very good points that we dont take into consideration very often!

Where did you get those figures? Those figures are correct pre-flood. But post-flood, you might like to do your own research and get the numbers right.

Noah may well have died before Abraham was born. On my time line, without any corrections, Noah died two years prior to Abram's birth. Nor did Shem live past Abraham's death. Shem died before Abraham.

With some corrections in the time line, it is possible that Noah overlapped Abraham by as much as 8 - 10 years. But that is nowhere near 50. The post-flood figures you found are rounded up to the nearest century by about 50 years--which is a fair bit more than the average scholar would consider possible, much less accurate.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

For the time line...

TIMELINE TO MOSES
PATRIARCH			Lifespan	Yrs. after Creation		BC / AD Years		Supporting Scriptures
Adam	130	800	930	0	930	4004	3074	Gen. 5:3-5
Seth	105	807	912	130	1042	3874	2962	Gen. 5:6-8
Enos	90	815	905	235	1140	3769	2864	Gen. 5:9-11
Cainan	70	840	910	325	1235	3679	2769	Gen. 5:12-14
Mahalaleel	65	830	895	395	1290	3609	2714	Gen. 5:15-17
Jared	162	800	962	460	1422	3544	2582	Gen. 5:18-20
Enoch	65	300	365	622	987	3382	3017	Gen. 5:21-23
Methusaleh	187	782	969	687	1656	3317	2348	Gen. 5:25-27
Lamech	182	595	777	874	1651	3130	2353	Gen. 5:28-31
Noah	502	448	950	1056	2006	2948	1998	Gen. 7:6; 9:28-29
Shem	100	500	600	1558	2158	2446	1846	Gen. 7:6; 11:10
FLOOD				1656	1656	2348	2348	Gen. 11:11
Arphaxad	35	403	438	1658	2096	2346	1908	Gen. 11:12-13
Salah	30	403	433	1693	2126	2311	1878	Gen. 11:14-15
Eber	34	430	464	1723	2187	2281	1817	Gen. 11:16-17
Peleg	30	209	239	1757	1996	2247	2008	Gen. 11:18-19
Reu	32	207	239	1787	2026	2217	1978	Gen. 11:20-21
Serug	30	200	230	1819	2049	2185	1955	Gen. 11:22-23
Nahor	29	119	148	1849	1997	2155	2007	Gen. 11:24-25
Terah	130	75	205	1878	2083	2126	1921	Gen. 11:32; 12:4
Abraham	100	75	175	2008	2183	1996	1821	Gen. 21:5; 25:7
Isaac	60	120	180	2108	2288	1896	1716	Gen. 25:26;35:29
Jacob	92	55	147	2168	2315	1836	1689	Gen. 47:28;41:46
Levi			137					Ex. 6:16
Kohath			133					Ex. 6:18
Amram			137					Ex. 6:20
Aaron			123	2430	2553	1574	1451	Num. 33:38-39
Moses			120	2433	2553	1571	1451	Ex. 7:7; Deut. 29:5; 34:7

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

I took my information from Genesis

9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

11:10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
11:11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

Shem is 98 years old at time of flood
Shem is 100 years old at birth of son
Shem lives another 500 years.


11:12 And Arphaxad lived thirty five years, and begat Salah:
11:13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
11:15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:16 And Eber lived thirty four years, and begat Peleg:
11:17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
11:19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:20 And Reu lived thirty two years, and begat Serug:
11:21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
11:23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:24 And Nahor lived twenty nine years, and begat Terah:
11:25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
11:26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
25:7 And these [are] the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.

02
35
30
34
30
32
30
29
70
292

So according to the Bible Abraham was born about 292 years after the flood. (I think I rounded that up to 300 years after the flood to make it easier)

Noah lived after the flood 350 years.
So that leaves 58 years of overlap time

Shem lived after the flood 500 years.
So that has him still alive when Abraham died.


Now I think the discrepancy comes in with Terah.
Your chart says he was 130 when Abraham was born.
The Bible says he was 70. And lists Abraham FIRST.
And since Abraham is the one whose linage is the important linage it would seem correct to give the year as his birth date.

But the Bible also says Terah lived to be 205
If Terah was 70 years old when Abraham was born, then Abraham would have been 135 when Terah died. This doesn't really fit in to the story where Abraham left Haran after his father died, when he was 75 years, and Isaac was born several years after that when Abraham was only 100.

That does bring Abraham about 60 years later on the scene.

Dedication,

This is straying from the topic at hand, but how old does the Bible say Noah was when Shem was born? I have done the calculations very carefully, and yes, Terah was 130 when Abram was born, not 70. Looking carefully at it, you will soon discover that Shem was not the eldest of Noah's sons, nor was Abram the eldest, despite both being listed first. The Bible always mentions those first who were in the line of Christ, regardless of birth order. Jacob and Esau, Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 48:14), Shem and Abraham are all examples of the younger son being listed first. Gen. 10:21 tells us who was older, in case our own math did not: "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born." Shem, Ham and Japheth were certainly not triplets, yet the Bible merely says "And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth." (Gen. 5:32). But you admitted yourself that Shem was only 98 when the flood came, whereas the Bible is clear Noah was 600 at that time (Gen. 7:6)...so math tells us that Noah was 502 when Shem was born, not 500. Japheth was born first, then Shem. Shem may even have been the youngest of the three, though we only know for certain he was not the oldest.

All that to point out two things: 1) Being listed first does not equal firstborn; and 2) when a father's age is given once for multiple sons, rest assured it is only the age when the first one of those sons was born, and not necessarily all of them. (In Abram's case, we have a rather unusual span of 60 years between the firstborn and Abram.)

I agree with your original point, however, that there were relatively few generations for the word to be passed down through to arrive at Moses. It is also my belief that their memories were much better than ours are today.

Moses was provided the education in the schools of Pharaoh so that he could record for us and for our benefit things which were adequately known in his day solely by word of mouth.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.