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Inverted Birth order of Shem and Japheth
(Shem was second born when Noah was 502 years old)
Chronological Interpretation Variants in the Bible
"Scripture cannot be broken" (Jesus, John 10:35)
"My word will accomplish what I desire and
succeed in the purpose for which I sent it." (Isa 55:11)
Steve Rudd November 2017
Birth order of Shem and Japheth: Shem was second born when Noah was 502
years old
Anti-Christian, Chronological Interpretation Variants in the Book of
Genesis
Bible textual variants analysed
Introduction:
The backdrop to the birth order of Shem is that in the Seder Olam Rabbah
160 AD, Jews started equating Shem with Melchizedek for the first time in
Jewish History, to counter the Christian doctrine that Christ was the type
of Melchizedek as seen in the book of Hebrews. It was important to the Jews
who just suffered their second major defeat in the second Jewish war of 135
AD that Shem as Melchizedek, conferred priesthood to Abraham. But it was
all a fiction created by the Jews in living in Zippori in 160 AD as an
anti-Christian revision to counter the idea that Jesus was the messianic
type of Melchizedek in the book of Hebrews. The earliest Jewish literary
sources (100 BC) make no connection of Shem was Melchizedek as witnessed in
the Dead Sea Scrolls: 1QGenesis Apocryphon. At the time of Christ, Jewish
messianic expectation was of the arrival of Melchizedek as a "heavenly
being" not Shem as witnessed in the Dead Sea Scrolls dating to 90 BC in
11QMelchizedek. The earliest literary source that equates Melchizedek with
Shem is Seder Olam Rabbah in 160 AD, then in Targum Onqelos in 225 AD. The
Bible clearly teaches in all versions, both Greek Septuagint and Hebrew
Masoretic, that Shem was second born of when Noah was 502 years old. The
confusion over determining who was the older brother between Shem and
Japheth is caused by a minor variant in the Hebrew manuscripts in 160 AD.
In Gen 10:21 the LXX indicates Shem was younger than Japheth but the Hebrew
wording in the Masoretic makes it uncertain who is older. Some English
translators wrongly make Shem the oldest. This minor variant in Hebrew
wording is exactly what the Jews wanted to achieve in their anti-Christian
revisions of their Hebrew Bible in 160 AD. The Greek LXX calls Japheth
"the great" which meant he is both older than Shem or that he was more
famous, powerful or richer than Shem. This was simply impossible for the
Jews in 160 AD to allow if they wanted to start, for the first time in
history, make Shem the GREAT Melchizedek. The Jews wanted to counter the
Christian doctrine in the book of Hebrews that Jesus has the priesthood of
Melchizedek as the Messianic king/priest/conqueror:
"The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, "You are a priest
forever According to the order of Melchizedek." The Lord is at Your right
hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among
the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men
over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He will lift up His head." (Psalm 110:4-7)
See full outline: Shem WAS NOT Melchizedek
Discussion:
I. Faulty interpretation caused by a deliberate underlying manuscript
textual variance in the Hebrew Text:
1. The variance in English translations between the MT and
the LXX is at the translation level due to a difference in underlying
texts.
a. Japheth was firstborn when Noah was 500, Shem
second-born when Noah was 502 and Ham the youngest. We know for certain
that Shem was not firstborn as per Gen 11:10 and that Ham was the youngest
as per Gen 9:24 which obviously makes Japheth the oldest.
b. While Genesis 5:32 says Noah was 500 years old when
Shem, Ham, and Japheth were born, we learn from Gen 11:10 that Shem was 100
years old in the second year after the flood when Arpachshad was born. This
proves to us that Shem was not born till Noah was 502 years old and younger
than Japheth.
2. The fact that Gen 5:32 lists Shem first follows
succession not birth order:
THE STOLEN BLESSING: Jacob and Esau
The theme of the rejected blessing of the firstborn given to the second-born
Read outline
Ten people who had their blessing stolen: Able, Shem, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Perez, Rachel, Shimri, Christians
a. Shem is listed first not because he was firstborn,
but because he is in the line of Jesus Christ.
b. There is a pattern in the Bible of the blessing being
given to the second born AND the second born is named first.
c. For example, Esau was older than Jacob, but it was
Jacob to got the succession blessing AND he is named first in three places:
Genesis 28:5; Joshua 24:4; Hebrews 11:20.
d. Only once, at the funeral of Isaac, did the order
harmonize with birth order: "Esau and Jacob" in Genesis 35:29. Also
note that Esau and Jacob buried Isaac in 1886 BC, the year Joseph became
king of Egypt and the first year of the seven years of plenty. Jacob moves
to Egypt in year 3 of the famine in 1876 BC, (10th year of Joseph's reign
as king)
e. "The birth order is not given in Genesis 5:32
(Shem, Ham, Japheth). Shem is listed first because he is in the Messianic
line. The same goes for Abraham in Gen 11:26, who was not born when Terah
was 70, but 130. This repetition creates a literary inclusio between 5:32
and 11:26 in the primeval history. Moses is making a theological point in
both verses, while also giving a chronological referent. The son who was
born in the 500th year of Noah's life is Japheth. Shem is born when Noah
is 502, and Ham is the youngest (the superlative translation of
"youngest" in 9:24, הַקָּטָ, is almost certainly correct). In
Gen 11:26, the genitive τοῦ μείζονος makes Japheth the elder
brother of Shem. This is also the Masoretes' understanding of the Hebrew,
as the accentuation shows." (Henry Smith, Oct. 2017)
3. In Gen 10:21 English translators are split on which of
Shem and Japheth were the oldest. The Hebrew in the MT and SP could mean
either that Japheth or Shem were the older brother. The Greek LXX calls
Japheth "the great" which may mean he is older than Shem or that he was
older and/or more famous than Shem. This confusion today is exactly what
the Jews in 160 AD calculated to occur by casting doubt, making things
unclear and allowing them to equate Shem with Melchizedek. See full
outline: Shem WAS NOT Melchizedek
II. Key Bible texts:
1. "Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber,
and the older brother of Japheth, children were born." (Genesis 10:21, MT)
2. "And to Shem were born children, even to him, the father
of all the sons of Eber, the brother of Japheth the great." (Genesis 10:21,
LXX)
3. "Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the
father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth." (Genesis 5:32, MT, LXX)
4. "These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem
was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years
after the flood;" (Genesis 11:10, MT, LXX)
5. "When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his
youngest son [Ham] had done to him." (Genesis 9:24)
III. Literary sources that got it wrong with Shem as firstborn:
1. 170 BC: The Book of Jubilees has Shem as firstborn:
a. The book of Jubilees dates to 150 BC and is a
corrupt chronology that fits world history into periods of 49 years.
Jubilees makes Shem the first born at Noah's age of 500:
b. " And the healing of all their illnesses
together with their seductions we told Noah so that he might heal by means
of herbs of the earth. 13 And Noah wrote everything in a book just as we
taught him according to every kind of healing. And the evil spirits were
restrained from following the sons of Noah. 14 And he gave everything
which he wrote to Shem, his oldest son, because he loved him much more than
all of his sons." (Book of Jubilees 10.12-14)
2. 160 AD: Seder Olam implies the Shem is the oldest
and "greatest" since he is equated with Melchizedek:
a. "About Shem it says (Gen. 9:26): "Praised be
the Eternal, the God of Shem," (Ps. 110:4) "about my word to Malchisedekio
[Melchizedek]."" (Seder Olam Rabbah 21:77, 160 AD)
3. 400 AD: Augustine believed Shem was firstborn:
a. Augustine says the "scripture" states Shem
is firstborn, Ham second born and Japheth is youngest. This actually
violates two Bible passages and leaves us scratching our heads as to what
Augustine was smoking that day! It is actually quite shocking for Augustine
to make such a basic fundamental error:
b. "Noe blessed his oldest and youngest sons:
'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, be Chanaan his servant. May God enlarge
Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem." (Augustine, Aug., De
civ. Dei 16.1, 400 AD)
c. "Ham (meaning 'hot') was Noe's middle
son, in between the others yet apart from each of them-neither in the
'first fruits' of the Israelites nor in the 'fulness of the
Gentiles." (Augustine, Aug., De civ. Dei 16.2, 400 AD)
d. "Assur (from whom the Assyrians take their
name) was not among the sons of Ham, the middle son of Noe, but among the
sons of Shem, the oldest son of Noe. Thus it is clear that those who later
gained the kingdom of the giant and from there proceeded to build other
cities (like Nineve, built by Ninus) were descendants of
Shem." (Augustine, Aug., De civ. Dei 16.3, 400 AD)
e. "The first mention of the descendants begins
with the youngest son, whose name was Japheth." (Augustine, Aug., De civ.
Dei 16.3, 400 AD)
f. "And now we turn to the sons of Shem, the
eldest son of Noe. The narrative of Noe's descendants which began with
the youngest son finally reaches Sem." (Augustine, Aug., De civ. Dei
16.3, 400 AD)
IV. Literary sources that got it correct with Shem as second born:
1. In 30 AD Philo followed the LXX: "Why was it that Noah
lived after the deluge three hundred and fifty years? (Genesis 9:28). It is
now declared that in two periods of seven years the form of the world was
originally created and now renewed under Noah. But the wise man lives for a
period of fourteen quarters of a century; and fourteen times twenty-five is
equal to seven times fifty, or fifty times seven. And it is the principle
of the seventh year and also of the fiftieth, which has an especial order
of its own explained and ordained in Leviticus. (79) Why among the three
sons of Noah does Ham appear always to occupy the middle place, but the two
extremities are varied; for when their birth is mentioned, Shem is placed
in the first rank, in this manner, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; but when they are
spoken of as fathers, then Japhet is mentioned first, and the beginning of
the enumeration of the nations is derived from Japhet himself? (Genesis
10:1). Those who inquire into the literal nature of the divine writings
think thus of the order in which these men are mentioned, looking upon him
who is the first named, that is Shem, as the younger; and upon him who is
named the last, that is Japhet, as the elder. However they may choose to
think of this let them, being guided by the principle of mere opinion. But
we who look to the real meaning of these statements think that there is
here a reference to the three things, good, bad, and indifferent; which
last are called secondary goods; and we must therefore think that the
sacred writer always puts the bad in the middle, so that being confined at
either extremity it may be subdued on one side by the one, and on the other
side by the other; so that, being confined, it may be kept in and
subdued." (Philo QG II 78-79, 30 AD)
Conclusion:
1. See full outline: Shem WAS NOT Melchizedek
2. The Septuagint preserves the original reading
that Japheth was firstborn, older and/or greater.
3. The confusion over Shem being the "older"
and "greater" roots in the 160 AD Jewish anti-Christian redefining of
Shem as the same person as Melchizedek.
a. The Jews altered the wording in such a slight way so
as to deliberately make "older" or "Greater" refer to either Shem
or Japheth.
b. This allowed them to equate Shem with the Great
Melchizedek who conferred his "priesthood" on Abraham.
c. The confusion today between the LXX and MT is
exactly what the Jews in 160 AD calculated to occur by casting doubt,
making things unclear and allowing them to equate Shem with Melchizedek.
d. It counters the Christian doctrine in the book of
Hebrews that Jesus has the priesthood of Melchizedek as the Messianic
king/priest/conqueror:
i. "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, "You are a
priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek." The Lord is at
Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will
judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter
the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the
wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head." (Psalm 110:4-7)
4. It is actually quite shocking that so many of
the ancients could not figure out this grade school problem of who was
firstborn between Shem and Japheth.
a. Apparently, the overriding need for succession of
the Firstborn and the blessings that followed, required the ancients to
ignore clear Bible passages to the contrary.
b. Christians know that there is a long pattern in the
Bible of the second-born getting succession rights and blessings from Jacob
down to Christians, who are second-born to Christ the true AND ONLY
FIRSTBORN
THE STOLEN BLESSING: Jacob and Esau
The theme of the rejected blessing of the firstborn given to the second-born
Read outline
Ten people who had their blessing stolen: Able, Shem, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Perez, Rachel, Shimri, Christians
In the final analysis, we can be certain that we possess the word of God!
This is what Jesus meant, when He said: "Scripture cannot be broken"
(Jesus, John 10:35)
"My word will accomplish what I desire and succeed in the purpose for which
I sent it." (Isa 55:11)
The Septuagint LXX
"Scripture Cannot Be Broken"
Start Here: Master Introduction and Index
Six Bible Manuscripts
1446 BC
Sinai Text (ST)
1050 BC
Samuel's Text (SNT)
623 BC
Samaritan (SP)
458 BC
Ezra's Text (XIV)
282 BC
Septuagint (LXX)
160 AD
Masoretic (MT)
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Seder Olam Rabbah
Steve Rudd, November 2017 AD: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections
By Steve Rudd: November 2017: Contact the author for comments, input or
corrections.
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