Since the SAB classifies as Absurdities the prolonged ages of the people in some of the genealogies in Genesis, it seems only fair that Surah 29 (Al-Ankabut, "The Spider"), verse 14 (or v. 15, if you use a translation that counts the opening phrase "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Compassionate" as a verse) be called an Absurdity too.
"And indeed We [Allah] sent Noah to his people, and he stayed among them a thousand years less fifty years; and the Flood overtook them while they were disbelievers."
This seems to contradict the Biblical account, which puts Noah's age when the Flood began at 600. If Muhammad meant that Noah lived among his family-members, before and after the Flood, for a total of 950 years, then he would be agreeing with Genesis 9:28-29, which states that Noah died some 350 years after the Flood, at age 950. But when one considers how the Quran refers to "his people" elsewhere (in 11:25, for example) as the unbelieving people he preached to, the natural understanding of 29:14 is that Noah lived among them 950 years before the Flood, and the immediately-following phrase, "and the Deluge overtook them while they were disbelievers," leans toward this conclusion.
The question of why the extant Hebrew text has these huge numbers is a very interesting question. As I mentioned in the Book of Lost Threads, I think there's some X-factor involved -- not only here but in the material on the Weld-Blumwell Prism and other ancient Middle Eastern writings which list exceptionally lengthy lifespans and reigns; periods so long that they practically have to have some non-literal meaning.
(My favorite theory (today), complemented by the theory that some numerals were exponentially enlarged, is that the lifespans of any male children who had died before their father, and the lifespans-so-far of any male offspring still alive, were added to the number of years of a male patriarch, with the result that his "age" conveyed not his age but the size of his family (at least, the male part of it). Thus, a man who was 45 years old, but had three sons who had died at ages 3, 4, and 6, and three sons still living who were ages 10, 12, and 15, would have an "age" of 95 (45 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 10 + 12 + 15).)
It's interesting, but it's not on-point regarding the statement in the Quran. Whatever factors should be taken into consideration for the ancient Hebrew text, they're completely absent from the setting of the Quran. When the Quran says that Noah lived 950 years before the Flood, that's what the Quran means. There's no possibility of appealing to some figurative lifespan-expression in this case.
So the problem here is twofold:
(1) If the Torah is "a guidance and a mercy," as Surah 11:17 says, why does it say that Noah's lifespan = 600 years before the Flood + 350 years after the Flood, totalling 950 years, while the Quran seems to say that Noah lived for 950 years before the Flood?
(2) The scientific problem of a 950-year lifespan, while possibly explicable when dealing with numerals in ancient Middle Eastern texts, cannot be similarly explained when found in an Arabic text of the 600's such as the Quran.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
"And indeed We [Allah] sent Noah to his people, and he stayed among them a thousand years less fifty years; and the Flood overtook them while they were disbelievers."
This seems to contradict the Biblical account, which puts Noah's age when the Flood began at 600. If Muhammad meant that Noah lived among his family-members, before and after the Flood, for a total of 950 years, then he would be agreeing with Genesis 9:28-29, which states that Noah died some 350 years after the Flood, at age 950. But when one considers how the Quran refers to "his people" elsewhere (in 11:25, for example) as the unbelieving people he preached to, the natural understanding of 29:14 is that Noah lived among them 950 years before the Flood, and the immediately-following phrase, "and the Deluge overtook them while they were disbelievers," leans toward this conclusion.
The question of why the extant Hebrew text has these huge numbers is a very interesting question. As I mentioned in the Book of Lost Threads, I think there's some X-factor involved -- not only here but in the material on the Weld-Blumwell Prism and other ancient Middle Eastern writings which list exceptionally lengthy lifespans and reigns; periods so long that they practically have to have some non-literal meaning.
(My favorite theory (today), complemented by the theory that some numerals were exponentially enlarged, is that the lifespans of any male children who had died before their father, and the lifespans-so-far of any male offspring still alive, were added to the number of years of a male patriarch, with the result that his "age" conveyed not his age but the size of his family (at least, the male part of it). Thus, a man who was 45 years old, but had three sons who had died at ages 3, 4, and 6, and three sons still living who were ages 10, 12, and 15, would have an "age" of 95 (45 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 10 + 12 + 15).)
It's interesting, but it's not on-point regarding the statement in the Quran. Whatever factors should be taken into consideration for the ancient Hebrew text, they're completely absent from the setting of the Quran. When the Quran says that Noah lived 950 years before the Flood, that's what the Quran means. There's no possibility of appealing to some figurative lifespan-expression in this case.
So the problem here is twofold:
(1) If the Torah is "a guidance and a mercy," as Surah 11:17 says, why does it say that Noah's lifespan = 600 years before the Flood + 350 years after the Flood, totalling 950 years, while the Quran seems to say that Noah lived for 950 years before the Flood?
(2) The scientific problem of a 950-year lifespan, while possibly explicable when dealing with numerals in ancient Middle Eastern texts, cannot be similarly explained when found in an Arabic text of the 600's such as the Quran.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
