In the Beginning

Posted by Navah on May 25, 2016

From the Book Reckoning of Time

Sir Isaac Newton was a famous and brilliant physicist, but few people know that he was also a brilliant Bible scholar. His insights in the discovery of the Truth will be used later in this study. He wrote:

After all, if the Bible is God’s Word and it reveals Truth, then the closer we get to the Truth in our presuppositions, the faster we will discover the Truth in the details.

The goal of the present author is to come closer to the Truth in his desire to discover the Truth in the details as a Jewish saying has said it: “Elohim is in the details.” Precision matters. Order matters. To put the issue more sharply: is it not the specific sizes for Noach’s Ark and the Tabernacle of YHVH, the home of His Presence, that matters?

In this comprehensive study of correctly restoring the Creator’s reckoning of time, the author will seek as many details in this research as he could discover in order to get to the Truth of YHVH, the Truth as He has given it to His servants. And what would be a better way to start with than starting from In The Beginning.

The Word of YHVH begins with the creation of the first week in whose pattern we see a shadow picture of how the world will exist in the next 7,000 years. Much can be said about the hidden meaning of YHVH’s first week in which He has given us the model to follow: six days work is to be done and the seventh day is a rest for YHVH:

Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart. “Six days you labour, and shall do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yehovah your Elohim. You do not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days Yehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yehovah blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart. (Exo 20:8-11)

The thing we know for sure is the beginning of time (Gen_1:1) and the restoration of all with the coming of the Messiah in the last days (Act_3:19-21):

Repent therefore and turn back, for the blotting out of your sins, in order that times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Master, and that He sends Yeshua Messiah, pre-appointed for you, whom heaven needs to receive until the times of restoration of all, of which Elohim spoke through the mouth of all His set-apart prophets since of old.

That was also the view of the school of thought that when Messiah would come He would restore the former glory of all. Maimonides writes,

Moshiach will arise and restore the sovereignty of David to its former glory and power, build the Holy Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel. In his days, all the laws will be restored: we will offer the sacrifices, and enact the sabbatical and jubilee years as commanded by the Torah.

There is a common understanding of the sages, found in Sanhedrin 97a, who reason about the coming of the Messiah as to how it refers to the reckoning of time. R. Kattina said:

Six thousand years shall the world exist, and one [thousand, the seventh], it shall be desolate, as it is written, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day [footnote: Isa. II, 11]. Abaye said: it will be desolate two [thousand], as it is said, After two days will he revive us: in the third day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. [footnote: Isa. II, 11] It has been taught in accordance with R. Kattina: Just as the seventh year is one year of release in seven, so is the world: one thousand years out of seven shall be fallow, as it is written, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,’ and it is further said, A Psalm and song for the Sabbath day [footnote: Ps. XCII, 1], meaning the day that is altogether Sabbath [footnote: I.e., the period of complete desolation] and it is also said, For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past [footnote: Ps. XC, 4; thus ‘day’ in the preceding verses means a thousand years].

The Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches likewise:

The world is to exist six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation [footnote: I.e., no Torah. It is a tradition that Avraham was fifty-two years old when he began to convert men to the worship of the true God; from Adam until then, two thousand years elapsed]; two thousand years the Torah flourished [footnote: I.e., from Avraham’s fifty-second year until one hundred and seventy-two years after the destruction of the second Temple. This does not mean that the Torah should cease thereafter, but is mentioned merely to distinguish it from the next era]; and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era [footnote: I.e., Messiah will come within that period], but through our many iniquities all these years have been lost [footnote: He should have come at the beginning of the last two thousand years; the delay is due to our sins].

The sages describe the whole human history as a seven-millennium week, consisting of 6,000 years of human labor in developing the Creator’s world and a seventh millennium that is “wholly Shabbat and rest, for life everlasting” that is the Era of the Messiah. Hence, we may find the Creation pattern: 6 days x 1,000 years = 6,000 years = 120 Jubilees. Also, Gen_6:3 says,

My Breath shall not strive with Adam (mankind) forever in his going astray. He is flesh, and his days shall be one hundred and twenty years of time.

The phrase one hundred and twenty years of time could denote a type of the Jubilee cycle since the Hebrew word for “year” also means a division of time or the interpretive understanding of this verse could be 120 Jubilees.

In other words the Sabbath represents the rest in the coming Messianic Kingdom. There is a good reason for this parallel, for the Psalmist writes (Psa 90:4):

For a thousand years in Your eyes Are like yesterday that has past, Or like a watch in the night.

Therefore, the Creator’s clock is based on the six days of creation, with each day corresponding to 1,000 years. Further, each day is divided into two equal halves – night and daylight. Each half is then divided into 12 equal sections, with each section being one hour. From sunset to sunset, 24 hours of the day are divided up.

Applying the concept of time with the understanding that one full day is 1,000 years, one 12 hour night period equals 500 years and one 12 hour daylight period equals 500 years. If we further divide 1,000 by 24 hours, then each hour equals 41 years and eight months, or exactly 500 months.

In calculating minutes, 500 months (one hour on the ‘creation clock’) is divided by sixty minutes. Each minute is equal to 8.333 months, or eight months and ten days, one second is a little over four days.

Based on the days of creation, the sixth day of the week, Friday afternoon is entirely given over to preparations for the Sabbath, thus the time leading up to the seventh millennium will be for preparing for the Messiah. We live in “Friday afternoon” according to the Creators clock.

Having said all that, the sages view the 6,000 years of human labor as a period of 120 Jubilees after which a cycle of sabbatical and jubilees will be enacted with the coming of the Messiah. This, of course, means the last year of the 6,000 years will be a jubilee in order to yield the new sabbatical cycle of the last, seventh millennium.

Unfortunately, a few books that could have been helpful to determine the chronology of the sabbatical and jubilee years, have been lost for us. They, however, are mentioned as a reliable source of information throughout the Scripture and more particularly:

The Book Wars of Yehovah (Num_21:14)

The Book of Annals of the Kings of Israel (2Ch_35:27; 1Ki_14:19)

The Book of Annals of the Kings of Yehudah (1Ki_14:29)

The Book of the Acts of Shlomo (1Ki_11:41)

The Book of Shemayah the Prophet (2Ch_12:15)

The Book of Nathan the prophet (2Ch_9:29)

The Book of Shemayah the prophet (2Ch_12:15)

The Book of Yehu (2Ch_20:34).

A more complete biography of the Kings of Yehudah than that of the Bible were written by Iddo the Seer, grandfather of the prophet Zechariah (Zec_1:7, 2Ch_13:22). If we had had those books, it would have been much easier to pinpoint the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. However, not everything is lost and we can trace the Jubilees from the Creation to the year of restoration of all.

Below are the scrolls found at the Dead Sea commonly known as Dead Sea Scrolls (the scrolls in italics are non-canonical writings):

TORAH

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Jubilees

PROPHETS

Joshua

Judges

Samuel

Kings

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Ezekiel

The Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets

Hosea                                          Nahum

Joel                                             Habakkuk

Amos                                          Zephaniah

Obadiah                                      Haggai

Jonah                                          Zechariah

Micah                                         Malachi

Enoch

Daniel

OTHER BOOKS

Psalms                                        Ecclesiastes

Job                                              Lamentations

Proverbs                                     The Epistle of Jeremiah

Ben Sira (Sirach)                       Esther

Ruth                                           Chronicles

The Song of Songs                    Ezra-Nehemiah

Tobit

There is a prophetic picture of this 7,000 year plan of YHVH in the six steps leading to the throne of Solomon which was known in Scripture as “the throne of the Kingdom of YHVH” (1Ch_28:4-5).

And the sovereign made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with clean gold, and six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne; and there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. And twelve lions were standing there, one on each side of the six steps. The like of it was not in any reign. (2Ch_9:17-19).

During the first 2000 years of the Olam ha-zeh (the present age), Elohim gave very little Torah (instruction) to mankind—that is why the Rabbinic sages called it the Age of Desolation which started in year eight of the Creation. Less than ten chapters in the entire Scriptures deal with this age, which age ended in the total failure of mankind, with the exception of one family, that of Noach. The year, when Elohim opened the gates of heaven and the fountains of the earth to bring the Flood, was 1656 since the Creation. Later in this study, this year will be proven to be Sabbatical and the following year: a jubilee of the 33rd Jubilee when the Flood ended. But before that the Creator of the universe assured that all righteous patriarchs of the lineage of Sheth died before the world was wiped out by the waters of the flood, thus no one of them saw the destruction of the wicked world except Noach from whom a new generation would stem: the last two patriarchs Lemech died five years before the Flood at the age of 777 and Methushelach, in the year of the Flood at the age of 969; Noach was 600 years old when the flood started (see Jubilees Table).

However, before outpouring of the rains upon the earth something peculiar might have taken place. Seven days before the commencement of the judgment the Creator said to Noach in Gen. 7:4, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights”. Seven days after what?

According to the Rabbinical tradition, the day the Creator said that, Noach’s grandfather Methushelach died and after the seven days of mourning for Methuselah passed, the waters of the Flood came upon the earth. While the rain lasted for forty days and forty nights, every being that had been made was obliterated from the face of the earth. Following immediately the forty days, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars did not shine, and it was completely dark.

There might have been another thing that took place on that day, though. Isaiah in describing, what the present author believes, the last days, says in Isa 30:26:

…Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days…

These seven days of intense light in Isa 30:26 would be generated by some major cosmic event or miracle, for instance. However, what seven days had been meant in this last days prophecy: the seven days of creation, the seven days before the Flood, or something else? Also, the prophecy in Isa_60:19-20 seems to allude to another days of mourning that would be ended when YHVH would be an everlasting light referring to a dazzling light of the messianic age. Let us read,

No longer is the sun your light by day, nor does the moon give light to you for brightness, but Yehovah shall be to you an everlasting light, and your Elohim your comeliness. No longer does your sun go down, nor your moon withdraw itself, for Yehovah shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. (Isa 60:19-20)

Could it be possible that the seven days before the Flood and the seven days of light are somehow related and they refer to the same miracle of a sevenfold light? If so, the seven days of a sevenfold light before the Flood signified the destruction of the wicked generation before the Flood and the beginning of the end of the Age of Desolation which ended with Noach’s death in year 2007. (See Jubilees Table). Following the seven days, when the world appeared to be ablaze in the radiance of sevenfold sun, the Flood started.

But for mankind everything started with the creation of the first man Adam. From this starting point we will try to restore the Creator’s reckoning of time and in order to do that we need to determine the length of time from Adam’s creation to the flood by simply counting the years of the pre-flood patriarchs: Adam, Sheth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noach, and if we add to them the age of Shem at the flood, and we find that it was 1656 years (Gen_5:3-32; Gen_7:6):

Now Noach was six hundred years old when the flood-waters were on the earth.

Insert: The first man Adam lived 930 years and died. His life-span served as the beginning point of restoring the reckoning of time upon which other geneologies and events have been added in order to come to 6,000 years of world’s existence. Unlike the other patriarchs after him, Adam was not born but created. In other words, he did not start his life as a baby, but as a mature man who was mature enough to steward Elohim’s creation. We are not told how old Adam looked like when he was created and that is irrelevant for this study. However, his 930 years have been counted from his day one regardless whether he looked like a thirty years old man or twenty of that matter.

Below is the chronology of events, as indicated by the dates and time periods given in the Torah’s account, and counted by Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Yizchaki, 1040-1105). According to the rabbinical tradition, that the world was created in the seventh Biblical month. Whether this is correct or not will not be the object of this study but it is sufficient to say for now that the Biblical and Rabbinical calendars disagree with six months: what is the first month in the Biblical calendar is the seventh in the Rabbinical. The present author supports the view that the reckoning of time commenced on the first day of the first month of the year of Creation and this fashion of counting the years will be held until proven otherwise. Also, for the purpose of this study, the present author will hold the understanding that the Creator’s year begins in the spring, a month begins with the sighting of the renewed moon, and a day begins at sunset and ends at sunset.

So, in year 1656 Noach finished building the ark and in,

Day 17, eighth month, he entered the ark and the rains began (Gen_7:11-13). (Rabbi Eliezer says: This refers to Marheshvan (the eighth month); Rabbi Joshua says: this refers to Iyar (the second month). — [Seder Olam Rabbah, ch. 4])

Day 27, ninth month: forty days of rain ended (Gen_7:17) and for 150 days the waters were mighty and greatly increased on the earth, during which the water reaches a height of fifteen cubits above the mountain peaks (Gen_7:18-24).

Day 1, third month, year 1657: and after 150 days, water calmed and began to subside (Gen_8:2-3).

Day 17, third month: and in sixteen days, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month from the commencement of the flood (Gen_8:4).

Day 1, fifth month: in 44 days, 1st of the tenth month of rain, the mountain peaks break the water’s surface (Gen_8:5). Rashi comments on Gen 8:5:

This refers to Av, which is the tenth [month] from Marcheshvan, when the rain commenced. Now if you say that it refers to Elul, which is the tenth [month] from Kislev, when the rain stopped, just as you say: “in the seventh month,” refers to Sivan, which is the seventh [month] after the cessation [of the rain]; [I will tell you that] it is impossible to say this. You must admit [that] the seventh month can be counted only from the time that the rain stopped, because there did not end the forty days of the rains and the one hundred fifty days when the water gained strength, until the first of Sivan. And if you say that it refers to the seventh [month] from the [beginning of the] rain, it would not come out to be Sivan. The tenth [month] can be counted only from the time the rain commenced to fall, for if you say [that it is counted] from the time when the rain stopped, which is Elul, you would not understand (verse 13): “In the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, the waters dried up from upon the earth,” for at the end of the forty days, when the mountain peaks appeared, he sent forth the raven, and he waited twenty-one days with sending the dove, totalling sixty days from the time the mountain peaks appeared until the surface of the earth dried. And if you say that they appeared in Elul, it would mean that they dried up in Marcheshvan. Scripture, however, calls it the first [month] and that can refer only to Tishri, which is the first [month] from the creation of the world, and according to Rabbi Joshua, it is Nissan.

Day 10, sixth month: Noach waited forty days and opened the ark’s window and sent a raven from the ark to test the conditions in flooded world outside. (Gen_8:6-7)

Day 17, sixth month: in seven days, Noach sent a dove for the first time. The dove returned, finding no rest for her feet (Gen_8:8-9).

Day 23, sixth month: Noach waited another seven days and sent it a second time. The dove returned with an olive branch in the beak. (Gen_8:10-11)

Day 30, sixth month: and Noach waited another seven days and sent the dove for its third mission but it did not return to the ark at all (Gen_8:12). Still Noach remained in the ark.

Day 1, seventh month: In 601st year (of Noach’s life), 1st day of 1st month of 1657 water completely drained and Noach removed the covering of the ark, but it took another 57 days for the surface of the earth to dry completely (Gen_8:13). (According to Rabbi Eliezer, it is Tishri, and according to Rabbi Joshua, it is Nissan. — [from Rashi R.H. 12b] Some 800 years later, this day would be known by the Israelites as Yom Teruah (Leviticus 23) and in our study that year will be proven to be the 33 Jubilee.

Day 27, eighth month: and on 27th day the ground fully dried and Noach exited the ark (Gen_8:14-16) and built an altar to YHVH and sacrificed of every clean creature on it (Gen_8:20).

Insert: The location of the altar [in the Holy Temple] is very exactly defined, and is never to be changed. . . . It is a commonly held tradition that the place where David and Solomon built the altar, on the threshing floor of Aravnah, is the very place where Abraham built an altar and bound Isaac upon it; this is where Noah built [an altar] when he came out from the ark; this is where Cain and Abel brought their offerings; this is where Adam the First Man offered a korban when he was created—and it is from [the earth of] this place that he was created. Thus the sages have said: Man was formed from the place of his atonement. (Maimonides)

Therefore, the year was 1657 from Adam when the flood ended and the face of the earth became dry (Gen_8:1-16). In that same year the Creator made a covenant with mankind, presented by Noach and his family, as it is written in Gen 9:1-13,

And Elohim blessed Noach and his sons, and said to them, “Bear fruit and increase, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea – into your hand they have been given. Every moving creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all, as I gave the green plants. But do not eat flesh with its life, its blood. But only your blood for your lives I require, from the hand of every beast I require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed, for in the image of Elohim has He made man. As for you, bear fruit and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and increase in it. And Elohim spoke to Noacḥ and to his sons with him, saying, And I, see, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you: of the birds, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. And I shall establish My covenant with you, and never again is all flesh cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again is there a flood to destroy the earth. And Elohim said, This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for all generations to come: I shall set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

From this account of the Flood, we may deduce that the judgment of the generation of the Flood lasted for 365 days: for the rains started to fall on the seventeenth day of the eighth month until Noach exited the ark on twenty-seventh day of eighth month of the following year. Therefore, a whole year was 354 days (measured from-to the seventeenth day of the eight month) and eleven days to the 27th day of the eight month. Amazingly, these are the eleven days by which the solar year exceeds the lunar year, as we know them today. Total time spent in the ark was 365 days (one solar year) which is one lunar year of 354 days (29.5 days times 12 months) and 11 days. Hence, we may conclude that the Creator uses the lunar month and the lunar year to measure His reckoning of time. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, the author will use from now on the lunar month (the period between two successive new moons) of 29.531 days, or 30 prophetic days.

As seen from the chronology of the Flood, the sages are not unanimous as to when the year begins: some hold the view that it starts in the fall from Tishri 1 (the seventh Biblical month), while others: in the spring from Nissan 1 (the first Biblical month), thence there is no agreement as to when the Flood started. As already stated and until proven otherwise, the present author will count the years as it is commanded in Exo_12:2, namely the first month begins with the month of the Aviv in the spring.

And from Noach’s sons new nations were born after the Flood (Gen_10:1-7), according to their generations. And from them the nations were divided on the earth. According to Seder Olam (ch. 1), in the year of Peleg’s death, 1996 (see Jubilees Table), they were dispersed at Bavel. But from Noach’s son Shem, the Creator has preserved the righteous lineage of chosen people from which lineage Avraham the father of Israel was born. If we just sum up the years of all patriarchs from Adam to Avraham (according to narrative of Gen_5:3-32 and Gen_11:10-26), we will find that Avraham was born in year 1948 after the creation. This year of 1948 is very well accepted among the scholars and will be used as a pivotal point from which the reckoning of time will be restored.

Let us follow the sequence of events as they are recorded in Genesis. At the age of fifty-two, year 2000, according to the tradition of the Rabbis, Avraham began to preach. Year 2000 was the beginning of the last Sabbatical cycle of the 40th Jubilee, which ended in 2006, the year when the preacher of righteousness Noach died. The following year 2007 was the last year of the 40th Jubilee and the end of The Age of Desolation. Avraham was seventy-five years old when YHVH promised the Covenant in 2023, and then he crossed Euphrates River and began to sojourn in the land of Kana’an, as it is written in Gen_12:1-5,

Go yourself out of your land, from your relatives and from your father’s house, to a land which I show you. And I shall make you a great nation, and bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing! And I shall bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you. And in you all the clans of the earth shall be blessed. So Avram left, as Yehovah had commanded him, and Lot went with him. And Aḇram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. And Avram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the beings whom they had acquired in Ḥaran, and they set out for the land of Kenaʽan. And they came to the land of Kenaʽan.

Avraham was seventy-five years old when the Covenant was promised and this will be used to establish the year when his descendants, the children of Israel, left Egypt. A crossreference with the account of Exo_12:40-41 will help establish this important moment in the study: the year of the Exodus. It says,

And the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to be at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that same day it came to be that all the divisions of Yehovah went out from the land of Egypt.

How are the accounts of Gen_12:1-5 and Exo_12:40-41 related? These 430 years in Exodus 12 in Egypt seems to be all spent in slavery, from Yoseph to Mosheh. However, this period (as it will be proved) is measured from the time Avraham went down to Egypt, on the very day when the Covenant between YHVH and Avraham was made, until the time of the Exodus. Since Israel came out of Egypt on the first day of First Fruits which was the fifteenth day of the first month and the account of Exodus 12 says on that same day, we may deduce that the Covenant between YHVH and Avraham was made on the first day of First Fruits, too, 430 years earlier. The Creator does not use vain words to make His point. Also, Mosheh says the “sojourning” of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred thirty years, but he does not say they sojourned in Egypt all this time. Both the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch translate Exo_12:40 thus:

Now the sojourning of the children and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Kana’an and in the land of Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

Bear also in mind that the Hebrews were strangers in the land of Kana’an as elsewhere until they entered it under the leadership of Yehoshua. Avraham, Yitshak, and Ya’akov were strangers in this land (Gen_23:4-19; Act_7:5; Heb_11:8-9). Avraham’s seed, Yitshak and Ya’akov, lived and died sojourners in strange lands (Gen_26:17-32; Gen_35:27-29; Gen_46:1-5; Gen_47:28).

Rashi makes a very good point in his commentary on Gen_15:13 which says,

Know for certain that your seed are to be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

He comments that the text does not say, “in the land of Egypt” but in a land that is not theirs. The answer to this question, whether the 430 years have commenced from the beginning of the slavery in Egypt or from the giving of the promise of the covenant, is given by the Apostle Shaul himself in Gal_3:16-17 where he says that the Torah was given four hundred thirty years after the promise,

But the promises were spoken to Avraham, and to his Seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Messiah. Now this I say, Torah, that came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously confirmed by Elohim in Messiah, so as to do away with the promise.

Shaul speaks of the Covenant made with Avraham previously confirmed and then speaks of the Torah going into effect 430 years later. Which was the covenant previously confirmed? That was the promise of Covenant of Gen_12:1-5, made in Haran, and confirmed in the land of Kana’an by its execution: Gen_15:7-18. Therefore the event that commenced the 430 years spoken of in Exo_12:40-41 is the Covenant made by YHVH in Genesis 12. If the promise of the Covenant was made in 2023, then Torah went into effect (and therefore the Exodus was made in 2454, 430 years later.

To summarize, the Avrahamic Covenant, Covenant of the Land, was promised in Gen_12:1-5 in the land of Haran; reiterated in Gen_13:14-17 in the land of Kana’an; and executed in Gen_15:7-18 (known as “Cutting of the Pieces”); confirmed in Gen_17:4-8 and Gen_13:14-18 for Avraham’s offspring; and ratified in Gen_17:9-13 with circumcision of Avraham as a token of the Covenant, spanning from when Avraham was seventy-five years old to when he was ninety-nine. The significance of the “cutting” of this covenant in Gen_15:7-18 is found in Jer_34:18-20,

And I shall give the men who are transgressing My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it: the heads of Yehudah, and the heads of Yerushalayim, the officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf.

In the ancient world, when two parties wished to make a blood covenant they took an animal, cut it into two pieces, and the two parties would then walk between them saying “I will do the terms of this covenant, if I do not, you may do to me what we did to this animal.” So, what distinguishes Gen_15:7-18 from Gen_12:2-3 is the blood shed to ratify the Covenant. Making a covenant always requires blood.

However, in the day when YHVH made the covenant with Avraham, something else happened. The Creator passed through the cutting of the sacrifice; Avraham did not. How can that be significant? In the ancient world, there were two types of covenants made on a royal level: Royal Grant Treaty and Suzerain-Vassal Treaty. This is very important to know in order to understand the Covenant YHVH made with Avraham. These treaties are listed below with their characteristics.

Royal Grant Treaty:

• • To protect the rights of the Vassal

  • The Suzerain takes the oath

  • The curses are against those who may deprive the Vassal of the Suzerain’s gift

  • The Grant (gift) is promised to all future offspring of the Vassal

  • The Grant is a reward for faithful service

  • Unconditional Covenant/Promise

Suzerain-Vassal Treaty:

• • To protect the right of the Suzerain

  • The Vassal takes the oath

  • The curses are against the Vassal

  • No guarantee for future generations

  • Primarily political in nature

  • Conditional Covenant

Without any doubt, the Covenant made between YHVH and Avraham was Royal Grant Treaty: YHVH took an oath, an unconditional promise, not Avraham; the curses of the Covenant are against those who may deprive Avraham from YHVH’s gift, the land (Gen_12:2-3); the land was given as a gift of Avraham’s obedience as he was declared righteous. The Covenant between YHVH and the nation of Israel at Mt Sinai, on the other hand, is the Suzerain-Vassal Treaty: Israel has the full responsibility by having taken the oath to stay in the conditional Covenant.

But how old was Avraham when YHVH made the Covenant with him (Gen_15:7-18)? In Genesis 15 we are not told how old Avraham was when the Covenant was made, however, from the narrative of Genesis, we already learned that Avraham was seventy-five years old when the Covenant was promised, and then he crossed Euphrates River (Gen_12:1-4); seventy-six years when he began to dwell in Kana’an; and eighty-six when the non-promised son, Ishmael, was born in 2034 (Gen_16:3, Gen_16:16). In other words, after Avram had sojourned in the land of promise twenty-four years, the Lord made the promise of the Covenant (Gen_12:1-5) and changed his name from Avram to Avraham (Gen_17:1-5). The Lord proposed to make of him a great nation and to perpetuate the covenant through his offspring (Gen_17:6-7). Avraham was then ninety-nine when the “seed” of the covenant was promised and 100 when Yitshak was born in 2048 (Gen_17:19-21). Therefore, the Covenant must have been made somewhere between Avraham’s age of seventy-six and eighty-five: after his entry in Kana’an and before the birth of Ishmael. So, we may conclude that in the preceding years of the Covenant, he entered the Promised Land (Gen_12:6-8), went down to Egypt (Gen_12:9-20), settled in Hebron (Gen_13:10-18), and encountered Malkitsedeq (Gen_14:18-20). And after these events the Covenant was made (Gen_15:1-6). And when the Covenant was validated, the non-promised son Ishmael was conceived after Avram had already dwelt ten years in the land of Kana’an (Gen_16:1-4).

This is the summary of Avraham’s sojourning in the land of Hebron and in the land of the Philistines: in Hebron he spent twenty-five years, because he was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Prior to that, he did not settle anywhere but there, for everywhere he went, he was a traveller, camping and continually traveling since he left his father’s house, as it is stated in Genesis 12. And because there was a famine in the land, Avraham descended to Egypt. In Egypt he spent only three months, because Pharaoh sent him away. Immediately, (Gen_13:3-18) he went on his journeys until he came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron. There he dwelt until Sodom was overturned in 2047. Immediately, (Gen_20:1) Avraham traveled from there, because of the disgrace caused by Lot, and he came to the land of the Philistines. He was ninety-nine years old, when the messengers came to him on the third day of his circumcision (per tradition). Thus, this totals twenty-five years: from the year he left his father’s house in 2023 and settled in Hebron until he came to the land of the Philistines in 2049. He lived in the land of the Philistines “many days” (Gen_21:34) meaning more than the preceding days in Hebron. Per Rashi, if the days in the land of the Philistines exceeded the days in Hebron by two years or more, it would have stated plainly. He concludes that they did not exceed them by more than one year, hence twenty-six years in the land of the Philistines until 2074. He immediately left there and returned to Hebron, and that year preceded the binding of Yitshak by twelve years [Seder Olam, ch. 1] in year 2085.

But how old was Yitshak when YHVH asked Avraham to offer him on Mt. Moriah? The text likewise tells us that Yitshak was old enough to walk, to talk, to observe the world around him, to reason for himself, and to carry a bundle of cut wood up a fairly rugged and steep mountain for three days. He was also old enough to be responsible for his actions. Per Torah one is considered adult at the age of twenty years old or above in order to enlist as a soldier (Num_1:20) or to be counted in a census (Num_1:19). Also, the age of twenty one could be penalised (Num_14:29, Num_32:11). According to Josephus, Isaac was twenty-five years old (Antiq. Book 1:13:2).

… Now they had brought with them everything necessary for a sacrifice, excepting the animal that was to be offered only. Now Isaac was twenty-five years old. And as he was building the altar, he asked his father what he was about to offer, since there was no animal there for an oblation.

These facts rule out any notion, as it is taught, that Yitshak was just a little boy at the time of his binding. If Sarah gave birth to Isaac when she was ninety and Avraham was 100 (Gen_17:17) and died in the year when Yitshak was offered when she was 127 (Gen_23:1) and Avraham was 137, then Yitshak was 37 years old when his father bound him. This is confirmed by the account of The Book of Yashar 22:41. Also, from Targum Yerushalmi, Targum Jonathan, we learn that Yitshak was promised, born, and offered as sacrifice all on Passovers of 2047, 2048, and 2085, respectively. The year in which Yishak was offered on the alter will be proven later to be sabbatical.

In the following table is the summary of most important moments of Avraham’s life as they occurred.

However, the prophecy in Gen_15:13 seems to allude to 400 years in Egypt, not 430 as in Exo_12:40.

Know for certain that your seed are to be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

And the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to be at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that same day it came to be that all the divisions of Yehovah went out from the land of Egypt.

Why are the years of Israel’s sojourning different in Gen_15:13 and Exo_12:40? A closer examination of the text shows that Elohim told Avraham in Gen_15:13-16 that his seed was to be sojourners in a land that was not theirs. It does not say, “in the land of Egypt” but in a land that is not theirs. We need to remember that Avraham, the father of the nation of Israel, was a sojourner of a land that was promised to him, from the river of Egypt to Euphrates River which he had never occupied. Then the text continues: and would serve and be afflicted for 400 years. This sounds like that all 400 years were a servitude in Egypt, does it not?

There is a peculiar text in Genesis that needs more attention in order to resolve the apparent controversy. According to Gen_16:15-16, Avraham was 86 when Ishmael was born by an Egyptian woman. But the “seed” of the covenant, Yitshak, was born when Avraham was 100 years old (Gen_17:19-21), therefore at Yitshak’s birth Ishmael was fourteen years old. On the day that Yitshak was weaned, Ishmael, was “poking fun” at him, as it is written in Gen_21:8-9,

And the child grew and was weaned, and Avraham made a great feast on the day that Yitshaq was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Mitsrite, whom she had borne to Aḇraham, mocking.

The Hebrew word צָחַק tsachaq for “mocking” can have a negative connotation besides the plain meaning of “to poke”. Its application as a sexual play can be seen in Gen_26:8-9 as Yitshak “played” with his wife Rivkah which Gen. Rabbah 64:5 calls “engaging in marital relations”:

And it came to be, when he had been there a long time, that Avemelek sovereign of the Philistines looked through a window, and he watched and saw Yitshaq playing with Rivkah his wife. So Avemelek called Yitshaq and said, “See, truly she is your wife! So how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” (Gen 26:8-9)

This Hebrew word tsachaq can also have an expression of idolatry in the “golden calf” incident, as it is in Exo_32:6; and an expression of illicit sexual relations when the wife of Potiphar falsely accused Yoseph of an attempt of rape, as in Gen_39:14-17. Or, we may say that tsachaq in its simple meaning “to poke” can be translated depending what one pokes with. Therefore, Gen_21:9 can be translated as: And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Mitsrite, whom she had borne to Avraham, molesting. From all these instances of use of the word tsachaq we may draw the conclusion that Ishmael did not just made fun of the little Yitshak but in some form molested him which made Sarah take the decision to expel Hagar and Ishmael.

Apostle Shaul makes the same point in his Epistle to the Galatians where he says that Ishmael persecuted Yitshak (see also Mid. Rab. Exodus 1:1 and Mid Rab Genesis 53:11):

But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him born according to the Breath, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the female servant and her son, for the son of the female servant shall by no means be heir with the son of the free woman.” (Gal 4:29-30)

But, when did Ishmael persecute Yitshak? Never. There is no such an account of persecution. In order to understand what Apostle Shaul is referring to, we need to examine other sources. According to archaeological evidence, the children in the Ancient Near East were weaned between three and five years of age [per Gen. Rabbah 53:10, Keth. 60a, at the end of twenty-four months]. Then it is possible that Ishmael was somewhere between 17 to 19 years old and Yitshak, 3-5 years old when the possible molestation occurred as a result of which Ishmael was expelled. And indeed, a close look at the Yovelim timetable shows that Ishmael was nineteen years old and Yitshak five years old when Yitshak was afflicted. If a molestation was what happened, that was the beginning of the “affliction” of the seed of Avraham (Gen_15:13) in year 2053, and the Exodus occurred 400 years later from that point.

Rashi’s commentary on Exo_6:18 casts a slight different light on Gen_15:13, namely that the 400 years are to be counted from Yitshak’s birth:

From this calculation we learn that the 400 year sojourn of the B’nei Israel which Scriptures talks about, it was not spent in Egypt alone but, rather was calculated from the day Yitzchok was born. This can be calculated thus: For Kehath was among those who went down to Egypt, Now calculate all his years and the years of Amram, his son and the eighty years of Mosheh, you will find that they do not total 400 years, many of the sons’ years are included in the fathers’ years.

And elsewhere:

The “four hundred years” refer to the period from the birth of Isaac (in the year 2048 from creation–1713 bce), to the Exodus from Egypt (in 2448), during which time Abraham’s descendents were “strangers in a land that is not theirs.” The actual sojourn in Egypt was for 210 years, of which the final eighty-six were a time when the children of Israel were enslaved and afflicted. (Rashi)

On his commentary on Exo_12:40, we learn that the 430 years are from the Avrahamic Covenant until the Exodus:

Altogether, from the time that Yitshak was born, until now, were 400 years. From the time that Avraham had seed [i.e., had a child, the prophecy] “that your seed will be strangers” (Gen_15:13-14) was fulfilled; and there were another 30 years from the decree “between the parts” (Gen_15:10) until Yitshak was born. It is impossible, however, to say that [they spent 400 years] in Egypt alone, because Kehath [the grandfather of Moses] was [one] of those who came with Ya’akov. Go and figure all his years, all the years of his son Amram, and Moses’ 80 years; you will not find them [to be] that many, and perforce, Kehath lived many of his years before he descended to Egypt, and many of Amram’s years are included in the years of Kehath, and many of Moses’ years are included in Amram’s years. Hence, you will not find 400 years counting from their arrival in Egypt. You are compelled, perforce, to say that the other dwellings [which the Patriarchs settled] were also called being “sojournings” and even in Hebron, as it is said: “where Avraham and Yitshak sojourned (גָּרוּ)” (Gen_35:27), and [Scripture] states also “the land of their sojournings in which they sojourned” (Exo_6:4). Therefore, you must say that [the prophecy] “your seed will be strangers” [commences] when he [Avraham] had offspring. And only when you count 400 years from the time that Yitshak was born, you will find 210 years from their entry into Egypt. This is one of the things that [the Sages] changed for King Ptolemy. — [from Mechilta, Meg. 9a]

And on Exo_12:41,

This tells us that as soon as the end of this period arrived, the Omnipresent did not keep them even as long as the blink of an eye. On the fifteenth of Nissan, the angels came to Avraham to bring him tidings. On the fifteenth of Nissan Yitshak was born; on the fifteenth of Nissan the decree of “between the parts” was decreed. — [from Mechilta]

If Rashi is right that there are thirty years from the cutting of the Covenant until the birth of Yitshak, then the decree “between the parts” would have been made when Avraham was seventy years old (Yitshak was born when Avraham was 100 years old) meaning that he was still in Haran or even in Ur of the Chaldeans. That the Covenant was made in the Promised Land and not on the other side of Euphrates River is obvious from the statement of Gen_15:1, After these events. Which events? The events in Gen 12, 13, and 14: entering the Promised Land, going down to Egypt, and especially the encounter with Malkitsedeq.

There is another approach to understand Exo_12:40 which states the sojourn of the children of Israel was four hundred and thirty years. We need to bear in mind that at the time of making this statement the children of Israel were in Egypt. So, the sojourn of the children of Israel does not refer to who lived in Egypt but to four hundred and thirty years. With this understanding we can make the proper punctuation for more clarity,

And the sojourn of the children of Israel (who lived in Egypt) was four hundred and thirty years.

Having said all that, we may conclude that Gen_15:13 and Exo_12:40-41 are two different statements for two different events and should not to be confused. Therefore, the 430 years in Exo_12:40-41, span from the Avrahamic covenant promised in Gen_12:1-3 until the Exodus and the giving of the Torah with which we come to the Exodus. For more and detailed information on the events between the beginning of the “affliction” of the seed of Avraham in year 2053 and the slavery in Egypt see Jubilees Table.

Out of these 430 years of sojourning in Kana’an and in Egypt, the Hebrews sojourned 215 years in Egypt (not 210 years per Rashi) and they are as follows:

25 years from Avraham’s entry into Kana’an (Gen_12:4-5) to the birth of Yitshak (Gen_21:5).

60 years from the birth of Yitshak to the birth of Ya’akov (Gen_25:26).

130 years from Ya’akov’s birth to his introduction to Pharaoh (Gen_47:1-9)

215 years sojorning in Kana’an from Avraham’s entry into Kana’an to Israel’s entry in Egypt

The narrative of Gen_15:16 says that in the fourth generation Avraham’s descendants shall return to the land. Then, it would have taken fifty-four years per generation to fulfill this promise which look plausible; after all, it took forty years in the wilderness to have one generation expired. So, 215 years are correct. The exact period in which the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, however, cannot be determined with any degree of accuracy; the only thing we know with certainty is that it was after the death of Joseph (Exo_1:5-14) and the death of Joseph was 286 years after Avram’s entry into Kana’an:

25 years from Abram’s entry into Kana’an in 2023 to Yitshak’s birth in 2048 (Gen_12:4-5; Gen_21:5)

60 years from Yitshak’s birth to Ya’akov’s birth in 2108 (Gen_25:26)

91 years from Ya’akov to Yoseph’s birth in 2199; 130 years from Ya’akov’s birth to his entering in Egypt (Gen_47:7-9) and lived in Egypt for 17 years (Gen_47:28). He is bereft of Yoseph for 22 years (Gen_37:2, Gen_41:46, Gen_41:53-54; Gen_45:4-6). Therefore, Ya’akov was 91 years old when Yoseph was born: 130-22-17=91

110 years from Yoseph’s birth to his death in 2309 (Gen_50:26)

286 years from Avraham’s entry into Kana’an till Joseph’s death some time after which the slavery began.

Subtracting this from the entire time of the “sojourn” (Exo_12:40-41; Gal_3:17), we receive 144 years (430-286 = 144). But it is probable that these 144 years represented more than the actual time of their servitude. It was only sixty-four years from the death of Yoseph to the birth of Mosheh, and probably many of those who knew Yoseph were still alive in the days of Mosheh. And indeed, we may expect that the slavery should have begun no earlier than the death of the longest-lived son of Israel and no later than the birth of Mosheh or his sister Miriam who was the oldest of the three siblings (Miriam, meaning “bitterness,” was so named on account of the bitterness of the slavery which might have already begun, Seder Olam). Per Exo_6:16 the years of life of the third oldest son of Israel, Levi, were 137.

These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gereshon, and Qehath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty-seven.

Why are Levi’s years counted, but not those of the firstborn, Reuven? According to the Jewish tradition, Levi’s years are given in the Exodus story to tell us know how many were the years of bondage in Egypt. For as long as one of the sons was alive, the sages continue, there would be no bondage, as it is said in Exo 1:6-8:

And Yoseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. And the children of Israel bore fruit and increased very much, multiplied and became very strong, and the land was filled with them. Then a new sovereign arose over Mitsrayim, who did not know Yoseph,

So, we see from the Exodus account that after the twelve brothers died and all that generation (the generation that went down to Egypt: Ya’akov, his sons, and his sons’ sons), and when the children of Israel increased very much, multiplied and became very strong, and the land was filled with them, only then the slavery could have began.

Joseph, who lived 110 years, was the shortest-lived of the brothers; Levi, who lived 137, was the longest-lived. Hence, the enslavement of Israel, which began after Levi’s death, was no longer than 116 years (the period from Levi’s passing to the Exodus), and no shorter than 86, the age of Miriam at the time of the Exodus (Miriam, meaning “bitterness,” was so named on account of the bitterness of the exile). (from Seder Olam, ch. 3)

Hence, we may further make the hypothesis that the slavery did not begin with the death of Levi, as the sages give the earliest estimate, because he outlived them all, but it began after the death of Levi’s sons, Gereshon, Qehath, and Merari, because they were of that generation which went down to Egypt with Ya’akov (Gen_46:11).

Another clue is the narrative of the onset of the ten plagues in Egypt. It is peculiar enough for giving us again the genealogy of the sons of Israel, but this time only of the first three sons: Reuven, Shimon, and again Levi. And to make it even more peculiar, the Biblical text continues to tell us only the names of Levi’s grandsons (Exo_6:17-19). The reason for this is to let us know the genealogy of Aharon and Mosheh, but as the present author believes, to let us also know that the slavery might have begun sometime when Amram (Mosheh’s father), Qehath’s son who was born in Egypt, took Yocheved (Mosheh’s mother), his father’s sister, as wife. Yocheved, Levi’s daughter and Qehath’s sister, might have been born in Egypt, because she is not counted among the descendants of Ya’akov which came down to Egypt in Genesis 46, therefore she must have belonged to the generation which saw the slavery. One may argue that only the sons and grandsons of Ya’akov are counted, but Gen_46:17 lists Sarah the daughter of Asher in the total number of the seventy souls who entered Egypt, therefore the slavery must have begun sometime of the lifetime of Amram and Yocheved but before the birth of their firstborn child Miriam.

The opinion of the present author is that the Egyptian slavery began in the year before Miriam’s birth which would be the latest estimate. The reason for this notion is the fact that Pharaoh ordered every Hebrew baby boy to be thrown into the Nile River. Had that have been happened after Levi’s death (the earliest estimate), that would have decimated significantly Israel’s population at the time of the Exodus, which cannot be supported by the numbers that the children of Israel totaled about three million, as it will be seen later in this study. Also, the difference in years between the earliest and the latest possible onset of slavery is 32 years which would give a very plausible lifespan of the children of the twelve brothers to die and the slavery to begin after that. Thus, if this reasoning is correct, the Egyptian slavery would total 88 (86 years per Rashi) years from 2366 until 2454; Miriam would have been born in 2367, Aharon in 2363, and Mosheh in 2373.

One may ask the question as to why the children of Israel stayed so long in the land of Egypt and had not left after Yoseph’s death or even as soon as the seven years of famine had ended. They could not have left Egypt at their father’s death or after because that would mean they would have abandoned Yoseph in a foreign land; Pharaoh would not let him leave the office of viceroy just like that. The answer may be found as to why Yoseph sought to situate his family in a place somewhat separated from the Egyptians: the land of Goshen (Gen_46:34). By admitting before Pharaoh that his family had been men of livestock, which was considered vile and abominable in Egypt, he separated the children of Israel from all that was considered vile and abominable to YHVH.

So, as Yoseph’s life was approaching its end, he made the children of Israel swear an oath that whenever YHVH would visit them and lead them up out of the land of Egypt, they were not to leave his bones behind (Gen_50:24). Yoseph could not have possibly asked them to take him up immediately upon his death as Ya’aqov did (Gen_47:29-31), because he knew that there would be no one with that kind of power and influence upon Pharaoh to win such permission as he asked Pharaoh upon his father’s death. Nevertheless, the land of Egypt was not their land and sooner or later they had to leave it. We will try to find the answer to the question why the children of Israel stayed so long in the land of Egypt, as we advance in this study.

Also, the text has to say that the children of Israel multiplied and became very strong which was the main reason why the new Pharaoh would have been concerned with the growing population of the Hebrew outsiders. Later, we will find that at the onset of the slavery in 2366 the children of Israel must have reached the substantial number of more than 70,000 people: something that could have made Pharaoh very concerned.

To sum up, we learn that the 400-year sojourn of the children of Israel, which Scripture talks about, was not spent in Egypt alone but, rather began from the day Yitshak was afflicted by Ishmael. This can be calculated thus: Qehath was among those who went down to Egypt, and if we calculate all his years, 133 (Exo_6:18) and the years of Amram his son, 137 (Exo_6:20), and the years of Mosheh Amram’s son when he left Egypt, 80, we will find that they do not total 400 years (many of the sons’ years are included in the fathers’ years), therefore, 400 years of Israel in Egypt are unrealistic and we have to accept the 215-year sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt.

The 215-year sojourn in Egypt is supported also by Josephus in Antiquities 2:15:2,

They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the fifteenth day of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Avraham came into Kana’an, but two hundred and fifteen years only after Ya’akov removed into Egypt. It was the eightieth year of the age of Moses, and of that of Aaron three more. They also carried out the bones of Joseph with them, as he had charged his sons to do.

Therefore, we can sum up that The Age of Desolation started with Adam’s fall in year 7 and ended with Noach’s death in year 2006 from the creation at the age of 950. The following year, 2007, was the last year of that age and with year 2008 The Age of Instruction began. One sabbatical cycle prior to the end of The Age of Desolation, in year 2000, Avraham began to preach at age of 52 according to the tradition of the elders (see Jubilees Table). As Avraham began to preach seven years before the end of The Age of Desolation, so did Noach who became a proclaimer of righteousness seven jubilees prior to the end of the age. The Apostle Kepha clearly understood that from Jubilee 7:20-39 and wrote it in 2Pe_2:4-5,

For if Elohim did not spare the messengers who sinned, but sent them to the abyss, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the world of old, but preserved Noacḥ, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others, bringing in the flood on the world of the wicked,

So, after 2000 years of the repeated failure of mankind, The Age of Instruction (Torah) began. Elohim chose the righteous Avraham in year 2023, made a covenant with him, and started giving him Torah—teaching, instruction. When the children of Israel were led from Egypt, Elohim gave the written Torah through His prophet Mosheh on Mount Sinai on the first Shavuot. Before they received the Torah, they were just newly freed slaves. At Shavuot, Elohim made them a nation and in the following 40 years He gave them the complete Torah by which they should have lived.

After 2000 years of total darkness in The Age of Desolation and 2000 years of a gradual dawn during The Age of Instruction, i.e. after a total of 4000 years, the Light of the World came into the world in year 3962 to redeem the world, thus dawning The Age of the Messiah. This last age will end with His return when all things will be restored.

And after 6,000 years of men’s labor, the seventh millenium of Messiah’s reign will begin when the creation of the Almighty will have a Sabbath of rest; a thousand of years when the Messiah will build His Temple and Torah of YHVH will be kept to the fullest extent. And at the end of the Sabbatical Millenium all shall be fulfilled as it is written:

For as all die in Adam, so also all shall be made alive in Messiah . And each in his own order: Messiah the first-fruits, then those who are of Messiah at His coming, then the end, when He delivers up the reign to Elohim the Father, when He has brought to naught all rule and all authority and power. For He has to reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be brought to naught is death. For “He has put all under His feet.” But when He says “all are put under Him,” it is clear that He who put all under Him is excepted. And when all are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, in order that Elohim be all in all. (1Co 15:22-28)

One must admit that it is tempting to ask the question, “What would be the chronology after the seventh millenium?” This question is way beyond the scope of the present study. The author has the desire to restore to his best knowledge and ability the course of events from Year One of the Creation to the returning of Yeshua the Messiah since the Scripture covers that period of time. The seventh millennium is given to be under the authority of Yeshua and that is why it is called the Millennium of the Messiah. Beyond that millennium is incomprehensible for human beings. However, we are not left clueless but hopeful:

No longer is the sun your light by day, nor does the moon give light to you for brightness, but Yehovah shall be to you an everlasting light, and your Elohim your comeliness. No longer does your sun go down, nor your moon withdraw itself, for Yehovah shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. And your people, all of them righteous, shall inherit the earth forever – a branch of My planting, a work of My hands, to be adorned. The little shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. I, Yehovah, shall hasten it in its time. (Isa 60:19-22)

2Enoch, Chapter 32:1-4: I said to him: Earth you are, and into the earth whence I took you you shalt go, and I will not ruin you, but send you whence I took you. Then I can again receive you at My second presence. And I blessed all my creatures visible and invisible. And Adam was five and half hours in paradise. And I blessed the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, on which he rested from all his works. Chapter 33:1: And I appointed the eighth day also, that the eighth day should be the first-created after my work, and that the first seven revolve in the form of the seventh thousand, and that at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a time of not-counting, endless, with neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours.

So far, we saw that number seven being a number of perfection has a prophetic place. The following is a pattern of seven found in the Scripture:

As we will see in the following chapters of this study that, by His ultimate foreknowledge, six millenia have been allotted for mankind to labor but the seventh millenium will been set apart for YHVH.

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