsh belief that Homer's descendants "came to the land of the British Isle from France, about 300 years after the Flood."2 He also writes that the Welsh language is called Gomerag (after their ancestor Homer).

Other members of the clans settled in the areas along the path of settlement, including Armenia. The sons of Homer were "Askenaz, and Rifat, and Togarma" (Genesis 10:3). The Encyclopædia Britannica says that the Armenians traditionally consider themselves descendants of Togarma and Askenaz.

The borders of ancient Armenia extended to the territory of Turkey. The name of Turkey probably comes from the name of Togarm. Others moved to Germany. Ashkenaz is the name of Germany in Hebrew.

The next grandson mentioned in Scripture is Magog. According to Ezekiel, the descendants of Magog lived in the northern lands (Ezek. 38:15, 39:2). Josephus writes that those whom he calls the Magogites, the Greeks called the Scythians.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the ancient name for the area that today includes part of Romania and Ukraine was Scythia.

The next grandson is Madai. Together with Elam, the son of Shem, Madai is the ancestor of modern Iranians. Josephus says that the Greeks called the descendants of Madai Medes. Every time the Medes are mentioned in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word Madai (medai) is used. After the reign of Cyrus, the Medes are always mentioned (except once) together with the Persians. These two peoples became one kingdom, in which one law ruled - “the law of the Medes and Persians” (Dan. 6:8, 12, 15). Later they were simply called Persians. Since 1935, they began to be called in accordance with the name of their country - Iranians. The Medes also "settled in India".

Javan is the Hebrew name for Greece. The names Greece, Grecia, or Greeks occur five times in the Old Testament, and always in the form of the Hebrew word Javan (Javan). Daniel speaks of "king of Greece" (Daniel 8:21), which literally means "king of Javan." The sons of Javan were named Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim (Genesis 10:4). All of them had family ties with the Greek people. The Aeolians (ancient Greek people) got their name from the name of Japheth's grandson Elis. Tarshish or Tarsus was located in an area called Cilicia (modern Turkey).

The Encyclopædia Britannica says that Kittim is the biblical name for Cyprus.6 The Greeks worshiped Jupiter under the name Jupiter Dodeneus, who got his name from the fourth son of Javan (Dodadiq). The name Jupiter comes from the name Japheth. His oracle was in the city of Dodona.

The next grandson is Tubal. Ezekiel mentions him along with Gog and Meshech (Ezekiel 39:1). Tiglath-palasar I, king of Assyria, ruling around 1100 BC, names the descendants of this grandson as Tabali. Flavius Josephus called them the Tobelites, who later became known as the Iberians.

“During the time of Josephus Flavius, the Romans called this territory Iberia. Iberia was located where Georgia is today, whose capital to this day bears the name of Tubal - Tbilisi. From here, having crossed the Caucasus Mountains, the people moved further to the northeast, naming the Tobol River after their tribe, and hence the name of the famous city of Tobolsk.

Meshekh, the name of the next grandson of Noah, is the ancient name of the city of Moscow. Moscow is both the capital of Russia and the region that surrounds this city. One of the geographic regions, the Meshcherskaya lowland, is called by the name of Meshekha to this day, having practically not changed over the centuries.

According to Josephus Flavius, the descendants of Firas were called Tyrians. The Greeks changed their name and they became known as the Thracians.

Thrace stretched from Macedonia in the south to the Danube River in the north and to the Black Sea in the east. The territories of Yugoslavia known to us belonged to this region. The World Encyclopedia says: "The people of Thrace were cruel Indo-Europeans who loved to fight and loot."

The descendants of Firas worshiped him under the name of Turas, that is, Thor - the god of thunder.

Four sons of Ham

Next come the four sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Fut, and Canaan (Genesis 10:6). The descendants of Ham mainly inhabited the southwestern part of Asia and Africa. The Bible often refers to Africa as the land of Ham (Ps 104:23, 27; 105:22).

The name of Noah's grandson Cush is a Hebrew word for ancient Ethiopia. The word Ethiopia in the Bible is always, without exception, a translation of the Hebrew word Cush. Flavius Josephus, who calls them Khus, wrote that "even today the Ethiopians themselves call themselves Husayns (Huseans), as the inhabitants of Asia also call them."

The next grandson of Noah is Mizraim. Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt. The name Egypt occurs hundreds of times in the Old Testament and (with the exception of one time) is always a translation of the word Mizraim. For example, at the burial place of Jacob, the Canaanites saw the weeping of the Egyptians and called this place Abel Mizraim, which means the lamentation of the Egyptians (Genesis 50:11).

The stories of the great empires of the past: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Persia - are strongly associated with biblical characters that are directly related to the sons of Noah. The origin of most tribes and peoples can be traced back to the sons of Noah - and this is easy to verify by examining their family tree.

Foot is the name of the next grandson - the Hebrew name for Libya. This ancient name occurs three times in the Old Testament. The ancient river Foot was in Libya. By the time Daniel lived, the name had been changed to Libya. Josephus Flavius says: "Foot inhabited Libya and called the inhabitants of the country Phutians after themselves."

Canaan, the next grandson of Noah, is the Hebrew name for the territory that was later called Palestine by the Romans, i.e. modern territory of Israel and the Jordan. It is worth saying a few words about the descendants of Ham (Genesis 10:14-18). They were: the Philistines, who is undoubtedly the ancestor of the Philistines (from whom the name of Palestine is derived), Sidon, the founder of the ancient city named after him, and Hitt, the founder of the ancient Hittite empire.

Also, Canaan is spoken of in Genesis 10:15-18 as the progenitor of the Jebusites (Jewus is the ancient name of Jerusalem - Judges 19:10), Amorites, Gergeses, Jeveites, Arkeev, Sineev, Arbadeev, Zemareev and Himafites - the ancient peoples who inhabited the earth Canaan. The most famous descendant of Ham was Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, as well as Erech, Akkad and Halne in the land of Shinar (Babylonia).

Five sons of Shem

And finally, the sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arfaxad, Lud and Aram (Genesis 10:22). Elam is the ancient name of Persia, which itself is the ancient name of Iran. Until the reign of King Cyrus, the people who lived here were called Elamites, they are even mentioned several times under this name in the New Testament. In Acts 2:9, the Jews from Persia who were present on the Day of Pentecost are referred to as Elamites. Thus, the Persians are descendants of both Elam, the son of Shem, and Madai, the son of Japheth (see above).

Since the 1930s, they have called their land Iran. It is very interesting to note that the word "Aryan", which so fascinated Adolf Hitler, is a form of the word "Iran". Hitler wanted to create a pure Aryan "race consisting of superhumans. But the very term "Aryan" denotes a mixed lineage of Semites and Japhetites!

Asshur is the Hebrew word for Assyria. Assyria was one of the great ancient empires. Whenever the words Assyria or Assyrian appear in the Old Testament, they are translated from the word Asshur. Assur was one of the first people to be deified and worshiped by his own descendants.

“Throughout the existence of Assyria, i.e. until 612 BC, reports of battles, diplomatic and foreign relations were read aloud, referring to the image of Assur; all the Assyrian kings believed that they wear their crown only with the divine permission of the spirit of Assur"

Arfaxad was the progenitor of the Chaldeans. This fact "is confirmed by the Hurrian (Nuzi) tablets, where his name looks like Ariphurra, the founder of Chaldea." His descendant, Eber, passed on his name to the Jewish people through the line Eber-Peleg-Rahab-Serug-Nahor-Tarah-Avram (Genesis 11:16-26).

Another son of Eber - Joktan - had 13 sons (Genesis 10:26_30), all of whom settled in Arabia. Lud was the ancestor of the Lydians. Lydia was located where Western Turkey is today. Sardis was the ancient capital of Lydia. One of the seven churches of Asia was located in Sardis (Rev. 3:1).

Aram is the Hebrew name for Syria. Every time the word Syria occurs in the Old Testament, know that this word is translated from the word Aram. The Syrians call themselves Arameans, and their language is called Aramaic. Until the expansion of the Greek Empire, Aramaic was the international language (2 Kings 18:26ff). When Jesus hung nailed to the cross and spoke the words: "Eloi, Eloi, lama savakhthani" (Mark 15:34), He spoke in Aramaic, the language of the bulk of the people.

Conclusion

We have only briefly talked about the 16 grandchildren of Noah, but what has been said is enough to show that all these people really lived, that they were exactly what the Bible calls them, and that they and their descendants are real recognizable characters on the pages stories. The Bible is not only not a collection of myths and legends, but is the only key to the history of the earliest eras of our world.

Noah's father was Lamech, his mother's name is unknown. According to the Bible, when Noah was five hundred years old, he begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Noah's Ark.

Noah was a righteous and believing person, for which he was chosen by God as the builder of the ark, in which everyone who would restore the human race after the Flood, God's punishment for the sins of mankind, was to be saved. God gave Noah precise instructions regarding the construction of the ark and how exactly to equip it for a long voyage. Before the flood, Noah took a pair of each type of animal, as well as seven pairs of those animals that could be sacrificed. Of the people, Noah himself entered the ark, his wife and three sons with their wives. After that it started to rain like never before or since. After 40 days, the ark floated. Every living thing outside the ark perished. The ark floated for 150 days before the waters began to recede. After the 8th month of travel, Noah released a raven from the ark, but he, not finding land, returned to the ark. Then Noah released a dove, at first the dove returned with nothing, then brought an olive leaf, and the third time it did not return at all, this indicated that the land had again become habitable. Noah left the ark about a year after the flood began.

Noah's covenant with God.

It is believed that Noah left the Ark at the foot of the Ararat Mountains, after which he immediately offered a sacrifice to God in gratitude for the salvation of him and his family. God, in turn, promised never to devastate the earth with floods and blessed Noah and his descendants (the coming humanity). God gave Noah's descendants a number of commandments:

Be fruitful and multiply
Possess the earth
Control animals and birds
Feed from the earth
Do not shed human blood.

The sign of God's covenant was a rainbow that shone in the heavens.

Noah's life after the flood.

According to the Bible, after the flood, Noah began to cultivate the land and planted a vineyard. Noah is considered the first winemaker on Earth. One day, after drinking wine, Noah lay naked in his tent. His son Khan and his son Khaan entered the tent and saw a naked sleeping Noah. Without doing anything, they hurried to tell the sons of Noah Shem and Japheth about this, the same, without looking at their father, covered his nakedness with clothes.

Waking up, Noah was angry with his son Khan and especially with his grandson Khaan for disrespect. Noah cursed Khaan and all his descendants, punishing them to be slaves to their brothers. The name of the son of Noah Ham became a household name.

According to the Bible, Noah lived another 350 years after the flood and died at the respectable age of 950 years.

After Noah.

The descendants of Noah are considered the ancestors of all mankind. As we already know, Noah had three sons who became the ancestors of different peoples.

The descendants of Shem are Jews, Arabs and Assyrians.

The descendants of Ham are the peoples of North and East Africa and South Arabia, incl. Egyptians, Libyans, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Philistines, Somalis, Berbers, etc.

The descendants of Japheth settled Europe. The sons of Jather became the ancestors of the tribes and peoples of Russia, Chud, Yugra, Lithuania, Livs, Poles, Prussians, Varangians, Goths, Angles, Romans, Germans, Finno-Ugric peoples, etc. The peoples of the Caucasus also came from Japheth.

The image of Noah in Christianity.

Noah is the prototype of the new humanity. He is the harbinger of Christ. The salvation of Noah during the Great Flood anticipates the sacrament of baptism. Noah's ark is a type of the Church saving those who yearn for salvation.

The Orthodox Church classifies Noah as one of the forefathers and commemorates him on the "Week of the Forefathers".

The story of Noah is an amazing story of God's love, glory and victory! This is the story that Jesus mentioned about His second coming.

Noah was a righteous man in his generation, for which he was saved by God from the Flood and became the successor of the human race.

His figure is important in the Bible. As we know, he was chosen by God as a righteous man to continue the human race after the Great Flood. In Gen. 5:28-29 describes the birth of Noah: "And Lemech lived 182 years and begat a son, and called his name Noah, saying, This one will comfort us in our work and in the work of our hands in the land that the Lord has cursed." Those. Lemech derived the name Noah (correctly "Noah") from the root "nahem", which is translated here as "consolation, peace."

Noah's father was Lamech (Gen. 5:28) - Lamech's father was Methuselah - Methuselah was Noah's grandfather.

Interestingly, this man lived the longest life - 969 years. Methuselah's father was Enoch. That special person that walked with God and didn't see death, because God took him.

In the Koran, Noah is called Nuh and is revered in Islam.

Noah was 500 years old when he gave birth to his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth (Genesis 5:32).

The first bird Noah released was a raven. It is strong in flight, with a wingspan of up to 1.20 m, it can cut through the air and soar with the ease of a kite. The raven lives in the mountains, and therefore would find any cliff that could appear above the surface of the flooded earth.

"Noah and a dove with an olive branch." Fresco in the early Christian catacombs, II-IV centuries.

After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard first. Grapes are one of the most ancient plants in the Bible and are mentioned almost 200 times in the Old and the New.

Noah died at the age of 950

Facts about Noah's Ark

In the Book of Genesis, God not only gives instructions about the construction of the Ark, but also gives precise instructions regarding its dimensions. Estimates are given in cubits. This measure of length is different in the number systems of different countries, the Jews of the Second Temple period determined it at 48 centimeters.

Thus, it is possible to calculate the approximate dimensions of the Ark. According to the Bible, the Ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. converted to the metric system: ~144 meters long, ~24 meters wide and ~ 13.5 meters high.

Ark proportions of 6:1 are still used in shipbuilding.

Physics students at the University of Leicester calculated that a ship this size could support the weight of 70,000 animals.

Noah built his ark out of gopher wood (Genesis 6:14), which is possibly a caparis. This tree is very durable. The doors of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome are made of it, and even after 1200 years there is not a hint of destruction on them.

In Holland there is an exact one. The ark was designed by millionaire Johan Hubers.

A theme park has been built in Hong Kong - one of the most visited entertainment and educational complexes.

We have found at least 250 different ancient cultures that have a history of a worldwide flood. Most of these stories bear a striking resemblance to Genesis.

If there really was a global flood, then we expect to find billions of decays in rock layers around the world. And that's exactly what we find.

The famous painter Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was surprised to find the fossilized remains of sea creatures while walking in the Alps. He wondered how they could get there, and as a result came to the conclusion that this is evidence of a flood that once was on the earth.

The Flood and Noah's Ark are mentioned not only in the canonical books of the Bible, but also in the later apocrypha. For example, in the Book of Enoch.

God told Noah to tar the outside of the ark. Resins occur naturally in the Middle East.

Interesting fact:

The Hebrew word translated "earth tar" (originally "silt", "sticky mucus") is found to have a more correct meaning in the Revised Standard Text of the Bible: bitumen (an alternative translation is also found: "tree tar").

The word "bitumen" comes from the Latin bitumen - "mountain resin". It is a soft, sticky, water-insoluble black substance. By its nature, it is a mixture of hydrocarbons with various additives; in terms of chemical composition, bitumen is close to oil. Simply put, this is the oil from which all the most easily evaporating fractions have been removed.

As we know today, the Middle East is extremely rich in underground oil deposits. Some of it seeps to the surface of the earth and partially evaporates; what remains is bitumen. It was used not only as a substance with good waterproof properties, but also as a lime, which made it possible to glue bricks and build strong walls.

According to the Koran, the Ark landed on Al-Jadda Mountain, according to the Book of Genesis - to the Ararat Mountains. This mountain range is located in present-day Turkey.

Many people at different times explored Mount Ararat in search of the remains of Noah's ark. The Bible, however, says that Noah's Ark stopped not on Mount Ararat, but on the mountains of Ararat. Not on a single mountain, but on multiple mountains.

It was estimated that the internal volume of the ark was over 1.5 million cubic feet. Noah did not have the problem of placing all the "species" of animals and birds in the ark. Based on the fact that Noah took with him "a pair of each creature." Noah would probably have guessed to take small and young animals so that they would take up less space and not multiply.

The researchers calculated that the volume of food supplies was only about 15% of the total volume of the Ark, and drinking water occupied less than 10% of the volume; in addition, the passengers of the Ark could collect rainwater.

Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences M. VERBA (St. Petersburg).

A comparison of the information given in the Bible about the age of the Old Testament centenarians with the history of the formation of mathematical knowledge among the peoples of Mesopotamia leads to a curious thought. When the Greeks translated the Book of Genesis from ancient Aramaic into Greek in the 3rd century AD, the "interpreters" of ancient manuscripts could not take into account the specifics of the positional number system adopted by the Sumerians. If this assumption turns out to be correct, then, consequently, the age of the biblical characters was overestimated by about an order of magnitude. By applying modern knowledge about the number systems of ancient peoples, one can not only make the dates of many biblical information more reliable, but also clarify other numbers contained in the book of the Old Testament.

Science and life // Illustrations

The Bible says: "Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth"[Being. 5, 32]. Thus, the answer to the question about the age of the captain of the ark, it would seem, is extremely clear. Nevertheless, this information is at odds with our understanding of human life expectancy in general. Moreover, the biblical texts suggest that the age of other characters is given in some kind of encrypted form.

Other digital data are also confusing, for example, those related to the Flood. First of all, it is known that before the Flood, Noah had to build an ark, the dimensions of which not only amaze the imagination, but also surprise with irrationality. The vessel was approximately 120 meters (300 cubits*) long, 20 meters (50 cubits) wide and 12 meters (30 cubits) high. It had a hold ( lower housing) and two decks, which housed second and third housing.

They knew how to build large ships in those days, which can be judged by archaeological excavations in India, which discovered, in particular, the remains of a shipyard, which would have accommodated Noah's ark. However, the last phrase of the biblical description is bewildering: it turns out that the height of each dwelling is at least 4 m, which is twice the normal need. Why make such high rooms on a cargo-passenger ship? There is a suspicion that the number of cubits - thirty - was distorted during the translation of the ancient text and corresponds to a smaller value.

The second reason to suspect errors in translation is based on discrepancies in the numerical data contained in different translations of the Bible. The Russian-language version of the Bible is a copy of the Greek text, compiled in the 3rd century BC by 70 "interpreters" who translated the books of the Old Testament from the Aramaic language. Along with this version of the Bible, called the Septuagint, there are other translations that give slightly different numbers (see table).

Look at the age of the biblical patriarchs in the table - it is quite eloquent. these numbers indicate, first of all, that the disagreements in the translations were of a systematic nature and were caused not by the fact that the original record was illegible or damaged, but by different interpretations of its meaning. The age of five biblical characters (of the fifteen given) exceeds 900 years.

It is unlikely that the life expectancy of biblical patriarchs would change so noticeably among different generations of translators of Scripture. It is more natural to assume that in the original source it remained the same, but the records about this were read differently.

And finally, all the noted discrepancies between various translations, as well as information about the incredible age of the centenarians, refer to that part of the biblical texts that describes the Mesopotamian period of the life of the ancestors of the Israelites. After Terah and his descendants settled in Palestine, the numerical data ceased to cause controversy.

So, there is no doubt that the double interpretation of the numbers testifies to the difficulties that the translators of the ancient Sumerian manuscripts encountered. But in order to imagine the nature of these difficulties, one must mentally return to those times when the number systems were still being formed.

In the fairy tale "Humpbacked Horse", written by P. P. Ershov based on Russian folklore, there is a remarkable episode. The king, seeing the golden-maned horses and wishing to get them, enters into a bargain with Ivan:

"Well, I'm buying a couple!
Selling, are you?" - "No, I'm changing."
"What do you take good in exchange?" -
"two - five caps of silver."
"That is, it will ten".
The king immediately ordered to weigh ...

There is no need to say that the author of the tale knows the intricacies of the Russian language well: any word, each phrase is precisely weighed by him and used to the point. The same, of course, also applies to the form of denoting ten, which is unusual for a modern reader - "two - five". What is this expression, what are its roots?

It turns out that in these two words, used as if by the way, one can hear an echo of a big problem that the best minds of ancient civilizations have long solved in biblical times - it is called "formation of the number system." The decimal number system that we use has become so familiar that it seems the only possible one. Although relatively recent, only a dozen centuries ago, it was far from generally accepted and competed with other methods of manipulating quantitative categories.

The very first such system, when fingers served as a counting "device", was a five-fold system. Some tribes on the Philippine Islands still use it today, and in civilized countries, its relic, according to experts, has survived only in the form of a school five-point rating scale. Ivan from Ershov's fairy tale, not being a great literate man, when he bargained with the tsar, also operated heel a, mi, and the monarch, more advanced in arithmetic, translated his primitive account into the decimal system familiar to him. So in a Russian fairy tale, we accidentally met with different number systems.

But this is only one side of the issue, the verbal one. And when deciphering ancient manuscripts, the researcher deals with numbers in graphic form. Imagine that Ivan would write down the appointed price for the horses in the same way as he said: "two five." Then a person who is not familiar with the five-digit number system could well read this number as twenty-five. (This tradition of pronouncing numbers without specifying digits, but implying them "by default", is often demonstrated by our English-speaking contemporaries, when instead of "one thousand nine hundred and ninety" they say "nineteen ninety." This feature of oral speech is very significant in situations where the characters do not stipulate which counting systems they use, leaving the interlocutor to guess on their own.)

In the episode from the fairy tale cited earlier, in order to avoid disagreements, the king explains aloud how he recalculates the price from one system to another. And this detail of the fairy tale narrative turns out to be not a decorative element of the plot, but a reflection of an obligatory component of correct business relations of that time. However, when communication takes place in a written form that excludes the possibility of explanations, misunderstandings and discrepancies are inevitable. Among such historical misunderstandings, in all likelihood, is the traditional reading of ancient texts in the part where numerals occur.

There is no doubt that the age of such biblical characters as Adam, Noah, or Methuselah, who fell into the proverb, is significantly exaggerated, but it is not easy to assess the extent of this exaggeration. Ancient manuscripts, before turning into the Old Testament lying in front of me on the table, went through a long way of translations, and each time inaccuracies could creep into them. This assumption develops into certainty if we take into account that the development of mathematical knowledge among different peoples occurred unevenly, and in some countries different number systems existed in parallel.

Following after the quinary or in parallel with it, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the duodecimal number system arose, in which the first, basic digit was a dozen. This system successfully survived until the 20th century AD and had (for example, in Great Britain) during all this time priority over decimal in any calculations related to finance.

And in the Sumerian Mesopotamia at the time of Noah, there was a more complex system in use - the sexagesimal number system, which, according to researchers, is a synthesis of the aforementioned five and duodecimal systems. The indisputable advantage of this complex system, which ensured its longevity, was that the number 60 is divisible without a remainder by the first six numbers of the natural series and is the least common multiple of ten different fractions. In some respects, it turned out to be so convenient that we still use its individual elements to this day, for example, counting minutes and seconds or measuring angles.

The next important point: the recording of numbers in the sexagesimal system was carried out in two ways. At first it was, as mathematicians now say, non-positional, in which the position of one or another character in the notation of a number has no informational value. Elements of this method, although in an incomplete form, are visible when using Roman numerals, the meanings of which do not depend on the place they occupy in the notation of the number. (With the exception of the numbers 4 and 9, but even these numbers, unlike their modern spelling, were previously depicted non-positionally - see "Details for the curious".) The convenience of such a system, in particular, is that it made it possible to do without a special sign denoting zero.

According to scientists, the ancient Sumerians were the first to introduce positional writing numbers, in which the order of characters in the record acquired fundamental importance. In the middle of the second millennium BC, they had the concept of bit depth: it became generally accepted to arrange signs in descending order of bits and write numbers from left to right. This was one of the revolutionary moments in the development of mathematics and, perhaps, the first experience of applying the "default" principle when writing a number, without which no modern computer program is conceivable.

Later, in the 6th-5th centuries BC, the Sumerians were also the first to use a special "inter-digit" sign to designate "empty" digits, and they used it in a very peculiar way. This sign, in particular, was never put at the end of the number, as a result of which the true meaning of what was written could only be understood from the context. In Europe, such a special sign for designating an empty discharge began to be used many centuries later, only at the turn of the first and second millennia of a new era, when the arithmetical work of Mohammed al-Khwarizmi was translated, which outlined the positional number system.

The listed details are of certain importance for understanding the problem under discussion, since they show that none of the 70 "interpreters" who translated the books of the Old Testament into Greek in the 3rd century AD, in all likelihood, had no idea how to interpret Sumerian numbers. In addition, it should be added that the transition to the positional system among the Babylonians did not have the character of a general reform, it was gradual, the notation of the number, which was carried out, like the rest of the text, in cuneiform, outwardly did not undergo significant changes, and the reader was usually given the opportunity to distinguish the positional entry from non-positional.

I will give an example showing what kind of confusion can arise if you do not notice the difference in the number systems used. Let's say that Ivan, setting a price for horses, would show it on his fingers - two fingers and five. It is easy to see that his gesture can be given different interpretations: Ivan meant ten, and today we would understand it as seven, although one could read both 25 and 52, depending on which direction we agree to read the numbers. The example shows how wide the range of errors that can occur when translating, if you do not delve into the essence of the rules used "by default".

The researchers note that in addition to the listed features of the Sumerian number system, it is necessary to add the fact that it was decimal inside the discharge, and double spelling of numerals was allowed. Moreover, the number 60, which was the base number in the Sumerian counting system, was indicated by the same vertical wedge ("gesh") as the one. As a result, the number 2, depicted by two identical strokes, could be read as 61, and as 120, and as 610. Mathematicians of that time, realizing the inferiority of such uncertainty, tried to overcome it, depicting this sign - "gash" - in the value of unity small stroke, and in the value of 60 - large.

The first translators of Sumerian manuscripts might not have guessed that one should pay attention to such a detail as the thickness of the stroke. Later, in the era of the Ur dynasty (2294-2187 BC), the wedge-shaped form of writing numbers began to be replaced by a semicircular one, a point was added to the unit sign, similar to the modern letter of the Arabic alphabet D, when it was necessary to write 60, as a result which made this sign look like another Arabic letter - D. Thanks to these techniques, the Sumerians in most cases successfully coped with arithmetic tasks, and in controversial cases they determined the meaning of the numbers according to the meaning of the situation.

We are doing exactly the same thing now. When, for example, we hear "two - five" in a school kiosk, we understand that, for example, a notebook costs two rubles five kopecks, and not two times five, as it would have been in those days when the heroes of Ershov's fairy tale were bargaining. In parentheses, we note that over the historical period of time, the relics of the non-positional system of designating numbers, which were preserved in the everyday life of the Russian people, were irreversibly replaced by the rules of the positional one. Such a transition, according to experts, began among the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium BC, just at the time when Noah and his family were drifting on an ark across the boundless sea. In Europe, as already mentioned, this transition occurred much later.

Without delving into the details of Sumerian writing, we note that the translator of ancient manuscripts was required not only to master various number systems, but also to penetrate into the hidden meaning of what was provided "by default". And as a result of a misunderstanding that probably occurred when reading the Sumerian positional writing according to the rules of the Greek non-positional system, the age of Noah turned out to be greatly exaggerated (apparently, by an order of magnitude). Cyril and Methodius, who, when translating the Bible into Old Slavonic, used its Greek version, are unlikely to have introduced any additional errors in the spelling of numerals, since it is they who have the merit of creating not only the Cyrillic alphabet, but also the alphabetic numbering based on it, completely copying the Greek.

So, the main reason for the "encryption" of information about the age of the Old Testament elders is, apparently, the ignorance of the Greek "interpreters" of all the subtleties of the Sumerian writing. They, of course, knew about the existence of a non-positional system of writing numbers among the Sumerians, they also knew about the gradual replacement of its positional one, but, apparently, they could not always distinguish in which of them the most ancient manuscripts should be read. By the way, it can be assumed that small numbers, not exceeding the base - 60, the spelling of which corresponded to the decimal system adopted in Greece at that time, were translated without distortion, and problems arose only when the "gesh" sign appeared in the text, meaning one , and sixty, and six hundred.

As an assumption, which, of course, should be verified by connoisseurs of Sumerian numerals, one can express the opinion that all numbers greater than two base ones were multiplied by Greek translators by ten, as a result of which the result turned out to be as exaggerated as the age of Adam, who in in one place is determined at 130 years, and nearby - at 700 [Genesis. 5, 3 and Genesis. 5, 4].

This conclusion can be indirectly confirmed by the following observation. Firstly, it is very significant that the age of Ever (see table) in different editions differs just by the mentioned ill-fated "gesh". If, moreover, we recall that the Sumerians did not use the zero sign at that time, it becomes clear that the translators did not just translate, but also recalculated the numerals, but, having made mistakes, only encrypted the digital data. It is apparently quite possible to restore the true values, but we will leave this fascinating task to mathematicians.

What is the conclusion? With numerous translations of Old Testament manuscripts from one language to another and the accompanying recalculations of numerals from one number system to another, distortions of the true meaning of many numbers were made, especially in the first, most ancient part of the book of Genesis, which deals with the Mesopotamian period of the life of the ancestors of the Israelites. In later times, when Abraham and his family left the banks of the Euphrates, the positional decimal number system, which did not cause difficulties in translations, apparently already entered into the everyday life of this people. Therefore, the figures relating to this period do not cause much doubt. As for earlier information, it can be assumed that the numbers of the first digit, less than sixty, are translated basically correctly. And discrepancies in different translations and disagreements with common sense appeared only when translators needed to interpret "by default" and "according to context" the value of the base number 60.

But back to our hero. All of the above suggests that the age of 60 years (at the beginning of the voyage) is most likely for Noah. The Odyssey of the entire Noah family was apparently recorded from the words of one of his sons (there were no other men on the ship, and women hardly had the right to vote). Moreover, we can confidently assume that the eldest son, Sim, became this narrator. The younger son, like Ivanushka in the Russian fairy tale, was not, as you know, a great connoisseur of literature; the middle one, Ham, by definition, could not speak respectfully of relatives. Obviously, Sim turned out to be the only one who conveyed to the descendants the story of the ark, which eventually became a legend.

By the way, about the age of this heir. From the Greek version of the translation of the Old Testament, it follows that " Shem was a hundred years old and begat Arphaxad"[Genesis. 11, 10]. However, if we take into account everything that was discussed above, then the number read by the Greeks non-positionally how 100 was most likely recorded by the Sumerians positionally as 40+ "gesh", and "gesh" is thin, in the value of one. This means that the number should be read as 41 - this is more consistent with the age of a man whose first child is born.

From the same position, one can reread other numbers mentioned in the Book of Genesis and characterizing, for example, the size of Noah's ark or the age of Abraham. To do this, of course, one should refer to the original source, which, of course, contains neither inaccuracies, nor exaggerations, nor mysticism.

* Elbow - a measure of length from 40 to 64 cm. Today in Ethiopia it is 0.5 meters. In Russia of the 11th century, the cubit was 45.5-47.5 cm. In more ancient times, the cubit was, apparently, smaller and fluctuated within 35 cm. This can be judged from the description of Goliath: his height was six cubits and a span ( 1 Samuel 17:4). A span is the distance between the thumb and forefinger of the hand - 20-22 cm. The tallest person mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records had a height of 270 cm. Even if Goliath was not lower, then in this case the elbow did not exceed 42 cm. This value and is taken into account, although it is probably somewhat overestimated.

Details for the curious

IN non-positional system, the value of a number is determined by the summation> of all signs, regardless of which place (which position) sign occupies in the notation of a number. So, the number 6 can be depicted in two ways - VI or IV, and the number 9 - by a combination of signs V and I in any sequence; the number 11 can be represented as XI, but there will be no confusion if it is written as IX.

But in positional system, the place occupied by the sign is of fundamental importance. If a smaller sign comes before a larger one, then its value is minus from the next one, which does not happen in a non-positional system. Thus, it is very difficult to determine in which system a number is written - in positional or non-positional - by external signs, and if you do not know which system the author used, then you can fall into error. For example, the number XL in the positional system means 40, and in the non-positional system it means 60.