The Curse of Cainan ( Jub . 8.1-5): Genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 and a Mathematical Pattern

Abstract

This study suggests that Cainan (LXX Gen. 10.24; Gen. 11.12; [LXX A] 1 Chron. 1.18; Jub. 8.1-5; Lk. 3.36-37), the missing thirteenth patriarch from Adam in the genealogical table in Masoretic text (MT) and the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) was known to the authors of the proto-MT, and the proto-SP. Using textual and chrono-genealogical analysis, it offers evidence to show that the thirteenth generation from the thirteenth generation from Adam had to contend with a curse. An arithmetical test on the variant chrono-genealogical data in Gen. 5 and Gen. 11 in the MT, SP, LXX Vaticanus (B), LXX Alexandrinus (A) and the Peshitta show that the ages and `begetting' ages of the ancestors across the recensions create an integrated mathematical model. It would appear that the variant data in the texts was compiled by the same mathematical school of Jewish scholars, probably in Palestine and Alexandria. The arithmetical paradigm takes into account Cainan's presence in LXX B and LXX A and his absence in the proto-MT, proto-SP and the Peshitta. It is likely that the Gen. 5 and Gen. 11 chrono-genealogies can be dated to between the compilation of the LXX Genesis, in the third century BCE and the schism between the Samaritans and the Jews in the second century BCE.

Keywords

Cainan Curse Genesis Jubilees Genealogies Samaritan.

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